As I write this, the 2020 election has finally been decided. We found out because suddenly, cheering broke out in Chelsea, where my wife and I live half of the time. Cow bells rang. People screamed. Music blared. We turned on the news and MSNBC confirmed that our long wait had finally ended. It is supposed to be a hopeful time, light at the end of four very dark years. And if we are lucky, it will be. Joe Biden will be the next President of the United States alongside Kamala Harris, the first woman Vice President, the first black woman Vice President, the first South Asian woman Vice President.

But as of yet, Trump has refused to concede and Republican politicians are enabling his arrogance, venality, and massive yet fragile ego. We are not quite yet out of the dark. This has been a terrible year in every way: family stuff, work stuff, pandemic stuff. But reading, thankfully, has provided me with escape and glimmers of light.

Here are ten books that will, I hope, bring some light into your world.

—Roxane Gay

Roxane Gay’s writing appears in Best American Mystery Stories 2014, Best American Short Stories 2012, Best Sex Writing 2012, A Public Space, McSweeney’s, Tin House, Oxford American, American Short Fiction, Virginia Quarterly Review, and many others. She is a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times. She is the author of the books Ayiti, An Untamed State, the New York Times bestselling Bad Feminist, the nationally bestselling Difficult Women and the New York Times bestselling Hunger: A Memoir of My Body. She is also the author of World of Wakanda for Marvel and the editor of Best American Short Stories 2018. She is currently at work on film and television projects, a book of writing advice, an essay collection about television and culture, and a YA novel entitled The Year I Learned Everything.