I’ve been perusing best-ofs lists for a number of years, online. I like them, and as you might know, I like making my own or building to-do lists from others’ best-of lists. One of the lists that I have come to like the best is from Oprah Magazine. The following list of Thanksgiving reads and Thanksgiving movies leans heavily on Oprah Magazine, but I looked at plenty of other sources and, to be frank, they all seem to draw on each other and therefore repeat a whole lot.

There are more Thanksgiving options for both reading and viewing than I would have guessed. (And remember, I haven’t read or seen most of these. I will provide links and zero-two stars once I read/watch them.)

• There There, Tommy Orange *
• Home Cooking: A Writer in the Kitchen, Laurie Colwin ***
• The Nest, Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney
• Still Life, Louise Penny
• How to Bake the Perfect Pecan Pie, Gina Calanni
• The Book of Delights, Ross Gay
• The Harrowing, Alexandra Sokoloff (too scary?)
• The Ice Storm, Rick Moody
• A Patchwork Planet, Anne Tyler
• “Turkey Remains and How to Inter Them,” F. Scott Fitzgerald *
• Three Thanksgivings, Charlotte Perkins Gilman
• Thanksgiving Night, Richard Bausch
• Oldtown Folks, Harriet Beecher Stowe
• The Ghost at the Table, Suzanne Berne
• The Thanksgiving Visitor, Truman Capote
• Strangers at the Feast, Jennifer Vanderbes
• Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, Ben Fountain
• Thanksgiving, Janet Evanovich (?)
• American Pastoral, Philip Roth
• Courting Disaster, Julie Edelson
• Nothing with Strings, Bailey White
• The Holiday Season, Michael Knight
• “Thanksgiving in the Anthropocene,” Craig Santos Perez *

Picture Books:

• Balloons Over Braodway, Melissa Sweet
• We Are Grateful, Traci Sorell
• 1621: A New Look at Thanksgiving
• Giving Thanks, Chief Jake Swamp
• Thanks a Million, Nikki Grimes
• The Accidental Tourist, Anne Tyler
• An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving, Louisa May Alcott
• Ankle Soup, Maureen Sullivan
• Fat Chance Thanksgiving, Patricia Lakin
• Molly’s Pilgrim, Barbara Cohen

Movies:

The Day After Halloween: The Nightmare Before Christmas

• Jim Henson’s Turkey Hallow (2015)
• The War at Home (1996)
• The Myth of Fingerprints (1996)
• The Oath (2018)
• The House of Yes (1997)
• Alice’s Restaurant (1969)
• Home for the Holidays (1995)
• Funny People (2009)
• The Vicious Kind (2009)
• Holidaysburg (2016)
• Tadpole (2002)
• Avalon (1990)
• The Ice Storm (1997)
• Pieces of April (2003)
• Scent of a Woman (1992)
• Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)
• Planes, Trains, and Automobiles (1987)
• Krisha (2016)
• A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving (1973)
• Anne of Green Gables: Fire and Dew (2018)
• Arlo Guthrie: Alice’s Restaurant 50^th Anniversary (2015)
• Free Birds (2013)
• Tower Heist (2011)
• The Blind Side (2009)
• Paul Blart: Mall Cop (2009)
• You’ve Got Mail (1998)
• Garfield’s Thanksgiving (1996)
• Nobody’s Fool (1994)
• Grumpy Old  Men (1993)
• Addams Family Values (1993)
• Son-in-Law (1993)
• Scent of a Woman (1992)
• Curly Sue (1991)
• The Big Chill (1983)
• Rocky (1976)
• Babes in Toyland (1934)
• Dutch (1991)
• Soul Food (1997)
• What’s Cooking? (2000)
• Dan in Real Life (2007)
• The Daytrippers (1997)
• She’s Gotta Have It (1986)
• The New World (2005)
• Prisoners (2013)