The 10 best books you'll want to read this December, according to Amazon's editors

A 25-year-old black babysitter — clad in her "going out" clothes — takes her young charge to a moneyed market, only to be accused of kidnapping by a security guard and fellow shopper. Thus begins a deft and heartfelt exploration of race, class, parenthood, and youth.

In his probing and profound memoir, Calvin Hennick hits the road with his 5-year-old son searching for answers to questions like: "What does it mean to be a man today? What can a white father teach his biracial son?"

The Legacy of Orisha continues with the second book in the fantasy trilogy, "Children of Virtue and Vengeance." In it, the rich world-building continues, and the plot grows ever more complex and thoughtful as the kingdom threatens to tear itself apart.

In Alan Furst's latest spy novel, readers will be transported to Paris in 1942, as a mystery writer begins to act like the hero of one of his own novels and gets drawn into the center of the action in ways that are both exhilarating and terrifying.

In Jane Shemilt's shocking page-turner, "The Playground," the lives of three couples converge when their children end up in the same tutoring group, with unexpected and dangerous consequences.

In July of 1881, Lt. A.W. Greely and his crew of 24 scientists and intrepid explorers set out for "farthest North," a region not yet found on any map. Fast-paced and rich in detail, Buddy Levy's "Labyrinth of Ice" captures this perilous polar adventure.

In this chilling work of speculative fiction, a scientist's accidental invention — technology that can transfer consciousness from person to person — ends up being exploited on the black market.

In this unusual murder mystery, reminiscent of Mark Haddon's "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time," young, disarmingly sweet Aoife decides that the only way to get his distraught mother back is to find out who murdered his brother.

Full of action, "Land of Tears" is the fascinating story of the Congo river basin and lands west — all the way to Zanzibar — during the late 1800s when European powers and Arab traders were fighting over resources in equatorial Africa.

Colleen Hoover returns with a moving novel about a fractured relationship between mother and daughter that is further complicated by a death in the family and the revelation of a surprising affair.

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