Readers’ favorites shifted a bit, but no new titles joined the list during the week of Christmas and the start of Hanukkah.

suspense and the story of a jar made by an enslaved potter generations earlier. Every Friday, be the first to see reviews, news and features in The New York Times Book Review.

New this week The author of “The Splendid and the Vile” portrays the months between the election of Abraham Lincoln and the beginning of the Civil War. If a book is not in a rank since the ...