Thank goodness 2016 is drawing to a close. Let’s hope we soon start to see the dawn breaking over our current global political nightmare and that 2017 doesn’t take the lives of quite so many great artists.

After so much dismay, the temptation is to bury ourselves deeper under the duvet and try to ignore the chill outside. Certainly, my first instinct was that we should end this year with a comfort read. But then, wiser counsel prevailed. Do we want to resist or succumb? Do we want to end this year whimpering? Or do we want to stand up for what we believe in and get ready to face whatever 2017 may bring?

In truth, I probably want to both whimper a bit and then stand up. But that tells me that I need to gird myself all the more. And that’s where I’m hoping this month’s reading group choice will be helpful. So let’s try to find a classic of resistance and defiance. A book about telling truth to power, sticking it to the Man and fighting the good fight.

The books that first spring to my mind are second world war classics such as Jean Bruller’s The Silence of the Sea, John Steinbeck’s The Moon Is Down or – why not? – Pat Reid’s Colditz books. There’s also George Psychoundakis’s incredible story of standing up to the Nazi occupation of his island, The Cretan Runner.

But you might want to take a different tack. The Cretan Runner, for instance, is published in the UK with a (typically glorious) introduction by Patrick Leigh Fermor, and you might see his books about travelling in prewar Europe as their own form of resistance: a defence of a set of values, of learning and culture, and, most of all, a defence of decency and kindness to strangers.

Also, while reading books about defeating fascism may be particularly satisfying in our current climate, we don’t have to limit ourselves to any one era or any one set of political problems. Nadine Gordimer’s anti-apartheid classic Burger’s Daughter would be a good choice, too. Or Stephen King’s The Stand. Or Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

But that’s where I should probably stop and hand over to you. If you have a book that you feel will help us overcome, please recommend it in the comments below. As is traditional here on the reading group, I’ll print out the nominations, draw them out of a hat and reveal the winner here in a few days’ time. So please get nominating below.

Finally, I’m aware that this month marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Penelope Fitzgerald and that it would be a very good thing to commemorate that. But let’s hold that off until January and kick off 2017 with a fine female voice. Until then, comrades: ¡Hasta la victoria siempre!