Which books are you gifting this holiday season?
This is my second book gift list of the season (the first was last week's Shhh! Book Gift Ideas for the Holidays), and I hope the ideas here (and those in the lists to come) will help you with ideas for beautiful book gifts for anyone on your list!
For even more ideas, check out my past book gift guides on the site:
01 Gastro Obscura: A Food Adventurer's Guide by Cecily Wong
“Eating may be the most immersive, visceral travel experience. It requires an engagement of every sense.... Humans around the world are bound by the necessity and pleasure of eating, and there is no faster way to glimpse the heart of a place than by experiencing its food.”
I mentioned another title (The World's Most Adventurous Kid) from the Atlas Obscura series last year in my gift list Shhh! Book Gifts for Kids and Teens. This series of books is so beautiful and odd and captivating, I just love giving them as gifts.
02 Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr
Doerr's Cloud Cuckoo Land was a complex, heartbreaking, hope-filled, surprising, fascinating read.
It feels unfair to compare Cloud Cuckoo Land to Doerr's beloved and quite different book All the Light We Cannot See, and the stories are exceedingly different. But in both novels, Doerr demonstrates the ability to bring a reader deep into disparate situations and create emotional investment.
I didn't feel immediately connected to Doerr's story because of the various timelines and characters, but as he began to deeply interweave the stories across time, he also set up rich glimpses into characters' lives at different points in history. I quickly began to be fascinated by the interconnectedness, and I adored this book.
For my full (rave) review, please click here.
03 Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law by Mary Roach
Science writer Mary Roach has a way of immersing readers in what may be unfamiliar or mysterious environments, and her newest book, Fuzz, promises to do this again for the world of animals in what feels like a great gift for animal lovers. In Fuzz, Roach explores animal behavior, wildlife biology, and the complexities of modern human-animal conflicts.
Roach is also the author of Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers; Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal; Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void; Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex; and Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War.
04 Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds, and Shape Our Futures by Merlin Sheldrake
Is this a niche gift idea? The cover is so gorgeous, and since I saw it I can't stop thinking about this book, so maybe it's best that I receive this book gift? I'm just thinking out loud here.
Entangled Life is Merlin Sheldrake's enthusiastic ode to the supremely important and mysterious life form of fungi--which are neither plant nor animal, live for millenia, and are microscopic yet make up the largest organisms ever recorded.
Sheldrake's incredible facts and explorations of the incredible abilities of fungi (they can digest plastics and explosives; they can manipulate animal behavior; and they're involved in the essentials of bread, alcohol, and life-saving medications--who's with me in my obsession for this book now?) make for what is sure to be contagious fascination.
05 These Precious Days: Essays by Ann Patchett
“Any story that starts will also end.”
I have high hopes for Patchett's newest book, essays published just this week that explore friendship, home, writing, reading, connection, and life. Some book club friends and I preordered this book through our local bookstore Park Road Books and watched a fun virtual author event on the evening of its publication.
Patchett is also the author of The Dutch House, Bel Canto, The Patron Saint of Liars, Commonwealth, The Magician's Assistant, This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage, and other books.
She is also, famously, the co-owner of Nashville's Parnassus Books.
06 A Course Called America by Tom Coyne
Coyne spent a year traveling the United States in search of the greatest golf experience available, playing every course ever to host a US Open as well as 200 other well-known and much-beloved courses and hidden gems. Coyne sets himself the goal of determining which of these many contenders deserves the title of the Great American Golf Course.
Along the way, Coyne connects with people across the country, all of whom share a love for golf--and pride in the course he is visiting.
I'm not a golfer, but I do have gift recipients who are, and I've got my eye on this book for them.
A Bossy book-buying suggestion: If you're buying books this holiday season, please support your local independent bookstore. They need and appreciate our business now more than ever!
Clicking on the book covers beside each Bossy Bookworm blurb will link you to Bookshop, a site that supports the beloved indies that keep readers swimming in thoughtful book recommendations and excellent customer service all year round.
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