Fellow procrastinators, this one is for us! Supply chain woes and a season of wonderful books that everyone is excited
about mean that there’s a small chance your favorite bookstore will run out of the specific title on your gift list; but
fear not! Wonderful books come out every week (and they’ve been coming out for
centuries, if you can believe
it). To take the stress out of gifting this year, I went through some of the hottest titles of the season to suggest
great alternates.
Maybe your first choice is out of stock, maybe you’re worried your bookish friend already has the hot title of the year,
or maybe you just want to look really cool by picking an unexpected title. Whatever your reason, remember that you can
always ask a bookseller for a recommendation. We’re here to help and we love any opportunity to shout out our favorite
books.
HOT TITLE: Crossroads
by Jonathan Franzen
This is an excellent time to be shopping for epic novels. Jonathan Franzen, Amor Towles, Richard Powers, and Ruth Ozeki have all had buzzy titles hit the shelves this
fall. Any of their new releases would make an excellent gift. Not to mention their backlist titles: A Gentleman in Moscow remains beloved and a new Powers release is
an excellent excuse to finally read The Overstory. Looking
for generational or grand read? Give one of these a shot:
HOT TITLE: Beautiful World, Where Are You
by Sally Rooney
This is a genre very near and dear to my heart. Jo Hamya describes it perfectly in her debut Three Rooms: “In this kind of novel, the protagonist was always a woman and always sad.” It’s a simplification, but there is so much beautifully realized literary fiction out there featuring women grappling with society — its joys and ills — and their place within it. Sally Rooney is an undisputed powerhouse in this corner of literature, but these other titles are not to be missed:
HOT TITLE: The Dawn of Everything
by David Graeber and David Wengrow
Capturing human history in a single volume is a daunting task. Reading human history in a single volume is equally daunting, but absolute candy for many readers. David Graeber and David Wengrow’s The Dawn of Everything is certainly going to show up on quite a few wish lists this year. I think it would look great next to Bryson or Harari, and make sure you check out our Best Nonfiction of 2021 list for more inspiration:
HOT TITLE: Big Shot (Diary of a Wimpy Kid #16)
by Jeff Kinney
The new Wimpy Kid book is a perennial wish list favorite (usually alongside the newest Dog Man volume) but there are many more wonderful middle reader titles out there that are sure to inspire fits of giggles and cries of “next book, please!”
HOT TITLE: The 1619 Project
by Nikole Hannah-Jones
Already proving one of the season’s bestsellers, The 1619 Project is a powerhouse. Luckily, for readers looking to understand our world, how we got here, and where we’re going, there is no shortage of excellent writing out there. Try one of these titles reckoning with our collective history and the ongoing fight for a more just future:
Caste
by Isabel Wilkerson
HOT TITLE: Lord of the Rings Illustrated Edition
by J. R. R. Tolkien
One straight from my own wish list and one my coworker Keith is worried we’ll run out of. For Tolkien diehards, make sure they have The Nature of Middle-Earth or this stunningly illustrated edition of The Hobbit on their shelves. I know there’s nothing quite like a beautifully illustrated sci-fi fantasy edition, so I urge you to check out these titles as well:
HOT TITLE: Cooking at Home
by Priya Krishna and David Chang
Every year it seems like there’s one cookbook that’s just… gone (flashback to the great Salt Fat Acid Heat shortage of 2018 and the Dining In scarcity of 2019). They’re beautiful, make excellent gifts, and often take a while to reprint and restock. Luckily, there’s no shortage of amazing cookbooks out there, so if you’re looking to drop a hint that you’d like your friend to start making you apple galettes every week, we’ve got you covered. Check out our 16 Cookbooks for the Holidays and Beyond post for more inspiration.