Holiday Gift Guide: Books for Every Person In Your Life

It's that time of year for last minute holiday shopping as Christmas (and Hanukkah (which is surprisingly late this year)) are coming up in less than a week. What better last minute option than picking up a book from your local indie? There isn't one. Or maybe your family participates in the Icelandic Book Flood tradition where everyone receives a book on Christmas Eve (this sounds so fun). Regardless, I've picked out books from this year (and a few awesome options from the backlist) and paired them with some personality types to match what your loved ones might be looking for. This is all in jest, but hopefully it also sparks a bit of inspiration. I had such a fun time making my "which Sally Rooney book should you read based on your personality type" that I figured I'd spin it into this year's holiday gift guide to change it up. Feel free to message me on Instagram (@readingwritingandme) if you want any custom book suggestions! 

for your sister (or any sibling really)

There were two incredible novels about sisters that came out this year, and even though I don't have a sister, being a sibling, I really connected with these books. They both are stories about four sisters that offers all of their perspectives exploring what makes them different but also what bonds them together. These books acknowledge that having sisters is complicated but also unearths a genuine feeling of beauty that comes from a sibling connection. 

In Blue Sisters, the three remaining sisters are grappling with grief in the wake of their sister Nicky's passing. One lives in London and works a high powered corporate job, one lives in LA and is a boxer, and the youngest is a model living in Paris. Forced back together in New York where they grew up, they all try to help each other without fully knowing how to help themselves. 

The Alternatives offers a similar sister story about the four sisters being forced back together, this time when one disappears into rural Ireland. These sisters have similarly gone different ways with one teaching geology in Galway, one in Dublin working in public policy, one a chef in London, and the last teaching philosophy in the US. They might not be able to fix any of their shared problems for one another, but they're certainly going to try. 

for your swiftie over fifty

I didn't love Heartbreak is the National Anthem, but I do think it has one perfect application: for the Swiftie in your life that also loves classic rock. Rob Sheffield draws so many parallels between Swift and musicians from Bruce Springsteen to Joni Mitchell that I could see readers who are fans across these artists really enjoying. 

for your existential friend 

If you're ready to contemplate life and death, Martyr is the perfect book to dig into as we make our way out of 2024. Written by a poet turned novelist, this book features beautiful yet accessible prose and a witty, sympathetic main character. Cyrus's life is going nowhere fast until he becomes obsessed with a living art exhibit in New York that offers more connection to the threads of his life than he expected. This novel has been a NYT bestseller and also a Waterstones top pick, so you won't be alone in recommending it.

for your brother (or again, new sibling picks) 

Intermezzo is the obvious pick for any sad girl lit/Rooney girl in your life (aside from the fact they've probably already read it), so perhaps branch out with your gifting and pass it along to your brother, who might not be aware of the wonders of Rooney yet. This isn't my favorite of Rooney's by any stretch, but I feel like it succeeds the most at portraying an honest, realistic, unglorified look at a sibling relationship. Peter and Ivan start out as being simply blood obligated to each other, and while their father's death doesn't make them instant best friends, over the course of the novel they do make efforts to try to understand one another better. They're not perfect, but they're a duo that a lot of siblings can relate to.

Greta and Valdin is a more lighthearted option. Greta and Valdin are siblings who live together after university in New Zealand. They're super close and a stabilizing force for each other in their other wise very messy lives. 

for the short story fan

If there's someone in your life that loves a good short story or is looking to get into reading in bite sized chunks, I'd highly recommend passing along Let's Dance. It's a super varied collection of stories, some hyper-realistic and set in modern day Dublin while others are more speculative and surreal, which makes for a varied collection.

As a bonus option, if you do have a Rooney fan in your life that's read all of her novels but hasn't gotten into the short stories or doesn't own it yet, gift them a tiny copy of Mr. Salary. This tiny book is a single short story that looks packaged for a doll but is an adorable way to finish out any Rooney collection. If you want to go even nicher, get your Rooney fan a copy of the Best Short Stories of 2021: O'Henry Prize Winners which features her short story "Color and Light" as the last story in the collection (as a bonus, there are tons of other great authors who also write novels included like Emma Cline). 

for your fandom friend 

We all have a friend who spends too much time on Stan twitter or Tumblr (trust me, I've been this person), so for that special someone in your life, I suggest my favorite nonfiction read of the year, Monsters. This book interrogates both whether we can/should continue to love art made by "bad" people as well as just people's relationship to art and celebrity and the role it plays in our lives at large. I found this to be a very thoughtful take on the role that fandom plays in our lives. 

If you want a lighter pick and have a 1D fan in your life, I also highly recommend Everything I Need I Get From You. 

your friend who feels stuck

Piglet is one of my favorite books I read this year, and it's the perfect quick read for over the holiday period. In the novel, the main character, referred to as Piglet, is stuck at a crossroads. She's preparing for a wedding to a man who should be the man of her dreams that's afforded her almost everything she could want in life, but something feels wrong still. Piglet has to figure out if she's going to push aside her anxiety to maintain the life she's created or if she'll break the mold to completely start again. This book will make you hungry but also has a lot of heart and levity to go with the heavier topics. 

for your friend who needs to get off the dating apps

I say this because I read this book in a period where I was wallowing a little about my dating history and lack of experience with romantic love, and I swear it cured me. While Conversations on Love does talk about romantic love plenty, there are also essays that impress upon the value of other kinds of love we might be lucky enough to experience in our lives. A big one for me was the emphasis on the power of familial love. I think it's so often seen as a sort of default that it's easy to overlook the value of really being close to one or both of your parents, but this collection of essays made me realize there was a lot of love in my life that I was lucky to have and helped de-emphasize the focus on romantic love that I feel like society puts in our minds at a certain age.

for the writer or Russian lit lover

I've read a lot of writing craft books. They're usually super boring, if I'm being entirely honest. The exception to this that I've found is A Swim in a Pond in the Rain. George Saunders is an acclaimed writer, but he also has taught in the creative writing program for a long time, so he's also an incredible teacher. In this book, he's adapted lectures from his classes and framed them around certain Russian short stories. So if you have someone in your life who's looking for a creative writing masterclass or loves Russian literature and wants to know how the stories tick, this will be a winning gift. 

for your overly nostalgic friend 

Marlena is a book that's told about their teenage years in Michigan through the reflection from her adult life in New York. The book is intense as most of the story reflects on her teenage friendship with her friend who passed away, so it's not the lightest gift, but the writing is incredible and the book dwells on the weight that certain times in our lives have in determining the course of the rest of our lives.

for the Shakespeare fan

For the Shakespeare lover in your life that's run out of plays and sonnets, gift them Hamnet, a historical fiction novel focused on Shakespeare's son that died in his youth and the entire family. There's a movie adaptation in the works, and this acclaimed novel continues building on the lore of the man behind the plays, so it's sure to be an interesting addition to any fan's shelf. 

he's just ken

Maybe I don't recommend giving this to the Ken in your life exactly, but maybe it's for someone who's dealt with that stereotypical man who doesn't have it together and never is expected to. The Book of George chronicles the life of George who is average in every way as we check in at glimpses of his life through time from his teenage years through middle age. I'm not sure how it'll work for someone who identifies with George because the book is sympathetic to him while also offering a critique, but it might be cathartic if you've been a part of a George's story.

for the nature lover

Here's a double feature book set to gift to the nature lover in your life. Overstory was a huge novel a few years ago and chronicles the lives of trees as well as a cast of disparate characters that are all brought together by the trees. This is a hefty novel that will keep anyone entertained for a while, but I think it'd be even cooler paired with Susan Simard's book, The Mother Tree, that partially inspired the novel and one of its characters.