Two more weeks until 2018! But first, we’re smack dab on the middle of the holidays. If you’re a last-minute shopper, or you want to get more gifts, here are a few great book ideas. I think there’s a little something here for everyone, and I’ve included a little bit of the publisher’s synopsis with each.
Sponsored by Penguin Random House Audio
Listening to an audiobook can bring family and friends together this holiday season. Listen to Turtles All the Way Down by John Green on your next family road trip and discuss the important themes of the story. Or, listen to Seven Days of Us by Francesca Hornak with your friends at book club to prepare for the holiday season. Connect, listen, and discuss with audiobooks from Penguin Random House Audio.
If you want to know about more 2017 releases, you can hear about several more of our favorite books of the year on this week’s episode of the All the Books! Rebecca and I talked about a few of the amazing books we loved, including White Tears, The Wanderers, and Priestdaddy.
And if you’d like to win several of our favorite books of 2017 (20, to be exact), you can click here to enter our Best of 2017 book giveaway for a chance to receive a big beautiful book bounty.
The Art of Star Wars: The Last Jedi by Phil Szostak
“Featuring concept art, costume sketches, and storyboards, this book takes fans on a deep dive into the development of the fantastic worlds, characters, and creatures—both old and new—of The Last Jedi.”
The Portable Nineteenth-Century African American Women Writers (Penguin Classics) by Hollis Robbins and Henry Louis Gates, Jr.(Editors)
“The Portable Nineteenth-Century African American Women Writers is the most comprehensive anthology of its kind: an extraordinary range of voices offering the expressions of African American women in print before, during, and after the Civil War.”
Blood, Sweat, and Pixels: The Triumphant, Turbulent Stories Behind How Video Games Are Made by Jason Schreier
“Exploring the artistic challenges, technical impossibilities, marketplace demands, and Donkey Kong-sized monkey wrenches thrown into the works by corporate, Blood, Sweat, and Pixels reveals how bringing any game to completion is more than Sisyphean—it’s nothing short of miraculous.”
Silence: In the Age of Noise by Erling Kagge, Becky L. Crook (Translator)
“In this book. an astonishing and transformative meditation, Kagge explores the silence around us, the silence within us, and the silence we must create. By recounting his own experiences and discussing the observations of poets, artists, and explorers, Kagge shows us why silence is essential to sanity and happiness—and how it can open doors to wonder and gratitude.”
Eat What You Watch: A Cookbook for Movie Lovers by Andrew Rea
“In this cookbook, author Andrew Rea (of the hit YouTube channel “Binging with Babish”) recreates these iconic food scenes and many more. With recipes from more than 40 classic and cult films, Eat What You Watch is the perfect gift for both movie buffs and home cooks who want to add some cinematic flair to their cooking repertoire.”
Here We Are: Notes for Living on Planet Earth by Oliver Jeffers
“Insightfully sweet, with a gentle humor and poignancy, here is Oliver Jeffers’ user’s guide to life on Earth. He created it specially for his son, yet with a universality that embraces all children and their parents.”
The Princess Bride Deluxe Edition HC: S. Morgenstern’s Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure by William Goldman, Michael Manomivibul (Illustrator)
“This tale of true love, high adventure, pirates, princesses, giants, miracles, fencing, and a frightening assortment of wild beasts, as depicted in the 1987 film directed by Rob Reiner and starring Fred Savage, Robin Wright, and others, is now available in a beautiful new package, with foil and embossing on the cover and an interior printed on elegant uncoated cream stock with rough-cut edges.”
Women in Sports: 50 Fearless Athletes Who Played to Win by Rachel Ignotofsky
“A richly illustrated and inspiring book, Women in Sports highlights the achievements and stories of fifty notable women athletes from the 1800s to today, including trailblazers, Olympians, and record-breakers in more than forty sports.”
The River of Consciousness by Oliver Sacks
“From the best-selling author of Gratitude, On the Move, and Musicophilia, a collection of essays that displays Oliver Sacks’s passionate engagement with the most compelling and seminal ideas of human endeavor: evolution, creativity, memory, time, consciousness, and experience.”
Big Mushy Happy Lump: A Sarah’s Scribbles Collection by Sarah Andersen
Sarah Andersen’s hugely popular, world-famous Sarah’s Scribbles comics are for those of us who boast bookstore-ready bodies and Netflix-ready hair, who are always down for all-night reading-in-bed parties and extremely exclusive after-hour one-person music festivals.
Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers of World War II by Liza Mundy
“A strict vow of secrecy nearly erased their efforts from history; now, through dazzling research and interviews with surviving code girls, bestselling author Liza Mundy brings to life this riveting and vital story of American courage, service, and scientific accomplishment.”
Guinness World Records 2018: Meet our Real-Life Superheroes by Guinness World Records
“The record-breaking records annual is back and packed with more incredible accomplishments, stunts, cutting-edge science and amazing sporting achievements than ever before. With more than 3,000 new and updated records and 1,000 eye-popping photos, it has thousands of new stats and facts and dazzling new features.”
How to Be a Bawse: A Guide to Conquering Life by Lilly Singh
“How to Be a Bawse is the definitive guide to conquering life. Make no mistake, there are no shortcuts to success, personal or professional. World domination requires real effort, dedication, and determination.”
Queer, There, and Everywhere: 23 People Who Changed the World by Sarah Prager, Zoe O’Ferrall (Illustrator)
“From high-profile figures like Abraham Lincoln and Eleanor Roosevelt to the trailblazing gender-ambiguous Queen of Sweden and a bisexual blues singer who didn’t make it into your history books, these astonishing true stories uncover a rich queer heritage that encompasses every culture, in every era.”
Everyone’s a Aliebn When Ur a Aliebn Too: A Book by Jomny Sun
“Through this story of a lost, lonely and confused alien finding friendship, acceptance, and love among the creatures of Earth, we will all learn how to be a little more human. And for all of us earth-bound creatures here on this planet, we can all be reminded that sometimes, it takes an outsider to help us see ourselves for who we truly are.”
Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking by Samin Nosrat, Wendy MacNaughton (Illustrator)
“A visionary new master class in cooking that distills decades of professional experience into just four simple elements, from the woman declared “America’s next great cooking teacher” by Alice Waters.”
Nasty Women: Feminism, Resistance, and Revolution in Trump’s America by Samhita Mukhopadhyay (Author, Editor), Kate Harding (Author, Editor)
“Nasty Women includes inspiring essays from a diverse group of talented women writers who seek to provide a broad look at how we got here and what we need to do to move forward.”
Grant by Ron Chernow
“The definitive biography, Grant is a grand synthesis of painstaking research and literary brilliance that makes sense of all sides of Grant’s life, explaining how this simple Midwesterner could at once be so ordinary and so extraordinary.”
Paperbacks from Hell: The Twisted History of ’70s and ’80s Horror Fiction by Grady Hendrix
“Horror author and vintage paperback book collector Grady Hendrix offers killer commentary and witty insight on these trashy thrillers that tried so hard to be the next Exorcist or Rosemary’s Baby.”
That’s it for me today – time to get back to reading! If you want to learn more about books new and old (and see lots of pictures of my cats, Millay and Steinbeck), or tell me about books you’re reading, or books you think I should read (I HEART RECOMMENDATIONS!), you can find me on Twitter at MissLiberty, on Instagram at FranzenComesAlive, or Litsy under ‘Liberty’!
Stay rad,
Liberty