Holiday 2020 is fast upon us! So much has taken place around the country and the world this year, but, thankfully, books keep getting written and publishers keep publishing them. Here's a gift guide Literati staff have created for all the readers in your world.
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This is the kind of book that goes down easy, but also one you savor. -Mike
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This is the 4th installment in 2016 Library of Congress' American Fiction Prize winner Marilynne Robinson's "Gilead" seires.
A real estate open house turns into a hostage situation (and who hasn't exoerienced that?)
A stand-alone novel from the Italian author of the four-book series "Neapolitan Novels."
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What if your partner flies to Japan and you have to stay behind with his mother? American writer Bryan Washington is a 2019 recipient of the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence.
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Parents try to find their son who has joined what may be a cult. Charles Baxter is a former director of the University of Michigan Creative Writing MFA Program.
A novel set in the early 20th century that tackles class, activism, and economic inequality, from the author of staff favorite "Beautiful Ruins."
I couldn't put it down and I can't stop thinking about it. . . and I want to talk about it to everyone I know. -Hilary
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New York Times bestselling author Yaa Gyasi's novels have been Indie Next picks. This, her second novel, is a "Read with Jenna" pick.
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A family epic, a tale of sheer adventure, a genre-bending Western, and a hard-talking meditation on power and tenderness. -Rose
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I cared about and learned from this richly painted cast of characters like I care about and learn from my dearest friends. -Jeanne
This book is chilling in a subtle suspenseful way that reminds me of Donna Tartt. -Shannon
This is the first collection of short stories from the author of "The History of Love" and "Forest Dark."
This Netherlands bestseller is the winner of the 2020 International Booker Prize.
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A Muslim family experiences post 9/11 America. American-born playwright, novelist, and screenwriter Ayad Akhtar received the 2013 Pulizer Prize for Drama.
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A deeply compassionate book of hope and courage against all odds, by the author of the bestseller "Room." -Vicki
V.E. Schwab is the staff favorite author of the "Shades of Magic" fantasy series. New York Times #1 bestselling author of adult, YA, and children's fantasy, Schwab is considered a genre-defying tour de force.
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This sci-fi debut novel "skillfully balances humor and high stakes — all while raising questions about the nature of intelligence and the accessibility of truth." -Stephanie
Nebula Award for Best Novel and the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award winner's newest book. "Spins you around faster than you could've ever imagined and won't let you go". -Shannon
N.K. Jemisin is a Literati staff favorite author and recent MacArthur Foundation "Genius Grant" Fellow. This 2020 urban fantasy novel is the first in Jemisin's Great Cities series.
Gothic novel conventions meet horror and fantasy in this Literati customer favorite by Mexican Canadian author Silvia Moreno-Garcia.
This is sci-fi author Ernest Cline's 11-years-in-the-making sequel to his 2011 dystopian classic debut, "Real Player One."
ALL I WANT TO DO IS TALK ABOUT THESE BOOKS! -Charlotte
This is the last volume of the Nebula award-winning fantasy trilogy, "The Poppy War," about China at war.
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One of Literati's best-selling authors and the source of the "Dublin Murders" television series, mystery writer Tana French's story is set in rural Ireland.
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Set in the woods of Michigan's Upper Penninsula. "An absolutely absorbing, artfully-paced thriller that I couldn't stop thinking about." -Shannon
Just released! Literati staff author favorite Anthony Horowitz's newest mystery features his famous literary detective Atticus Pund and hero of the worldwide bestseller "Magpie Murders," Susan Ryeland.
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Even corporate retreats are dangerous places. This is the latest thriller/mystery from the New York Times #1 bestselliing author of "In a Dark Wood."
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A charming memoir from British mystery author, Jacqueline Winspear, about growing up poor in postwar England.
A brand new anthology of Literati favorite David Sedaris’s best stories and essays, spanning his 25+ year career, selected by the author himself. His seventh book to be published, Sedaris virtually created his own genre, growing up observing, laughing and learning.
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SNL headwriter and "Weekend Update" co-anchor confesses all, revealing the brilliant mind behind some of the dumbest sketches on television, as he lays bare the heart and humor of a hardworking guy — with a face you can't help but want to punch.
After surviving the hideous year that was [ fill in blank], I turned to this book because I just wanted to laugh. -Jeanne
New York Times bestselling author of "Texts From Jane Eyre" and "Merry Spinster," writer of Slate’s “Dear Prudence” advice column, and co-founder of "The Toast," Daniel Lavery's collection of essays and cultural observations span pop culture.
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The long-awaited graphic illustration humor book from the creator of the popular blog "Hyperbole and a Half."
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A new collection, his thirteenth, from former U.S. Poet Laureate and “America’s favorite poet” (The Wall Street Journal) Billy Collins. Over 50 new poems showcase his deft mixing of the playful and the serious that has made him one of our country’s most celebrated and widely read poets.
Ecopoet, Michigan Notable Book Award winner, and Literati Ecology Book Club leader Alison Swan's latest collection of poetry illustrates how the natural world envelops and encloses us with so many beautiful things.
The New Yorker poetry editor and soon-to-be director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture poet Kevin Young edited this literary landmark — the biggest, most ambitious anthology of Black poetry ever published, gathering 250 poets from the colonial period to the present.
Poet Louise Gluck was awarded the 2020 Nobel Prize in Literature. Published in 1992, "The Wild Iris," a Pulitzer Prize for Poetry winner in 1993, is a collection of 54 poems telling about changes in a garden, written in the voices of individual flowers.
Natalie Diaz is a queer, Latina and Mojave American poet, language activist, former professional basketball player, and educator. Her second poetry collection explores the relationship of Native people with their land and the land that has been destroyed.
In her second collection of poetry in over a decade, novelist and poet Margaret Atwood moves from aging and life's endings to her gratefulness for life's treasures. This is a lovely collection from a brilliant writer. -Vicki
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Heather Clark is the author of the award-winning "The Grief of Influence: Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes." Clark took advantage of a wealth of new material to cull together this comprehensive and definitive life in this first biography of of the reknowned and tragic poet Syliva Plath.
United States Poet Laureate Joy Harjo gathered the work of more than 160 poets, representing nearly 100 indigenous nations, into this first historically comprehensive Native Nations poetry anthology.
A plea to save our planet and ourselves before it's too late, award-winning broadcaster and natural historian Attenborough shares a lifetime of wisdom and a hopeful vision for the future in this scientifically informed account of the changes occurring in the world over the last century.
I so admire Helen MacDonald for her heartfelt appreciation of all the things in nature that pull at my own heart. Her love and knowledge of birds shows loud and clear in this extraordinary new collection of her essays. -Vicki
This poignant all-female anthology of essays, poetry and art addresses climate change, written by U.S. scientists, journalists, farmers, lawyers, teachers, activists, innovators, wonks, and designers, across generations, geographies, and race
Gardener Page Dickey reflects on what it means for a gardener to start again. Follow her journey as she searches for a new home, discovering the ins and outs of the landscape surrounding her new garden, establishing the garden, and learning how to be a different kind of gardener. "Pretty much the perfect garden book." -Carla
Award-winning poet Aimee Nezhukumatathil's debut work of nonfiction is a collection of essays about the natural world, and the way its inhabitants can teach, support, and inspire us. "This book is so soothing. Its short, musical essays radiate with quiet joy." -Stephanie
An instant bestseller, this beautifully designed guidebook to the unnoticed yet essential elements and the engineering decisions that make up the way things work in our cities is from the creators of the popular "99% Invisible" podcast.
An insider account of the hardships and degradations about being an undocumented immigrant written by Harvard graduate Karla Cornejo Villavicencio. She reveals the hidden lives of her fellow undocumented Americans in this deeply personal and groundbreaking portrait of a nation.
In his new must-read, "Humans of New York" author Brandon Stanton shows us the world in this chronicle of his travels to 40 countries. Ultimately this book is about the beauty of being human on a stunning planet full of beauty.
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A hilarious and heartfelt reflection on Thomas's life as a black, gay, and Christian man living in America -Julia
From the hosts of the podcast "Call Your Girlfriend," Sow and Friedman's book, an inspiring and entertaining testament to the power of society's most underappreciated relationship, invites you to think about how your own bonds are formed, challenged, and preserved.
The Instagram sensation ‘Accidentally Wes Anderson’ captures strange and compelling locations around the world, where every post looks like a Wes Anderson movie still in turnaround. A coloful and fun book, just like Wes Anderson!
The "pursuit of happiness" does not exist without healthcare for all. From the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller "On Tyranny," comes his impassioned condemnation of America's coronavirus response and an urgent call to rethink health and freedom.
A wider view of regaining trust in government and learning from our mistakes without over-reacting, Zakaria's book analyzes the social and political impact of Covid-19.
Eminent political scientist Robert Putnam, author of "Bowling Alone" and "Our Kids," looks back to the "Gilded Age" up to the present, to show how we can come together, in his analysis of economic, social, and political trends over the past century that demonstrate how we have gone from an individualistic “I” to a more "we" society.
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A collection of new short stories, originally commissioned by The New York Times Magazine, as the COVID-19 pandemic swept the world, from twenty-nine authors including Margaret Atwood, Tommy Orange, Edwidge Danticat, and more, in a project inspired by Boccaccio's “The Decameron."
English novelist, essayist, and short-story writer Zadie Smith's 2020 essay collection was written around the time the COVID-19 pandemic began in the United States. The essays discuss topics such as creative writing, the pandemic, and the killing of George Floyd.
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A surprisingly brief novel by one of the world's great writers, Don DeLillo. It was written before the pandemic, but reads like it was written for it.
From the Atlantic, our best monthly magazine for general social reporting, this is collection of some of America’s best reporters and thinkers who offer an urgent look at a country in chaos with these timely, often prophetic articles, including pieces by the medical reporter who warned about a pandemic in 2018.
MacArthur fellow and author of the classic poetry book "Citizen," Claudia Rankine offers further proof that she is one of our essential thinkers about race, difference, politics in the USA. Written with humility and humor, criticism and compassion, this collection asks difficult questions, tackling race and privilege in essays, poems, and photographs.
"The Warmth of Other Suns" author Isabel Wilkerson interviewed more than a thousand African Americans who, between 1915 and 1970, had made “the great migration” in search of jobs and freedom from the entrenched racial hierarchies of the American South, towards the perceived promised land of the country’s northern and western cities to write this eye-opening story of people and history,
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Just the person to do justice to an analysis of the writings of Baldwin, one of the greatest writers and most influential thinkers of the 20th century. -Jeanne
One of the youngest national TV sports analysts, former NFL player Emmanuel Acho is the host of the successful web series of the same title. This is his essential guide to the truths Americans need to know to address the systemic racism that has recently electrified protests in all fifty states.
I don't know who thought of having Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi collaborate on a young people's edition of {Stamped] but it was genius! -Deb
Over the last sixty years, administrators on US college campuses have responded to black campus activists by making racial inclusion and inequality compatible. Johnson's book is an examination of ongoing entrenched inequality at elite universities, with the University of Michigan experiment at its center.
Vanguard: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Insisted on Equality for All (Hardcover)
Acclaimed historian Martha S. Jones' historical look at how the most disenfranchised voting block rose to electoral power. "Vanguard" offers a new history of African American women's political lives in America, recounting how they defied both racism and sexism to fight for the ballot, and how they wielded political power to secure the equality and dignity of all persons.
While the North prevailed in the Civil War, ending slavery and giving the country a "new birth of freedom," daily newsletter author of "Letters from an American," Heather Cox Richardson argues that democracy's blood-soaked victory was ephemeral.
Thirty years of research went into this biography by Pulitzer prize winning journalist Les Payne. This isn't only a biography of Malcolm, the book contextualizes race in America prior to Malcolm's birth, and takes a nuanced, unflinching look at his life, his death — and its aftermath.
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From one of America’s prolific journalists and modern historians comes the first full-length biography of Jimmy Carter, the thirty-ninth president of the United States and Nobel Prize–winning humanitarian, a president whose post-presidency has been by far more praised than his time in office.
In the highly anticipated first of two volumes of his presidential memoirs, Barack Obama tells the story of his improbable odyssey from young man searching for his identity to leader of the free world, describing in personal detail both his political education and the landmark moments of the first term of his historic presidency—a time of dramatic transformation and turmoil.
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Prizewinning bestselling author David Michaelis presents a breakthrough portrait of Eleanor Roosevelt, America’s longest-serving First Lady, an avatar of democracy whose ever-expanding agency as diplomat, activist, and humanitarian made her one of the world’s most widely admired and influential women.
Longlisted for the 2020 National Book Award for Nonfiction and Shortlisted for the 2020 Cundill History Prize, this is a masterful and unsettling history of “Indian Removal,” the forced migration of Native Americans across the Mississippi River in the 1830s and the state-sponsored theft of their lands.
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A timely book about the Supreme Court's activist role in destroying democracy, this book holds to account the highest court in the land, and shows how much damage it has done to America's ideals of equality, democracy, and justice for all.
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The story of Ursula Kuczynski, "Agent Sonya," Moscow's most daring wartime spy, born into a home of communist sympathizers, whose base of operations was the Cotswolds in England.
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Alex Ross, renowned New Yorker music critic reveals how Richard Wagner, our most polarizing composer, became the proving ground for modern art and politics—an aesthetic war zone where the Western world wrestled with its capacity for beauty and violence.
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More oddly addictive nuggets from the author of staff favorite "Ninety-Nine Glimpses of Princess Margaret," English critic and satirist Craig Brown's distinctive portrait of the Fab Four is a witty look at "what it was like to live those extraordinary Beatles years in real time."
Rewatching the no-longer good, the not-so-bad, and the really dumb with the comedic author of "Shrill." New York Times opinion writer and bestselling author Lindy West was once the in-house movie critic for Seattle's alternative newsweekly "The Stranger," where she covered film with brutal honesty and giddy irreverence. In "Shit, Actually," Lindy returns to those roots, re-examining beloved and iconic movies from the past 40 years.
With concise advice, the Wilco frontman takes you through the creative writing process in his attempt to inspire readers to experience more magic and creativity in their life by learning how to write a song.
Hollywood actor Matthew McConaughey's memoir includes stories and insights from his life in chronological order. Though is it described as a memoir, McConaughey has called it an "approach book."
Based on her popular podcast, Kathryn Nicolai offers a healthy way to ease the mind before bed, through the timeless appeal of classic bedtime stories, soothing stories to carry you off to deep, restful sleep.
"Serpentine," a fantasy novella by "His Dark Materials" triology author Philip Pullman, is set after the triilogy and before the second book of his "The Book of Dust" series.
An instant staff favorite, "Men to Avoid in Art and Life" pairs classical fine art by old (male) masters with modern captions that epitomize the spirit of mansplaining.
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Your worst conundrums are answered in pithy prose, even the ones you didn't know you had. Based on the Brooklyn Public Philosophers farmers markets, block party, and book fair events Ian Olasov, these are real-life questions from his "Ask a Philosopher" booth.
A collection of all-new soul-satisfying dishes from America’s favorite home cook. Ina Garten shares 85 new recipes that will feed your deepest cravings. "I think this may be my favorite Ina Garten cookbook yet." -Carla
Flavor-forward, vegetable-based recipes are at the heart of Yotam Ottolenghi’s food. In his latest cookbook, Ottolenghi and co-writer Ixta Belfrage, break down the three factors that create flavor and offer innovative vegetable dishes that deliver brand-new ingredient combinations to excite and inspire.
![East: 120 Vegan and Vegetarian Recipes from Bangalore to Beijing [American Measurements] By Meera Sodha Cover Image](https://images.booksense.com/images/books/730/750/FC9781250750730.JPG)
East: 120 Vegan and Vegetarian Recipes from Bangalore to Beijing [American Measurements] (Hardcover)
Author of two bestselling Indian cookbooks, Meera Sodha's newest collection features brand-new recipes from a wide range of Asian cuisines. The cookbook is a collaboration between Sodha and the East Asian and South East Asian home cooks and gourmet chefs who inspired her along the way, including noodles, curries, rice dishes, tofu, salads, sides, and sweets, all easy to make and bursting with exciting flavors.
James Beard foodwriting award winner Toni Tipton-Martin's new cookbook is a quietly powerful study of 200 years of Black culinary genius. Adapted from historical texts and rare African-American cookbooks, the 125 recipes in her newest cookbook paint a rich, varied picture of the true history of African-American cooking, "a cuisine far beyond soul food."
![In Bibi's Kitchen: The Recipes and Stories of Grandmothers from the Eight African Countries that Touch the Indian Ocean [A Cookbook] By Hawa Hassan, Julia Turshen (With) Cover Image](https://images.booksense.com/images/books/739/856/FC9781984856739.JPG)
Grandmothers from eight eastern African countries in the former spice trade route welcome you into their kitchens to share flavorful recipes and stories of family, love, and tradition in this transporting cookbook-meets-travelogue. “Their food is alive with the flavors of mangoes, cinnamon, dates, and plantains and rich with the history of the continent that had been a culinary unknown for much too long.”
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For those who did, and those who did not, discover their need to knead over the past few months, cookbook writer Pauline Beaumont wants "you to experience the wonder of transforming flour, water, and salt into flavorful, crusty loaves.” As the world feels ever more dangerous and unreliable, there is something soothing and grounding about basic human activities such as baking.
Rule 16: "Eat the rind." Rule 25: "Cheese triage." This fun and quirky guide to the essential rules for enjoying cheese will empower you to choose a more flavorful future, one that supports small dairies and cheesemakers.
Our favorite American in Paris (in the year that we can only dream about it), New York Times bestselling author of "My Paris Kitchen" David Lebovitz serves up more than 160 recipes for trendy cocktails, quintessential apéritifs, café favorites, complementary snacks, and more.
A brilliant, giftable book for vinophiles and the wine timid. Sommelier Jane Lopes recommends the 100 bottles of wine — and some spirits and beers — to best expand your wine journey, giving you a complete palate education of the important styles, grapes, regions, and flavors of this magical and ever-growing world.
In a year with a plethora of pie books for sale, expert baker Claire Saffitz, star of the YouTube series "Gourmet Makes," raises your horizons with her first cookbook, offering wisdom, problem-solving strategies, and more than 100 meticulously tested, creative, and inspiring dessert recipes. "Everytime I look at this gorgeous cover, I want to rush home and bake this mouth-watering dessert." -Vicki
A perfect little bite of a book to pair with some Zingerman's rugelach or a giftcard. Surprise your bubbe by baking up some of these Jewish holiday favorites!
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This Christmas you won't have to worry about pleasing large groups, so go for it! Karoline Jönsson presents a merry smorgasbord of plant-based holiday-season dishes guaranteed to enchant friends and family. Inspired by both classic Scandinavian holiday cooking, as well as seasonal dishes from around the world, this is an indispensable treasure trove for the vegan, vegetarian, or flexitarian foodie. Merry merry!