9 books to buy the readers in your life this holiday

Aux Features Gift Guide
9 books to buy the readers in your life this holiday
Graphic: Rebecca Fassola

It’s never a bad time to give books as gifts. But with brick and mortar stores struggling to stay open—especially during the coronavirus pandemic—buying a book from your neighborhood bookshop means you’re not only potentially giving a thoughtful present, but also helping out your local economy. Don’t tarry, though; if you plan on placing an order through your local store or online this holiday season, be sure to do so as soon as possible. The American Booksellers Association says that printing and shipping delays due to COVID-19 will likely slow arrival times the closer the holidays get. So go ahead and make some tough decisions now (should you get your sister the Allie Brosh or the Raven Leilani?), click “purchase,” and do some reading of your own while you wait.

previous arrowThe Best Of Me by David Sedaris (Little, Brown) next arrow
The Best Of Me by David Sedaris (Little, Brown)
Graphic Rebecca Fassola

You may already be familiar with the bulk of the new David Sedaris collection, The Best Of Me; with the exception of one new essay, these are pieces you’ve read in magazines, heard on the radio or in live appearances, or own in other volumes. But while The Best Of Me might prove most useful and most tickling to newcomers, for the Sedaris-acquainted, the book zooms out to show the connective tissue that goes beyond the withering wit and the you-can’t-make-this-shit-up-but-you-can-embellish-it anecdotes. It locates and elevates the family saga and the love story that, as the author’s focus shifted from his younger, angrier, more desperate self, wound up inspiring both his funniest and most poignant work. Sedaris built a reputation through a willingness to expose so much of himself to the reader. Here, in the battles with French mice and the inevitable appearance of The Rooster, he gives us his best—as an author, if not always as a person.Buy on .

5 Comments

  • murrychang-av says:

    List needs moar Illuminatus! Trilogy.

  • kate-monday-av says:

    I’d highly recommend How to Invent Everything, by Ryan North. A really informative, entertaining read about how to recreate civilization from the ground up, in the event that your time travel machine strands you sometime in the past (the flow chart that helps you figure out where in the stream of time you are and what you should start working on first is also very helpful)

  • burneraccountbutburnerlikepot-av says:

    I tried to read JR but found it unreadable. It’s one of those books where you’re never given any introduction to your setting or characters and have to piece everything together – I don’t need to be spoonfed anything but throw me a bone here. I’m not one to shy away from challenging books, and I would even say I make a habit out of “punishing” myself with certain classics, but JR was such an unenjoyable read I had to quit.

  • blood-and-chocolate-av says:

    Question to ANYONE out there reading this: Has anyone ever read The Last Lion, the three-volume collection about Winston Churchill? Worth reading?

  • re-hs-av says:

    Pirensi was great. I now judge books on a scale of 0 to perensi.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Share Tweet Submit Pin