Holiday Book Bag: 11 Gift Recommendations for Readers of Any Age

Presents the Bookworms In Your Life Will Love

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One of the best pieces of advice I ever got as a writer was to never apologize for reading. I still cherish this piece of wisdom. Sometimes I read at ten o’clock at night, but lots of times I read at ten o’clock in the morning, or two in the afternoon, or even two in the morning. This year was a big reading year for me—I probably read over 100 books. And I love nothing more than recommending a surprising book to a friend or loved one.

So why keep my meddling to myself!

Here’s my Santa’s Book Bag for 2021–with holiday gift ideas for readers of all ages. This list includes some of my favorites of the last year, but also recommendations from my teenage daughters, who are big readers of YA, from my wife, who loves both pop fiction and scandalous business tales, and from readers of The Nonlinear Life. Please feel free to add your recommendations at the end!

And happy reading!

1. For lovers of science, quirky memoirs, or women’s empowerment: Lab Girl by Hope Jahren

Geobiologist and brilliant self-satirist Hope Jahren’s gorgeous musings on trees, dirt, science, and nonlinear lifestyles was my favorite book this year. Jahren begins in her Minnesota childhood but takes us deep into her itinerant travels through Georgia, Hawaii, and assorted bogs and mud pits around the world. Her portrait of her brilliant, eccentric sidekick and work husband, Bill, is worth the time itself, and when Jahren eventually meets her own soulmate, I read on curiously to see what would happen. Published in 2016, this book was named one of the best of the year by The Washington Post, TIME, NPR, and Slate and won the National Book Critics Circle Award.

2. For lovers of literary fiction and gorgeous writing: On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

Some of the sentences in this book are so beautiful that I had to close the book and let the pain wash over me. Ocean Vuong is a poet at heart—and on the page; he has a new book of poems coming next year from my publisher, Penguin Press—and this book, which mixes autofiction with memoir with coming-of-age reflections on Vietnam, nail salons, masculinity, and drug addiction—might as well be a prose poem. The hype is real; the awards justified; the reviews barely touch it (“A lyrical work of self-discovery that’s shockingly intimate and insistently universal…Not so much briefly gorgeous as permanently stunning.” —Ron Charles, The Washington Post). On Earth is the first book I’ve ever read by a writer so young—he was in his twenties at the time—that I said when I finished it, “He can win the Nobel Prize someday.”

3. For lovers of epic history and Yuval Harari: The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber and David Wengrow

I had an intern in my office three of the last four years who’s a disciple of David Graeber, the brilliant anthropologist whom The Atlantic this fall deemed “a genius—Not an extremely intelligent person—a genius.” I read an earlier book of his, Bullshit Jobs, the first half of which I found absurd, the second half breathtaking. So, I’ve been thrilled to dive in this month to his latest book, The Dawn Everything, which he co-wrote with David Wengrow. The book seeks to do no less than rewrite the history of the history of the world; its subtitle is A New History of Humanity. It was planned to be the first in a series, but the series will not benefit from Graeber’s wisdom. He died last year at 59. Get his wisdom while you can.

4. For teens who love to binge Gossip Girl: The Thousandth Floor by Katharine McGee.

My daughters are sixteen and big readers. When I asked them for a recommendation for this list, they both, without conferring, recommended The Thousandth Floor, the first of a futuristic trilogy by Katharine McGee. Set in New York in 2118, the book takes place in a thousand-story tower. The books are so genre-busting that my girls struggled to describe: “It has multiple perspectives; it’s a little dystopian; it’s a little sci-fi, but not your traditional monsters and zombies. I think I’ll reread it over the holidays.” Good enough for me!

5. For lovers of politics who are sick of books about politics: Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe.

My wife usually devours books in 48 consecutive hours—I have no idea how she does it. But this book she had been reading S L O W L Y, devouring every juicy and horrifying detail. New Yorker writer Patrick Radden Keefe’s scrupulous retelling of the unscrupulous Sackler family has come up in almost every gathering I’ve had in the last few months. Named one of the best books of the year by NPR, TIME, and The Washington Post, the book makes a perfect book to Bad Blood, the story of Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos. Warning: You may need a Valium after reading this book, but you certainly won’t want one after reading how the Sackler’s promoted it.

6. For lovers of travel who can’t travel now: Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

This year, I read three books of African diaspora fiction—Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue, Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi, and Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. In some ways, they could be read as a trilogy. If I had to pick one, I would go with Americanah, the exquisite story of two Nigerian lovers forced apart, trying to make their way in the United States and the United Kingdom, only to fail and struggle whether to push on as an African in the world or return and help build a new Africa at home. I did not want this book to end, although the ending itself was perfect.

7. Nonlinear Life Readers Recommend

Some of my favorite recommendations from readers:

From husband-and-wife book lovers John Bader and Amy DeLouise. For lovers of international thrillers, he recommends the Sam Wyndham series by Abir Mukherjee, set in 1920s India. For people who like beautifully crafted historical fiction about badass women, she recommends Lauren Groff's new novel, Matrix.

For anyone interested in magics and countercultural artists, Beth Sheffield recommends No Ordinary Magic by Eileen McFalls.

For nonfiction lovers from age nine to adult, Gabi Reczek recommends David Nayeri’s reflections of life through his fifth-grade self, Everything Sad Is Untrue.

8. For lovers of photography, American history, and stories you never knew: A Better Life for Their Children.

Openly stealing this idea from the Wall Street Journal holiday book guide because, well, it’s my brother’s amazing new photography book:

Andrew Feiler plumbs racial amity with “A Better Life for Their Children: Julius Rosenwald, Booker T. Washington, and the 4,978 Schools That Changed America.” About 500 of the schools built in the South for blacks in the early decades of the last century are still extant; most were financed in part by Rosenwald, president of Sears, Roebuck, in partnership with Washington, the great African American educator. Mr. Feiler documents those buildings in decay and the many that have been preserved as museums or community centers. People who studied or taught in the schools are interviewed and photographed. The late Rep. John Lewis of Georgia writes in a foreword about his excitement attending Dunn’s Chapel School in Troy, Ala. “Feiler’s photographs and stories,” he says, “bring us into the heart of the passion for education in black communities.”

Whatever type of reader you know, a book is the best holiday gift there is. And if you can add a little something to it, maybe add permission to read your gift at any time of day.

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Thanks for reading The Nonlinear Life. Please help us grow the community by subscribing, sharing, and commenting below. Also, you can learn more about me, read my introductory post, or scroll through my other posts.

You might enjoy reading these posts:

Paperback Writer: The Secret History of a Publishing Blockbuster

Her Husband Tried to Kill Her. Now She Helps Free Abused Brides.

From High-School Dropout to Ph.D.

Or these books: Life Is in the Transitions, The Secrets of Happy Families, and Council of Dads.

Or, you can contact me directly.