Kaia’s 2024 Gift Guide: Backlist Books Only!
My thoughts on gifts and the only gift guide you’ll ever see me make
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As we head into holiday season, the pressure to buy and give gifts ramps up. What if we looked in our basements or closets for things to give away? What if we thrifted gifts or made or baked them? I would be thrilled to get some hand-me-down dresses or a tin full of treats. A few years ago, I started writing poems for my family members instead of buying gifts. I’m lucky to have parents and a sibling who appreciated my unconventional gift. Last year, I commissioned a one-minute video on Cameo of Sumit from 90-Day Fiancé: The Other Way wishing my mom a Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday. It was a hit. Neither my husband nor I are big gift people, so we forgo gifts to each other for Christmas and birthdays; we take ourselves out to dinner instead.
I don’t mean to be a storm cloud about all gifts here. Gifts can be incredibly meaningful and thoughtful expressions of love and appreciation, and some people delight in giving and receiving them. Gifts can be experiences that don’t take up physical space, like a video or a massage appointment or a ticket to a play. Gifts can also be hand-made or inexpensive and still be special, perhaps even more special than those that are store-bought. I am going to challenge myself to bring a spirit of joy and creativity to my gift-giving.
I’m guessing that if you are here you know that other than my family, books are my heart—both making them and reading them. There have been many, many years when all I’ve asked for is books. They are the perfect gift. When you give someone a book, you give them a world.
In making this gift guide, I decided to challenge myself to list only books that are backlist—that is, books that came out a year ago or more. These are generally paperbacks and are therefore more affordable. They are also incredible books that may or may not have gotten their time in the sun, but they shouldn’t be forgotten just because they are no longer the shiny new hardcover. I’ve made little categories to help you assess if this might be a good book for someone on your list, but really I think all of these books would make a nice gift for just about anyone!
Kaia’s 2024 Gift Guide: Backlist Books Only!
For the people who unabashedly love pumpkin spice lattes in fall and peppermint mochas in winter…
The Most of Nora Ephron, introduction by Candice Carty-Williams.
If you know someone who puts on When Harry Met Sally the minute the leaves start changing, what better gift than a compilation of the screenwriter’s work? She is funny, incisive, and candid in all of her work. As a writer, I find this collection particularly inspiring—to hold so many works by one author so sure of her voice and comfortable fictionalizing many aspects of her life makes me want to get writing.
For the person who rereads Little Women every year…
How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez
This book follows four sisters as they arrive in New York City in 1960 after leaving their childhood home in the Dominican Republic. Told in chapters that alternate among the four sisters’ voices, this book is a fictionalized account of the author’s life and is funny and heartwarming, both.
For the environmentalist in your life…
The Overstory by Richard Powers
I absolutely loved this book. The structure was incredible; it felt both vertical and horizontal, much like the way a tree grows upward while its rings expand each year. The characters are complicated, and even though we learn so much about them and their lives, there are also pockets of secrets we never get to know, much like the way we can never fully comprehend the life of a tree. If you know of someone who loves trees, get them this book, and perhaps pair it with:
I admired many things about this book including the many facts about the intricate lives of trees, the way the author brings us vividly to places like Minnesota and Hawaii in pursuit of her studies, and the dear friendship she develops with her lab partner. This is educational and heartwarming, and I always love to read about and cheer on a woman in science. This could also be a nice pick for someone who enjoyed Lessons in Chemistry and is interested in nonfiction.
For the person you are grateful to have as a dear friend…
I am going to suggest a pair of books written by two close friends that came out a couple years ago. These books are also great picks for anyone who is craving a little joy or may need to shake off the dust a bit. The way these two poet-essayists see the world—joyfully, curiously—is contagious. I highly recommend them.
World of Wonders by Aimee Nezhukumatathil
I love this book. The illustrations are beautiful and the essays teach the reader about wonders in our natural world such as narwhals and catalpa trees, while naturally weaving in her personal experiences of growing up as a brown child in predominantly white spaces. It is a celebration of uniqueness. It is a love song to interconnectivity.
The Book of Delights by Ross Gay
Ross Gay is a poet, teacher, and community gardener in Ohio. One day, he decided to challenge himself to write about one thing that he found delight in every single day. He wanted to see if he could train himself to find joy. He did. And not only that, he soon learned that the more he sought out and noticed joy, the more he found. It was a practice that he welcomes us into through his words. The essay topics range from basketball to flowers to conversations with friends. I highly recommend this book. We all have a lot we could learn from it.
For the person who loved The Last of Us AND/OR for the anti-capitalist in your life…
I went into this one without knowing a thing about it and that’s the way to roll with this one. I had been drawn to the pink cover. I am thankful this book was pink because I’m very glad I read it. It is chilling, and I think about it all the time.
For the person craving adventure…
Rough Magic by Lara Prior-Palmer
This memoir follows the author’s relatively impromptu journey on the longest horse race in the world. She rides across Mongolia, meeting friends and learning about a new culture, the limits of her stamina, and the deep relationships between people and horses. This book was published by Catapult, which pretty much means a guaranteed read by me. They put out thought-provoking, unique books, and this is no exception.
For the horror lover…
Blindness by Jose Saramago, translated from Portuguese by Giovanni Pontiero
This book is unsettling and deeply creepy. Originally published in Portuguese, the story is about a mass epidemic of blindness that overtakes an unnamed city and the utter confusion and terror that takes place after the fact. Saramago was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature and this book was one of the primary works cited as notable in his oeuvre.
Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado
I once gave my college freshman a choice in short story collections for a project, and the ones who chose this book loved it. Edgy, frightening, structurally creative, and incisive in its depictions of the way a woman’s body is seen and acted upon in society, this work is masterclass in storytelling. This book was published by Graywolf Press, a local press here in Minneapolis that we’re very proud of.
For the person who loves heartwarming and cozy books…
Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa, translated from Japanese by Eric Ozawa
A lost young woman decides to go live above her uncle’s bookshop. What follows are encounters with quirky customers and the rekindling of various relationships of people connected to the bookshop. A sweet book, perfect for deep fall and early winter.
I love this book! It is heartwarming and so, so funny. I shook laughing many times while reading it. Written in epistolary form, this charming book is essentially a compilation of all the letters Nina Stibbe wrote to her sister while nannying the two children of a famous book editor in London. If I were giving this book, I would wrap it up along with some tea and a box of cookies.
For the kooky artist-type in your life (aka me)…
This was one of my favorite books I read last year. When I had my husband read it he said, “I can tell why you loved it,” but he didn’t say that he loved it and to that I said: !!!!! This leads me to believe that this book is best suited for the truly kooky types who love a dry humor paired with vivid and very, very specific details. I think it may be an acquired taste! Whatever taste it is, I’ve got it, and if you’ve got artist/quirkster vibes going on, you’ll probably like this book.
This book shows up on practically every book list I write because I love it so much. When I read this book as a new mom who is an artist, I felt seen. Wild and unexpected, each page left me a bit breathless. I want to kiss this book and then toss up into a howling gale so that it floats over to the next new mom-artist who needs it.
For the person who loves reading about mother-daughter relationships…
I picked this book up and read it for the first time a few years ago and let me just say: there is a reason this book is a modern classic. It is elegant and riveting, illuminating what it is to be a mother, daughter, and woman through stories of four pairs of mothers and daughters. I also hold Amy Tan close in my heart because once at AWP, my friend and I went to sit down and accidentally spilled water on her. She was so gracious about it and got up shortly to deliver the keynote address.
Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner
This book would also be a great pick for the indie music lover in your life or the person who has recently lost someone close to them. The lead singer of band Japanese Breakfast, Michelle Zauner writes about her relationship with her dying mother and the blossoming of her music career with grace and lyricism.
For the person who wants to get into poetry…
This is a collection of some of Mary Oliver’s most beloved works. Her poetry illuminates the connection between people and the natural world around us. I’ve heard many times that Mary Oliver would walk around in Provincetown, MA, where she lived, with a paper and pen, waiting for a poem to strike. So many of them did and we are lucky to be able to hold so many of them between our hands in a book such as this.
For the young child in your life…
I am going to share two of my son’s favorites books. Both are celebratory and uplifting. I think I love reading g them just as much as he loves listening to them.
Gummy Bear LOVES this book. He loves dancing and he loves basketball, and this book shows our girl Ina absolutely crushing it at both. It is rhyming and fun to read out loud. I love this book because it shows kids that there are no limitations as to what you can be passionate about.
I Love You Because I Love You by Muon Thi Van, illustrated by Jessica Love
Gummy Bear’s godparents got him this book as a gift and we treasure it. The illustrations are gorgeous and the words are simple and beautiful. Each spread features a different child and a person in their life that loves them. This book celebrates bodies of all shapes and sizes and celebrates love among all types of people.
I hope you enjoyed my back list books only gift guide! If you purchase a book using any of the Bookshop links above, I will receive a small commission at no cost to you, and your money will go toward supporting a local bookstore. Win-win! Putting this list together was so much fun. Let me know if you end of giving any of these books as gifts! And if you decide to keep them for yourself, don’t worry, I won’t tell! If you would like a personalized recommendation, please reach out and let me know what type of book you’re looking for, and I will do my best to find something for you!
I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving week. I am grateful for YOU, my Substack community. It feels so special to send out my words and to talk about things I love and know you are reading. Thanks for being here.
With love from my kitchen table,
Kaia
What a great list! We have the same taste in books. 🩷
What a comprehensive and great book gift guide. I really appreciate the substackers who talk about books. I only go to substack now, so I haven't seen many book recommendations, not being on other social media much.
The people I claim as friends or family get hand made, or thrifted things from me. It is awesome because they do the same right back.
But I would really like to read night bitch. I've seen it recommended twice and that means I need to read it. There were a few others I would like too. 💜