Pleasant Surprises
The perfect gift— a random book that people will love but probably wouldn’t buy for themselves!
Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs?: And Other Questions About Dead Bodies
A mortician answers children’s questions about dead bodies, making a taboo subject funny without being disrespectful.
The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible
An ambitious, heartfelt project whereby a secular person earnestly seeks to learn.
Heartburn
One of my go-to gifts every year. A creative outlet for Nora Ephron’s brutally honest, irreverent, hilarious voice.
Seriously Good
Fiction that’s not for the faint of heart
Demon Copperhead
For sure my favorite book of 2024. Checks all of the boxes for me, I consider it a must-read.
All the Ugly and Wonderful Things
This book is controversial AF. It’s about finding solace and stability amidst abuse. Greenwood gives a voice to people who are doing conventionally “wrong” things for the right reasons.
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine
An unreliable narrator with some lingering trauma. The message of the book is nice: it’s not enough to just exist, ya gotta have a life.
For ‘The Reader’
The literary lover who has read ‘em all
The Remains of the Day
This book is so good in such an unexpected way. If you had told me I’d be slurping up prose from a butler in England in the 1920s, I’d be like hmmm, probably not, and I’m wrong for that!
Travels with Charley in Search of America
In 1960, Steinbeck went on a road trip throughout the United States with his poodle Charley to answer the question: “What are Americans like today?” If you like his fiction, you’ll like his nonfiction even more.
The Guest
This is an edgy, uncomfortable read but boy is it a literary journey. Emma Cline is your author’s favorite author.
Short Stories
A gateway to reading for the non-reader and a beloved favorite for the reader
Tenth of December
My go-to short story rec. George Saunders was made in a lab specifically for short stories. Just trust me on this one.
Welcome to the Monkey House
If you’re not a fan of fiction, then you haven’t read Vonnegut. He is one of the most self-aware authors I’ve ever read and his uncanny ability to challenge his experiences forces you to challenge your own.
Someone Who Will Love You In All Your Damaged Glory
From the creator of Bojack Horseman: a collection of short stories that are simultaneously absurdly experimental but also deeply relatable.
Listening and Learning
For the life-long learner who wants to learn more stuff
The Selfish Gene
Richard Dawkins is without a doubt the smartest person whose work I’ve had the pleasure of reading. He’s incredibly knowledgeable, a true king at clarifying analogies, thorough so that you know the point of view of his dissenters, and funny in that he sassily takes digs at them.
Under the Banner of Heaven
Did you know that currently, there are more Mormons in America than Presbyterians or Episcopalians? Or that on the planet as a whole, there are now more Mormons than Jews? Probably not, because who knows that stuff? This fast-growing religion is clearly a force to be reckoned with, and therefore useful to learn about.
But What If We’re Wrong? Thinking About the Present As If It Were the Past
This is full of good “beer conversations” aka conversations that don’t necessarily lead to anywhere super productive, but they’re still fun to have. He maps out a bunch of thought-provoking hypotheticals, all revolving around the premise that we’re probably wrong about a buttload of things.