Ah, the kitchen. The heart of the home, the place with the snacks, and the location where you have probably spent much more time this year compared to last year. Maybe you devoted hours of sheltering at home time to baking, perhaps you took this as an opportunity to try that elaborate new recipe you never felt you had the time for, or maybe you just have gotten tired of takeout and decided to try and recreate a fancy restaurant experience at home.
If any of these sound like you, or your nearest and dearest, take a look at my picks for the ten best cookbooks to come out in 2020! I love to gift my favorite cookbooks during the holiday season. If you are lucky they will share some of their successful and hopefully delicious results with you after they try out some recipes! *wink wink*
Each of these titles would make a wonderful gift for a family member, friend, or a lovely book to add to your own cookery library. Don’t forget to order from Bookshop.org so you can support your local, independent booksellers this holiday season!
Happy holidays and I hope you stay happy, healthy, and safe this season!
If I could be your personal shopper for books I would pick…
The Lying Life of Adultsby Elena Ferrante, a fantastic coming-of-age novel by a best-selling author
Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell, a deeply moving and brilliantly imagined historical novel
The Guest List by Lucy Foley, a fast-paced thriller with a wonderful cast of characters
The House in the Cerulean Seaby T.J. Klune, a magical story, masterfully told.
Hidden Valley Roadby Robert Kolker, non-fiction written with clarity and compassion
Hopefully these picks will appeal to a variety of readers in your life, so get busy and shop at Bookshop.org, an online book store that supports local book shops, fill your cart and make the reader in your life happy. Happy Holidays!
True confession: while I love to read, buy books, talk about books, borrow and lend books, I find it challenging to purchase books for adults, and so I usually choose to purchase (or make) something else for them. I do, however, absolutely love to give books to the kids in my life, and lucky me, I know some wonderful little ones who will be getting some great selections this year.
Here are some titles I recommend that you consider for the half-pints in your life:
The Shortest Day by Susan Cooper
Where’s Prince? by Kev Gahan
Orange Pear Apple Bear by Emily Gravett
Tomorrow I’ll Be Brave by Jessica Hische
Find Frida Hardcover by Catherine Ingram
The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats
All Kinds of Kindness by Judy Carey Nevin
Draw Here by Herve Tullet
Inspired? You can order these, and books about practically anything else you can imagine, at Bookshop.org. While you’re there, maybe pick yourself up something to get into the holiday spirit.
Who better than the experts in the RRPL Children’s Department to guest host our blog sharing holiday gift ideas! Below you’ll find new book titles, Christmas titles, and a few non-book items as well. Enjoy!
I love giving books and will take advantage of any occasion to find something I think will fit my giftee, and that includes pondering if there’s something you might want to gift yourself of course! I sorted the titles into broad ideas of who they might appeal to but left the heavy lifting of plot description to the reviews on bookshop.org (Bookshop is an online bookstore with a mishttps://bookshop.org/books/weather-9780345806901/9780385351102sion to financially support local, independent bookstores.) I hope this list helps you finish off your holiday shopping on a high note!
And if you’re looking for a way to do something extra, I just discovered the United States Postal Service has a program called “Operation Santa.” This won’t be news to everyone as it’s been going on for years but if you, like me, hadn’t heard of it before I’ll drop a link here.
I wish everyone a safe, healthy holiday season, with a book (or two) to help you keep feeling strong!
-Stacey
Being something of a gigantic nerd myself, I know that it can be difficult to buy holiday presents for that science fiction aficionado in your life. They have all the action figures – excuse me, figurines – they could ever need, and there’s no more space for posters on their walls. Let me, a self-professed nerd, guide you on a journey to the perfect present for your loved one.
All of these items are available through the library if you’d like to try before you buy, but please make sure to support your local independent bookstore; you can buy online and support indie bookstores with Bookshop.org.
I cannot stop raving about this series – in my opinion, these books are the best sci fi I’ve read in years. If the phrase “lesbian necromancers in space” sounds like something your nerd would like, pick up these books! Not a reader? Try gifting them the audiobook versions, which are also excellent.
Has your nerd ever thought about the collateral damage that their favorite superhero creates by smashing two skyscrapers together? Choose Hench for a different take on superheroes.
If your nerd loves Star Trek, they’ll love Redshirts, which follows the little guys rather than the starship captains in a ‘legally distinct’ universe from Star Trek.
The biggest film release of the year by one of the most acclaimed directors out there, Christopher Nolan. Your nerd is almost guaranteed to want this movie.
Another exciting release in 2020, this new Star Trek series brings back the most beloved of starship captains, Jean Luc Picard, played by Patrick Stewart.
This one is more of a horror entry, but still has science fiction elements. A crew of deep-sea researchers must get to safety after their underwater drilling station is hit by an earthquake.
Treat your nerd to this flick starring scenery-chewer Nicholas Cage as a farmer whose property is hit by a meteorite, based on an H. P. Lovecraft story.
If your nerd is a Star Wars fan, they’ll want to complete their collection with the final installment in the new trilogy that started with The Force Awakens.
Good luck in your hunt for the perfect present, and keep an eye on this blog for many more gift guides from other staff members in the coming week!
This year, Christmas feels a little strange and isolated. But it also feel a little cozy. The first snowfall was absolutely beautiful and really got me into the Christmas spirit. As I try to avoid malls and busy stores, I have of course turned to online shopping like many of us. But somehow that just seems impersonal this year. After weeks of quarantining, ordering carry out, groceries from Instacart, and pretty much everything else in the world from Amazon, I’m ready to get back to basics for this year’s holiday. My daughter and I tried our hand at making candles (we definitely need to read up on this a little bit, as I watch one of ours smoke itself out), we have plans for many more cookie varieties than ever, and are drawn towards handmade gifts from Etsy and local stores.
In keeping with this, I am buying books as gifts for the first time in years! My teen/young adult kids don’t read as vociferously as they used to, and most of my family reads on a Kindle. But this year, it just feels right to go back to basics, hold a real book in my hands while I sip coffee by my Christmas tree and lights. My kids have watched pretty much everything Netflix, Hulu and Amazon have to offer, so I think I’m going to try and entice them to take an electronic break, relax on the couch with me to read a good book by the tree.
Here are a few titles coming out in December. Some of them haven’t been published yet, but what is more fun then preordering a book and knowing you will be one of the first to read it? Remember that our local retailers need you this year more than ever. So head to bookshop.org to get some of these new titles that promise to be keepers! They also offer gift cards if you just can’t choose ;-).
Simply thrilling
There’s no such thing as a perfect family. And it’s usually not wise to point that out.
Thriller, romance and fantasy, all rolled into one.
A debut thriller that asks one simple question, shouldn’t a dead husband stay dead?
On the lighter side
Quinn and Minnie share their day of birth, but their lives couldn’t be more different.
A dare and a crash course in flirting turn a frumpy college professor’s life upside down.
An anxiety-ridden introvert finds herself in the spotlight and decides to fake it til she makes it.
Different times and places
Stunning debut explores Afghanistan on the eve of a violent revolution.
A story of survival, loss and love, and the sisters who changed fashion forever.
A poor girl with dreams grows up in the shadow of Biltmore House, the palatial Vanderbilt mansion.
Read it or Weep 