Hi You Guys…. OMG,
It’s a week until Christmas!!! A WEEK!! I am the absolute definition of NOT READY.
I don’t know about you guys, but I am stressing out haha. I always leave my shopping WAY too late, and when I finally get to the shops it’s just chaos. I did buy 80% of my presents online this year, which was honestly such a game changer!
Every year a lot of my friends, and some of you blog readers.. will reach out to me and ask me for bookish Christmas gift recommendations 🙂 Either book suggestions themselves, or where to get bookish wall art, mugs, bookmarks.. and really a million related things. So I figured I would make a little post here and give you guys some last minute ideas.. just in case you are like me, roaming around Indigo COMPLETELY overwhelmed and confused about what to buy.
Books are such a fantastic gift to buy for someone, but it can be tricky when you need to consider things like the readers age, interests, preferred genre , and just overall how “good” they will think the book is. I’ve given this all way too much thought, and if you need even just one idea.. you have come to the right place.
I won’t bother with summaries, reviews etc. Some of the books on here I reviewed in my last post, and some in an upcoming Winter reads post. However I 100% stand by all my suggestions, and each and every book/bookmark/bookish trinket, that I mention.. I absolutely love.
So here we go….
1. ) Boxed Sets
Boxed sets are honestly the most fantastic gift ever, however they usually run quite expensive. A boxed set is usually consisting of ALL the books in a specific series. For example, the “Harry Potter” saga has SEVERAL different boxed set options.. all of them are stunning. Some come in the form of suitcases, some have dust jackets (that when lined up make up the entire Hogwarts Express), and others are made in beautiful gold bindings. The options are limitless with that one, haha.
Over the last few months I’ve gotten really into the world of Sarah J. Mass and all her fantasy novels. Her series “A Court of Thorns and Roses” has 4-5 books, and I wish I had bought them all in a boxed set. Not ONLY would it have looked so much cuter on my bookshelf, but I LOVE (and need) all my spines to match (when it’s a full series). Buying each book individually has been much more costly, and I’m kicking myself. I realize it’s daunting to pay over 100$ for a boxed set, when you aren’t sure you will be hooked by book one. So here are my suggestions for some incredible series & their beautiful matching counterparts.. their boxed sets 🙂
1.) “A Court of Thorns and Roses” set (4-5 books), By Sarah J. Mass// A Fantasy & Romance Series (Fae)
2.) “The Hunger Games” set (3 books), by Suzanne Collin// A Dystopian Adventure
3.) “The Harry Potter Collection” set (7 books), by J.K Rowling// A Magical World
4.) “Conversations with Friends & Normal People”, set (2 separate stories, just have the same author), by Sally Rooney// Stunning contemporary fiction… two of my favorite books ever!
5.) “A Game of Thrones”, set (5 books), by George R.R Martin// High Fantasy Adventure Series
2.) Thrillers
I honestly feel like since the release of Gillian Flynn’s “Gone Girl”, the Thriller genre has been HOT. It’s getting hotter by the week, and so many fantastic new stories are all coming out of the woodwork. Thrillers are having a moment… but that “moment” is ten years strong & getting stronger!
It takes SO much to shock me in a thriller these days. I read so much, that when I come across a book with a plot-twist that I didn’t see coming (like at ALL), it becomes permanently sealed in my memory! I LOVE when I can still get shocked by an ending…. and so here are the 5 Thrillers that absolutely fucking shocked me to my CORE. Twists that I am still puzzling over haha.
1.) “The Silent Patient”, By Alex Michaelides// BRILLIANT crime thriller
2.) “The Push”, By Ashley Audrain// Fiction & Psychological Horror
3.) “We Were Liars”, By E Lockhart// YA Mystery
4.) “The Good Girl”, By Mary Kubica// Thriller
5.) “Behind Her Eyes”, By Sarah Pinborough// Literary Fiction & Psychological Thriller
3.) Romance
I have never really been into the whole “romance” genre.. but this year got me right on into it. It’s been so much fun exploring the whole scene, and finally getting to all the romance books all my bookish friends are always trying to get me into. Some have been great, some have been WIDLY problematic, some have been just BAD, and most have been so so much fun.. while also being the absolute definition of “escapism”. I think we all need a bit of that these days 🙂
1.) “Red, White & Royal Blue”, by Casey McQuinston// YA LGBT Romance & the CUTEST love story I’ve read in years!
2.) “The Song of Achilles”, By Madeline Miller// Historical Fiction, Ancient Greece, Love Story (So SAD)
3.) “It Ends with Us”, By Colleen Hoover// Second chance love story
4.) “The Fault in Our Stars”, By John Green// YA Romance.. My ultimate fav
5.) “They Both Die At The End”, By Adam Silvera// Dystopian, LGBT, Love Story (So SAD)
4.) Fiction
This is a fantastic category, and is also hard to pin down. For the purposes of this post.. I will not be including “thrillers” or “romance” under this heading. These will be just Literary Fiction, that revolves around real life situations etc. So many important conversations were started by some of the hard-hitting subjects represented by Fiction this year!
1.) “The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo”, & “Daisy Jones & The Six”, both by Taylor Jenkins Reid// Both are STUNNING stories, both set in the near past. So so good. Both being adapted for TV series as well.
2.) “We Were Never Here”, By Andrea Bartz// Stunning portrayal of destructive female friendship & an insane thrill ride too
3.) “A Little Life”, By Hanya Yanagihara// Heartbreaking & beautiful story of friends growing up together in NYC. Serious trigger warnings for some hard topics (please research before reading). A quiet, intense and real portrayal of trauma, love, loss, grief and Art.
4.) “Bunny”, By Mona Awad// Horror mixed with insanely well written, gripping Literary Fiction
5.) “Where The Crawdads Sing”, By Delia Owens// Dreamy lyrical Fiction, coming-of-age story, with a mystery at it’s core
5.) Non-Fiction
1.) ANYTHING BY SAMANTHA IRBY. I repeat, ANYTHING. She is so fucking hilarious, every word she writes kills me. She has “Meaty”, “We Are Never Meeting in Real Life”, & “Wow, No Thank You”… all collections of her essays.. and they are INCREDIBLE.
2.) AGAIN anything by Jon Ronson, but mainly “The Psychopath Test” & “So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed”. Both so well researched, deeply fascinating, and laugh out loud funny.
3.) Anything by Jenny Lawson.. seriously read it ALL. “Lets Pretend This Never Happened” & “Furiously Happy”.. are two of my favorite books of all time. She has such an authentic, darkly humorous & deeply funny voice.
4.) “Don’t Call It A Cult”, by Sarah Berman// A Fascinating look into the NXIVM cult. So disturbing, but very very interesting. Also “Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism” by Amanda Montell was brilliant too.
5.) “Just Kids”, by Patti Smith// A memoir all about her relationship with Robert Mapplethorpe. Beautiful prose & a beautiful love letter to Art, in all it’s forms
Thank you all so much for reading, hope some of these were helpful.
Other than books, things that any bookworm loves are,
Reading socks, book light, cozy pj’s, book sleeve, book marks, sticky notes, hi-lighters, cute book bags 🙂 Or always, ALWAYS a nice little Gift Card to their local bookshop 🙂
Happy shopping,
xoxo
Carly
See you soon with more Holiday Content!
