Gift a book to the last few stragglers on your list, and treat yourself while you’re at it.
by Paige Pritchard
I treat the Art of Gifting Books as a sacred practice during the holiday season. The challenge of finding the perfect read for friends and family members is a yearly event, and I take it seriously. Think about it—the right book given at the right time has the potential to set the tone for a year’s worth of reading. Maybe that’s a little presumptuous, but still, a book you choose according to a person’s specific tastes is a thoughtful gift for any reader.
This was a great year in publishing for female writers (#readwomen2014, anyone?). It brought hits from breakout authors as well as solid tomes from already-established favorites. The Riveter reviewed many of these and had the chance to speak with authors like Meghan Daum, Eimear McBride and Emma Straub. Recently, many of these books ended up on the New York Times Review of Book’s list of Notable Books for 2014. In compiling the following list of my own, I tried to include some of these, but also added some more esoteric content to help fit a range of interests. For added convenience, I suggested some people these books would make great gifts for, because there’s always that one person who evades even the best of book gift curators. Enjoy, and happy gifting to you all.
1. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
This post-apocalyptic tale follows a troupe of Shakespearean performers as they travel through a near future devastated by a particularly virulent flu. The book opens with the death of a former Hollywood star. This becomes the catalyst for a variety of characters and timelines – Mandel rewinds to a pre-plague era to explore the actor’s first marriage, and then fast-forwards to follow the spiritual journey of a troupe actress. The ease with which the author interweaves these narratives is probably what helped Station Eleven secure a spot as a National Book Award Finalist, and is probably why you’ll love it.
Purchase it on Amazon, then head over to Mashable to take part in their group read of the book that culminates with a Google Hangout including Mandel herself on January 13.
Buy it for yourself: for when the holidays get hectic and you need to escape into a world that’s even crazier than yours.
2. Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay
I wish I could go back and remember the first time I read Gay’s writing; it was definitely sometime in 2014, but the author was so incredibly prolific this year I’ve lost track of the tipping point. After establishing a solid following on Twitter, The Rumpus, and a variety of literary magazines (she’s co-editor of the amazing PANK), Gay burst onto the fiction scene in May with her debut novel An Untamed State, which received rave reviews. She then continued her 2014 tour de force in August when Bad Feminist hit the shelves (and quickly sold out). I recommend this read because it’ll make you laugh, cry, and nod your head in firm agreement, but also because Gay’s writing has so much to teach us, and we should all be listening.
Purchase it on Amazon, then visit The Butter, a vertical of The Toast that Gay launched in November (like I said, this woman doesn’t stop).
Give it to: any and every rad and riveting reader you know, then take them out for coffee and discuss.
3. The Vacationers by Emma Straub
The Vacationers was everyone’s favorite beach read that actually was so much more than just a beach read this year. Published at the end of May (just in time for swimsuit season) Straub’s story of a family trip gone to the fishes caught the attention of readers everywhere who innocuously packed it in their carry-ons and beach bags. The plot follows the Post family’s two-week trip to Mallorca, their first vacation in years. With a cast of characters including a cheating husband, a son who seemingly exists on protein powder, and a sex-crazed daughter, The Vacationers tests the tensions of familial relationships with humor and insight.
Purchase it on Amazon.
Give it to: your sibling, because they’ll appreciate the fact that as stressful as your family vacations can get, as least they’re not as bad as the one in this best-seller.
4. Motherland Fatherland Homelandsexuals by Patricia Lockwood
In my opinion, poetry is an incredibly personal genre. It can take years as a reader to really “get” one poet, whereas things just click when you read another. That’s what happened when I read Lockwood’s poetry. I picked up Motherland Fatherland Homelandsexuals from a display at the library and knew within the flip of a few pages that I needed to find a comfortable reading chair because I’d be there for a while. It was only afterward that I made the connection that Lockwood penned the powerful prose poem “Rape Joke,” published by The Awl in 2013. In addition to all of that, the cover was designed by none other than Bojack Horseman character designer Lisa Hanawalt, who described the poetry collection as “FCKIN’ NUTS.” With that kind of stacked resume, I had to include Motherland Fatherland Homelandsexuals on the list. It’s funny, brutal, bizarre, and yes, completely fckin’ nuts.
Purchase it on Amazon.
Buy it for yourself: to sit down, relax, and enjoy with a cup of coffee (read: glass of wine) in your favorite reading chair after the holiday rush is over. You can also try your luck on slot gacor hari ini.
5. Not That Kind of Girl by Lena Dunham
I’ve come to discover “How do you feel about Lena Dunham?” is a great icebreaker for parties populated by the well-read-Millennial-who-may-or-may-not-watch-Girls type. Everyone has an opinion. Maybe you specifically called in your HBO GO password favor to watch the Girls second season. Maybe you don’t like any of her work and don’t get why everyone’s so obsessed with her. Maybe you feel indifferent about Girls because you only watch the SyFy network but you generally think she seems like a cool person (maybe that’s just me). However you feel about Dunham, she’s established herself as a preeminent female voice in a variety of creative industries. This book of essays is a great way to develop a better understanding of how she got there.
Purchase it on Amazon.
Buy it for yourself: because, come on, it’s been on best-seller lists for weeks now and you know you want to read it. You can even read it and then give it to a friend…we won’t judge you.
6. The Oldest Living Things in the World by Rachel Sussman
If people posted “The Best Books That Put Your Tiny Existence Into Perspective in 2014” lists, this book would top them all. Fine art photographer Rachel Sussman traveled the world for almost a decade to find continuously living organisms 2,000 years old or older. The list of organisms photographed includes a Baobab tree, brain coral, a predatory fungus, and an underground forest. Within these photos, the subject size ranges from dime-shaped spots of lichen in Iceland to an entire colony of Aspen trees in Utah (aged 80,000 years!). The book features essays by New York Times science columnist Carl Zimmer and art curator Hans-Ulrich Obrist; their dually informative and poetic prose offers an appropriate pairing with Sussman’s extensive research and pristine photos. It’s a book that you can revisit multiple times as reading material, eye candy, and a general reminder that we live in an ancient, amazing world.
Buy it on Amazon and then listen to Sussman’s TED Talk or her and Zimmer’s appearance on Science Friday to discuss the book.
Give it to: the scientifically inclined friend who needs a great coffee table book.
7. Texts from Jane Eyre: And Other Conversations with Your Favorite Literary Characters by Mallory Ortberg
Hairpin alumni Mallory Ortberg and Nicole Cliffe launched The Toast earlier this year as a general interest and humor site for women. Since then, it’s grown into a community of hysterical writers, readers and commenters (it’s one of just a handful of websites where it’s safe, dare I say even beneficial, to read the comments). Ortberg has a number of reoccurring series on the site, including titles like “Women in Western Art History” and “Dirtbags”. Before all of these, however, there was “Texts From,” a series that originated on The Hairpin when Ortberg posted a text dialogue between Scarlett O’Hara and various Gone With The Wind characters. The series continued on The Toast, and eventually led Ortberg to compile her greatest hits into this compendium of Western canon characters mashed up with modern day tech.
Buy it on Amazon.
Give it to: your friend getting their MFA in English Lit, because the semester just ended and they probably need any excuse to laugh at this point.
8. The Empathy Exams by Leslie Jamison
As you can see from this list, essay compilations were a popular genre in 2014. Jamison’s much-anticipated book, The Empathy Exams, exceeded expectations when it was published in April, prompting critics to hail her nuanced meditations on pain months after its release. There’s a reason why the book topped best-seller lists and why, it can be argued, it led the way for a new wave of essayists to draw media attention. Jamison invokes empathy in all her writing, as proven not only in Exams, but also her fiction novel The Gin Closet and her recent longform feature on The Atavist, “52 Blue”. She’s a writer who demands connection with her subject, whether he or she is an alcoholic, victim of a phantom disease, or a community of whale biologists. The Empathy Exams collects the more poignant nonfiction pieces of Jamison’s recent canon, but her close relationship with her material is common to all her work. You should really read everything she writes, and this book is a great jumping-off point.
Purchase it from Graywolf Press, a Minneapolis-based publishing powerhouse.
Buy it for yourself: and read it all the way through in one sitting. Then, upon setting it down, breathe a deep sigh and quietly utter, “Wow”.
9. Lumberjanes by Noelle Stevenson, Grace Ellis and Brooke Allen
I couldn’t complete this list without a graphic novel or good comic in the mix. Lumberjanes premiered this year with what was supposed to be an eight-issue miniseries run. However, fans demanded more after the first storyline wrapped up. So now, thankfully, authors Noelle Stevenson (writer of the Nimona webcomic) and Grace Ellis, along with illustrator Brooke Allen, are heading even deeper into the woods at this supernatural scout camp. Volume 1 collects issues #1 through #4, taking you halfway through the first story arc. Tag along with friends Jo, April, Molly, Mal, Ripley, Jen, and Rosie as they unravel the mysteries surrounding their summer camp “for Hardcore Lady Types”. A raucous blend of Buffy-level action and Powderpuff girl power, this comic is straight-up fun and I can’t imagine anyone not enjoying it.
Purchase it on Amazon.
Give it to: that friend who always asks you to recommend them a good comic.
10. Sleep Donation by Karen Russell
Karen Russell’s been a big name in literature the past couple years – her book Swamplandia! made her a finalist for the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and in 2013 she received a MacArthur “Genius” Grant and published the short story collection Vampires in the Lemon Grove. This year, she produced yet another book. Sleep Donation is a science fiction novella set in a world where the population suffers from collective insomnia and trades restful remedies in a black market frenzy. Unlike the media fervor surrounding her last two books, Russell’s novella flew under the radar this year mostly due to its digital-only format. E-publishing is a growing platform and although it’s not uncommon for authors to only publish digital copies of their work, it is common for a well known author to purposefully limit a work to the format. Russell worked with The Atavist, a digital publisher and multimedia platform, to create the best format for her book. Her choice to do so could signal a turning point in the intersection of technology and publishing habits. It’s also a great read, and you can easily purchase it as a gift for just $4 and have it forwarded to the recipient.
Purchase it at The Atavist under the “Buy as gift” tab.
Give it to: anyone who has an e-reader and is looking for beautiful digital books (available on Kindle Singles, Nook, iBooks, Kobo and Google Play).
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Paige Pritchard is a contributing writer at The Riveter. Follow her on Twitter at @peapodpritchard.
