Last Minute Holiday Lists
Readers are picky. Even those who read widely and across multiple genres have niches which leaves those wishing to buy them readerly gifts stymied as to exactly what to deliver as offerings during the holidays. Good news, everybody: I am (obviously) a reader and I have some extremely specific niches I love to tell everyone about. I am a walking version of that, “Be normal, we need these people to like you,” meme.
Not to worry, I also read a lot of stuff that’s good for pretty much everyone, so I’ll be offering some options from that bucket as well.
Get your notes app open or your pen and paper ready. Either will do.
Here we go!
Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty by Anderson Cooper and Katherine Howe (HarperCollins) Biography
I bought this book in hardcover when it first came out, but as you are all well aware by now, I have a problem and also, I’m lucky enough to receive a lot of advanced reader copies and it is currently in a pile of biographies TBR. I did, however, run out of audiobooks to listen to while I was painting and it happened to be immediately available from the library so I figured why not.
Why not indeed, Anderson Cooper reads the book and let me tell you a thing; I have an intellectual crush on that man the size of the former Soviet Union and also on his voice, so… you know, it worked out for everyone.
The Vanderbilts are one of the most interesting of the American “New Money” families, not from the perspective of their entrance to society nor their somewhat precipitous exit but for the sheer volume of drama that occurred across the relatively few generations during which they were in the public spotlight. Disinheritances, divorces, public trials, kidnappings (between family members), profligate spending, family homes demolished and purchased as public property… it’s actually pretty amazing they kept going as long as they did.
Cooper and Howe also set the Vanderbilt’s history within the larger history of the United States, within New York society specifically, giving the reader (or listener) glimpses into the ballrooms and parlors of other Gilded Age notables, such as the Astors, and the ways in which money and influence truly did move the world (The Metropolitan Opera, for example, is only where it is because the elder statesmen of society wouldn’t allow the nouveau riche to purchase boxes at the Academy of Music). While I knew all of that intellectually, I’d never had a chance to dig through it from the inside and it was interesting from both a historical perspective and to from the perspective of how little things have changed as much as the 1% would like the rest of us to think otherwise.
Leslie F*cking Jones: A Memoir by Leslie Jones (HarperCollins) Biography
Yes, she reads it and yes, it is fucking amazing.
I am listening to the audio on this one too which isn’t a direct read through of the book. It is Leslie F*cking Jones expounding on the words she set down, adding anecdotes from her life, laughing her ass off, crying when she talks about her father and his alcoholism and her mother’s disabilities, relating incredible stories from her college basketball days, and just generally being Leslie Jones. She is open and honest to the point there are times it feel like she’s taken her heart out and offered it to you and we may not deserve it but there’s no excuse not to take it.
Her journey hasn’t been easy. It will never be easy but despite everything, she is one of the most hopeful people to ever walk the face of this planet and she deserves all the fame and all the love and all the acclaim she’s found these last few years. She also deserves this space, to fill it with her story, to have people know she didn’t walk onto the SNL stage one day because Chris Rock said she should, and float her way up from there. She free-climbed with no spotter. And she’s still climbing.
Spanish Jackie would f*cking love this book. So would her husbands and her wives.
Fox Maidens by Robin Ha (Balzer and Bray, 2/13) Mythology
Have you read Almost American Girl? Or used Ha’s illustrated Cook Korean? Great, you can get one (or both) of those for the person you’re pre-ordering Fox Maidens for so they have something to open during their holiday of choice and to do while they wait for their copy of Ha’s new book to come in.
Fox Maidens is many things: it’s a foray into mythology, a coming of age story, a commentary on the misogyny of traditional Korean society, the story of mothers and daughters, and the tale of a girl finding her power in both her past and in her present. It’s beautiful and blood and messy and queer in a way that takes the pristine stories we tell of gods and monsters and binds it to the lives we actually lead, allowing Kai, the protagonist, and through her, the reader, to touch the impossible and find the magical while still remaining firmly rooted in humanity.
That’s a difficult thing to do when it seems as though the whole world is against you. As it seems the whole world is against women and LGBTQIA+ people and anyone who’s just a little bit different right now. Forget being a fox spirit, try getting through the day with even a touch of neurospiciness or knowing that your gender assigned at birth is the wrong one or that you can’t offer your real opinions on politics in your home because it isn’t safe.
But there’s still magic. It’s hard to find and sometimes it’s scary. But it’s there, waiting. And it will guide us, just as it does Kai.
Note: This is a young adult title. There is a fair bit of violence, some domestic violence, and some blood. I’d advise parents to take a look through and judge their individual kiddo’s tolerance.
Small Gods of Calamity by Sam Kyung Yoo (Interstellar Flight Press, 3/4) Urban Fantasy/Light Horror
You’re going to have to put this one in your calendar, friends, because I don’t have a link for it yet, but it does give you a chance to color up a homemade IOU. Or, like, buy a card, that’s fine too. Books to give for interim reading: Mia Tsai’s Bitter Medicine, or David R. Slayton’s Adam Binder series. Also, I didn’t realize that Sam Kyung Yoo and I had stories in the same anthology way back in the ancient days of 2019 until I got to the bio at the end so this book, at least, was read without any bias.
This novella could not possibly be more in my wheel house. Paranormal detective story, found family, gross demons, with a twist that I was not expecting and really liked. The writing is tight and we see the perfect amount of the world to want a whole lot more of it (please?).
It is hard to write a character driven novella. I know, I’ve tried. I did okay, but not great. Small Gods of Calamity is great. The story moves but it moves in service to the characters who are consistently and expertly drawn by what they do and say rather than by exposition or ponderous description. It’s not that the characters don’t have internal monologues; they do. Or that that there aren’t parts of the story that are memories or flashbacks; there are. But it’s all so well woven into what’s happening in the story’s present tense, it never feels like an info dump or one of those stuck on bits. If it’s there, it’s important, which is the way all books, but especially novellas, should be. I was so engrossed, I literally wanted to shove the story into my brain so I could have the whole thing at once.
I can’t wait for the rest of you to read this one so I can talk about it with my fantasy/horror gang.
Ink Girls by Marieke Nijkamp and Sylvia Bi (GreenWillow Books) Fantasy
I’ll read anything Marieke writes because the first thing of theirs I had the privilege of consuming was The Oracle Code, their take on Barbara Gordon’s transformation into Oracle which, thankfully, did not include the Joker in any way, shape, or form.
In Ink Girls, we have a new team of ladies leading the way when Cinzia’s Maestra at the print shop is imprisoned for telling the truth about Principessa’s brother and his crimes against the city she loves. Though they come from different backgrounds and different quarters, together, they know they can accomplish anything!
Telling the truth can be dangerous and that’s something it’s important for kids and teens to know. It’s also important for them to know that it’s worth the challenges and potential consequences and there’s always someone who will back you up if you make the leap. That person may not look like you or dress like you; they may not come from the same place or have parents like yours, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t willing to fight for you.
Women have, historically, been set against one another because when we work together, we get stuff done (see Lysistrata, women’s suffrage, Jane) and the patriarchy (even when, as is the case in Ink Girls, the patriarchy is represented by a woman) doesn’t like it at all when women get stuff done. It makes them feel small and reminds them that their power is precarious and their days numbered. Those who identify as female and femme growing up now, with books like Ink Girls won’t ever doubt they can overthrow entrenched systems if they raise each other up.
So buy a copy for the kids in your life. Boys being raised right will love it too.
The Magic of Tarot: A Modern Guide To the Classic Art of the Cards by Leanna Greenway and Beleta Greenway (St. Martin’s Essentials, 3/19) Metaphysics
There are lots of tarot books out there. And they all have something to offer. The Magic of Tarot offers streamlined simplicity which is something I, as someone who’s been around tarot long enough to have a lot of feelings about what to keep from traditional tarot and what to discard, what to do differently when I read for other people versus when I read for myself, really value, especially since I tend to be drawn to less traditional decks.
The Magic of Tarot uses two specific decks for its illustrations: the Rider-Waite, which is the “traditional” deck you’ve probably seen even if you don’t play with cards, and St. Martin’s One World deck, which is an absolutely gorgeous set whose imagery draws from a variety of legends, folklores, and mythologies to populate its cards. Don’t know which deck your giftee has? No worries: The Magic of Tarot is compatible with any deck that integrates the usual 78 cards and most of them, no matter the shape, design, or style, do.
This book is a great encyclopedia for a beginner, listing the cards in order of their number (major arcana) and then suit and number (minor arcana), delivering the same information in each in a standard format that makes all of the information, and each part of the breakdown, easy to find. It’s also a fantastic book for more experienced practitioners - I’d bring it to read for others to pull out in case I had a question about a specific card or something I’m less familiar with (say, the connection of a card to it’s astrological symbol) since that information is so easy to find for each card in this particular volume.
Highly recommend.
The Curious Compendium of Wonderful Words: A Miscellany of Obscure Terms, Bizarre Phrases & Surprising Etymologies by Erin McCarthy and The Team at Mental Floss (Weldon Owen) Etymology
I love words. I know, I know, reader/writer, duh. But loving to read and write isn’t the same things as loving words. I love knowing where words come from, how they came to mean what they mean. I love knowing how they join together as phrases and how they become cuss words. I’ve studied five languages besides English in my life partially because it’s fun, partially because I think when you go somewhere you should know at least enough to be polite, and partly because I love learning about how they develop, for example: in Mandarin, the word for “jeans” breaks down to the characters for “cowboy” and “trousers” because the first people Mandarin speakers ever saw wearing jeans were cowboys.
See? It’s amazing.
This is a whole book about words. Funny words. The origins of different literary clichés. Why English evolved differently in Britain than it did in the US. Silent letters. Words in other languages English simply can’t capture…
I guarantee there is someone in your life who will love this book.
Love Murder Basketball Vol. 1 (by Kurutta and Tsunderuuu (TokyoPop) Horror/Erotica
So, this is where we have the “comics/manga is a medium not a genre” discussion again because there’s always someone who doesn’t believe me. You should believe me. The publisher has this book marked as 18+ and here is this list of content warnings the author included: bullying, domestic abuse, violence, human trafficking, child trauma, child abuse, sexual abuse, self-harm/suicide, uncensored gore, prostitution, substance abuse, sexual violence, and mental illness.
Why would you read such a book, Shiri? You might be asking yourself. Well, the serial killer-basketball player/Yakuza kid plotline seemed interesting and the world is a shitty place where shitty things happen and I’ve read a lot of excellent books that have the same content warnings - I can’t say I like those parts of said books, obviously — and they have important points to make. I’ve learned a lot from them, especially those by Indigenous writers. Also, LMB’s author note starts like this: “When I first began writing LMB, I decided I wanted to write a story about generational curses and how various forms of abuse can affect individuals and the families they create, with complex characters. It is my wish to use my personal experience to shed light on mental illnesses, how they are triggered, and some coping mechanisms…”
I think that book deserves a chance by people who feel they can consume it safely.
This first volume is mostly setup: we see Shoto and Goro’s lives together and apart, Goro in his role as serial killer, and both interacting with their families. We don’t, and I think this is telling and imagine it’s important later, see much of Goro as a basketball player. I won’t say it’s an easy read, it’s not. But as I said above, for those who can read it safely, I think it’s an important one. LMB is also available bi-weekly on INKR comics; I think I’ll wait for collected volumes. Cliffhangers in this one are a no-go. I would legit worry too much.
Ta da! There you have it. Solved all of your holiday gift giving problems, right? Probably not, but at least you have somewhere to start. Feel free to scroll back, maybe something from one of the other blogs will spark someone’s fantasy. And remember, you can always give someone the gift of MZDS Vol. 5 and the ability to sit in a corner and read it while the rest of their family sits across the room and sings carols or lights a menorah.