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Posts tagged with ‘gifts’

Books for Animal Lovers

Gifts for those among us who love our furry & feathered friends as much as (or more than) our fellow homo sapiens.

Global Voices

Read around the world with this list of books from non-American authors - because empathy can only come from understanding.

A Diverse Reading List For The Holidays 

Because representation matters. We’ve gathered some of our favorite authors and characters from 2016 who speak from just a few of the myriad perspectives humanity has to offer. (Don’t see what you’re looking for here? Send us a chat!)

Give the Gift of Weird Fiction

Sometimes you need a read that’s just a little bit off-kilter, a touch left-of-center. Not strictly sci-fi or fantasy, necessarily, but maybe there’s a sprinkling of magic or horror or surrealism or humor on top. These genre-bridging books make perfect gifts for anybody who likes their reads to be a little outside the box.

Booked for the Holidays: Book Lists with a Twist

‘Tis the season to give books - and these aren’t your grandmother’s book recommendations. Here’s a masterpost of our 2016 gift guides! 

(Note: we’ll be adding links as new lists go up every day - so if you’re seeing someone’s reblog of this and want to know if a particular list is up yet, click through to our original post!)

Don’t see what you need here? Click over to the Penguin Hotline to get personalized recommendations from real live PRH employees!

Self-Care Books for the Holidays

We all need to practice self-care sometimes. For some it’s meditation and mindful living. For others, it’s having a good cry. You can journal, scribble, clean, make art, or lose yourself in pop culture - whatever works for you. We’ve collected some books that can help - pick one up for you or a friend!

Listen to a New Book

Give the gift of an audiobook this holiday season - perfect for those situations when you’re feeling the itch to read but you’ve got your hands full with something else (knitting, cooking, gardening, kids, commuting - anything!).

A Feminist Reading List for the Holidays 

Books by strong, spirited, whip-smart, flawed, fantastic, human, devastatingly talented women for anyone - female, male, or otherwise - on your list.

A Note About Gendered Gift Lists

When we do our holiday gift lists every year on Tumblr, we try to create lists that will appeal to the widest range of interests possible - this year alone, we’ll be posting lists of Star Wars books, cookbooks, audiobooks, feminist books, music memoirs, craft books, sci-fi/fantasy books, and many, many more. 

We’ll also be posting lists labeled “For Him,” “For Her,” For Mom,” and “For Dad.” And we know that those labels are pretty reductive! And that’s not great. So we wanted to talk a little bit about that.

Our intent with gender-specific lists isn’t to say that these are the *only* books you should buy for people of a particular gender identity or age group or demographic, nor is it to say that *only* people of a particular gender identity/age/demographic will enjoy those books. The way we hope you’ll use those lists is to pick out books for people you might not know well, or whose interests aren’t super-specific or clear. If you’re meeting your significant other’s family for the first time and you draw a cousin neither of you know very well for the gift exchange, then the Gifts For Him list can be a helpful place to start. Or if you need a gift for your landlady, who you only ever see with her kids, then maybe start with Gifts For Mom.

On the other hand, if you know someone really well, you probably don’t need the gender-specific lists at all. If you have a brother in college who’s recently developed an interest in gender studies, you might want to refer to our Diverse Reading List. If your mom’s best friend is her set of whiskey stones, then you might want to pull up Books For Dad. If your genderqueer niece is working on hir art therapy certification, you might want to look at the Coloring Books for Grown-ups list. All of our lists will be linked here as they go live - we hope you browse!

We know it’s not a perfect system, but we’re trying to get better. And if you have ideas, suggestions, or complaints, send us a chat. We’re listening.

tl;dr: gender-specific gift lists aren’t meant to be prescriptive - they’re just meant to be a place to start. 

“One of the greatest gifts my brother and I received from my mother was her love of literature and language.”

                                                                        -Caroline Kennedy

Give mom a book this Mother’s Day and thank her for being your very own Jackie Kennedy.

With or Without You by Domenica Ruta

Mom & Me & Mom by Maya Angelou

Shocked: My Mother, Schiaparelli, and Me by Patricia Volk

The Spark: A Mother’s Story of Nurturing Genius by Kristine Barnett

Stuck in the Middle with You: A Memoir of Parenting in Three Genders by Jennifer Finney Boylan

The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe