Last Minute Book Gifts for Everyone on Your List

How is your Christmas shopping coming? If you’re like me, it always comes down to the last few hard-to-buy-for people.

Since books are one of my favorite things to give I’ve got a running list of book ideas for the different people in my life. All of these links lead to Amazon and the books ship via Prime so you still have time to get them in time for Christmas. (As always, if you click through using one of these links and place an order, I receive a very small commission at no additional cost to you.)

For the Hostess

Are you headed to someone’s house for Christmas or New Year’s? I think of Style & Simplicity: An A to Z Guide to Living a More Beautiful Life by Seattle shopkeeper Ted Kennedy Watson as the perfect hostess gift, both for its size (a little over 8×8 inches and 160 pages long) and it’s content (each double-page spread dedicated to a simple idea to make life richer). Just reading through the index (Adirondack chairs, alabaster lamps, clear glassware, lemon vinaigrette, outdoor dining, roast chicken, travel journals) makes me happy and they’re the kind of simple pleasures that anyone can appreciate.

For the Golfer

James Patterson (yes that James Patterson) has a series of novels written around golf, including this one, Miracle at St. Andrews. The other two are Miracle on the 17th Green and Miracle at Augusta. Co-written by Peter De Jonge, these are on the shorter side and should help keep the golfer in your life entertained if the weather isn’t conducive to hitting the links where you are.

For the New (or soon to be) College Graduate

I thought Adulting was such a great idea for a book that I bought it for both of my kids a few years back. With chapters for basics like cooking and domesticity and also bigger life stuff like dealing with tough times and (too) helpful families, it covers a lot of the stuff our kids wish we had taught them.

For that Friend Who Likes to Read the Hottest Thing

With 65 weeks on the New York Times Bestsellers List, it seems like everyone is talking about or reading Where the Crawdads Sing. Because it keeps popping up all over I was glad when one of my book club friends chose this as her book this year. It’s an incredible, unusual story and stays with you long after you’re done reading.

For Little Readers

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Brad Meltzer writes his Ordinary People Change the World books with the message that “we can all be heroes.” I love these little books so much that they have become my go-to baby gift. By my count, there are 20 titles on everyone from Jane Goodall to Jackie Robinson to Leonard da Vinci. This boxed gift set of four includes the Abraham Lincoln, Rosa Parks, Albert Einstein, and Amelia Earhart books.

For the History Buff

My future son-in-law is a history lover, so one of his gifts this year is this World War 2 novel set in Berlin (hope he’s not reading this). In the Garden of Beasts tells the story of an American professor and his family whose time in 1930s Germany goes from exciting to horrifying as they experience the rise of Hitler. Author Erik Larson is known for writing non-fiction books that read like fiction. I may be borrowing this one from Morgan when he’s done.

For the Grammar Nerd

Who would want to read a book about grammar? Grammar nerds, that’s who (or is it whom?). Seriously, Dreyer’s English is described as both informative and funny and it’s entertaining enough to be both a New York Times Bestseller and on Oprah Magazine’s list of best books of the year. This one is on my (very long) to-read list.

For the Foodie

Save Me the Plums is the memoir of Ruth Reichl, food writer, restaurant critic, and the former editor of Gourmet magazine. I’ve heard over and over again that the writing in Save Me the Plums is so good that you don’t have to care about food to enjoy it, but I have to believe that anyone who is into cooking or restaurants would especially love it.

How about you? Do you have any books you like to give as gifts? I’d love to hear about them.