Last minute gifts for bookworms
Plus my last few new releases of the year and anticipated 2023 books
Hey, readers!
I have been furiously trying to fit in more 2022 releases over the last month or so. I’m not sure why exactly—I typically don’t feel all that much pressure to read all the new books, but this year I knew there were some books I would love that I hadn’t gotten around to yet. I’m glad I made these books a priority, because the quality of my recent reading has been excellent. But now I’m ready to stop. After my current reads, I’m going to save any 2022 books I missed for next year and pick up a few backlist titles and perhaps a 2023 review copy or two. I’m really looking forward to finalizing my best books of the year list and settling into a slower reading pace.
This week in books.
This week I read…
The Book of Goose by Yiyun Li. I’m so glad I fit this book in before the end of the year. I absolutely loved it, and it felt like the culmination of a return to form in my reading life. In this novel, Li introduces us to two friends growing up in post-WWII provincial France. Agnès and Fabienne are imaginative and brilliant and bored. They invent worlds to occupy and reinvent themselves as they chafe against the mundane reality of their days. The book begins with Angès living in America and receiving news of Fabienne’s death—yet in spite of that end point on the horizon, the turns this story took completely surprised me. The plotting, the characters, and the brilliant writing coalesced into an exploration of how the possibilities in girlhood calcify into a life one may not have wanted or expected. This fantastic literary coming-of-age story just might sneak its way into my top books of the year. Amazon | Bookshop | Libro.fm
Now I’m reading…
The Haunting of Hajji Hotak by Jamil Jan Kochai. This collection of short stories has been the source of much conversation and adoration in the FictionMatters Patreon community, so I was delighted when my library hold of the audiobook came in. I tend to struggle with short story collections on audio, but I’ve been listening to one story a day mixed in with my other reads and that’s really working for me. The second story was an absolute gut-punch and I have a feeling this collection will continue to blow me away. Amazon | Bookshop | Libro.fm
They’re Going to Love You by Meg Howrey. This was another recommendation from the FictionMatters Book Club crew. The story follows Carlisle—a dance teacher and once aspiring ballerina as she is called upon to visit her dying father. The two have been estranged for nearly two decades, and as the novel unfolds we learn what happened as Howrey explores questions of art, memory, and familial bonds. I’m not far into this yet, but I’m riveted by the writing and given my fondness for these themes, I might just have another favorite in my hands. Amazon | Bookshop | Libro.fm
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The FictionMatters Gift Guide: Last Minute Gifts for Bookworms
The holidays aren’t forthcoming anymore—they’re here. Today I rounded up the very best last minute gifts for the bookworm in your life.
Without a doubt, my favorite last minute gift for readers is a Libro.fm credit bundle. I love that as the gifter, you can select any participating independent bookstore to support with your purchase and the recipient can use their credits for any book of their choosing.
A Bookshop.org gift certificate is another perfect present for the book collectors in your life. You can choose an amount from $10 to $1000 (I’m not joking!!) so your beloved readers can pick up that 2022 release they didn’t get around to or start working on the preorder list for 2023.
A great book-adjacent gift is a subscription to a publication they love. You can go extremely literary with a Paris Review, n+1, or NYRB subscription. Or you can gift something like The New Yorker or The Atlantic so your bookworm can stay in-the-know about the book world and beyond.
I try to avoid purchasing my books on Amazon, but with their quick shipping, you can’t really beat the gift of a new Kindle for readers who love reading digitally or AirPod Pros for the audiobook aficionado.
These don’t technically count as an ideal last-minute gift because they can’t be delivered via email, but our realtor gave us a box of goodies that included these hot chocolate stirrers and I can’t think of a better stocking stuffer for a bookworm.
Supporting small creators is another great way to go! Gift a subscription to the FictionMatters newsletter to a reader who you know will love my monthly Ranked Reading Recaps!
Links I love.
It’s all happening! 2023 most anticipated book lists are starting to come out and my NetGalley shelf is exploding. I’m still waiting for lists from LitHub and The Millions, but this week we got ones from Time, Good Housekeeping, and She Reads.
I always love listening to Jason Reynolds talk about books and young readers.
It’s Been a Minute talked about the appeal of dark academia—a must listen for lovers of The Secret History.
The wonderful Hunter Mclendon of
was on an episode of 1A to talk about the best books of the year.The best reviewed essays and poetry of 2022.
If you haven’t read any of the “Year in Reading” pieces from The Millions, this one by Alexander Chee is a great place to start.
End notes.
Three things making me happy this week:
The White Lotus finale was so good!
Louise’s new favorite word: “whoa!”
Putting together my favorite books of the year list. I’ll be sharing my top books here and on my Instagram, of course, but I’m also recording something special for Patreon and ranking every book I read for Patreon members and newsletter subscribers. It’s a little bit masochistic, but I love the opportunity it gives me to consider every book I encountered over the last 12 months.
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Happy reading!
Sara