the first-ever, possibly annual good creatures gift guide
spoiler alert: it's mostly books, but really good ones, I promise
Welcome, new subscribers! I was so thrilled to be featured in the
list of the 20 Best Creative Writing Substacks, and I’m even more thrilled that it’s brought so many new readers here. I’m so glad you’ve joined us.Today’s post is a slight change in our usual programming. I’ve sent the second draft of my next book, The Good Mother Myth, off to my editor, and I’m really proud of my hard work and also scrambling to catch up on everything I was avoiding while I was frantically typing. So today I hope you’ll enjoy this book- and treat-filled gift guide, and I’ll be back with interviews, writing prompts, and more soon.
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Is it weird that I both love gift guides and find gift-buying incredibly stressful? I’m not sure if that’s a two-sides-of-the-same-coin deal, or just my own personal neuroses about stuff and money and materialism coming in to play, but either way, I thought this year, I’d join the fray! Welcome to the first-ever, possibly-now-annual good creatures gift guide.
Below, I’m sharing my suggestions for all your gift-giving this year, even and especially if the person who most needs a treat is you.
(Most of the links below go to the Write More bookshop, and if you make a purchase there, I’ll get a tiny percentage, which would be very generous of you—but what’s even better is buying from your local bookstore. (I especially love Inkwood and White Whale, if you happen to be in either south Jersey or Pittsburgh. Booksellers at both shops have helped us find some of my kids’ very favorite books.)
novels for a good laugh-cry
🌼when I interviewed Carolyn Prusa about her warm, funny novel None of This Would Have Happened if Prince Were Alive, she said it’s “ALWAYS a thoughtful holiday gift for a mama who could use a giggle and maybe a beer” and I agree
🌸 the premise of
’s We All Want Impossible Things—a woman caring for her lifelong best friend as she dies of cancer—is going to sound depressing, but please trust me that it’s the best cry-laugh/laugh-cry I’ve had in a long, long time. (and if you don’t already know Catherine Newman’s work, do yourself a favor and also buy Waiting for Birdy, which I caused my husband no end of consternation while reading because I was always sobbing and/or laughing aloud.)(and! Catherine Newman also has a new newsletter, Crone Sandwich! I’m not sure I’ve ever hit the subscribe button quite so fast.)
page-turners with good prose
📚 I read a lot of pretty forgettable books in the mystery and thriller genres, so I’m always especially pleased when I come across books with great writing and twisty mysteries; Katie Gutierrez’s More Than You’ll Ever Know, Kate Brody’s Rabbit Hole, and Erin Flanagan’s Come With Me are three recent favorites.
(Rabbit Hole isn’t actually out until January, but you could pre-order it now and have it in the new year! I’ll have an interview with her in early January.)
a quirky group of friends solving mysteries
(a category
from What to Read If and I have talked about a lot! 📚)🥸 Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club series, featuring the crimesolving residents of a retirement community, who start out smart and charming and have only grown on me across four books
🧐Jesse Q. Sutanto’s Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers, which I bought at the suggestion of a bookseller at my fave local bookstore as a celebration on the day The Good Mother Myth sold. Sutanto’s Aunties series is also wonderful, but Vera Wong and this unlikely cast of neighbors-turned-friends really grabbed my heart.
self-help that actually . . . helps
instead of face masks or candles, two practical takes
💚
’s Real Self-Care: A Transformative Program for Redefining Wellness (Crystals, Cleanses, and Bubble Baths Not Included)💛 Amelia Nagoski and Emily Nagoski’s Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle
(though, heck, you could throw in some chocolate and cozy socks along with the books!)
big-think nonfiction
🌟 along with most of the internet, I’d been eagerly anticipating Claire Dederer’s Monsters ever since I read her Paris Review essay What Do We Do with the Art of Monstrous Men? and the book is even better than I’d hoped, going beyond the question of if it’s okay to still watch Annie Hall and asking really hard questions about what we expect of art and of ourselves.
✨Chloe Cooper Jones’s memoir, Easy Beauty, is hard to summarize. it’s about disability and travel and the boundaries we erect around ourselves for protection. it also has a truly transcendent chapter about a Beyonce concert. more than any other book I’ve read, it lets the reader witness a really profound transformation in how the narrator views herself and her relationship to the world around her.
🌟 I tend to be a really fast reader, and
’s Wolfish: Wolf, Self, and the Stories We Tell About Fear was one that really made me slow down and savor. I read it in March, and I’m still thinking about it. (she shared some really generous thoughts about research and narrative in this interview for Write More.)pre-order and your future self will thank you
🔥I pre-ordered
Lenz’s This American Ex-Wife months ago, and I’m still so excited about it that every time I see someone talking about it online, I almost order it again. if I do end up with a half dozen copies, I honestly won’t be mad.🔥 you don’t have to be a Plath superfan to find Emily Van Duyne’s Loving Sylvia Plath incredibly compelling. (and if you are, you’re going to love this book. Emily’s a good friend of mine, and she’s made some truly groundbreaking Plath discoveries in the years of research that led up to this book.)
middle grade novels for your tender-hearted kid
🤖 my kids and I discovered The Wild Robot by Peter Brown in the first dark winter of the pandemic, and I was so thrilled when I found out there would be a third book in the series. it’s the perfect bedtime read with your elementary schooler—each chapter contains a little adventure, and most of them are short enough that you can indulge requests for “just one more!” the prose is gorgeous, and it’s a genuine joy to read aloud. you could buy all three books in The Wild Robot gift set, or start with the first one
🦊 we read Pax by Sara Pennypacker after The Wild Robot, and I loved it—it’s a fascinating sort of dystopian near-future story, told in alternating chapters from the point of view of a boy and his pet fox, and I especially loved how the sensory experience of the fox was presented. it was a little nuaned and emotionally advanced for my kids at the time, so it’s probably a better fit for kids in the 5th-7th grade range. (there’s also a second book in the series, Pax, Journey Home)
my books, but on sale!
📗 my chapbook, Acadiana, is only $3 as part of Black Lawrence’s huge holiday sale. (they’ve got a great poetry selection in general; I especially loved Erin Hoover’s No Spare People, a book about being a queer single parent by choice in the south, and I’ll have an interview with Hoover in the new year)
📕 Pocket Universe, and everything else at LSU, is 40% off through December 15 with the code 04ONSALE
📘 from now until December 16, you can get The Long Devotion: Poets Writing Motherhood, and any of the other great books from UGA Press, including Julia Ridley Smith’s The Sum of Trifles and Brandon Som’s Tripas, a finalist for the National Book Award in poetry (an especially huge deal for a university press), for 50% off with the code 08FALLSL.
the snark and community of a great newsletter
It feels odd to give anyone more email as a holiday gift, but these three newsletters genuinely bring me both information and delight each time I read them
’s Burnt Toast, for insight into everything from why all jeans are bad (it’s not your fault!) to navigating fatphobia at family gatherings to chats about fall fashion, navigating divorce and coparenting, and more’s Evil Witches, a newsletter for “people who happens to be mothers,” for encouragement to do less, genuinely helpful interview with experts about kid-adjacent stuff, and probably the funniest, smartest comments section on the internet Lenz’s Men Yell At Me, home to the weekly dingus and incredibly sharp, feminist political commentary.okay fine a few non-book ideas
I’m a big believer in consummables as gifts, and these are a few of my favorites:
🥂 Smitten Kitchen’s Fairytale of New York, a winter-spiced variation on an old-fashioned—make the winter warmth syrup and give it along with a bottle of your favorite bourbon, rye, or whiskey.
🍵 and if you’d prefer a non-alcoholic beverage gift, I got obsessed with this ginger lemongrass tea when I was at the Vermont Studio Center last winter and am about to buy myself a bunch. I also really love the Pok Pok/Som drinking vinegar, mixed with sparkling water and maybe a lime wedge, for a not-sweet mocktail. (I’m linking this gift sampler at Amazon for ease, but you might be able to find it at gift shop near you. Philadelphia’s great Art in the Age (on hiatus, sob!) used to stock all the best flavors.)
👩🍳 King Arthur has great baking kits, including mixes and sets, and right now, it’s 15% off $60 or more and 20% off $100 and more. (I’ve got my eye on the sweet and sparkly pancake gift for my niece.)
What are you excited to give or get this holiday season? What books are you looking forward to it in the new year?
Write More, Be Less Careful is a newsletter about why writing is hard & how to do it anyway. I’d love to hear from you. Reply to this email, comment below, or find me on instagram (@nancy.o.reddy).
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Wonderful suggestions and yay for Pittsburgh bookstores :)
Thank you Nancy for the shout!