This was a big hit with followers last year, so I thought I’d again share my personally curated list of books I’ll be giving as holiday presents. Perhaps something for many on your own list. I hope it saves you shopping time you can then use to read them yourself.

My reading patterns were different this year. I read a lot of very popular books (and was disappointed by quite a few) and sampled a lot of genres I don’t normally read, but I did find these gems.

From Dust to Stardust, by Kathleen Rooney

A star is born and born again in this historical fiction story of one of Hollywood’s biggest silent film stars (Colleen Moore) on whom the original story of A Star is Born was based. This is my major gift book for this year for females of any age and film buffs.

It’s about a determined teenager who follows her dream and makes it to the top, but who also sees the writing on the wall with the transition to talkies. And of her love story with a publicity genius who makes her a star but can’t keep up with her.

In the process Rooney reveals fascinating details about the making of silent films—how actors and directors grew up with the industry, learning as they went, not always knowing what they were doing, little fish often surpassing big fish. Even for a film nut like me, I learned a lot. The parallel narrative is how her love of miniatures and for her Irish grandmother who yes, does believe in fairies—leads her to create a gigantic Fairy Castle that makes her as influential in the 1930s as she was in the Jazz Age.

A delightful read. You’ll want to gift this widely and then take everyone to Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry to see the actual castle. Make a day of it. Note: I saw the castle when I was a Brownie, and never forgot it.

King: A Life, by Jonathan Eig

I’m sure you’ve already heard of this new masterpiece. As the most exhaustive biography yet of Dr. Martin Luther King, including information from FBI files only recently released, this book more than deserves all its accolades as one of the best nonfiction books of the year. It makes a fabulous gift. I’d recommend the hardcover as an impressive keepsake. I’ve actually already given it as a housewarming gift, where it’s found a home on a tabletop in between being passed around. For anyone.

The Left Over Woman, by Jean Kwok

This is my third Jean Kwok novel, and I admire her ability to tap into stories that are part thriller and part domestic drama, while dealing with fascinating issues about immigrant lives, in this case transracial adoption. The novel is told alternatively from the perspectives of an immigrant who has lost her daughter as a result of China’s one-child policy and an American woman successful in everything but fertility who adopts a Chinese girl.

The characters are brought together in a surprisingly suspenseful, page-turning ending when both mothers instincts are brought into violent play. The last third of the novel needs to be read in one gulp, so warn your giftees.

NOTE: Kwok’s first book was the wonderful Girl in Translation (which ridiculously, is in danger of being banned from sources who’ve obviously never read it). Support it. Love it. Consider a two-volume gift.

I Have Some Questions for You, by Rebecca Makkai

The guilt-racked star of a popular podcast returns to her high school after 20 years to teach a class. Her students decide to make the questionably resolved murder of her long-ago roommate their class project. That’s the simplest recap possible of this incredibly intricate literary mystery which has rightfully been compared to Donna Tartt’s The Secret History. For your friends who like to chew on their mysteries, this book is chockablock with, well, everything: plot, social relevance, timeliness, timelines, you name it. Of note is that it has a huge cast, so I recommend the hardcopy or paperback. Readers will want to page back.

Havana Hangover, by Randy Richardson

This is a fun romp with serious meat to it. A perfectly titled tale of a bucket-list trip that ends up down a very deep rabbit hole delivers on its promise. Even for a non-thriller/suspense reader, it kept me up late turning pages-there was simply no pause in the action and continually side-switching intrigue. It will leave the readers dizzy, enthralled, and either dying to hightail it to Cuba to fill themselves with rum or definitely scratching both off their own bucket lists. It will also leave them surprisingly touched as the narrator, a self-described loser in life, gets his sea-legs in both love and life. The ending is, well, let your giftee tell you, and then you’ll want to borrow the book back. This is a great choice for the guys on your list, but not exclusively.

Hello Beautiful, by Anna Napolitano

Okay, so Oprah found this one first. For me, it was part of my experimental best-seller reading. And, in a year of so much revisionist feminism, it was refreshing to come across it. The novel, which starts as well-written women’s fiction (a familiar family story with a nod to Little Women) about halfway in becomes something remarkable, as the key male character becomes the unexpected focal point. It's longish, but stay with it, say all the reviews, and I have to agree. The audiobook is narrated by Maura Tierney, who is perfect.

Direct Sunlight, by Christine Sneed /For Those Who Favor Fire, by Gary Wilson

I like to give short story collections to friends who tell you they would love to have the time to read more, if only. The rationale is obvious.

These two new collections should tantalize, and even encourage readers to pursue the authors’ longer works. Both are what I’d call impressionistic, complete in a few pages, in terms of leaving you with not exactly a wrapped-up ending but instead, a definite tone.

I adore the titles of books from the ever-prolific Sneed (The Virginity of Famous Men, Portraits of a Few of the People I’ve Made Cry—seriously, aren’t you now dying to read those?). With Direct Sunlight she’s done it again. This new collection focuses on what she calls the “memorable strangeness” of everyday life, whether it be a childless couple who adopts a monkey or an advice columnist who replies to his own mother about family issues.

Wilson’s characters are cut from a similar cloth but come from a bleaker landscape. They are desperate to connect, whether they know it or not. They are presented with opportunities to do so, some as obvious as the need to deal with a newly discovered corpse, others as subtle as words that must be said in a fleeting instant. Will they act? Will they even notice they should?

For each, readers will be touched, laugh at the wry and poignant humor, and perhaps shudder at the blazing truth of the human condition. Consider including a story collection with one of the novels I’ve mentioned as a great gift for fiction readers.

Hot off the Presses. For Those Who Favor Fire just won the Book of the Year Award in Indie Fiction from the Chicago Writers Association.

Like Love, by Michele Morano

This appears to be the moment for essays. Though it’s not an obvious gift choice, more and more writers are turning to this form to comment on the world, and the subjects that move them. And they are assembled in wonderfully themed collections.

I was introduced to Like Love in a Valentine’s Day zoom reading during COVID, and the piece blew me away. It read like fiction. And, what a concept. Stories of every type of love except what you’d assume.

Previous “criteria” for romance, such as consummation, are sidelined in these stories, revealing new dimensions of intense longing and bonding that also pierce the heart, often with both agony and ecstasy—or simply wonderful delight and warmth.

If there is such a thing as a page-turning essay, this collection is full of them. Not one a who-done-it, but each an I-wonder-if-they could/should will stay/go. If there’s no one on your list this seems to speak to at present, wait till February and consider giving it as a Valentine to your best friend.

How to Write Compelling Stories from Family History, by Annette Gendler

There is someone in every generation who is (or needs to become) the keeper of the family story, so there will be answers to all the questions of all the relatives moving forward--including those not yet born. In my family, it's me. And part of that designation is that at some point I will need to turn the baton over to someone a generation younger.

The holiday, when family is gathered and top of mind, is a great time for this and I plan to send this how-to guide to a second cousin as a gift that will alert her to this honored status and how we will work together to keep the heritage safe--and fresh, with new information. The task can be daunting and Gendler's book tells you how it can be managed with love and curiosity. A must gift for the person charged with the heritage in your family.

And Now, The Plug for the Author

I always say my novel becomes more relevant with each day, given the world situation. Now, it seems this is also a new era for stories about women during the Vietnam War. Check out Absolution by Alice McDermott and watch for Kristin Hannah’s The Women, coming out in February. It’s a hot topic.

Please scan your list and consider gifting The Fourteenth of September, a book that checks many boxes for many readers: historical fiction, coming of age, women’s and war fiction. Available in all formats including paperback. E-book and audiobook formats are both on sale for the month of December, so I’ve made it cost-effective as well as easy.