This is one of our favorite annual episodes. As many of you know, Sara is our resident gift giving guru, and she carefully curates a list each year of amazing bookish gifts perfect for the book lovers in our lives (and for us to put on our own wish lists!). Jen and Ashley share a few of our favorites, too. Listen in, and let us know what your go to bookish gift picks are! If you're interested in the long list of Bookish Gifts from Sara (our Gift Giving Guru!), be sure you sign up for our newsletter! (And don't miss the links below for our previous Bookish Gifts episodes for more gift ideas!)
Bookish Check-in
Ashley - Michelle Zauner’s Crying in H Mart (Amazon | Bookshop.org)
Jen - Lauren Blackwood’s Within These Wicked Walls (Amazon | Bookshop.org)
Sara - Maggie Knox’s The Holiday Swap (Amazon | Bookshop.org)
Our Bookish Gift Recommendations
Subscription Services and Gift Cards
Libro.FM subscription - Audiobooks AND supporting independent bookstores
Bookshop.org gift cards - Another amazing way to support independent bookstores
Unabridged Customized Book Recs - Don’t miss the launch of our customized book recs!
Stocking Stuffers
Corner Bookmarks -- Stocking stuffer alert! Cute bookmarks that fit on the corner of your page!
Bookish Pencils -- Another perfect stocking stuffer for your bookworm!
Bullet Journal Items
Sunny Streak - For book lovers who are also bullet journal fans! This company has great stencils, and I love their email newsletters.
Maisie Lane - Amazing journals for all your bujo/journaling needs
Archer and Olive - I haven’t tried these products yet, but they come highly recommended!
Things to Unwrap
Blind Date with a Book - Give your bookish person a surprise gift!
Blind Date with a Book Box Experience - A whole box centered around your blind date with a book experience
Anne Bogel's My Reading Life: A Book Journal (Amazon | Bookshop.org)
Mentioned in Episode
Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre (Amazon | Bookshop.org)
Christina Lauren's In a Holidaze (Amazon | Bookshop.org)
Looking for More Bookish Gift Ideas?
Listen back to our previous Bookish Gift episodes! This one has been a favorite episode since early on in our podcast journey!
Make sure you sign up for our newsletter to get the Long List of Bookish Gift ideas from Sara (the Gift Guru)!
Here's a Quick Peek at one of Ashley's Bullet Journal
posts on Instagram!
Give Me One - Another Name You Considered for One of Your Children
Listen in to hear some names we each considered, and let us know if you have names that you love over on @unabridgedpod for our Give Me One post on Monday!
Bookish Check-in
Ashley was reading . . .
Michelle Zauner’s Crying in H Mart (Amazon | Bookshop.org)
"From the indie rockstar of Japanese Breakfast fame, and author of the viral 2018 New Yorker essay that shares the title of this book, an unflinching, powerful memoir about growing up Korean American, losing her mother, and forging her own identity.
"In this exquisite story of family, food, grief, and endurance, Michelle Zauner proves herself far more than a dazzling singer, songwriter, and guitarist. With humor and heart, she tells of growing up one of the few Asian American kids at her school in Eugene, Oregon; of struggling with her mother's particular, high expectations of her; of a painful adolescence; of treasured months spent in her grandmother's tiny apartment in Seoul, where she and her mother would bond, late at night, over heaping plates of food.
"As she grew up, moving to the East Coast for college, finding work in the restaurant industry, and performing gigs with her fledgling band--and meeting the man who would become her husband--her Koreanness began to feel ever more distant, even as she found the life she wanted to live. It was her mother's diagnosis of terminal cancer, when Michelle was twenty-five, that forced a reckoning with her identity and brought her to reclaim the gifts of taste, language, and history her mother had given her.
"Vivacious and plainspoken, lyrical and honest, Zauner's voice is as radiantly alive on the page as it is onstage. Rich with intimate anecdotes that will resonate widely, and complete with family photos, Crying in H Mart is a book to cherish, share, and reread."
You can read Ashley's reflection on the book here.
Jen was reading . . .
Lauren Blackwood’s Within These Wicked Walls (Amazon | Bookshop.org)
"What the heart desires, the house destroys...
"Andromeda is a debtera―an exorcist hired to cleanse households of the Evil Eye. She would be hired, that is, if her mentor hadn’t thrown her out before she could earn her license. Now her only hope of steady work is to find a Patron―a rich, well-connected individual who will vouch for her abilities.
"When a handsome young heir named Magnus Rochester reaches out to hire her, she takes the job without question. Never mind that he’s rude and demanding and eccentric, that the contract comes with a number of outlandish rules and that almost a dozen debtera had quit before her. If Andromeda wants to earn a living, she has no choice.
"But she quickly realizes this is a job like no other, with horrifying manifestations at every turn, and that Magnus is hiding far more than she has been trained for. Death is the most likely outcome if she stays, the reason every debtera before her quit. But leaving Magnus to live out his curse alone isn’t an option because―heaven help her―she’s fallen for him.
"Stunningly romantic, Lauren Blackwood's heartstopping debut, Within These Wicked Walls, ushers in an exciting new fantasy voice."
Check out Jen's review here.
Sara was reading . . .
Maggie Knox’s The Holiday Swap (Amazon | Bookshop.org)
"All they want for Christmas is a different life.
"When chef Charlie Goodwin gets hit on the head on the L.A. set of her reality baking show, she loses a lot more than consciousness; she also loses her ability to taste and smell—both critical to her success as show judge. Meanwhile, Charlie's identical twin, Cass, is frantically trying to hold her own life together back in their quaint mountain hometown while running the family's bustling bakery and dealing with her ex, who won't get the memo that they're over.
"With only days until Christmas, a desperate Charlie asks Cass to do something they haven't done since they were kids: switch places. Looking for her own escape from reality, Cass agrees. But temporarily trading lives proves more complicated than they imagined, especially when rugged firefighter Jake Greenman and gorgeous physician assistant Miguel Rodriguez are thrown into the mix. Will the twins' identity swap be a recipe for disaster, or does it have all the right ingredients for getting their lives back on track?"
Read Sara's review here.
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