2024 Book Lovers Holiday Gift Guide
Because reading is life-changing, and books make the best gifts!
For the romantic adventurer:
North American Odyssey by Amy & Dave Freeman
Imagine taking a 12,000 mile journey from the Pacific Northwest, through Canada, and all the way down the east coast to Key West. Now picture this trip as one by kayak, dogsled, and canoe. Now imagine it was your honeymoon! This is what Amy & Dave Freeman did, and how their joint journey from being outdoor adventurers to environmental activists began.
For fans of page-turning speculative fiction:
Metamorphosis edited by GRIST
Imagine the planet centuries in the future. Now imagine a better version than that dystopian wasteland you’re likely picturing. Need help with that picture? The prize-winning short stories in this collection shirk the fear and mourning that often mark speculative climate fiction, daring instead to dream of humanity’s varied communities meeting planetary challenges in fascinating and novel ways.
For the up-all-night by the fireside reader:
Montana 1948 by Larry Watson
A suspenseful and surprising novel about a family and a community rocked by secrets, scandal, and murder. Delivered with grit, grace, and masterful storytelling, Watson’s literary Western packs a powerful punch making it a breathtaking and heartbreaking, can’t-put-it-down read.
For those looking for a soul-stirring, inspiring, one-of-a-kind memoir:
Becoming Little Shell by Chris La Tray
“I’m in awe of Chris La Tray’s storytelling” claims Braiding Sweetgrass author Robin Wall Kimmerer, and so are readers far and wide of this brilliantly told memoir of indigenous identity and history. La Tray’s journey is revelatory and redemptive
For those who love creatures great and small:
World of Wonders by Aimee Nezhukumatathil
This surprising collection of gorgeously illustrated essays delightfully offers fun facts about the flora and fauna of the natural world, all the while telling the story of the author’s life from childhood and young adulthood, to present day life as a teacher and mother. From narwhals to flamingos to dragonflies, there’s something for everyone in this fresh take on nature writing.
For those who celebrate the great outdoors:
You Are Here edited by U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón
This collection of new nature poems from 50 poets breathes fresh air into the concept of “nature poems” all the while inviting everyone to experience, own, access, and enjoy both poetry and nature. Curated and edited by U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón and featuring author bios adjacent to each poem throughout, you’ll surely find some old friends and relatable feelings in these pages—and hopefully some new ones as well.
For those seeking solitude, connection, everyday magic, and a deeper sense of wonder (in a cottage in Northern Ireland, or wherever you may be):
Cacophony of Bone by Kerri ní Dochartaigh
This one is for those that look to nature or the outdoors to keep time. A lyrical take on a year’s long day book, this remarkable set of field notes on life through the hours and seasons takes on profound meaning in the isolated stillness of the pandemic punctuated with all that kept on keeping on in the natural world. A beautiful and meditative take on place, home, love, and the life in and around us all.
For readers of sweeping historical fiction:
House of Caravans by Shilpi Suneja
This is a Shakespearean style love story, and family saga all rolled into one and set against the backdrop of Partition in India. Suneja writes with so much heart that it is impossible not to root for all these characters as the macro legacies of colonialism infiltrate their most intimate of relationships.
For the one curious about origins and transitions:
The Science of Last Things by Ellen Wayland-Smith
In this luminous collection of essays, Ellen Wayland-Smith probes the raw edges of human existence, those periods of life in which our bodies remind us of our transience and the boundaries of the self dissolve. From the Old Testament to Maggie Nelson, these explorations are grounded in a rich network of associations.
For your Southern friends that need a good dose of hope:
Graceland, At Last by Margaret Renkl
For your friends that want to restore their faith in humanity a little! Through a patchwork of personal and research-based essays, Margaret Renkl captures the hardships and joys, the grief and catharsis, and the complexities and hopes that can be found in the South.
For the American sweethearts in your life:
Real Phonies and Genuine Fakes by Nicky Beer
For the people that were called “firecrackers” in their youth, but are secret softies at heart. In imagery striking, at times gorgeous and neon-hued, at others gritty and shocking, this collection will leave you breathless, astonished, and wanting more.
Join our membership program to support the publication of life-changing literature like this and recieve a 20% discount on all Milkweed books! Learn more and sign-up at milkweed.org/membership
In a patchwork quilt of personal and reported essays, Margaret Renkl’s columns offer a dose of natural beauty, human decency, and persistent hope from her home in Nashville.
“Offering a deeply necessary, clear-eyed look at who we are as flesh-and-bone bodies during the climate crisis, this is a book that searches and finds meaning in both the hard truths and the value of wonder.”—Ada Limón
In this luminous collection of essays, Ellen Wayland-Smith probes the raw edges of human existence, those periods of life in which our bodies remind us of our transience and the boundaries of the self dissolve.
What is illusion—a deception, or a revelation? What is a poem—the truth, or “a diverting flash, / a mirror showing everything / but itself”?
In this modern classic, the charges of a young Sioux woman force David Hayden’s father, the sheriff of their small town, to confront his older brother, a charming war hero and respected doctor. This novel is an astonishing tale of love and courage, asking what it means to make the terrible choice between family loyalty and justice.
Fragmentary in subject and form, fluid of language, this is an ode to a year, a place, and a love, that changed a life.
A 2025 National Endowment for the Arts Big Reads Selection
A 2024 NPR “Books We Love” Selection
Published in association with the Library of Congress and edited by the twenty-fourth Poet Laureate of the United States, a singular collection of fifty poems reflecting on our relationship to the natural world by our most celebrated contemporary writers.
