The 2020 Book Lover’s Gift Guide

This is your quick, cozy, get-it-done book gift guide – start with my Editor’s Picks (mini-reviews below for fast decisions), then scroll the category lists for more ideas. Pair any book with a handwritten note and you’ve got an instant, memorable gift.

I heard from so many readers in 2020 about the ways books carried them through a complicated year. That spirit still holds. This updated guide keeps the best of 2020 while making it easier to shop today-clear picks, clean categories, and zero clutter.

How to Use This Guide (30 seconds)

• Start with Editor’s Picks for quick, can’t-miss gifts.
• Jump to Categories for more options by taste and age.
• Support your local indie bookstore when you can (or order online + curbside pickup).

Editor’s Picks (With Mini-Reviews)

One-paragraph summaries focus on the main character’s journey, the book’s core message, why I chose it, who it’s for, and how it made me feel.

Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart

In 1980s Glasgow, tender, determined Shuggie grows up caring for his glamorous, alcoholic mother, learning resilience and selfhood in a world that doesn’t understand him; I chose it because it’s a devastating yet luminous portrait of love and survival, perfect for literary-fiction readers who appreciate working-class stories with heart-this one left me gutted and grateful in equal measure.

Real Life by Brandon Taylor

Over one charged Midwestern weekend, Wallace, a queer Black grad student, navigates microaggressions, fraught friendships, and a complicated romance while deciding who he will be beyond the lab; I picked it for its scalpel-sharp interiority and themes of belonging-ideal for readers who love campus settings and character-driven tension; it left me thoughtful, prickly, and moved.

If I Had Your Face by Frances Cha

Four young women in contemporary Seoul chase beauty, love, and stability under the pressure of class and appearance; I included it for its chorus of female voices and social bite-great for readers who like city-set, culturally specific fiction; it made me ache for their hopes and cheer for their grit.

How Much of These Hills Is Gold by C Pam Zhang

Two orphaned siblings wander a mythic American West, carrying their father’s bones and reinventing themselves as they reckon with grief, identity, and reinvention; I chose it for its bold voice and frontier-as-metaphor storytelling-perfect for fans of literary historicals; it felt fierce, strange, and unforgettable.

The Mountains Sing by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai

A grandmother and granddaughter tell a multi-generational story of a Vietnamese family enduring war, land reform, and migration, finding resilience through memory; I picked it for its generosity and accessible lyricism-great for book clubs; it left me soft-hearted and hopeful.

A Burning by Megha Majumdar

After a social media post goes viral, a young woman in Kolkata is accused of terrorism, her fate entwined with a gym teacher chasing power and an aspiring actress chasing freedom; I included it for its propulsive, morally complex look at ambition and injustice-ideal for readers who like sharp, contemporary fiction; I read it breathlessly.

Sharks in the Time of Saviors by Kawai Strong Washburn

A miracle in childhood shadows a Hawaiian family for decades as siblings diverge and reunite, wrestling with destiny, diaspora, and home; I chose it for its blend of myth and family realism-great for readers who love big-hearted epics; it left me misty and sun-drenched.

Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas

At an elite, secretive college, Ines is drawn into a cult-like program promising reinvention at a chilling cost; I picked it for gothic-campus vibes and questions of identity-perfect for dark-academia fans; it gave me deliciously eerie goosebumps.

The Jane Austen Society by Natalie Jenner

In post-war Chawton, a motley group bands together to preserve Austen’s legacy and, in doing so, mends their own lives; I chose it because it’s balm for Austen lovers-great for cozy historical readers; it left me charmed and restored.

Winter Counts by David Heska Wanbli Weiden

A Native enforcer on the Rosebud Reservation hunts the source of a heroin pipeline while confronting his past and the limits of vigilante justice; I picked it for its taut plotting and cultural specificity-ideal for thriller readers who want heart with heat; it had me hooked start to finish.

My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell

Years after a “relationship” with her teacher, Vanessa reevaluates consent and power when new accusations surface; I included it for its brave, complicated interiority-best for readers ready for difficult themes; it left me shaken and reflective.

The Return by Rachel Harrison

When a missing friend reappears and a girls’ trip turns sinister, a witty, grief-tinged reunion becomes a body-horror mystery; I chose it for readers who like their friendship stories with a creepy edge-fun, unsettling, and very “read-it-with-the-lights-on.”

More Great Picks by Category (Scannable Lists)

Debut Fiction

• Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas
• If I Had Your Face by Frances Cha
• The Return by Rachel Harrison
• How Much of These Hills Is Gold by C Pam Zhang
• Sharks in the Time of Saviors by Kawai Strong Washburn
• The Jane Austen Society by Natalie Jenner
• Real Life by Brandon Taylor
• These Ghosts Are Family by Maisy Card
• God Shot by Chelsea Bieker
• Lakewood by Megan Giddings
• Conjure Women by Afia Atakora
• Black Sunday by Tola Rotimi Abraham
• Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart
• Kept Animals by Kate Milliken
• Shiner by Amy Jo Burns
• The Lost Book of Adana Moreau by Michael Zapata
• Latitudes of Longing by Shubhangi Swarup
• All My Mother’s Lovers by Ilana Masad
• A Burning by Megha Majumdar
• The Mountains Sing by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai
• The House of Deep Water by Jeni McFarland
• Exciting Times by Naoise Dolan
• Little Gods by Meng Jin
• Pizza Girl by Jean Kyoung Frazier
• You Exist Too Much by Zaina Arafat
• Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line by Deepa Anappara
• Something to Talk About by Meryl Wilsner
• My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell
• The Margot Affair by Sanaë Lemoine
• Winter Counts by David Heska Wanbli Weiden

Beautiful Editions (Gift-Ready)

• The Chronicles of Narnia Set
• Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events (Boxed Set)
• Penguin Vitae Series (5-Book Box Set)
• Thomas Hardy Boxed Set
• Picador Modern Classics
• Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier (Illustrated by D. G. Smith; intro by Helen Dunmore)
• Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton (Illustrated by Vector That Fox)
• I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou (Illustrated by Shabazz Larkin; intro by Tayari Jones)

Holiday Classics

• The Fir Tree by Hans Christian Andersen (Sanna Annukka, Tiina Nunnally)
• The Night Before Christmas by Nikolai Gogol
• The Nutcracker by E. T. A. Hoffmann (Sanna Annukka)
• A Christmas Carol and Other Christmas Writings by Charles Dickens
• The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen (Sanna Annukka, Jean Hersholt)
• Christmas Pudding by Nancy Mitford
• Christmas at Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons
• Letters from Father Christmas by J. R. R. Tolkien (Centenary Edition)

Books about Books

• Ex Libris: 100+ Books to Read and Reread by Michiko Kakutani (Dana Tanamachi)
• Book Towns: Forty-Five Paradises of the Printed Word by Alex Johnson
• For the Love of Books: Designing and Curating a Home Library by Thatcher Wine and Elizabeth Lane
• 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff
• Bibliophile: An Illustrated Miscellany by Jane Mount
• Bibliostyle: How We Live at Home with Books by Nina Freudenberger, Sadie Stein, and Shade Degges

Travel

• Accidentally Wes Anderson by Wally Koval and Wes Anderson
• USA National Parks: Lands of Wonder by DK Eyewitness
• For the Love of Europe by Rick Steves
• Clanlands: Whisky, Warfare, and a Scottish Adventure Like No Other by Sam Heughan and Graham McTavish
• Leave Only Footprints by Conor Knighton
• A Voyage Across an Ancient Ocean: A Bicycle Journey Through the Northern Dominion of Oil
• Hidden Places by Sarah Baxter and Amy Grimes
• 100 Hikes of a Lifetime by Kate Siber (foreword by Andrew Skurka)
• Mystical Places by Sarah Baxter and Amy Grimes
• Around the World: A Celebration of Circumnavigation by Lonely Planet

Nature

• The Lost Spells by Robert Macfarlane
• The Butterfly Effect: Insects and the Making of the Modern World by Edward D. Melillo
• What It’s Like to Be a Bird by David Allen Sibley
• A Life on Our Planet by David Attenborough
• Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake
• Vesper Flights by Helen Macdonald
• Down from the Mountain by Bryce Andrews
• Owls of the Eastern Ice by Jonathan C. Slaght

Home & Garden

• The Home Edit Life by Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin
• Arriving Home by James T. Farmer
• Flower School by Calvert Crary
• Martha Stewart’s Organizing by Martha Stewart
• Kitchen Garden Revival by Nicole Johnsey Burke and Eric Kelley
• Simply Living Well by Julia Watkins
• The Gardener’s Guide to Succulents by Misa Matsuyama
• The Kinfolk Garden by John Burns
• Houseplants for All by Danae Horst
• Charles Dowding’s No Dig Gardening, Course 1 by Charles Dowding

Food & Drink

• Skinnytaste Meal Prep by Gina Homolka
• Modern Comfort Food by Ina Garten
• Snacking Cakes by Yossy Arefi
• The Full Plate by Ayesha Curry
• Dessert Person by Claire Saffitz
• Fizz by Olly Smith
• Good Drinks by Julia Bainbridge
• Ottolenghi Flavor by Yotam Ottolenghi, Ixta Belfrage, and Tara Wigley
• Vegetable Kingdom by Bryant Terry
• The New Sotheby’s Wine Encyclopedia by Tom Stevenson
• Milk Street: Cookish by Christopher Kimball
• Sustainable Kitchen by Jaynie McCloskey and Heather Wolfe
• Bien Cuit by Zachary Golper, Peter Kaminsky, and Thomas Schauer
• Entertaining with Mary Berry by Mary Berry and Lucy Young

Society & Culture

• The WEIRDest People in the World by Joseph Henrich
• The Best of Me by David Sedaris
• Kleptopia by Tom Burgis
• Caste by Isabel Wilkerson
• War: How Conflict Shaped Us by Margaret MacMillan
• Humans by Brandon Stanton
• Hood Feminism by Mikki Kendall
• Just Us by Claudia Rankine

Music, TV, Film & The Arts

• Wild Thing by Philip Norman
• How to Write One Song by Jeff Tweedy
• Queen: The Neal Preston Photographs by Neal Preston, Dave Brolan, Richard Gray, Brian May, and Roger Taylor
• Remain in Love by Chris Frantz
• The Last Days of John Lennon by James Patterson, Casey Sherman, and Dave Wedge
• Warhol by Blake Gopnik
• Creativity: A Short and Cheerful Guide by John Cleese
• Dolly Parton, Songteller by Dolly Parton and Robert K. Oermann
• Beethoven, A Life by Jan Caeyers (with Daniel Hope and Brent Annable)
• Bosch. The Complete Works by Stefan Fischer

Sports

• One Life by Megan Rapinoe and Emma Brockes
• Elway: A Relentless Life by Jason Cole
• The Dynasty by Jeff Benedict
• Lou Gehrig: The Lost Memoir by Alan D. Gaff
• One Tough Out by Rod Carew and Jaime Aron
• The Second Life of Tiger Woods by Michael Bamberger

Biographies & Memoir

The Beauty in Breaking by Michele Harper
Memorial Drive by Natasha Trethewey
Missed Translations by Sopan Deb (foreword by Hasan Minhaj)
Eleanor by David Michaelis
No Man’s Land by Wendy Moore
When Time Stopped by Ariana Neumann

Children’s Books (Ages 0-12)

Ages 0-3

• The Pout-Pout Fish and the Can’t-Sleep Blues by Deborah Diesen and Dan Hanna
• Families Belong by Dan Saks and Brooke Smart
• 3 2 1 Awesome!: 20 Fearless Women Who Dared to Be Different by Eva Chen and Derek Desierto
• Hello, World! Reptiles by Jill McDonald
• The Wheels on the Bus: Sing Along With Me! by Nosy Crow and Yu-hsuan Huang
• The Thank You Book by Mary Lyn Ray and Stephanie Graegin

Ages 3-5

• How to Catch a Yeti by Adam Wallace and Andy Elkerton
• I Promise by LeBron James and Nina Mata
• My Very First Cookbook by Danielle Kartes and Annie Wilkinson
• Wild Symphony by Dan Brown and Susan Batori
• Escape Goat by Ann Patchett and Robin Preiss Glasser
• The Little Ghost Who Was a Quilt by Riel Nason and Byron Eggenschwiler
• Sunny the Bunny: Goes to Camp by Jace Higgins and Paige Bekish
• Bonaparte Falls Apart by Margery Cuyler and Will Terry

Ages 6-8

• Bunheads by Misty Copeland and Setor Fiadzigbey
• Little Red Sleigh by Erin Guendelsberger
• Remarkables by Margaret Peterson Haddix
• What We’ll Build: Plans For Our Together Future by Oliver Jeffers
• I Am Every Good Thing by Derrick Barnes and Gordon C. James
• Caterpillar Summer by Gillian McDunn

Ages 9-12

• The Trumpet of the Swan (50th Anniversary) by E. B. White and Fred Marcellino
• The Witches: The Graphic Novel by Roald Dahl and Pénélope Bagieu
• Closer to Nowhere by Ellen Hopkins
• Hello, Universe by Erin Entrada Kelly and Isabel Roxas
• Serpentine by Philip Pullman and Tom Duxbury
• The Complete 8-Book Ramona Collection by Beverly Cleary and Jacqueline Rogers

Teen & Young Adult

• Five Total Strangers by Natalie D. Richards
• Instant Karma by Marissa Meyer
• Punching the Air by Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam
• Kingdom of the Wicked by Kerri Maniscalco
• The Ravens by Kass Morgan and Danielle Paige
• American Royals II: Majesty by Katharine McGee
• Clown in a Cornfield by Adam Cesare
• Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas
• Dear Justyce by Nic Stone
• Shine by Jessica Jung
• Sanctuary by Paola Mendoza and Abby Sher
• All This Time by Mikki Daughtry and Rachael Lippincott
• Watch Over Me by Nina LaCour
• Something Happened to Ali Greenleaf by Hayley Krischer
• Not Your #Lovestory by Sonia Hartl
• Horrid by Katrina Leno
• Fable by Adrienne Young
• All Our Worst Ideas by Vicky Skinner

Final Thoughts

Books are the one gift that keeps giving long after the wrapping’s gone. If you’re torn, start with the Editor’s Picks-you’ll land a story that sparks conversation and comfort. Which book are you gifting first this year? Or tell me who you’re shopping for and the vibe you want-I’ll reply with a personalized pick in the comments.