You Need Help Holiday Shopping

The first What To Read If Gift Guide

Hi friends,

Hope you had a great Thanksgiving!

Quick announcement: In the spirit of Giving Tuesday (tomorrow), I’m donating the proceeds of my Bookshop.org store to the Little Free Library Impact Program.

When you purchase a book through my affiliate links, I receive 10% of the cost. (For more info on how Bookshop.org works, see my Q&A with its founder Andy Hunter). Over the past three years, I’ve earned $215. Those funds will now go to buy books for Little Free Libraries in neighborhoods with limited book access. Thanks for making this possible!

This week’s newsletter is a combination “Best of the Year” and gift guide. I’ve gone through my 2023 archives and pulled some (just some) of my favorites and compiled them here with thoughts on the perfect person to receive them.

We’ll build on the gift guide on Friday, with the third annual What to Gift If discussion thread. Come with a description of who you’re buying for, and I’ll share a suggestion of what book to give.

And, now, what to gift to

Your Pop-Culture Obsessed Pal

Bring It On by Kase Wickman

Drawing on dozens of interviews with the cast and crew, as well as Hollywood influencers, Kase Wickman, an entertainment journalist, documents how a movie that grossed nearly $100 million and inspired dozens of spinoffs almost didn’t get made. Studio bigwigs weren’t convinced that people would pay money to see a movie about something as feminine as cheerleading.  “Bring It On,” though, ultimately proved these naysayers wrong. It’s a genuinely funny movie about race, female friendships and, yes, some impressive cheerleading stunts (front handspring-stepout, roundoff back handspring stepout, roundoff back handspring full-twisting, anyone?) that helped to usher in an age of smart, female-focused teen movies. (Full review)

The Work Wife by Alison Hart

The Work Wife follows three women all connected to King of Hollywood Ted Stabler — his wife, Holly, his former business partner, Phoebe and his executive assistant, Zanne — over the course of a single day, as they prepare for the It Event of the season. Zanne sees the night’s fundraiser as her chance at a promotion that will finally offer the financial stability she’s been seeking for years. Her plans hit a roadblock though, when Phoebe reappears after years away, and a reporter begins asking Holly, a #MeToo crusader, tough questions about her husband’s own behavior.

There’s been an understandable boomlet for Hollywood #MeToo novels in recent years and I think The Work Wife might be the best of all the ones I’ve read. It’s a subtle yet searing examination of privilege and power. (Full review)

The Daydreams by Laura Hankin

The Daydreams follows the four stars of a hit 2000s teen drama reuniting thirteen years after their disastrous live season finale to film a reboot special. The intervening years have treated each of the former up-and-comers differently — Kat is a D.C. lawyer, Liana is an influencer married to a pro athlete, golden boy Noah is on the cusp of real fame, and Summer is a Lindsay-Lohan-type, struggling to deal with the fame she earned at a young age.

While fans are dying for the on-screen kiss between Noah and Summer they’ve wanted for years, the leads each bring a decade’s worth of baggage to the filming. As the shoot continues, secrets emerge, and the real reason for their on-air meltdown threatens to come to the surface. (Full review)

Everything I Need I Get From You by Kaitlyn Tiffany

Kaitlyn Tiffany, a reporter for The Atlantic and self-proclaimed One Direction fan girl, introduces readers to 1D lovers who screamed so loud at concerts they damaged their lungs and the girls — from all parts of the world — who used digital trickery to drive the band to the top of the charts. Underlying the anecdotes she shares, including one particularly hilarious bit about a shrine to Harry Styles’ vomit in LA, is a careful documentation of the ways these fans pioneered the use of GIFs, memes and other now-common forms of internet communication. She connects the dots between early internet message boards and today’s stan wars (online battles between obsessive fans), as well as the ways the popularity of One Direction conspiracy theories foreshadowed some of the more insane commentary on the web today. (Full review)

Your Aunt Always Looking for Her Next Book Club Pick

Unlikely Animals by Annie Hartnett

Unlikely Animals is a classic homecoming story — former golden girl, Emma, returns to her small town after dropping out of medical school — with a twist. It’s narrated by the residents of her town’s cemetery. Emma’s return, they explain early in the novel, “was a source of entertainment at Maple Street Cemetery. Both funny and sad, the kind of story we like best.” (Full review)

How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water by Angie Cruz

Cara Romera, the star of How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water, is the type of character who stays with you long after you finish the book. She’s a deeply flawed yet loveable human. An immigrant from the Dominican Republic now living in New York in the aftermath of the Great Recession, Cara thought she’d spend the rest of her life working at a factory making little lamps. But when the factory shuts down, she’s unemployed and in a job counseling program instead.

Over the course of 12 sessions with the counselor, Cara recounts her life in stories — fleeing her home country after her husband attempted to kill her, a strained relationship with her sister and son, the care she provides her elderly neighbor and the advice she’s getting from Alicia the Psychic, who may or may not a con artist. Cara is often hilarious, even as her anecdotes highlight sharp and sometimes distressing truths about her life — and the promise of the American dream. (Full review)

This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub

Beloved author — and bookstore owner — Emma Straub’s latest book, This Time Tomorrow, features a heroine, Alice Stern, capable of traveling back in time to relive her 16th birthday. As the book opens, Alice’s much-adored father is ill in the hospital, and likely won’t recover. His sickness and her 40th birthday cause her to reassess her own stagnant life. After a few too many birthday cocktails, Alice passes out and wakes up in her teenage bedroom. She embraces the chance to spend time with her young and healthy dad and wonders if by changing that one day she can change their future. Alice returns to the day of Sweet 16 countless times, attempting to craft a perfect future. (Full review)

A True Crime Enthusiast

Anansi’s Gold by Yepoka Yeebo

Journalist Yepoka Yeebo chronicles the life of Ackah Blay-Miezah, a Ghanaian conman who swindled people worldwide and ran a scheme that an American prosecutor called “one of the most fascinating — and lucrative — in modern history.” Blay-Miezah convinced his marks that Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s first president and prime minister, had left him a cache of gold smuggled out of the country, but that he needed millions to “release” the trust fund. Blay-Miezah’s victims thought they were buying a piece of a billion-dollar fortune and “invested” millions they never got back. (Full review)

More Than You’ll Ever Know by Katie Gutierrez

Katie Gutierrez’s More Than You’ll Ever Know is a novel exploring the construction of a true crime narrative. In 1985, Lore Rivera marries Andres Russo in Mexico City — even though she already has a husband and twin boys in Laredo, Texas. Lore secretly carries on a relationship with both men, until they find out about each other, and one murders the other. Thirty-two years later, struggling true crime writer Cassie Bowman stumbles upon an article about Lore and becomes obsessed with the woman’s story. She sets out to write a book about Lore’s relationships and the murder but finds that her subject is less than forthcoming about her past. (Full review)

Evidence of Things Seen, edited by Sarah Weinman

This anthology takes care to prioritize the stories of victims, which too often are shunted aside in true-crime narratives that focus instead on the cat-and-mouse game between police and offenders. May Jeong’s searing essay on the Atlanta spa shooting features gripping biographies of the victims and the families left behind, while Samantha Schuyler discusses the life of Toyin Salau, a murdered Black Lives Matter activist. Their moving depictions of victims contrast starkly with “missing White woman syndrome,” the fixation on attractive, young White victims at the expense of people of color. (Full review in the Washington Post and my Q&A with Sarah Weinman)

Your Memoir-Loving Mom

Did Ye Hear Mammy Died? by Seamus O’Reilly

The book’s title stems from one of the first anecdotes Seamus O’Reilly shares. His mother died when he was five. At the wake, still not fully understanding what was happening around him, he approached mourners and asked, “Did ye hear mammy died?” It’s a story that perfectly encapsulates the book as a whole — funny and sad all at once. (Full review)

Sounds Like Titanic by Jessica Chiccehitto Hindman

Every few months, I recommend Sounds Like Titanic, Jessica Chiccehitto Hindman’s memoir of pretending to play the violin in a fake orchestra, to a friend. And without fail, they come back to me saying, “Oh my god. That book is so good.” (Full review + my Q&A with Jessica Chiccehitto Hindman)

Strip Tees by Kate Flannery

Kate Flannery’s memoir of her time working at American Apparel in the early 2000s, Strip Tees, was one of my most anticipated titles of the year — and I’m happy to report it was even better than I hoped. (My Q&A with Kate Flannery)

Your Mystery Fan Uncle

Station Eternity by Mur Lafferty

Mallory Viridian has an unfortunate tendency to stumble upon dead bodies — and solve murders. But, unlike the police in Jessica Fletcher’s hometown of Cabot Cove, authorities assume Mallory, who fictionalized her experience in a mystery series, is a nuisance at best and a serial killer at worse. Feeling cursed to bring harm to those she loves, she exiles herself to a sentient space station, where she’ll be one of three humans living among aliens. (Full review)

My Murder by Katie Williams

Katie Williams’ My Murder is one of the best — and most inventive — books I read this year. It’s narrated by Louise, a wife, mother, professional hugger and — in case that wasn’t weird enough — clone of a woman murdered by a serial killer. The government brought back Lou and four other women, all victims of the same man, for a second chance at life. (Full review)

Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto

When Vera finds a body on the floor of her tea shop, she expects the police will want her help in solving the case. Instead, they largely ignore her and even seem annoyed that she assisted by drawing a Sharpie outline around the man’s corpse before they arrived. When the authorities declare the man died of an allergic reaction, Vera sets out to conduct her own investigation. She has an ace up her sleeve — a flash drive she stole off the body she’s sure the killer will want back. As new customers come into the tea shop, Vera brews them a cuppa, attempts to suss out their possible motives and, in a complicated move, comes to befriend the people she expects committed a murder. (Full review)

---

Plus a few that defied categorization: Nic Blake and the Remarkables by Angie Thomas (fabulous middle grade fantasy), Kirk Wallace Johnson’s phenomenonal narrative non-fiction The Fishermen and the Dragon and Kate Clayborn’s Georgie, All Along (wouldn’t be a What To Read If year in review without Kate Clayborn).

---

What to Read If is a free weekly book recommendation newsletter. Need a rec? Want to gush about a book? Reply to this email, leave a comment or find me on Twitter @elizabethheld.

If you’re reading this on Substack or were forwarded this email, and you’d like to subscribe, click the button below.

Disclosure: I am an affiliate of Bookshop.org and I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.