December 2021 Staff Picks — The Magic Word

Dec 1

Dec 1 December 2021 Staff Picks

We’re rounding out 2021 with our December staff picks. Keep scrolling to learn more about our booksellers’ recommendations for this month!

You can find all our past staff picks here.

The Discomfort of Evening by Marieke Lucas Rijneveld

The Discomfort of Evening is the story of a young girl's first encounter with death. When the 10 year old daughter of a devout farming family saves her rabbit from slaughter, she seems to set in motion a series of grisly tragedies, exchanging one life for the lives of many. This Booker International Prize winner is *not* for the faint of heart. Beware! — Aatia

You Were Born For This by Chani Nicholas

Chani Nicholas is the QUEEN of astro and this book is a great intro for anyone looking to get deeper aligned with the full spectrum of their nature. Great write ups for Sun, Rising, and Moon signs, plus journal prompts, reflections, affirmations, and guides on how to read the rest of your birth chart. If you’re still craving more, check out her newsletter and app — all excellent resources for all things astro. — Colleen

Horizontal Parenting by Michelle Wood

Sometimes, as a parent, I just want to lie down. This book demonstrates, with dozens of excellent horizontal games, how to be a good parent and lie down at the same time. An invaluable gift for every parent of young children. — Emma

A Boy Called Christmas by Matt Haig

What a charming Christmas story! You might know Matt Haig as the author of The Midnight Library; he also writes awesome children's books! A Boy Called Christmas is the story of Nicholas who sets out on a treacherous journey to find his father, and ends up finding something much more magical in the process. —Jacque

The New Rules of Cheese by Anne Saxelby

Cheese! What’s not to love? (Lactose intolerant folks look away…) Though the world lost cheesemonger Anne Saxelby too soon, her legacy lives on in this approachable and fun book about everyone’s favorite snack. —Kristina

Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

Howl is one of those characters I will simply never forget. He's mysterious, magical, and extremely dramatic! This heartwarming book is one that I return to again and again when I need a comforting escape from reality. —Lindsay

Everyone’s Awake by Colin Meloy

For your favorite sleepless kiddo; for that kid you know who you believe is secretly living in a Wes Anderson movie; for your friend who wishes their child would go to bed; for anyone with an overactive imagination! I love this book because I was also a kid whose mind ran wild at night, imagining life into every creak in the floor boards, and Colin Meloy and Carson Ellis have done absolutely gorgeous justice to my childhood delirium in this story about a kid who thinks up increasingly looney scenarios happening outside their bedroom door. - Michael C.

Edie Richter Is Not Alone by Rebecca Handler

This funny, heartbreaking novel follows Edie as she goes to Australia holding on to a secret that might unravel her. It's quick, propulsive, and one of my favorite reads of the year. Fans of Jenny Offill will love it. —Mike FS

Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin

This book is so beautiful!! It's a classic tale of boy meets hot Italian bartender in France, but their friendship quickly grows into an intense affair. The whole thing is full of longing, desire, and heartbreak. The writing is incredible and sparked my love for James Baldwin. A bittersweet winter read! —Natalie

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Shadow of the Wind is one of "those" books. You know... one of those books that haunts you, that will always be with you, that is so spectacular you can recommend it to anyone and never hear back that it disappointed. It starts with one of the best opening lines ever, "I still remember the day my father took me to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books for the first time.” It takes off from there! —Nick

Sula by Toni Morrison

It’s hard to choose a favorite Morrison novel, so I won’t choose, instead I’ll say this is the one I think about most often! Part of what makes it so memorable is the entirely unique way that Morrison distributes literary weight: the setting is treated equally to the characters, and both are rendered with such fullness and poetic complexity, thus making the language itself its own kind of character too. Sentence after sentence, Morrison delivers pure magic. This is all to say, if you haven’t read this one yet, I implore you to now! —Serena

The Year of Blue Water by Yanyi

Yanyi writes about all the ways we shrink and expand ourselves in pursuit of love and self and living. He writes about tarot, dreams, moms, desperation, having a body. This is the kind of poetry I read two, three, four times over just to make sure it never leaves me. Gift this to the person* in your life who has a soft heart.

P.S. His next book of poems, Dream of the Divided Field, comes out March 2022!

*yourself.

—Denise

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novak

Spinning Silver is a crystalline wintry fable, full of ice palaces, mirror worlds, and fantastical transformations. Naomi Novak's writing is exquisite, and her interweaving of folklore with vividly rendered characters lifts the magic off the page. As a bonus, this book introduced me to black tea with sour cherries, and I'll never go back! — Isabel

Dubliners by James Joyce

The perfect Christmas gift for the teen reader who is starting to appreciate serious literature. The stories are both beautiful and timeless; the last one, of course, is “The Dead,” which in addition to being the greatest short story ever written, is also a Christmas story. Before you give the book away, read it again; your soul will swoon slowly as you do. — Eddie