Swiss Army Recommendations: Great Books to Gift to Just About Anyone
Swiss Army Recommendation: A book that you can feel pretty comfortable recommending to just about anyone. Inspired by The Book Riot podcast, these books listed below are all ones that would be safe to gift to almost everyone on your list with the scantest amount of information as to their likes and interests. Each of the books below are unique among their genres and nimbly fill many different niches all at the same time. If you picked someone you don’t really know very well for Secret Santa, or are lost when it comes to getting something for your distant relative, one of these books is for you.
The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green
I will freely admit to being biased when it comes to this book—it is my favorite of all time. However, the reason I think it works so well as a Swiss Army Recommendation is that it is a little odd and surprisingly nimble. Nominally written as reviews on different aspects of our human-centered planet (Green reviews Canada Geese and Diet Dr Pepper, Sunsets and Googling strangers), each short essay begins by being about whatever it is he’s writing about before spiraling into startlingly earnest and considered places where these topics intersect with Green’s own life. It has did-you-know fun facts, history, philosophy, nature-writing, memoir, and many other genres within. It is funny, kind, serious, thoughtful, sad, and joyous. I would feel good gifting this book to literally anyone.
This is the book I give to people when they say they don’t like non-fiction (and also to people who say they do!) because of how singular and amazing it is. Kimmerer, a Potawatomi botanist, offers up indigenous knowledge as an alternative or addition to Western forms of science and knowing with regards to nature and the world around us. Asserting that plants and nature are our best teachers, Kimmerer celebrates the Earth, and invites you to that celebration as well. I listened to this on audio, and I couldn’t help but be filled with joy and reverence. These essays are generous of spirit and filled with deeply interesting facts and perspectives. Great for nature lovers, spiritual folks, and anyone who loves a well-written book, Braiding Sweetgrass is available in paperback, a beautiful collector’s hardback, and a young reader’s edition.
This is the best thing for when you need a literal pocket book. A staff-favorite and beloved by customers (it’s been on our bestseller table for many many months), this collection of short stories is about an 88 year-old named Maud thwarting neighbors, foiling plans, and maybe committing a touch of murder. Unexpected and exceptionally fun, this little book would work for so many people, firstly because it is such a little book— its easy to pick up and carry around, by golly, you could almost literally fit it in your pocket, even in women’s jeans. The short story format means it’s an approach to a mystery that we don’t really see often, and it’s not at all what you would expect. The book can’t help but surprise its readers, and the short chapters means you can read a little at a time when you take this book on the go so even the busiest reader can fit it in their life.
Psalm is a book I will stand by until the day I die, and I think it inspires this reverence in almost everyone who reads it. One day, the life of Tea-monk Dex is forever upended by the appearance of a robot—the first one seen in centuries. Splendid Speckled Mosscap has been sent by the robots to ask humanity if they need any help. Mosscap’s first act of service is helping Dex to a distant hermitage where they can recenter themselves. While having many hallmarks of the fantasy/sci-fi genre, this book is a great gift for even those who don’t love fantasy because of the universality of the messages—the central sentiment that you are worthy, no matter what. In a world where things seem to be rapidly spiraling out of control, the kind benediction, compassion, and generosity of Mosscap and Dex make the knot in my chest unwind. Perfect for even the most cynical person, a friend who’s a little adrift, or anyone who is struggling to see that the world—and themselves—are enough.
On track to be the bestselling debut of 2022, Lessons in Chemistry is a singular reading experience. Filled with more depth and pain than its bubblegum-bright cover belies, this text manages to be both a sweet romance and a scalding criticism of the patriarchy while also being empowering “chick lit”. Following Elizabeth Zott, a determined chemist thwarted by the sexism of the ‘50s, the reader jumps back and forth from present to path as her life story unfolds. After finding love and losing it and ending up a single mother rejected by her scientific field, she reluctantly finds success as the star of a cooking show that offers more than recipes. Compulsively readable, smart, and big-hearted, this is one of our favorite books of the year. Perfect for someone who just wants a good story that hits plenty of different beats.
I put off this book for a long time, but after it being recommended to me from a thousand different places (only slightly an exaggeration), I finally got around to reading it. To say it blew me away would be a massive understatement. Focusing on a witch’s passage through many lifetimes and the ultimate sacrifice she makes for the ones she loves, Angrboda, wife of Loki, leaps off the page. With beautiful prose suggestive of the old Norse Eddas without being bogged down by it, this book is captivating. Deft, delightful, and emotive, Gornichec’s first novel is a masterpiece that left me both tearful and brimming with hope. This would be a great gift for anyone in your life who loves myths and retellings (think the Song of Achilles fan or the grown-up Rick Riordan aficionado), stories about complex love, loss, and motherhood, or just really really beautiful writing. Plus, since the author is a friend of the store, we likely have signed copies for purchase!
We have this book shelved in fiction because it is so hard to classify into a sub-genre. Is it a romance? Yes. A mystery/thriller? Also yes. How about a touching family story? It is that, too. Jesse Sutanto manages to dance between so many different types of stories while weaving them together so successfully. When Meddy accidentally kills her blind date, she’s forced to schlep around his body, looking for a place to dispose of it while at the same time working the biggest wedding of her career…and also dealing with the reemergence of her hunky ex-boyfriend/long lost love. What would you do in times of such heightened stress? Turn to your meddling aunties, of course! Funny and romantic and filled with mystery and intrigue this would be a safe bet to give to your romance-obsessed friend, your aunt who loves cozy mysteries, and your mom who loves family sagas. Simply delightful.
Another book great for those who say they hate nonfiction, this book about animals’ sensory worlds filled me with so much childlike joy that I couldn’t wait to share it with everyone around me. An exploration of different animals’ umvelt—their unique sensory worlds and experiences. Describing how a crocodile’s face is more sensitive than any fingertip or how squids perceive pain, Yong’s reporting shows us just how enormous and delightful the world truly is by explaining just how little of it we can perceive. Wondrous, enriching, and empathetic, this book will leave you filled with “did you know?” facts to share for years to come. This would be an awesome book for the animal lover, the tech-obsessed bio-hacker, or someone who really likes to watch Jeopardy!.
I vividly remember sitting in the back of the car, reading Munroe’s first book What If? giggling to myself. In this book , Munroe, author of the webcomic xkcd, brings his humor and intelligence to all manner of questions, like if “could cool the whole earth in any meaningful way if everyone opened their freezer doors at the same time?” or “what would happen if you made a lava lamp out of lava?” This book is brilliant, gross, and wonderfully absurd. All of his answers are well-researched, thorough, and enormously fun, and it is filled to the brim with scientific knowledge and his signature illustrations. This book is great for gifting because it is both dense and snackable. If you want to read it all the way in one sitting, you can. If you want to pick it up once a day to learn something new, you certainly wouldn’t get lost. Fun for both seasoned scientists and new learners, young and old, painfully earnest and eternally disaffected, Munroe’s book certainly won’t disappoint.
So this book is a very solidly in the mystery/thriller genre, but it also has a touch of fantasy/sci-fi, and this combo makes this book. Despite being a very odd book, it is eminently recommendable and enjoyable. I have given this book to so many different people and they have almost universally loved it. Our main character wakes one morning lost in the woods while shouting a woman’s name. Who is the woman? Where is he? Who is he? As the mystery unravels, our protagonist must live the same day over and over again, but in a different body each time. If he can solve the mystery of who killed Evelyn Hardcastle before the week is through, then she gets to live. If he doesn’t? Well…the ramifications are more than what they originally seem. A great gift for any mystery lover or anyone who wants a book that will whisk you away on a journey. Both an excellent beach read and something you can snuggle up with on a dark, cold night.
Now I know a book about moral philosophy does not seem, on its surface, like a book that you could gift indiscriminately. However, this book is in a word delightful. Schur is the head writer of both Parks and Recreation and The Good Place, and his humor writing is most assuredly on display here, but also his thoughtfulness and pondering generosity and compassion. He asks and answers questions like “Do I need to return my shopping cart?” to “Can I eat this problematic sandwich?” with philosophic background and levity. He includes footnotes to point you toward more reading for those who are interested, and interludes abound from a working philosopher he consulted for this project. In short, a philosophy book that is—borrowing a technical term—hilarious. This would be giftable for anyone who loves Schur’s shows, but also anyone who likes a laugh, or maybe someone who doesn’t put their shopping carts back.
From the author of Wordslut, Montell returns with this book about the social science of cult influence, from MLMs to SoulCycle to influencers to actual cults. So many people are morbidly fascinated by cults—how do they recruit people? why do so many stay in them for so long? and perhaps most importantly, could this happen to me?— and this book helps teach about them through the language they use. Everyone loves learning about weird, singular things—the rise in true crime media alone is a testament to this, but even people who don’t like true crime like learning about communities and people we rarely meet or understand in real life. Cultish is for people who do love the true crime realm, but it’s also for everyone else—language nerds, nosy people, and people who love learning about those on the fringes of society. If you think someone would like falling down a rabbit hole, this is the book for them.
