“Remember, a book is always a gift.”
-Sheridan Hay
With the holidays peeking around the corner, why not boost your enthusiasm with some novel shopping ideas for your loved ones. To begin with, you can explore a plethora of book boxes and literary surprises.
Photo courtesy of @STOCK_BYJEWELS Photo courtesy of @STOCK_BYJEWELS
Subscription services for bibliophiles
Book of the Month Book Club
As a member of the Book of the month club, you can pick one book from a list of five popular reads every month. If you are not interested in one of the five titles, then, you can skip the month’s selection and roll your credits over in your account.
How Much Does Book Of The Month Cost?
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The monthly membership cost: your first discounted title is $9.99 and then you pay $15.99 per book for each month after that. You can add up to two additional books from the five monthly selections (and sometimes books from past months if they’re still available) for $9.99.
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Book of the month club permits you to pause or cancel your membership at any time.
Literati
Books worth
reading—delivered.
Explore 26+ genres
A Literati subscription provides access to all digital book clubs and events and to one curated bright turquoise book box delivered to your doorstep each month.
Browse titles picked monthly by influencers you trust, and discover stories you may not have found without them.
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Get your monthly read delivered to your door.
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Access to 12 or more club discussions and events via the exclusive Literati App.
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Switch book clubs whenever you want.
Literati costs $25 / month (billed monthly) or $20 / month ($240 billed annually; 20% savings).
Blind Date with a Book
Similar to online dating match services such as OK Cupid, Ashley the owner of Baby Dolls Bookshop pairs readers on a blind date with a cozy read from an unknown author. Simply pick a genre, and Ashley will handpick a surprise title for you or your loved one.
Baby Dolls Bookshop enables customers to select from a multitude of genres, wrapped in decorative brown paper and mailed-by Ashley with a personalized note.
Going on a blind date with a book helps you discover new types of books to love, by different authors. This also provides for a new an exciting way to get yourself out of a reading slump.
-Ashley
Netflix
Netflix is launching Netflix Book Club, a one-of-a-kind book club from the source of the world’s most talked-about book to screen adaptations.
Through Netflix Book Club, readers will learn about their new best-loved stories, movies, and successful book series transformations first – and gain exclusive access to the strategy behind delivering these books from page to screen.
Three-time Emmy Award winner and star of the hit series adaptation Orange Is the New Black Uzo Aduba will host, with Netflix and Starbucks partnering to bring the Netflix Book Club to life.
Uzo will introduce monthly book options that will be streamed by Netflix and host chats about the transformation process with cast, creators, and writers over coffee at Starbucks in a new social series, “But Have You Read the Book?” The series will begin on November 16 live on the Still Watching Netflix YouTube Channel and the Netflix US Facebook channel.
Whether you’ve already completed the book or are waiting to read it after you’ve watched the movie first, that’s up to you! For the avid readers, the faithful watchers, and the endlessly curious, get ready to turn the page.
– Uzo
Now let’s move on to bestow readers with notable publications of hardbound literature.
A Christmas Story
The holiday book, A Christmas Story is a well-known Christmas classic. Shepherd’s fast-paced, entertaining, and nostalgia-filled characterization of an American family’s annual Christmas celebration is a joy to observe. Set against the Depression-era backdrop of rural Indiana Shepherd’s quirky novel cheers the old-fashioned rituals of the past.
The 12 Days of Christmas
William Morris
On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me . . . ‘
Blending hand-picked patterns from the V&A’s William Morris archive with spectacular fresh portrayals, this elegant book brings the verses of the authentic Twelve Days of Christmas carol to life.
A stunning Christmas keepsake to be cherished by devotees of the arts.
A Christmas Carol The Chimes and the Cricket of the Hearth
Charles Dickens
Generations of readers have been mesmerized by Dickens’s A Christmas Carol—the most popular ghost tale ever depicted, and the extraordinary saga of Ebenezer Scrooge’s reawakening.
Written in a few mere weeks, A Christmas Carol famously recounts the predicament of Bob Cratchit, whose family uncovers joy even in poverty, and the progression of his miserly boss Scrooge as he is visited by the ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future.
From Scrooge’s
“Bah!” and “Humbug!” to Tiny Tim’s “God bless us every one!”
A Christmas Carol shines with passion, affection, and the significance of the holidays. But beneath its sentimental composition, A Christmas Carol offers another of Dickens’s brazenly crucial portraits of a brutal civilization, and an inspiring impression of the likelihood of moral, psychological, and societal change.
This modern volume encompasses Dickens’s three most astonishing “Christmas Books,” including The Chimes, a New Year’s tale, and The Cricket on the Hearth, whose titular creature remains quiet during sorrow and cheeps while content.
The Nutcracker
E.T.A. Hoffman
Written in 1816 by the German Romantic E. T. A. Hoffmann for his children, nephews and nieces, The Nutcracker captures a child’s wonder at Christmas.
Since its publication, it has encouraged hundreds of artists and adaptations, most notably the legendary ballet, scored by Russian composer Pytor Ilyich Tchaikovsky.
Till this day, the story – and its enchanting visions of sugar plums and nutcrackers, mistletoe and the Kingdom of the Dolls – continues to cast its remarkable spell on bibliophiles of all generations.
Holidays On Ice
David Sedaris
David Sedaris’s beloved holiday compilation is new again with six additional pieces, including a never before published story.
Along with major attractions such as the chronicles of a Macy’s elf and the accounts of two extremely competitive families, are Sedaris’s tales of tardy trick-or-treaters (Us and Them); the disadvantages of describing the Easter Bunny to the French (Jesus Shaves); how to survive when you’ve been locked out in a blizzard (Let It Snow); the puzzling Christmas beliefs of other regions (Six to Eight Black Men); what Halloween at the physician’s office looks like (The Monster Mash); and a barnyard mystery Santa scenario gone amiss (Cow and Turkey). Sedaris’s comedic shorts will have fans laughing out loud while turning the pages.
The Jolly Christmas Postman
Janet and Allan Ahlberg
The Jolly Christmas Postman is one of my son’s favorite holiday books. Janet & Allan Ahlberg’s story begins simply with a postman who distributes letters to an array of fairytale characters. Each page offers readers delightful jokes and silly tales that young children can expand upon. This book also includes a collection of puzzles, and games for year-round enjoyment.
The Classic Tale of The Velveteen Rabbit: Or, How Toys Became Real
Margery Williams Bianco
This classic story is also a long time preferred family read. Like the wise old skin horse, Margery Bianco grasped how toys and people become genuine through the embodiment of love.
The Wild Christmas Reindeer
Jan Brett
Jan Brett’s book The Wild Christmas Reindeer is another one of my family’s beloved December picture books. Brett’s, brilliant Swedish illustrations, make this imaginary humorous children’s story about collaboration a pleasure to look at over and over again.
Amazing Peace A Christmas Poem
Maya Angelou
“Angels and Mortals, Believers and Nonbelievers, look heavenward,”
“and speak the word aloud. Peace.”
-Angelou
Angelou’s poem Amazing Peace was originally written for the 2005 White House Christmas tree lighting tradition to celebrate harmony and welcome the New Year. Her children’s book includes the spectrum of multiple religious holiday sentiments. Each page boasts vivid multicultural characters indicative of Steve Johnson and Lou Fancher’s oil paintings on canvas.
The Legend of the Poinsettia retold and illustrated by Tomie dePaola
In Mexico, the poinsettia is called flor de la Nochebuenao flower of the Holy Night. This Mexican legend reveals how the poinsettia came to be, through a small girl’s generous bounty to the Christ Child. dePaola’s retelling of the original version is filled with glorious paintings that are emblematic of Mexico.
