With Christmas just around the corner, we’re starting to think about gift shopping. Of course, with an avid reader on your list, it can be difficult to figure out which book to buy for them. But you’ve come to the right place! Because here’s my list of the perfect books to get for readers!
For the Fiction Reader
All the Ugly and Wonderful Things by Bryn Greenwood
Wavy, an eight-year-old girl, who is raised in a difficult home of substance abuse and drug dealing meets and falls in love with an older man, Kellen. He is an ex-con who works for her father selling drugs. The story follows them as they navigate their relationship, even if it is technically illegal.
This is one of my all-time favorite books, which is why it made it on my list of books to get for readers!
For the Mystery reader
Home Before Dark by Riley Sager
Maggie Holt was just a kid when she and her parents fled their new home in the middle of the night due to paranormal activity. As they lived out the next few months in a motel room, her father wrote his infamous book, House of Horrors, which detailed the haunting events of their brief 20-day stay in Baneberry Hall. Now, as an adult, Maggie inherits the old house after her father passed away. She returns to the Hall with plans to renovate and sell it as quickly as possible, but secrets from her past have a different plan. Will she be able to avoid the same fate as her family 25 years ago?
For the Thriller reader
The Last One by Alexandra Oliva
When a woman, nicknamed Zoo, decides to try her skills at a survival reality television show, she leaves behind her husband to join eleven other contestants to win a grand prize. While filming the show, something terrible happens, and people begin to fall ill worldwide. Destruction ensues as society crumbles, but Zoo knows nothing of it. She and her contestants are unaware of current events as they survive in the wild. Strange things start happening, but Zoo chalks it up to the show. Everything must be a part of the game, and she must survive. We follow Zoo as she slowly comes to the realization that the world really has collapsed and she is no longer on a game show. She must get back to her husband.
For the Historical Fiction reader
The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
Set in the middle of the 12th century in the fictional town of Kingsbridge, England, Pillars of the Earth follows the story of those surrounding the building of a cathedral. The characters include the mason, Tom Builder and his mixed family, Prior Phillip and his dream to build a cathedral in Kingsbridge with the help of Tom, and Aliena and her brother Richard as they acclimate to a new life without the power of their previous positions as the children of the Earl of Shiring. Being such a long book, the story is not easily summarized, but the characters are the main focus.
This is a lengthier book, but it’s one of my favorites. So I added to this list of books to get for readers!
For the Science Fiction reader
The Age of Miracles by Karent Thompson Walker
It’s just another Saturday in a California suburb for eleven-year-old Julia when she learns that the Earth’s rotation has slowed. But not by much, only 56 minutes. Scientists call it “slowing.” As the rotation continues to slow, the days and night grow longer. Many try to adapt, but some consider the “slowing” a government hoax or God’s wrath toward humankind. After a few weeks, the American government announces the implementation of “clock time” where citizens follow the clock, despite the amount of light outside. But some reject this idea, calling themselves “real timers.” They live by the idea that they should follow the Earth’s new cycle. Others, including Julia’s mother suffer from a side effect of the “slowing” called “the syndrome.” Its effects vary from person to person. Throughout the chaos that spirals out of control, Julie continues to experience middle school as normally as possible. She continues to work on school, maintain her friendships, and even starts a relationship with her crush, Seth.
For the Horror reader
The Winter People by Jennifer McMahon
West Hall, Vermont, has always been a town of strange disappearances and old legends. The most mysterious is that of Sara Harrison Shea, who, in 1908, was found dead in the field behind her house just months after the tragic death of her daughter.
Now, in present-day, nineteen-year-old Ruthie lives in Sara’s farmhouse with her mother, Alice, and her younger sister. Alice has always insisted that they live off the grid, a decision that has weighty consequences when Ruthie wakes up one morning to find that Alice has vanished. In her search for clues, she is startled to find a copy of Sara Harrison Shea’s diary hidden beneath the floorboards of her mother’s bedroom. As Ruthie gets sucked into the historical mystery, she discovers that she’s not the only person looking for someone that they’ve lost. But she may be the only one who can stop history from repeating itself. (Summary from Goodreads.)
For the Young Adult reader
The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X.R. Pan
When Leigh’s mother commits suicide, Leigh is certain her mother turned into a bird. Her father takes her on a trip to Taiwan to meet her maternal grandparents after her mother’s death. Leigh, who is half Asian and half white, does not speak her grandparents’ language. She struggles to communicate during her stay, but that doesn’t stop her from trying to find her mother as a bird. While she tracks down her mother in her new form, she ends up uncovering family secrets and developing a relationship with her grandparents. Leigh must work through her grief as she learns to navigate life without her mother.
For the Nonfiction reader
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
A memoir written about Walls’ childhood that shaped her as a person today. Walls writes about her parents’ beliefs that they did not need most of the aspects of modern society and often lived a nomadic lifestyle across most of the Southwest. Her family eventually landed in West Virginia where her father grew up. Walls and her three siblings found the tenacity to survive as her mother considered providing for her family less important than painting and reading, and her father often disappeared for days when he was drinking. Walls eventually found a way to leave her home and start a life for herself.
I don’t normally like nonfiction, but this is one of my favorites. So it definitely needed to be on this list of books to get for readers!
I hope this list helps ease your anxiety about which books to get for readers, specifically the bookworm in your life. Are there any books you’d add to this list? Leave a comment below!
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