Happy November!
It's my favorite time of year. Sweaters and tea in the afternoon and lots of blankets for curling up to read. I'm very fortunate to have positive associations with the holidays: gingerbread cookies and White Christmas with my kids, decorating our tree together after a day at the tree farm with hot apple cider, reading books in the glow of the colored twinkle lights, and giving all of my favorite books to friends and family in the hopes that they'll enjoy them as much as I have. There's something so intimate about sharing a book that you've loved, perhaps because reading a book is something you do alone. Inviting someone else into the world that you've created with your book is a vulnerable thing to do.
Perhaps that is why I love putting together a list like this.
I know that things are still strange, and that our brick and mortar shop is still closed to the public (although, stay tuned for a few special opportunities to stop in over the holidays). I know that there are few things more magical than heading into a bookshop with one idea about what you're looking for, and leaving with an armful of books you didn't know you needed. This is a challenging year as we navigate a broken supply chain, book shortages, and delayed shipping. While it may be a challenge to get your special orders in time for the holidays, we have SO MANY wonderful books in stock and ready for your holiday needs - and it's only NOVEMBER! You're ahead of the game.
So, without further adieu, here are some books that will make great gifts for all of the readers - reluctant and otherwise - in your life. If you see something that you'd like and it's currently sold out, just send me an email (dottersbooks@gmail.com) and I'll be sure to put a copy in our next order. Also, please don't hesitate to get in touch if you need a more tailored recommendation. I'll be very happy to help.
Happy Holidays, Friends! Stay well & well read!
ESSAY & NONFICTION: Social justice, fascinating people, cultural criticism, and the history that surrounds and shapes us everyday
A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance by Hanif Abdurraqib
Consumed: The Need for Collective Change: Colonialism, Climate Change, and Consumerism by Aja Barber
Having and Being Had by Eula Biss
A Mind Spread Out on the Ground by Alicia Elliott
The Ground Breaking: An American City and Its Search for Justice by Scott Ellsworth
Giannis: The Improbable Rise of an NBA MVP by Mirin Fader
Incidental Inventions by Elena Ferrante
Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own by Eddie S. Glaude, Jr.
What We Don’t Talk About When We Talk About Fat by Aubrey Gordon
White Tears/Brown Scars: How White Feminism Betrays Women of Color by Ruby Hamad
Leaving Isn't The Hardest Thing: Essays by Lauren Hough
The Dead Beat: Lost Souls, Lucky Stiffs, and the Perverse Pleasure of Obituaries by Marilyn Johnson
Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty by Patrick Radden Keefe
Why We’re Polarized by Ezra Klein
All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley's Sack, a Black Family Keepsake by Tiya Miles
The Crime Without a Name: Ethnocide and the Erasure of Culture in America by Barrett Holmes Pitner
Just Us: An American Conversation by Claudia Rankine
She Come By It Natural: Dolly Parton and the Women Who Lived Her Songs by Sarah Smarsh
How the Word is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America by Clint Smith
Intimations: Six Essays by Zadie Smith
Lost in Summerland: Essays by Barrett Swanson
Horizontal Vertigo: A City Called Mexico by Juan Villoro
Caste: The Origin of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson
FOOD LOVERS: Cookbooks, books on entertaining, books about food, books with great food writing, fiction & nonfiction
All the Wild Hungers: A Season of Cooking & Cancer by Karen Babine
Be My Guest: Reflections on Food, Community, and the Meaning of Generosity by Priya Basil
Tastes Like War: A Memoir by Grace M. Cho
Eat Joy: Stories & Comfort Food from 31 Celebrated Writers edited by Natalie Garrett
Half-Baked Harvest Cookbook: Recipes from My Barn in the Mountains by Tieghan Gerard
The Drink that Made Wisconsin Famous: Beer and Brewing in the Badger State by Doug Hoverson
Nadiya Bakes: Over 100 Must-Try Recipes for Breaks, Cakes, Biscuits, Pies, and More: A Baking BookCoconut & Sambal: Recipes from My Indonesian Kitchen by Lara Lee
Arsenic & Adobo by Mia P. Manansala
Ottolenghi Test Kitchen: Shelf Love by Noor Murad & Yotam Ottolenghi
Save Me The Plums: My Gourmet Memoir by Ruth Reichl
Curry: Eating, Reading, and Race by Naben Ruthnum
Crying in H Mart: A Memoir by Michelle Zauner
GREAT STORYTELLING: engaging characters, wonderful stories, unforgettable reading experiences
Radiant Fugitives by Nawaaz Ahmed
A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende
If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin
Little Faith by Nickolas Butler
What’s Mine & Yours by Naima Coster
Damnation Spring by Ash Davidson
Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr
Infinite Country by Patricia Engel
The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich
The Sentence by Louise Erdrich
Send for MeThe Butchers’ Blessing by Ruth Gilligan
Morningside Heights by Joshua Henkin
The Love Songs of W.E.B. DuBois by Honorée Fannone Jeffers
The Prophets by Robert Jones, Jr.
Lightning Strike by William Kent Krueger
Future Feeling by Joss LakeDeacon King Kong by James McBride
The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
The Travelers by Regina Porter
Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead
The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles
Sharks in the Time of Saviors by Kawai Strong Washburn
HEARTWARMING BOOKS: Sometimes we just need a little joy - and perhaps some fun
The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams
Anxious People by Fredrik Backman
Things You Save in a Fire by Katherine Center
How to Live. What to Do.: In Search of Ourselves in Life & Literature by Josh Cohen
The Wedding Party by Jasmine Guillory
Early Morning Riser by Katherine Heiny
Go West, Young Man: A Father & Son Rediscover America on the Oregon Trail by B.J. Hollars
Hope is The Thing: Wisconsinites on Perseverance in a Pandemic edited by BJ Hollars
Silence: In the Age of Noise by Erling Kagge
Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
A Wealth of Pigeons: A Cartoon Collection by Steve Martin
The Memoirs of Stockholm Sven by Nathaniel Ian Miller
Greek to Me: Adventures of the Comma Queen by Mary Norris
Truck: A Love Story by Michael Perry
Gilead AND Home AND Lila AND Jack by Marilynne Robinson
A Carnival of Snackery: Diaries (2003-2020) by David Sedaris
Big Friendship: How We Keep Each Other Close by Aminatou Sow & Anne Friedman
The Lager Queen of Minnesota by J.Ryan Stradal
Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar by Cheryl Strayed
The Liar's Dictionary by Eley Williams
LITERARY FICTION: Experimental writing, fantastic character development, studies in interior life
These Ghosts Are Family by Maisy Card
Moon and the Mars by Kia Corthron
Winter in Sokcho by Elisa Shua Dusapin
The Lying Life of Adults by Elena Ferrante
The HareThe Western Wind by Samantha Harvey
Via Negativa by Daniel Hornsby
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
Corregidora by Gayl JonesIntimacies: A Novel by Katie Kitamura
Inland by Téa ObrehtI Will Die in a Foreign Land by Kalani Pickhart
Beautiful World, Where Are You? by Sally Rooney
The Union of Synchronized Swimmers by Cristina Sandu
On Beauty by Zadie SmithWinter in the Blood by James Welch
Win Me Something by Kyle Lucia Wu
MEMOIR: real life storytelling with inspirational and intelligent people
No Name in the Street by James Baldwin
The Natural Mother of the Child: A Memoir of Nonbinary Parenthood by Krys Malcolm Belc
Hola Papi: How to Come Out in a Walmart Parking Lot and Other Life Lessons by John Paul Brammer
The Yellow House by Sarah M. Broom
Unbound: My Story of Liberation and the Birth of the Me Too Movement by Tarana Burke
Seeing Ghosts: A Memoir by Kat Chow
Books and Islands in Ojibwe Country: Traveling Through the Land of My Ancestors by Louise Erdrich
The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music by Dave Grohl
Poet Warrior: A Memoir by Joy Harjo
Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations by Mira Jacob
All In: An Autobiography by Billie Jean King, Johnette Howard, & Maryanne Vollers
Gentrifier: A Memoir by Anne Elizabeth Moore
Dolly Parton, Songteller: My Life in Lyrics by Dolly Parton with Robert K. Oermann
Gone to the Woods: Surviving a Lost Childhood by Gary Paulsen (this is for middle grade readers, but if The Hatchet meant as much to you as it did to me, this might be the perfect one to check out.)
Beautiful Country: A Memoir by Qian Julie Wang
Somewhere in the Unknown World: A Collective Refugee Memoir by Kao Kalia Yang
Crying in H Mart: A Memoir by Michelle Zauner
NATURE & SCIENCE: the world around us, the changing climate, the pioneers, fiction & nonfiction - for the endlessly curious
Northern Light: Power, Land, and the Memory of Water by Kazim Ali
We Are the Weather: Saving the Planet Begins at Breakfast by Jonathan Safran Foer
Seed to Dust: Life, Nature, and a Country Garden by Marc Hamer
Long Way Round: Through the Heartland by River by John Hildebrand
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teaching of PlantsGathering Moss by Robin Wall Kimmerer
The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man's Love Affair with Nature by J.Drew Lanham
The Premonition: A Pandemic Story by Michael Lewis
Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luiselli
Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy
Why Fish Don’t Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life by Lulu Miller
Earth Keeper: Reflections on the American Land by N.Scott Momady
House Made of Dawn by N.Scott Momaday
Remote Control by Nnedi Okorafor
Upstream: Selected Essays by Mary Oliver
Bewilderment by Richard Powers
Fox & I: An Uncommon Friendship by Catherine Raven
Oak Flat: A Fight for Sacred Land in the American West by Lauren Redniss
Trace: Memory, History, Race, and the American Landscape by Lauret Savoy
Frankenstein: Or 'The Modern Prometheus': The 1818 Text by Mary Shelley
Gold Fame Citrus by Claire Vaye Watkins
Tell the Machine Goodnight by Katie Williams
The Hour of Land: A Personal Topography of America’s National Parks by Terry Tempest Williams
The Seed Keeper by Diane Wilson
SHORT STORY: for the adventurous reader - an intimate glimpse, a concentrated character study, a baffling bite of narrative goodness
Martita, I Remember You/Martita, te recuerdo: A Story in English and Spanish by Sandra Cisneros
The Office of Historical Corrections: A Novella & Stories by Danielle Evans
Sabrina & Corina: Stories by Kali Fajardo-Anstine
My Monticello: Fiction by Jocelyn Nicole Jones
This Is Paradise: Stories by Kristiana Kahakauwila
Five Tuesdays in Winter by Lily King
The Secret Lives of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw
The Ones Who Don’t Say They Love You: Stories by Maurice Carlos Ruffin
Afterparties: Stories by Anthony Veasna So
Filthy Animals by Brandon Taylor
Born Into This: Stories by Adam Thomas
THRILLING NARRATIVE: books you can't put down, lots of suspense and messy family drama, sometimes a little romance
While Justice Sleeps by Stacey Abrams
Dead Dead Girls: A Harlem Renaissance Mystery by Nekesa Afia
Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam
Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line by Deepa Anappora
Who is Maud Dixon? by Alexandra Andrews
Afterland by Lauren BeukesState of Terror by Hillary Rodham Clinton & Louise Penny
The Perishing by Natashia Deón
Empire of Wild by Cherie Dimaline
The Deep, Deep Snow by Brian Freeman
Robert Ludlum’s The Bourne Evolution by Brian Freeman
Fates & Furies by Lauren Groff
Royal Holiday by Jasmine Guillory
A Line to Kill by Anthony Horowitz
My Monticello: Fiction by Jocelyn Nicole Johnson
The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones
The Bombay Prince by Sujata Massey (the third installment of The Perveen Mistry Series)
Once There Were Wolves by Charlotte McConaghy
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
The Sacrament by Olaf Olafsson
The Comfort of Monsters by Willa C. Richards
The Survivors by Alex Schulman
Olympus, Texas by Stacey Swann
Any Man by Amber TamblynWe Run the Tides by Vendela Vida
Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots
Winter Counts by David Heska Wanbli Weiden
Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead