Erica Ezeifedi, Associate Editor, is a transplant from Nashville, TN that has settled in the North East. In addition to being a writer, she has worked as a victim advocate and in public libraries, where she has focused on creating safe spaces for queer teens, mentorship, and providing test prep instruction free to students. Outside of work, much of her free time is spent looking for her next great read and planning her next snack.
Find her on Twitter at @Erica_Eze_.
We are in an interesting pocket of time where it feels like we’re constantly cycling between despair, incredulity, denial, and depression, with some moments of levity mixed in. It’s kind of surreal, to be honest. Unsurprisingly, books have been excellent at making me feel grounded (or, maybe escaping from reality, to be real), and looking forward to sharing books with people feels especially joyous.
Since we’re talking gifts, I made sure that the books below were very cutesy. Apart from a celebrity memoir and a vegan cookbook, there are lushly designed edges and brilliant color schemes, most of which belong to fantasy titles, but there’s also a sweet YA romance thrown in as well.
A Song to Drown Rivers by Ann Liang
This is one of the fantasy releases of the year—it was a Good Morning America book club pick, an Indie Next Pick, and is a nominee for this year’s Goodreads Choice Awards. It’s inspired by the Chinese legend of Xishi, one of the famous Four Beauties, who must make a terrible sacrifice to avenge her sister’s murder and protect her people. It’s Fanli, a young military adviser, who first sees the potential to wield Xishi’s beauty as a weapon. He trains her in everything from classical instruments to hiding emotions, all so that she can infiltrate the king’s court, win his favor, and weaken the kingdom of Wu. Thing is, the more Xishi succeeds in her mission, the more there is at stake, and if her true intentions are revealed, it could bring her and who she truly loves down.
Master of Me: The Secret to Controlling Your Narrative by Keke Palmer
I’ve noticed that the friends I have who don’t read as much tend to like memoirs, and celebrity memoirs by funny people like Keke Palmer make especially perfect gifts. But it’s not all sunshine and rainbows—Keke gets into her struggles with restarting her career after a decade, becoming a single mother, issues with boundaries, and more, all told in her singular voice. And let me just say that I know she spills in this, because the promo tour for the book has already involved revealing some behind-the-scenes Hollywood mess.
The Last One by Rachel Howzell Hall
This romantasy—the latest from the bestselling Howzell Hall—promises The Witcher plus N.K. Jemisin realness. In it, Kai is a young woman lost—she doesn’t know who she is or how she came to be in a strange land with strange beasts, but she does know that she needs to get out before things get worse. She also knows that she has abilities she doesn’t quite understand, and that receiving help from the town’s blacksmith can be as vexing as it can be exhilarating.
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Island Vegan: 75 Flavorful Recipes from the Caribbean: Jamaica, Trinidad, Haiti, Dominican Republic & More by Lloyd Rose
I think cookbooks make perfect bookish gifts, and here, Lloyd Rose shares his love for Caribbean food with plant-based recipes. With staples like coconut milk, allspice, and curry powder, he shares not only veganized recipes from his Jamaican heritage, but also from other parts of the Caribbean, like Cuba, Trinidad, and Puerto Rico. I’m not vegan (anymore, lol), but I love incorporating plant-based dishes into my days.
If you’re looking for even more cookbooks to gift, check out this list I compiled some weeks back.
Immortal Dark by Tigest Girma
This Black-led, dark academia vampire romantasy with Ethiopian influences has been compared to Leigh Bardugo’s Ninth House, which is a particular brand of dark fantasy I vibe with. In it, lost heiress Kidan Adane infiltrates Uxlay University, where students dedicate themselves to studying to preserve peace between humans and vampires. But Kidan is there because her family was killed and her sister kidnapped, with all signs pointing to Susenyos Sagad, the vampire bound to her family, being the culprit. But Susenyos—and giving into her own darkness—is alluring, and after a murder happens that echoes her sister’s disappearance, Kidan finds herself dangerously deeper into the vampire underworld.
A Bánh Mí for Two by Trinity Nguyen
I just mentioned this sapphic foodie romance a couple of weeks ago, but I also had to shout it out here as a really cute, bookish gift.
It follows Lan, a teenage girl in Vietnam who has a food blog, and Vietnamese American girl Vivi Huynh, who goes to Vietnam to find out more about her family. Once the two meet, they discover that they can help each other…in more ways than one.
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