All I Want For Christmas Is Books

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Happy holidays, bookworms! Do you typically get books as gifts from your friends and family? I don't, but that doesn't stop me from dreaming. Here are ten books I'm hoping to find under the Christmas tree. Many of them are nature nonfiction because I'm slightly tempted to get better at my day job.

🎄  All I Want For Christmas 🎁

YELLOWFACE BY R.F. KUANG

Adult Literary Fiction

Authors June Hayward and Athena Liu were supposed to be twin rising stars: same year at Yale, same debut year in publishing. But Athena’s a cross-genre literary darling, and June didn’t even get a paperback release. Nobody wants stories about basic white girls, June thinks.

So when June witnesses Athena’s death in a freak accident, she acts on impulse: she steals Athena’s just-finished masterpiece, an experimental novel about the unsung contributions of Chinese laborers to the British and French war efforts during World War I.

So what if June edits Athena’s novel and sends it to her agent as her own work? So what if she lets her new publisher rebrand her as Juniper Song—complete with an ambiguously ethnic author photo? Doesn’t this piece of history deserve to be told, whoever the teller? That’s what June claims, and the New York Times bestseller list seems to agree.

But June can’t get away from Athena’s shadow, and emerging evidence threatens to bring June’s (stolen) success down around her. As June races to protect her secret, she discovers exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves.

Why I want to read it: This book is being compared to White Ivy by Susie Yang, which I read last year and loved. White Ivy has shocking plot twists and a protagonist who makes terrible choices for understandable reasons. I'd be thrilled with another book like White Ivy.

Buy it on Amazon

The Cold Vanish: Seeking The Missing In North America's Wilderness by Jon Billman

Nature Nonfiction

These are the stories that defy conventional logic. The proverbial vanished without a trace incidences, which happen a lot more (and a lot closer to your backyard) than almost anyone thinks. These are the missing whose situations are the hardest on loved ones left behind. The cases that are an embarrassment for park superintendents, rangers and law enforcement charged with Search & Rescue. The ones that baffle the volunteers who comb the mountains, woods and badlands. The stories that should give you pause every time you venture outdoors.

Why I want to read it: I was searching for books that are true crime adjacent without actually being true crime. A random dude on TikTock popped into my feed with this recommendation. Thanks, random dude! It's about the wilderness, which makes it exactly my kind of book.

Buy it on Amazon

THE LAST SEASON BY ERIC BLEHM

Nonfiction Biography

The Last Season examines the extraordinary life of legendary backcountry ranger Randy Morgenson and his mysterious disappearance in California's unforgiving Sierra Nevada—mountains as perilous as they are beautiful. Eric Blehm's masterful work is a gripping detective story interwoven with the riveting biography of a complicated, original, and wholly fascinating man.

Why I want to read it: Mostly because my coworker was talking about it, but also for the same reason I want to read the above ^^ book. I'm looking for real-life mystery stories that don't have a crime component.

Buy it on Amazon

THE FRAGILE THREADS OF POWER BY V.E. SCHWAB

Adult Fantasy

Once, there were four worlds, nestled like pages in a book, each pulsing with fantastical power, and connected by a single city: London. Until the magic grew too fast, and forced the worlds to seal the doors between them in a desperate gamble to protect their own. The few magicians who could still open the doors grew more rare as time passed and now, only three Antari are known in recent memory—Kell Maresh of Red London, Delilah Bard of Grey London, and Holland Vosijk of White London.

But barely a glimpse of them have been seen in the last seven years—and a new Antari named Kosika has appeared in White London, taking the throne in Holland's absence. The young queen is willing to feed her city with blood, including her own—but her growing religious fervor has the potential to drown them instead.

And back in Red London, King Rhy Maresh is threatened by a rising rebellion, one determined to correct the balance of power by razing the throne entirely.

Amidst this tapestry of old friends and new enemies, a girl with an unusual magical ability comes into possession of a device that could change the fate of all four worlds.

Her name is Tes, and she's the only one who can bring them together—or unravel it all.

Why I want to read it: Is this book finally coming out? I feel like I've been waiting for years! This is the first book in a companion series to the Shades Of Magic. I love the parallel Londons! I could read about them forever. If you like stories about parallel universes, you need to read Shades Of Magic.

Buy it on Amazon

Ordinary Wonder Tales by Emily Urquhart

Nonfiction Essays

In this startlingly original essay collection, Urquhart reveals the truths that underlie our imaginings: what we see in our heads when we read, how the sight of a ghost can heal, how the entrance to the underworld can be glimpsed in an oil painting or a winter storm—or the onset of a loved one's dementia. In essays on death and dying, pregnancy and prenatal genetics, psychics, chimeras, cottagers, and plague, Ordinary Wonder Tales reveals the essential truth: if you let yourself look closely, there is magic in the everyday.

Why I want to read it: Okay, that synopsis is confusing and unhelpful. From what I understand, the book is about how people see magic in everyday life. These essays are stories from the author's life, but she blends real stories with folklore and fairytale elements. It sounds like an interesting writing experiment.

Buy it on Amazon

NATURE NOIR: A PARK RANGER'S PATROL IN THE SIERRA BY JORDAN FISHER SMITH

Nonfiction Memoir

A nature book unlike any other, Jordan Fisher Smith's startling account of fourteen years as a park ranger thoroughly dispels our idealized visions of life in the great outdoors. Instead of scout troops and placid birdwatchers, Smith's beat—a stretch of land that has been officially condemned to be flooded—brings him into contact with drug users tweaked out to the point of violence, obsessed miners, and other dangerous creatures. In unflinchingly honest prose, he reveals the unexpectedly dark underbelly of patrolling and protecting public lands.

Why I want to read it: I'm constantly reevaluating my life choices. How long do I want to work in parks? It's awesome to work in a vacation destination, but it's also the most mentally exhausting challenge I've ever accepted.

Buy it on Amazon

ENGINEERING EDEN: THE TRUE STORY OF A VIOLENT DEATH, A TRIAL, AND THE FIGHT OVER CONTROLLING NATURE BY JORDAN FISHER SMITH

Nature Nonfiction

When twenty-five-year-old Harry Walker was killed by a bear in Yellowstone Park in 1972, the civil trial prompted by his death became a proxy for bigger questions about American wilderness management that had been boiling for a century. At immediate issue was whether the Park Service should have done more to keep bears away from humans, but what was revealed as the trial unfolded was just how fruitless our efforts to regulate nature in the parks had always been.

Why I want to read it: I want to learn more about how we can make spaces safe for humans and animals without turning the wilderness into a zoo. Luckily, most of the visitors at the park where I work seem to understand that they have to share the park with animals. Well, except for the woman who cried because "a fish touched her leg." Or the woman who said I needed to "call the cops or something because there are too many leeches." I'm unsure what she expects cops to do about leeches.

Buy it on Amazon

Plagues And Peoples by William H. McNeill

History Nonfiction

Upon its original publication, Plagues and Peoples was an immediate critical and popular success, offering a radically new interpretation of world history as seen through the extraordinary impact—political, demographic, ecological, and psychological—of disease on cultures. From the conquest of Mexico by smallpox as much as by the Spanish, to the bubonic plague in China, to the typhoid epidemic in Europe, the history of disease is the history of humankind.

Why I want to read it: I'm pretty sure this recommendation came from the same random TikTok guy who recommended The Cold Vanish. He said it's the most disturbing book he's ever read. That's all it takes to get my attention. Sign me up.

Buy it on Amazon

We Had To Remove This Post by Hanna Bervoets

Adult Literary Fiction

Kayleigh needs money. That’s why she takes a job as a content moderator for a social media platform whose name she isn’t allowed to mention. Her job: reviewing offensive videos and pictures, rants and conspiracy theories, and deciding which need to be removed. It’s grueling work. Kayleigh and her colleagues spend all day watching horrors and hate on their screens, evaluating them with the platform’s ever-changing terms of service while a supervisor sits behind them, timing and scoring their assessments. Yet Kayleigh finds a group of friends, even a new love—and, somehow, the job starts to feel okay.

But when her colleagues begin to break down; when Sigrid, her new girlfriend, grows increasingly distant and fragile; when her friends start espousing the very conspiracy theories they’re meant to be evaluating; Kayleigh begins to wonder if the job may be too much for them. She’s still totally fine, though—or is she?

Why I want to read it: I have a story for you! I'm obsessed with Pinterest and make new pins every day. Once in a while, I'll get a passive aggressive email from the robots that review the content on Pinterest. The email says, "We have removed your pin for being pornographic. How dare you post pornography on our innocent site! Your account will be deleted if you do it again!" I have never posted porn on Pinterest. The robots just have dirty minds and can't handle anything that's vaguely dick shaped. I swear these robots are worse than giggly middle school boys.

Since I don't post porn on Pinterest, I'll get a passive aggressive follow-up email a few days later. It says, "We've reviewed your pin and discovered it's not pornographic. However, don't even think about posting porn on our site! You will be soooo banned."

I want to read this book because I want to know about the people who have to check the robots' work.

Buy it on Amazon

The Hidden Life Of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate—Discoveries From A Secret World by Peter Wohlleben

Nature Nonfiction

How do trees live? Do they feel pain, or have awareness of their surroundings? Research is now suggesting trees are capable of much more than we have ever known. In The Hidden Life of Trees, forester Peter Wohlleben puts groundbreaking scientific discoveries into a language everyone can relate to.

Why I want to read it: Earlier this year, I read The Overstory by Richard Powers and got bored with it. I wanted a nonfiction version of that book. Several people in this blog's comments recommended The Hidden Life Of Trees. I'll give it a try.

Buy it on Amazon

Which books are on your wish list?