A Holiday Gift  for the Complicated Readers

 People are odd, which is a constant issue for those of us who enjoy giving books as presents around the holidays. It can be challenging to match the appropriate book to the right reader because individuals are very—perhaps the polite phrase is—meticulous.

We decided to adopt a different strategy for the gift recommendations this year.  With realistic detail, we sought to encompass a significant portion of the well-known ground while also extending a very broad group. Here are some suggestions broken down by the specific traits of the people in your life you'd like to gift books to.

1. A Lady For A Duke by Alexis Hall can work for your mom who enjoys romance but it's odd to get her something too sexy. A beautiful, sweeping historical romance from the bestselling author of Boyfriend Material is ideal for lovers of Netflix's Bridgerton, Evie Dunmore, and Manda Collins. This is your big chance to introduce mom to the world of soft yet personal, amusing but passionate, queer romance novels.

2. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie is a fantastic choice for that overly knowledgeable friend who insists that they have read every decent mystery series. Alan Bradley's work will do. He subtly and exquisitely alters the cozy mystery formula in his acclaimed Flavia de Luce series. Our main character's detective is a 12-year-old girl from 1950s England who is incredibly smart, has a keen sense of trouble, and loves chemistry. She's charming, intelligent, witty, and endearing, but she also has the same emotional openness as any other adolescent. The first of 10 intricately planned, immensely enjoyable mysteries is titled The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. Perhaps mention to your gift recipient that this series is addictive.

3. Hala Alyan's Salt Houses is the perfect book for your buddy who enjoys historical fiction but is sick of World War II-themed novels. Hala Alyan, a Palestinian American author and psychotherapist, tells a multigenerational family narrative that starts in 1967, during the Six-Day War. Alia and her family were evicted from their home in the West Bank city of Nablus, and now they must start again in Paris, Boston, Beirut, and Kuwait City. Alyan's first book offers a chance to change perspectives when reading historical fiction.

4. In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado is suitable for your choosy friend who believes that most nonfiction books are too monotonous to read. Because it employs fiction techniques and motifs to completely reimagine the memoir genre, this avant-garde 2019 book by Carmen Maria Machado (Her Body and Other Parties) is a great choice for nonfiction doubters. The novel, which is primarily written in the second person, describes Machado's abusive same-sex relationship when she attended the esteemed Iowa Writers' Workshop. In the Dream House is a genuinely new kind of nonfiction that is experimental, intricate, and brutally honest.

5. Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir will work for your medieval fantasy fanatic friend who wants to read something a little different. Traditional epic fantasy has the drawback that its content is generally predictable. battles of valor. Evil vs Good. Weapons. Black magic. Most likely goblins. Consider New Zealand author Tamsyn Muir if you're shopping for someone who wants to take a peek over the genre horizon. Muir dances across the liminal spaces of magical realism.  The best place to begin is with Gideon the Ninth, her debut book.

Those are some suggestions for the challenging readers in your life. Which books do you have for them? Please provide your own recommendations in the comments area below.