Holiday Book Recommendations 2021: Best Books For Friends
It’s that time of year. Time to think about your holiday gifts. We asked our Master Instructors and Whale Rock Staff to share their top book picks from 2021 in three categories. For the next three weeks, we’ll introduce a new category for you to explore. Here are their recommendations for books to buy for a friend. Happy Reading!
Instructors Picks
I would buy The Widows of Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey. The Perveen Mistry series is such an entertaining and informative view of 1920’s India through the eyes of a young Zoroastrian woman lawyer who defies stereotypes with dignity and determination as she unravels murder mysteries.
Kathy Erskine’s latest books are Lily’s Promise and All of Us.
Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell. I really loved this book. I love Shakespeare and found it fascinating to think about the family he left behind when he went off to London, and only rarely came back. But the writing is exquisite; she makes life live.
Patricia Lee “Patti” Gauch, author, teacher, former Editorial Director of Philomel Books.
The book I would buy for a friend this year would be: Gastro Obscura. This design-heavy celebration of world food is a delight to look at and super fun to flip through. It's the kind of book that you open and immediately start reading aloud from, sharing interesting facts and photos with your friends or even random nearby strangers.
Lisa Papademetriou is a former editor, the author of over 20 novels, and the founder of Bookflow.
The book I would buy for a friend this year would be Black Birds in the Sky by Brandy Colbert.
It thoroughly and brilliantly tells the story of the until-now little-known race massacre in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Phyllis Root is the author of over 50 books including, most recently, Begin With A Bee in collaboration with Liza Ketchum and Jackie Briggs Martin.
The Warden by Anthony Trollope, which is the first of his six Barsetshire novels. After a year of such conflict and rancor, it's wonderful to watch a sweet, gentle character rise above the ambitions of the petty and ambitious.
Gary D. Schmidt is the author, most recently, of the novel Just Like That and the picture book, One Smart Sheep.
Whale Rock Staff
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer is a collection of essays that explores the reciprocal relationship humans must have with nature in order to sustain our ecosystem.
Kimmerer weaves stories about life with botany lessons and Indigenous teachings. Each essay is moving, poetic and a reminder to be grateful for the grass under our feet.
Shari Becker,
Whale Rock Workshops founder.
Shari is the co-author of Sprouting Wings and the author of The Stellow Project, amongst others.
Although it's the young readers' edition of bestselling The Hidden Life of Trees, Can You Hear the Trees Talking? By Peter Wohlleben (translated by our own Shelley Tanaka) is so dense with information and written in such an inviting way that it really is a wonderful read for any age.
Every page has nuggets to glean, from how trees breathe and drink to whether they are brave or afraid. Just fascinating.
Heather Camlot
Whale Rock Workshops’ Editor & Workshop Host.
Heather is the author of The Other Side and What If Soldiers Fought with Pillows? amongst others.
The book I would gift to a friend this holiday season is Tokyo Ever After by Emiko Jean.
My friends and I grew up loving the Princess Diaries books and movies. This story is a modern Princess Diaries tale, written in a humorous style like Crazy Rich Asians. The love story is deep and captivating.
Sarah Cassell
Whale Rock Workshops, Social Media Manager