The Holiday Season is upon us! In Episode 222, we continue our annual tradition of sharing bookish holiday gift ideas. We’ve given these items to loved ones or treated ourselves to them (or received them as gifts!). We hope you find our ideas helpful.

Since our last episode, we’ve had some fun biblio adventures. Two highlights: Chris took a leisurely drive through the back roads of Connecticut to Hickory Stick Bookshop in Washington Depot (the town that inspired the Gilmore Girls), and Emily participated in the Cherry Bombe member book club discussion of Ina Garten’s memoir Be Ready When the Luck Happens, featuring Ina’s co-writer Deborah Davis.

In our “Just Read” segment, we discuss a gardening book, a YA novel, two picture books, and two novels, one a suspense thriller, the other literary fiction:

Complete Starter Guide to Bonsai: Growing from Seed or Seedling--Wiring, Pruning, Care, and Display by David Squirer

When We Flew Away: A Novel of Anne Frank Before the Diary by Alice Hoffman

Fight of the Century: Alice Paul Battles Woodrow Wilson for the Vote by Barb Rosenstock, illustrated by Sarah Green

I Am Book by Joren Cull

Trouble Island by Sharon Short

The Weekend by Charlotte Wood

Emily also discusses two short stories she’s read, “Johnny Christmas” by Ivy Pochoda from Eight Very Bad Nights: A Collection of Hanukkah Noir edited by Tod Goldberg and “Cat Brushing” from the collection Cat Brushing by Jane Campbell. Chris hasn’t read Gregory Magquire’s novel Wicked, but she’s curious about it after seeing the new Wicked movie. Have you read it?

Thanks as always for listening!