The Best Books To Give As Gifts This Holiday Season

Every year, I ask for two things for the holidays: A book, and a pair of fluffy pajamas. Compared to the immense challenge of finding the Perfect Book, buying pajamas is simple. Walk into a store, run your fingers on each pair of pajamas, choose the ones that best embody the feeling of a cozy evening curled up next to a fireplace. The book, on the other hand, requires thought, and browsing, and a bit of luck.

A book, selected deliberately and precisely for your friend, can a wonderful holiday gift. Buying a book for a friend shows that you want to bring her delightful sentences and stories, that you want to brighten up her commute, and that you were thinking of her. But walking into a bookstore with a person in mind can be daunting. How can you know exactly what book your friend needs in her life at this exact moment?

With this collection of books — the vast majority of which were published in 2017 — we’ve made your task a bit simpler. Here's a book for every kind of friend you could possibly have.