Favorite gift ideas for the holidays 2022

The days of December are flying by, and if you, like me, are scrambling for gift ideas with a Word Nerd twist, I have some great bookish gift suggestions for you.

Favorite books this year

I haven’t read as many books as I hoped this year. I blame it on tackling two 1000+ page tomes by the fantasy master Brandon Sanderson. Yes, that’s not a typo. TWO 1000 page books. I think I should get credit for at least four books out of that.

The Way of Kings and Words of Radiance are the first two books in Sanderson’s The Stormlight Archive series. My kids rave about these books, so I dug in, even though I’m usually not a big fantasy reader. I enjoyed them – there is great world building and, most important to me, character development. There are, however, lots of things to keep track of and a large number of “interludes” with new places and characters that are hard to understand. I ask my kids a lot of questions when I’m reading these books. I’m not going to suggest them as gifts because it takes a certain kind of reader to like these novels. If they sound good to you or you know someone who likes epic fantasy, then be my guest. I liked The Way of Kings better than Words of Radiance. I will finish the series, but I had other books to read.

Books that I read and thoroughly enjoyed this year include:

• A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. Not your typical Dickens (he wrote it in serial form so it is less dense and moves faster than his other novels.) It’s an excellent study of human nature and the price of oppression, set during The French Revolution. It is my favorite classic by far. There are actually characters I like! I listened to the audio book, free on Audible with excellent narration from Simon Callow. See my review here.
• The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World by Bishop Desmond Tutu, the Dalai Lama XIV, and Douglas Carlton Adams. Excellent inspirational advice from two spiritual leaders who have grappled with significant pain and frustration. I have given this book as a gift already to a few people, and it was well received. My review here.
• Prayer in the Night by Tish Harrison Warren. A fantastic book for sustaining Christian faith even during times of great darkness. I’ve given this book to friends and family going through challenging times. My daughter recommended it to me while I was dealing with my father’s declining health and death.
• The Menopause Manifesto: Own Your Health with Facts and Feminism by Dr. Jennifer Gunter. Obviously, this is for a specific audience. Dr. Gunter, a gynecologist, gives extensive information about the menopause transition and how to manage it -based on data. She’s also pretty funny. Her book was very helpful to me, and I have shared it with friends.

Books I haven’t read but dare to recommend

The Goodreads Choice Awards are book awards given by real people. Over five million readers voted this year. I have always enjoyed the titles my fellow readers on Goodreads recommend. The results for 2022 are out, and here are some titles I can’t wait to try (both from the winners and the nominees.)

• Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver because it’s Kingsolver and it’s about the trials of coming of age in Appalachia, where I live. She has taken the classic David Copperfield by Charles Dickens (him again!?) and transposed it to the modern American south. My book club is reading it early next year.
• Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult because I really enjoyed Small Great Things and it is, according to Goodreads, “A soul-stirring novel about what we choose to keep from our past, and what we choose to leave behind.” Also a pick for my book club.
• The Winners by Fredrick Bachman because I love Beartown.
• I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys YA Historical Fiction- because my daughter, who is a well read young woman with a good track record on recommendations, has enjoyed many of Sepetys’s books and I’ve decided that HF is a great way to learn more about history. And I want to perhaps write a YA HF or at least have components of history in it so I’d better start studying someone who is good at it. And, it’s NOT about World War II.

Word nerdy favorite things that aren’t books

This year, I finally went ahead and started paying for the pro versions of two of my favorite apps: Evernote and Canva. And I upgraded to Scrivener 3.

Evernote is a digital notebook app- I can access my notebooks from multiple devices, add notes quickly and easily, and keep my writing ideas, research, and resources organized easily. I can clip articles from the internet directly into Evernote which is great for when I see something that inspires a blog post or a novel idea. $9/month

I use Canva to create graphics for my blog and social media. The free version is quite nice, but I decided to go ahead and try the pro version. I get access to more photos, graphics, and templates with the paid version. I can also make my own “brand” templates, fonts, and colors with Canva pro. It makes creating content super easy and fun! $120/year

Finally, I paid for Scrivener writing software a long time ago and recently paid to upgrad to Scrivener 3. It’s an incredibly powerful software program for writing novels, screenplays, research papers. It has so many functions it can be overwhelming. I highly recommend doing the tutorial and making use of the online help guide as needed. But it won’t take much to get you started.

With Scrivener, it’s easy to keep your project organized with a binder that can hold research info (including links to outside sources), notes and ideas, and scenes that are easy to shift around. When you get a draft written, you can compile the relevant documents into a Word document for sharing/ reviewing. I am currently editing a novel with alternating narratives. I have assigned a color coded icon to each scene to help keep track of the different plot points within each timeline. Love it! You can also buy it as a gift. $60 for Windows and MacOS

Happy holidays!

There you go! I hope you find some useful ideas here, and if you have more to share, please do so in the comments.

Have a wonderful holiday season, and don’t forget to make time to relax and read!

Thanks for getting nerdy with me!

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