Holiday Gift Guide 2017 — Fab Book Gifts!

Books are such amazing gifts to receive.  From fun fiction reads to books that teach you something new, I love to give the people in my life the gift of adventure and learning!

Here are a bunch of great books that the readers in your life would love to receive.  Starting with baking books, to inspirational books to amazing fiction and fun stocking stuffers; there’s a little bit of everything on my list!  This is a long list, so curl up with a cup of coffee or tea and get ready for some great gift ideas:

CAKE, I LOVE YOU: Decadent, Delectable, and Do-able Recipes By Jill O’Connor ($24.95 USD, on sale at Amazon for $15.09!) — What better way to celebrate life’s big and small achievements than with cake? There is something inherently festive and special about a homemade cake. Master baker, Jill O’Connor walks home cooks through the cake-making process with crowd-pleasing recipes, perfect for the holidays.  It offers more than 50 divinely decadent recipes home bakers will want to make right away.

Taste of Home 365 Days of Cookies ($24.99, on sale for $19.99) —  When it comes to smile-fetching sweets you can’t go wrong with cookies! From soft and chewy to crisp and crunchy, the buttery sensations always get thumb-up approval. This new book features hundreds of full-color photos, this must-see edition offers after-school snacks, coffee-break bites, classroom treats, bake-sale favorites and holiday delights that are perfect throughout the year. You’ll even find cookies that celebrate days such as National Potato Chip Day (March 14), Jelly Bean Day (April 22) and National French Toast Day (November 28). Best of all, a Christmas- Cookies Bonus Section makes this cookbook a home baker’s dream come true!

Crystal Bliss by Devi Brown — ($18.99 USD) —  If you’re feeling worn out, uninspired, and unmotivated, you can change your energy with the help of crystals. Crystal Bliss provides you with everything you need to harness the innate energy and vibrations of crystals. This guide walks you through the process of selecting crystals, cleansing and preparing them for use, and incorporating them into your meditation and energy healing process. 

With the help of Crystal Bliss, you can learn how to boost your own energy, beat back negative vibes, open your heart to love, manifest wealth, and promote good health.

To Hear The Forest Sing some musings on the divine by Margaret Dulaney ($14.98 Paperback and $4.49 Kindle) — To Hear the Forest Sing is a collection of essays by the founder of the spoken word website Listen Well. Margaret Dulaney has been accumulating a life’s worth of spiritual musings for the past two decades. In 2010 she founded the spoken word website Listen Well, which offers one recorded essay a month to a growing number of followers. Listeners tune in for ten quiet minutes as she explores sacred and secular themes through story and metaphor.

Let the Story Do the Work: The Art of Storytelling for Business Success by Esther K. Choy – ($24.95 Amazon price $21.17) — It sounds so simple: Incorporate a story and people will remember your message. But when you get down to crafting one, there’s nothing easy about it.

Material for stories surrounds us. Yet few people are skilled at sharing personal anecdotes and even fewer know how to link them to professional goals. Whether you want to stand out in the interview process, add punch to a presentation, or make a compelling case for a new initiative, Let the Story Do the Work shows you how to mine your experience for simple narratives that convey who you are, what you want to achieve, and why others should care.

Real Life Super Heroes by Nadia Fezzani ($22.99, $15.63 on Amazon) —  t’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s… Stuart, the CPA from down the street! Dressed like heroes from comic books and action movies, Real Life Super Heroes dress up at night, fight crime, save people, and some of them even have secret identities. Are they ordinary, mild-mannered citizens, or are they larger-than-life characters, determined to fight crime, risking life and limb to defend victims of violence and injustice? In her revealing new book author and investigative journalist Nadia Fezzani shines a spotlight on the people who come home from work, change into their uniforms (or costumes), and patrol the streets looking for crime to fight and victims in distress.

The Edge of the World: A Visual Adventure to the Most Extraordinary Places on Earth ($26, on Amazon for $15.16) — With a foreword by world-renowned photographer Jimmy Chin and an introduction by Outside magazine’s editor Christopher Keyes, The Edge of the World is a stunning collection of the best photography ever published by the leader in outdoor adventure photography and journalism. Created in partnership with Outside magazine for its 40th anniversary, this includes Outside’s most compelling stories from throughout the years and offers readers an inside and dramatic look through the lens of the world’s top adventure photographers.

Christmas in London by Anita Hughes ($15.99, on Amazongfor $9.99) — It’s a week before Christmas and Louisa Graham is working twelve hour shifts at a bakery on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. When a young cooking show assistant comes in from the rain and begs to buy all the cinnamon rolls on her tray, she doesn’t know what to do. Louisa is just the baker, and they aren’t hers to sell. But the show burned the rolls they were supposed to film that day, so she agrees.

The next morning, Louisa finds out that her cinnamon rolls were a hit, but the star of the show was allergic, and the whole crew is supposed to leave for London that afternoon. They want Louisa to step in for their annual Christmas Eve Dinner TV special at Claridge’s. It’s a great opportunity, and Digby Bunting, Louisa’s famous baking idol, will be there. Even if he does seem more interested in her than her food.

And then there’s Kate, the show’s beautiful producer. On their first day in London she runs into the skinny boy she jilted at St. Andrew’s in Scotland ten years ago. Now he’s a handsome, brilliant mathematician, and newly divorced. Their familiar spark is still there, but so is the scar of how they left things. Kate and Louisa are busy preparing for the show, but old and new flames are complicating their work.

Set during London’s most festive time of year and filled with delicious food, CHRISTMAS IN LONDON is about love and friendship, and the season’s most important lesson: learning how to ask for and give forgiveness.

Best Day Ever:A Riveting Psychological Thriller about the Perfect Marriage by Kaira Rouda ($26.99, $16.27 at Amazon) — Paul Strom has the perfect life: a glittering career as an advertising executive, a beautiful wife, two healthy boys and a big house in a wealthy suburb. And he’s the perfect husband: breadwinner, protector, provider. That’s why he’s planned a romantic weekend for his wife, Mia, at their lake house, just the two of them. And he’s promised today will be the best day ever.

But as Paul and Mia drive out of the city and toward the countryside, a spike of tension begins to wedge itself between them and doubts start to arise. How much do they trust each other? And how perfect is their marriage, or any marriage, really?

Forcing us to ask ourselves just how well we know those who are closest to us, Best Day Ever crackles with dark energy, spinning ever tighter toward its shocking conclusion.

Help! Oh I was talking to myself! by Offshoot ($10.89 USD) — This activity book plays a vital role in reducing stress by helping the readers stand above an issue. They acknowledge it, and treat it lightly in the awareness that they are touched by the issue but not contained by it. The activities take the readers’ minds off the banality of everyday life. There is an affirmation for the readers on every leaf of this book. It reminds them that they are much more than the problems life throws at them.

Shocked!: When office doesn’t rock! by Offshoot — ($9.95, $1.79 at Amazon) — Pressure, deadlines, workload and race against time.Banging heads and lost in files, oh my god, I have lost all smiles―an alarming microscope of the oddities of life in the workplace fishbowl, the book works as a buffer for your daily rants and curses. Caustically funny illustrations make it the book your boss would never want you to lay your hands on. So, here is the chance to cope with office drama and fine tuneyour worries and frustrations with this awesome book of activities.

Do you like to give books as gifts?  What are some of your current favorites?