Holiday Gift Guide 2019 — Books for Gifting

Hi all, I’m back with another gift guide.  This time it’s books!

I have put together a list of fun books that make great gifts.  I love to give and receive books, they are so much fun! Read on to get some ideas!

Just Peachy by Belinda Smith-Sullivan ($ 14.49 Hardcover, $10.99 Kindle) — Chef Belinda Smith-Sullivan, granddaughter of Mississippi sharecroppers, is the go-to resource for everything peaches. Not only does she provide perfect peach recipes, but she also has information about the variety of peaches, history, growing and growers, as well as festivals. There are approximately 70 recipes for breads, breakfasts, appetizers, soups and salads, entrees, desserts, peach pies, sauces, preserves and condiments, and drinks in this beautifully photographed cookbook.

A Baker’s Passport: Recipes for Breads, Savory Pies, Vegetarian Dishes, Tarts, Cakes, and Cookie Classics. (Original-Fourth Edition) ($39.99) — Travel the world with A Baker’s Passport, a road trip of baking classics in their homelands. With over 225 sweet and savory recipes and lively photographs, Pastry Chef Susie Norris takes you on a tour of regional baking through the world’s great culinary capitals. This technique-driven baking book for home cooks offers well-tested recipes for classics like Quiche Lorraine, Black Forest Cake, Moon Cakes, and Creme Brûlée. A Baker’s Passport, based on the award-winning culinary travel blog, FoodMarketGypsy.com, brings stories of the world’s great baking traditions home to you.

The Making of Outlander: The Series: The Official Guide to Seasons Three & Four by Tara Bennett ($31.49 hardback and $) — From its very first episode, the Outlander TV series transported its viewers back in time, taking us inside Diana Gabaldon’s beloved world. From the Scottish Highlands to the courts of Versailles to the shores of America, Jamie and Claire’s epic adventure is captured in gorgeous detail.

Now travel even deeper into the world of Outlander with this must-have insider guide from New York Times bestselling author and television critic Tara Bennett. Picking up where The Making of Outlander: Seasons One & Two left off, this lavishly illustrated collectors’ item covers seasons three and four, bringing readers behind the scenes and straight onto the set of the show. You’ll find exclusive interviews with cast members, including detailed conversations with Caitriona Balfe and Sam Heughan (on-screen couple and real-life friends), as well as the writers, producers, costume designers, set decorators, technicians, and more whose hard work and cinematic magic bring the world of Outlander to life on the screen.

Holiday Jubilee: Classic & Kitschy Festivities & Fun Party Recipes by Charles Phoenix ($19.39) — You’re invited to celebrate America’s favorite seasonal traditions like never before. Ambassador of Americana Charles Phoenix mixes and mingles spectacular vintage Kodachrome slides of New Year’s, Valentine’s Day, Easter, Fourth of July, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas with his eye-popping, original recipes for epic edible centerpieces and party pleasers from his colorful Test Kitchen―including his legendary Cherpumple creation! Be prepared for your imagination to be inspired and your holiday spirit to soar!

Create: Tools from Seriously Talented People to Unleash Your Creative Life by Marc Silber ($13.38 paperback and $10.49 Kindle) — Creative conversations from some of the world’s top photographers, filmmakers, Grammy award winners, TED presenters, actors, CEOs and more!

Time for a new mindset. Many of us think of creativity as something distant and incompatible with daily life―a skill that artists get to use, but not the rest of us. Maybe you feel like a land-locked surfer, yearning for exhilarating rides. Or maybe you live for the few hours a week when you can take photographs, paint, or write. It’s time for a new mindset. Create shows you how to rediscover the artist within you.

Live a more creative life. People who make a living in the creative arts know that there is a cycle to unlocking the imagination. Visualize, know your tools, work your craft, refine, share. When you tap into this cycle, you’ll find ways to operate at your highest state in all aspects of life.

Find your creative purpose. Overcoming the barriers to innovation is easier than you think. Marc Silber, best selling author, award-wining creative and educator, shows you how to avoid the traps of procrastination, overthinking, and self-doubt. The exercises in Create are specifically designed to help you find certainty and confidence in self-expression.

It’s Your Weirdness that Makes You Wonderful by Kate Allan ($13.41) — Step into a state of mindfulness: Depression and anxiety are topics that can be uncomfortable to talk about, but that doesn’t mean they should be avoided. If anything, it means we need to be more aware and have more conversations about them. With the help of her adorable illustrations, art blogger Kate Allan (known through her remarkably popular Tumblr blog as “The Latest Kate”) urges us to be mindful of our mentality.

Work through anxiety and depression with the help of enlightening words: Allan, who suffers from anxiety and depression herself, understands what it’s like to deal with feelings that are difficult to fight through. In this book, she provides the personal kind of encouragement that she herself needs to hear. These encouraging words, along with writing prompts, can help readers sort through and express their feelings.

Practice self-love through self-care: Kate Allan’s creative journal meets us where we are―in the midst of the feelings that say we’re not enough, we can’t handle this life, we won’t make it. Her whimsical art and simple words lift trampled spirits and combat thoughts that lead us to believe our weirdness makes us weak. Young and old, we are encouraged to love ourselves exactly as we are.