As a reader, don’t you wish you could just gift everyone books? I certainly do. I love gift giving, so I’ve put together a list of books you can gift the non-readers in your life. From cookbooks, children’s picture books, celebrity memoirs, and trivia books, I’ve got you covered for any type of person in your life!
For Twenty-Somethings and College Students:
This has become one of my new favorite cookbooks. The recipes are easy, detailed, and perfect for any new chef! If you have someone in your life who just started college, got their first apartment, or wants to spruce up their cooking skills, I can’t recommend this enough! My favorite recipes have been the Goes With Everything Dip and the Smashed Potatoes.
Filled with recipes for impressive, craveable food—with all the guidance needed to make it—(Serious) New Cook is perfect for young adults or any new(ish) cooks who have ever found themselves salivating at cooking TikToks or drooling over gorgeous cookbooks, only to believe they aren’t skilled enough to attempt the recipes themselves. Here, the clear, detailed instruction and stunning step-by-step photography will have readers wowing their friends and families from their very first dish. Along with recipes that are at once aspirational and totally doable, authors Leah Su Quiroga and Cammie Kim Lin use their experience as a chef from one of America’s top restaurants and an award-winning teacher and writer to deftly share knowledge, stories, and brilliant tips with humor and insight.
For Ice Cream Lovers and Travelers:
For fans of Ample Hills Creamery in Brooklyn, New York or folks who love trying new ice cream flavors, this is a perfect book filled with the origin story of the creamery, a short story from the characters for children, and last, some of the recipes for their most popular flavors including Salted Crack Caramel, Ooey Gooey, and the Munchies.
With mouthwatering photography and charming illustrations, Ample Hills Creamery is a definitive, cow-filled guide for ice cream lovers and DIY enthusiasts alike.
Ample Hills Creamery is an ice-cream destination that attracts thousands of customers each day from near and far to Prospect Heights and Gowanus, Brooklyn. Lines wind around the block, spurred on by the chance to try one of their unforgettable flavors, and these and countless others will be dreamed up in kitchens across the country with the help of Ample Hills Creamery.
The book is organized by mood. Are you feeling nostalgic? Try a scoop of Black Cow Float. Or maybe you need a drink? Daddy’s Sundae, made with bourbon, will set you right. For kids and kids-at-heart, stories, activities, and hand-drawn characters appear throughout each chapter, offering games, helpful tips, and inspiration for creating new flavors.
With mouthwatering photography and charming illustrations, Ample Hills Creamery is a definitive, cow-filled guide for ice cream lovers and DIY enthusiasts alike.
For Jeopardy Fans:
Trebek’s memoir covers his life, Jeopardy’s origin story, and the history of game shows. Any game show fan will appreciate this book!
The book combines illuminating personal anecdotes with Trebek’s thoughts on a range of topics, including marriage, parenthood, education, success, spirituality, and philanthropy. Trebek also addresses the questions he gets asked most often by Jeopardy! fans, such as what prompted him to shave his signature mustache, his insights on legendary players like Ken Jennings and James Holzhauer, and his opinion of Will Ferrell’s Saturday Night Live impersonation. The book uses a novel structure inspired by Jeopardy!, with each chapter title in the form of a question, and features dozens of never-before-seen photos that candidly capture Trebek over the years.
For the Aspiring Journalist
Hilde on the Record: Memoir of a Kid Crime Reporter by Hilde Kate Lysiak
This is a great starting point for any young person who is interested in journalism. Hilde on the Record: Memoir of a Kid Crime Reporter is a memoir written by 14-year-old, Hilde Kate Lysiak about how she came to be the first to report a murder and go viral at just age 9. Hilde’s passion for reporting comes through and she also shares journalism terms for readers to become more familiar with the career.
I would recommend this for anyone 14 and up since it does handle some heavy topics such as the Sandy Hook school shooting, domestic violence, and murder.
For Kid Bakers (And Pastry Chefs):
I Am a Little Pastry Chef by Mayumi Oono
This is a great introduction to the world of being a pastry chef. What I love most about this series is how informative it is from the large vocabulary and important terms to showing children the process of making a cake. Then, they get to practice their skills after reading with the 200 stickers inside!
For Little Fashion Lovers:
I Am a Little Fashion Designer by Mayumi Oono
Any child who loves fashion and aspires to be a fashion designer when they grow up will fall in love with this book.
Fabrics, patterns, notions, and more—I Am a Little Fashion Designer offers the budding stylist a chance to experiment with dresses, outfits, and costumes. Inside, find veritable sewing box worth of accompanying stickers shaped like pockets, laces, zippers, and bow ties. The combination of craft supplies, creativity, and imagination will help pave the way for tomorrow’s show-stopping runway stars.
For Trivia Lovers and Cinnephiles:
These coffee table books from Mental Floss make perfect gifts for tv and movie lovers! The Curious Movie Buff and The Curious Viewer: The Ultimate TV Trivia and Quiz Book include obscure facts spanning across various decades and genres and include iconic franchises like Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings, Oscar-winning classics like The Godfather and Titanic, rip-roaring comedies from Blazing Saddles and The Big Lebowski, indie hits like Reservoir Dogs and Paranormal Activity, and superhero favorites such as Superman and The Dark Knight.
TRIVIA ABOUT MORE THAN 100 TV SHOWS: Get the inside scoop, fascinating facts, and mind-boggling trivia on the greatest shows from the past 20 years, from serious dramas such as Law and Order to seriously funny comedies like Ted Lasso.
Pucksandpaperbacks 