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A Gift Guide!

katemckean.substack.com

A Gift Guide!

All Your Shopping Sorted

Kate McKean
Nov 30, 2022
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A Gift Guide!

katemckean.substack.com

Hello Friends!

I love gift guides this time of year, but I don’t always find the stuff I need on them. I don’t need whiskey stones and a beard grooming kit for the dad-person in my life and my mom does not need a pashmina because she lives in Florida. I need the thing that will make me look cool to my brother-in-law and the no-brainer thing for that person I don’t know so well. HENCE! Here is a gift guide for the rest of us. Spoiler: these are all books (so easy to wrap!) and they’re all my clients (duh). You can find them all in my Bookshop.org affiliate store, and all affiliate commissions earned will be donated to charities supporting reproductive rights, LGBTQ rights, racial justice, and mutual aid.

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A CAREER IN BOOKS by Kate Gavino: your person who thinks they want to work in publishing when they grow up and loved Younger.

THE TWO DOCTORS GORSKI by Issac Fellman: your person who knows what Dark Academia is and/or won’t have a lot of room in their luggage going home.

THE OLD PLACE by Bobby Finger: your person who loves any of the following: The Golden Girls, Steel Magnolias, Texas (generally), potato salad, Who Weekly, and/or whose personality is curling up with a good book.

WHAT TO DO WHEN I’M GONE by Suzy Hopkins and Hallie Bateman: your person who recently experienced a loss.

THE MAGIC FISH by Trung Le Nguyen: the person in your life who likes fairy tales and BIG feelings, kid or adult.

LIFETIME PASSES by Terry Blas and Claudia Aguirre, for the Disney adult or teen in you life, but the one with the dark sense of humor.

FIREBREAK by Nicole Kornher-Stace: for the person in your life who liked Ready Player One but you want to give them a book that SO MUCH BETTER than that one and not dripping with nostalgia. You’ll blow their mind.

BUILT TO LAST by Erin Hahn: for the person in your life who basically only watches home improvement shows and likes books where the guy’s thighs are described as “tree trunks” (in a hot way).

Uh all these by Madeleine Roux: for your person who liked The Expanse: RECLAIMED and SALVAGED; Bridgerton: THE PROPOSITION; and krakens (generally): THE BOOK OF LIVING SECRETS. Oh and Critical Role: THE MIGHTY NEIN: THE NINE EYES OF LUCIEN.

THE UNSUITABLE by Molly Pohlig: for your person who is kinda goth but in a Victorian way, likes slow-burn horror, and ghosts!

THE PRISONER OF SHIVERSTONE by Linette Moore: for your person, kid or adult, who likes the beauty of classic cartoons, mysteries, and mad scientists.

SWORD TABLE STONE, edited by Swapna Krishna and Jenn Northington: for your person who’s read EVERYTHING Aurthuriana. I bet they haven’t read anything like this!

THE GRAND DESIGN by Joy Callaway: for your person whose house is IMPECCABLE or wishes it was, has great taste, loves history and strong women who make it.

A SPINDLE SPLINTERED and A MIRROR MENDED by Alix E. Harrow: two novellas for your person who can’t get enough of the Spiderverse (but has consumed all official Spiderverse content that contains actual, uh, Spider-man) and who probably writes a lot of fic.

All these for the kid who can’t get enough non-fiction (and/or their parents): THE CONSTITUTION DECODED by Katie Kennedy, THE ULTIMATE BIOGRAPHY OF EARTH by Nick Lund, WHO WAS THE VOICE OF THE PEOPLE?: CESAR CHAVEZ by Terry Blas, and WHO WAS A DARING PIONEER OF THE SKIES? AMELIA EARHEART by A.C. Esguerra.

FIFTY-FOUR THINGS WRONG WITH GWENDOLYN ROGERS by Caela Carter: for the kid (or adult) who’s struggled with feeling like something’s “wrong” with them, when, of course, they are wonderful and awesome and great just the way they are.

All these by Victoria Rosenthal: for your person who likes to cook AND play video games (maybe not at the same time) such as: STREET FIGHTER, DESTINY, FINAL FANTASY XIV, POKEMON, GOD OF WAR, FALLOUT, and HALO.

THE MYTH OF SURRENDER by Kelly O’Connor McNees: for your person who is PISSED about the Roe decision and wants a novel that shows exactly why.

SWEET VALLEY TWINS: BEST FRIENDS, illustrated by Claudia Aguirre: for your person who loved SVT as a kid and/or for the kid you want to become just as obsessed with it as you were.

WE RATE DOGS 2023 Day to Day Calendar by Matt Nelson: for your person who loves all the good dogs, Brent.

WHAT’S COMING TO ME by Francesca Padilla: for your person who loves YA, a bit of mystery, teen angst, and real, genuine, tough, visceral emotion on the page.

EDWARD AND ANNIE, brought to you by the Shedd Aquarium: if your kid is like my kid an obsessed with penguins, lol.

CRYSTAL CLEAR by Jaya Saxena: for your person interested in crystals but like why we think they mean what they mean, not what they will do for you.

For the person in your life who’s always crafting: CROSS STITCH CELEBRATIONS: BUNDLE OF JOY by Mollie Johanson; BOB ROSS CROSS STITCH: 12 HAPPY LITTLE PATTERNS by Haley Pierson-Cox; and CROCHET THE GOLDEN GIRLS by Allison Hoffman.

I could go on! But I’ll stop here. Happy shopping (for yourself, or others. I won’t tell.)

XOXOX,
Kate

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A Gift Guide!

katemckean.substack.com
6 Comments
Rosalie Chan
Writes True Colors
Nov 30, 2022Liked by Kate McKean

Hello Kate! Love your newsletter! I saw that you donate to mutual aid groups. Just wanted to promote the SF Bay Area Mutual Aid group as well, where funds go directly to aiding neighbors in need: https://opencollective.com/sf-bay-area-mutual-aid

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Alexandra Tinsley
Writes Limber Legs and Lethal White
Dec 1, 2022

Aw I love that you rep We Rate Dogs!

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