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Best Books to Gift 2024 - Adult Nonfiction
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We have a book for everyone on your list. You might want a few for yourself, too!
Updated November 29, 2024
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Greater Victoria Public Library
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Be ready when the luck happens : a memoir
Garten, Ina
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * In her long-awaited memoir, Ina Garten--aka the Barefoot Contessa, author of thirteen bestselling cookbooks, beloved Food Network personality, Instagram sensation, and cultural icon--shares her personal story with readers hungry for a seat at her table....
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Burn book : a tech love story
Swisher, Kara
Paper Book
Instant New York Times Bestseller From award-winning journalist Kara Swisher comes a witty, scathing, but fair accounting of the tech industry and its founders who wanted to change the world but broke it instead. "Swisher, the bad-ass journalist and...
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Cher : The Memoir, Part One
Cher
Paper Book
***The Instant #1 New York Times Bestseller*** ***The Global #1 Bestseller*** The extraordinary life of Cher can be told by only one person . . . Cher herself. After more than seventy years of fighting to live her life on her own terms, Cher finally reveals her...
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The Serviceberry : Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World
Kimmerer, Robin Wall/ Burgoyne, John (ILT)
Paper Book
An Instant New York Times Bestseller From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Braiding Sweetgrass, a bold and inspiring vision for how to orient our lives around gratitude, reciprocity, and community, based on the lessons of the natural world....
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Kingmaker : Pamela Harriman's astonishing life of power, seduction, and intrigue
Purnell, Sonia
Paper Book
"A thorough account of Harriman's rise which also manages to be a brisk, twisty read ... riveting and revelatory." --The New Yorker "Rigorous but rollicking." --The New York Times Named a BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR by Apple Books, The Economist<...
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Rebel girl : my life as a feminist punk
Hanna, Kathleen
Paper Book
AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER An electric, searing memoir by the original rebel girl and legendary front woman of Bikini Kill and Le Tigre. Hey girlfriend I got a proposition goes something like this: Dare ya to do what you want Kathleen Hanna's band Bikini Kill...
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Traveling : on the path of Joni Mitchell
Powers, Ann
Paper Book
*An Observer Best New Biographies of 2024* Celebrated NPR music critic Ann Powers explores the life and career of Joni Mitchell in a lyrical style as fascinating and ethereal as the songs of the artist herself. "What you are about to read is not a standard account of the life and...
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What have we here? : portraits of a life
Williams, Billy Dee
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * A film legend recalls his remarkable life of nearly eight decades--a heralded actor who's played the roles he wanted, from Brian's Song to Lando in the Star Wars universe--unchecked by the racism and typecasting so rife in the mostly all...
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Taylor Swift style : fashion through the eras
Chapelle, Sarah
Paper Book
An instant New York Times and USA Today bestseller! Dazzling. Incomparable. Unforgettable. The definitive book of Taylor Swift's fashion evolution. This gorgeous hardcover edition has gilded gold edges, foiled cover accents and colored endpapers....
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The work of art : how something comes from nothing
Moss, Adam
Paper Book
What is the work of art? In this guided tour inside the artist's head, Adam Moss traces the evolution of transcendent novels, paintings, jokes, movies, songs, and more. Weaving conversations with some of the most accomplished artists of our time together with the journal entries, napkin doodles, and...
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Sonny boy : a memoir
Pacino, Al
Paper Book
The Instant New York Times Bestseller * One of People Magazine's Top 10 Books of the Year "The rare celebrity memoir that's also a literary read. As funny as it is reflecive, it shares stories behind Pacino's hardscrabble upbringing, classic films and journey to icon...
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The garden against time : in search of a common paradise
Laing, Olivia
Paper Book
In 2020, Olivia Laing began to restore an eighteenth-century walled garden in Suffolk, an overgrown Eden of unusual plants. The work brought to light a crucial question for our age: Who gets to live in paradise, and how can we share it while there's still time? Moving between real and imagined...
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A year of last things : poems
Ondaatje, Michael
Paper Book
From one of the most influential writers of his generation, a gorgeously surprising poetry collection about memory, history, and the act of looking back Following several of his internationally acclaimed novels, A Year of Last Things is Michael Ondaatje's long-awaited...
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Revenge of the tipping point : overstories, superspreaders, and the rise of social engineering
Gladwell, Malcolm
Paper Book
AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Most Anticipated in: AARP | Associated Press | Time Magazine | Oprah Daily | Chicago Tribune | Literary Hub | Publishers Weekly | Publishers Lunch<...
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Divine might : goddesses in Greek myth
Haynes, Natalie
Paper Book
New York Times bestselling author Natalie Haynes returns to the world of ancient Greek myth in this scintillating follow-up to Pandora's Jar. Few writers today have reshaped our view of the ancient Greek myths more than revered bestselling author Natalie Haynes. Divine Might...
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Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI
Harari, Yuval Noah
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * From the author of Sapiens comes the groundbreaking story of how information networks have made, and unmade, our world. "Striking original . . . A historian whose arguments operate on the scale of millennia has managed to capture the...
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The Siege: A Six-Day Hostage Crisis and the Daring Special-Forces Operation That Shocked the World
Macintyre, Ben
Paper Book
"For six days, it was the Iranian Embassy on Princes Gate in London that riveted the world. . . . Macintyre's superb reconstruction restores it to vivid, complex life."--The Washington Post A thrilling tick-tock recounting one of the most harrowing hostage situations and...
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The wide wide sea : imperial ambition, first contact and the fateful final voyage of Captain James Cook
Sides, Hampton
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * A "thrilling and superbly crafted" (The Wall Street Journal) account of the most momentous voyage of the Age of Exploration, which culminated in Captain James Cook's death in Hawaii, and left a complex and controversial legacy still debated to this day....
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Scotland Yard : a history of the London police force's most infamous murder cases
Read, Simon
Paper Book
A riveting true-crime history of London's first modern police force as told through its most notorious murder cases. The idea of "Scotland Yard" is steeped in atmospheric stories of foggy London streets, murder by lamplight, and fiendish killers pursued by gentleman detectives....
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Atlas obscura : Wild life : an explorer's guide to the world's living wonders
Giaimo, Cara
Paper Book
From the bestselling authors of Atlas Obscura and Gastro Obscura comes a nature book like no other--a dazzling, over-the-top collection of the world's most extraordinary wild species that takes you to all seven continents and beyond. It's more than a field...
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The backyard bird chronicles
Tan, Amy
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * A gorgeous, witty account of birding, nature, and the beauty around us that hides in plain sight, written and illustrated by the best-selling author of The Joy Luck Club * With a foreword by David Allen Sibley "Unexpected...
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The light eaters : how the unseen world of plant intelligence offers a new understanding of life on Earth
Schlanger, Zoë
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER The New Yorker's Best Books of 2024 * TIME's 10 Best Nonfiction Books of 2024 * New York Magazine's 10 Best Books of the Year * Washington Post's 50 Notable Works of Nonfiction of 2024 * Smithsonian's 10 Best Science Books of the Year * ...
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The miraculous from the material : the science behind nature's wonders
Lightman, Alan P.
Paper Book
A gorgeously illustrated exploration of the science behind the universe's most stunning natural phenomena--from atoms and parameciums to rainbows, snowflakes, spider webs, the rings of Saturn, galaxies, and more Nature is capable of extraordinary phenomena. Standing in awe of...
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Cue the sun : the invention of reality TV
Nussbaum, Emily
Paper Book
The rollicking saga of reality television, a "sweeping" (The Washington Post) cultural history of America's most influential, most divisive artistic phenomenon, from the Pulitzer Prize-winning New Yorker writer--"a must-read for anyone interested in television or popular culture"...
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I Heard There Was a Secret Chord: Music As Medicine
Levitin, Daniel J.
Paper Book
Music is one of humanity's oldest medicines. From the Far East to the Ottoman Empire, Europe to Africa and the pre-colonial Americas, many cultures have developed their own rich traditions for using sound and rhythm to ease suffering, promote healing, and calm the mind. In his latest work,...
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Meditations for Mortals: Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Make Time for What Counts
Burkeman, Oliver
Paper Book
A map for a liberating journey toward a more meaningful life--a journey that begins where we actually find ourselves, not with a fantasy of where we'd like to be--from the New York Times bestselling author of Four Thousand Weeks ...
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Ordinary Mysticism : Your Life as Holy Ground
Starr, Mirabai.
Paper Book
"This gorgeous, transformative, welcoming book is for anyone who longs to feel more present, more alive, more joyful and aware of the holiness of daily life."--Anne Lamott, author of Dusk, Night, Dawn and Help, Thanks, Wow Welcome to the temple of your regular life. So begins...
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Supercommunicators : How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection
Duhigg, Charles.
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * From the author of The Power of Habit, a fascinating exploration of what makes conversations work--and how we can all learn to be supercommunicators at work and in life "A winning combination of stories, studies, and guidance that might...
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I love you : recipes from the heart
Anderson, Pamela
Paper Book
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER "Literally... the most beautiful cookbook I have ever seen. It is stunning." --Drew Barrymore Join actress, activist, and New York Times bestselling author Pamela...
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Zoe Bakes Cookies: Everything You Need to Know to Make Your Favorite Cookies and Bars [A Baking Book]
Francois, Zoe.
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * The expert baker and author behind Zoë Bakes Cakes and Zoë Bakes on the Magnolia Network takes us through her life with 75 cookies and bars from her Vermont roots and Midwestern living. "A magical book for every cookie lover."-...
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Lifeform
Slate, Jenny
Paper Book
AN INSTANT NATIONAL BESTSELLER From actor, comedian, co-creator of Marcel the Shell, and New York Times bestselling author of Little Weirds, Jenny Slate, a wild, soulful, hilarious collection of genre-bending essays depicting the journey into motherhood as...
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