2024 Holiday Gift Guide

Check out some of our favorite books that fueled this fall season, making your holiday shopping just that much easier. We’ve curated our list based on all of the personalities in your life. Plus, we’ve included some captivating (and free) audio morsels for when you want to give your eyes a break.

Chicago Humanities is proud to partner with Seminary Co-op Bookstores as our official bookseller.

Soups, Salads, and Sandwiches (Matty Matheson)

Acclaimed chef, New York Times bestselling author, and executive producer and actor on The Bear Matty Matheson discusses his approach to cooking—and it will revolutionize how you think of these kitchen essentials.

Pulp: A Practical Guide to Cooking with Fruit (Abra Berens)

Celebrated author and chef Abra Berens shares delicious insights into innovative recipes with simple and sustainable ingredients.

Patti Smith: Before Easter After (Patti Smith)

Hundreds of rarely seen images by legendary photographer Lynn Goldsmith offer an intimate portrait of rock 'n' roll icon Patti Smith during a transformative moment in her career. This poignant visual narrative is punctuated throughout by Smith's original poetry and song lyrics.

Listen to Smith's Chicago Humanities Tapes episode here.

Best Possible Place, Worst Possible Time True Stories from a Career in Hollywood (Barry Sonnenfeld)

The legendary director of Men in Black, Get Shorty, and The Addams Family dishes out a delectable mix of insights and true tales that escalate from outrageous to unbelievable.

Low-Hanging Fruit: Sparkling Whines, Champagne Problems, and Pressing Issues from My Gay Agenda (Randy Rainbow)

The New York Times bestselling author and adored comedian Randy Rainbow has a few things on his mind that he wants to talk about from his newest essay collection, Low-Hanging Fruit. 

Lovely One (Ketanji Brown Jackson)

With an unflinching account, Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson welcomes the public into her life and world, tracing her family’s ascent from segregation to her confirmation on the highest court.

Listen to Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson's episode of Chicago Humanities Tapes here.

Connie (Connie Chung)

In a sharp, witty, and definitive memoir, news icon Connie Chung delves into her storied career as the first Asian woman to break into the overwhelmingly white, male-dominated television news industry.

Men Have Called Her Crazy (Anna Marie Tendler)

Multimedia artist Anna Marie Tendler on mental health, the modern realities of womanhood, and how art can carry us through.

The Klansman’s Son: My Journey from White Nationalism to Antiracism; A Memoir (R. Derek Black)

Derek Black details a childhood manipulated by fear, their break from a community of hate, embracing antiracism, and coming out as transgender.

Christian Siriano: The New Red Carpet (Christian Siriano)

Christian Siriano offers us a front-row seat to the untold stories behind some of the most talked-about red-carpet moments, featuring A-list celebrities and public figures who have worn Siriano’s designs, from First Lady Michelle Obama to Angelina Jolie.

How to Build a Fashion Icon (Law Roach)

Celebrity stylist and Chicago native Law Roach, known for transforming celebrities like Celine Dion, Ariana Grande, and Zendaya into style sensations, shares insider tips, industry insights, and personal anecdotes from his illustrious career.

The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War (Erik Larson)

The New York Times bestselling author of The Devil in the White City brings to life the pivotal five months between the election of Abraham Lincoln and the start of the Civil War in a saga of hubris, heartbreak, and heroism.

Before the Movement The Hidden History of Black Civil Rights (Dylan C. Penningroth)

University of California, Berkeley historian Dylan C. Penningroth uncovers the overlooked early roots of the Black Civil Rights Movement.

The Deportation Machine: America's Long History of Expelling Immigrants (Adam Goodman)

This provocative, eye-opening book provides needed historical perspective on one of the most pressing social and political issues of our time.

The Great Black Hope: Doug Williams, Vince Evans, and the Making of the Black Quarterback (Louis Moore)

Louis Moore explores one of the most glaring discrepancies in all of sports: While the NFL has long been racially integrated, quarterbacking was the exclusive domain of white players for many years.

Revenge of the Tipping Point (Malcolm Gladwell)

Bestselling author Malcolm Gladwell reveals a fresh reframing of his groundbreaking first book, The Tipping Point, in a startling new light.

The 1619 Project: A Visual Experience (Nikole Hannah-Jones)

An illustrated edition of The 1619 Project, with newly commissioned artwork and archival images, The New York Times Magazine's award-winning reframing of the American founding and its contemporary echoes, placing slavery and resistance at the center of the American story.

American Reckoning: Inside Trump’s Trial―and My Own (Jonathan Alter)

Alter, a longtime reporter, commentator, and New York Times bestselling author dives into U.S. history, encounters with presidents, a defense of democracy, and an inside scoop on the historic first trial (as one of very few journalists allowed into the courtroom) of an American president.

The Burning Earth—A History (Sunil Amrith)

Sunil Amrith discusses an exploration of the reciprocal interplay between human actions and the Earth's environment.

The Millicent Quibb School of Etiquette for Young Ladies of Mad Science (Kate McKinnon)

Comedian Kate McKinnon's debut novel is a madcap new adventure about three sisters, a ravenous worm, and a mysterious mad scientist.

Shark Night (R.L. Stine)

Best-selling author of Goosebumps, R.L. Stine is back with his newest addition to children's lit.

Listen to R.L. Stine's episode of Chicago Humanities Tapes here.

Crush (Tegan and Sara Quin)

From indie-pop twin-sister duo Tegan and Sara and Eisner Award-winner Tillie Walden comes the second book in their bestselling contemporary middle grade graphic novel duology, all about crushes, crushing it, and being crushed by life in junior high.

Martyr! (Kaveh Akbar)

Kaveh Akbar, the acclaimed poet, takes us into the world of Cyrus Shams, a young man grappling with an inheritance of violence and loss, in his debut novel.

Listen to Kaveh Akbar's episode of Chicago Humanities Tapes here.

Let Us Descend (Jesmyn Ward)

Jesmyn Ward is a MacArthur Genius Grant winner and the first woman and Black American to win the National Book Award for Fiction twice. Her latest novel Let Us Descend describes a journey from the rice fields of the Carolinas to the slave markets of New Orleans and into the fearsome heart of a Louisiana sugar plantation.

Playground (Richard Powers)

Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winner Richard Powers explores our shared humanity with his thought-provoking new work.

I Have Some Questions for You (Rebecca Makkai)

In I Have Some Questions for You, award-winning author Rebecca Makkai has crafted her most irresistible novel yet: a stirring investigation into collective memory and a deeply felt examination of one woman's reckoning with her past, with a transfixing mystery at its heart.

When You See My Mother, Ask Her to Dance: Poems (Joan Baez)

Sharing decades of personal poetry for the first time publicly, immerse yourself in the lyrical world of legendary artist and activist, Joan Baez.

Listen to Joan Baez's episode of Chicago Humanities Tapes here.

Says Who?: A Kinder, Funner Usage Guide for Everyone Who Cares About Words (Anne Curzan)

Linguist and veteran English professor Anne Curzan is here to help us decipher the “rules” of language, showing us how we can care about language precision, clarity, and inclusion all at the same time.

The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet (John Green)

In this remarkable symphony of essays adapted and expanded from his groundbreaking podcast, John Green reviews different facets of the human-centered planet—from the QWERTY keyboard and Staphylococcus aureus to the Taco Bell breakfast menu—on a five-star scale.

Don’t Let Me Be Lonely (Claudia Rankine)

Poet and New York Times bestseller Claudia Rankine brings us a brilliant and unsparing examination of America in the early twenty-first century, inventing a new genre to confront the particular loneliness and rapacious assault on selfhood that our media have inflicted upon our lives.

An Encyclopedia of Gardening for Colored Children (Jamaica Kincaid)

In this witty, deeply original book, the renowned novelist Jamaica Kincaid offers an ABC of the plants that define our world and reveals the often brutal history behind them. Kara Walker, one of America's greatest visual artists, illustrates each entry with provocative, brilliant, enthralling, many-layered watercolors.

The House of Being (Natasha Trethewey)

U.S. poet laureate Natasha Trethewey revisits the geography of her childhood, tracing the origins of her writing life in an intimate and searching meditation of her hometown of Gulfport, Mississippi.