hey /lit/ i'm planning on getting books for everyone in my family for the holidays. any suggestions would be appreciated.
my sister is in grad school for teaching art. she reads some moderately heavy philosophy books that i know nothing about. she's a big jonathan safran foer fan, and the last time i saw her we talked about haruki murakimi.
my mom teaches english at a high school for guys. she's recently started teaching some lovecraft, alan moore and neil gaiman and enjoys it and it's stuff that i like a lot. but i feel like she gets enough of this from her job. charles dickens is her favorite author but she's definitely read everything by dickens and most of the literary "classics" that first jump to mind. i'm thinking that she'd rather have some short stories to read because she's generally very busy.
my dad reads a lot of history. he's been reading progressively lighter things and i think a narrative that basically reads like a novel would be best. he's usually pretty interested in learning about places that he's lived in: new england, france, tunisia and haiti, but more general is also fine. he was a really big fan of Guns, Germs and Steel.
my cousin has gotten super religious lately and i don't think he would read fiction if i gave it to him. he studied history/international politics as an undergrad. he lived in kenya for a while. i think he would feel persecuted if i gave him something that has a strong post-colonialist tilt to it, so i was looking for something about something contemporary and interesting that doesn't have to do with blaming african turmoil on imperialism.
my uncle reads a lot of environmental writing. i've talked with him a lot about leopold, thoreau, tom brown jr and a handful of other books. i think he'd be more interested in a book that involves some aspect of exploration rather than a doom-and-gloom book about climate change, but i was looking for something contemporary. i was thinking michael pollan.
my aunt is really christian, also a vegetarian and formerly worked with kids a lot. she really likes dogs and pigs. i think it would have to be something sort of light and also uplifting. i'm really at a loss for what to get her.
i know these are vague but any suggestions are appreciated. if anyone else is trying to shop for other people feel free to post itt.