A Mawenzi House Holiday Gift Guide December 4, 2020 – Posted in: Gift Guides – Tags: Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry
With so many family members to love on, friends to delight, and colleagues to impress during the gift-gifting season, many of us find ourselves overwhelmed by the endless browsing and comparing and guessing and shortlisting that goes into holiday shopping.
Thankfully, we know that books remain evergreen gifts—they are wonderfully aesthetic, provide long hours of enjoyment, and have lasting significance for those who receive them.
Here at Mawenzi House, we’ve put together a gift guide for you so that finding that memorable book for that particular person in your life becomes all the easier.
Plus, you can shop your holiday gift list during our special holiday sale!
NOTEWORTHY “BOOK CLUB” NOVELS
These novels win awards, spark conversation, and get written about by critics and bloggers alike—perfect for that friend who loves nothing more than a sumptuous feast for the intellect that they can pick apart for character, theme, metaphor, and narrative style.
Mina Among the Shadows, Edem Awumey
The Youth of God, Hassan Ghedi Santur
Nehanda, Yvonne Vera
The Writing Circle, Rozena Maart
Descent into Night, Edem Awumey
BIG AND SMALL STORIES ABOUT FAMILY
Family—the hearth around which holidays the world over are arranged. These sagas and short stories, by turns heartbreaking and heartwarming, offer memorable variations on a perennial theme.
Paper Lions, Sohan S. Koonar
Miah, Julia Lin
Maame, Elizabeth Allua Vaah
Belief, Mayank Bhatt
POEMS FOR A SOULFUL, ENLIGHTENED HOLIDAY
Some poetry is just made to fit into the light-drenched oasis of a quiet morning or afternoon. Here are books for those who like to keep spiritual company, slim companions that can travel in the pocket and be reached for throughout the day.
Understan, Gavin Barrett
SH:LAM, Joseph A. Dandurand
Polychromasia, Mohineet Kaur Boparai
Monsoon on the Fingers of God, Sasenarine Persaud
Message Sticks (Tshissinuatshitakana), Joséphine Bacon
POEMS THAT FEED A LOVE OF LANGUAGE
If you have a friend who loves words like a writer loves words, send these poetry collections their way: these are filled to the brim with writers doing playful, sly, interesting things, with language that bounces and sparkles, teases and surprises.
Rouge, Adrian De Leon
Subversive Sonnets, Pamela Mordecai
Bittersweet, Natasha Ramoutar
Flesh, Tongue, Yaya Yao
CARIBBEAN CHRISTMASTIME READS
In the dead of winter, you can still introduce a loved one to the joy that is Caribbean writing. Here are some jaunty, rhythmic, and stylistically effervescent pages that dispel the cold and affirm the creativity of life.
Beyond Sangre Grande, Cyril Dabydeen (ed.)
Caribbean Blues & Love’s Genealogy, Dannabang Kuwabong
An Island is a World, Sam Selvon
de Book of Mary, Pamela Mordecai
CHARMING COMING-OF-AGE READS
Here are some titles to help your favourite young person navigate the strangeness of growing up—an experience made all the more poignant, more momentous with the new year just around the corner.
Such a Lonely, Lovely Road, Kagiso Lesego Molope
Ghost Boys, Shenaaz Nanji
Hands for Language, Uma Menon
This Book Betrays My Brother, Kagiso Lesego Molope
My Totem Came Calling, Blessing Musariri & Thorsten Nesch
FIERCELY PERSONAL, FIERCELY POLITICAL READS
Do you know someone who loves Audre Lorde and Adrienne Rich? They will find great pleasure in these poems, which are populated with voices that have as much to say about love, intimacy, and desire as about community, social justice, and the regard for others.
Nuff Said, Michelle Muir
Bodymap, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
Blueberries and Apricots, Natasha Kanapé Fontaine
Love Cake, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha