No matter what the corporate capitalist machine is trying to tell you, there’s still plenty of time to shop for holiday presents- an entire 13 days remain until the largest gift giving holiday in the world. Don’t let advertising screaming that it’s the last minute force you into big box stores in a buying panic because you’ve been guilt tripped into believing you haven’t done your job.
One thoughtful gift we always love to give and to receive is books, especially at this time of year when curling up with a good one seems like the best possible use of unscheduled hours. Below are a few of our favorites, to share or to keep. Right now we’re only recommending three, but in the weeks to come we’ll be looking at new releases for 2025, saluting some classics, and putting together reading lists specifically focused on food, farming, and gardening.
If you can swing it, we’re big fans of shopping in person at independently owned businesses, and we’re lucky to have some great small bookstores in the Pittsburgh area. A couple great options are White Whale Bookstore in Bloomfield and Stay Gold Books in Regent Square. We can’t speak as to what they have in stock, but give them a call or visit and find out!
We Are Each Other’s Harvest: Celebrating African American Farmers, Land, and Legacy; by Natalie Baszile
Chosen by the Wall Street Journal at its release as a Favorite Food Book of the Year, this anthology investigates and uplifts Black farming in America by gathering photos, poems, essays, conversations, and stories into a rich, bountiful collection. Beginning at Emancipation and continuing to the present, Baszile gives voice to farmers, historians, and authors in an examination of the challenges, struggles, responsibilities, and joys of farming as specifically experienced by Black Americans, in a work to be enjoyed by everyone.
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants; by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Snagging Bestseller status on the lists of the New York Times, Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times, this book is frequently gifted, and it’s easy to see why- it’s a work that people want to share. Author Robin Wall Kimmerer is a botanist who approaches nature with the exactitude of science, and a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation with the generational wisdom that plants and animals can provide humanity with knowledge. This book brings those perspectives together with deft, ardent essays that remind us that we are part of the world.
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle; by Barbara Kingsolver
Many of us swoon over Barbara Kingsolver’s works of fiction for the absorbing narratives she communicates with linguistic agility. Her foray into longform nonfiction writing showcases her characteristic ingenuity in storytelling with a compelling narrative of warmth and wit you’ll have difficulty putting down. The Kingsolver fam eschews the easy acquiescence to Big Food to spend a year committed to only consuming what can be bought in their own community or grown themselves, and she takes us along for the ride.
