Great news: We’ve made your gift list for you. Well — truth be told, this list is just a start. So come by and browse! Our booksellers would love to make custom recommendations for your friends, family, colleagues, significant others, neighbors, kids, teachers…
Not in Nashville? No worries. Just click any title below to read more about it or toss it into your online shopping cart. We offer fast shipping and FREE gift-wrap — and we always throw in a little something extra, like a shop dog postcard or Parnassus bookmark. Let’s get started:
For fiction-lovers:
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For the voracious book eater who loves to binge-read a series:
Get under a blanket by the fire and arrange for someone to bring you takeout so you don’t have to put these down. – Mary Laura Philpott
And also:
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For your friend who lives under a rock and hasn’t yet experienced these much-buzzed-about books:
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For the English major who still loves to compare-and-contrast:
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For the person who can’t say no to a great tale of revolution:
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For the future Daily Show correspondent:
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For anyone with a body and a heart:
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For your colleague who always wants to talk about the podcast in the breakroom:
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For your brother who can’t flip past a movie like Scarface or Donnie Brasco on cable without stopping to watch the whole thing:
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For your book club leader who loves a book/movie combo:
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For when only “the best” will do:
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For every adventure-lover, from granny to grandchild:
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For the Mark Twain fan:
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For the aunt everyone tells great stories about:
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For your book-snob uncle who says no novel will ever live up to the perfection of Stoner:
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For the professor you’re trying to impress:
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For anyone we didn’t sell it to last holiday season:
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Looking for nonfiction? Here you go:
For smart, driven, creative types who get energized reading about the same:
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For your friend who hordes old vinyl and/or works in the music biz:
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For the civic-minded history buff:
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For dad, especially if he grew up in the 60s; or for anyone with a hobby that has shaped their life :
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For teachers, parents, or anyone in a position to discuss sensitive issues of race and culture with young people:
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For your really smart kid who asks a lot of questions (or your less-smart adult friend, who does the same):
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For your friend who’s always writing things down on old receipts and Post-it notes and then wondering where they went:
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For your sister, who’s totally into the Nashville food scene:
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For the master-level chef (or the person who thinks they are) in your house:
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For the person who can do 20 push-ups, school Scalia, brunch with Gloria Steinem, and legalize gay marriage before most people even start their workday:
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For anyone who’s a little stuck and needs inspiration:
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For the grownup’s stocking:
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Grab a stack of these smart laughs, too:
- Everything I Need to Know I Learned from a Disney Little Golden Book by Diane Muldrow
- Pocket Dolly Wisdom: Witty Quotes and Wise Words from Dolly Parton by Hardie Grant Books, Dolly Parton
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Penguins with People Problems by Mary Laura Philpott (Signed copies. Each comes with a free holiday card, while supplies last!)
The Courage to Act: A Memoir of a Crisis and Its Aftermath
Last Night’s Reading: Illustrated Encounters with Extraordinary Authors
Metropolis: Mapping the City
What a Plant Knows: A Field Guide to the Senses
Once in a Great City: A Detroit Story
See also:
Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania
By Erik Larson
You might also consider:
Blackout: Remembering the Things I Drank to Forget
- Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari, Eric Klinenberg
- Why Not Me? by Mindy Kaling
Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl: A Memoir by Carrie Brownstein
Essential reading for creative types young and old, and for any girl who refuses to make a sandwich for anyone but her own damn self. – Lindsay Lynch
John Le Carre: The Biography
It’s Your World: Get Informed, Get Inspired & Get Going!
Deep Lane: Poems
Also for poetry-lovers:
The Essential Cy Twombly
John Baeder’s Road Well Taken
Two
Slow Roads Tennessee: A Photographic Journey Down Timeless Byways
Dogs as I See Them
The Dogist: Photographic Encounters with 1,000 Dogs
Beloved Dog
Plumdog

And as always, we’re happy to choose the books for you. Simply sign your book-lover up for a pre-paid gift membership in one of our book-of-the-month clubs (ParnassusNext for young adult fiction; or the Signed First Editions Club for regular adult fiction/nonfiction), and they’ll receive a brand-new, hardcover, first edition book every month. The best new releases, selected by our expert booksellers, always autographed by the author. Easy!
Don’t miss part two of the BIG gift list, right here on MUSING: The super-spectacular, extra-huge list of books and gifts for young readers — including picture books, early readers, middle-grade novels, and YA!