Get (or Give) a Note From a Favorite Author and Raise Money for A Great Literary Magazine in the Process

We are running full speed into the gift giving season, but we are also approaching the time of year when many people also make their annual donations. I have an idea that is a great option for all book lovers and covers both categories and it is run by an award winning literary magazine here:

The Common's Author Postcard Auction

Bid to win a postcard from your favorite author!

Bidding closes at noon EST on December 1, 2025

This unique online auction gives literary fans the opportunity to bid on handwritten, personalized postcards from their favorite writers. Postcards will be handwritten for you or a person of your choice. A wonderful keepsake, author postcards make great gifts! In years past, authors have gone above and beyond when writing their postcards, including impromptu doodles, poems, and personalized stories. Winning bids are tax-deductible donations. 

All proceeds go to The Common Foundation, a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to publishing and promoting art and literature from global, diverse voices. Read more at www.thecommononline.org. 

Not interested in bidding? You can still support The Common Foundation by donating here.

Each year the Common gathers some of the biggest names in the writing world and asks them to offer 1 handwritten post card to one bidder. And they donate all of the proceeds to the magazine. Now this magazine is more than a place to launch new voices, they are part of a vibrant college community and fund internships and post-graduate jobs for students interested in writing and publishing. More about this is on their "Support Us" page.

Full disclosure, I am a subscriber and a donor to The Common. They also employed by oldest as a Literary Editorial Fellow last year. This allowed them to have a meaningful, career starting job for a full year after graduation and the experience led directly to their current job as the Assistant News Editor at Publishers Weekly. 

The Common is doing the vital work to help to keep the literary community moving forward in what are very difficult times. 

And that is why you should look at this page and consider bidding on a post card.

But let's get practical here as well. Uber fans of authors like George Saunders, Percival Everett, Ann Patchett, Stephen Graham Jones, Julia Alvarez, Elin Hilderbrand, Hanif Abdurraqib, Lauren Goff and more, these people probably already own every book their favorite writers have published. There is also a good chance they have signed copies. But I bet they do not have a personal note from these people.

Take a look at the auction and make a bid for yourself or a loved one. What a great way to show your thanks to the writers who have filled our world with joy-- by giving back to an organization they are supporting.

Bids are open until 12/1 at noon EST.

How OH, THE PLACES YOU'LL GO Became the Go To Grad Gift, Via Washington Post

Here in my neck of the woods it is graduation weekend, as it is in a lot of places. This time of year, people are always looking for the perfect book to give graduates. Currently, Oh, the Places You'll Go! has become the go to book to give graduates.

But why?

Well, Ron Charles of the Washington Post, takes a fun and extremely informative deep dive into how and why this book has become THE book people give. The article, entitled "How Dr. Seuss's 'Oh, the Places You'll Go' became a graduation-gift cliche," looks at what used to be the most popular book gifts as well as why the Dr. Seuss title has captured this generation of gift givers.

This article was fascinating both as a look into the book itself and why people connect with it. I also found it interesting as a RA exercise into appeal. Charles analyzes the givers and the gift getters and wow, is he spot on here. And it is brutally honest, which I also appreciated.

So give the article a read whether you are in the market for a grad gift or not; it will help you be better at your job in general.

Also, here is the link to the book I give every single high school graduate. Wonder what this says about me?

Three Books Podcast, Featuring Me....Again

Back at the beginning of the month, I visited Ela Area Public Library to do a morning training and after lunch I got together with Becca and Christen to do another episode of Three Books. 

I was their first guest ever, but this time I came back to continue their conversation about gifting books from episode 14. We also talked about my best books of 2018 and I even previewed 3 books coming early in 2019 that I am excited about. 

You can listen here or below and access the show notes here. Also, those of you who know me in real life, yes I am sounding a little hoarse on the recording, but I had just given my second half day presentation that week before appearing. 

Thanks for having me on again. And kudos to Becca for the humors episode title. 

Episode 15: Becky With the Good Recs 

PW Holiday Gift Guide 2016 and Why Gift Guides in General Make For Great Suggestions

Click here for access

While I have been busy prepping for Halloween, the very first end of the year “best” lists came out on September 30th in the form of Publisher Weekly’s Holiday Gift Guide.

I love two things about this list. First, the range of categories. From the site:

Holiday Gift Guide 2016: FictionHoliday Gift Guide 2016: NonfictionHoliday Gift Guide 2016: Illustrated Gift BooksHoliday Gift Guide 2016: Adult Coloring Books as GiftsHoliday Gift Guide 2016: Don’t Forget the Kids!Holiday Gift Guide 2016: Bestsellers & BlockbustersHoliday Gift Guide 2016: What to Buy for the TV BuffHoliday Gift Guide 2016: Bookseller PicksHoliday Gift Guide 2016: Bring on the CheerHoliday Gift Guide 2016: ’Tis the Season for Devotionals

As advertised by PW, there is something for everyone here, but not just to buy as gifts, there are some gems to recommend to your patrons right now. I particularly like the “Bookseller Picks” which are some more under the radar titles sure to please a wide audience.  Use this list as both a tool to suggest titles AND for collection development. If the titles is good enough to be in this PW Guide than it is at least worth consideration for your shelves.

Second, you know what this year’s Holiday Gift Guide being published means? If you have read this blog for more than five seconds you should know....

It means there are Gift Guides from past years to sort through! Ahhh, the backlist. The library worker's BFF. As I mention in this popular post, you can use any year’s best list to help readers find a good read [click through for details].

Surprisingly, because they normally do such a good job at PW, I was having trouble finding their past year’s Guides. But, I learned from what I wrote above and realized that Holiday Gift Guides may be a better resource than traditional “best” lists precisely because they are the best choices for the widest range of readers. Their sure bet status makes them easier to use to identify suggestions for readers.

So don’t only look at this year’s, brand new, PW Gift Guide, but use this link to a Google search to bring up past year’s Gift Guides. Add a year to the search string if you want more specific results from say last year, 2015. But don’t be afraid to go back more years, like these great lists from 2010.

Oh, that last link had so many great suggestions. I got distracted. I need to stop looking at them all and publish this post.

Start using the "Gift Guide” as a resource all year long [not just for the Holidays] from some great, crowd pleasers. Your patrons will think you are a superhero and you will feel reinvigorated by a new crop of fresh reading suggestions. Everyone wins!

Becky's Under the Radar Holiday Book Suggestions-- Fiction

This will come as no surprise to many of you, but I am often asked for advice on what books someone should buy for another someone.  This kind of third hand RA work is never easy, but I feel even more pressure to do it well because if I screw up on a suggestion with a library book, well, it was free. You simply close it, return it and get another one.  But when someone is asking me for help to spend their money to buy a gift for someone they care about....well, that is money and my reputation on the line.

Seriously though, helping someone find a good book for themselves is hard enough, but when I am helping you find for someone who is not in the room who you may or may not know the intricacies of their reading tastes....this can be difficult. But hey, I love a challenge.

When I do take up these holiday gift suggestion challenges, I always try to find some sure bet, back list stunners. Books that I have suggested to a wide readership with great success for years. I do this for a few reasons. One, they have stood the test of time. Two, they are titles that have stayed with me in surprising ways, and when you give a novel to someone as a gift, you want it to be memorable to them. And three, older book suggestions make the gift giver look like they tried. You didn't just go to the book store, or the front page of Amazon. No you sought out advice on the perfect book for that person-- which you actually did do if you asked me for help. You can tell someone you worked hard on their gift all you want, but if you show up with a copy of Girl on the Train or Between the World and Me, they won't believe you-- even if that is the perfect book for that person.

So because people have begun asking me for these gift suggestions, and because I cannot possibly help everyone who wants my help, I am going to share my favs with links to the reviews. And please note, those reviews also have readalikes which means that this list can lead you to hundreds more off the beaten path suggestions.  Good luck.

• The Good Thief by Hannah Tinti
• City of Thieves by David Benioff (Dude, he knows that "winter is coming" after writing that book; too bad he is too busy crafting Game of Thrones to write another novel)
• The Lonely Polygamist by Brady Udall
• The Thirteenth Tale by Diana Setterfield
• Forever by Pete Hamill
• A Brief History of the Dead by Kevin Brockmeier
• The Known World by Edward P. Jones
• The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach
• The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey
• Tell the Wolves I'm Home by Carol Rifka Brunt
• Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones
• Peace Like A River by Leif Enger [read before the blog-- link to Goodreads. Still stays with me]
• Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson
• The Tower, the Zoo, and the Tortoise by Julia Stuart

If I have time [and remember] I will try to do a narrative nonfiction version of this post too.  No promises though.

Unconventional Lists of Books for Graduates

I am often surprised by how many requests I get at the service desk for recommendations on books people need to buy as a gift. [I do push the idea that the library is where you will find your community’s book experts in many of my trainings, so I guess I shouldn’t be that surprised.]

Graduation is one of those most popular times, second only to Christmas, where I am asked to help people find a unique book option for purchase.  Often, these patrons are bored by the obvious Oh the Places You’ll Go type graduate books.  What they want is the recommendation of a “good read” for the graduate in their life.  A book to reintroduce them to the joys of leisure reading, now that school is over.

So here are a few lists and ideas I have been passing on to these patrons.  Feel free to add more lists or any of your own suggestions in the comments.

• Try my lists of “Best Books I Read This Year” for 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014.
• Bustle’s list of 11 Books to Read After College Graduation 
• In 2013, the Daily Beast asked a group of authors and academics which one book they think everyone should read before graduating college. 
• And because the last 8 years have probably been a blur of high school and college required reading for the graduate, why not give him or her a great contemporary, leisure reading option that he or she may have missed:
• Booklists’s Best Crime Novels of the Past Decade
• The Millions: Best Fiction of the Millennium (So Far)

Bookish Birthday

Yesterday was my birthday and I received a gift perfect for a true lover of stories. [I also received a perfect horror related present too; you need to go to the horror blog for that one though.]

Let me back up a bit.  When you are a well known RA expert, no one, and I means NO ONE, ever wants to buy you books as a present.  They all know you love books, they all know you think books make a great gift, but they also all know that they would never be able to pick out something perfect for you that you haven’t all ready read. I am also vocal about not needing or wanting to own many books.  I work at a public library and can get any book in the world delivered to me for free and I don’t ever have to pay fines.

But sometimes there are perfect gift books, and it is those my husband scopes out and finds to give me.  This year he scored a slam dunk with The Best of McSweeney’s (Deluxe Edition).  Below I have reposted the description from their site.  Between the stories and the ephemera, this is a perfect gift for the true lover of stories in your life.  It is a bad choice for libraries but a great choice for you to give to your favorite librarian or book lover.

I cannot wait to read the Coover story--rearranged.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

To commemorate the fifteenth anniversary of the journal called “a key barometer of the literary climate” by the New York Times and twice honored with a National Magazine Award for fiction, here is The Best of McSweeney’s—a comprehensive collection of the most remarkable work from a remarkable magazine. Drawing on the full range of the journal thus far—from the very earliest volumes to our groundbreaking, Chris Ware–edited graphic novel issue to our most popular project yet, the full-on Sunday-newspaper issue known as San Francisco Panorama, The Best of McSweeney’s is an essential retrospective of recent literary history. With full-color contributions from some of the pioneering artists and illustrators featured in our pages over the years (Marcel Dzama, Art Spiegelman, and many more) and a breathtaking array of first-rate fiction (and some incredible nonfiction, too), this is a book to be pored over, and lasting proof that the contemporary short story is as vital as ever.

Along with a 624-page hardcover, this special, slipcased deluxe edition includes a custom cigar box filled with the following extras:

• A broadsheet comics section from the newspaper of your dreams, with work by Chris Ware, Adrian Tomine, and many more

• A tiny hardcover fable by Nathan Englander

• A catalog for plural clothing, designed to be worn by no fewer than two people at a time by Brian McMullen

• A lost novel-fragment from Michael Chabon

• Stephen King’s baseball reportage

• A rearrangeable story by Robert Coover, printed on playing cards

• A collaborative novella by Ann Beattie and Harry Mathews

• Postcards by Ian Huebert