But I don't read fiction...

I came across my blog post from this date in 2014, with book suggestions for that friend who only reads memoirs, or biographies, or cookbooks, etc., etc.  

It made me wonder why I stopped sharing gift suggestions for readers. So, if you celebrate Christmas (and are therefore running out of time) and have run out of gift ideas for that person, here you go:

For the sports buff:

On Her Game: Caitlin Clark and the revolution in women's sports by Christine Brennan (Scribner, 2025).

Caitlin Clark arrived as a sports and cultural icon a little more than fifty years after the passage of Title IX, the 1972 law that opened the floodgates for girls and women to play sports in America. On Her Game is a sports story, certainly, but it’s also the story of a nation falling in love with what it has created because of that law—millions of new athletes, led by the magical Caitlin Clark.

For the music-lover:

Great Musicians: Letters for the ages edited by James Drake and Edward Smyth (Bloomsbury Continuum, 2025).

Ranging from Hildegaard von Bingen to Amy Winehouse, the letters assembled in this collection combine to delve into musicians' personal relationship with music and the creative process behind their greatest works of art. Witness your musical idols, warm-hearted and compassionate, arrogant and angry, insecure and egocentric, defeated and morose.

For the foodie:

Good Things: Recipes and Rituals to Share with People You Love by Samin Nosrat (Random House, 2025).

With all the generosity of spirit that has endeared her to millions of fans, Samin Nosrat offers more than 125 of her favorite recipes—simply put, the things she most loves to cook for herself and for friends—and infuses them with all the beauty and care you would expect from the person Alice Waters called “America’s next great cooking teacher.”

For the history (and mystery) buff: 

The Mysterious Case of the Victorian Female Detective by Sara Lodge (Yale University Press, 2025).

From Wilkie Collins to the adventures of Sherlock Holmes, the traditional image of the Victorian detective is male. Few people realise that women detectives successfully investigated Victorian Britain, working both with the police and for private agencies, which they sometimes managed themselves.
Shortlisted for The Wolfson History Prize 2025

For the memoir reader:

Book of Lives: A memoir of sorts by Margaret Atwood (Doubleday, 2025).

As she explores her past, Atwood reveals more and more about her writing, the connections between real life and art—and the workings of one of our very greatest imaginations.