There's not much better than receiving—or giving!—a book as gift during the holiday season. Books offer entertainment, escapism, healing, inspiration, and more, and they keep giving long after the season is over. Scroll to discover the perfect gift for every reader on your list, spanning a wide range of topics and interests.
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Books for the Self-Help Guru
Beginning in around the third century CE, a group of monastics known as the desert mothers and fathers retreated to the deserts of northern Egypt, Syria, and Palestine to pursue lives of silence and prayer. A key phrase, repeated often among the sayings of the desert mothers and fathers, is "Give me a word." Fast-forward many centuries to the present day, and we find the practice of seeking a word being reclaimed by the spiritually minded in new ways. Give Me a Word will gently lead you through the process of receiving your word, testing its resonance, and embracing its meaning.
Merry and bright? Yeah, right. During the holidays, many of us are anything but cheerful. From psychotherapist Niro Feliciano, author of This Book Won't Make You Happy, comes a book to help you move beyond holiday pressures and maintain perspective when it matters most. In thirty-one short chapters, Feliciano gives us daily prompts and rituals to help us set boundaries, create meaningful connections, start new traditions, and manage the season with greater ease. While the holidays may not be perfect, All Is Calmish reminds us that with intention and grace, we can still make them meaningful and memorable.
How nice it would be to clear the calendar—to just stop doing so much stuff. Except kids get sick and the work project awaits and elderly relatives need care. No matter how well you hack it, manage it, slice or dice or delegate it: in some seasons of life, busyness is a given. The solution, writes Rachelle Crawford, is not to merely declutter your calendar or unsubscribe from the busy life. The trick lies in learning how to be busy. How to Be Busy is a lighthearted, practical guide for how to live your deep, meaningful, unhurried life—right in the middle of your busy one.
Why should we make art while injustice and suffering wreak havoc? How can we justify making beautiful things? From award-winning author Mitali Perkins comes an essential companion for writers, artists, and other creatives who long for a more just world. We must keep making art infused with truth, beauty, and goodness, not to ignore a world in distress but for the sake of loving it. With vivid stories, practical ideas, and reflection and discussion questions, Just Making will inspire you to keep making beauty in a broken world.
Books for the Spiritual Seeker
Rocks. Cast iron skillets. Portraits. Calendars. Shoes. The regular objects of our lives can be conduits of God's love and grace—if we notice them. In Souvenirs of the Holy, join Laurie M. Brock on a journey of spiritual direction through everyday things, and discover the sacred in the ordinary. Reflect on the items in your life that connect you to a God who dwells within and beyond the material world. With creative ideas for praying with objects, this book is ideal for book clubs, church circles, and small groups seeking deeper, more tangible spiritual experiences.
The Christian industrial complex teaches us that whatever is centered, celebrated, and large is a movement of God, and that Jesus is at work in existing structures. So why are we surprised that many churches are obsessed with power, size, and reputation—and that people are leaving them in droves? Lost, Hidden, Small, a stirring book of spiritual formation, asks us to consider: What if the abundant life lies in finding what's been lost, uncovering what is hidden, and learning to hope in what is small?
From master storyteller and host of On Being's Poetry Unbound, Pádraig Ó Tuama, comes an unforgettable memoir of peace and reconciliation, Celtic spirituality, belonging, and sexual identity. "It is in the shelter of each other that the people live." Drawing on this Irish saying, Ó Tuama relates ideas of shelter and welcome to our journeys of life, using poetry, story, biblical reflection, and prose to open up gentle ways of living well in a troubled world. From the heart of a poet comes a profound look at the landscapes we all try to inhabit even as we always search for shelter, a place we can call home. An instant spiritual classic in Ireland and Britain, now brought to a US readership.
Prince is beloved by millions worldwide, and a true legend of the pop genre. Yet most of his fans don't recognize the spiritual messages coded within his work, nor understand the connections between Prince's own religious devotion—which evolved over time—and the sexualized messages of his music. In Dearly Beloved, Pamela Ayo Yetunde decodes the spiritual and sexual messages behind Prince's work. For anyone who loves Prince, is inspired by him, is confused by his lyrics, or is curious about what his music means, Dearly Beloved is an essential spiritual guide.
Books for the Naturalist
How do we use our incredible power to heal rather than to harm? What does it mean to truly love a forest? How to Love a Forest is a tender and fearless reimagining of what it means to care for forests, ecosystems, and each other in a changed and changing world. In this bracing, clear-eyed, yet hopeful work, forester Ethan Tapper weaves a new land ethic for the modern world, reminding us that what is simple is rarely true, and what is necessary is rarely easy.
What does it mean to be a mother in an era of climate catastrophe? In prose that teems with longing, lyricism, and knowledge of ecology, Chelsea Steinauer-Scudder writes of the silent flight and aural maps of barn owls, of nursing whales, of real and imagined forests, of tidal marshes, of ancient single-celled organisms, and of newly planted gardens. The creatures inhabiting these stories teach us about centering, belonging, entanglement, edgework, homemaking, and how to imagine the future. Rooted in wonder while never shying away from loss, Mother, Creature, Kin reaches toward a language of inclusive care learned from creatures living at the brink.
Throughout millennia and across the monotheistic religions, the natural was often revered as a sacred text. As we grapple to make sense of today's tumultuous world, one where nature is at once a damaged and damaging source of disaster, as well as a place of refuge and retreat, we are called again to examine how generously it awaits our attention and devotion, standing ready to be read by all. Weaving together the astonishments of science; the profound wisdom and literary gems of thinkers, poets, and observers who have come before us; and her own spiritual practice and gentle observation, Barbara Mahany reintroduces us to The Book of Nature. We needn't look farther for the divine.
Discovering the Spiritual Wisdom of Trees
There is great wisdom to learn from trees, and when we connect intimately with them, we can deepen our spiritual lives and grow in the understanding that all beings are part of the fabric of the holy. Trees have much to offer as soul friends, and their millennia of growth and loss provide deep wisdom, if we know how to pay attention. The Spiritual Wisdom of Trees encourages us to revel in the beauty and wonder of trees as they increase our capacity to bear witness to loss and grief. Integrating science and spirituality, coauthors Beth Norcross and Leah Rampy explore the knowledge held within the living world of trees and planted within each of us.
Books for the Poet
Pray and meditate along with saints through this luminous collection of one hundred block prints by artist Kreg Yingst, curator of the Instagram account @psalmprayers. Mystics like Teresa of Ávila, Howard Thurman, Black Elk, and Fannie Lou Hamer come alive. Everything Could Be a Prayer is a rich resource for private prayer and communal reflection.
When the Spirit speaks to him in his daily prayers, Choctaw elder and spiritual explorer Steven Charleston takes a pen and writes down the messages. This stunning collection of more than two hundred meditations introduces us to the Spirit Wheel and the four directions that ground Native spirituality: tradition, kinship, vision, and balance. We are all searching for belonging and a vision of the world that makes sense. Together we can turn toward the wisdom of our ancestors, kinship with all of Mother Earth's creatures, the vision of the Spirit, and mindful balance of life.
Native America knows something about cultivating resilience and resisting darkness. Choctaw elder Steven Charleston offers words of hard-won hope, rooted in daily conversations with the Spirit and steeped in Indigenous wisdom. For all who yearn for hope, Ladder to the Light is a book of comfort, truth, and challenge in a time of anguish and fear. Night will not last forever. Together we can climb toward the light.
The ordinary moments of life can be sacred, if we simply take a moment to notice. From gifted poet and empathetic pastor Meta Herrick Carlson, Ordinary Blessings collects blessings for loving yourself, enduring hard things, authenticity, living with others, and the rhythms of each day. Pause, take a deep breath, and open these pages to find that you've been standing on holy ground all along.
Books for the Activist
People would like for you to believe protest is an ineffective tool for change, but history tells us that student activism has been a formidable force leading to substantive change throughout history. But how should students organize? With My People answers this fundamental and crucial question by bringing together ethnography and notes on community-building, taking readers on a yearlong journey from the front lines of Ferguson to undergraduate campus life at Saint Louis University.
Prayer has long sustained movements for social change. Ritual gives shape to our desire for justice, and liturgy lends power to our work. With more than fifty resources from eighty contributors, We Pray Freedom is useful for individual reflection, corporate worship, and protest and action. Through liturgies of liberation, join a movement that bears witness to the justice of God and to human faith, suffering, protest, and love.
Many of us want to advocate for causes we care about—but which ones? We want to work for change—but will the emotional toll lead to burnout? In The Lightmaker's Manifesto, activist Karen Walrond shares strategies to help you define the actions that bring you joy, identify the values and causes about which you are passionate, and put them together to create change.
Social Justice for the Sensitive Soul
Social justice work, we often assume, is raised voices and raised fists. But what does social justice work look like for those of us who don't feel comfortable battling in the trenches? Alongside inspiring, real-life examples of highly sensitive world-changers, Social Justice for the Sensitive Soul expands the possibilities of how to have a positive social impact, affirming the particular gifts and talents that sensitive souls offer to a hurting world.
To view all of our books and resources, visit broadleafbooks.com.
