CBC Books holiday gift guide roundup: 146 books for everyone on your shopping list
Books make great gifts for everyone! Here are ideas for everyone from the sports fan to the romantic comedy fan this holiday season.
Sports
Our top pick: Playing the Long Game by Christine Sinclair, with Stephen Brunt
In collaboration with the Canadian sportswriter Stephen Brunt who has followed her career for years, Olympic soccer gold-medallist Christine Sinclair provides an in-depth look into what led her to become the top international goal scorer of all time and one of Canada's greatest athletes. She tells the stories behind some of her brightest successes and heartbreaking failures. In Playing the Long Game, Sinclair shares the wisdom gleaned from a career spent changing the game of women's sport.
Sinclair is the long-time forward and captain of Canada's national soccer team and the Portland Thorns FC of the National Women's Soccer League. Born and raised in Burnaby, B.C., she now lives in Portland, Oregon.
Brunt is a Canadian writer and broadcaster with Rogers Sportsnet and the author of multiple books including Facing Ali, Searching for Bobby Orr and Gretzky's Tears.
LISTEN | Christine Sinclair talks about life in soccer and the 2022 World Cup:
Romance
Our top pick: The Stand-In by Lily Chu
In The Stand-In, Gracie Reed's world is turned upside down when a mysterious vehicle pulls up beside her on the street, revealing its occupants to be Chinese cinema's famous couple, Wei Fangli and Sam Yao. Fangli asks Gracie to be her stand-in, due to how much they look alike, and attend public events with the incredibly attractive yet infuriating Sam. Gracie, who needs the money to get her mother into a new nursing home, agrees, and is thrown into a world of luxury, glitz and glamour.
The Stand-In is Lily Chu's debut rom-com novel. Chu writes romantic comedies set in Toronto with strong Asian characters. The audiobook of her second rom-com, The Comeback, came out in 2022 and will be in print in spring 2023.
Funny books
Our top pick: Is There Bacon in Heaven? by Ali Hassan
In this comedic memoir, Canadian comedian Ali Hassan looks back at growing up as a chameleon. He had friends from multiple different countries and religions, but also played hockey and knew Neil Young songs. He could blend in everywhere. But the world — and his Muslim Pakistani family and community — has a funny way of reminding you who you are. In Is There Bacon in Heaven?, Hassan shares his life-long journey to becoming a cultural Muslim, learning to embrace his heritage while following his passions.
Ali Hassan is an Canadian actor, comedian, host of CBC Radio's Laugh Out Loud and frequent guest host of Q and As It Happens. He is also the host of Canada Reads. He has recurring roles on the television series Run the Burbs, Odd Squad and Working Moms. He's performed at the Just for Laughs Festival in Montreal and Toronto and his solo show, Muslim, Interrupted, was performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
LISTEN | Ali Hassan reflects on his professional and personal journeys:
Historical fiction
Our top pick: The Sleeping Car Porter by Suzette Mayr
The Sleeping Car Porter tells the story of Baxter, a Black man in 1929 who works as a sleeping car porter on a train that travels across the country. He smiles and tries to be invisible to the passengers, but what he really wants is to save up and go to dentistry school. On one particular trip out west, the train is stalled and Baxter finds a naughty postcard of two gay men. The postcard reawakens his memories and longings and puts his job in jeopardy.
The Sleeping Car Porter won the 2022 Scotiabank Giller Prize.
Suzette Mayr is a poet and novelist based in Calgary. She is also the author of the novels Dr. Edith Vane and the Hares of Crawley Hall, Monoceros, Moon Honey, The Widows and Venous Hum.
LISTEN | Suzette Mayr reacts to winning the 2022 Scotiabank Giller Prize:
Thriller, horror, mystery & crime
Our top pick: A World of Curiosities by Louise Penny
A World of Curiosities is Louise Penny's 18th book in the Armand Gamache series, which takes place in a warm, eccentric, tight-knit community known as Three Pines. This time out, Inspector Gamache gets caught up in a story involving two young siblings who have appeared in the village. The pair were young when their troubled mother was murdered, leaving them damaged. Gamache must uncover why they have arrived in town — before it's too late.
Louise Penny, a former CBC broadcaster and journalist, is the bestselling author of the Inspector Armand Gamache mysteries.
LISTEN | Louise Penny and École Polytechnique shooting survivor Nathalie Provost discuss A World of Curiosities:
Science fiction & fantasy
Our top pick: Blood Scion by Deborah Falaye
In the YA fantasy novel Blood Scion, a teen named Sloane discovers she is a superpowered Scion, a descendant of the ancient Orisha gods. But when she is forced to join the army under a brutal warlord, Sloane realizes she has an opportunity to use her magical powers to defeat the enemy from within.
Deborah Falaye is a Nigerian Canadian YA author based in Toronto. She grew up in Lagos, where she spent her time devouring African literature, pestering her grandma for folktales and tricking her grandfather into watching Passions every night. Blood Scion is her debut novel.
Music
Our top pick: Stories I Might Regret Telling You by Martha Wainwright
In her memoir, Martha Wainwright reflects on her tumultuous public life, her competitive relationship with her brother and the loss of her mother. She writes about finding her voice as an artist, becoming a mother herself and making peace with the past. Stories I Might Regret Telling You offers a thoughtful and personal look into the life of one of the most talented singer-songwriters in music today.
Wainwright is a Canadian musician and artist. She is the daughter of folk legends Kate McGarrigle and Loudon Wainwright III and sister of singer Rufus Wainwright. She lives in Montreal.
LISTEN | Why Martha Wainwright is sharing her story:
Memoir
Our top pick: Half-Bads in White Regalia by Cody Caetano
Half-Bads in White Regalia traces Cody Caetano's unique upbringing living in a rural house with his siblings after his parents split up and left them behind — his mother trying to discover her Anishinaabe roots after finding out her Sixties Scoop origin story and his Portuguese immigrant father drifting aimlessly.
Cody Caetano is a Toronto-based writer of Anishinaabe and Portuguese descent and an off-reserve member of Pinaymootang First Nation. Half-Bads in White Regalia is his first book.
LISTEN | Cody Caetano discusses Half-Bads in White Regalia with Shelagh Rogers:
