It’s the most wonderful time of the most hellish year in memory.

But 2020 had some great new books--and plenty of down time to read them!  We’ve featured a bunch of them, including more than one National Book Award winner and Pulitzer Prize finalists. We've also checked in with previous guests having  conversations with the authors they love.

On this special 'Holidays Reads' episode, the staff discuss their picks and then Amanda calls up the one and only Neil Gaiman to hear his unique recommendations of what to give the book lover in your life for the holidays.

The holiday picks list include:

• A Humument - Tom Phillips
• Eat a Peach - David Chang
• Featherhood - Charlie Gilmour
• Paris - Hope Mirrlees
• A Promised Land - Barack Obama
• A Mother Laughs - Chantal Ackerman
• Luster - Raven Leilani
• A Yellow House - Sarah Broom
• If I Had Two Wings - Randall Keenan
• How To Tell If You Are Human: Diagram Poems - Jessy Randall
• Sleep Donation - Karen Russell
• Bundini: Don't Believe The Hype - Todd D. Snyder

Amanda Stern is Bookable’s host. Founder of the popular literary event series Happy Ending at Joe’s Pub in New York City, Stern is also a writer. Happy Ending ran for more than a decade and was selected as New York’s best book-related series by New York Magazine, The Village Voice and NY Press. The New York Times Magazine singled out Happy Ending as a force keeping “downtown New York alive.”

This episode was produced by Andrew Dunn and Amanda Stern. It was edited, mixed and sound-designed by Andrew Dunn who also created Bookable's chill vibe.  Our host is Amanda Stern. Beau Friedlander is Bookable's executive producer and editor in chief of Loud Tree Media.

Music:

"Books that Bounce" by Rufus Canis, "Different Strokes" by Jupyter, "Blackberry" by Oatmello, "Timeless Love" by Joonie, "Uni Swing Vox" by Rufus Canis.