Gifts for Grownups, Round 2

Even though your Redeemed Reader team is reading a plethora of books for children and teens, we do also read grownup books, too! A few years ago, we crowd-sourced an outstanding list of gift suggestions for adult readers. We benefited from that list ourselves. Today, we bring you part 2, based on our own reading and gifting.

Fine print: these are books by and for adults. We are assuming that those who read these (including older, mature teens) are able to read discerningly, are ready to grapple with ideas and philosophies they may not agree with, are willing to overlook occasional bad language (or to simply put the book down if it’s not a good fit). That being said, we think each of the books below is worth reading.

Obligatory disclaimer: We are participants in the Amazon LLC affiliate program; purchases you make through affiliate links like the one below may earn us a commission. Read more here.

For Gardeners and Nature Lovers

  • A Bit of Earth: A Year in the Garden with God by Andrea Burke. Burke’s meditations are profound as she chronicles a year of gardening (vegetables). Designed to be read over the course of the year, don’t be surprised if the recipient can’t put it down. Savoring it is rewarding, but reading it straight through is as well. To quote from the Amazon summary: “In A Bit of Earth, Andrea G. Burke looks at the seasonal practice and common grace of gardening through a devotional lens. Part memoir, part prayer book, A Bit of Earth weaves care and intent through moments of ordinary living. This book is a lifelong resource of Scripture, poetry, and prose on the life of faith for contemplatives, gardeners, and believers.” Highly recommended!
  • The Backyard Bird Chronicles by Amy Tan. A fun gift for bird-watchers and anyone who keeps a nature journal. Tan’s artwork is worth the price of the book. Her astute, curious, and tongue-in-cheek verbal observations are by turns funny and thought-provoking. Note: Tan uses some offcolor/crude language in the first portion of the book, but this diminishes.
  • Soil: The Story of a Black Mother’s Garden by Camille T. Dungy. Part memoir, part social justice philosophy, part natural history, and all engaging, this book will challenge you to look around your world with a fresh perspective. Dungy offers much food for thought, some that will challenge you or that you may not agree with, some that will have her fellow gardeners (whether Black mothers or not) nodding along in agreement. She is a beautiful writer, and this book is utterly different from most “nature writing,” no less because she is transparent about the limitations she has that writers like John Muir did not (for one, he was not caring for a young child!).

For History and Biography Lovers

For Liturgy Lovers

For Those Longing for Less…

For Those Longing for (or Expecting) More…

For True-Crime Lovers

For Food Lovers

For Art Lovers

For Fiction Lovers

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Get the information you need to make wise choices about books for your children and teens.

Our weekly newsletter includes our latest reviews, related links from around the web, a featured book list, book trivia, and more. We never sell your information. You may unsubscribe at any time.

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Betsy Farquhar

Betsy is the Managing Editor at Redeemed Reader. When she reads ahead for you, she uses sticky notes instead of book darts and willfully dog ears pages even in library books. Betsy is a fan of George MacDonald, robust book discussions, and the Oxford comma. She lives with her husband and their three children in the beautiful Southeast.

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