The 2026 Big Bookish Gift Guide

It's what everything was leading up to, me writing commercial, accessible history, but with a foundation in my own research to be able to share those topics I'm so passionate about with you, and I'm so proud of this book. And I do think it would make a great Christmas present for anybody who's interested in women's history, ancient history, or sex history.

The artwork inside is so gorgeous. It uses a muted like simple color palette so well, and it's also a incredible story. So I would highly recommend this as a gift for teens.

So I read a proof copy, but I'll put the final cover on the screen here for you. Another stunning, gorgeous hardback, but it's also a beautiful reimagining of the life of a historical queen or Pharaoh aka Cleopatra VII.

Another one of my favorite books of the year to be perfect on it. And that is finding Albion Myth Folklore and the Quest for a Hidden Britain by Zakiya Suwail.

And what I particularly enjoy about it is that it's told in verse, which feels very like in keeping with the ancient stories it's inspired by. As an ancient historian, I really enjoyed what Nikita Gill did with the Goddess of Witchcraft in this book. I think it was beautiful.

It also serves as an introduction and analysis of the ancient work from an accessible standpoint. So if you know anybody that enjoyed the film, who's interested in learning more about antiquity, who just really connected to the themes, who loves the original book, any of those things, I think they would really enjoy this.

And the approach of this book is to take two women at a time, one from the medieval era, one from the modern historical era, and kind of compare and contrast the way their memory has been used and warped, how their image has been changed, who they actually were compared to how we remember them, etc. And it's so fascinating because it covers so many different historical figures.

This is one of the best books I've read this year. It will absolutely 100% be on my top books of the year video when I film it at the beginning of next year and I think it is the perfect gift for so many people.

Anyone 11 plus I think could really enjoy this book and it is a dark fantasy story, which is just absolutely delicious.

It's structured by the pagan wheel of the year, but I don't think the person you're gifting this to has to be pagan to enjoy this book because they're going to learn folklore, they're going to learn about like seasonal fruits and vegetables and plants. They're going to learn about seasonal traditions, all of those little tidbits, and it's also just beautiful inside.

And this is one of those picture books which isn't just beautiful to look at, but has so much like depth and meaning to it. It's about a little girl who's struggling with her temper and her emotions and trying to figure out how to deal with feelings that don't fit in or seem to have a place and what to do with them and why you're experiencing them, which I think is just such a lovely topic and an important topic for little ones to explore.

So again, I have the hard back, but it's the paperback that came out this year, and this is a phenomenal like creepy novel set in Scotland in the 1960s where an underwater archaeologist is sent to complete a dive to retrieve some objects from a shipwreck off the coast of this tiny Scottish island, and the community there is a little bit hostile, a little bit strange, and she's got a lot of stuff going on in her own life, but then stuff starts to go missing, and there's lots of questions.