Are you ready for the holiday season and on the hunt for gifts to inspire someone in your life? Our holiday sale is back! Save 30% on everything at beacon.org through December 31 using code HOLIDAY30.

This year, Beacon Press is also donating 10% of our web sales in December to Unitarian Universalist Assocation Disaster Relief Fund to the help the communities in California recover from the wildfires.

Here are our holiday picks for the year. Drum roll, please:

White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism
Robin DiAngelo

“An indispensable volume for understanding one of the most important (and yet rarely appreciated) barriers to achieving racial justice.”
—Tim Wise, author of White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son 

A New York Times Best Seller! 

The Heritage: Black Athletes, a Divided America, and the Politics of Patriotism
Howard Bryant

“This is the book for explaining our times, whether you give a damn about sports or not.”
—Dave Zinn, sports editor, The Nation, and author of Jim Brown: Last Man Standing 

A Library Journal Best Book of 2018, a Boston Globe Best of 2018 pick, and longlisted for the PEN America Literary Award in literary sports writing! 

Looking for Lorraine: The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry
Imani Perry

“I didn’t know how hungry I was for this intimate portrait until now.”
—Jacqueline Woodson, National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature and National Book Award Winner for Brown Girl Dreaming

Longlisted for the PEN America Literary Award in biography! 

The Trials of Nina McCall: Sex, Surveillance, and the Decades-Long Government Plan to Imprison “Promiscuous” Women
Scott W. Stern

“In our own era, when harassment is a great national topic, this book could not be more timely.”
—Mary Pipher, author of Reviving Ophelia and Women Rowing North

A Boston Globe Best of 2018 pick! 

When I Spoke in Tongues: A Story of Faith and Its Loss
Jessica Wilbanks

“Jessica Wilbanks’s memoir of faith’s loss and her efforts to comprehend its significance is no less than an illuminating exploration of how to live meaningfully.”
—Claire Messud, author of The Burning Girl  

Unapologetic: A Black, Queer, and Feminist Mandate for Radical Movements
Charlene A. Carruthers

“Charlene gives us not just a manual but a prayer, an intention, a critical path forward, and a deep analysis on where we’ve been.”
—Patrisse Khan Cullors, coauthor of When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir  

The Miracle of Mindfulness: An Introduction to the Practice of Meditation
Thich Nhat Hanh

“Thich Nhat Hanh’s ideas for peace, if applied, would build a monument to ecumenism, to world brotherhood, to humanity.”
—Martin Luther King Jr.

How to Be Less Stupid About Race: On Racism, White Supremacy, and the Racial Divide
Crystal M. Fleming

“This book will leave you thinking, offended, and transformed.”
—Nina Turner, former Ohio state senator

New and Selected Poems, Volume One
Mary Oliver

“Her special gift is to connect us with our sources in the natural world, its beauties and terrors and mysteries and consolations.”
—Stanley Kunitz

Man’s Search for Meaning
Viktor E. Frankl

“One of the great books of our time.”—Harold S. Kushner, author of When Bad Things Happen to Good People  

Kindred
Octavia E. Butler

“In Kindred, Octavia Butler creates a road for the impossible and a balm for the unbearable.”
—Walter Mosley 

An African American and Latinx History of the United States
Paul Ortiz

“An African American and Latinx History of the United States is a gift.”
—Ibram X. Kendi, National Book Award–winning author of Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America 

The End of Animal Farming: How Scientists, Entrepreneurs, and Activists Are Building an Animal-Free Food System
Jacy Reese

“Places the issue of factory farming in the context of human progress and presents compelling arguments on how we should deal with it today.”
—Steven Pinker, Johnstone Professor of Psychology, Harvard University, and author of The Better Angels of Our Nature and Enlightenment Now  

Notes of a Native Son
James Baldwin

“He named for me the things you feel but couldn’t utter . . . articulated for the first time to white America what it meant to be American and a black American at the same time.”
—Henry Louis Gates Jr.

A Treasury of African-American Christmas Stories
Ed. Bettye Collier-Thomas

“A Treasury of African American Christmas Stories gives us all the gift of engaging our hearts and minds in the true stories of Christmas.”
—Nikki Giovanni

If you’re tracking down a specific kind of book, poke around in our categories. For those concerned about the lives of immigrants and the policies that affect them, browse our titles in Immigration Reform. For those eager to see what’s really at stake with regard to reproductive justice and abortion laws, look at our titles in Women’s Lives. And for those looking to up their game on discussing issues of race and systemic oppression, check out our books in Race and Ethnicity in America. You can always browse our website to see all the others and search our whole catalog!

Oh, and our staff members are here to help you out, too! Check out what some of them are recommending. They’re also suggesting their favorite things to gift for the holidays.

“Anyone who knows me even a little bit knows that I am obsessed with all things animal (particularly dogs, but cows and goats and pretty much everything else too). Mousy Cats and Sheepish Coyotes dives deep into the science behind animal personalities and John Shivik’s own experiences as a pet-owner and wildlife expert. It also has one of the best first lines I’ve ever read: ‘My cat, for all practical purposes, is an asshole.’

Another thing I’m loving this season is all kinds of lights! I hate the constant darkness of winter and this is my new sun lamp at my desk that I use every single morning. I also recently got an alarm clock that mimics the sunrise, so instead of being jolted awake in the pitch dark, you wake up gradually with light. It’s AMAZING.”
—Emily Powers, associate marketing manager

“My favorite Beacon book is The Art of Misdiagnosis, which I recommend to anyone who has used the gifts of art, creativity, and storytelling to process complicated family and personal situations. My favorite ‘thing(s)’ to gift at the holidays are prints, cards, totes, and all sorts from local artisan fairs. I recently fell in love with the work of talented local artist Amanda Williams Galvin (a.k.a REVEL REVEL) and purchased many of her New England–themed delights to send to friends near and far. And, ’tis the season to treat oneself too, right? I bought this delightful Somerville, MA, print as a gift to me.”
—Marcy Barnes, production director

“With the recent uptick in discussion about immigrant detention centers, Margaret Regan’s Detained and Deported is a crucial read for anyone who wants to dig deeper into our country’s history of separating and incarcerating migrant families. The stories and statistics are heart-wrenching, but they really helped me get a better understanding of this issue when it took over US headlines back in September. On a lighter note, this is Tyra, the design department’s pet crocodile. I’m not sure what brand she is, but she’s one of those toys that starts out small and grows in a bowl of water. A great holiday gift for anyone in your life who may need some companionship this winter.”
—Louis Roe, designer