A! SHORT! GIFT! GUIDE!
Books! Bundles! Planning! Office Supplies! Toddlers!
FROM PINE STATE WITH LOVE:
My Life in Paper: Adventures in Ephemera by Beth Kephart is just a the pinnacle of giftable books. It’s for everyone.
For the friends & family processing their trauma, Eugenia Leigh’s Bianca & Tatiana Johnson-Boria’s Nocturne in Joy
For siblings, recent graduates, and your childhood bestie, Kate Doyle’s I Meant It Once
For those in their essays era, your kid’s teacher, and music folks, Sean Enfield’s Holy American Burnout!
For the dads & boyfriends & the dudes who spend their Sundays at Lowes and/or claim Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas is their favorite book, Brian Allen Carr’s Bad Foundations
For the hard truths, Margo Steines’s Brutalities: A Love Story, Kelly McMasters’ The Leaving Season, and Jehanne Dubrow’s Exhibitions: Essays on Art and Atrocity
For mothers & daughers, Jessica E. Johnson’s Mettlework: A Mining Daughter on Making Home & Susan Kiyo Ito’s I Would Meet You Anywhere.
For folks who want to finish a book in one sitting (because you literally want to inhale the book), Cynthia Marie Hoffman’s Exploding Head
For a sprinkle of the sacred, Jessica Jacobs’ unalone, Emily Stoddard’s Divination with a Human Heart Attached & John West’s Lessons and Carols
For your heart, Holly M. Wendt’s Heading North
For badass women & history, Kerry Chaput’s Chasing Eleanor, Iris Jamahl Dunkle’s Charmian Kittredge London: Trailblazer, Author, Adventurer & Cities of Women by Kathleen B. Jones
For your friends in the dating pool, L.S. McKee’s Creature, Wing, Heart, Machine
For the perfect balance of our time: humor & dread, Ross White’s Charm Offensive
For a crystalline reading experience, Rosanna Young Oh’s The Corrected Version
For the folks looking for a sign, Kristine Langley Mahler’s A Calendar is a Snakeskin
PLANNER GOODIES:
The Mochigrams 2024 planner (an oldie & a goodie)
2024 Big Picture Calendar from Schoolhouse (didn’t use mine, but it looked very aesthetically pleasing in my office and I plan to go back and put all my big wins for the year on it).
The Horizontal Mini Planner from Laurel Denise (can confirm seeing everything on one page is dreamy)
A Coptic Stitch notebook from Bind by Bind (National Book Award finalist Beth Kephart’s handmade books)
To Do mini post-it note squares
solar system perpetual calendar from Blackbird Letterpress
2024 Smythson Soho Weekly Agenda (when I tell you it’s my actual fantasy to write on these blue pages one day).
I am in fact obsessed with these aesthetic highlighters (especially because they don’t roll off a desk).
This is THE best pen there ever was and I will not be here for any .38 ultra fine G2 slander.
A BUNDLE OF JOY:
a Game Over Press x Ginger Bug Press collab bundle
The Frost Place chapbook bundle from Bull City Press
Sophia Sid’s But for I Am a Woman chapbook from Host Publications (or any Host Publications chapbook)
a Small Beer Press bundle of your choice
One Story back issues for just $2.50
Celebrating translation bundle from Sarabande Books
A Black Lawrence Press poetry subscription
A membership tier for Between the Covers with David Naimon
FAVORITE SMALL HUMAN BOOKS:
Duck, Duck, Dad by Lorna Scobie
Doodle Cat Wears a Cape by Kat Patrick and Lauren Farrell (all things animal over here)
Logan’s Greenhouse by Janay Brown-Wood (you’ll see a carrot theme here)
How Do You Wokka-Wokka by Elizabeth Bluemle, illustrated by Randy Cecil
Where Do Diggers Sleep at Night? by Brianna Caplan Sayres, illustrated by Christian Slade (very into all things transportation, but this is the top one)
Every Bunny Poops by Christianne Jones, illustrated by Oriol Vidal (if we could, we would own every poop book on the market)
Animals Around the World by Stefan Lohr (if there’s not a Wimmelbook search at breakfast, have we really lived that day?)
Tad and Dad by David Ezra Stein (thank you Dolly Parton’s imagination library for sending us this one!) SIDE NOTE: all kids under 5 can sign-up for Imagination Library (if they have it in your area) and they send *the best* books every month.
And some crowd favorites: Some Bugs, Bad Kitty, Little Blue Truck (leads the way is Pet’s fav), Grumpy Monkey, Room on the Broom, Freight Train, The Bad Seed, Aaron Slater, Illustrator, and this book is my personal favorite and Pet loves it, I Like Myself! (if you have a stinky feet child, they will love this one).
SHIT FOR THE OFFICE:
Camp flags from Oxford Pennant (shout out Buffalo!)
All the Carson Ellis art (and all the art on Buy Olympia) but especially this map print from The Wildwood Chronicles
Cloth coasters for your assorted beverages
Clinton Pencil Case from State Bags
A Jellycat Amuseable
Wallpaper sticker sheet for the door
All things Tony’s Chocolonely
A little fresh squeezed stained glass from Golden Haze
Drippy wall shelf from Curious
THINGS I SHOULD ACTUALLY RECOMMEND FROM MY EVERYDAY LIFE:
office cereal, cereal designated for your office
a Standard Issue agenda (my actual planner that I’m currently using)
B5 softcover, dotted, Leuchtturm 1917
This sweatshirt from You Are Beautiful
These quarter socks from Columbia
This silly little 80’s Tumblr that I carry everywhere with me
Food Lion brand sparkling water (which we call ~spicy water~)
These strawberry earrings that are never removed from my ears because I can be disgusting if I want to be.
Satin scrunchies (and all scrunchies)
As always, the Pine State calendar of events lives here. Request books for review & interview & feature here, add yourself to our reviewer list here, and buy our books here! You can also contact us through our website, Pinestatepublicity.com.
ICYMI: Susan Kiyo Ito’s memoir was called “breathtaking” by the Associated Press, MARGO STEINES talks messy with Literary Mama, Alice Stephens reviews I Would Meet You Anywhere for Atticus Review, an interview about contradictions with Jehanne Dubrow in Hunger Mountain, The Coachella Review chats with MARGO STEINES, Datebook lists I Would Meet You Anywhere as a gift-worthy book for the holidays, New York Times Book Review shouts out Beth Kephart’s My Life in Paper, Tatiana Johnson-Boria is leading a few workshops in Boston, Donna Spruijt-Metz is a 5 Over 50 for Poets & Writers, Horn Book reviewed Jane Kuo’s Land of Broken Promises and so much more on our Twitter & Instagram.
Oh no, now I NEED a $285 planner
Pilot G2s!