Season’s greetings from your neighborhood bookseller, a 40-year-old woman who has, according to her Christmas list, leaned in to becoming a caricature of an eccentric bookshop owner. In addition to the following gift ideas on my list this year (only some of which are truly strange), I have also included book recommendations to help steer your gifting this year. 

My new nose piercing. (Two, actually - septum and nostril, ouch.) I went to Creative Chaos on the suggestion of our booksellers and highly recommend it. I’ve been heartbroken about the recent disregard shown for a woman’s bodily autonomy, so I felt like making a choice about my own was fitting. We’re thinking of having a tattoo and piercing popup in the bookstore in the New Year, because why not? Books + body art, let’s make it a thing. 

There are lots of great reasons to cut off all your hair. Going through a personal style crisis after having a baby is one of them. In the years since, I’ve had two more daughters and experienced similar moments of reinvention and rediscovery. It feels like each new baby challenges me to get back in touch with myself, my image, with what makes me feel seen and understood.

One recent Monday morning I was dragging my feet getting into work, trawling the makeup aisles at Target. Maybe it was the recent stretch of summer heat, or the piles of admin I had waiting at my desk, but my little brain was on the hunt for a dopamine boost. So, I gave it to her in the form of a fun homework assignment: Match drugstore lip glosses to our bestselling book covers. 

Our team of lucky booksellers got to take on a fun challenge: Match the cover of a book you’re recommending this summer to an M.M. LaFleur outfit! Here’s what we came up with. How did we do?