Maria Lockwood, founder of Foxes and Fireflies shared her list of potential gifts when you’re shopping for a reader on Dec. 14.
If you are looking for some fantasy books that have a cozy feel to them, Lockwood recommends “Legends and Lattes” by Travis Baldree. This 2022 fantasy novel follows Viv, an orc adventurer that decides to take a career turn and open a coffee shop.
Lockwood also recommends its prequel, “Bookshops and Bonedust.” The background for this story follows a girl named Viv who is healing and struggling to find anything to do, she stumbles across a dirty bookshop run by a rattkin named Fern. The two become friends and together they attempt to fix up the place.
Both these books have a cozy tone and are LGTBQ romances.
If you are looking for a more serious book with a winter tone, she recommends “Icebound: Shipwrecked at the edge of the world” by Andrea Pitzer. This book tells the story of Dutch explorer William Barents and his polar expedition in the late 16th century. The crew experiences hardships as the ship gets lost in the frozen coast of Nova Zembla. The crew would then have to spend the next year fighting off the unforgiving winter.
With a similar tone Lockwood recommends “Small Things Like These” by Claire Keegan. The book follows Bill Furlong, a coal merchant living in New Ross Ireland where he observes the cruel treatment of unmarried mothers by the local convent.
This book also got a film adaptation of the same name that was released in November 2024.
A book with a lighter tone that Lockwood recommended is “Fox and I” by Catherine Raven. After a woman graduated with a PhD in biology, she moved to a remote cottage in Montana. Soon after moving into the cottage, she realized a fox would find its way onto her property every afternoon. The book explores their growing friendship.
If you’re looking for another fox book, she also recommends “Shadow Fox” by Carrie Sorosiak. The book follows a fox named Shadow and the only human she trusts is named Nan. When Nan goes missing, Shadow teams up with her granddaughter Bee which leads them to find Nan on a mysterious island in the great lakes.
Lockwood also recommended various children’s books for those who are shopping for younger ones this holiday season.
A few other Christmas books she recommended were “A Sticker Christmas” by Lane Smith, “Christmas song of the North” by Marsha Bonicatto and Karlyn Holman, “Shooting Stars” by John Hendrix, “A Cozy Winter day” by Eliza Wheeler, and “The Polar Express” by Chris Van Allsburg.
These are just some of the amazing books that you can read not only over winter break, but also for the rest of the year!
