You’ve just been handed a rectangular-shaped gift with the telltale heft and size of a book. Who knows what worlds might be contained in that one little object? This holiday season, you can give that same gift of possibility by shopping at an independent bookstore—and Nick and Celeste Polsinelli, the owners of Little Professor Book Center in Athens, Ohio, have plenty of ideas to get you started. In this episode, Nick offers a range of recommendations, from picture books to epistolary novels to talking cats and beyond, to cover every book lover on your list no matter how eclectic their tastes.

Recommended books:

• How to Be a Good Creature by Sy Montgomery, illustrated by Rebecca Green
• The Christmas Sweater by Jan Brett
• Du Iz Tak? by Carson Ellis
• D.J. Rosenblum Becomes the G.O.A.T. by Abby White
• The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman
• The Cat Who Saved Books by Sosuke Natsukawa, translated by Louise Heal Kawai
• Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn
• The Girl and the Goddess by Nikita Gill
• A Time of Dread by John Gwynne (Of Blood and Bone series)
• The Millfield Mine Disaster by Ron W. Luce
• Enchanted Ground: The Spirit Room of Jonathan Koons by Sharon Hatfield
• A Place So Deep Inside America It Can't Be Seen by Kari Gunter-Seymour
• The Bear by Andrew Krivak
• Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice

Page Count is produced by Ohio Center for the Book at Cleveland Public Library. For full show notes and an edited transcript of this episode, visit the episode page. To get in touch, email ohiocenterforthebook@cpl.org (put “podcast” in the subject line) or follow us on Instagram or Facebook.