Skip to content

John's (Mostly Book) Holiday Gift Recommendations

2023-11-28 · review / recommendation · John · 4:11 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Books & writing · mode: Advice & reviews · tags: calendar ritual, self promotion, community lore

In his yearly holiday gift roundup John recommends books (Hannah Ritchie, Rebecca Makkai, Maria Smilios, Leslie Jones, Ilene Cooper, Adam Grant, Ed Yong), argues for reading kids' books to learn a subject, plugs Hank's Cancer Socks, a Sun Basin bath box and Awesome Coffee gift boxes, and asks Hank for the bath box.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Yearly holiday book roundup: Not the End of the World, I Have Some Questions for You, start of The Black Angels

  • ★★ John does his yearly holiday book roundup of books to give as gifts, this year (2023) adding three non-book recommendations. — 00:00:00 · Christmas
  • ★★★ For doomers who feel the world is collapsing, John recommends Hannah Ritchie's Not the End of the World; he loves Ritchie, Our World in Data and the book, which left him hopeful. — 00:00:00
  • ★★★ John's favorite novel of the year is Rebecca Makkai's I Have Some Questions for You: crimey and podcasty but brilliant, with some of the best sentences around. — 00:00:29
  • ★ While reading Makkai's novel, John several times turned to Sarah and asked why he can't write like this, which he rarely does with fiction. — 00:00:29 · Sarah Urist Green
  • ★★ John admits that yes, he has a favorite tuberculosis book of the year. (playful) — 00:00:29 · tuberculosis

00:00:58 — The Black Angels; Hank's Cancer Socks as the first non-book gift

  • ★★★ John recommends Maria Smilios's The Black Angels for history lovers: the story of Black nurses on Staten Island, many from the American South, who helped cure tuberculosis; untold before, phenomenally written. — 00:00:58 · tuberculosis
  • ★★★ John's first non-book recommendation is Hank's Cancer Socks: great designs, super comfortable, with 100% of the profit going to expand access to cancer care worldwide. — 00:00:58 · Hank's Cancer Socks, Hank Green
  • ★ John jokes that nobody is paying him to praise the socks because he is an unpaid intern. (joke) — 00:00:58 · Awesome Coffee Club · first in: 2023-08-01, Three Mornings

00:01:27 — Leslie Jones's memoir, This Boy, and the read-the-kids'-book life hack

  • ★★ John says the socks' profit, which goes to cancer care access, is looking like it will reach several hundred thousand dollars. (hedged) — 00:01:27 · Hank's Cancer Socks
  • ★★ Contrasting ghostwritten-seeming celebrity memoirs with ones like Matthew McConaughey's that the star clearly wrote, John recommends Leslie Jones's memoir: she wrote it, and it's great. — 00:01:27
  • ★★★ For fans of music and rock-and-roll history John recommends This Boy by his mentor Ilene Cooper, a children's book about the childhoods of John Lennon and Paul McCartney that he loved. — 00:01:27
  • ★★★ John's life hack: when getting interested in a subject, read the kids' book, because it answers the questions grown-up history books assume you already know. — 00:01:57
  • ★★ As examples of kids' books worth reading, John points to Walter Dean Myers' book about the Haitian Revolution and a kids' book about tuberculosis. — 00:01:57 · tuberculosis

00:02:26 — Sun Basin Soap's Viridian Sun bath box designed by John

  • ★★ For people who love getting clean John recommends the Viridian Sun bath box he designed for Sun Basin Soap: a Pacific Northwest candle, his three favorite soaps, a bath bomb and bath salts. — 00:02:26 · Sun Basin Soap

00:02:52 — Hidden Potential, An Immense World, Awesome Coffee gift boxes

  • ★★★ For people into business or unlocking their professional potential John recommends Adam Grant's Hidden Potential, though it is not the kind of book he usually likes. — 00:02:52
  • ★★★ Hidden Potential helped John see that much of what he thinks of as his inability might be constructed, which profoundly changed his relationship to business and what he thinks he can write. (hedged) — 00:02:52
  • ★★★ For science and animal nerds John recommends Ed Yong's An Immense World, which radically deepened his appreciation and understanding of non-human animals. — 00:03:21
  • ★★ For coffee lovers John recommends the Awesome Coffee gift boxes. — 00:03:21 · Awesome Coffee Club

00:03:50 — Sign-off and John's gift request to Hank

  • ★★ John tells Hank what he wants: another Viridian Sun bath box, sent to his house and wrapped by Hank, on Christmas Day. (playful) — 00:03:50 · Hank Green, Christmas

In the description and comments

  • ★ Answering a viewer in a comment, John says they are working on international shipping for the Awesome Coffee Club, hopefully alongside a launch of tea. (hedged) — creator comment · Awesome Coffee Club

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: An Immense World · Hank's Cancer Socks · Hidden Potential · I Have Some Questions for You · Not the End of the World · The Black Angels · This Boy · Viridian Sun Bath Box

Also: People: John Lennon · Matthew McConaughey · Paul McCartney · Sarah Urist Green

Projects: Awesome Coffee Club · Sun Basin Soap

Works: Invincible Microbe · Leslie F*cking Jones · Toussaint L'Ouverture: The Fight for Haiti's Freedom

Organizations: Our World in Data

Concepts: growth mindset · memoir · tuberculosis

Places: Pacific Northwest · Staten Island

Events: Christmas · Haitian Revolution

Only in the description or credits: Adam Grant · Ed Yong · Good Store · Hannah Ritchie · Ilene Cooper · Leslie Jones · Maria Smilios · Rebecca Makkai · The Beatles · Walter Dean Myers

← Previous: It Wasn't Supposed to be Thanksgiving Yesterday · Next → It's OK if you think less of me after this!