What Books Should I Add to This Year's Jólabókaflód Box?

If you have never heard of Jólabókaflód or your Icelandic is a little rusty, this is an Icelandic tradition. Translated as “book flood,” it represents the flood of books released before Christmas and has become a tradition to exchange books on Christmas Eve1.

While I am well down the list of readers in our family and refuse to participate in the weaponization annual reading goals, we have always encouraged our kids to read, read, read, read. We use the library and have eReaders, but we also love buying books and supporting authors.

Over the past four years, we have adopted the Icelandic Christmas tradition by creating a Jólabókaflód box each year. Most of the books are family suggestions, but I also scour lists because I try to include a mix of topics and titles: heady, academic stuff; fun, brain-candy; moving novels, political and cultural analysis, etc.

What titles should be in our Jólabókaflód box this year?

If you want to suggest a title, the more diverse, the better; drop titles, links, or lists in the comments.

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