Give the Gift of Words this festive season
Celebrate the season by sharing the magic of storytelling with others.
Our festive gift guide for 2025 showcases standout titles that explore the places, people, and historic events shaping the world around us. Get inspired by the stories brought to life through reading – discover our selected titles, and the words that define them, in the guide below.
Biographies & Culture
Explore the stories of iconic figures that have changed the course of history. We’ve featured some of the most notable biographic explorations of the year, like David Cannadine’s concise biography of Queen Elizabeth II; Tim Greiving’s engaging account of one of the most important film composers of all time; and an exploration of the game-changing collaboration of Alfred Hitchcock and Bernard Herrmann by Steven C. Smith.
Queen Elizabeth II: A Concise Biography of an Exceptional Sovereign by David Cannadine
“She was obliged to respond to important changes initiated elsewhere in Britain and in the wider world beyond, which could be neither halted nor ignored by Buckingham Palace.”
John Williams: A Composer’s Life by Tim Greiving
“With notes and orchestral color, John Williams said what these characters could not. He was the omnipresent narrator, the magician behind the curtain.”
Hitchcock and Herrmann: The Friendship and Film Scores That Changed Cinema by Steven C. Smith
(In reference to Psycho)
“The film had been a risky experiment, financed by Hitchcock himself. And it might only exist today in massively shortened form as a television program, if not for Herrmann. When Hitch lost faith in the film before its scoring, it was his composer who rescued it with a daring idea: “to complement the black-and-white photography of the film with a black-and-white sound,” created entirely with strings.”
History & Exploration
An immersive dive into the meaning and mystique of shipwrecks. An unforgettable portrait of New York City. A sweeping and comprehensive history of Prague.
From the history of seas and cities to art and beer, discover the fascinating titles featured in this collection.
The Great Museum of the Sea: A Human History of Shipwrecks by James P. Delgado
“The common thread linking humanity across the span of time, language, religion, society, and culture is our relationship with “the water.” As a means of transportation, for trade, for waging war, for gathering sustenance from the sea, through successive generations, people knew ships. And so, they also knew of shipwrecks.”
Gotham at War: A History of New York City from 1933 to 1945 by Mike Wallace
“New York’s arts sector had a spectacular war. Local musicians, painters, playwrights, and dancers—spurred by creative encounters with an émigré population that included many of the greatest artists in the world—produced work marked by tremendous vitality and revolutionary innovations. The city’s nightclubs, museums, galleries, and theaters were besieged—and galvanized—by a newly flush wartime citizenry and a tidal flux of literally millions of American and Allied soldiers, fliers, sailors, and marines who passed through town, some for a last fling before heading off to combat, others back on R&R leave from the front.”
Prague: The Heart of Europe by Cynthia Paces
“Prague has become one of the most visited cities in Europe, a magnet for tourists, students, and writers looking for inspiration. Travelers seek the magical city that inspired Mozart’s playful operas and fed Kafka’s haunted dreams. Intellectuals embrace the capital city where philosophers and playwrights ascended to the presidency. Whereas poets and tourists search for the city’s transcendent qualities.” OR “Prague is often called the heart of Europe. While not the precise geographical midpoint, the city has long served as a meeting place of cultures.”
World Affairs
Conscious machines, foreign policy, and crisis management – this collection of essential reading provides a rich historical and philosophical perspective on some of the most important global issues. It includes works by Richard Susskind, Lawrence Freedman, and David Shambaugh.
How to Think About AI: A Guide for the Perplexed by Richard Susskind
“None of this book was written by AI (for better or worse).” OR “I now believe that balancing the benefits and threats of artificial intelligence—saving humanity with and from AI—is the defining challenge of our age.”
On Strategists & Strategy by Lawrence Freedman
“I have always been eclectic and enjoyed working across disciplines. I hope these pieces also show why I find stimulus and purpose in writing about these matters. The study of war and strategy turned into an unexpected vocation and a constant and often enthralling challenge.”
Breaking the Engagement: How China Won & Lost America by David Shambaugh
“Not only did US government policy and strategy toward China change fundamentally during the Trump and Biden administrations—but the underlying coalition of constituencies in American society had much to do with the unraveling of engagement.”
Words & Stories
A collection of poetry, short stories, and letters.
Long letters home offer insights into Zola’s whole way of being, 18 short stories by Greek authors follows the history of Athens, and a poetry anthology offers a symphony of different voices connected in their shared experience of the Second World War.
Poetry of the Second World War by Tim Kendall
“This anthology comprises a selection of the best poetry of the Second World War, as written by poets from Britain and Ireland who lived through part or all of it. Their work encompasses the unfolding history of a brutal war waged against civilians as well as military targets.”
Athens Tales: Stories Selected and Translated by Joshua Barley
“The focus of these tales, therefore, is on the ordinary, small things that Athenians come to love—the cracked pavements, the glow of a semi-basement shop, the walk to the kiosk, the meeting of friends on nondescript street corners or in cafés whose names have been eroded by cigarette smoke—‘life’, to quote Kostas Peroulis’s narrator. These details form the image of the living city.”
Emile Zola: Writing Modern Life by Rachel Bowlby
“Once, people did take Zola seriously, and seriously read his work; now, they don’t, and so it is time to show why it is important to read him.”
Discover our entire festive gift guide here. Season’s Greetings from Oxford University Press.
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