This holiday season, books make an even better gift than ever. They are a way to connect with friends and family that doesn’t breach the social-distancing barrier. Here is a selection of vegan-themed books AVS has begun offering in 2020.

The most urgent may be HOW TO SURVIVE A PANDEMIC by Michael Greger, MD. Dr. Greger warned of a coming pandemic in book form years ago, and he knows animal-related diseases. In his American Vegan magazine interview in July 2020, Greger warned how bad the next wave of coronavirus spread could be — now we’re living through that. Instead of wringing your hands, wash them up and read this book that’s part history, part how-to, all essential!

Longtime game-changer Brenda Davis, RD, has now partnered with Reshma Shah, MD, MPH, for NOURISH: The Definitive Plant-Based Nutrition Guide for Families. It includes “tips and recipes for bringing health, joy, and connection to your dinner table.” Plant-based eating made family friendly with tips for shopping on a tight budget, encouraging picky eaters, and more.

Bryant Terry’s latest and greatest, VEGETABLE KINGDOM: The Abundant World of Vegan Recipes, was featured in the latest American Vegan magazine. Terry remarked that he wrote the book, with dishes organized by the part of the plant used, as an exercise to help inspire his two daughters. He also wanted to “honor and bring to life the teachings, traditional knowledge, and hospitality of my blood and spiritual ancestors by making food.”

We may never completely understand what makes animals tick, but the new book ANIMALKIND by Ingrid Newkirk and Gene Stone promises “Remarkable Discoveries About Animals and Revolutionary New Ways to Show Them Compassion.” Meanwhile, if we want to figure ourselves out, perhaps the best guide would be HOMO AHIMSA by Judy McCoy Carman. This is a book that looks into who we really are and how we’re going to save the world. There’s still time, Carman says!

The cheeky authors of the TWO DOLLAR RADIO GUIDE TO VEGAN COOKING, Jean-Claude van Randy and Speed Dog, with Eric Obenauf, say that this book is for you if you’re looking for satisfying comfort food, or you’re “having trouble giving up cheese,” or you want “accessible recipes that don’t require hard-to-find ingredients you can’t pronounce,” or if “you crave ADVENTURE.” Tally-ho!!

With several books under his belt and a legacy of work detailing the overlap between Judaism and vegetarianism, Richard Schwartz describes the serious challenges and inspiring opportunities for saving our planet in VEGAN REVOLUTION, his latest, hot-off-the-presses book. And author Mena Massoud promotes “evolving in the right direction so that we can help save our planet, our bodies and our fellow living souls” in EVOLVING VEGAN, which offers “Deliciously Diverse Recipes from North America’s Best Plant-Based Eateries” along with tips for both lifelong and transitioning vegans.

You don’t have to be an interior designer to appreciate VEGAN INTERIOR DESIGN by Aline Dürr, which will bring all of us up to speed on “surprisingly nonvegan items that might be in your home or office” while providing a variety of alternatives for those striving for a completely animal-product-free lifestyle. You DO want to learn about new exciting products such as vegan leather from a variety of sources such as pineapple, mango, apple, cactus, wine waste, or mushroom. Equally impressive are the new silks: Dürr explains how they are produced from cactus, citrus, banana, and lotus!

And if you’re just wading into the big pond of vegan eating and living, a good primer is THE PLANT-BASED DIET FOR BEGINNERS by Gabriel Miller. He’s a former football player and budding animal farmer who switched tracks for his own health. Now he grows his own vegetables. With nutritional info for each recipe, kitchen-stocking tips and more, this book deliciously fills in the “how” for those transitioning to vegan.

Books can be an especially good choice for young readers. Though they’re not new this year, don’t forget about kid-friendly gift possibilities such as APPLES, BEAN DIP, & CARROT CAKE: Kids! Teach Yourself to Cook by our own Anne and Freya Dinshah, which is being offered at a special price to encourage home cooking during the pandemic; DAVE LOVES CHICKENS by Carlos Patiño; THAT’S NOT MY MOMMA’S MILK by Julia Barcalow; and V IS FOR VEGAN: The ABC’s of Being Kind, an alphabet book by Ruby Roth. And don’t forget one all-ages classic from AVS: POWERFUL VEGAN MESSAGES: Out Of The Jungle For The Next Generation.