Ben Schott and Michael W. Twitty help ring in our Holiday Gift Guide.

It’s the eighth annual Fully Booked Holiday Gift Guide! On today’s special episode, co-hosted by editor-in-chief Tom Beer, we’re celebrating the season with our top picks in gift books for every reader on your list. We’ve set our sights standout cookbooks, art books, boxed sets and more, with recommendations from Kirkus’ editors and interviews with two extra-special guests.

First, we welcome writer and photographer Ben Schott to discuss Schott’s Significa: A Miscellany of Secret Languages (Workman, October 7). Schott is the creator and designer of the international bestseller Schott’s Original Miscellany and its three sequels. His series of miscellanies, almanacs, and the book Schottenfreude, have collectively sold 2.5 million copies in 21 languages (including Braille). He has written for many outlets, including the Times, the Telegraph, the New York Times, and Bon Appétit, and is a 2015 James Beard Award winner for humor.

Schott’s Significa is a delightful encyclopedia of gestures and jargon, photographed and designed by Schott. In a starred review, Kirkus calls it “an engrossing compendium for word nerds and armchair sociologists alike,”as well as “a sprightly assortment of insider lingo and esoterica drawn from a host of subcultures.”

Next, we welcome writer, culinary historian, and educator Michael W. Twitty to discuss Recipes From the American South (Phaidon, October 15), a personal and profound exploration of Southern cuisine from the Louisiana Bayou to Chesapeake Bay. Twitty is the author of two-time James Beard Award winner The Cooking Gene, as well as the cookbook Rice and the memoir Koshersoul. He has contributed to the Guardian, the New York Times, the Washington Post, PBS, and NPR’s The Splendid Table. He has given over 500 public talks and appeared in numerous TV series, including Taste the Nation and High on the Hog.

In Recipes From the American South, Twitty showcases more than 260 of the region’s most celebrated, storied, and controversial dishes. Chef Eric Adjepong callsthis stellar collection of well-researched recipes a “sweeping love letter to the region that shaped America’s palate.”

Then editors Laura Simeon, Mahnaz Dar, John McMurtrie, and Laurie Muchnick join us to discuss their top picks in gift books.

EDITORS’ GIFT GUIDE PICKS:

Tiffany Aching’s Guide to Being a Witch by Rhianna Pratchett & Gabrielle Kent, illus. by Paul Kidby (Harper/HarperCollins)

Omnibird: An Avian Investigator’s Handbook by Giselle Clarkson (Gecko Press)

Extraordinary Pools by Naina Gupta (Princeton Architectural Press)

The Complete Novels (Limited Edition) by Jane Austen (Folio Society)

THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS:

Unpacking the Attic by Ann M. Mracek

No Longer That Girl by Stephanie L. Maley

Wethersfield Road by Anna Binder Reardon

Racing Against Time by Jeffrey Weiss

Fully Booked is produced by Cabel Adkins Audio and Megan Labrise.