Holiday Gift Guide 2026

TikTok Journalism

Edited by Jorge Vázquez-Herrero, María-Cruz Negreira-Rey and Ana-Isabel Rodríguez-Vázquez 

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Short-form video content is transforming how traditional news is disseminated and consumed. It offers a critical look at how algorithmic tendencies engage audiences and influence both what stories are worth of attention, and how this information is presented. Anyone who spends time scrolling through social media or worrying about the future of misinformation will find this book an accessible and informative read.

Cybernetic Imaginations

Edited by Jorge Vázquez-Herrero, María-Cruz Negreira-Rey and Ana-Isabel Rodríguez-Vázquez 

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This title is from our Speculations series.

This highly accessible volume maps out the intersection of fiction, technology and philosophy, exploring how sci-fi writers have imagined the boundaries between humans and machines, from classics like Star Trek and Doctor Who to current outputs like The Mandalorian. This book offers a critical overview of cybernetic theory and would make an eye-opening gift for anyone interested in both science fiction and our evolving relationship with artificial consciousness. 

Ph.inisheD.

By Gregory Szarycz

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This book is a lifeline for PhD students, providing clear, structured guidance for overcoming the anxiety of a blank page and hands-on coaching from an experienced author. With valuable examples from real successful dissertations, PhinisheD is the perfect gift to offer meaningful support the student in your life. 

Time to Think: Enacting Slow Pedagogy

By Maja Brosnan, Rhona Stallard and Natasha O’Donnell

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Written in response to the crisis of Covid-19, this text is a thoughtful exploration of the concept of “slow pedagogy”; how slowing down the pace of learning and teaching in early childhood education can improve long-term understanding. This is an inspiring gift for parents and early years educators, demonstrating that protecting a child’s right to explore, play, and learn at their own pace sets them up as more resilient learners in the long term.

News Literacy Now

By Bobbie Eisenstock

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This user-friendly handbook for surviving today’s news feeds and figuring out who and what to believe takes a critical look at modern journalism and the ubiquity of misinformation. This an essential read for anyone looking to sharpen their media literacy for better intellectual independence.

Sages of Darkness

By Aviva Butt 

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This title is from our Interdisciplinary Studies in Diasporas series.

This captivating and beautifully rendered English translation of Salim Barakat’s Sages of Darkness offers a unique insight into Kurdish life under the Ottoman Empire. Accompanied by extensive commentary on the translation, this book is an eye-opening gift for those interested in the relationships between history, mythology and memory.  

Between Democracy and Totalitarianism

By Miroslav Novák

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Providing a thorough interpretation of Raymond Aron’s political conception of the “industrial society”, this book is an engaging roadmap to the defining intellectual battles of the modern era. It is the perfect guide for the engaged reader looking to make sense of the foundational structures that shape our contemporary political landscape. 
 

Fairies

Edited by Lorna Piatti-Farnell and Simon Bacon

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This title is from our Genre Fiction and Film Companions series.

This sweeping anthology delves into our belief in the fae, tracing their ongoing evolution and their importance to culture in the 21^st century and beyond. The collection gives readers an immersive overview of how these mythical entities evolve alongside modern human concerns, highlighting the link between folklore and real-world culture. 
 

Margaret Atwood

Edited by Gina Wisker

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This title is from our Genre Fiction and Film Companions series.

This comprehensive collection offers an accessible yet deeply analytical overview of Margaret Atwood’s literary career, exploring how her foundational contributions to dystopian fiction though iconic texts such as The Handmaid’s Tale, as well as her lesser discussed children’s, poetical, and musical works map out the importance of story in action. For fans of the terrifyingly realistic world-building of Atwood’s cautionary tale against the status quo, this book is an invaluable guide for considering alternative futures as a criticism of our socio-political reality.

Intersectional Futures in Climate Fiction

By Chiara Xausa

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This title is from our Ralahine Utopian Studies series.

This book looks at dystopian and post-apocalyptic literary texts through the lens of climate fiction and its interplay with ecofeminism and decolonial imagination. This book speaks directly to escapist thinkers who are fascinated by speculative climate thrillers who are compelled by alternative to mainstream narratives of the Anthropocene: the disproportionate effects of climate change on the Other.  

The Rhythm of Eternity

By James King

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This title is from our Dissident Biographies series.

By confronting the contradictions between the artist and the man, this book offers the first sustained study to connect those opposing sides of Kent’s character. In doing so, it breaks new ground: rather than treating his work and his private life in isolation, it reveals how the tensions between the two shaped both—and in the process uncovers, with unprecedented clarity, the tortured soul of one of America’s most important modernist artists. 

Moving along

By Lisbeth Frølunde, Louise Phillips and Maria Bee Christensen-Strynø 

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This title is from our Medical Humanities: Criticism and Creativity series.

Meet Hugo, Karen, Alma, Helene, Anne-Marie, Poul, Lone, and Eskild, who go to Parkinson’s dance class together. They are characters in this graphic novel, which is based on many stories about Parkinson’s. The stories come from participants in Parkinson’s dance who have talked about how dance involves bodily, aesthetic experiences, including the feeling of bubbles in their bodies and flying together. Dancing brings joy, energy, and community, and thereby strengthens the will to live, all important when a chronic illness turns your world upside down.

Media and Marginalized Voices

Edited by V. Vijay Kumar and Jyoti Ranjan Sahoo

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This book attempts to bridge the gap in interdisciplinary academic knowledge by offering a critical and practical understanding of gender and sexual minority representation in media and communication. Divided into two sections, the first explores «Women, Media, and Discourse», while the second focuses on the «LGBTQIA+ Community and Media Representation». Grounded in contemporary and relevant scholarship, the book examines theories and practices across digital and social media, cinema, streaming platforms, television, newspapers, and online forums.

Ethical Challenges of AI in Academia: Impact and Implications for Higher Education

Edited by Jesús Miguel Muñoz Cantero, Ana M.ª Porto Castro, Eva M.ª Espiñeira Bellón and M.ª Josefa Mosteiro García 

Read more and purchase the book here.

This book explores the ethical and academic implications of artificial intelligence in higher education from a global perspective. It brings together experts from different countries to address challenges such as authorship, academic integrity, and teaching transformation. With a clear humanistic and critical stance, the chapters reflect on how AI is changing the ways we teach, learn, and produce knowledge, and propose strategies for responsible and equitable integration in academic settings.

Freedom of Speech in the Press in Times of Conflict

Edited by Richard Allen, Felix Larkin, Oliver O’Hanlon and Aoife Whelan 

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This title is from our Studies in Franco-Irish Relations series.

In times of conflict, especially times of war, pressures on freedom of the press, even in societies that value a free press, inevitably increase – and often involve formal government censorship. Support of one’s country or, in the case of internal conflicts, of one side or another – usually, indeed, of the authorities – can be regarded as a duty. Dissent, even criticism, in the press is less tolerated – if tolerated at all. Journalists may become propagandists or mythmakers. The twelve essays in this volume explore issues of press freedom – encompassing reportage, commentary, satire and transnational journalism – in relation to a range of conflicts in Ireland and continental Europe over the past 150 years.

Jerusalem in His Eyes

By Jamal Assadi

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Jerusalem in His Eyes is an intimate portrait of Mahmoud Shukair in conversation with Jamal Assadi. From Jabal al-Mukabbir to exile and return, a life is traced in precise, humane scenes. Stories become resilience; craft becomes an ethics of form and memory. He speaks of childhood, prisons, translation, and writing for the young—without sermon, with grace. Assadi’s commentary situates the voice within Arab and world letters. Together they build an “artistic reality parallel to the raw real,” where a city breathes on the page. A luminous guide for readers of literature, history, and Jerusalem itself.