Updated October 11, 2022
Note: We independently selected these products—if you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission. Prices were accurate at the time of publication.

A memorable gift that may grace a coffee table or bookshelf as a home accent or expand a personal library, beautiful books will also broaden the recipient’s field of vision while offering years of inspiration and pleasure.

Urban Jungle
I met author Igor Josifovic, publisher of Happy Interior Blog, on a media tour years ago and knew immediately that this energetic blogger and designer would someday share his creativity with the world. He and co-author Judith de Graaf, who together launched the “Urban Jungle Bloggers” community, have packed this book with a fabulous collection of DIY ideas for styling and tips on how to style your urban jungle indoors and out. Urban Jungle is an inspirational and practical manual that transports readers through different “green” homes in five European countries while showing how to create a beautiful, unique, creative and artistic living environment using plants.
$21.49 Purchase

Lilacs: Beautiful Varieties for Home and Garden
With stunning images of over 60 varieties of lilacs—from purples, pinks, and burgundy to white and yellow—photographer Georgianna Lane fills this book with the perfume of love and memories of home. Throughout history, lilacs have been a source of inspiration for artists; Impressionists Vincent Van Gogh and Claude Monet both made famous paintings depicting the beauty of lilacs. They became a popular garden flower choice in the eighteenth century, particularly across North America, and lingering shrubs and blooms in the wild are a telltale indication of where earlier dwellings might have stood. Author Naomi Slade packs in no-fuss gardening notes and inspirational commentary to show that anyone can grow lilacs in a garden or container.
$17.80 Purchase

Edible Plants: A Photographic Survey of the Wild Edible Botanicals of North America
Each photograph in this book is a work of art. For more than a decade, artist Jimmy Fike traveled across the continental United States in an epic effort to photograph wild edible flora. A culmination of that journey, this book features over 100 sumptuous photo illustrations that Fike has colorized to highlight the comestible part of the plant, featured along with relevant information about each one’s unique characteristics. The gorgeous book makes an excellent gift for gardening enthusiasts as well as art lovers, photography fans, and nature buffs.
$22.99 Purchase

Flower: Exploring the World in Bloom
At a time when we can’t travel, turning the pages of this beautiful book takes a reader across continents and cultures to a sumptuous visual banquet through history showcasing how artists and image-makers have depicted blooming plants in art, botanical illustrations, sculptures, floral arrangements, film stills, and textile floral motifs across a wide range of media.
$43.89 Purchase

Extraordinary Orchids
From the publisher: “Celebrated botanist Sandra Knapp has a confession: she actually hates orchids. Maybe. An expert on the less glamorous but globally vital nightshade family (source of many edibles, such as tomatoes and potatoes) Knapp likens orchids to an annoying party guest—someone who shows up overly dressed, overly loud, and demanding to be the center of attention.” This coffee table-sized book features a wealth of historical botanical illustrations, as well as insight into the scientists and collectors inspired by these most vivid blooms. A senior research botanist at the Natural History Museum in London, author Sandra Knapp explores the varied and fascinating survival skills of orchids—from their spindly roots to their mimicry of insect species, the latter deception leading to “pseudocopulation”—and how studying them might contribute to protecting entire ecosystems.
$30.00 Purchase

Plants That Cure: Plants as a Source for Medicines, from Pharmaceuticals to Herbal Remedies
Did you know that of the nearly 400,000 plants that have evolved on Earth, around seven percent of them have been used in traditional herbal medicine or as local remedies? Plants That Cure isn’t just for herbalists or hypochondriacs, but for anyone interested in natural remedies and the history of drug discovery. A fascinating resource for grasping how medicinal plants work, the richly illustrated book is filled with color photographs and illustrated diagrams, organized by body system. It explores the natural history of the most important medicinal plants in different systems of traditional medicine throughout the world, delving into specific body systems and the phytochemical compounds used to treat or alleviate systemic conditions, from heart ailments and respiratory infections to reproductive issues.
$22.49 Purchase

Vogue Living: Houses, Gardens, People
From Madonna’s romantic rural retreat in the English countryside and Oscar de la Renta’s coral-stone Palladian mansion on the coast of the Dominican Republic to shoe maestro Christian Louboutin’s magical houseboat on the Nile and more, this full-color book features thirty-six spectacular houses and gardens whose owners come from the worlds of fashion, music, art, and society. Vogue Living: Houses, Gardens, People takes readers into the private realms of style-makers around the world, captured in never-before-published images by iconic photographers such as Miles Aldridge, Cecil Beaton, Jonathan Becker, Eric Boman, Oberto Gili, François Halard, Horst P. Horst, Annie Leibovitz, Sheila Metzner, Mario Testino, Tim Walker, and Bruce Weber, and many others.
$47.48 Purchase

Indoor Jungle
Green thumb or not, this luxurious guide shows how to create the very densest of jungles in your living room. With gorgeous photography featuring jungle-y architecture from around the world, owners of the Australian shop, Leaf Supply, demonstrate how to transform a house into a live-in greenhouse. In each spread of beautifully verdant interiors, the authors explain how the foliage within is surviving (and thriving) in a “jungleified” living room.
$28.49 Purchase

The New Bohemians
LA-based designer Justina Blakeney defines the New Bohemians as “creative individuals who are boutique owners and bloggers, entrepreneurs and ex-pats, artists and urban farmers.” With little distinction between work and play, these new bohemians, she says, embrace a free-spirited, no-rules lifestyle and apply that attitude to all areas of their existence, including their homes. Taking readers into twenty homes Blakeney combines owner interviews with an “Adopt-an-Idea” section that offers general decor, styling, and shopping tips for easy duplication in your own home. The New Bohemians includes twelve DIY projects inspired by objects found in these homes as well as a “Plant-O-Pedia” that shares insight into how you can achieve this aesthetic in your own living environment.
$19.89 Purchase

The Little Book of House Plants and Other Greenery
A source of green inspiration for small-space gardening, this little yet substantial book features sixty of the most popular varieties of foliage for indoor gardens, from dramatic palms and leafy tropicals to ferns and flowering potted plants. Each of the sixty plants is accompanied by delicious photography and an easy-to-follow breakdown of all essential requirements for that variety including details on size, growth, and flowering, along with extra tips on caring for that specific plant.
$13.49 Purchase

Chalk-Style Botanicals Deluxe Coloring Book
For the child in all of us, this “adult” coloring book will bring some kid-like joy to your world. Reminding me of the scratch art of my childhood, this relaxing activity includes thirty-two handmade chalk-style designs of blooming flowers, potted plants, leaves, trees, terrariums, and floral arrangements. To make each piece pop with color, pages are printed with a white line illustration over a textured black background on one side only of archival-grade, acid-free paper. There are also useful coloring tips and tricks, basic information on color theory, insight into the author’s own creative process, and eight beautifully colored examples to help jump-start your chalk art imagination.
$11.33 Purchase

Life in the Studio: Inspirations on Life and Creativity
What makes a creative life? Artist Frances Palmer says it’s about “knitting all of one’s passions and creativity into the whole of life.” The renowned potter, entrepreneur, gardener, photographer, cook, and beekeeper tells her story in her own words and images, describing the importance of centering on strategies for turning a passion into a business; the value found in collaboration, what it means to persevere, how to develop and stick to a routine that will sustain both enthusiasm and productivity. There are also step-by-step instructions (for throwing her beloved Sabine pot, growing dahlias, and building an opulent flower arrangement) and even some of her most tried-and-true recipes.
$17.29 Purchase

Urban Botanics: An Indoor Plant Guide for Modern Gardeners
For lovers of art and design, as well as plants, this beautiful gardening guide of plants from across the world shows how to cultivate and care for succulents, cacti, flowering, and foliage plants even for home gardeners with full-time jobs.
$16.49 Purchase

The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate
Are trees social beings? In The Hidden Life of Trees forester and author Peter Wohlleben says, yes, the forest is a social network. Drawing on documented scientific discoveries, the author describes how trees are like human families: tree parents live together with their children, communicate with them, support them as they grow, share nutrients with those who are sick or struggling, and even warn each other of impending dangers. With a love of woods and forests, Wohlleben explains the amazing processes of life, death, and regeneration he’s observed from his many walks in the woods.
$16.37 Purchase

Gardenlust: A Botanical Tour of the World’s Best New Gardens
When our wanderlust cannot be satisfied with travel right now, an armchair visit through this collection of 21st-century gardens will do for now. From a steep hillside oasis in Singapore, a garden formed by shape and light in Marrakech, to a haunting tree museum in Switzerland Gardenlust takes readers on a global tour of modern gardens, traveling plant expert Christopher Woods showcases fifty private and public gardens that go well beyond the expected. He takes us on a botanical expedition from the Americas and Europe to Australia and New Zealand, with stops in Asia, Africa, and the Arabian Peninsula, along the journey teaching about the people, plants, and stories that make these iconic gardens so unique.
$24.49 Purchase

The Vegetable Gardening Book
Sure, there are many books out there about vegetable gardening, but this one is by the award-winning television and podcast host Joe Lamp’l whom I have known personally for many years. covering it all, from seed to harvest, Joe offers up this complete guide to growing an edible organic garden with his time-tested insider tips for creating a resilient vegetable garden.
$24.99 Purchase

For more cool gifts, see our Holiday Gift Guide and Fun and Educational Gifts for Kids.