The Penguin Hotline, Penguin Random House’s holiday gift-giving book recommendation service, is back for its eighth season, going live on Wednesday, December 1st, 2021. This year’s theme is “Better with Books,” promoting the idea that the gift of a book makes every moment better.
Imagine the iconic Butterball Turkey Hotline, only we’ve replaced the turkeys with books, the roasting experts with Penguins, and the telephones with emails. As in years past, we will again have hundreds of Penguin Random House employees on call starting right after Thanksgiving to help recommend books to those trying to find the right book for someone on their holiday list. We often hear from readers about how hard it can be to find the right book to give as a gift, especially for a friend or family member whose taste is different than their own. Who better than some of the best-read people on the planet to give curated book suggestions for the holiday season?
This year, the Penguin Hotline is thrilled to share that we again have “golden ticket” authors who will be participating in the Hotline. A few lucky users will have their requests answered by award-winning, bestselling Penguin Random House authors including:
- Megan Abbott
- Ace Atkins
- Lauren Groff
- Jasmine Guillory
- Kim Harrison
- Grady Hendrix
- Emily Henry
- Robert Jones, Jr.
- Sophie Kinsella
- Katie Kitamura
- Chang-rae Lee
- Jason Mott
- Nick Offerman
- Lisa Scottoline
- Emma Straub
- Brandon Taylor
The response to the hotline has been overwhelmingly positive in years past. Consumers have raved, “this is my favorite email ever” and “the manner in which you personalize your suggestions for my gift-giving is utterly delightful.” One user said, “The Penguin Hotline is my new favorite thing about the holidays.”
Not only has the Penguin Hotline helped thousands of readers and consumers all over the world, but it’s also served as a uniquely special team-building exercise among Penguin Random House employees—bringing people together from all different departments, imprints and divisions to swap information, gather insight and help craft the perfect recommendations for the Hotline users. It’s proven to be an enormously fun and rewarding experience for in-house volunteers as they get the chance to take a break from their day-to-day work and share their love of reading and books with readers.
The Penguin Hotline will run from December 1st – December 15th this year. Hotline users can receive their recommendations by writing into www.penguinhotline.com and answering a few questions about the person they’d like to gift a book to.