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It’s the holiday season, so that means you’re on the search—possibly at the last minute—for gifts for friends and family. Over the course of the next few weeks, we’re going to dig up the D.C.-made and D.C.-themed gifts that we’d love to get—and would be sure to give. If anything catches your eye that you think would be worth including, feel free to send it along.

The cold weather that accompanies the holidays is perfect for staying inside with a good book, so why not find yourself a book about the city you live in and settle in for the day?

>> Earlier this year, Garrett Peck—author of last year’s fun read on prohibition-era D.C.—published The Potomac River: A History and Guide, the definitive look at the 383-mile-long river that meanders past our fair city. (Peck’s next book, due next year, will focus on Seneca quarry.)

>> Frederick Douglass will soon represent D.C. in the U.S. Capitol’s Statuary Hall, but not much was written about the abolitionist’s time in D.C. until local historian John Muller published Frederick Douglass in Washington, D.C.: The Lion of Anacostia in October. (For another book from the same era, try Jefferson Morley’s Snow-Storm in August: Washington City, Francis Scott Key, and the Forgotten Race Riot of 1835.)

>> If you want to know more about D.C. but are daunted by traditional history books, try the decidedly unconventional approach of District Comics: An Unconventional History of Washington, D.C., in which 22 stories from throughout the city’s history are told through beautifully illustrated comic strips.

>> Though Halloween has passed, Tim Krepp’s Capitol Hill Haunts is still a must-read for every resident looking to find something a little spooky about some of the city’s most recognizable sites. (Another good choice for the D.C. you might not know is John DeFerrari’s Lost Washington, D.C.)

>> For all you foodies, Washington, D.C. Chef’s Table: Extraordinary Recipes from the Nation’s Capital not only gives you an insight into some of the city’s best restaurants, but also offers recipes from many of their chefs.

>> And for the music-oriented readers among us, former DCist contributor Brandon Gentry has just published Capitol Contingency: Post-Punk, Noise Pop, and Indie Rock in Washington D.C., 1991-1999, an e-book on the “abundance of smart, innovative rock and pop coming out of D.C. throughout the ’90s.”

>> With the death of Godfather of Go-Go Chuck Brown earlier this year, the genre is spawned is both struggling to survive and seeing renewed interest. Natalie Hopkinson’s Go-Go Live: The Musical Life and Death of a Chocolate City surveys the history of D.C.’s homegrown musical genre and places its life and slow demise against the backdrop of a changing city.

>> The Images of America series has produced a steady staple of books on D.C.’s many neighborhoods, but in October it published one on…a bank? Yes, a bank. Industrial Bank uses text and historic images to tell the story of the first local black-owned bank, which was started on U Street in the waning days of the Great Depression.

>> George Pelecanos is as close to D.C.’s literary voice as we’re going to get, and he published two books this year: What It Was and The Cut.

Check out the rest of our Capital Gifts series, which so far has included D.C. map pillows, D.C. soap, a D.C. shaped cutting board, drinking glasses etched with a D.C. map, D.C. map earrings, and a (totally legal) make-it-yourself gin kit.