Friday Favorites: Holiday gift books
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- November
- 28
It is hardly news that books make great holiday gifts. But in these economically stressed times, I want to shout loud and clear that books not only make fabulous gifts they are well-priced gift choices as well.
Now, the hard part is indeed making the right selection. In our wide universe you can go to online sources, stop into a local bookstore (my favorite way) to talk with a bookseller or check out some book displays. Or, too, you can read up on those ever popular end-of-year-book guides.
Remember, with one stop into a bookstore every name on your holiday gift list can be hit with success. And at some bookstores you can get a neat cup of coffee and use up that extra time you would have spent shopping elsewhere.
Now, the trick is how to pick that right book, so here are some guides:
•Janet Maslin from the NY Times, locally we also know her as a driving force at the Jacob Burns Film Center, offered her ten suggestions in today’s paper. The top two are “When Will There Be Good News” (Little, Brown) by Kate Atkinson, a mystery, and Charlatan: America’s Most Dangerous Huckster, the Man Who Pursued Him and the Age of Flim Flam, by Pope Brock. And then, too, there is Michiko Kakutani’s 10 Favorite Books of 2008.
•Barnes & Noble offers its holiday gift guide topped off with Mitch Alboum’s “For One More Day.”
•National Public Radio has a list as well, but it focuses on typical gift book ideas, like “The New York Times: The Complete Front Pages: 1851-2008” and “Annie Liebowitz at Work” and “The Art of the Modern Movie Poster” by Judith Salavetz. Good choices for a coffee table or as a family gift since people can really share these books.
•About.com offers a list that it calls Giftmas, which focuses on contemporary literature. Always need help in this category and reviews and opinions are welcome.
•Publishers Weekly magazine has its own list of the Best Books of the Year, which also includes “When Will There Be Good News” by Kate Atkinson. Second on its list is “2666” (Farrar, Straus) by Roberto Bolaño, translated from the Spanish by Natasha Wimmer.
• And just for children is an older list from 1999, but still valuable — the National Education Associations’ list of 100 best books for young people.
•American Booksellers Association in Tarrytown has its Indie Bestseller Lists, those books that are recommended by staff at independent bookstores. A particularly interesting compilation is called “Exciting New Voices.” The first book on the list is “The Outlander: A Novel” by Gil Adamson (Ecco) “about a murderess widow who flees into the wilderness.”
(Illustration above from the American Booksellers Association.)
Feel free to pass along any recommendations of good gift ideas — and don’t forget about those add on book gifts, like bookmarks, bookends, coffee mugs, bed lights and what not.
This entry was posted
on Friday, November 28th, 2008 at 5:05 pm by Barbara Nackman.
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