Books for Family & Friends

Christmas Fiction and Fact:

Weird Christmas by Joey Green - A collection of curious and crazy customs and coincidences concerning Christmas. Illustrated.

The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror by Christopher Moore - Christmas crept into Pine Cove like a creeping Christmas thing...

Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris - Newly repackaged in hardcover, includes six of his Christmas stories

A Christmas Guest by Anne Perry - Mariah Ellison, better known as the vinegar-tongued Grandmama from the Charlotte and Thomas Pitt series, makes a stunning appearance in a bracing story full of devious delight . . . and certain death.

The Gift by Pete Hamill - Brooklyn, 1952. It is Christmastime and a young sailor named Pete is home on leave and back in the old neighborhood in the dreary 7th Avenue apartment.

A Stranger for Christmas by Carol Lynn Pearson - Spending Christmas alone in a nursing home, two elderly women share their longing for the love of a traditional family Christmas.

How Mrs. Claus Saved Christmas by Jeff Guin - It's 1620 and Mrs. Claus's dear husband is off in the New World planting the seeds of what will become a glorious Christmas tradition. Meanwhile, Mrs. Claus has chosen to stay in England, where the first signs of a dangerous threat to Yuletide cheer are in evidence.

A Redbird Chrismas by Fanny Flagg - An enchanting Christmas story of faith and hope for all ages that is sure to become a classic.

The Christmas Train by David Baldacci - A delightful journey filled with memorable characters who have packed their bags with as much wisdom as mischief.

Skipping Christmas by John Grisham - A somewhat satirical eye on the festive holiday seasaon.

Hardcover Fiction:

The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle - A feast for any fans of the greatest detective who ever stalked the earth. It includes four Holmes novels.

The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown - This is a special illustrated edition of this much- read, well-enjoyed novel. Now you can read the book without the help of the Internet.

The History of Love by Nicole Krauss - this is one of this year's favorites among several of our reviewers. It is hauntingly beautiful.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer - Oskar Schell is a nine-year-old amateur inventor, jewelry designer, astrophysicist, tambourine player and pacifist. Oskar turns his naïvely precocious vocabulary to the understanding of historical tragedy.

Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman - A tall tale inspired by the trickster god, Anansi the Spider who makes an appearance in American Gods. Only this Anansi story is about his sons. Anyone that likes the least bit of fantasy will enjoy this novel.

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez - I love this book and have read it at least five times over the years, I believe this is a universal gift and would be welcome even if the gift recipient has already read it in the past.

For more ideas, see our Top Picks lists.

Paperback Fiction Stocking Stuffers:

The Last Crossing by Guy Vanderhaeghe I'd give this novel to anyone who enjoyed Larry McMurtry's epic novel Lonesome Dove.

A Salty Piece of Land by Jimmy Buffett - This is the perfect gift for any parrothead on your Xmas list. Just perfect.

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke - Sophisticated, witty, and ingeniously convincing, this novel weaves magic into a flawlessly detailed vision of historical England. A hefty 800-page gift.

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini - A stunning debut novel which starts as an eloquent Afghan version of the American immigrant experience in the late 20th century, but betrayal and redemption come to the forefront when the narrator returns to his ravaged homeland to rescue the son of his childhood friend after the boy's parents are shot during the Taliban takeover in the mid '90s.

Going Postal by Terry Pratchett - Hilariously funny fantasy novel that is one of the best in the DiscWorld series.

recently released paperbacks

Light on Snow by Anita Shreve - Recounts the aftermath of a startling discovery: a 12-year-old girl and her widowed father find an abandoned baby in the snow-filled woods near their home.

We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver
A phenomenal book about motherhood as Eva Khatchadourian tries to understand how her son came to massacring seven fellow high school students.

Life of Pi by Yann Martel
The story of an unusual boy who is alone on a lifeboat with a hyena, an orangutan, a wounded zebra, and Richard Parker, a 450-pound Bengal Tiger.

Cookbooks:

The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook - (ring bound) - Features more than 1200 recipes from Cook's Illustrated and America's Test Kitchen. Lots of step-by-step photos.

The Gourmet Cookbook: More than 1000 Recipes by Ruth Reichl - For the past six decades, Gourmet magazine has shaped the tastes of America, publishing the best work of the foremost names in the world of food. To create this landmark cookbook, editor in chief and celebrated authority Ruth Reichl and her staff sifted through more than 50,000 recipes.

Cookoff: Recipe Fever in America by Amy Sutherland - This is an entertaining and in-depth look at a quirky, cutthroat, and (sometimes) delicious world of competitve cooking.

Honest Pretzels by Mollie Katzen - Healtly recipes that children 8 and up can cook for themselves.

The New Moosewood Cookbook - by Molly Katzen - Since its original publication in 1977, this influential and enormously popular cookbook has been at the forefront of the revolution in American eating habits.

The Sopranos Family Cookbook: As Compiled by Artie Bucco - The chef of Vesuvio restaurant shares "family" secrets.

Sushi: Taste and Technique by Kimiko Barber, Kiroki Takemura - The quintessential book for any sushi lover. How to locate the freshest ingredients, use the right equipment, and master the etiquette of eating sushi correctly. From makizushi to hand rolls to vegetarian versions, this book teaches you how to create any kind of sushi.

Recipes from a Very Small Island by Linda Greenlaw - The former swordboat captain (The Hungry Ocean; The Lobster Chronicles; etc.) shows us that she's a pretty good cook.

Plus the Williams-Sonoma Collection of cookbooks as featured in the gift section for cooks.

Wisdom and Inspiration:

The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion- Out of excruciatingly painful personal experience, Joan Didion has written a lacerating yet peculiarly stirring book about death, illness, probability and luck, good fortune and bad, marriage and children and memory, grief, the ways in which people do and do not deal with the fact that life ends.

Space Between the Stars: My Journey to an Open Heart by Deborah Santana - Deborah Santana is the daughter of a musician (Saunders King), the former girlfriend of another (Sly Stone) and the wife of more than 30 years of still another (Carlos Santana). Santana illustrates her belief that "learning can come from good and bad experiences."

Face to Face: Women Writers on Faith, Mysticism and Awakening edited by Linda Hogan and Brenda Peterson - Feminine spirituality investigated with literary flair.

The Cat and the Tao by Kwong Kuen Shan - a rich selection of sayings and quotes from the ancient Chinese masters that weds the inspired creativity of The Tao of Pooh with the spare beauty of calligraphic art.

Advice on Dying by the Dalai Lama - "Everyone dies, but no one is dead," goes the Tibetan saying. His Holiness the Dalai Lama draws from a wide range of traditions and beliefs to explore the stages we all go through when we die, which are the very same stages we experience in life.

Every Day I Pray: Prayers for Awakening to the Grace of Inner Communion by Iyanla Vanzant - A collection of prayers the author has written over the years in her prayer journals. They address a variety of topics and situations.

The Dance: Moving to the Rhythms of Your True Self by Oriah Mountain Dreamer - "What if the question is not why am I so infrequently the person I really want to be, but why do I so infrequently want to be the person I really am?"Her chapters explore topics such as greed and money, creating love relationships, overscheduling, and solitude. At the end of each chapter she suggests a fitting mediation or exercise.

Small Wonder: Essays by Barbara Kingsolver - In 22 wonderfully articulate essays, Kingsolver raises her voice in praise of nature, family, literature, and the joys of everyday life while examining the genesis of war, violence, and poverty in our world.

Stone Soup for the World: Life-Changing Stories of Kindness and Everyday Heroes by Marianne Larned - The handbook for humanitarians, completely revised and updated with 5 new stories.

Just the Facts...

The Elements of Style Illustrated by William Strunk, Jr. and E. B. White; illustrated by Maria Kalma - Every English-language writer knows Strunk and White's famous little writing manual. The addition of artwork allows readers to experience the book's contents in a completely new way.

Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss - Strangely, this book is a bestselling novel about punctuation.

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations: 17th Edition - contains over 20,000 quotations, representing 2,500 authors, 90 of whom are new to BARTLETT'S.

Oxymoronica: Paradoxical Wit and Wisdom From History's Great Wordsmiths by Mardy Grothe

Bryson's Dictionary of Troublesome Words - Bill Bryson's writing guide to getting it right. Now, someone should give me a copy of this book!

The New York Public Library Desk Reference (4th Edition) - Curious to know about the wind chill factor or how to make a Rob Roy or locate the time in China? Why not peruse a list of common crossword-puzzle words, catch up on the latest computer terms, learn how to carve a turkey the right way, or find out who invented what and when? The most reliable, useful, and entertaining information is once again just a page-turn away.

Condensed Knowledge by Pearson, Hattikudor and Hunt - A mouthwatering mix of intriguing facts, lucid explanations, and mind-blowing theories that will satisfy even the hungriest mind!

The World Almanac and Book of Facts 2006 by Ken Park - All new for 2006! Completely revised and updated from the first page to the last, The World Almanac 2006 provides over 1,000 pages of facts and figures (including 32 pages in color). 

50 States - It's a portable, information-filled atlas of the United States. Fandex Family Field Guides are individually die-cut cards with full-color illustrations, plus hundreds of intriguing facts, stories, statistics, and trivia, Fandex is the newest breakthrough in information-packed, family publishing.

Legendary Musicians:

The Bob Dylan Scrapbook, 1956-1966 - A companion piece to Martin Scorses's PBS Documentary No Direction Home . A feast of information and reproducitons of important documents pertaining to the musician's early career.

On the Road With Bob Dylan by Larry "Ratso" Sloman - This book is the ultimate behind-the-scenes look at what happened when Bob Dylan and the Rolling Thunder Revue took to the streets of America in 1975. (Revised August 2002 edition)

Neil Young Nation: A Quest, an Obsession by Kevin Chong - Neil Young turned 60 this year and Kevin Chong turned 30. To celebrate these two milestones, Chong sets off on a road trip in search of his boyhood hero.

Jerry Garcia: The Collected Artwork by April Higashi - Published to coincide with the tenth anniversary of his passing.

2006 Grateful Dead Calendar

The Complete Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics by David Dobb - An authoritative text, providing standard versions of all the original songs; songs you've never heard and others you've never heard right and still others you didn't know existed, and some, indeed, that may not exist at all.

Humor:

Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris - David Sedaris returns to his deliriously twisted domain, hilarious childhood dramas infused with melancholy; the gulf of misunderstanding that exists betwen people of different nations or members of the same family; and the poignant divide between one's best hopes and most common deeds.

Hey, Cowgirl, Need a Ride? by Baxter Black - Baxter Black isthe world’s bestselling cowboy poet and public radio’s favorite former large animal veterinarian, Ten years after the publication of Hey, Cowboy, Wanna Get Lucky? Black revisits the wild and woolly world of Lick and Cody, the two rodeo cowboys who got lucky.

The Borowitz Report: the Big Book of Shockers by Andy Borowitz - Page after page of "news stories" too hot, too controversial, too -- yes, shocking -- for the mainstream press to handle by award-winning fake journalist Andy Borowitz.

George W. Bushims V: New Ways to Harm Our Country by Jacob Weisberg - America's Malapropist in Chief is once again carefully preserved in Weisberg annual edition.

Art Books:

In Focus : National Georgraphic's Greatest Portraits - National Geographic Greatest Portraits tells the story of portrait photography through the eyes-and words-of five accomplished National Geographic photographers. The book showcases images never-before-seen alongside award-winning favorites.

America 24/7 - An American time capsule: From the original creators of the Day in the Life book series comes an epic project harnessing the talents of more than 25,000 photographers. The America 24/7 team of first-time digital photographers, photography students, top international photojournalists and newspaper shooters--including 36 Pulizer Prize winners--took extraordinary pictures of an ordinary American week during a pivotal period in our nations history.

Wise Women: A Celebration of Their Insights, Courage and Beauty - For this very special book, Joyce Tenneson traveled throughout America to photograph and interview women ages 65 to l00. What she found was a revelation-women who were vital, energetic, and deeply beautiful, inside and out.

Chicano Visions: American Painters on the Verge - Cheech Marin shares his personal art collection; printed simultaneously in hardcover and paperback.

Social & Political Commentary

Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins - An extraordinary and gripping tale of intrigue and dark machinations. Think John Le Carré, except it's a true story.

The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century by Thomas L. Friedman - What Friedman means by "flat" is "connected:" the lowering of trade and political barriers and the technical advances of the digital revolution have made it possible to do business instantaneously with billions of other people across the planet. This in itself should not be news to anyone. But the news that Friedman delivers is that just when we stopped paying attention to these developments--when the dot-com bust turned interest away from the business and technology pages and when 9/11 and the Iraq War turned all eyes toward the Middle East--is when they actually began to accelerate. He calls it Globalization 3.0.

America: A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction - Jon Stewart, host of the Emmy and Peabody Award-winning The Daily Show, and his coterie of patriots, deliver a hilarious look at American government.

Will They Ever Trust Us Again? by Michael Moore - American soldiers serve willingly. They risk their lives so the rest of us can be safe. The one small thing they ask, though, is that they not be sent into harm's way unless it is absolutely necessary.

Bushworld by Maureen Dowd - During the past two decades Maureen Dowd has trained her binoculars on the Bush dynasty, putting them, as both 41 and 43 have complained to her, "on the couch." Here she wittily dissects the Oedipal loop-de-loop between father and son and the Orwellian logic of the rush to war in Iraq.

More similar book suggestions here.

This Was Not Our War: Bosnian Women Reclaiming the Pease by Swanee Hunt - Drawing on seven years of interviews, diplomatic and humanitarian work in the region and personal visits to Bosnia throughout the 1990s, Hunt—a former U.S. ambassador to Austria and founder of Women Waging Peace—presents the testimony of 26 women who survived the region's horrific upheavals.

Finding Mañana: A Memoir of a Cuban Exodus by Mirta Ojito - Twenty-five years ago, between April and September 1980, 125,000 Cuban refugees arrived in Florida. Dubbed Marielitos for the port from which they departed and viewed by the press as the refuse of Castro's prisons and mental institutions, these people found a less warm welcome than earlier Cuban groups had. Pulitzer-winning journalist Ojito, then 16, and her family were among them.

Lipstick Jihad: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in American and American in Iran by Azadeh Moaveni - One of the strongest memoirs written about being trapped between two countries.

Lucky Child: A Daughter of Cambodia Reunites withthe Sister She Left Behind by Loung Ung - When Loung Ung came to America in 1980 as a ten-year-old Cambodian refugee, she had already survived years of hunger, violence, and loss at the hands of the Khmer Rouge, a story she told in First They Killed My Father. Now, Ung writes of assimilation and, in alternating chapters, gives voice to a genocide survivor she left behind in rural Cambodia, her older sister Chou.