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It’s daunting this time of year to find the perfect book for everyone on your list -- so many books, so many reviews, so many opinions, so little time to sort through them all. We thought it might be helpful to share personal favorites from the past year. I confess to getting help from our booksellers and from my friend, Betsy Burton at The King's English Bookshop in Salt Lake City. For years, she and I have had long conversations about the books we’re reading. Fortunately, it’s been a rich year of reading for book lovers, which made it a bit of a challenge to pare the list down to a reasonable size. The result, we hope, is something for every one of your holiday gift recipients. We wish you happy holidays, delightful reading, and wonderful times with family and friends.
~Gayle~ |
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FOR LOVERS OF FINE FICTION | Back to top |
 Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese (Knopf, $26.95)
This saga of twin brothers, both doctors, spans decades, worlds, and cultures, taking us from a missionary hospital in Ethiopia to New York City’s most poverty-stricken hospitals, and involving us in the worlds of medicine, of love, of family, and of all that humankind holds in common.
 The Children’s Book by A. S. Byatt (Knopf, $26.95)
Set in the years leading up to WWI, Byatt, one of our best living storytellers, gives us a tale of a writer of children’s books, her husband, her brood of children, and their artist friends. It will fascinate those who love the intricacy of a multi-character cast with a plot that wends its way through society and history -- in this case the history of the Arts & Crafts Movement, Suffragettes, Oscar Wilde, Peter Pan and Europe at the beginning of the 20th century.
 Border Songs by Jim Lynch (RH, $25.95)
An original and unlikely hero who is more at home with birds and forest fauna than he is with his fellow immigration officials and townspeople, has a job guarding the Washington side of the U.S.-Canadian border. His affinity with nature makes him an exceptional sentinel, resulting in a high arrest rate of drug smugglers and illegal aliens. Lynch writes of community, nature, and the love of neighbors helping each other to survive in the world after 9/11.  The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver (HC, $26.99)
Barbara’s first novel in nine years is truly incredible. Her protagonist is born in the U.S. but taken by his mother to Mexico, where he meets Frida Khalo, Diego Rivera, and Leon Trotsky. He keeps journals of his daily life, aiming for invisibility, observing his world and recording everything with a peculiar selfless irony. It is a gripping story of identity, our connection with our past, and the power of words to create or devastate.
 Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Stout (RH, $14)
A collection of thirteen related short stories all involving Olive, a seventh-grade math teacher in Crosby, Maine, whose philosophy is, “Hell. We’re always alone. Born alone. Die alone.” She insists that we get out of her way as she crashes unapologetically through life like an emotional storm trooper. But as appalling as Olive can be, she is also deeply human, sympathetic and reminds us that often loneliness masks a hidden core of pain and a need to connect on a deeper level.
 A Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore (Knopf, $25.95)
A young Midwestern woman is hired by a couple who wish to adopt and want her to be their nanny when the child arrives. But their reasons for wanting children are unclear and a biracial child becomes a pawn in their marital battles and teaches the nanny to be wary of liberal, open minded forty somethings. I’ve always liked Moore’s short stories more than her novels but this one is a welcome exception.
 Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls (Scribner, $26)
A wonderful novel/memoir in which the author channels her spunky and outspoken grandmother who was born into a hardscrabble Texas family in the early part of the 20th century. From chasing cattle to teaching in a one-room schoolhouse (in southeastern Arizona), to taking flying lessons, Lily Smith was the embodiment of the frontier spirit, and Wall’s portrayal is involving and fascinating.
 The Anthologist by Nicholson Baker (Simon & Schuster, $25)
This interesting, witty and creative novel narrated by fictional poet Paul Chowder, who is supposedly writing the introduction to a new anthology, will appeal to poets and literate readers. Funny, romantic, and steeped in poetry from Tennyson and Yeats to Bogan and Merwin, this humorous novel is well written in every way.
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FINE FICTION & NONFICTION FOR HISTORY BUFFS | Back to top |
 Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel (Holt, $27)
This novel is the 2009 winner of the Man Booker Prize and though I would have given the prize to A. S. Byatt for The Children’s Book, I also loved this one. A rip-roaring ride through the historical era of King Henry VIII as seen through the eyes of Thomas Cromwell, it is historical fiction that is fresh, fun, witty, and full of emotion. Is Cromwell a villain or a good guy? What really happened to Anne Boleyn? You’ll have to read it to find out.
 The Imperial Cruise by James Bradley (Hachette, $29.99)
The tale of Teddy Roosevelt’s Secretary of War, William Howard Taft, and his secret mission to Asia, the consequences of which echo through history right to the present. Bradley, who wrote Flyboys and Flags of Our Fathers, brings history to life, making the 600+ pages fly by.
 When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present by Gail Collins (Little, Brown, $27.99)
Gail Collins writes for the Op-Ed page of the New York Times with wry humor and incredible insight into today’s culture and politics. In this book she recounts how far we’ve come toward equal rights for women but also how far we still have to go in terms of parity in the workplace and explores how women’s rights progressed on the coattails of the civil rights movement and the post-war economic boom.
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FOR SPORTS NUTS WHO LOVE A GOOD STORY | Back to top |
 Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen by Christopher McDougall (RH, $24.95)
McDougall wondered why, no matter what kind of fancy running shoes he bought, his feet always hurt. This nonfiction book about running reads like a novel. It is filled with incredible characters, amazing athletic achievements, cutting-edge science, and focuses on a tribe of the world’s greatest distance runners, the reclusive Tarahumara Indians of Mexico’s Copper Canyons. By the end of the book he shows us that everything we thought we knew about running is wrong.
 Open by Andre Agassi (RH, $28.95)
Though he won eight Grand Slams, this is a sad story about a talented child who was forced to play tennis, rarely went to school and had few friends. With the help of J. R. Moehringer, author of The Tender Bar, Agassi recounts a lost childhood, a Dickensian adolescence and a chaotic struggle in adulthood to establish an identity that doesn't depend on alcohol, drugs or constant high-pressure tennis matches; making some inspired choices -- he married Steffi Graf, stopped using drugs, and started a charitable foundation for the education of poor children.
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FOR FOODIES WITH AN APPETITE FOR GREAT READS | Back to top |
 Ad Hoc at Home by Thomas Keller (Workman, $50)
Author of the fabled French Laundry Cookbook, Keller brings some of his best recipes home, showing us how to make great meals in our own kitchens. Lavishly illustrated with 250 color photos and weighing in at over five pounds, this is a treasure for family-style cooks.
 Gourmet Today by Ruth Reichl (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $40)
Sadly, the doors to the wonderful magazine, Gourmet, closed as this book was hitting bookstore shelves, but the recipes are the ones we loved to try from their many years of publishing. Reichl has edited and she says, ‘cooked’ nearly every recipe. It is a lovely addition to your cookbook shelf and may well become a collectible!
 Love Soup: 160 All-New Vegetarian Recipes from the Author of The Vegetarian Epicure (Norton, $22.95)
I love the Vegetarian Epicure --i t’s still one of my favorite cookbooks. This new one, all soups, any time, any season, is wonderful and the 160 enticing recipes may just charm even a die-hard carnivore. She also has recipes for breads, dips and spreads, salads and a collection of desserts, as well as sample menus at the start of each chapter that make it easy to plan a full meal.
 Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes a Day: 100 New Recipes Featuring Whole Grains, Fruits, Vegetables, and Gluten-Free Ingredients by Jeff Hertzberg & Zoe Francois (St. Martin’s, $27.99)
You really can make your own healthy bread, and it is easy and fun, and the house smells delicious. The authors have demystified the arcane and delightful world of Artisan Bread. It works, it’s healthy and you can do it right in your own kitchen.
 Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer (Little, Brown, $25.99)
Safran Foer usually writes novels but this book is part memoir, part reportage, and all very personal. He takes us behind the curtain, exposing some of the hardest truths about the American food industry. As a father facing the question of deciding what his children should eat, he weaves food traditions, pop culture, and diet myths into a deeply affecting story of how we all should eat. Like The Jungle and The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Eating Animals speaks with an honesty and creativity all its own.
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FOR LITERARY DOG LOVERS | Back to top |
 The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski (Ecco, $16.99)
A novel as stunning as it is unforgettable; a book impossible to put down once begun -- particularly for dog lovers. A mute young boy works with his parents training a special breed of dog, until his uncle arrives and turns the household into a Shakespearean drama replete with villains, the forces of nature and hubris.
 Puppyhood: How to Raise the Perfect Dog by Cesar Millan (RH, $25.99)
I don’t have a dog. I’m not a dog person but I love watching Cesar Millan, the Dog Whisperer, working his miracles with dogs on TV. It’s often end-of-the-day therapy for me. If his books work half as well as he does in person, you are in for a well-trained dog who gets plenty of exercise, a modicum of discipline and lots of affection.
 Dog on It by Spencer Quinn (Simon & Schuster, $15)
This is a ideal mystery for lovers of dogs and mysteries alike. On the light side and perfect for the stocking, it features, of all things, a dog detective. Silly? You bet, but the perfect evocation of the typical PI voice makes it fun and just right for a holiday vacation read.
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FOR CYNICS AND TRUE BELIEVERS ALIKE | Back to top |
 Bright-Sided by Barbara Ehrenreich (Metropolitan, $23)
This is a book that looks at those bloody optimists who will take the positive view regardless of the facts. Ehrenreich questions the efficacy of sunny outlooks that are pervasive these days, pointing out the dangers of irrational optimism which have become epidemic in everything from the medical profession to religion to business (not to mention academia).
 What the Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell (Little, Brown, $27.99)
Gladwell is social analyst with interesting insights. In a new collection of his best essays from The New Yorker, he mines quirky subjects from women’s hair dye to cookies to ketchup to dog whispering (see Cesar Millan above!), all in ways that reveal and amuse.
 The Case for God by Karen Armstrong (Knopf, $27.95)
For those who know the Truth or at least believe it does exist, Karen Armstrong examines humankind’s search for God from Paleolithic times to the present. She questions everything, from our modern disregard for religion to the fundamentalists’ (of all religions) apparent justification for violence. Eyeing various traditions, she asks us to move beyond ourselves in an effort to find a path to faith that will bridge the growing polarization that seems to be the defining characteristic of our age.
 The Greatest Show on Earth by Richard Dawkins (Free Press, $30)
Richard Dawkins answers the proponents of so-called “intelligent design” with as clearly documented a proof of the theory of evolution as is imaginable, doing so with his customary combination of erudition and wit. Dawkins is one of our planet’s major thinkers, and this is a present perfect for every scientist and critical thinker you know.
 Oneness with All Life by Eckhart Tolle (Plume, $16)
For those who like their spiritual lives untethered to one organized belief system and who seek a life of peace, Eckhart Tolle’s new treasury is an obvious choice; Tolle has millions of followers and fans worldwide, and this inspirational treasury is ideal for any of them.
 Justice by Michael Sandel (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $25)
In yet another exercise in belief, Michael Sandel tackles big moral questions, applying philosophy to reality in ways that make us reexamine everything from affirmative action to the free market, patriotism to abortion to taxation, in an effort to look at familiar issues in new ways. Known for his popular class at Harvard, Sandel’s work is thought provoking and of interest to believers and questioners alike. (Sorry, you should remember this book for the new year, but the publisher is totally out of stock at the moment.)
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FOR THE MEN IN YOUR LIFE | Back to top |
 War Dances by Sherman Alexie (Grove Press, $23)
Notorious literary bad boy Sherman Alexie has always known how to make his readers laugh and nothing would make the man in your life a better gift than this ferocious and very funny new collection containing Alexie’s signature mix of satiric, insightful, and painfully human stories. These are tales of boys and men, husbands, fathers, sons, each at some pivotal moment, examining marriage, fatherhood, the loneliness of a writer or of someone living in memories. The result is stories that are universal, funny, gut-wrenching and real.
 This Is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper (Dutton, $25.95)
Another young man, one of four siblings, is forced to sit shivah with his three siblings (none of whom he really likes) when their father dies. This often laugh-out-loud tale of siblings and in-laws, parents and children, is filled with absurd and sometimes touching moments they share or inflict upon one another. It is irreverent, totally entertaining, and graced with heartfelt moments.
 Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby (Riverhead Books, $25.95)
Hornby once again mines musical obsession as a couple’s relationship is shattered by an ill-fated tour of the U.S. This warmly rendered novel examines love and desire, friendship, obsession, and the many ways we fumble through life towards happiness.
 Spooner by Pete Dexter (Grand Central, $26.99)
On a darker but absolutely wondrous note, Pete Dexter has written another coming-of-age story which, like Hornby’s and Tropper’s, is possessed of a heady mix of humor and the absurd. About a troubled (to put it mildly) kid with the good fortune to belong to a stepfather who is a former military officer and who loves and supports him through thick and thin, this will knock the socks off of any man or woman. (Richard Russo, when asked to name a new favorite novel, picked Spooner.)
 That Old Cape Magic by Richard Russo (Knopf, $25.95)
Speaking of Richard Russo, for those men on the far side of 40, this Pulitzer Prize-winner weaves magic that makes it a perfect gift. Opening with Jack Griffith ferrying his father’s ashes in the trunk of his car and thinking about his parents’ marriage, unaware that his own marriage is teetering on the brink, this novel takes the reader on a wry and witty ride down the rocky road of relationships and of life.
 Where Men Win Glory by Jon Krakauer (Doubleday, $27.95)
Another perfect man-centric tale born of 9/11, this one nonfiction. Jon Krakauer’s biography of Pat Tillman is a gripping story of a football superstar who left at the top of his game to join the army after 9/11, and two years later died in Afghanistan. The fact that this death was from “friendly fire” was covered up, coming to light only gradually, makes for a powerful read and much food for thought. Moving excepts from Tillman’s own personal journals are included.
 The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire That Saved America by Timothy Egan (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $27)
The American conservation movement started by Teddy Roosevelt and his Chief Forester, Gifford Pinchot is brought to life by Timothy Egan, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. He writes about the pitched battles fought by Gilded Age robber barons against public ownership of Western land, the struggles faced by the woefully underfinanced Forest Service, and the massive wildfire that struck the drought-stricken national forests of Washington, Idaho and Montana in August, 1910. An unbelievable story written by a master.
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FOR LOVERS OF THE OUTDOORS | Back to top |
 Dawn Light by Diane Ackerman (Norton, $23.95)
Diane Ackerman, has written a series of meditations that takes us through the cycle of seasons, awakening us to the world at dawn and to the dawning of our own consciousness. It is an impassioned appreciation of the miracle of evolution and of the spiritual appeal of nature as well.
A Year on the Wing by Tim Dee (Free Press, $24)
For the birders in your life, particularly those of a literary bent, Tim Dee’s book is a glorious exploration of what connects us to birds. He tracks their influence through literature and science, art and aviation. It is lyrical and evocative, both in terms of history and ornithology.  Bright Wings: An Illustrated Anthology of Poems About Birds edited by Billy Collins, illustrated by David Sibley (Columbia, $22.95)
This book will take you from from Catullus to Amy Clampitt, Thomas Hardy to Seamus Heany, and enchant you with bird verse from some of the world’s greatest poets. Perfect for the bedside or backpack.
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FOR THOSE WHO NEED A LAUGH | Back to top |
 Our Front Pages: 21 Years of Greatness, Virtue, and Moral Rectitude from America's Finest News Source 1988--2008 by The Onion (Scribner, $28)
For lovers of laughter, plain and simple, this is a hilarious collection of covers from The Onion that have parodied our headlines and world news for the past two decades. This “Towering Pillar of Greatness, Virtue, and Moral Rectitude” is guaranteed to break up the whole family during holiday gatherings.
 Heidegger and a Hippo Walk Through Those Pearly Gates: Using Philosophy (and Jokes!) to Explore Life, Death, the Afterlife, and Everything in Between by Thomas Cathcart (Viking, $19.95)
From the authors of the bestselling Plato and a Platypus Walk Into a Bar comes an uproarious new book on the meaning of death -- and life, too. Death has gotten a bad rap. It's time to take a closer look at what the Deep Thinkers have to say on the subject, and there are no better guides than Cathcart and Klein.
 Vanity Fair's Proust Questionnaire: 101 Luminaries Ponder Love, Death, Happiness, and the Meaning of Life by Graydon Carter (Rodale, $23.99)
Since 1993, Vanity Fair magazine has featured the celebrated Proust Questionnaire, in which a different noteworthy person each month answers the same series of probing personal questions. This illustrated collection brings together the responses of 100 personalities. Elegant illustrations accompany the interviews. Lots of fun.
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