Saturday, December 14, 2024

Holiday Gift Ideas

 

The Bookworm by Carl Spitzweg

Looking for ideas for holiday gifts this season? Books make great gifts when they fit the reader’s interests. As many of us in the U.S. enter the cold, dark months, reading becomes a path to worlds beyond our reach. Most of these suggestions are on my annual list.Two are new additions that I’ve noted.

For nature lovers and those who enjoy the world around us:

The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year by Margaret Renkl, This love letter to the natural world by the longtime New York Times columnist is one everyone will enjoy. I suggest giving both the audio version and the hardcover. I listened to Renkl’s northern Alabama/Tennessee accent as she showed me the world outside her Nashville home. This almanac of essays on daily life in nature warmed me on the coldest of days. I had planned to read the applicable chapters during each season they covered, but the moment I heard Renkl reading, I couldn’t stop listening. We had a recent cold spell with heavy winds that kept me from my usual outdoor walks for a few days and this book was solace. Her  language comforted me: “We were never cast out of Eden, we merely turned from it and hid our eyes.To return and be welcomed, cleansed, and redeemed, we are only obliged to look.” (Published in 2023, this has not appeared previously on this site.) G/GPR/R/SN, BC

The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World by Robin Wall Kimmerer, An Indigenous scientist, the author of the classic Braiding Sweetgrass, shows how the serviceberry plant embodies a gift economy empowered by reciprocity. Serviceberries give their wealth, their nourishing sweet berries, to all around them and show us that flourishing is mutual. Filled with exquisite illustrations, this little gem celebrates the best of us including public libraries that remind us that we don’t have to own everything to benefit from it. This is an invitation to connection with each other and nature. Published in November, it has not appeared previously on this site. G/SN/T, BC

 For anyone over sixty:

Slow Rivers: Poems from My Sixties by Joseph Neely contains poems similar to those by Billy Collins in that they’re accessible and reflective of everyday life. Neely’s words and tone will particularly appeal to readers over sixty. His poem “Reasons I Go to Church” knocks me out every time I read it—and that’s often. Buy it. Reading it feels like having a conversation with an old and cherished friend. GPR/T

For the reader who loves a powerful story, great characters, and exceptional writing:

Old King by Maxim Luskotoff, This is the book that everyone on your list will find mesmerizing. Publishers Weekly and NPR put it on their best novels of 2024 lists and it’s one of my two favorites as well. Read my full review and buy it for someone who will want to fall under its spell. I keep repeating my favorite lines and can no longer drive along wooded roads without thinking of the trees leaning over and examining me as I pass them. That Luskotoff managed to write such a compelling story while incorporating the real, documented details of Ted Kaczynski’s life is a testament to his extraordinary skill. G/GPR/PP, BC

For the reader who likes the classics, major award winners, fine writing, and who has a sense of humor:

James by Percival Everett, won the National Book Award and is a favorite to win the Pulitzer Prize Yes, it reimagines Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from Jim’s viewpoint and it’s engrossing, fast-paced, and accessible, but it’s also packed with nuance, riveting dialogue, and an entire world beneath the story we’ve all read. English majors will adore it. Anyone who understands or wants to know the difference between proleptic and dramatic irony will rave about it. Buy it for your favorite reader. It’s the other of my two favorite novels of 2024. G/GPR/PP, BC

For a friend or family member who likes romance and wants well-developed characters and a finely told tale:

Slow Dance by Rainbow Rowell is for the rom-com lover who likes heartfelt, kind, witty, well-written novels that deliver them from the tedium of daily life. If the holidays feel like too much, this is the place to escape. D/GPR/SF, BC

For the historical fiction reader who likes a touch of mystery along with wonderful characters and an engaging, fact-based narrative:

The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon delivers the reader to 1789 Maine where Martha Ballard, a respected midwife, sees that a man entombed in ice has been murdered, but a new young doctor contradicts her. Martha and her husband Ephraim are characters everyone will enjoy meeting. That this book is based on a real midwife and her journal, will please the biggest historical fiction fan. GPR/PP/SN, BC

For the reader who wants a kind, heartwarming story with delightful characters set in an English village: 

Sipsworth by Simon Van Booy introduces the reader to 83-year-old Helen Cartwright who’s returned to the English village she left over 69 years earlier. An encounter with a mouse leads her to connections with others in the village and reveals her unique story. Give this to someone who wants a charming fable that isn’t simplistic or saccharine. GPR/SF, BC

For the woman caught in the sandwich generation with young adult children and aging parents who’s also going through or has recently been through menopause:

Sandwich by Catherine Newman is written with humor and heart as it explores generational trauma, abortion, and depression with irony and compassion. Newman’s descriptions will make anyone who’s experienced menopause laugh out loud. Her illustrations of the toll that being the emotional, responsible center of a family brings will connect with every mother. GPR/S, BC 

For the reader who adored Colm Tóibín’s Brooklyn or the 2015 movie based on it and is looking for a book to discuss in book club: (If you don’t think the reader has read Brooklyn and the reader loves great novels, give them both Brooklyn and Long Island.)

Long Island by Colm Tóibín revisits Eilis of the exceptional Brooklyn in 1976 as she lives with her family on a Long Island cul-de-sac surrounded by her husband’s mother and brothers. When a man says his wife is pregnant with her husband’s baby and he’ll leave it on her doorstep as soon as it’s born, she visits family in Ireland and reconnects with the man she previously loved. This brilliantly devastating novel will have book clubs debating what the characters should do. G/PP, BC

For the Elizabeth Strout fan who’s read all her novels:

Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout features memorable characters from her previous novels reunited in Crosby, Maine. Bob Burgess, Lucy Barton, Olive Kitteridge, and others explore friendship, grief, life, and aging in a book only Strout could write. It encapsulates the breadth, depth, and meaning of love with simplicity and care. GPR, BC

For the mystery lover who wants a book with great characters, incredible writing, and unexpected twists. Bonus, if the reader also likes art:

All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker is simply spectacular. It’s 1975 and Patch, named for the patch covering his eye socket intervenes to save a girl assaulted in the woods and is himself kidnapped and kept in a dark cellar where a girl visits him and offers him hope. After escaping, he and his best friend Saint search for Grace and other victims. Phenomenal characters, twists, resilience, and art make this the best mystery/thriller I read this year. GPR/SBP, BC

For the espionage lover who likes fact-based, character-driven World War II historical fiction:

The Wealth of Shadows by Graham Moore is based on the true, but barely known story of the American economists who waged a secret battle to cripple Nazi Germany. Using real people, both famous and unknown, Moore supports the story with exceptional footnotes that share mind-boggling information related to what happens in the book. PP/SN, BC

For the person who loves the water especially in the Great Lakes region and who enjoys an adventure tale:

The Living Great Lakes: Searching for the Heart of the Inland Sea, Revised 20th Anniversary Edition with New Introduction by Jerry Dennis. Anyone who hasn’t read this masterpiece will love it and those who read it twenty years ago, will enjoy rereading it. With climate change endangering our lakes and shorelines, it’s fascinating to see what Dennis was noting twenty years ago. At its core though, this is an adventure tale. Anyone would want to open this gift. My book club discussed it when the original came out, and we could have talked all day. SN, BC

For the curious, science lovers, and those who like new information:

The Light Eater: How the Unseen World of Plant Intelligence Offers a New Understanding of Life on Earth by Zoë Schlanger will change the way you see and understand plants. The chapter on hearing that shows a flower forming a bell shape like a satellite dish and the one about plants changing their composition to ward off leaf-eating caterpillars captivated me. Seeing evidence of plant negligence and communication in Schlanger’s exquisite writing entranced me. G/SN, BC

For the history lover who wants to learn more about the Trail of Tears and treaties the U.S. made with Native tribes and wants to understand the emotional impact of generational trauma brought about by unkept promises: 

By the Fire We Carry: The Generations-Long Fight for Justice on Native Land by Rebecca Nagle is an exceptional chronicle of the U.S.promise that the Muscogee people forced from their lands in the 1830s would retain their new land “for as long as the grass grew and the waters ran.” Nagle includes the part her own ancestors played in the removal and brings the story full circle to the 2020 Supreme Court murder case that threatened the reservation’s existence. With powerful language and careful research, Nagle weaves an engrossing story that engages and enrages the reader in the quest for justice. GPR/SN, BC

For the reader who wants to know more about maternal health and reproductive care and who appreciates snarky dialogue along with compassion and documented research:

I’m Sorry for My Loss: An Urgent Examination of Reproductive Care in America by Rebecca Little and Colleen Long is an intimate, fact-based exploration of the deteriorating state of reproductive care in America. While packing the book with facts and footnotes, the authors make you feel a part of their real, wry, irreverent, and heartfelt conversations. These established journalists experienced pregnancy loss and share their journeys poignantly. Full review here.GPR/SF/SN, BC

Fellow Chicago South Suburban residents—I have good news for you. There are new places to shop for books in our area this year. The Rock Shop, 18109 Dixie Highway, Homewood sells rocks, guitars, vinyl, and a great selection of books. A member of the American Booksellers Association, the store will order books for you and offers discounts. For those who don’t like parallel parking on Dixie Highway, the shop is just steps across the street from a municipal parking lot. The owner, a former journalist, knows books well and is stocking what locals want to read.

If you want a large selection of current titles, Barnes and Noble opened a store in November in the Town Square Shopping Center on Indianapolis Boulevard across from Whole Foods at 124 US-41, Suite A, Schererville, IN.



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