Holiday Gift Guide-2012

It has been a great year for book buying, book finding, book giving and books in general, but for me it has not been a great year for actually getting down to the business of reading books.  So much to read and so little time to read it.  I still find great comfort in entering bookstores and libraries, honing in immediately to the stacks of books, and piling them next to me to figure out what to read first.  I love getting a note from the library:  your book is ready and there it is waiting patiently on the shelf for me to check out and enjoy.  But during the last half of this year, I started considerably more books then I finished.  My appetite proved to be way larger then my brain could process.

My morning routine consists of packing lunches and which books I might possibly get to read that day. Often, I am realisitic and bring just one, but I can carry as many as five books into work, hoping against all hope that i might get to choose and read from more than one.  It rarely happened.

So for my holiday giving guide--the best of the books that I still hope to finish.  All have been returned to the local public library.

A GREAT GIFT FOR ALL WOMEN

We've always loved and admired Anna Quindlen. She is us.  She  reflects our hopes and dreams and parenting styles.  We love her journalism; we love her fiction.  Her words ring true.  So here is her memoir--words about family, faith, career and love. She is 60 and hitting her stride.  I don't know anyone woman who wouldn't love to read this memoir.  I'm on page 43!

              

ANOTHER GREAT GIFT FOR WOMEN

Susan Gubar is a professor of English and Women's studies here at IU.  She is famous for editing the Norton Anthology of Women's Literature during the time people were figuring out that it might be important to recognize women's literature.  In 2008 she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer and sentenced to an early death.  Well she survived and wrote this fabulous, raw and amazing book about her ordeal.  Notably, she held a public reading of this work here in Bloomington and invited her oncologist to read the poems she (the oncologist) had written right beside her.  It was the most talked about literary event of this year.  I returned it to the library at chapter three. Someone has since leant me another copy.  I have hope I will finish it.

A GREAT COFFE TABLE BOOK and GIFT FOR A WOMAN

For Christmas last year my husband gave me this fabulous collection of photographs by Nancy HIller and Kendall Reeves.  The subject is women's homes, beautifully imagined and decorated and lived in.  They are small, big, victorian, town homes, city homes, barns. They are lavishly decorated with heirlooms and found items and art and personality. Each home is written about with love and intrigue.  When the book was launched the authors had a great exhibition at a local gallery that we attended.  Thanks to my husband who gave me a beautiful book I can feel free to leaf through all year and not be obliged to finish. This is the wonder of the coffee table book.  

GREAT GIFT FOR A CHILD OR A PARENT WHO WOULD RATHER PLAY THAN COOK

Out of the blue I recalled this lovely old book I used to check out from my public library as a kid.  Mud Pies and Other Recipes by Marjorie Winslow was a child's cookbook for making wood chip stew and dandelion lollipops and of course, the best kind of mud pies.  The copy from the library was stained with grass and dirt and lovingly used over and over again for every tea party with dolls any girl ever held.  I don't know what made me remember it, but I had to have it and lucky me it was not out of print.  I will have to haunt the used bookstores to find one that has all the lovely grass stains that I remember, but at least I have this one to share with my daughter when she is ready to start cooking for her dolls.

A GREAT GIFT FOR ANYONE WHO LIKES TO LAUGH

Mike Bribiglia is famous for his storytelling routines often broadcast on public radio's This American Life. This year he came out with a film autobiography called Sleepwalk with Me, basically his memoirs about sleepwalking when the stress hits life.  This is the book that the movie is based on--or perhaps this book is based on his movie which is based on his comedy/storytelling routines. I just read that the movie is available on i-tunes.  I will probably download and watch that since even though the book is funny, I don't think I am going to get to finish it but someone on your gift lift might love it!

I wish all my readers--all three of you--the best book filled Holiday season there could possibly be.  I am going to intentionally take a vacation until after the first of the year in order to possibly get some reading done.  I'll be back with more good reads in 2013.  Namaste.

~Esmerelda

Holiday Gift Guide 2011

What to get for the folks on your holiday list?  Books of course!  I always believe that your favorite book of the year makes a great gift for everyone.  Here are some recommends from my family to yours:

Grayson loved City of Ember. He read it for the second time this year and especially loved the movie it inspired.  This one has a strong female lead, perfect for the YA reader on your list.

Tessa, for some reason, calls all books Ga-Ga books.  She says, "read me this ga ga book or read me ga ga (insert name of book)."  Her favorites have been one based on an Edward Lear poem The Owl and the Pussycat and also a very frothy, syrupy, sweetie book called Pinkalicious.  Both available on-line or at your favorite bookstore.

She likes the part about plenty of money

Tries to eat the cupcakes off the page

My husband Geoff reads only e-books now so I have no idea what he has been reading, but I took some time to ask him what he recommends from this past year.  He suggested Routes of Man: How Roads are Changing the World and the Way we Live.  Geoff says, it puts roads in their proper context and is a harrowing travel memoir.

He also recommends Triumph of the City: How Our Greatest Invention Makes us Richer, Smarter, Greener, Healthier, Happier.  This books focuses on the creativity and the people that come together to make a city.  Urban Policy that focuses solely on infrastructure and not the humans that live there wind up as cities with empty buildings.

As for me I have recently dug out a copy of Staying Put: Making Home in a Restless World by Scott Russell Sanders and am writing and thinking about the value of home.  I hope you and yours also are enjoying home and the simple pleasures of the season: music, lights, good food, laughter, and warm company.

I take a few weeks off from my blog at holiday time.  I'll be back in the New Year with plenty of good book recommendations. Happy Holidays to all!

What are your best reads of the past year?  Please recommend them below.

A Reader's Holiday Gift Guide

I don't have specific books to recommend this year (other that the ones I have blogged about in 2010) but I wanted to give some thought to gifts that you might give to a reader or that a reader might like to get.  Your favorite book is always a thoughtful gift--I think it is even okay to re-gift a book or read a book you are giving first.  Here are a few favorite things and websites to give you other ideas.

• My favorite reading related charity is called Room to Read.  These people take schools and books and libraries to developing countries.  Consider a donation to these amazing people in someone else's name.
• My writing group is called Women Writing for (a) Change-Bloomington.  If you know of someone who would benefit from writing in a conscious community consider getting her a gift certificate to one of these classes.  The group runs programs for girls and teens and could always use scholarship money for young women who would like to attend but can't afford it.  We also do outreach to women in the local jail so a donation to WWf(a)C would help offset the expenses of this program.  WWfaC has programs in Birmingham, Ala., Burlington, VT, Grand Junction, Colo., Indianapolis, Cincinnati and Louisville.
• Ever heard of NANOWRIMO? I've been excusing myself for the past few years.  Lots of good reasons why, but I still love the program and love how they encourage writing.  Consider a gift from their way cool on-line gift store.
• How about a poem?  For your friend that has everything or if you yourself are looking for many gifts and can afford few try giving the perfect poem. There is one for every person and every occasion.  Try the Poetry Foundation's way cool poetry tool and check out this audio site of emerging poets.
• Or how about the gift of poetry to students?
• I've not read this book but am enjoying the website that launched the book.  Is someone you know interested in awesome things?  Better yet, make a list of your own awesome things and give the list as a gift.
• Consider a gift or purchase from Half the Sky Foundation: an organization dedicated to helping orphans in China.
• Organize a group (or go solo) to a Messiah Sing in your community.  I just googled those words and trust me when I say there is one about everywhere in the country.  The chance to sing (or just listen) to beautiful music is one of the rare non-commercial opportunities of the holiday season.  In Bloomington the price of admission is canned food for our food bank.  Take someone who could use a lift.
• Buy local!  Craft fairs, tickets to sports or theatre, gift cards to small local shops and restaurants, memberships to local museums and history centers.

Okay readers, what are your favorite gifts for readers?  Writers?  Anyone?  I would love to hear from you.

Happy Holidays from Esmerelda's Bookthing.  I'll be back after the New Year with more reading and writing fun!  

Holiday Gift Ideas for Everyone on Your List

For the reader and literature fan:

People are abuzz over the new Raymond Carver biography written by Carol Sklenicka. Carver is considered the father of the modern short story. His biographer has shed some fascinating light on his writing and on the editor who made him famous. An avid fiction reader would enjoy a collection of Carver stories and this biography. Read all about it in this great interview by writer and IU Journalism professor emeritus Carol Polsgrove and in this NY Times article.

For your favorite feminist:

The New York Times op ed columnist Gail Collin's new book: When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present looks like a fascinating modern history of people and events that happened just before I came of age. Our aunts and mothers and grandmothers fought battles to end sexual discrimination in the workplace, to be able to have their credit cards in their own names, or to be payed equitably with their male counterparts. This book should be must read for all of us. It is on my Christmas wishlist and I am 15th in line to get it from the library. Thanks for the recommend Marsha!

For those who like their narrative in graphic form:

American Widow looked like a compelling memoir of a pregnant woman who kissed her husband good-bye on September 11, 2001, as he left for his first day on the job with Cantor-Fitzgerald, and never saw him again. I ordered it in hardback from Amazon.com without looking at the fine print. The book is beautiful, but surprised me when it turned out to be a graphic novel. Alissa Torres's story is told frame by frame with speech bubbles and handwritten voice over narration. Not my favorite read of the year, but it may have been that I did not appreciate the format. You may have someone on your gift list that does and it is a unique way to tell the sad and tragic tale.

If you want to send a taste of Bloomington, Indiana to someone:

My favorite local book this year was Susan Brackney's lovely little story of beekeeping which I reviewed a bit earlier this year. She got a mention on an Oprah website as well. How about sending this fine book to friends along with some Southern Indiana honey?

And of course there's this little gem which includes many of my favorite writers in Bloomington. Get it on Amazon.com.

For the tween girl on your list:

Before you let your tween break open the covers of the latest vampire romance, give her this great story of Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh. Harriet loves to spy and makes honest observations about her friends in her writer's notebook. She wants to be a writer when she grows up. Harriet inspired me to start a journal at age 11. She will always be a very important character to me.

Add a beautiful pen and a nice handmade journal to the gift. Tell her that in the olden days, when we wrote our secrets and thoughts, they were kept private and not broadcast over the internetz for everyone to read and talk about.

For the transformational leader on your list:

Women Writing for (a) Change is a grassroots movement that uses writing

as a tool to craft a more conscious life. Started by feminist, leader, and former English teacher

Mary Pierce Brosmer, the school has spun off 8 affiliate schools, dozens of teachers, and

programs that give voice to young women and girls, men, incarcerated women, and anyone who

has lost their voice. I'm a believer. When you give this book to anyone include a candle

and an invitation to a writing sampler class like this one.

A delightful choice for your mother or great aunt:

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer is doing the go around at book groups this year. This clever piece of historical fiction and epistolary novel will be beloved by your grandmother, so if you need to buy her a gift look no further. The history of the Channel Islands during WWII is not very well known so the setting and place and time is fascinating to learn about. It's set in the past where we accomplished everything by writing letters, and I know grandmothers love to read and write letters and talk about the era before we were all facebooking and texting and communicating via the internet. It is also just a clever, albeit a tad predictable, tale of a woman who finds her true community in this odd little place in history.

A Copy of this in Everyone's Stocking:

On January 20th, 2009 Elizabeth Alexander made history by being the 4th person to write and read a poem in honor of a presidential inauguration. I fear that given the way people rushed off after President Obama's oath and inaugural speech many did not hear this woman's very beautiful tribute to a very important day in history. Praise Song for the Day is available as a chapbook from Graywolf press. It would make a nice addition to a stocking this holiday. I have read and re-read and written about this lovely poem. I am putting it on my list as well.



Esmerelda is going to take a few days off to get ready for the holidays and read some more. She will post again about great reads after January 1st. May your holidays be filled with poetry and good good stories.