Last minute gift ideas: Books
12.18.2011
Note: if I am somehow expected to provide you with a gift this holiday season, you may not want to proceed any further. If you are expected to provide me with a gift this holiday season, you should not use this except as a black list. We may now get back to the irregularly scheduled blog post.
The two weekends before Christmas have always been my prime holiday shopping time. A big cup of coffee, some buttery pastries, and I'm set to face the horrors of suburban shopping malls and chain stores filled with frantic materialists piling on crippling levels of credit card debt. And buy some super thoughtful gifts for people that I love.
Of course, that was all ruined by my wife's decision to have her appendix turn gangrenous and spend a week in the hospital. (Thanks honey!) The fall back plan has been to sift through my year of reading to come up with gift ideas for all types of readers, which I thought that I might share with you. Because you might have reached the bottom of the barrel on good gift ideas. And Amazon can get all of these to the people that you love (or feel obligated to shower with gifts) if you order in the next 3 days.
For the person in your life who thinks of themselves as well-read, but doesn't actually read that much: Memoirs. Now America has fallen in love with the memoir, but I usually avoid them like the plague. Fluffy, self-centered, and most often poorly ghost-written, memoirs are often a way for people who are vaguely famous to make money to feed their various addictions, but this year I found myself digging into a number of varied and very entertaining memoirs. The best of the bunch by far was Roger Ebert's Life Itself. There is almost no one who won't enjoy this book. An entertaining second place (for a much lighter read) is Tina Fey's Bossypants.
For the awkward teenager: Did she like the Hunger Games? America Pacifica. Do they like English boarding schools (Skippy Dies) or painful American hallways (Will Grayson, Will Grayson)? I actually really recommend Will Grayson, Will Grayson for all sensitive people up to the age of about 32. A slightly more mature teen reader, or your mother's book club, might really enjoy Erin Morgenstern's The Night Circus, a literary romantic adventure with a minor thread of magic.
Have an adult that likes a darker turn in their reading? Room tells the story of a 7 year old that has never left the room she and her mother are imprisoned in. Bad Marie is a babysitter gone horribly awry. Swamplandia is an odd story about the end of a clan of bayou alligator wrestlers. An older parent with a reflective streak might take a lot out of the Man-Booker award winning The Sense of an Ending or The Astral.
A foodie should love the odes to the kitchen Blood, Bones, and Butter by chef Gabrielle Hamilton or Life on the Line by chef Grant Achatz. A music lover has to read both Jennifer Egan's A Visit from the Goon Squad (novel) and Patti Smith's Just Kids (memoir). I would also recommend Neil Strauss' book of music interviews Everyone Loves You When You're Dead for music lovers of all stripes.
Finally, for the zombie lovers in your life, Colson Whitehead's Zone One is all you'll need.
I think this should be able to get you through your holiday shopping needs, but feel free to ask for any specific needs you might have. And add your own suggestions for awesome, easily purchasable gifts because I have some money that needs to be spent on others in the next week.
The two weekends before Christmas have always been my prime holiday shopping time. A big cup of coffee, some buttery pastries, and I'm set to face the horrors of suburban shopping malls and chain stores filled with frantic materialists piling on crippling levels of credit card debt. And buy some super thoughtful gifts for people that I love.
Of course, that was all ruined by my wife's decision to have her appendix turn gangrenous and spend a week in the hospital. (Thanks honey!) The fall back plan has been to sift through my year of reading to come up with gift ideas for all types of readers, which I thought that I might share with you. Because you might have reached the bottom of the barrel on good gift ideas. And Amazon can get all of these to the people that you love (or feel obligated to shower with gifts) if you order in the next 3 days.
For the person in your life who thinks of themselves as well-read, but doesn't actually read that much: Memoirs. Now America has fallen in love with the memoir, but I usually avoid them like the plague. Fluffy, self-centered, and most often poorly ghost-written, memoirs are often a way for people who are vaguely famous to make money to feed their various addictions, but this year I found myself digging into a number of varied and very entertaining memoirs. The best of the bunch by far was Roger Ebert's Life Itself. There is almost no one who won't enjoy this book. An entertaining second place (for a much lighter read) is Tina Fey's Bossypants.
For the awkward teenager: Did she like the Hunger Games? America Pacifica. Do they like English boarding schools (Skippy Dies) or painful American hallways (Will Grayson, Will Grayson)? I actually really recommend Will Grayson, Will Grayson for all sensitive people up to the age of about 32. A slightly more mature teen reader, or your mother's book club, might really enjoy Erin Morgenstern's The Night Circus, a literary romantic adventure with a minor thread of magic.
Have an adult that likes a darker turn in their reading? Room tells the story of a 7 year old that has never left the room she and her mother are imprisoned in. Bad Marie is a babysitter gone horribly awry. Swamplandia is an odd story about the end of a clan of bayou alligator wrestlers. An older parent with a reflective streak might take a lot out of the Man-Booker award winning The Sense of an Ending or The Astral.
A foodie should love the odes to the kitchen Blood, Bones, and Butter by chef Gabrielle Hamilton or Life on the Line by chef Grant Achatz. A music lover has to read both Jennifer Egan's A Visit from the Goon Squad (novel) and Patti Smith's Just Kids (memoir). I would also recommend Neil Strauss' book of music interviews Everyone Loves You When You're Dead for music lovers of all stripes.
Finally, for the zombie lovers in your life, Colson Whitehead's Zone One is all you'll need.
I think this should be able to get you through your holiday shopping needs, but feel free to ask for any specific needs you might have. And add your own suggestions for awesome, easily purchasable gifts because I have some money that needs to be spent on others in the next week.
