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I NEED A GIFT
FOR...
AUTHOR/ARTIST PREFERENCES
MY SIBLING, WHO IS A FAN OF EVERYTHING
ROALD DAHL HAS EVER WRITTEN.
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PLAYING
WITH THE GROWN-UPS
By SOPHIE DAHL
Nan A. Talese
Perhaps
it's time to introduce your sister to a new generation
of Dahl. Model-turned-writer Sophie Dahl is the granddaughter
of the late, great Roald Dahl, and Playing with the
Grown-Ups is her first novel. Like Grandpa Roald,
Sophie has her moments of quirk, thoughtfulness, and
fairy tale, but make no mistake; this is not children's
literature. It is, instead, a sometimes dark and allegedly
semi-autobiographical novel centering on Kitty, a New
Yorker by way of Sweden, who recalls her years growing
up with Marina, her eccentric artist mother who doesn't
seem to do much parenting. In terms of plot and style,
the book has been likened more to Running with Scissors
and Breakfast at Tiffany's than any of her grandfather's
books, but considering the company she's keeping with
those comparisons, it doesn't sound like anyone's going
to mind. (Yennie Cheung)
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MY FRIEND WHO NEEDS TO STOP RAVING ABOUT
JONATHAN SAFRAN FOER.
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THE
LAZARUS PROJECT
By ALEKSANDAR HEMON
Riverhead
Frustration abounds in this multilayered novel from
the acclaimed Bosnian writer. Brik, the narrator, is
frustrated by his inability to finish writing his book.
Lazarus, the subject of Brik's work, is frustrated by
the oppression he feels as a Jew in Europe, and later
as an immigrant to Chicago in the early 1900s. The
Lazarus Project is a frustrating book, but that
might be the point. It shows us that connecting with
one's mystical heritage is a lot more complicated than
it seems. (Brian Hurley)
[See
the HBC review]
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MY
BEST FRIEND, WHO IS SAD THAT NICK HORNBY IS NO LONGER WRITING
FOR THE BELIEVER.
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SHAKESPEARE
WROTE FOR MONEY
By NICK HORNBY
McSweeney's
Your
friend should be able to tell from the cover art that
Shakespeare Wrote for Money is a companion piece
to The Polysyllabic Spree and Housekeeping
Versus the Dirt. In fact, this marks the final collection
of dear Uncle Nick's columns for The Believer
magazine, so you'll probably be rounding out your friend's
Hornby collection nicely with this. And, as a special
bonus, Shakespeare Wrote for Money also contains
a forward written by none other than that cantankerous
hipster sweetheart Sarah Vowell. (Yennie Cheung)
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MY BOYFRIEND, WHOSE TWO FAVORITE
LIVING AUTHORS ARE THOMAS PYNCHON AND TONI MORRISON.
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ATMOSPHERIC
DISTURBANCES
By RIVKA GALCHEN
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
It's
possible that this book was actually written for your
boyfriend. Galchen deftly navigates the terrain of the
heart and the search for identity in a novel where the
protagonist thinks his wife has been replaced by a double,
and possibly kidnapped by a nefarious group called the
49 Quantum Fathers. (Marie Mundaca)
[See
the HBC review]
[WIN THIS BOOK!]
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A MERCY
By TONI MORRISON
Alfred A. Knopf
Good news for your friend: Toni Morrison just published
a new book this month. Isn't that convenient? A Mercy
takes place in the Americas during 1680s, just as slave
trading was taking off. Fans of Morrison's award-winning
Beloved will recognize the themes of A Mercy,
with Morrison focusing on the effects of slavery not
only on the psyche of the oppressed but on the attitudes
of racial hatred. (Yennie Cheung)
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FOR
MY MOM WHO LOVES JOYCE CAROL OATES AND SCANDALOUS MEMOIRS.
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WILD
NIGHTS!: STORIES ABOUT THE LAST DAYS OF POE, DICKINSON,
TWAIN, JAMES, AND HEMINGWAY
By JOYCE CAROL OATES
Ecco
MY
SISTER, MY LOVE: THE INTIMATE STORY OF SKYLER RAMPIKE
By JOYCE CAROL OATES
Ecco
Joyce
Carol Oates came out with two new books this year, which
may make your mother happy. In Wild Nights!,
Oates writes fictional deaths for some of America's
biggest literary icons, even attempting to adopt their
signature writing styles. Though Oates obviously knows
a bit about the lives and writing styles of all five
authors, she takes plenty of artistic license with her
tales. Emily Dickinson, for example, does not die in
Massachusetts in 1886; instead, she meets her end in
twenty-first century suburban New Jersey. My Sister,
My Love may be a better bet for your mother, though,
as the book fictionalizes the infamous JonBenet Ramsay
murder case, replacing the Ramsays with the Rampikes.
In this case, the murdered little girl is Bliss, whose
mother Betsey wanted to turn her into a prize-winning
figure skater. The titular Skyler is the Rampikes' son,
who was nine at the time of his sister's death and 19
when he narrates the story, after a letter from his
dying mother solves the mystery behind Bliss's death.
It may not exactly be a scandalous memoir, but it's
probably as close as your mom will come to getting both
Joyce Carol Oates and a scandalous memoir in one book.
(Yennie Cheung)
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ALEX
& ME: HOW A SCIENTIST AND A PARROT DISCOVERED A HIDDEN
WORLD OF ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE-AND FORMED A DEEP BOND
IN THE PROCESS
By IRENE PEPPERBERG
Collins
What
could be more scandalous than the 30-year romance between
animal behaviorist Irene Pepperberg and her "partner"
Alex the parrot? Alex and Irene, during their 30 years
together, showed the world that parrots were much smarter
than anyone ever imagined. Pepperberg taught Alex not
only how to speak, but how to do math, how to reason,
and of course, how to love. Or did Alex teach
Irene those things? HUH? (Dorothy Parka)
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AN
OLD HIGH SCHOOL FRIEND WHO HAS READ EVERYTHING EVER PUBLISHED
BY BRET EASTON ELLIS.
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THE
DELIVERY MAN
By JOE MCGINNISS, JR.
Black Cat
Of
all the comparisons to other writers that Joe McGinniss,
Jr. has received since the publication of The Delivery
Man, no other seems as constant as the comparison
to Bret Easton Ellis. The edginess and depravity of
Ellis's work are taken to the city that best flaunts
its decadence: Las Vegas. McGinniss's characters all
seem desperate—for money, for power, for love—and
it's the humanity in their desperation that will keep
readers fascinated. (Yennie Cheung)
[See
the HBC review]
[WIN THIS BOOK!]
|
MY FRIEND WHO LIKES THE SAME
BOOKS MICHIKO KAKUTANI LIKES.
|
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WHAT
WE ALL LONG FOR
By DIONNE BRAND
St. Martin's Griffin
A
colorful group of young Torontoneans—a Vietnamese
lesbian, a biracial woman, and a black woman—deal
with familial expectations while trying to maintain
their urban artistic lifestyles. Brand's writing is
understated and evocative—she quietly tiptoes around
these characters' explosive lives. (Marie Mundaca)
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MY
SISTER, WHO ADORES SUITE FRANÇAISE AND FIRE
IN THE BLOOD.
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DAVID
GOLDER, THE BALL, SNOW IN AUTUMN, THE COURILOF AFFAIR
By IRÈNE NÉMIROVSKY
Everyman's Library
If
your sister isn't already aware, Irčne Némirovsky made
a name for herself in France while she was actually
alive. This volume from Everyman's Library collects
four of her early novellas into one book. Only one of
the stories (David Golder, which was also adapted
into a film) has been previously available in English,
so unless your sister is also fluent in French, she
probably hasn't read these before. (Yennie Cheung)
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MY
SISTER WHO COUNTS DOWN THE DAYS TO THE RELEASE OF THE NEXT
NORA ROBERTS NOVEL.
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SALVATION
IN DEATH
By J.D. ROBB
Putnam
Yeah...we're
not really a website that knows or cares much about
Nora Roberts. Go ahead and call us snobbish; it's fine
because sometimes we are. But even though we're elitist
bastards, we're still helpful enough to do a little
digging and find out that Nora Roberts uses the pseudonym
J.D. Robb to write a series of romantic suspense novels
called In Death. Salvation in Death is
the latest installment. However, if you're looking to
find your sister something of more, um, respectable
literary value, check out the recommendation for The
Gargoyle listed directly below. (Yennie Cheung)
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GENRE PREFERENCES
THE
HISTORY NUT WHO WISHES TIME-TRAVELING LOVE WERE POSSIBLE.
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THE
GARGOYLE
By ANDREW DAVIDSON
Doubleday
When
The Gargoyle begins, the narrator lies in a burn
ward, disfigured beyond recognition after driving his
car off a mountain road, and passing the time by imagining
various ways to kill himself after he is released from
the hospital. However, a schizophrenic fellow patient—a
sculptress named Marianne Engel specializing in gargoyles—begins
to visit him, claiming that she knows him. In fact,
they met in a convent hospital ward 700 years ago in
medieval Germany, and they were once lovers. Marianne
weaves several tales of love across Europe and Japan,
chipping away the narrator's cynicism and distrust until
it turns into a romance that transcends time. (Yennie
Cheung)
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MY COUSIN, WHO LIKES TO WATCH THRILLERS
BUT DOESN'T LIKE TO READ.
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CROSS
COUNTRY
By JAMES PATTERSON
Little, Brown and Company
When
recommending books for thriller fans, I always push
Michael Connelly on them—he's one of the best of
the genre. But Patterson does something that Connelly
doesn't—short sentences and short chapters. Some
of his 400 page books have over 100 chapters! And each
one is a cliff-hanger. Patterson's novels are like the
literary equivalent of R. Kelly's Lost in the Closet
videos—simple, twisted, and easily digested. (Marie
Mundaca)
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MY GRANDMOTHER, WHO LOVES A GOOD
MYSTERY.
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WHAT
WAS LOST
By CATHERINE O'FLYNN
Holt
My grandmother will always love a good Stephen King,
but when she's in the mood for a little less gore and
a little more mystery, Catherine O'Flynn will fit the
bill. Centering in on the disappearance in 1983 of a
sleuthing young girl, What Was Lost not only
recounts the young girl's life up to her disappearance,
but also of the people directly involved in the case
nearly 20 years later, when a small discovery reopens
the cold case. (Samantha Storey)
[See
the HBC review]
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A FRIEND WHO COULD USE THE GUY EQUIVALENT
OF CHICK LIT.
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DRINK,
PLAY, F@#K: A YEAR IN THE LIFE OF A JILTED HUSBAND
By ANDREW GOTTLIEB
Black Cat
After
the sensation that was Eat, Pray, Love, the men's
answer to post-breakup travel and recovery should come
as no surprise. In this novel, Bob Sullivan sets off
on a post-divorce journey of self-discovery and spirituality.
However, after a lifetime of playing it safe—not
to mention a marriage of ballets, vegan food, and intimacy
seminars—Bob learns to follow his heart. Unfortunately
for Bob, this decision takes turns for the bizarre and
sometimes disastrous, and it even leads to spending
a little time in Thailand (apparently, Andrew Gottlieb
has read Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason).
Naturally, it's all played up for comedic value; after
all, what would good chick or lad lit be without a sense
of humor? (Yennie Cheung)
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MY FRIEND WHOSE SECRET SHAME IS A
LOVE OF CHICK LIT.
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SMART
GIRLS LIKE ME
By DIANE VADINO
Thomas Dunne Books
This
smart chick-lit book takes place in New York City in
those halcyon days of the late 1990s. But it's less
a love story between a woman and a man than a love story
between two female best friends. (Marie Mundaca)
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MY HIPSTER-WANNABE FRIEND WHO'S OBSESSED
WITH THE BEAT GENERATION.
|
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AND
THE HIPPOS WERE BOILED IN THEIR TANKS
By WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS and JACK KEROUAC
Grove Press
Oh
yes, you read that right. This is a previously unreleased
collaboration between Beat legends William S. Burroughs
and Jack Kerouac. Until this year, only the first chapter
of And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks
was available in a Burroughs reader. Not surprisingly,
the book is a fictionalization of the two authors' own
lives. On August 14, 1944, their friend Lucien Carr
stabbed and killed a man he had known for years. Carr
told the pair of his crime, and when they failed to
report it, they became accessories to the murder. The
book, written before either became famous, was rejected
by publishers, but it makes for a great look into the
early years of two of the Beats' most beloved writers.
Plus, how much more hipster can a book title be? (Yennie
Cheung)
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THE
BOOK OF OTHER PEOPLE
By ZADIE SMITH, Editor
Penguin
All
right, it's not the Beat Generation, but one might consider
Zadie Smith and the slew of New Yorker/McSweeney's
alums the modern day cream of the hipster crop. In this
case, each author is given the same rules: The title
of each story must bear the name of an original character
and the character must be the principle subject of the
story that follows. In the pieces that made the cut,
it's clear these are stories are a slice of hipster
heaven. (Samantha Storey)
[See
the HBC review]
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AN OLDER FAN OF DYSTOPIAN SCI-FI
WHO HAS READ ALL OF THE CLASSICS BUT IS LEERY OF CYBERPUNK.
|
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THE
LIVING DEAD
By JOHN JOSEPH ADAMS, Editor
Night Shade
While
perhaps not the dystopian, post-apocalyptic stories
they're going for, this short story collection from
the likes of Neil Gaiman, Stephen King, Kelly Link and
others may fill the need. This book boasts tale after
tale of the hideous, blood-thirsty dead pulling themselves
from the ground to eat everyone you've ever cared about.
And, in case you're unsure, a topia where zombies eat
your loved ones is fairly "dys," if you follow. (Kyle
Olson)
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A FRIEND WHO LOVES TO
TRAVEL AND IS AN EDITOR OF A FOOD MAG.
|
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VENICE
FOR LOVERS
By LOUIS BEGLEY AND ANKA MUHLSTEIN
Grove Press
If
your friend is the editor of a food mag, getting him
a book on food may be a bit redundant; chances are he
already has it! Instead, focusing on the travel aspect
might be better for good leisure reading. The title
Venice for Lovers may sound sappy, but it's misleading.
Writers Louis Begley and Anka Muhlstein like travelling
to Venice to write, and in this book, they pay homage
to the city with two works: Muhlstein a personal essay
about the married couple's life and relationships in
the city. Begley, however, contributes a novella about
falling in love both with and in Venice. As a journalist
and traveler, your friend might find this inspiring.
(Yennie Cheung)
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MY CHILEAN GRANDFATHER WHO LOVES LATIN
AMERICAN FICTION.
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2666
By ROBERTO BOLAÑO
Translated
by Natasha Wimmer
Farrar, Strauss and Giroux
Bolaño's
posthumous tour-de-force starts as a small story about
some smitten literary critics, but it quickly explodes
into a cacophony of disparate voices, all clamoring
for attention in a desert town on the Mexican/U.S. border.
Eventually, all roads lead to El Chile dump, where hundreds
of murdered women have been dumped, and whose murders
are all but ignored by the police. Gruesome, beautiful,
and hilarious, 2666 examines the dichotomy between
the joys of the flesh and the horrors of the mind. (Marie
Mundaca)
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MY
MOM, WHO LOVES PARANORMAL ROMANCES.
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THE
HOST
By STEPHENIE MEYER
Little, Brown and Company
Truthfully,
after the travesty that was Breaking Dawn, I
don't plan on reading anything by Stephenie Meyer for
a while. Still, I have to admit that the woman has one
hell of an imagination and comes up with some good ideas
for books (though she apparently has a hard time making
worthwhile sequels). The Host, for example, features
a race of bodysnatching aliens that take over the human
race to create what is, essentially, a utopian society.
At the heart of this story is Wanderer, one of the parasitic
aliens, who is having difficulty suppressing the consciousness
of her host body, a young woman named Melanie Stryder.
Struggling with competing desires to suppress and embrace
Melanie's strong emotions—especially Melanie's
love for her boyfriend and younger brother, who are
both in hiding—Wanderer finds herself in the desolate
Arizona desert, desperately searching for Melanie's
loved ones and trying to understand what it truly means
to be human. Surprisingly, Meyer goes easy on the love
triangle (and eventual love rectangle), but it should
be enough to keep your mom reading. (Yennie Cheung)
[See
the HBC review]
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MY
GEEKY LESBIAN FRIEND WHO LOVES BOOKS BUT SAYS SHE'LL VOMIT
HER BLOCK OFF IF SHE READS ONE MORE CRAPPY, BORING LESBO ROMANCE
NOVEL.
|
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PERIPHERY:
EROTIC LESBIAN FUTURES
By LYNNE JAMNECK, Editor
Lethe Press
Hot hotness! Featuring some of the best lesbian writing
to be found anywhere this past year, this anthology
of erotic science fiction shorts is a cornucopia of
interesting plots, great characters, and imagination
run amok. Even better? It's totally sexy! Did we mention
it's HOT? (Julia Watson)
[See
the HBC review]
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FOR
TEACHERS
AN ENGLISH TEACHER WHO SEEMS TO
HAVE READ EVERYTHING!
|
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it from
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MS.
HEMPLE CHRONICLES
By SARAH SHUN-LIEN BYNUM
Harcourt
It
is perhaps a bit cliché to give a teacher a book
about a teacher, but the gesture is likely to be worthwhile
with Sarah Shun-Lien Bynum's Ms. Hempel Chronicles.
The eponymous Ms. Hempel is a new middle school English
teacher whose own personal history interweaves with
her experiences at her new job. Expect more than eight
simple tales of children maturing and teachers learning
from their students, though. Bynum, a National Book
Award finalist for Madeleine Is Sleeping, is
well known for engaging slipstream literature (think
Aimee Bender, Shelley Jackson), so expect something
a little strange but inherently beautiful. (Yennie Cheung)
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THE
BOOK OF CHAMELEONS
By JOSÉ EDUARDO AGUALUSA
Translated
By DANIEL HAHN
Simon and Schuster
This
book, narrated by a gecko protagonist, mixes magic realism
with post-modernism as all the characters search for
identities. The human the gecko lives with, Félix,
forges identities for a living, providing not only documents,
but famous relatives and fancy diplomas. When one man's
purchased past starts to become real, Félix,
the gecko, and the man with the new identity begin to
wonder if Félix can somehow change the past.
Since Agualusa is an Angolan writer not very well-known
in America, there's a good chance your teacher hasn't
read this book. (Marie
Mundaca)
[See
the HBC review]
|
MY
ENGLISH TEACHER, WHO ONLY READS "LITERATURE-WITH-A-CAPITAL-L."
|
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it from
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ALL
THE WORLD'S A GRAVE
By SCOTT REED
Plume
For
a guy who's been dead for nearly four hundred years,
it's pretty amazing that Shakespeare is still cranking
out the hits—but that's what John Reed has cooked
up in All the World's a Grave, a new tragedy
by William Shakespeare. Reed has boldly reimagined the
Bard by cutting, pasting, puzzling, and rearranging
Shakespeare's own words and characters into an entirely
new play. The resulting story is both familiar and fresh,
and the characters are energized and enlightened. (Chris
Mackowski)
[See
the HBC review]
|
MY TEACHER, WHO LOVES
ROMANCE, WIT, AND HISTORICAL MYSTERY.
|
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it from
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|
THE
MONSTER OF FLORENCE
By DOUGLAS PRESTON WITH MARIO SPEZI
Grand Central
In
this true crime story, thriller Douglas Preston goes
to Florence to research a book. While there, he meets
Mario Spezi, an Italian journalist who tells him about
the Monster of Florence, a serial killer akin to Jack
the Ripper, who murdered seven pairs of lovers parked
in their cars in the Italian countryside from 1968 to
1985. Together, Preston and Spezi attempt to uncover
the identity of a killer whose infamy has even influenced
the writing of fictional killers such as Hannibal Lecter.
While this probably isn't what your teacher considers
"historical mystery," it is a true life noir tale worth
checking out. (Yennie Cheung)
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MY HISTORY TEACHER, WHO'S LOOKING FOR
NEW STORIES ABOUT WORLD WAR II.
|
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it from
Amazon
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|
CITY
OF THIEVES
By DAVID BENIOFF
Viking
City
of Thieves is a literary Bing Crosby/Bob Hope buddy
movie that winds through the frozen landscape around
Leningrad in World War Two. With prose that is bare
and elegant and a pleasure to read, Benioff weaves a
richly textured story that takes turns both absurdist
and depressing and always powerfully human. (Chris Mackowski)
[See
the HBC review]
|
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