I saw a post recently from someone asking for book recommnedations. I didn't respond because there is never just one book I can recommend. Last week at a party the hostess asked us to share our top five favorite books, one friend remarked "Are you kidding? That's like picking your favorite kid!" So true. Being that it is gift giving season and I am always looking for gift ideas and trying to find perhaps the perfect book for my reader friends and family I decided to once again share some of my favorites. Maybe you'll find something for that hard to buy for person or maybe something just for you!
Happy Holidays and Happy Raeading!
I am going to start with "Tiger Eyes" by Judy Blume. I read this book in high school. It was a gift from my sister for my birthday. I believe I was in 9th grade. I read it in a day. I think this may have disappointed my sister a little but a Judy Blume book is like chocolate- you can't just have a taste and put it down, you need to devour it whole and in one sitting. There is something about her writing that touched me as a young person and even now as an adult. She tapped right into the frustrations and angst of being young. Of not feeling heard or not fitting in. And this book set me on the path of strong women characters. I have always sought out the books that tell the story of women and their strength. In this story, our herione is Davey Wexler, a teen living in New Jersey. Her father is shot and killed at a hold up in a 7-Eleven. What follows is the journey from grief and dispair to healing. We follow Davey and her mother and brother to New Mexico where they stay with family. Davey meets an older boy who calls himself Wolf and they strike up a friendship. He nicknames her Tiger Eyes and helps her through some of her grief. Blume also shows us the way grief affects adults and children differently and how we must lean on one another to get through the thick mud of sadness when we lose someone we love. Davey and her story has stuck with me all these years and although I don't always remember the gifts I have been given over the years, I will always remember my sister giving me this book. It was a gift that truly keeps giving.
For those who have little ones to buy for I recommend "Strega Nona" By Tommie dePaola. This book I still have in my daughter's bookcase and I read it to all of my children. Each Christmas our parents would take me and my sister to Hartford to see the lights on Constitution Plaza and then to G.Foxx to see the decorations and Santa. My favorite part of this tradtion was my father buying us each a book. This is one that my father bought on one of those trips and it was a quick favorite. Strega Nona- which means Grandma Witch in Italian- is the story of a young man named Big Anthony who is intriqued by Strega Nona's magical pasta pot. He is left in charge of her house one day and gets into mischief making the pot make pasta. What Anthony misses, but the reader sees , is how Strega Nona stops the pasta pot from making pasta and what ensues is beautiful illustrations of pasta flowing all through the little town and the lesson Big Anthony learns. This has remained my favorite dePaola book and he wrote and illustrated many. A fabulous choice for the little person on your list!
"The Saffron Kitchen" is a beautifully written story of mother and daughter. The only sad thing is the author has never written another book. I love stories of mothers and daughters and the things that bind them or even set them apart. We all hold secrets or have things we may want to hide but somehow they always seem to surface and for Maryann Mazar, the mother figure , her secrets collide with the present and have tragic consequences for her daughter, Sara, and her newly orphaned nephew, Saeed. Consumed with guilt, Maryann leaves her suburban English home to return to Mazareh, the remote village on Iran's northeast border where her own story began. There she must face her past and the memories of a life she was forced to leave behind when she was young, headstrong, and beautiful. The story bounces between mother and daughter and the past weaves with the present as Sara tries to understand her mother. Full of spirit and redemption and love, this book was a joy to read and reread!
"Midsives" was an Oprah pick in 1998. This book was compelling and hard to put down. It tells the story of Sybil Danforth, a midwife in 1980's rural Vermont. She is on trial after performing a cesearan section on a woman who died in the midst of childbirth of what Danforth thought was a stroke. It becomes clear though, that Sibyl is not the only one on trial. MIdwifery becomes the second accused. Told by Sybil's now grown daughter Connie, Bohjalian moves between past and present, as Connie tries to piece together what really happened that snowy night and understand what happened in the years that followed. It is part mystery and part love story to me. Sybil feels not like a character but like a woman I knew and could relate to. And Bohjalian creates a small town in Vermont that you feel like you have visited, You fall into the pages and into the story and can feel the tension as easily as you feel the first icy snowfall on your face. And you pray for a happy ending.
For the reader on your list who would prefer something more light hearted I recommend Jenny Lawson. If you like Davis Sedaris or Tina Fey you will like Jenny. She is bawdy and dark and takes us through those moments in her life that anyone would like to pretend never happened. She takes us through her eccentric upbringing in Texas and into her adult life with her husband and daughter with chapters titled "Stanley, the Magical Talking Squirrel" and "Just to Clarify, We Don't Sleep with Goats". I will admit you have to be in the mood for her humor and once or twice I did wince but overall she has a knack for stating the obvious and the not so obvious in a self-deprecating and dry wit. If you need a laugh this may be the book.
For the person on your list who wants humor but isn't the lover of things bawdy, this could be a good pick. I love Bill Bryson. I have read several of his books but this one is a favorite. If you are someone who enjoys watching "A Christmas Story " every Christmas for the sheer notaslgia this may be an enjoyable read for you. Bryson takes us back to his youth in 1950s DesMoines, Iowa. It made me laugh out loud and appreciate a time where kids actually road bikes and played in streets and family dinners were not eaten in cars in between scheduled activities. I loved how he captured his childhood in a reverent and sweet way. He described this book as "about not very much: about being small and getting much larger slowly. " He can be modest if he wants but I say it is a brilliant read into a slower time.
We are going to hop out of the 1950s and jump right into present day with this next pick. "this is how it always is" is a quirky, exquisitely written book about a very young boy named Claude who one day puts on a girls dress and refuses to take it off. The youngest of five boys born to Rosie and Penn,Claude is a sweet, slightly off beat character you will fall in love with and cheer on from first page to last. Rosie and Penn panick at first when Claude wants to take a purse to kindergarten and wear his hair long enough to braid but they find a way to "compromise" with him. The novel follows the family and how they chose to hide his sceret until it couldn't be hidden and what happens when the world collides with your little family unit. This book is written with a tenderness and brevity that leaves you wondering "what if this was my family". Frankl manages to pull you in and make you root for Claude and whatever he wants to be, pink purse and all! It gives insight to something many parents are navigating today but in a kind and empathic and funny read.
This one of for the non-fiction reader in your life. Or the one you think could you use a little perspective perhaps. This book was given to me years ago by a good friend and it sat on my bookshelf for years. It is and Oprah favorite and even though I do love me an Oprah book pick, this one eluded me. I picked it up last summer, 2020 was after all enough of a shit-show to cause many of us to seek something besides a big ol' glass of red! This book is not an easy read. Zukav takes us on a journey of evolution from beings with an understanding of extenernal power to beings who need to understand our own internal power and authenticity. This evolution requires us to make the values of the soul our own: harmony, cooperation, sharing., Zukav, a scientist and philospher shows us how to be an active participant in our own lives and how to infuse our everyday lives and activities and relationships with meaning and purpose. I believe books come to you when you need them and this one came just when I was ready and open to receive it.
I am going to end this post with a book of short stories. I am not usually a fan of short stories. It always seems to me that just when I am getting to know everyone their story ends but not with the stories in "unaccustomed earth". Lahiri's writing is lyrical, smooth like a perfect cup of hot cocoa, complete with whipped cream. I attended a book reading and signing when it was first published and I read the first story before she even took the stage. She spoke about the stories and how they came to be with grace and earnest. She was as compelling a speaker as she is a writer. This book contains 8 stories that take us from Boston to Seatle and over seas to India and Thailand. She explores the tenous relationships between siblings, parents and children. How our lives intertwine and mingle, how love can heal and secrets can wound. In stunning prose that is at once simple yet passionate she will pull you and not leave you wondering where your new friends have gone.
I hope you find something on this list to share with family or friends or maybe for yourself! Happy Holidays and Happy Reading.
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