For your Christmas shopping list

We decorated for Christmas yesterday. It's our first Christmas in this house and as the familiar decorations came out of the boxes, we looked around for new places to put our dearly loved Santas and Baby Jesuses and ugly kid art. Thanks to more space in the new house, I have more bookshelves and windowsills and wall space for our collections. I noticed, though, that most of my bookshelves are not actually taken up with...books. Not nearly as much as you might assume, anyway, given the ravenous readers that we all are. In fact, the kids probably have more books in total than the adults do, and most of what we own is from college. You know, the time in your life when you are REQUIRED to buy books. Most of the books I read now come from the public library and our own personal lending library, the network of friends and family that passes books around. We all constantly have books in our passenger seats and purses to give to someone. It's a great set up and one I for which I am thankful. I'm also aware that someone, somewhere, had to buy those books, so here are some suggestions for the book lovers that you're looking to buy for this Christmas. Fill up those shelves and pass them on.

A Country Road, A Tree

Historical Fiction by Jo Baker

I give book talks to my students at school, and since I haven't read any young adult or middle grade fiction lately, I've been delving into my childhood favorites to read to them. Someone asked what I've been reading lately, though (teacher's pet :) and I told them about this book. I explained it as a historical fiction about an real life author (Samuel Beckett) who is from Ireland but lives in France during World War II and becomes a spy for the Resistance. Most of those things when right over their mannequin-challenge filled heads, but a few perked up at those topics. Truly, there are many topics in here to catch many people's interests, which is why I think it would be a good Christmas gift. I may buy it for my father-in-law. (Don't tell.) It starts slow, and I have to admit that I don't like Beckett's work, but I like the person I grew to know in this book. I like that I can see connections between his war experiences and his writing, in a deeper and more psychological way than straight autobiography. And mostly, I like that he saw a problem in the world and decided he couldn't not do something about it, even though it wasn't really his problem. That is so relevant, right now, to all of us.

Still Life and A Fatal Grace
Books 1 and 2 of the Inspector Gamache series
Mystery by Louise Penny

These books were recommended to me by three different people in the same month, and then hand delivered by one of them. You don't turn down such a gift, even when it isn't EXACTLY what you've been wanting. Mystery isn't usually my favorite. I would venture to say that these are more than mystery novels. The crime may be the plot driver but it is second to the depth of the characters and the subtle themes of humanity and life. The French Canadian detective is a master of studying humans, and in the village of Three Pines he meets the best array of fascinating, loving, disturbed characters you could ask for. That's another thing I teach my students: discover what kind of reader you are, whether you love characters or action or theme or facts, and you'll always have a good book to read. Lucky for us, this series has 14 books, so I'll always have a good book to read...for the next two months.

This is just what I've been reading lately and is a little limited in scope, so check out past posts for other must-reads. The two best book by my newest favorite author, a writer of deep and rich historical fiction, is here and a bunch of sweet fluff is here. Good luck shopping!