Your guide to some of our favorite literary gifts for the season.
Everyone has at least one person on their holiday gift-giving list who appears something like this:
“Jennifer — Book”
Exactly what kind of book is, oftentimes, elusive. Fortunately, it’s been a year of literary plenty, so to make your holiday shopping a little easier, we’ve rounded up some of our favorite books of 2016.
Around the World in 50 Years, by Albert Podel. Thomas Dunne, $26.99
Cherry picking the most exciting tales from a lifetime travelling to every country on Earth, Albert Podell has penned one of the most incredible, true-life adventure stories you will ever read. In Botswana, he hides in elephant grass to elude nearby crocodiles, hippos and Cape buffalo. In Morocco, he wanders into an active minefield. And in Bangladesh, he is almost hanged as an Indian spy. Infused with wit and wonderment, Around the World in 50 Years is a rollicking good ride.
Ashley’s War: The Untold Story of a Team of Women Soldiers on the Special Ops Battlefield, by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon. HarperCollins, $26.99
For several years, female soldiers in Afghanistan have secretly been accompanying Rangers and Green Berets on Village Stability Operations. Ashley’s War tells the story of the first group of women to serve on “Cultural Support Teams,” not only following their training and combat missions, but also their home lives and military careers. Packed with rich details, this story will leave you cheering the women’s victories and crying for their losses.
Dimestore: A Writer’s Life, by Lee Smith. Algonquin Books, $24.95
In elegant and heartfelt prose, Lee Smith describes growing up in Grundy, a place populated by coal miners and filled with mountain music. Hanging out in her father’s dimestore, Smith would pick up dolls and make up adventuresome tales about their lives, never knowing that these stories were rehearsal for her own life as a best-selling author. Each of the 15 essays in Dimestore is a mini-memoir, as filled with humor as it is country wisdom. This is a beautiful book of a bygone era by a master at the height of her craft.
Finding Home: Shelter Dogs and Their Stories, by Traer Scott. Princeton Architectural Press, $19.95
It is impossible to flip through this thin book without smiling. Not only because of the artfully-crafted, portrait-style photos of adorable pooches, but also because of the heartwarming stories of their adoptions into loving homes. Included in the back is an FAQ-style section on adoption basics and resources. This book serves both as a gorgeous portfolio of man’s best friend and a call to action for dog lovers to rescue animals in need.
The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future, by Kevin Kelly. Viking, $28.00
As co-founder of Wired magazine, Kevin Kelly rode the crest of the technological wave that transformed our society. Now Kelly forecasts where technology will take us in the next 30 years. Mass-marketed virtual reality and ubiquitous screens in public are just a couple of the “inevitable” outcomes he predicts. Much of what we know and love today, he posits, will go the way of the dodo; but in their stead will rise new things to venerate. The Inevitable is an eye-opening read.
The Nest, by Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney. Ecco Press, $26.99
With a lush style and panoramic scope, Sweeney tells a story of Manhattanite siblings trying to outmaneuver each other to protect their share of an inheritance. The “nest” egg is in jeopardy when a chunk of it is used as hush money after the drug-addled oldest brother wrecks his car and puts his mistress in the hospital. Love lies beneath the family’s dysfunctional dynamic, making the devious machinations all the more delicious. The Nest is that rarest of books—a literary hybrid of page-turning plot and gorgeous prose.