By M L Van Valkenburgh
1. Best Book by a First-Time Author
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle
David Wroblewski
HarperCollins
$25.95
The haunting tale of young Edgar Sawtelle, born mute but getting by on his family’s farm where “Sawtelle Dogs” are born, raised, and trained, is a masterpiece. Reminiscent of Leif Enger’s Peace Like a River in its gentle telling, it grips you without spectacle from page one and keeps your attention through good times, tragedy, murder, and revenge. Especially beautiful are the scenes where Edgar goes to live in the woods with a lively young pack of dogs. A perfect reminder of how man’s best friend can be the most comforting thing when you’ve lost everything.
2. Best Thriller with a Moral
A Most Wanted Man
John LeCarre
Scribner
$28.00
The author of 21 novels, LeCarre is a master at the spy story. But this time, he clearly has a grudge to pick, and it’s with Western civilization’s xenophobia toward anyone Muslim. The story of Issa, a young Chechen with a Russian father who raised him to be anything but Muslim while condemning his mother to death and taking him from his people, is a story of impossible hopes for a brighter future. As Issa struggles to retrieve funds left for him by his father so he can go to medical school, Germany, England, and the good ol’ USA watch his every move as a possible terrorist. Issa, gentle soul that he is, never has a chance.
3. Best Book for the Champagne Lover
Widow Cliquot
Tilar J. Mazzeo
CollinsBusiness
$25.95
The fascinating story of one of the world’s best champagnes. Widowed at 27, the Grand Dame, Barbe-Nicole Cliquot was forced with a decision – close her family’s business or take it over. In the midst of the Napoleonic Wars, and in a male-dominated business and society, Cliquot took the hard road and built an empire that continues to produce some of the world’s finest bubbly. Cheers!
4. Best Book to Make You Take a Hard Look at Yourself
The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism
Andrew Bacevich
Metropolitan Books
$24.00
Finally, an attack on the citizens of this country! Bacevich examines the ways in which We the People have been complicit in the breakdown of American ideals, the war, political chicanery, and our desire to have it all. Citing numerous sources and piecing together a fascinating historical analysis, Bacevich hits the nail on the head.
5. Best Book to Cover the Meth Epidemic – from the inside
Beautiful Boy: A Father’s Journey Through His Son’s Addiction
David Sheff
Houghton Mifflin Co
$24.00
Nic Sheff had everything going for him. A happy, outgoing kid, it seemed like the world was ripe for the picking. But as adolescence hit, Nic began to spiral out of control. As a teenager, he used mind-altering substances. By the time his father, who narrates this story, found out about his son’s drug problem, Nic was a full-blown meth addict. David Sheff doesn’t candy-coat his struggles with his son. But he preaches the eternal prayer of every parent: hope.
6. Best Book about Nothing
Collections of Nothing
William Davies King
University of Chicago Press
$20.00
Theatre professor King has dedicated his life to collecting what many of us would call detritus. By his own account, he is an oddball, yet insists neither his work as a professor or in therapy has in any way influenced his strange compulsion to collect everything from gum wrappers to chain letters, skeleton keys to cat food labels. A great look into the mind of a man who seems to see value in everything.
7. Best Book for the Tyke in Your Life
Dinosaur vs. Bedtime
Bob Shea
Hyperion Book CH
$15.99
This whimsical charmer shows Dinosaur conquer his day in typical dino-fashion (Dinosaur vs. Spaghetti! CHOMP CHOMP!). Dinosaur takes on everything from a pile of leaves to talking grown-ups, but he does have one little weakness . . .
8. Best Book for the Teen in Your Life
The Graveyard Book
Neil Gaiman
HarperCollins
$17.99
Ok, ok, Neil made the list again. But it’s because he’s so good at his craft! Nobody Owens (aka Bod) would be a completely normal boy. But there’s the tiny fact that Bod lives in a large graveyard and is educated by ghosts and guarded by a figure that belongs neither to this world or the next. Bod faces terrors no matter where he goes, from ghouls to the man who would murder him if he left the graveyard, the man who murdered his family, the man named Jack. A nice break from all the Twilight hype.
9.Best Book for the Sci-Fi Fan
Black Ships
Jo Graham
Orbit
$14.99
A strange, dark, yet imaginative weaving of The Aeneid and the rescue of the Trojans from slavery to a journey to find their brethren. Viewed entirely through the eyes of Gull, Oracle of the Lady of the Dead. Gull sees the “black ships” burning at Troy and travels to join Aeneas in the saving of the remaining Trojans. A unique blend of Virgil and Graham.
10. Best Book for the Science Lover
Your Inner Fish: A Journey into the 3.5 Billion Year History of the Human Body
Neil Shubin
Pantheon
$24.00
No boring lecture here. Shubin, a fish paleontologist, uses humor and science to deftly guide you through human evolution, from our days in the water to our days sitting in front of the TV. Fossils give clues to our senses while human cells and sponges have remarkable similarities. Probably not the best gift for the Creationist on your list.
11. Best Book for the Comic Lover
The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America
David Hajdu
Farrar, Straus, and Giroux
$26.00
Anyone who read Michael Chabon’s masterful The Amazing Adventures of Cavalier and Clay will remember that once upon a time, the comic book was considered by some a threat to the moral fiber of American youth. Fredric Werthem wrote a sweeping tome coming down on the comics industry (The Seduction of the Innocent), which suggested that comics would inspire anti-social behavior and were often meant to be homoerotic. Hadju comes down hard on Werthem’s methods of research and his cost to the comics industry. As a result of Werthem’s work, many comics artists were called before Congress. Though it’s laughable now, the damage Werthem did was very real and very unnecessary.
12. Best Book for the Modern Historian
The Last Campaign: Robert F. Kennedy and 82 Days that Inspired America
Thurston Clarke
Henry Holt and Co.
$25.00
When Bobby Kennedy announced his run for president, America was on the brink of disaster. With an unwinnable war in Vietnam and social policies that weren’t working on the home front, Kennedy worked for a tragically shortened time to bring back the social conscience of the country. Assassin-wary, Kennedy once predicted “I’m afraid there are guns between me and the White House.” But Clarke doesn’t get stuck on the might-have-beens had Kennedy not been correct. Instead, he reminds us that for a short period, Kennedy drew Americans together.
Posted on December 16, 2008