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"What to Give, What to Get" Gift Guide 2012

What to Give, What to Get

"What to Give, What to Get" Gift Guide 2012

Bookreporter.com knows that readers crave ideas for gift-giving --- and getting --- at the holidays. With this in mind, we're offering a What to Give, What to Get Guide with suggestions for everyone on your holiday list! Our selections cover a wide variety of genres, including thrillers, mysteries, historical fiction, romances, memoirs and biographies. And while you're looking for gifts for others, may we suggest you jot down notes for books YOU want?

The Art Forger by B. A. Shapiro - Literary Thriller

 

On March 18, 1990, 13 works of art worth over $500 million were stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. It remains the largest unsolved art heist in history, and Claire Roth, a struggling young artist, is about to discover that there’s more to this crime than meets the eye.

Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel - Fiction

 

Anne Boleyn has failed to give Henry a son, and her sharp intelligence and audacity will alienate his old friends and the noble families of England. When the discarded Katherine dies in exile from the court, Anne stands starkly exposed, the focus of gossip and malice. At a word from Henry, Thomas Cromwell is ready to bring her down.

Bruce by Peter Ames Carlin - Biography

 

In a groundbreaking biography that draws on unprecedented access to Springsteen and those closest to him, acclaimed music critic Peter Ames Carlin presents the most revealing account yet of New Jersey’s favorite son.

Christmas in Apple Ridge by Cindy Woodsmall - Holiday

 

Experience the holidays with the Plain folk of Apple Ridge, Pennsylvania, in these touching novellas centered around love, romance, heartache, and restoration from best-selling author Cindy Woodsmall. This three-in-one collection includes "The Sound of Sleigh Bells", "The Christmas Singing", and the new story "The Dawn of Christmas."

The Christmas Plains by Joseph Bottum -

Wreaths and holly, fruitcakes and mistletoe, ornaments and snowflakes, St. Nick and Scrooge's humbug, Joseph and Mary, a young child in a manger and magi from the East.  By turns sweet and comic, sentimental and serious, the former editor of First Things magazine shares his reflections of the mad joys and wild emotions of the season while growing up on the South Dakota plains.

Crewel by Gennifer Albin - Science Fiction, Young Adult 12+

 

Gifted with the rare ability to weave time with matter, Adelice is exactly what the Guild is looking for, and in Arras, being chosen as a Spinster means privilege, eternal beauty, and being something other than a secretary. But once you become a Spinster, there is no turning back. Now caught in a web of lies and intrigue, Adelice must decide who to trust.

The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe - Memoir

 

This is the inspiring true story of a son and his mother, who start a “book club” that brings them together as her life comes to a close. Over the next two years, Will and Mary Anne carry on conversations that are both wide-ranging and deeply personal, prompted by an eclectic array of books and a shared passion for reading.

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green - Romance

Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel is still terminal. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel’s story is about to be completely rewritten.

Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver - Fiction

 

When Dellarobia Turnbow climbs a mountain near her farmhouse home, she has a mission: she will take a lover and change her boring life. But what she finds on the mountaintop appears to be not only a glowing apparition, but Mother Nature's tragic error. Her discovery will open her eyes, broadening her world and helping her find her place in it.

A Fool's Gold Christmas by Susan Mallery - Fiction

 

Dancer Evie Stryker learned early on that Christmas miracles don't happen, at least not for her. And this year seems like no exception. An injury has forced her to return to her estranged family. She won't add to the awkward scenario by being seduced by the bad-boy charms of her brother's best friend. Even when she's recruited to stage the Fool's Gold winter festival, she just wants to get the task over with and move on with her life. Jaded lawyer Dante Jefferson is getting used to the backwater town he now reluctantly calls home, but the pounding of little dancers' feet above his temporary office is too much! When he confronts their gorgeous teacher, he's unprepared for the attraction he feels, but Evie is his best friend's sister--off-limits unless he's willing to risk his heart.

Killing Kennedy: The End of Camelot by Bill O'Reilly - Biography

 

A riveting historical narrative of the shocking events surrounding the assassination of John F. Kennedy. A recounting in gripping detail of the brutal murder of John Fitzgerald Kennedy--and how a sequence of gunshots on a Dallas afternoon not only killed a beloved president but also sent the nation into the cataclysmic division of the Vietnam War and its culture-changing aftermath.

Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination That Changed America Forever by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard - History

 

Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard recount one of the most dramatic stories in American history --- the assassination of Abraham Lincoln and how this one gunshot changed the country forever. 

The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill: Defender of the Realm, 1940-1965 by William Manchester and Paul Reid - Biography

 

Churchill's biography picking up shortly after he became Prime Minister through WWII and the shifting of global power from the British Empire to the US.

The Light Between Oceans by M. L. Stedman - Historical Fiction

 

Tom Sherbourne takes a job as the lighthouse keeper on a remote and isolated island when a boat carrying a dead man and a living baby hit his shore. His wife, Isabel, has already suffered several miscarriages, and even though Tom’s conscience is telling him otherwise, they keep the little girl. Two years later, they return to the mainland and are reminded that there is someone out there desperate to find her lost baby.

Meet Me at Emotional Baggage Claim by Lisa Scottoline and Francesca Serritella - Essays


Love and tomato sauce are thick in the Scottoline/Serritella household, and Lisa and Francesca’s mother-daughter turned best-friends bond will strike a familiar note to many. But now that Lisa is a suburban empty-nester and Francesca is an independent twenty-something in the big city, they have to learn how to stay close while living apart. How does a mother’s love translate across state lines and over any semblance of personal boundaries?

Mick Jagger by Philip Norman - Biography

 

From exclusive interviews with those closest to Mick Jagger, such as ex-girlfriends Chrissie Shrimpton and Cleo Sylvestre, which shed light on little seen aspects of Jagger's personality, to record-straightening revelations about Jagger's infamous 1967 drugs bust and the notorious Altamont concert, Philip Norman's groundbreaking biography crafts a vivid portrait of the real man behind the swagger, little glimpsed and much misunderstood.

The Panther by Nelson DeMille - Thriller

 

Anti-Terrorist Task Force agent John Corey and his wife, FBI agent Kate Mayfield, have been posted in one of the most dangerous places in the Middle East to track down a high-ranking Al Qaeda operative called The Panther. John and Kate don't know the entirety of their mission, but they know there is more to it than meets the eye.

The Paris Wife by Paula McLain - Fiction

 

A deeply evocative story of ambition and betrayal, THE PARIS WIFE captures a remarkable period of time and a love affair between two unforgettable people: Ernest Hemingway and his wife Hadley.

Peril in Paperback: A Bibliophile Mystery by Kate Carlisle -

 

Rare books and antiquities expert, Brooklyn Wainwright is thrilled to be invited to the fiftieth birthday party of her neighbor’s aunt Grace. A retired founder of a major video game corporation, Grace is a larger-than-life character who’s turned her mansion into a fun house.  Part of the night involves a séance, but after the lights are off, one guest dies, poisoned by a cocktail intended for Grace. It seems someone is determined to turn Grace’s estate into a house of horrors. Brooklyn suspects the key to the killer’s identity may lie in the book Grace was writting about her life. With Grace in great peril, “must-read” takes on a whole new meaning, as Brooklyn tries to stop a murderer.

Perry's Killer Playlist by Joe Schreiber - Fiction

 

When Perry ends up in Venice on a European tour with his band Inchworm, he can’t resist a visit to Harry’s Bar, where Gobi told him she’d meet him someday. The last time he saw Gobi, five people were assassinated one crazy night in New York City. Well...Gobi shows up, and once again Perry is roped into a wild, nonstop thrill ride with a body count.

A Possible Life: A Novel in Five Love Stories by Sebastian Faulks - Fiction

 

Throughout the five stories that make up A POSSIBLE LIFE, characters risk their bodies, hearts and minds in pursuit of the manna of human connection. Between soldier and lover, parent and child, servant and master, and artist and muse, important pleasures and pains are born of love, separations and missed opportunities. These interactions --- whether successful or not --- also affect the long trajectories of characters' lives.

The Racketeer by John Grisham - Legal Thriller

 

Given the importance of what they do, the controversies that often surround them, and the violent people they sometimes confront, it is remarkable that in the history of this country only four active federal judges have been murdered. Judge Raymond Fawcett has just become number five. Who is the Racketeer? And what does he have to do with the judge’s untimely demise?

Rod: The Autobiography by Rod Stewart - Biography

 

With his soulful and singular voice, narrative songwriting, and passionate live performances Rod Stewart has paved one of the most iconic and successful music careers of all time.Now after more than five decades in the spotlight, he is finally ready to take a candid and romping look back at his life both on and off the stage. From his humble British roots to his hell-raising years on tour with his bandmates, not forgetting his great loves (including three marriages and eight children) and decades touring the world, Rod delivers a riveting ride through one of rock's most remarkable lives.

Sweet Tooth by Ian McEwan - Historical Romance

 

Set in 1972 during the Cold War, England's legendary intelligence agency MI5 embarks on an operation code-named "Sweet Tooth" to fund writers whose politics align with those of the government. Cambridge student Serena Frome is hired to infiltrate the literary circle of a promising young writer named Tom Haley. But when she begins to fall in love with him, she wonders how long she can conceal her undercover life.

The Time Keeper by Mitch Albom - Fiction

 

The inventor of the world's first clock is punished for trying to measure God's greatest gift. He is banished to a cave for centuries and forced to listen to the voices of all who come after him seeking more days, more years. Eventually, with his soul nearly broken, Father Time is granted his freedom, along with a magical hourglass and a mission: a chance to redeem himself by teaching two earthly people the true meaning of time.

To Heaven and Back: A Doctor's Extraordinary Account of Her Death, Heaven, Angels, and Life Again: A True Story by Mary C. Neal, M.D. - Memoir

 

In 1999, Dr. Mary Neal drowned in a kayak accident. While cascading down a waterfall, her kayak became pinned at the bottom and she was immediately and completely submerged. Despite the rescue efforts of her companions, Mary was underwater for too long and, as a result, died. TO HEAVEN AND BACK is Mary’s remarkable story of her life’s spiritual journey and what happened as she moved from life to death to eternal life, and back again.

Waging Heavy Peace by Neil Young - Autobiography

 

For the first time, legendary singer, songwriter, and guitarist Neil Young offers a kaleidoscopic view of his personal life and musical creativity. Astoundingly candid, witty, and as uncompromising and true as his music,  WAGING HEAVY PEACE is Neil Young’s journey as only he can tell it.

Who I Am: A Memoir by Pete Townshend - Memoir

 

From the voice of a generation: The most highly anticipated autobiography of the year, and the story of a man who is the most literary and literate musician of the last 50 years.... planned to write his memoir when he was 21.... published this book at 67.

Winter of the World: Book Two of the Century Trilogy by Ken Follett - Historical Fiction

 

WINTER OF THE WORLD picks up right where FALL OF GIANTS left off, as its five interrelated families --- American, German, Russian, English and Welsh --- enter a time of enormous social, political and economic turmoil, beginning with the rise of the Third Reich, through the Spanish Civil War and the great dramas of World War II, up to the explosions of the American and Soviet atomic bombs.

Wonder by R. J. Palacio - Fiction

August Pullman was born with a facial difference that, up until now, has prevented him from going to a mainstream school. Starting fifth grade at Beecher Prep, he wants nothing more than to be treated as an ordinary kid --- but his new classmates can't get past Auggie's extraordinary face. WONDER, a #1 New York Times bestseller, begins from Auggie's point of view, but soon switches to include his classmates, his sister, her boyfriend and others. These perspectives converge in a portrait of one community's struggle with empathy, compassion and acceptance.