A Few of Our Favorite Reads
10 Books That Make Great Gifts
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Sisters, best friends, and husbands may be easy to shop for, but a vegan cousin-once-removed is a different story. Thankfully, there is a book for almost everyone on your list. We've got over 200 suggestions—from mysteries to biographies and more—in O's Reading Room. Here are 10 to start with.
If you're shopping for a...
Foodie
Music aficionado
Know-it-all
Child
Dog lover
Writer
Naturalist
History buff
Jewelry collector
Film connoisseur
If you're shopping for a...
Foodie
Music aficionado
Know-it-all
Child
Dog lover
Writer
Naturalist
History buff
Jewelry collector
Film connoisseur
My Last Supper
By Melanie Dunea
224 pages; Bloomsbury USA
The question that gets the attention of the most in-demand chefs: If you had only one night left to live, what would you have for dinner? The 50 seasoned cooks (including Ferran Adrià, Mario Batali, Anthony Bourdain, and Lidia Bastianich) whose full-page portraits appear in My Last Supper (Bloomsbury) describe the menus, the settings, the background music, the guests—and even provide the recipes—for the ultimate meal (Scott Conant's is seared foie gras and green apple risotto) that would top off their glorious lives in the kitchen.
— Francine Prose
By Melanie Dunea
224 pages; Bloomsbury USA
The question that gets the attention of the most in-demand chefs: If you had only one night left to live, what would you have for dinner? The 50 seasoned cooks (including Ferran Adrià, Mario Batali, Anthony Bourdain, and Lidia Bastianich) whose full-page portraits appear in My Last Supper (Bloomsbury) describe the menus, the settings, the background music, the guests—and even provide the recipes—for the ultimate meal (Scott Conant's is seared foie gras and green apple risotto) that would top off their glorious lives in the kitchen.
— Francine Prose
Moving to Higher Ground
By Wynton Marsalis and Geoffrey C. Ward
208 pages; Random House
"Jazz is the art of timing. It teaches you when. When to start, when to wait, when to step it up, and when to take your time—indispensable tools for making someone else happy." In Moving to Higher Ground, a joyful primer written with historian Geoffrey C. Ward, trumpeter Wynton Marsalis shows how jazz can change your life by teaching you to improvise (that is, "make things up that could get you out of a tight spot"), listen, respect, respond to others. Come blow your horn—and let music begin.
— Cathleen Medwick
By Wynton Marsalis and Geoffrey C. Ward
208 pages; Random House
"Jazz is the art of timing. It teaches you when. When to start, when to wait, when to step it up, and when to take your time—indispensable tools for making someone else happy." In Moving to Higher Ground, a joyful primer written with historian Geoffrey C. Ward, trumpeter Wynton Marsalis shows how jazz can change your life by teaching you to improvise (that is, "make things up that could get you out of a tight spot"), listen, respect, respond to others. Come blow your horn—and let music begin.
— Cathleen Medwick
The New York Times Practical Guide to Practically Everything
By Amy D. Bernstein (Editor), and Peter W. Bernstein (Editor)
848 pages; St. Martin's Press
Unless you already know what to do in case of a gorilla attack (kneel, for starters), this book is destined to become your essential tool.
— Cathleen Medwick
Why War Is Never a Good Idea
By Alice Walker (Author) and Stefano Vitale (Illustrator)
32 pages; HarperCollins
The most necessary kids' book of the year, Why War Is Never a Good Idea (HarperCollins), reveals through Alice Walker's hard-hitting words ("War has bad manners / War eats everything / In its path") and Stefano Vitale's sunny-with-a-chance-of-destruction imagery what is so enchanting about a world at peace, and how much we are poised to lose now.
— Cathleen Medwick
By Alice Walker (Author) and Stefano Vitale (Illustrator)
32 pages; HarperCollins
The most necessary kids' book of the year, Why War Is Never a Good Idea (HarperCollins), reveals through Alice Walker's hard-hitting words ("War has bad manners / War eats everything / In its path") and Stefano Vitale's sunny-with-a-chance-of-destruction imagery what is so enchanting about a world at peace, and how much we are poised to lose now.
— Cathleen Medwick
Woof!
By Lee Montogomery
256 pages; Viking
Another book about dogs? More slobber and soulfulness and uncurbed enthusiasm? Yes, because Woof! (Viking), edited by Lee Montgomery, is an especially fetching collection of essays (including two, by Abigail Thomas and Jim Shepard, first published in O) that proves you can't have too many lessons in ferocious devotion.
— Cathleen Medwick
By Lee Montogomery
256 pages; Viking
Another book about dogs? More slobber and soulfulness and uncurbed enthusiasm? Yes, because Woof! (Viking), edited by Lee Montgomery, is an especially fetching collection of essays (including two, by Abigail Thomas and Jim Shepard, first published in O) that proves you can't have too many lessons in ferocious devotion.
— Cathleen Medwick
The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge
By Rainer Maria Rilke
235 pages; Dalkey Archive Press
The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge is a stylistically innovative novel about a young writer's urgent need to see and feel the world around him, to make reality congruent with art.
— Cathleen Medwick
By Rainer Maria Rilke
235 pages; Dalkey Archive Press
The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge is a stylistically innovative novel about a young writer's urgent need to see and feel the world around him, to make reality congruent with art.
— Cathleen Medwick
Visions of Paradise
By National Geographic photographers
304 pages; National Geographic
To create the stunningly original new book Visions of Paradise, National Geographic asked photographers to frame moments of wonder when time seemed to melt away, revealing the great and fragile beauty of our world.
— Cathleen Medwick
By National Geographic photographers
304 pages; National Geographic
To create the stunningly original new book Visions of Paradise, National Geographic asked photographers to frame moments of wonder when time seemed to melt away, revealing the great and fragile beauty of our world.
— Cathleen Medwick
Lincoln: The Biography of a Writer
By Fred Kaplan
416 pages; Harper
This revealing view of our 16th president focuses on his literary skills, on his deep appreciation for the classics, and on his lifelong search for the most precise and eloquent way to communicate his convictions and his ideas.
— Francine Prose
By Fred Kaplan
416 pages; Harper
This revealing view of our 16th president focuses on his literary skills, on his deep appreciation for the classics, and on his lifelong search for the most precise and eloquent way to communicate his convictions and his ideas.
— Francine Prose
Imperishable Beauty
From Boston's Museum of Fine Arts
176 pages; MFA Publications
Ruby-eyed dragonflies, nacreous orchids—nature meets exquisite artifice in Imperishable Beauty, a book of Art Nouveau jewelry from Boston's Museum of Fine Arts, where more than 100 of these exotic beauties are now on display.
— Cathleen Medwick
From Boston's Museum of Fine Arts
176 pages; MFA Publications
Ruby-eyed dragonflies, nacreous orchids—nature meets exquisite artifice in Imperishable Beauty, a book of Art Nouveau jewelry from Boston's Museum of Fine Arts, where more than 100 of these exotic beauties are now on display.
— Cathleen Medwick
Seen Behind the Scene
By Mary Ellen Mark
264 pages; Phaidon
Most famous for her documentary photography of homeless Seattle kids and Bombay prostitutes, Mary Ellen Mark has, over the course of her long and distinguished career, also been shooting on the sets of major Hollywood films. The revealing black-and-white images in Seen Behind the Scene capture famous actors and directors (Johnny Depp, Marlon Brando, Jessica Lange, Francis Ford Coppola, Tim Burton) at unguarded moments, telling us something fresh about the faces behind the carefully applied makeup—and about the magic that goes on even when the cinematographers take a break and the movie cameras stop rolling.
— Francine Prose
By Mary Ellen Mark
264 pages; Phaidon
Most famous for her documentary photography of homeless Seattle kids and Bombay prostitutes, Mary Ellen Mark has, over the course of her long and distinguished career, also been shooting on the sets of major Hollywood films. The revealing black-and-white images in Seen Behind the Scene capture famous actors and directors (Johnny Depp, Marlon Brando, Jessica Lange, Francis Ford Coppola, Tim Burton) at unguarded moments, telling us something fresh about the faces behind the carefully applied makeup—and about the magic that goes on even when the cinematographers take a break and the movie cameras stop rolling.
— Francine Prose
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