Day 24: Quirky is Good

Well, it's finally Day 24 in our 24 Days of Books. It's been another fun ride for me; I hope you've enjoyed it too.

Today's the last day of shopping before Christmas, so I thought I'd talk about a few thinking-out-of-the-box gift ideas. Sure, anyone can give the latest big biography, or the currently hot novel or kids book as a gift this year. But how about something unexpected, something out-of-the ordinary, something to perhaps take the breath away?

It seems that LEGO(tm)  is everywhere we look these days: LEGO (tm) Harry Potter, LEGO (tm) Star Wars, and so on. Everyone seems to want back in on the LEGO (tm) craze. Heck, they were hot when I was a kid, and that was more than just a few years ago.

LEGO (tm) is an abbreviation of the two Danish words leg godt,  meaning "play well." The LEGO (tm) Group was founded in 1932 by Ole Kirk Kristiansen. The Company has passed from father to son and is now owned by Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen, a grandchild of the founder.

And now here's the perfect gift for the LEGO-lover in your life: The Cult of Lego, by John Baichtal and Joe Meno. The authors take readers on a story-packed adventure through the history of LEGO (tm), from its humble beginnings in a small Danish village to its ascent to the summit of the toy world. The book is filled with pictures of spectacular LEGO creations, such as a life-size Stegosaurus and a detailed microscale version of Yankee Stadium.

For the casual LEGO fan or the hardcore builder, The Cult of LEGO makes a fabulous gift.  

Everyone's gaga over Lady Gaga. Here's the perfect gift for the Gaga-fan in your life: Lady Gaga, by Lady Gaga and Terry Richardson. To create this coffee-table photo book, photographer Terry Richardson followed Lady Gaga during one year of her life, from Lollapalooza through the final show of her Monster Ball tour. During the year he followed Gaga, Richardson took over 100,000 images and attended more than 30 Monster Ball dates around the world.

Billboard named Lady Gaga both the 2010 Artist of the Year and the top-selling artist of 2010, ranking her as the 73rd Artist of the 2000s decade. She was named Forbes' Most Powerful Woman in the World 2011 and was included in Time's annual "The 2010 Time 100" list of the most influential people in the world.

And now, for a little entertainment and fun, here is a video of On the Rocks, the all-male a acappella vocal group from the University of Oregon, singing their version of Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance."

In Missed Connections, artist Sophie Blackall creates art in Chinese ink and watercolor to illustrate "missed connections" ads. A "missed connection" classified (usually posted on a website) is an attempt however far-fetched, by one stranger to reach another on the strength of a remembered glance, smile, or blue hat. The anonymous messages are hopeful and hopeless, funny and sad. This charming book offers a collection of illustrated love stories. Blackall is also the illustrator of the very popular Ivy and Bean series for young girls.

Here's a taste of the stories this new book tells:

Day 23: The Joy of Bleak

Welcome to Day 23 in our 24 Days of Books. Today we're in a bleak mood. Not really, but work with us. The emergence of “Scandinavian Noir” as a genre has been fueled largely by Stieg Larsson novels over the past few years. His Millennium Trilogy featuring Mikael Blomkvist and Lisbeth Salander and the Swedish movie adaptations of them are hugely popular – and the forthcoming American adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo promises to continue our national mini-obsession with all things Stieg. Or perhaps we should say all things Lisbeth. Because really, isn’t she one of the most interesting characters in contemporary fiction? 

Sadly, Stieg Larson’s planned ten-book series stopped at three with his death in 2004. (Well, there may be a fourth book lurking in the wings, but that’s the topic for another blog). But as most mystery fans know, there’s much, much more to this dark genre than one author. Henning Mankell’s Kurt Wallender novels are superb (and you can watch the BBC adaptations starring Kenneth Branagh – amazing). Many of Hakan Nesser’s novels feature Van Veeteren, a detective and antique book dealer (how can we resist that?). Danish crime writer Peter Hoeg’s first American success was Smilla’s Sense of Snow in 1992, and he has continued to write compelling stories. And we were so happy when Random House reissued the Martin Beck mystery series by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo. These ten novels (beginning with Roseanna), first published between 1965 and 1975, predate the edgier books being written today (they also predate cell phones, personal computers, modern forensic technology, etc.) but are keenly observed commentaries on contemporary Scandinavian society that hold up some forty years later.

There are dozens of Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Dutch, and Icelandic authors worth considering if you enjoy a brooding, flawed hero and a menacing, elusive villain. One of the very best (some say THE best) of these is Norwegian writer Jo Nesbo, whose Harry Hole novels have caught the eye of readers everywhere. To date, there are eight novels in this series (only six available in English), including the most recent one, The Leopard, which just hit our store on December 13^th.

Inspector Harry Hole is a loose cannon in the Oslo Police Department. A heavy smoker and alcoholic, he is difficult in many ways but manages to keep his job because he is a brilliant detective who specializes in serial murders (and there are lots of serial murders in Norway). The Harry Hole series begins with the book The Redbreast. The newest book, The Leopard, begins with the discovery of two murder victims, both young women who drowned in their own blood. The media grabs the story and runs with it. Is there a serial killer at work? Inspector Hole soon discovers that he is dealing with a psychopath for whom “insanity is a vital retreat."

Jo Nesbo’s thrillers are literary (that is, well written) as well as suspenseful. Is there a Nesbo fan on your shopping list? If so, you’re in luck! Surprisingly, given the bleakness of his thrillers, Nesbo also writes books for middle school readers, a series that begins with the book Doctor Proctor's Fart Powder, followed by Bubble in the Bathtub (And in January, Who Cut the Cheese?). All full of middle-school fartiness fun.

Here’s a short video that features the author talking about his latest novel, The Leopard. (The cover shown in the video is from the UK publication, not the US.):    

Day 22: So Much Fascinating History to Explore

Welcome to Day 22 in our 24 Days of Books. For some people, the ideal holiday gift is a big chewy novel in which to get totally lost. For others, however, the ultimate giddy-inducing event is unwrapping a giant meaty book of history to dive into. An ideal candidate for the history lover in your life this year is A World on Fire: Britain's Crucial Role in the American Civil War, by Amanda Foreman -- just named one of the top five nonfiction books of 2011 by The New York Times.

Twelve years in the making and coming in at about three pounds and just under a thousand pages, A World on Fire is a sprawling drama of British engagement with the American Civil War, a bloody, four-year battle that tore apart the nation and resulted in the deaths of more than 600,000 soldiers. But Foreman calls attention to the tens of thousands of Britons who served as soldiers, doctors, nurses, reporters, and more. Foreman builds her narrative, which she describes as “a biography of the many relationships that together formed the British-American experience during the Civil War,” around a huge cast of politicians, diplomats, soldiers and civilians in Great Britain, the United States and the Confederacy.

When the war first broke out, both the North and the South expected England to be on its side. Slavery had long since been abolished in the British Empire -- in fact, the British edition of Uncle Tom’s Cabin had sold an astonishing million copies, three times its American sales. But Southern politicians threatened that if London did not recognize the sovereignty of the Confederate States, the cotton trade would be cut off, potentially driving England to economic collapse and revolution. And many in England thought the South had the moral advantage in the battle. Of the tens of thousands of Brits who joined up in the war in some capacity, some fought for the North and others for the South. Just as with American families, individual British families were sometimes divided in their loyalties.

English sympathy for the South lingered up until Lee surrendered at Appomattox in April 1865. Then, within days, came news that Lincoln had been assassinated. All at once, “newspapers that had routinely criticized the president during his lifetime,” Foreman writes, “rushed to praise him.”

Foreman's narrative concentrates on the four chief diplomatists: the Britons Lord John Russell and Lord Lyons and the Americans William Seward and Charles Adams. But it covers almost 200 individual characters -- the listing of the cast of characters in the book goes on for almost fifteen pages -- including Henry Morton Stanley (later of the "Livingston, I presume" fame), Elizabeth Blackwell (the British-born doctor who was the first woman to get a medical degree in the US), Rose O'Neal Greenhow (a Washington society leader and Confederate spy), and even the author Charles Dickens (who expressed his disenchantment with the US after his visit in 1842, writing that if American democracy was simply a vehicle for majority rule, then "I infinitely prefer a liberal monarchy."). The author excels at deft biographical portraits -- librarian and reviewer Nancy Pearl said she made lists of people she wanted to learn even more about as she was reading this book.

Despite the large cast of characters and the depth of detail (and accompanying research), the book is accessible to non-historians. According to the Christian Science Monitor: "Once again, Foreman displays her exceptional gift for storytelling and for making history both fascinating and relevant." Other reviewers called the book "a shimmering tapestry," "a real-life Gone with the Wind," "riveting," "a completely fresh persective," and "an achievement as enjoyable as it is impressive."

Foreman was born in London to an English mother and American father, brought up in Los Angeles, and educated in England. She attended Sarah Lawrence College and Columbia University in New York. She received her doctorate in Eighteenth-Century British History from Oxford University in 1998. She has dual citizenship and maintains homes in New York City and London, writing regularly for newspapers and magazines in both countries. She and her husband have five young children.

Her previous book, Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, was nominated for several awards and won the Whitbread Prize for Best Biography in 1999. It has inspired a television documentary, a radio play starring Dame Judi Dench, and a movie titled The Duchess, starring Keira Knightley and Ralph Fiennes. She is the daughter of Carl Foreman, the Oscar-winning screen writer of many film classics including, The Bridge on the River Kwai, High Noon, and The Guns of Navarone.

Other good bets for the history lover on your gift list this year include Swerve: How the World Became Modern, by Stephen Greenblatt; Pacific Crucible: War at Sea in the Pacific, 1941-1942, by Ian W. Toll; Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President, by Candice Millard; In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin, by Erik Larson; Lions of the West, by Robert Morgan; Jerusalem: The Biography, by Simon Sebag Monteflore; Rome: A Cultural, Visual, and Personal History, by Robert Hughes; and Railroaded: The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America, by Richard White -- and that's just a handful of the many great history tomes from which to choose. Of course we can't forget my personal favorite narrative nonfiction of the past year: The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration, by Isabel Wilkerson, a book I have written about so much already I'm sure you're all tired of hearing me going on and on about it -- which doesn't negate that you should read it!!

Day 21: A Painter and a Writer

Welcome to Day 21 in our 24 Days of Books. As always at this time of year, major biographies are all the rage. This year is no exception. Of course one of the biggest biographies of the season is Steve Jobs, by the eminent biographer Walter Isaacson. But when I think of holiday biographies I tend to think of historical biographies.

One of the major historical biographies this year is Charles Dickens: A Life, by Claire Tomalin. This new biography, published by Penguin Press, gives full measure to Dickens's heroic stature -- his huge virtues both as a writer and as a human being -- while observing his failings in both respects with an unblinking eye. Dickens's own grim upbringing, including his father's time in a debtor's prison, helped him to develop his remarkable eye for all that was absurd, tragic, and redemptive in London life.

Tomalin crafts a story worthy of Dickens's own pen, a comedy that turns to tragedy as the very qualities that made him great -- his indomitable energy, boldness, imagination, and showmanship -- finally destroyed him. With a focus on the man and his life, rather than his writings, the man who emerges in this book is one of extraordinary contradictions, whose vices and virtues were intertwined as surely as his life and his art.

Another significant historical biography this season is Van Gogh: The Life, by Pulitzer-Prize-winning biographers Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith and published by Random House. Working with the full cooperation of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, Naifeh and Smith have accessed a wealth of previously untapped materials, drawing liberally from the artist’s famously eloquent letters and wading through hundreds of unpublished family correspondence. This detailed biography provides a tour through both the life and the work of the Dutch painter, beginning with his parents' family tree, and postulates a new theory about Van Gogh's death at the age of 37.

According to The New York Times, "What Mr. Naifeh and Mr. Smith capture so powerfully is Van Gogh’s extraordinary will to learn, to persevere against the odds, to keep painting when early teachers disparaged his work, when a natural facility seemed to elude him, when his canvases failed to sell. There was a similar tenacity in his heartbreaking efforts to fill the emotional void in his life: ostracized by his bourgeois family, which regarded him as an unstable rebel; stymied in his efforts to pursue his religious impulses and become a preacher; rejected or manipulated by the women he longed for; shunned and mocked by neighbors as crazy; undermined by a competitive Paul Gauguin, with whom he had hoped to forge an artistic fraternity."

Recently CBS's 60 Minutes aired a segment focusing on Van Gogh and the new theory around his death and interviewing Naifeh and Smith.

A few of the other major biographies this season from the literary world include Just One Catch: A Biography of Joseph Heller, by Oregon Book Award winner and OSU professor Tracy Daugherty; Hemingway's Boat: Everything He Loved in Life, and Lost, 1934-1961, by Paul Hendrickson; and
And So It Goes: Kurt Vonnegut: A Life, by Charles J. Shields.

Day 19: YA novels - including one by a Portlander!

Welcome to Day 19 in our 24 Days of Books. Local writer/illustrator and husband/wife team Colin Meloy and Carson Ellis have been getting much (well-deserved) attention for the first book in their new middle-reader trilogy, Wildwood. Another Portland author, who writes books for young adults, is also receiving major accolades for her work.

Laini Taylor, who was a finalist for last year's National Book Award for Young Readers for her book LipsTouch, Three Times, has a new book out that The New York Times recently named one of the top five Young Adult books of 2011: Daughter of Smoke and Bone, a romantic adventure fantasy set in Prague. The first book in a planned trilogy, Daughter of Smoke and Bone centers on a young blue-haired girl named Karou who encounters unusual creatures and dangerous angels as she travels the world to carry out mysterious errands. Karou gradually becomes aware that she is part of ancient struggle between devils and angels and finds herself in a forbidden romance with a warrior angel.

The New York Times describes the book as "a breath-catching romantic fantasy about destiny, hope and the search for one’s true self that doesn’t let readers down. Taylor has taken elements of mythology, religion and her own imagination and pasted them into a believably fantastical collage."

“My goal is always to write stories that readers will want to climb inside of and live in, and which – I hope – will allow them to just lose themselves in the page,” said Taylor, who has clearly succeeded in her goal. In an attempt to find the next Twilight hit, the movie rights to the book have already been acquired by Universal in a hotly contested battle.

Taylor lives in Portland with her husband, the illustrator Jim Di Bartolo (he did the illustrations for her previous book) and their daughter. At the end of this blog post is a video of Taylor talking about her new book. But first, a couple of other YA books to consider this holiday season:

Why We Broke Up, by Daniel Handler (who has also written as Lemony Snicket) and illustrated by the wonderful Maira Kalman tells the story of the break-up of high schoolers Min Green and Ed Slaterton, through a letter and the detritus of their relationship.

One of the hottest YA books of the season is the fourth and final installment in the Inheritance cycle by Christopher Paolini. Inheritance concludes the compelling story that began with Eragon (written when the author was only fifteen years old!) -- if you're lucky, you might get one of our few remaining signed copies!

Also one of the top five YA novels cited by the NYT, The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater tells the fantastical story of racing killer water horses in coming-of-age story about a young girl named Puck.

Whip-smart and wickedly funny author Libba Bray provides social commentary galore in Beauty Queens, about a plane full of Miss Teen Dream beauty contestants that crashes on an apparently deserted island.

We've got all kinds of YA books for your holiday shopping, including a boxed set of The Hunger Games trilogy -- just tells us about the person you're shopping for and we'll try to match you up with just the right gifts.

Day 18: Annie Leibovitz Does It Again

Welcome to Day 18 in our 24 Days of Books. Although the publication of any collection of Annie Leibovitz’s photographs is an occasion to be celebrated, I must admit that I was lukewarm when I was told about this new one, called Pilgrimage. For starters, the book was to be full of photographs with no people in them. What? That’s what we know and love Ms. Leibovitz for: her penetrating portraits of people both famous and obscure. So now she’s doing landscape photography or something?

And now I will admit how wrong I was. Landscape photography? Hardly.

Pilgrimage is a look at rooms, historical artifacts, and incidental objects as well as wide, open spaces. The things she has photographed are significant to the artist. There are the houses of Emily Dickinson, Virginia Woolf, Charles Darwin, Sigmund Freud, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Louisa May Alcott. And within these houses, rooms full of paintings, mementos, and other signs of domestic life:  Ms. Woolf’s writing desk. Ms. Dickinson’s only surviving dress. A bird specimen collected by Mr. Darwin on the voyage of the Beagle. Dr. Freud’s carpet-covered sofa. A silver serving dish from Mrs. Roosevelt’s family.

The landscapes are varied and carry great meaning for Ms. Leibovitz. “From the beginning, when I was watching my children stand mesmerized over Niagara Falls, it was an exercise in renewal," she says.  “It taught me to see again.”  So we look through her eyes at Yosemite Valley, Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty earthwork on the shore of the Great Salt Lake, The Isle of Wight, Thomas Jefferson’s garden at Monticello, the site of Henry Thoreau’s cabin on Walden Pond, the river where Ms. Woolf drowned.

This is perhaps her most revealing book. By sharing with the reader places and objects that are important to her (some of these are famous, but many are not), she has created an intensely personal and idiosyncratic narrative that includes so much more than can be talked about in this one little blog. Pete Seeger’s cabin and workshop. Lincoln’s handwritten address at Gettysburg, and the gloves and hat he wore the night of his death. Old props from Martha Graham’s studio. Georgia O’Keeffe’s collection of rocks and bones. A concert gown worn by Marian Anderson. So much.

The text that Ms. Leibovitz wrote to accompany these photographs is elegant and informative. The book also features an introduction by Doris Kearns Goodwin. Despite my original apprehension, I do not hesitate to recommend it.

Day 16: Arguing with Christopher Hitchens

It's Day 16 in our 24 Days of Books, and we're in mourning. It was with great sadness that we learned this morning of the death of Christopher Hitchens. The news was not unexpected, as he had been dying quite publicly for the past eighteen months. Nevertheless. One of the finest essayists of his generation, a formidable contrarian, first-class raconteur and sharp-tongued wit, he leaves behind a mountain of published work that has provoked, infuriated, delighted,  criticized, explained, amused and entertained us for years. We will miss him. 

Hitchens’ most recent book, published in September, was recently named one of the Ten Best Books of 2011 by the New York Times. Fittingly, the title is Arguably. It’s a collection of dozens of elegant essays written for various publications. In these pieces, Hitchens brilliantly engages the reader in a wide range of political and cultural issues. 

Whether you agree (as we often do) or disagree (as we often do) with Mr. Hitchens, his opinions are always very well thought out and vividly expressed. Always eager to display his partisanship and never shrinking from a fight, he often dismayed even his biggest fans as they watched him change sides or refuse to adhere to a particular dogma.  

He was one of a kind. As Ian McEwan said, “If Hitchens didn’t exist, we wouldn’t be able to invent him.”

Day 15: Channeling Georgia O'Keeffe

Welcome to Day 15 in our 24 Days of Books. Today we're talking about Portland's one-woman cottage industry: Karen Karbo, who writes smart, funny, original material. Her adult novels, Trespassers Welcome Here, The Diamond Lane, and Motherhood Made a Man Out of Me, have been named New York Times Notable Books of the Year. Her three witty young adult mysteries, featuring the unforgettable Minerva Clark, are great reads for teens, preteens, and those who love them. Her 2004 memoir about the time she spent with her father in his last year, The Stuff of Life, was also a NYT Notable Book and won the Oregon Book Award. In addition, she has written short stories, essays, articles, and reviews that have appeared in dozens of magazines and online. 

It’s hard to pick our favorite Karen Karbo books, but today we’re tending to favor what Karen calls her “Kick-Ass Women Trilogy.” The first book in this series, How To Hepburn: Lessons on Living from Kate the Great, showed readers how to break all the rules and lead a fabulous life. The second book, The Gospel According to Coco Chanel: Life Lessons from the World’s Most Elegant Woman, delivered inspiration and wisdom from the life of the world’s greatest fashion icon.  

And now the last book in the trilogy has finally hit the shelves. How Georgia Became O’Keeffe: Lessons on the Art of Living is a fresh and revealing look at an artist who continues to be a model and inspiration for new generations of women. The ten chapters are ten verbs: defy, grow, adopt, muddle, embrace, bare, rebel, drive, break, and prize. Each chapter gives examples from O’Keeffe’s life that illustrate the verb.This beautiful little book is handsomely illustrated with nine reproductions of O’Keefe’s paintings and a photograph of her taken by her husband, Alfred Steiglitz. It’s a lovely gift for almost any female, ages 12 to 120. Clearly we're not the only ones who think so, as her book has been flying off our table the past few weeks.

Day 13: We're Soaring with Poetry...and Birds

Welcome to Day 13 in our 24 Days of Books. Today we're soaring with poetry -- specifically with the new gorgeous book The Conference of the Birds, illustrated by Peter Sis and published by The Penguin Press. This lavishly illustrated new book brings to life the classic twelfth-century Persian epic poem written by Farid Ud-Din Attar that tells the story of a flight of birds in search of the true king, Simorgh:  "Birds! Look at the troubles happening in our world! Anarchy -- discontent -- upheaval! Desperate fights over territory, water, and food! Posioned air! Unhappiness! I fear we are lost. We must do something! I've seen the world. I know many secrets. Listen to me: I know of a king who has all the answers. We must go and find him."

The perilous journey to the mountain of Kaf, where Simorgh lives, takes the birds past seven planets, across seven seas, and through seven valleys: quest, love, understanding, detachment, unity, amazement, and death. Many birds decline to tackle the perilous journey. The birds that persist and survive the journey learn that Simorgh the king is, in fact, each of them and all of them.The Conference of the Birds is an inspirational parable about the painful but beautiful human journey toward understanding.

Peter Sis was born in Brno, in the former Czechoslovakia. He is an internationally acclaimed illustrator, author, and filmmaker who sought asylum in America after being sent to Los Angeles to produce a film on the 1984 Winter Olympics. He is the author of more than twenty books and is a seven-time winner of The New York Times Book Review Best Illustrated Book of the Year. In 2003, Sis was named a MacArthur Fellow.

Heller McAlpin, in his review of the book on NPR, described it thusly: "Often evocative of Asian scrolls, the book is filled with mazes, circular patterns, geometric peaks, and enigmatic, dreamlike landscapes, all tinted in the rich browns, greens, blues, and reds of earth, air, water and fire." He says the exquisitely illustrated book on its thick textured paper readily makes the case of what print books can do that e-books can't do. True that! This book is a visual and tactile feast, filled with hidden meanings -- and it works on many levels, so it will appeal to people of all ages.

While we're on the subject of poetry, I can't resist telling you about the wonderful new poetry anthology edited by Rita Dove (and also published by Penguin): The Penguin Anthology of 20th Century American Poetry. The book makes a conscious and noble attempt to be inclusive -- across race, gender, ethnicity, old favorites and lesser-known poets. But compiling anthologies is a thankless job, even for a former US poet laureate. I loved the comment on the Poetry Foundation's website:

"Does anyone have a phone number for the producers of the World's Toughest Job? Because we’d like to petition that they add “poetry anthologist” to their roster of underwater welders, rodeo clowns, ultimate fighters, and pyrotechnicians. Okay, it’s true that you won’t lose any limbs compiling the “best” verse of the last 100 years, but the occupational hazards are nevertheless intense." In other words, people are already tossing darts at Dove for her inclusions/exclusions. Nevertheless, as one review commented, "these satiny pages hold bushels of treats to savor."

As Dove notes in her introduction, even though it "doesn't seem right to weigh poems like cabbage or fish," some poems and poets were eliminated because of budgetary issues, as permissions fees range from "modest to outrageous and don't necessarily correlate to literary significance and artistic influence." In the end, however, Dove believes she has remained true to the quest she set out on, presenting "my panorama of twentieth-century American poetry -- viewed not with a scholar's dissecting eye but from the perspective of a contemporary poet who, although not exactly born into her country's mainstream, nevertheless took possession of mainstream society's intellectual shapes and artistic aesthetics to make them her own."

Day 12: Historical Atlas of Washington and Oregon

Welcome to Day 12 in our 24 Days of Books. Today we're spotlighting a book both gorgeous and fascinating: Historical Atlas of Washington and Oregon by Derek Hayes, published by the University of California Press. This beautiful book is illustrated with more than five hundred colorful images and original maps, creating a visually rich history of the states of Oregon and Washington.

Through the images, maps, and lively text, we follow the coming of the railroads and the rapid establishment of the coastal ports, northwest cities and roads, the fur and lumber industries, and the large farms. We witness the westward expansion, and the conflicts that arose between settlers and Native Americans. Through this book we also witness the twentieth-century development of the war industries, the establishment of the aviation industry, and the celebratory 1962 Seattle World's Fair (I was there, doing The Twist).

The author is a renowned historian with a passion for old maps and what they can reveal about the past. He was trained as a geographer at the University of Hull in England and at the University of British Columbia, and he worked for a time as a planner with the Vancouver (BC) City Planning Department. Last year during the holidays we sold several copies of Historical Atlas of the North American Railroad, also by Mr. Hayes. His newest book seems to be in even greater demand -- in fact, we're having a hard time keeping this book in stock, so don't wait til the last minute. It would make a great gift for someone who loves history, or maps, or art, or the Pacific Northwest -- or all of the above.

Day 11: You're Just My Type. Really

Welcome to Day 11 in our 24 Days of Books. Today I have to make an admission: I'm a font snob. There. I've said it. I have to come clean and admit that there are some books that I have been unable to read because I can't stand the typeface used to print the book. And while I don't think I've ever purchased a book solely because of the font, it's definitely true that the reading experience of many has been made that much more pleasurable because of the font (and I have been known to drool appreciatively over the handsomest of them).

If you are interested in fonts or know someone who is -- the history of specific fonts and the lives of typographers -- then Just My Type: A Book about Fonts by Simon Garfield is just the book for you. Where do fonts come from? Why do we need so many? Why do certain typefaces reign supreme? Is Comic Sans Serif really funny?  Rather than overwhelm readers with technicalities, the author uses anecdotes to tell how something we take for granted has shaped and shaded our perceptions ever since humans first started carving messages on hard surfaces.

Garfield credits Steve Jobs for the array of fonts so easily available to us, noting that Jobs' early fascination with calligraphy and letter forms later translated into the long pull-down font menus available on computers everywhere. This is a must-have book for the design conscious. "Well researched," "delightful," "deliciously clever," "charming," "entertaining," and "downright fun" are just some of the words reviewers have used to describe this book, recently published by Gotham Books/Penguin. Janet Maslin of the New York Times says, "This is a smart, funny, accessible book that does for typography what Lynne Truss's best-selling Eats, Shoots & Leaves did for punctuation: made it noticeable for people who had no idea they were interested in such things."

Reading this book will change the way you perceive the written word forever and will assure you that, contrary to reports of its premature death, print is very much alive. In fact, in an age of ebooks, the physical appeal of print books takes on even greater importance. And did I mention that the book is in our Holiday Book Guide?

This video gives you a taste of the myriad fonts Garfield talks about in his fascinating book.

Day 9: The World of Catherine the Great

Welcome to Day 9 in our 24 Days of Books. Last year Cleopatra: A Life reigned as the hot biography during the holidays. This year a new biography of another powerful woman leader is catching the wave: Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman, by Pulitzer-Prize-winning author Robert K. Massie and published by Random House.

Massie, who was born in Kentucky and studied American history at Yale and European history at Oxford, won the Pulitzer Prize for his biography Peter the Great: His Life and World. He also wrote Nicholas and Alexandra and The Romanovs: The Final Chapter, along with other books -- spending almost a half a century studying czarist Russia. He served as president of the Authors Guild from 1987 to 1991.

Catherine the Great was born as Sophia Augusta Fredericka on April 21, 1729,  a minor German princess, to her sixteen-year-old mother Johanna. From these humble beginnings she rose to become one of the most remarkable, powerful, and captivating women in history, corresponding with major historical and literary figures of her time -- Voltaire, Frederick the Great, Maria Antoinette, Gregory Potemkin (her lover and possible husband), and even the American naval hero John Paul Jones.

At the age of 15, the young German princess was swept from obscurity to marry the heir to the Russian throne, and Sophia -- renamed Catherine -- eventually went on to rule Russia for more than thirty years. She was intelligent. charming, fiercely determined, and a voracious reader. One of her boldest moves was the attempt to abolish serfdom—the Russian brand of slavery, but she was unsuccessful. She was able to amass a remarkable art collection, help to bring about advancements in medicine and science, and win important military victories during her reign.

History offers few stories richer than that of Catherine the Great, and as the New York Times says in its review of the book, Massie has always been "a biographer with the instincts of a novelist." Massie brings to his biographies historical accuracy, depth of understanding, felicity of style, mastery of detail (and lots of it), the ability to shatter myth, and a rare genius for finding and expressing the human dram in extraordinary lives.

Massie first became interested in the Romanov family when his oldest son, Robert Massie Jr., was diagnosed with hemophilia. As he and his wife struggled to manage their son's illness, they reviewed case studies of history's most famous hemophiliac, Tsarevich Alexis. Massie became convinced that Alexis’ disease, and the resulting need for secrecy and dependence on Rasputin, was a larger contributing factor to the dynasty’s downfall than it had been considered previously. This research led to Massie's first major book, Nicholas and Alexandra, published in 1967.

Here is a link to Diana Rehm of WAMU interviewing Robert Massie.

Day 1 of Our 24 Days of Books

Welcome to Day 1 in this year's 24 Days of Books. If you're new to the blog, it's a pretty straightforward concept: each day in December through Christmas Eve we feature a book or group of books that we think would make particularly wonderful gifts this holiday season.

It's always a challenge to winnow down to the few that we talk about, because there are SO MANY books that would make great gifts. And, frankly, we enjoy nothing more than having you all come in and talk to us about all the specific giftees in your lives so we can help you select the perfect gift for each person on your list. But this is a start, right? Other good sources for gift ideas can be found on our website in the staff picks, the store bestsellers (under "what's new?"), the Holiday Book Guide, Indie Bestsellers, and the IndieNext List -- all of which can be reached via our home page.

A couple of caveats before we get started: We tend to focus on recently released books, because we figure we've probably already talked about older books (and by older we mean they came out before the Fall) in previous blog posts or Facebook posts or somewhere else. Also, because we mostly talk about newly published books they tend to be hardbound books. But here's a tip: if you're more interested in paperback books, look for the "Blog Archive" on the right-hand side of the blog, and click on December 2010 and 2009 for previous years' 24 Days of Books, since many of those books will now be available in paperback.

So let's get started....a little drum roll would be nice.....Day 1 in this year's 24 Days of Books features A History of the World in 100 Objects, by Neil MacGregor and published by Viking/Penguin. This fascinating book takes a dramatically original approach to the telling of history, using objects that previous civilizations have left behind, often accidentally, as a prism through which to explore the lives of the men and women of history. The author not only describes these 100 objects, but also shows us their significance in history and puts them in the context of a larger history.

Neil MacGregor has been the director of the British Museum since 2002. Previously he was the director of the National Gallery in London. The book originated as a partnership between the BBC and the British Museum, leading to a BBC radio series narrated by MacGregor. As he says in the book's preface, "Telling history through things is what museums are for." "All museums rest on the hope -- the belief -- that the study of things can lead to a truer understanding of the world."

The rules for this particular collection of "things" were set by the BBC: "Colleagues from the Museum and the BBC would choose from the collection of the British Museum 100 objects that had to range in date from the beginning of human history around two million years ago and come right up to the present day. The objects had to cover the whole world, as far as possible equally. They would try to address as many aspects of human experience as proved practicable, and to tell us about whole societies, not just the rich and powerful within them. The objects would therefore necessarily include the humble things of everyday life as well as great works of art." The point of the project was to help people make sense of the museum’s vast holdings by taking a single object and putting it into a larger context, one that told a story that everybody could relate to.

Of course there is an inherent limit in this approach, as it is limited to the things that survive: "It is particularly harsh on cultures whose artefacts are made mostly of organic materials, and especially so where climate will cause such things to decay: for most of the tropical world, very little survives from the distant past."

The oldest artifact in the book is a stone chopping tool found by Louis Leakey in the Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania and dating from somewhere around two million years ago -- the beginning of the human toolbox. "Those extra chips on the edge of the chopping tool tell us that right from the beginning, we -- unlike other animals -- have felt the urge to make things more sophisticated than they need to be. Objects carry powerful messages about their makers, and the chopping tool is the beginning of a relationship between humans and the things they create which is both a love affair and a dependency."

From 5000 BC we have the Jomon Pot, found in Japan: "It was these Jomon people living in what is now northern Japan who created the world's first pots." The Jomon Pot looks much like the baskets that people had relied on previously, but the new sturdy clay containers brought great improvements: they kept freshness in and mice out, they were leak-proof and heat-resistant: "This is an important point -- pots change your diet. New foods become edible only once they can be boiled. Heating shellfish in liquid forces the shells to open, making it easier to get at the contents, but also, no less importantly, it sorts out which are good and which are bad -- the bad ones stay closed."

From about 3000 BC the book brings us a clay writing tablet found in southern Iraq -- a tablet "almost exactly the same size and shape as the mouse that controls your computer." Unlike bamboo and paper, which are easily destroyed, sun-baked clay will survive in dry ground for thousands of years. This particular tablet seems to be a bureaucratic record of beer issued as payment to workers.

Another object in the book is a stone mask made by the Olmecs, who ruled in what is now Mexico from about 1400 BC to about 400 BC. The Olmecs "were a highly sophisticated people, who built the first cities in Central America, mapped the heavens, developed the first writing and probably evolved the first calendar there."

A granite sphinx found in northern Sudan, The Rosetta Stone, a Korean roof tile, a stone statue from Easter Island, a shadow puppet of Bima, a Hawaiian feather helmet, a buckskin map from midwestern America, a Sudanese slit drum, a chronometer carried on the HMS Beagle, a penny from England with "votes for women" hammered by hand on its face, and ending with a solar-powered lamp and charger made in China in 2010 -- this book of objects tells you a history of the world that you have never seen before. And it is fascinating. This is the kind of book you can pick up over and over again, reading straight through or dipping in and out and jumping around in time. A terrific gift. But be sure to pick up one for yourself!

Day 24: Time to Go Home

It's the final day of our 2010 version of 24 Days of Books -- Christmas eve!! It's been rocking and rolling, hopping and popping in the store this past week; we're having more fun than is probably legal in several states -- come join us! I've got cookies coming out of the oven as we speak.

 Four our 24th book, I get to talk about the book that moved me the most this year: Let's Take the Long Way Home, by Gail Caldwell. This is a beautifully written story by a Pulitzer-prize-winning journalist about the friendship between two women: both writers, both recovering alcoholics, and both devoted to their dogs, written by the one who had to carry on after her friend died way too young from lung cancer.

"It's an old, old story," writes Caldwell. "I had a friend and we shared everything, and then she died and so we shared that, too." Caroline Knapp, her friend, was probably best known for her books Drinking: A Love Story and Pack of Two, about people's relationships with her dogs. The Merry Recluse is a collection of columns she wrote for the Boston Phoenix, published posthumously. [One column I recall from the book was about the annoyance of shopping for clothes in catalogs, and how much more convenient it would be if the UPS driver would wait on the front porch while she tried on her new clothes and just took away what didn't work for her, saving her another trip to ship them back.]

Caldwell's book is gorgeous and moving and heartbreaking without being treacly. You will laugh, you will cry. But mostly you will be moved, deeply, by the fiercely honest portrayal of friendship and loss. Here's my favorite line (among many) from the book: "Finding Caroline was like placing a personal ad for an imaginary friend, then having her show up at your door funnier and better than you had conceived."

If you are a dog lover, then you truly MUST read this book. But I'm a cat person myself, and I still adored this book. When you finish with this one, you should try Caldwell's first book, A Strong West Wind (a memoir) and Caroline's books. They're all terrific.

Day 23: On the High Seas

Welcome to Day 23 in our 24 Days of Books! Christmas is two days away, and we're feeling oceanic. Let's start by talking about Simon Winchester's new book, Atlantic: Great Sea Battles, Heroic Discoveries, Titanic Storms, and a Vast Ocean of a Million Stories. As you can tell from the subtitle, the book covers much ground (ok, water, actually) and offers many exciting tales from the S-shaped body of water that covers 33 million square miles.

Winchester calls the book a "biography" of the ocean, borrowing an organizational device from Shakespeare's As You Like It in which Shakespeare presents the seven ages of man. Winchester tells the story of the Atlantic ocean from its geologic origins to today's struggles with pollution and overfishing, delving into early explorers such as the Vikings and Christopher Columbus and modern-day events such as oil spills, and even looks toward the likely future of the ocean.

Winchester is the author of several very popular books, including The Professor and the Madman and his most recent, The Man Who Loved China. Once again, his writing and storytelling in his latest book is top-notch, earning my highest praise of "unputdownable." Just start out reading the introduction and you'll know what I mean. (And the end papers are terrific!)

Here's what The Oregonian had to say about the book.

As long as we're talking about the ocean, I must give a shout-out to one of my favorite books of the year, The Wave: In Pursuit of the Rogues, Freaks, and Giants of the Ocean, by Susan Casey, a beautiful piece of narrative nonfiction. Here's a little bit I wrote about the book earlier in the year.

One last book, sticking with the oceanic theme, is by Geoffrey Wolff: The Hard Way Around: The Passages of Joshua Slocum. Slocum grew up in coastal Nova Scotia under the thumb of a strict father. At the age of 16, he escaped to the sea. In 1895 he set sail -- by himself -- in the small sloop "Spray." More than three years and forty-six thousand miles later, he became the first man to circumnavigate the globe solo, a feat that would not be replicated for another quarter century. His account of that voyage, Sailing Alone Around the World, soon made Slocum famous. A decade later, he set off alone once more and was lost at sea. Wolff intentionally kept this biography on the shorter side (240 pages, versus the massive tomes of many of the other biographies out now) because he wants to encourage people to read Slocum's original narrative in conjunction with this bio. Here's the NYT's take on the book, with a review by a fabulous writer in his own right, Nathaniel Philbrick.

I've always been particularly fascinated by and, frankly, a bit in love with, our planet's oceans. These are all three great reads for anyone in a similar boat (ha ha).

Day 22: The Last Boy

It's Day 22 in our 24 Days of Books, and our minds are mostly on football (especially a certain upcoming bowl game) and a little bit on basketball (for instance, the University of Connecticut women's basketball team, which just set a record for longest win streak -- they haven't lost since April 6, 2008, or the Trail Blazers, who keep finding ways to win despite injuries to half the team. I have three friends who in the past week have had, respectively knee surgery, ankle surgery, and hip surgery; perhaps they could be named honorary Blazers!). But today we're going to talk baseball -- and not my poor hapless Seattle Mariners, who can't seem to climb out of their seasons-long slump (talk about your bad case of S.A.D.) -- specifically, Mickey Mantle, the childhood hero of thousands of young girls and boys (and, let's just admit it, lots of grown-up ones as well), as we present The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America's Childhood, by Jane Leavy.

Mickey Mantle, who died of cancer in 1995 at age 63, was a baseball legend. He played in twelve World Series in his first fourteen seasons and still holds World Series records for home runs, RBIs, runs, walks, extra-base hits, and total bases. In her new biography of "The Mick," Jane Leavy tackles the legend and the man. "So how do you write about a man you want to love the way you did as a child but whose actions were often unlovable? How do you reclaim a human being from caricature without allowing him to be fully human?"  Drawing on more than five hundred interviews with friends and family, teammates and opponents, and weaving in a weekend she spent interviewing Mantle for the Washington Post in 1983 (during which he wasn't on his best behavior), Leavy has produced the definitive biography of the man and the athlete, written from the mixed perspective of fan, journalist, and personal acquaintance.

Mantle led the New York Yankees to seven world championships and was voted the American League's Most Valuable Player three times. "'His aura had an aura,' said his teammate Eli Grba." Beset with injuries and an unbelievable level of expectations, his not-unfamiliar mode of "coping" was with the aid the alcohol and sexual profligacy.

Leavy, who spent much of her childhood in the shadow of Yankee Stadium, is an award-winning former sportswriter and feature writer for the Washington Post and the author of the New York Times bestseller Sandy Koufax

Reviewers have this to say about her book: "Leavy comes as close as perhaps anyone ever has to answering 'What makes Mantle Mantle?'” "A masterpiece of sports biography." "She's hit a long home run." (you knew that cliche was coming, right?) Here's a review that Steve Duin wrote in the Oregonian about the book.

It's definitely the season of the Big Boy Biography. If sports isn't your bag, we've got biographies of George Washington, T.E. Lawrence (as in of Arabia), Teddy Roosevelt, Bob Dylan, Ken Kesey, Grant Wood, and Jim Thorpe (ok, we're back to sports again), among others, and the biography of Raymond Carver by Carol Sklenica just came out in paperback. Any would make a wonderful gift.

Day 21: D'oh! What a Great Gift!

It's Day 21 in our 24 Days of Books, and we'd just like to say "D'oh"! This year marks the 20th anniversary of The Simpsons, the landmark TV show invented by Portland native Matt Groening. (He attended Ainsworth Elementary School, Lincoln High School, and The Evergreen State College.)  We've got -- dare I say -- the perfect gift for the Simpsons fan in your life: Simpson's World: The Ultimate Episode Guide to Seasons 1-20.

This 1200-page compendium opens with an introduction to each of the main characters, followed by a two-page (at least) spread for every single episode since the series began, including screen shots and favorite quotes and quips. The book concludes with an Episode Index and eleven separate indices covering such topics as "Celebrity Guest Stars."

The critically praised series has won 24 Emmy Awards, having been nominated 63 times. It is watched in more than 60 countries, in 20 different languages, averaging more than 60 million viewers per week worldwide. Originally brought to life in 1987 for The Tracey Ullman Show, "The Simpsons" was Groening's introduction into the animation world. Previously, he was best known for his "Life in Hell" cartoon strip, an irreverent portrayal of broken life that debuted in 1977. He drew the characters' names for "The Simpsons" from his own family members (with the exception of Bart which was chosen -- at least this is what I've heard -- because it is an anagram of the word brat).


The book is a full-color cloth book enclosed in a slipcase box. For a mere $150, you can lock up the ideal gift for the Simpsons fan in your life, and you will be forever adored.

Day 20: Another Terrific Photo Book from National Geographic

It's Day 20 in our 24 Days of Books (tick tock....), and we're moving on! The annual journeys of wild species who travel in large groups during certain times of the year to find food, to avoid inclement weather, to procreate, or simply to return to their beginnings has been studied by scientists for hundreds of years, and photographed for decades. In a world of changing global conditions on land and in the sea, these annual journeys become astonishing tales of strength and the sheer will to survive.


The National Geographic Society is the entity we always look to for the best explanations and photographs of naturally occurring phenomena. The society's newest book, Great Migrations, is a wonder to behold. The photographic story of migrations around the globe, from butterflies to zooplankton to salmon to nomadic army ants to elephants to whales to fruit bats to walruses and more, this book also contains a penetrating text by K.M. Kostyal . Casting light on a toping of increasing relevance for our times, this book delivers the latest findings convering the impact of habitat loss, overexploitation, and climate change on animal migration – as well as new discoveries in wildlife science that help us understand a world in constant motion.

This gloriously photographed and insightfully written look at animal migration is a companion volume to the National Geographic Channel’s show. What a beautiful - and surprisingly affordable at $35 – gift!

Day 19: Let's Eat!

Today is Day 19 in our 24 Days of Books, and we're just a little bit hungry and thirsty! (Must have been reading about all those fabulous cookbooks yesterday.) Here are a handful of books that would make great gifts for people in your life who want to partake of the multitude of edible goodies Portland has to offer.

First, there's the new 2011 edition of the Portland Happy Hour Guidebook, which -- as the title implies -- provides a guide to many of the great happy hours in the Portland area -- drink specials and food specials, along with important-to-know information. This pocket-size book is a perfect stocking stuffer.

Second is the new edition (2nd) of Breakfast in Bridgetown: The Definitive Guide to Portland's Favorite Meal, by Paul Gerald. I love this guide -- partly because breakfast is my favorite meal to eat out, but also because Paul is so thorough in his research. For each establishment, he not only tells you the usual basics -- describing the menu, hours, location, and payment options -- but also some intriguing extras, such as what kind of coffee they serve (LOVE this feature!), whether or not they have WiFi, and what wait times tend to be. Those of us lucky enough to live in northeast Portland are blessed with a plethora of delicious breakfast options.

Finally, there is the new book about the hot-hot-hot food cart craze in Portland, Cartopia, by Kelly Rodgers and Kelley Roy. We just talked about this new book last month, so I'll just link to the posting here.

You can always pair any of these books with the recently published Food Lover's Guide to Portland, by Liz Crain, last year's Fearless Critic Portland Restaurant Guide, or the newest edition of Best Places Portland, to provide a little broader overview of what the Portland food community has to offer. The Food Lover's Guide to Portland offers the ultimate guide to Portland producers and purveyors -- the folks who create, produce, bake, distill, gather, and sell the things that make good eating and drinking possible.

We've got lots of great NW guidebooks -- hiking, eating, history, and more -- in the store; just ask us for suggestions!

Day 18: Roberta's Favorite Cookbooks

It's Day 18 in our 24 Days of Books, and we're hungry! This is the season for big, beautiful new cookbooks, and we have an excellent selection on our cookbook wall. Picking just one to call “my favorite” is not an easy task this year, but I’m going to have to go with Dorie Greenspan’s Around My French Table. Ms. Greenspan, long a foodie’s favorite for her baking books, lives part of each year in Paris and this gorgeous book is her love letter to everything French. It does for a new generation what Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking did for its time.

This book includes superb renditions of the classics (onion soup, chocolate mousse, roast chicken). It also has a host of completely unexpected, often radically simple, new recipes. A lamb tangine with dried apricots and inspired by the Moroccan cuisine that is a part of French tradition. A cheesy crème brûlée. Cauliflower-bacon gratin. Gorgonzola-apple quiche. And don’t get me started on the desserts! They are just what you’d expect from a master baker. And here’s the really wonderful thing about this book: The recipes are easy. They don’t contain twenty steps. They’re not simplistic, but they’re simple. This book is full of French comfort food: earthy yet elegant, great for entertaining or for quiet family dinners, inventive but also somehow charmingly familiar.

If it hasn’t occurred to you yet that you NEED this book, consider: it’s loaded with lively stories, beautiful photographs, memories, and insider tips on French culinary customs. If you love food, you will love this book even if you never try a single recipe. You can just read it for fun.

These new books made my short list this year:

The Sunset Cookbook contains more than 1,000 fresh, flavorful recipes culled from the magazine. It’s the first time they’ve done a book like this, and it’s spectacular.

The Essential New York Times Cookbook: Classic Recipes for a new Century is edited by the Times food columnist Amanda Hesser. Hard to believe that a 900-page cookbook doesn’t have room for illustrations, but there are so many recipes in here that there just wasn’t room. It’s a good book for the novice as well as the more accomplished cook. Every recipe was once published in the NY Times, some as long as 150 years ago.

Heart of the Artichoke is by David Tanis, whose day job is head chef at Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California. This follow-up volume to his hugely popular A Platter of Figs contains more scrumptious food that is always fresh and in season. Tanis spends half the year in Paris, so his style is truly international as well as being intensely local.

One Big Table: A Portrait of American Cooking is editor Molly O’Neill’s love letter to regional American cuisine. 600 recipes from the nation’s best home cooks, farmers, fishermen, pit-masters and chefs are included here, along with wonderful contemporary and historical photos, memories, etc. I would buy this book for the endpapers alone. And again, this one is a good read as well as a good cookbook.

Ina (the Barefoot Contessa) Garten is in the habit of publishing one fabulous cookbook a year, and I am in the habit of buying them. We won’t break with tradition this year, because Barefoot Contessa: How Easy Is That? Is a worthy successor to all the books that have come before. Ms. Garten ‘s books prove that you don’t need special equipment or exotic ingredients to make great food. From roasted figs with caramel sauce to mustard chicken salad to tomatoes with pesto, she brings it all home.