To offer a little help in that department, I thought making a few suggestions in the book category,particularly paperbacks, might be in the spirit of the season. Paperbacks can be as lovely as a hardcover book, not to mention suitable for slipping into a stocking or to be spread out over the course of a celebration.
First up, as PBS will be airing a brand new adaptation of Lucy Maud Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables on November 24, I suspect that a good many people will want to pick up a fresh copy or two to share with new fans. There are plenty of great softcover editions to choose from(I'm planning to treat myself to the Sourcebooks Fire one) and there is even a modern day version that you can pair up with the classic.
While the book does follow many of the plot points of the original, it does have it's own unique characters that add greatly to the emotional development of our heroine. The author is a huge fan of the LMM series and granted, I haven't read Anne of Green Gables yet, her take on these characters did peak my interest quite a bit.
So, if you have someone on your gift list who needs a new copy and would like to check out a fresh twist on their favorite story, here's your double dose of Anne goodness:
Love,Alice begins with Dovie Larkin, who is still recovering from a personal tragedy that took her fiance from her permanently. During her days grieving at the local cemetery, she comes across an older woman who is mourning a loss just as great, if not more so.
Dovie wants to know more of the woman's story and a collection of old letters uncovered in the cemetery's lost and found offers a few answers yet opens up an old mystery that brings with it even more questions. Such a story may sound sad but as the Elton John lyric says "sad songs say so much" and so do heartfelt stories like this.
If you have someone who prefers a leisurely approach to nonfiction, the twentieth anniversary edition of Under The Tuscan Sun could do the trick.
This new edition has a new afterword by author Frances Mayes, who gives readers a follow-up on the many of the wonderful people she met while renovating a villa in the Tuscan countryside. Mayes also moved to a nearby town named Cortona and fully embraced the laid back elegance of life in that part of the world, which her writing inspired others to do so as well.
Even you know someone who already has the original, that person might like an updated copy and for those who have only seen the 2003 movie adaptation(which is vastly different from the book), this anniversary edition might be an engaging eye-opener:
Searching for John Hughes chronicles Diamond's dream of writing the ultimate biography of the iconic director, even going so far as to move to New York to become a writer. While that dream became deferred, Diamond still found plenty of inspiration from those movies that showcased outsiders and loners which lead him to discover a new dream and an artistic life of his own.
The book will be available by November 29 and considering that it's a true story of keeping hope alive during the bad times via film, the release date feels quite timely indeed:
Well, I do hope this helps out any anxious book shoppers out there and there's nothing wrong with giving one or two of these titles as a gift to yourself. While reading during the holidays can be difficult(and sometimes frowned upon), it doesn't have to take away from family time.
In fact, it might make a few of those awkward get-togethers a bit more bearable, especially if you can get someone to ask about your book and let you know what they like to read, which makes that gift buying list all the easier to manage:
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