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William C. Campbell, Robert E. Maguire,
John D. McElhiney and Tom Smith
will be at Book Ends on Saturday December 11 at 1
p.m. to sign copies of their new book Woburn:
Forgotten Tales and Untold Stories (0971728429) .
With the season of snow and snuggling
upon us, there’s no better time to cozy up to some great
literature. Annie Proulx and Jimmy Buffet, Alice Munro
and Marilynne Robinson, Tom Wolfe and Maeve Binchy—the
list goes on and on, but they all have new novels.
Beyond these greats, one of our
local celebrities was recently honored. The Historic New England
Book Prize Committee selected Maureen Meister’s book,
Architecture and the Arts and Crafts Movement in Boston:
Harvard's H. Langford Warren (1584653515),
as an "Honor Book.”
Dede writes:
For a really BIG gift for the most deserving person on your
list, may we point you in the direction of The Complete
Far Side (0740721135)—all
the cartoons of Gary Larson. The two oversized
volumes are sure to bring chuckles for years.
A beautiful gift for Chanukah
is The Jewish World 365 Days (0810955792).
Each page shows art or artifacts from the Israel museum in
Jerusalem, celebrating Jewish life throughout the ages.
Alice writes: A
few months ago, I talked about Justin Cronin’s Summer
Guest, and my newest review is of Katherine Towler’s
Snow Island (0452283906).
Both evoke nostalgia for summer places and delve into the
loves and disappointments that are the meat of great novels
and great lives. Set during the eve of America’s entry
into WWII, the story follows teenager Alice Daggett and mysterious
loner George Tibbit.
For the store’s book group,
on Tuesday, December 7 from 7-8 p.m., we’ll
discuss Anchee Min’s Wild Ginger (0618380434).
Born into the midst of Mao-crazed China, Min often sets her
novels in that era. Wild Ginger is at once a coming-of-age
and a love story laid across a landscape where assimilation
is essential and fear is a language. Maple and Wild Ginger
are both singled out at school for their appearances and backgrounds,
but Wild Ginger is determined to be recognized as a loyal
and dedicated Maoist. Love is the only obstacle, a challenge
for becoming the perfect Maoist and a struggle in her friendship
with Maple. Please let us know if you would like to join us.
Gretchen writes:
“Welcome, everything! Welcome, alike what has
been, and what never was, and what we hope may be, to your
shelter underneath the holly, to your places round the Christmas
fire, where what is sits open-hearted!” –Charles
Dickens from “What Christmas Is as We Grow Older”
‘Tis the season to be
cooking! Ina Garten, a favorite with staff
and customers at Book Ends, has produced a cookbook that is
suffused with her love of Paris, its bustling outdoor markets,
fromageries and alluring bakeries. Barefoot in Paris:
Easy French Food You Can Make at Home (1400049350)
is full of simple country food, easy enough for every day
but special enough to serve for a party. Jamie Oliver is a
family man at heart and his new book, Jamie’s
Dinners (1401301940),
contains recipes so tasty that Sunday nights at home with
the family could become culinary events! Want a compendium
of recipes that will be your standby through thick and thin?
We can recommend two admirable resources: The Gourmet
Cookbook (0618374086),
Ruth Reichl (and the Gourmet staffs’)
selection of best recipes from that venerable magazine, and
How to Cook Everything (0028610105) by
Mark Bittman, whose column often appears in the New York Times’
cookery section.
For some stocking-sized delights,
we suggest three small books devoted to wines: Hugh
Johnson’s Pocket Wine Book (1840008954)
is the essential reference for wine-lovers that also matches
dishes and ingredients with the right vintage; The
Little Black Book of Wine (0880885726)
is a simple guide for neophytes; and What I Tasted
(1400051843) is
a handsome little wine journal that could fit in an enthusiast’s
pocket.
Unusual books dot our shelves
at the rear of the store. Among them are The Gardens
of Emily Dickinson (0674012933),
which casts new light on the poet through her other vocation,
gardening; Art Heals (1590301668),
essays by expressive arts therapist and Leslie University
Professor Shaun McNiff on transforming the
mundane aspects of life through artistic encounters; and many
Cube Books on natural history including The Sea
(8854400009)
that is literally awash with stunning, colorful photographs
that will beguile any mariner (or nature lover). Birding enthusiasts
will surely enjoy The Verb ‘To Bird’:
Sightings of an Avid Birder (1589880013)
by Peter Cashwell, a teacher who takes the
reader out to the woods as he expounds on his fascination
with language and literature, and Spix’s Macaw
(0743475518)
by Tony Juniper, the tale of one environmentalist’s
race to save the world’s rarest bird.
On these cold wintry nights,
a mystery could be just the book to relax with by a crackling
fire, so it is good news that Sergeant Jim Chee and former
Navajo Tribal Police lieutenant Joe Leaphorn are back in Tony
Hillerman’s Skeleton Man (0060563443).
Followers of this award-winning series will be pleased to
hear that Book Ends has a limited supply of signed first editions
on hand. Book Ends also carries a host of paperback mysteries,
among them Death of an Englishman (1569472548)—one
of Magdalen Nabb’s distinctive, literary
novels set in Florence, Italy. Holiday travelers will sympathize
with Italian investigator Guarnaccia who must solve the death
of an Englishman before he can take the train south to spend
Christmas with his family.
FROM THE CHILDREN’S
ROOM:
Pat and Isabel write:
The children's room is literally packed for the holidays with
wonderful new titles as well as old favorites from past years.
A favorite of ours, for families that celebrate both Hanukkah
and Christmas is Light the Lights by Margaret Moorman
(0590483838).
Patricia Polacco's Trees of the Dancing Goats
(0689838573)
is another classic that is a wonderful addition to any family's
library.
For holiday books with the theme
of giving, we recommend a new edition of the beautiful Christmas
Miracle of Jonathan Toomey (076362621X)
by Susan Wojciechowski. The story is now
paired with a CD. An Orange for Frankie (039924302X),
another of Polacco's wonderfully warm stories,
is about a boy named Frankie who shares a special gift with
someone less fortunate and whose family in turn shares with
him.
Books with winter themes are
always in demand with our long New England winters. The original
edition of The Mitten by Alvin Tresselt (0688092681),
a classic story about a boy’s lost mitten that becomes
a shelter for cold animals, and Stranger in the Woods
(0967174880)
by Carl Sams and Jean Stoick, an enchanting
story of animals reacting to a snowman that appears after
a winter storm, are two of our favorite.
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