Tuesday, December 07, 2010

WHAT BOOKS WOULD YOU MOST LIKE TO RECEIVE OVER THE HOLIDAYS?



I'm kind of interested in Stacy Schiff's CLEOPATRA after hearing her on NPR. Also Patti Smith's book JUST KIDS. What about you? What two books do you look forward to?

23 comments:

R/T said...

I will be bit provocative and say that I look forward to receiving a copy of the new Dietrich Bonhoeffer biography. The book liberates Bonhoeffer from his status as a liberation theologian and places him firmly into his proper role as conservative Christian with an anti-establishment (i.e. church) and anti-poltical (i.e. Nazi) conscience.

Here is a prediction: Notice, now, how judgments (though unexpressed) about readers arise in minds because of readers' choices.

pattinase (abbott) said...

The Metaxis one? I bet my husband would love that.

R/T said...

Yes, that's the one. It has recently been promoted by Glenn Beck. That should ruffles some feathers among some who might otherwise read the book.

Cullen Gallagher said...

Perhaps this is cheating, but I ordered a couple books I've wanted for several years. A rare Fredric Brown short story collection (one of the Dennis McMillans) and MoMA's book on Lillian Gish that was special for their 1980s retrospective.

Technically they haven't arrived yet, so I do hope to "receive" them still!

pattinase (abbott) said...

Oh, the Gish's. And Frederic Brown. Actually ordering your own presents is the best way to get what you really want.

Cap'n Bob said...

There's a $75 book about the Marx Toy Company I'd love to own. In fact, there are two of them, each covering a different era. Hint, hint.

David Cranmer said...

More bios. After reading London and Highsmith and now Twain, I'm on a roll.

Katherine Tomlinson said...

I want Anton Strout's Dead Waters, which won't come out until February, so I'll just have to get a photo of the cover in my stocking. I also want Anna Thomas' Love Soup because I love soup and all her recipes are vegetarian and hearty and that's what I crave.

Erik Donald France said...

Both of those you have pictured are SUPERB!!!!!!!!!!!

I'd throw in Keith Richards, Jaimy Gordon, and God knows what else . . .

Rick said...

I'd also like Keith Richard's LIFE; as well as Miles Corwin's KIND OF BLUE. (I've already told my girlfriend just that...)

Deb said...

I'd prefer to receive gift cards for either on-line or brick-and-mortar stores and then browse at my leisure.

Charles Gramlich said...

I listed some of mine over at my blog and Lana has ordered most of them for me. I think I'm looking forward to some friend's pubs most.

Anonymous said...

Maybe the Mark Twain autobiography for one, though it will probably be a while until I get this one.

#2? Well, DAMN NEAR DEAD 2 should be fun. It's already on the way and yes, I ordered it for myself.

Jeff M.

George said...

FICTION:
“From a Broken Bottle Traces of Perfume Still Emanate” by Nathaniel Mackey

“What We Are: A Novel” by Peter Nathaniel

“Windward Passage: A Novel” by Jim Nisbet

“I Hotel” by Karen Tei Yamashita

NON-FICTION:
“Churchill’s Secret War: The British Empire and the Ravaging of India During World War II” by Madhusree Mukerjee

“The Wind from the East: French Intellectuals, the Cultural Revolution, and the Legacy of the 1960s” by Richard Wolin

pattinase (abbott) said...

George-quite a list-most I have not heard of which will send me looking.
Hope you like it, Jeff. I've read about six or seven and all were good. I am certainly not on a par with my fellow contributors but enjoy rubbing pages with them.
Keith Richards' book looks amazing.
I did see your list Charles. Probably where I got the idea.
Gift cards are very nice, aren' they. It is really hard to buy books for voracious readers.

Todd Mason said...

Kate Laity has been passing along some of her library to various friends, so I've already been given the gift of Marijane Meaker's SPRING FIRE (as by Vin Packer), my first Orrie Hitt novel, the Harold Q. Masur/MWA paperback DAMES ARE DEADLY (oddly, no female contributors there), and about thirty more...along with the new version of PELZMANTEL.

I've secured for myself a cross-section of Margaret St. Clair's work, including (unintentionally, in a nostlagic purchase of a book clube edition of) ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS: STORIES NOT FOR THE NERVOUS, wherein Robert Arthur included two St. Clair stories, one as by Idris Seabright..."The Boy Who Predicted Earthquakes" (which probably was adapted vor NIGHT GALLERY because it was in this book) and "White Goddess" (the ID story).

Todd Mason said...

Nostlagic clubes, indeed.

pattinase (abbott) said...

Nice haul. I knew what you meant.

Richard R. said...

Well, I got a new house n a beautiful place, and once the damned paperwork of buying, selling and getting settled are finished up, it will be done and gone with Christmas anyway. Still if I had Santa ere and could mention one thing, it would be BOOK CASES! Lots of them.

Oh, and the third volume of THE COLLECTED EDMUND HAMILTON from Haffner Press.

Richard R. said...

NOTE: there will be a 12 book New Arrivals post at the ol' BrokenBullhorn this coming Monday.

Todd Mason said...

Meanwhile, I heard Patti Smith's readings from her memoir on the BBC some months back. She's coy about an sf writer who tried to hustle her into bed after buying her supper, and she cleaves to Mapplethorpe, who happens to be passing by and is already a friend, as supposedly her boyfriend who must be appeased, so as to excuse herself from the sf writer's company...several of us on a discussion list were trying to figure out which sf writer that might be.

Yvette said...

Kraken by China Mieville.
A Butterfly in Amber by Nicholas Kilmer.
A Dog About Town by J.F. Englert
The new Robert Crais book on pre-order.

Are you listening Santa!?

pattinase (abbott) said...

Yes, but I don't know if I can fit down your chimney.