2005 has been very generous to book-lovers, and consequently we have a plethora of titles to choose from for our holiday gift-giving. This year avoid the mall, and give them a book from the eclectic selection of the best that emerged from the publishing houses this year.
1. The Believer Book of Writers Talking to Writers
A McSweeney's collection of conversations between writers and their "mentors," taken from the pages of The Believer, along with previously unpublished conversations.
2. Blink by Malcolm Gladwell
Blink is a book about how we think without thinking, about choices that seem to be made in an instant - in the blink of an eye.
3. The Elements of Style Illustrated by Strunk, White, and Kalman
Strunk & White's The Elements of Style has for decades been an essential tool for English language writers and students. The 1959 handbook gets a 2005 facelift with the addition of Maira Kalman's fanciful illustrations.
4. First Man: The Life of Neil Armstrong
James Hansen re-creates Neil Armstrong's career in flying, from his seventy-eight combat missions as a naval aviator flying over North Korea to his transatmospheric flights in the rocket-powered X-15 to his piloting Gemini VIII to the first-ever docking in space.
5. Girl Sleuth: Nancy Drew and the Women Who Created Her
In Girl Sleuth, Melanie Rehak weaves a history of Nancy Drew and her creators, all of whom inspired generations of girls to be as strong-willed as they were.
6. The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd
From Sue Monk Kidd, author of "The Secret Life of Bees." Jessie Sullivan returns to Egret Island,off the coast of South Carolina, to care for her mother and finds herself attracted to a young monk at a Benedictine Monastery.
7. My Horizontal Life by Chelsea Handler
Comedienne, Chelsea Handler, hilariously chronicles her romp through the bedrooms of a variety of suitors.
8. The Poetry Home Repair Manual by Ted Kooser
U.S. Poet Laureate, Ted Kooser lays plain the tools and insights, the instructions (and warnings against instructions) that poets—aspiring or practicing—can use to hone their craft.
9. ReadyMade: How to Make [Almost] Everything: A Do-It-Yourself Primer
Bound in sturdy recycled cardboard with a straight-edged ruler on the front cover, Berger and Hawthorne’s book itself exemplifies the multi-use ethic it espouses with more than 50 DIY projects within.
10. Son of a Witch by Gregory Maguire
Following the success of Wicked, Gregory Maguire returns to the land of Oz to follow the story of Liir, the adolescent boy left hiding in the shadows of the castle when Dorothy did in the Wicked Witch of the West.
