Great Gift Ideas for Readers

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If you’re anything like us, you’ve left your holiday shopping until the last minute. So to make things a little easier on everyone we’ve come up with thoughtful, personalized presents for every reader on your list. Browse our suggestions below and get gifting!

 

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BigBookofSherlockHolmesTHE BIG BOOK OF SHERLOCK HOLMES STORIES
edited by Otto Penzler

“Brilliant deductions and mesmerizing plots…. A must have for fans of the great detective.”
Publishers Weekly (starred, boxed review)

Arguably no other character in history has been so enduringly popular as Sherlock Holmes. Ever since his first appearance, in Arthur Conan Doyle’s 1887 novella A Study in Scarlet, readers have loved reading about him almost as much as writers have loved writing about him. Here, Otto Penzler collects eighty-three wonderful stories about Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson, published over a span of more than a hundred years.

Read an excerpt | Buy the book

 

ReckoningTHE RECKONING
by Carsten Stroud

“An authentic work of American genius.”
—Stephen King

Come to Niceville and sink into Carsten Stroud’s inimitable blend of crime and supernatural thriller, as characters you’ll love throw in with bad guys you’ll like way more than you should. All of this and so much more in this astonishing final installment in the page-turning trilogy.

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RoseGoldROSE GOLD
by Walter Mosley

“Mosley is a literary artist as well as a master of mystery.”
The New York Times

Rosemary Goldsmith, the daughter of a weapons manufacturer, has been kidnapped by a black revolutionary cell. Their leader is holding her for ransom, and if he doesn’t receive the money, weapons, and apology he demands, “Rose Gold” will die—horribly and publicly. So the authorities turn to Easy Rawlins, the one man who can cross the necessary lines to resolve this dangerous standoff and find Rose Gold before it’s too late.

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VeronicaMarsMrKissandTellVERONICA MARS (2): MR. KISS AND TELL
by Rob Thomas and Jennifer Graham

The New York Times Bestselling Series Continues…

In the second book in the New York Times bestselling mystery series, Veronica Mars investigates a case that will expose the hidden workings of one of Neptune’s most murderous locations, The Neptune Grand. When a woman claims that she was assaulted in one of its rooms and left for dead, the owners know that they have a potential powder keg on their hands. They turn to Veronica to disprove—or prove—the woman’s story.

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SonTHE SON
by Jo Nesbo

“Intricately disturbing…as you’d expect from the Norwegian crime author of the moment—perhaps the crime author of the moment, period.”
The New York Times Book Review

Sonny Lofthus has been imprisoned for almost half his life: serving time for crimes he didn’t commit in exchange for a constant supply of heroin. Years earlier Sonny’s father, a corrupt cop, took his own life rather than face exposure. When Sonny discovers a shocking truth about his father’s suicide, he makes a brilliant escape and begins hunting down the people responsible. But he’s also being hunted by enemies too many to count.

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InTheKingdomOfIceIN THE KINGDOM OF ICE
by Hampton Sides

“A splendid book in every way.”
The Wall Street Journal

On July 8, 1879, Captain George Washington De Long and his team set sail from San Francisco on the USS Jeannette, aiming to be the first to reach the North Pole. Two years into the harrowing voyage, the Jeannette’s hull was breached, forcing the crew to abandon ship. Hours later, the ship had sunk, marooning the men a thousand miles north of Siberia and struggling desperately to survive in the most brutal place on Earth.

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LadyInGoldTHE LADY IN GOLD
by Anne-Marie O’Connor

“Fascinating…. A mesmerizing tale of art and the Holocaust.”
The Washington Post

The Lady in Gold is the true story that inspired the movie Woman in Gold. The book tells the galvanizing tale of Gustav Klimt’s 1907 masterpiece—the breathtaking portrait of a Viennese Jewish socialite. The celebrated painting, stolen by Nazis during World War II, subsequently became the subject of a decade-long dispute between her heirs and the Austrian government. When the U.S. Supreme Court became involved in the case, its decision had profound ramifications for the art world.

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SecretHistoryofWonderWomanTHE SECRET HISTORY OF WONDER WOMAN
by Jill Lepore

“Sensational, spellbinding and utterly improbable.”
San Francisco Chronicle

Wonder Woman is the most popular female superhero of all time. Like every other superhero, Wonder Woman has a secret identity. Unlike others, she also has a secret history. In this riveting work of historical detection, Wonder Woman’s story provides the missing link in the history of women’s rights—a chain of events that begins with the women’s suffrage campaigns of the early 1900s and ends with the troubled place of feminism a century later.

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ThirteenDaysInSeptemberTHIRTEEN DAYS IN SEPTEMBER
by Lawrence Wright

“Masterly…. Magnificent…. Wright reminds us that Carter’s Camp David was an act of surpassing political courage.”
The New York Times Book Review

In September 1978, three world leaders—Menachem Begin of Israel, Anwar Sadat of Egypt, and U.S. president Jimmy Carter—met at Camp David to broker a peace agreement between the two Middle East nations. Despite the screaming matches and threats to leave, a treaty was forged that has stood for more than three decades. Thirteen Days in September is a timely revisiting of this diplomatic triumph and an inside look at how peace is made.

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FieldsOfBlood2FIELDS OF BLOOD
by Karen Armstrong

“Elegant and powerful…. Both erudite and accurate, dazzling in its breadth of knowledge and historical detail.” —The Washington Post

In these times of rising geopolitical chaos, the need for mutual understanding between cultures has never been more urgent. Religious differences are seen as fuel for violence and warfare. In these pages, one of our greatest writers on religion, Karen Armstrong, gives us a sweeping history of humankind to explore the perceived connection between war and the world’s great creeds—and to issue a passionate defense of the peaceful nature of faith.

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FamilyFurnishingsFAMILY FURNISHINGS: SELECTED STORIES, 1995-2014
by Alice Munro

“An extraordinary collection.”
San Francisco Chronicle

Here is a selection of Munro’s most accomplished and powerfully affecting short fiction from the last two decades, a companion volume to A Wilderness Station: Selected Stories, 1968–1994. These stories encompass the fullness of human experience, from the wild exhilaration of first love to the punishing consequences of leaving home or ending a marriage.

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ColorlessTsukuruCOLORLESS TSUKURU TAZAKI AND HIS YEARS OF PILGRIMAGE
by Haruki Murakami

“Remarkable.”
The Washington Post

An instant #1 New York Times Bestseller, this is the remarkable story of a young man haunted by a great loss; of dreams and nightmares that have unintended consequences for the world around us; and of a journey into the past that is necessary to mend the present. Here Haruki Murakami—one of the most revered voices in literature today—gives us a story of love, friendship, and heartbreak for the ages.

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SomeLuckSOME LUCK
by Jane Smiley

“A masterpiece in the making.”
USA Today

Nominated for the National Book Award, Smiley’s first volume in an epic trilogy starts us on a literary adventure through cycles of birth and death, passion and betrayal that will span a century in America. Each chapter in this extraordinary novel covers a single year in the Langdon family, encompassing the sweep of history as the Langdons abide by time-honored values and pass them on to their children.

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NarrowRoadToTheDeepNorthTHE NARROW ROAD TO THE DEEP NORTH
by Richard Flanagan

“Magnificent.”
The New York Times Book Review

Moving deftly from a Japanese POW camp to present-day Australia, from the experiences of Dorrigo Evans and his fellow prisoners to that of the Japanese guards, this savagely beautiful novel—winner of the Man Booker Prize—tells a story of the many forms of love and death, of war and truth, as one man comes of age, prospers, only to discover all that he has lost.

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ChildrenActTHE CHILDREN ACT
by Ian McEwan

“Fantastically pleasurable…. Unsurpassable.”
Chicago Tribune

Fiona Maye is a leading High Court judge. Renowned for her fierce intelligence and sensitivity, her professional success belies private sorrow and domestic strife. She is called on to try the case of Adam, a beautiful seventeen-year-old boy who is refusing, for religious reasons, life-saving medical treatment. When Fiona visits Adam in the hospital the encounter has a powerful impact on them both, and her judgment has momentous consequences.

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Vorrh2THE VORRH
by Brian Catling

“An amazing, mind-expanding novel.”
Book Riot

Prepare to lose yourself in the heady, mythical expanse of B. Catling’s The Vorrh. Next to the colonial town of Essenwald sits the Vorrh, a vast forest. A renegade English soldier aims to be the first human to traverse its expanse. Armed with only a strange bow, he begins his journey, but some fear the consequences of his mission, and a native marksman has been chosen to stop him. The hunter will become the hunted, as everyone’s fate hangs in the balance, under the will of the Vorrh.

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StationElevenSTATION ELEVEN
by Emily St. John Mandel

“Absolutely extraordinary.”
—Erin Morgenstern, author of The Night Circus

The night Arthur Leander had a heart attack onstage during King Lear, a devastating flu pandemic arrived in the city, wiping out civilization as we know it. Twenty years later, Kirsten Raymonde moves between settlements with a troupe of actors and musicians. One day, they encounter a violent prophet who threatens their existence. As the story takes off, moving back and forth in time, the strange twist of fate that connects everyone will be revealed.

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RobogenesisROBOGENESIS
by Daniel H. Wilson

“A galloping sci-fi account of a war between man and machine.”
Entertainment Weekly

It’s been three years since the global uprising of the world’s robots in Robopocalypse, three long years in which ordinary people waged a guerilla war that saved humankind from the brink of annihilation. But a horrific new enemy has emerged, and the resistance is called to fight once again. In a world where humanity and technology are pushed to the breaking point, their one hope may reside with their former enemy.

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PressStartToPlayPRESS START TO PLAY
edited by Daniel H. Wilson and John Joseph Adams

“Fascinating. If you want some interesting, adult takes on aspects your favorite hobby, this is worth picking up.”
—Felicia Day, author of You’re Never Weird on the Internet (Almost) and creator of The Guild

You are standing in a room filled with books, faced with a difficult decision. Suddenly, one with a distinctive cover catches your eye. It is a groundbreaking anthology of short stories from award-winning writers and game-industry titans who have embarked on a quest to explore what happens when video games and science fiction collide. These twenty-six stories play with our notion of what video games can be and what they can become.

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ABCThreeShortNovelsA, B, C: THREE SHORT NOVELS
by Samuel R. Delany

“The most interesting writer of science fiction writing in English today.”
The New York Times Book Review

A, B, C: Three Short Novels contains the first three novels of Samuel R. Delany’s long and illustrious career: The Jewels of Aptor, The Ballad of Beta-2, and They Fly at Çiron. Presenting these three novels in this omnibus volume for the first time, along with a new foreword and afterword by the author, A, B, C showcases Delany’s masterful storytelling ability and deep devotion to his craft.

Read an excerpt | Buy the book

 
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OneMoreThingONE MORE THING: STORIES AND OTHER STORIES
by B.J. Novak

“Novak is a funny writer with a great ear, but also a genuine storyteller with an observant eye.”
—Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

From B.J. Novak (of The Office fame) comes an endlessly entertaining debut that signals the arrival of a brilliant new voice in American fiction. Across a dazzling range of subjects, themes, and tones, the many pieces in this collection are like nothing else, but they have one thing in common: they share the playful humor, deep heart, sharp eye, and inquisitive mind of a writer with a fierce devotion to the entertainment of the reader.

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HowToBeAHeroineHOW TO BE A HEROINE: OR, WHAT I’VE LEARNED FROM READING TOO MUCH
by Samantha Ellis

“All the books I love, remembered.” —Nigella Lawson

While debating literature’s greatest heroines with her best friend, playwright Samantha Ellis has a revelation—her whole life, she’s been trying to be Cathy Earnshaw of Wuthering Heights when she should have been trying to be Jane Eyre. With this discovery, she embarks on a retrospective look at the literary ladies whom she has loved since childhood. Here a lifelong reader explores how heroines shape all our lives.

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DearCommitteeMembers2DEAR COMMITTEE MEMBERSby Julie Schumacher

“A hilarious and surprisingly poignant pleasure to read.”
Houston Chronicle

Julie Schumacher was recently announced as the winner of the Thurber Prize for American Humor for her side-splitting novel Dear Committee Members. The book follows Jason Fitger, a beleaguered professor of creative writing and literature at a small and not very distinguished liberal arts college, reveals his life in a series of hilarious letters of recommendation. Schumacher moves from laugh-out-loud funny to surprisingly poignant in fewer than two hundred pages.

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UncollectedDavidRakoffTHE UNCOLLECTED DAVID RAKOFF

“One of our funniest writers.”
People

Bestselling and Thurber Prize–winning humorist David Rakoff was one of the most original, delightfully acerbic voices of his generation. Here, in one place, is the best of his previously uncollected material—most of which has never been published in book form before. By turns hilarious, incisive, and deeply moving, this collection highlights the many facets of Rakoff’s huge talent and shows the arc of his remarkable career.

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IllHaveWhatShesHavingI’LL HAVE WHAT SHE’S HAVING
by Rebecca Harrington

“You’ll laugh out loud at the author’s attempts to follow the sometimes excellent, sometimes stomach-churning diet regimens of celebrities.”
People Magazine’s Best New Books

I’ll Have What She’s Having is a hilarious look at the eating habits of the fit and famous, from Gwyneth’s goji berry and quail egg concoctions to Jackie Kennedy’s baked potato and Beluga caviar regimen. Rebecca Harrington leaves no cabbage soup unstirred in her wickedly funny, wildly absurd quest to diet like the stars.

Read an excerpt | Buy the book