Laurie’s List
(Two weeks is plenty of time for Christmas shopping, right? Right??)
Want to know some things I’ve fallen in love with this year, that now I’m giving to a lot of people on my list?
Pre-reader book: Journey, by Aaron Becker. This is a gift of time as well, and self, since there are no words, just a story to be told, a little different every time. Lovely pictures, all kinds of possible side-tracks, and it can be stretched out or shortened as you like. There’s even a fabulous trailer for it:
Adult reader? Bill Bryson’s One Summer is about the incredible happenings that transformed 1927 into a year of magic. An unlikely premise, but it’s completely fascinating, it’s funny as all get-out, it’s…well, it’s Bill Bryson. The NY Times review is here.
And, a gift for the entire family. Remember the old Whole Earth Catalogue—that Sears Wishbook for the New Age? Well, here’s one for the new millennium, an oversized dream-book that, left out on the coffee table, will tempt the imagination of every person who sits down near it. Cool Tools, A Catalogue of Possibilities by Kevin Kelly, has everything from Japanese toilets to magnetic kids’ tiles, swimming holes to stump grinders, Evernote to sippy cups, generators to…well, you get the idea.
And if you want to spread the King love, there are mugs and hats and nightshirts here. 
Of course, for readers of all ages (but particularly young teenage girls!) there’s The Beekeeper’s Apprentice. If you want it signed, I’m happy to do so at Bookshop Santa Cruz, here.
There’s even a way to give a gift card for the Kindle reader in your life, here.
Happy Christmas giving.
So glad to see you recommending “One Summer.” I am reading it now and loving it! It was recommended to me by a friend who is a true Renaissance man, both the maestro of a major opera company and among the most well read people I know. He said it was the best book he’s read all year, and given how many books he reads I took that as high praise indeed.
And of course I can’t wait to see what happens to Russell and Holmes when they, too, encounter 1927….