While She Knits - Holiday Gift Edition
Dec. 6th, 2012 09:42 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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queensthiefFALALALALA LALALALA.
Who else besides me is getting ready to buy the gift that keeps on giving? Books for the holidays!
What books are you giving as gifts? And what books for yourself are you sneaking onto to that Amazon order because, well, you have that free shipping anyway, right?
Who else besides me is getting ready to buy the gift that keeps on giving? Books for the holidays!
What books are you giving as gifts? And what books for yourself are you sneaking onto to that Amazon order because, well, you have that free shipping anyway, right?
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Date: 12/7/12 04:09 am (UTC)CODE NAME VERITY FOR ALL THE GIFTS
(no spoilers!)
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Date: 12/7/12 04:24 am (UTC)~mwt
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Date: 12/7/12 01:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 12/7/12 01:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 12/7/12 01:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 12/7/12 01:27 pm (UTC)I bought one of my younger nieces I Want My Hat Back, but I'm not quite sure what to get my five year old niece. Any suggestions? How about for an almost two year old boy? Sadly, I'm not really up-to-date on books for younger kids.
I think I'm going to get my nine year old niece The False Prince, but I wish she was a little older, so I could give her The Scorpio Races or Saving Francesca or Jellicoe Road (she loves horses and she adored Melina Marchetta's Gorgon in the Gully). She's going to be so much fun to shop for when she hits the right age for YA fiction.
I'm a bit sad, because I peeked on my Amazon wishlist and noticed that no books had been purchased. My mom told me that she was tired of buying books and records for me, because that's all I ever ask for, and she lived up to her word. I may have to buy a book or two for myself, so I'll have something with which to entertain myself on Christmas day. Unfortunately, most of the books that I want that I haven't yet read aren't being released until next year, like Scarlet, Prodigy, and Unravel Me. Still, I wouldn't say no to a copy of Grave Mercy or Love and Other Perishable Items or the US paperback edition of The Piper's Son, even though I already have the other two editions of that book. Yes, I am a big dork.
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Date: 12/7/12 02:39 pm (UTC)Probationary Constable Peter Grant dreams of being a detective in London’s Metropolitan Police. Too bad his superior plans to assign him to the Case Progression Unit, where the biggest threat he’ll face is a paper cut. But Peter’s prospects change in the aftermath of a puzzling murder, when he gains exclusive information from an eyewitness who happens to be a ghost. Peter’s ability to speak with the lingering dead brings him to the attention of Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale, who investigates crimes involving magic and other manifestations of the uncanny. Now, as a wave of brutal and bizarre murders engulfs the city, Peter is plunged into a world where gods and goddesses mingle with mortals and a long-dead evil is making a comeback on a rising tide of magic.
But it's stuff like this that makes the book such a delight (Peter is learning a magic spell):
I nodded and Nightingale brought out a basket of apples. A wicker basket with a handle and a checked napkin, no less. He placed a second apple in front of me and I didn't need him to explain the next step. He levitated the apple, I listened for the forma, concentrated on my own apple and said, "Impello."
I wasn't really that surprised when nothing happened.
"It does get easier," said Nightingale. "It's just that it gets easier slowly."
I looked at the basket. "Why do we have so many apples?"
"They have a tendency to explode," said Nightingale.
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Date: 12/7/12 02:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 12/7/12 03:47 pm (UTC)Merry Christmas!
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Date: 12/7/12 03:49 pm (UTC)Sorry. It's the suppressed bookseller in me.
For the five year old, would you consider The Devil's Storybook by Natalie Babbit? They aren't religious stories, or anti-religious. They are more like Trickster tales with the devil usually coming off worse. Or maybe a package of easy readers? Russell Hobans A Bargain For Francis is in Easy Reader trim size. There's Frog and Toad, George and Martha, Fox on Wheels. Are you tired of me yet?
Or you could get Officer Buckle and Gloria for anyone of almost any age. : )
~mwt
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Date: 12/7/12 03:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 12/7/12 04:06 pm (UTC)For her, if she likes cats at all, how about Viviane Schwarz? "There are Cats in This Book" and its sequel, "There Are No Cats in This Book" are both wonderful (the 2 year old will like them, too).
Or, if she's a princessy type of girl, and you want to expand her horizons a bit beyond Disney, you could try anything illustrated by Kinuko Craft (http://www.kycraft.com/index.html). (Her latest project is a version of "Beauty and the Beast," but I'm not sure it'll be ready for Christmas. But all of her books are gorgeous!) Jan Brett, Demi, or Tomie De Paolo are all excellent choices, too. (I think classics like "Strega Nona" or "Adelita" never get old :-D).
Ranging a little further afield, Joseph Bruchach's retellings of Native American myths and legends are a lot of fun. Maybe she would like something like "Raccoon's Last Race?" It's pretty awesome! Or, travelling around the world a little more, "Tasty Baby Belly Buttons," by Judy Sierra (Japan) "Little Rooster's Diamond Button" by Margaret Read MacDonald (Hungary), "Fat Cat," again by MacDonald (Denmark), "The Gift of the Crocodile," again Judy Sierra (Indonesia) -- or, for China, anything by Ed Young (Lon Po Po is the classic example).
Or maybe you could buy them some classics to grow into, like the Narnia stories, or "The Thief" :-D
~and here's hoping you get some of the books you want, yourself!
~D.
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Date: 12/7/12 04:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 12/7/12 05:33 pm (UTC)I remember seeing the Frances books in the library when I was a kid and I'm sure I read them myself. They look delightful and right up Leah's alley. I remember loving Frog and Toad as well, and Officer Buckle and Gloria sounds hilarious.
Ahhh, I don't know what to pick. Thank you for the great suggestions!
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Date: 12/7/12 05:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 12/7/12 05:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 12/7/12 06:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 12/7/12 07:45 pm (UTC)LOVE.
Also Code Name Verity. Plus a box of tissues. And I'd say Chime, by Franny Billingsley, which I've been reading over and over since it first came out, but the voice can be divisive. Or how about The President's Daughter series for a teenage girl? Especially for a teenage girl who likes politics. And idealism. Or for an adult who likes those things.
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Date: 12/7/12 08:01 pm (UTC)A caveat -- some of the tales are a tad scary -- well actually, gruesome (people who foolishly trust tigers get eaten, for example). But it's beautifully done, with a running commentary and beautiful, vivid illustrations.
Or -- another classic I forgot to mention -- get L. M. Boston's "The Children of Green Knowe."
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Date: 12/7/12 08:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 12/8/12 12:11 am (UTC)For your two year old nephew what about Eric Carl's The Very Hungry Catapillar ( I think that's the title, it might not have the "very," or it might also have a "little" in it.) It's a board book about all the different fruits and the amounts that a little caterpillar eats, and on the last page he turns into a butterfly.
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Date: 12/8/12 12:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 12/8/12 03:31 am (UTC)You'd have to look up the suggested age range, but if he's a good reader, it should be ok I think..
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Date: 12/8/12 05:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 12/8/12 05:11 am (UTC)~mwt