A Few Christmas Gift Recommendations

December 5, 2009

I just went over my reading list to-date for 2009 and decided to make some book recommendations for the book reader in your life. I left out things like Harry Potter and Percy Jackson, and although there are a couple bestsellers on this list, I decided to focus on books by people you may not necessarily have heard of for the reader in your life. I mean, there ought to be more options than Dan Brown's latest, right?

For Kids

Nightmare Academy by Dean Lourey

--a kid finds he has a unique ability to bring monsters into this world when he dreams, and has to go go the Nightmare Academy to learn how to put them back.

Magickeepers: The Eternal Hourglass by Erica Kirov

--a kid discovers he's a magician from a long-line of magicians and needs to be trained to fulfill his legacy.

For Mystery/Thriller Lovers

Illegal by Paul Levine

--a shyster lawyer gets involved in trying to find the mother of a kid who snuck into the country

The Second Perimeter by Mike Lawson

--Main character, Joe DeMarco, is a troubleshooter for the Speaker of the House.

Rough Country by John Sandford

--a Virgil Flowers police procedural.

Whispers of the Dead by Simon Beckett

--a chilling, satisfying thriller about a British forensic anthropologist doing work at "The Body Farm" in Tennessee.

For Science Fiction & Fantasy Lovers

Goblin Quest by Jim C. Hines

--a raucous fantasy; imagine if The Lord Of The Rings was told from the point of view of Gollum.

Diving Into The Wreck by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

--way in the future, the main character makes a living doing space diving into abandoned and wrecked spaceships and space stations.

For Nonfiction Lovers

The Monster of Florence by Douglas Preston with Mario Spezi

-particularly relevant given last night's conviction of Amanda Knox by a Florence jury; same prosecutor, etc., as the nonsense that happened to Preston & Spezi.

His Excellency: George Washington by Joseph J. Ellis

--an interesting bio of our first president

Horse Soldiers: The Extraordinary Story Of A Band Of U.S. Soldiers Who Rode To Victory In Afghanistan by Doug Stanton

--rather timely, given our surge back into Afghanistan. This is about the first Special Forces troops into Afghanistan in late 2001, early 2002.