The Hold List: For our favorite friends
Posted by Stephanie, Editor on December 01, 2017
Each fall, the editorial team has a spirited internal debate on the best books of the year. While the battle for the top spot is hard won, what is delightfully easy is picking books we love to give away. These are our favorites to pass along to friends, family and fellow readers.
Skip the carols, read a romance
Feature by Lois Dyer
If you’ve shopped till you dropped and ho-ho-ho’ed your way through hours of prep, take a well-deserved break from the hectic holiday season and curl up with a good book. We’ve found three wonderful romance novels with nary a Christmas wreath in sight that we’re sure will make you smile.
Judith Flanders
The history of the holiday
The Christmas trees, the feasting, the stockings hanging over the fireplace . . . It’s all pretty standard Christmas fare. But where exactly did our beloved seasonal traditions come from? Historian and bestselling author Judith Flanders explores the unexpected sources of the winter holiday in her fascinating and festive Christmas: A Biography. We asked Flanders a few questions about what she discovered during her research.
Kieran Kramer
"Count on copious amounts of spiked eggnog."
It takes a lot to stand out in the annual deluge of holiday-themed romance novels. Kieran Kramer's Christmas at Two Love Lane—with its charming Charleston setting and perfect blend of sweetness and sass—did just that. We talked to Kramer about Christmas in the South, how she decides if the humor in her books is working and what she thinks is the least romantic holiday activity.
Expand their horizons
Feature by Jill Ratzan
From inspirational feminist essays to illustrated fairy tales and an interactive journal, three new books provide material for teen readers to savor during winter’s long nights.
Unwrap and get busy: Hands-on gifts for little ones
Feature by Alice Cary
After a wild Christmas morning of unwrapping, there’s nothing better than the silence of children who are completely absorbed in their new gifts. With these books, kids can create, build, bake, imagine and marvel all year long.
Eyes all aglow for magical picture books
Feature by Julie Hale
Are your little elves brimming with Yuletide cheer? To help them (and you!) survive till Santa arrives, try curling up together with a holiday story. We suggest one of the merry books below. Ho, ho, ho!
Two turtledoves
Feature by Lonna Upton
Holiday preparations flood our hearts with the warmth of Christmases past—or the echoes of family dinners best forgotten. Wherever your memories lie, two debut works of Christmas fiction are sure to lighten your spirits.
Look not with the eye, but with the heart
Feature by Alice Cary
Feast your eyes on color, composition and personalities galore in these photography and art books, which include a landmark offering from Annie Leibovitz, a collection of artful fiction, never-before-published photos of Julia Child in France, as well as William Wegman’s charming, artsy dogs.
Glitzy gift books from La La Land
Feature by Pat H. Broeske
This season’s Hollywood-themed offerings shine a spotlight on golden age stars, a timeless Italian beauty, an iconic ’60s film and an atlas of cinematic favorites.
Guides for spiritual seekers
Feature by Lonna Upton
For many, the holidays are a season for reflection. For gifts that deliver an uplifting message or daily direction for practicing your faith, consider these inspirational new releases.
America’s fascinating past and present
Feature by Keith Herrell
How has the United States changed over the past 250 years, and how has it remained the same? Here are five gift ideas for readers with a serious interest in where we’ve come from, how we got this far and just how far we have left to go.
Eat, drink and be merry
Feature by Eve Zibart
This year’s holiday banquet includes a spread of books that are fit for feasting: two gorgeous coffee-table extravagances, a fascinating window into the culinary culture of 1940s Paris and a pair of visually appealing stocking stuffers.
John-Bryan Hopkins
A nostalgic celebration of food
Despite the title, John-Bryan Hopkins’ Foodimentary: Celebrating 365 Food Holidays with Classic Recipes isn’t quite a calendar or a cookbook. The first entry is “Peanut Butter Lover’s Day” on March 1, and from there the book covers everything from the Aztecs and Incas to health-food pioneer Dr. John Kellogg to the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair.
Olaf Olafsson
From Playstation to acclaimed fiction
Asked what he’s reading now that work on his psychologically compelling fifth novel is complete and the book will soon arrive in bookstores, Olaf Olafsson says he is rereading the novels of his father, the award-winning Icelandic novelist Olafur Sigurdsson.
Best bets for the book obsessed
Feature by Julie Hale
Get ready to wrap! We’ve assembled a stack of picks for the bibliophile on your shopping list. These outstanding anthologies and coffee table-worthy titles will give serious readers an extra reason to celebrate the season.
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Olaf Olafsson
From Playstation to acclaimed fiction
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Amor Towles
An outsized life in a Russian hotel
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Kieran Kramer
"Count on copious amounts of spiked eggnog."
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Isabel Allende
“I had a time, a place and a snowstorm, and then the characters came to me.”
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Min Jin Lee
Exploring the hidden history of Korean immigrants in Japan
Enchantress of Numbers
The story of our digital age is sadly lacking in its inclusion of prominent women. One notable exception is Ada Byron...
Three Daughters of Eve
Elif Shafak’s Three Daughters of Eve begins sharply, as Peri, a wealthy, middle-aged Turkish woman, makes her...
A Hundred Small Lessons
The third novel by Australian author Ashley Hay is an engrossing and insightful portrait of two women living in...
Little Broken Things
Sometimes you can’t see how something works until it breaks, and you can’t see that it’s broken...
Poison
Life is nearly perfect for Cassandra Connor. She’s been through heartache—her first husband died, leaving...
The Only Girl in the World
As a connoisseur of memoir, I thought I had read it all: stunningly dysfunctional families, toxic relationships,...
The Saboteur
Step aside, James Bond. There’s a new sexy spy hero in town, and this one has the advantage of being real. His...
Bunk
Poet and scholar Kevin Young offers a history of the hoax and a chilling indictment of our current moment in this...
The Extra Woman
As author and scholar Joanna Scutts writes in The Extra Woman, her provocative, in-depth look at 20th-century women...
The Wine Lover's Daughter
Clifton Fadiman had two paramount passions: savoring the best wines and obliterating his Jewishness. He wasn’t...
Nina
A mother sings her restless child to sleep, offering up a story from her own childhood to help ease the transition to...
The Magic Misfits
Real magic does exist . . . you just have to know where to look. That’s the lesson that young Carter, a runaway...
The Nutcracker Mice
Combining the talents of seasoned children’s author Kristin Kladstrup and the renowned illustrator of A Series...
My Lazy Cat
This French import, originally published last year, opens with an epigraph from Serge Gainsbourg (“To make old...
The Road to Ever After
The Road to Ever After is filled with luminous, insightful characters. Moira Young’s writing delights, inspires...