FIRE UP A READING JOURNEY
When my mother was 12, living in a small town in upstate New York, she built a replica of the Venus de Milo out of snow.
She had never left the country, let alone the Northeast, but she had found and been enraptured by a book containing photographs of ancient Greek sculpture. What with marble being a little hard to come by, she set out to create the Venus de Albany with what she had, pulling on wool gloves and getting resourceful. She grew up to become a painter but considers that long-ago melted sculpture — the inspiration for which she discovered in a book — her first work.
Art books inspire. A large-format, full-color coffee-table book is a thing of beauty. Heavy as a gold brick and filled with reams of glossy pages, we give them as gifts because they’re regal and classy but also because they’re equally perfect to dip into with a drink before dinner as they are for a deep dive on a Sunday afternoon. Displayed for guests, they’re like a cultural cheeseboard.
But other books make wonderful gifts too. Picture books imprint themselves on the minds of early and even pre-readers, warm memories that last a lifetime. The lessons learned in middle grade and young adult fiction form some of our deepest values. Audiobooks hasten a loved one’s commute home.
In the following pages, you’ll find recommendations for coffee-table books, children’s books, audio books, books for young adults and middle graders, and fun books that make great stocking stuffers. Many combine image and text, inviting recipients to thumb through, linger on what compels them, and really look. They’re wellsprings for daydreams, launching points for the mind to wander — not to emails or to-do lists — but to wonder and beauty and connection.
A toddler may not understand science, but why not start them out with the board book “Newtonian Physics for Babies”? A tween cousin may retreat from family gatherings to read — help her out with “Turtles All the Way Down,” the latest YA book from John Green. A collection of travel photographs tells the story of a place the recipient hasn’t been, perhaps somewhere they’ll never go — but to give a book that traverses the world is to say, “I’d give you the world if I could.”
My mother never made it to Paris or the Louvre, and it’s unlikely that she ever will. She does keep a running tally of the books she wants for Christmas, and many are the years that I’ve received a thoughtfully chosen book from her for the holidays. It’s always obvious which presents are from my mother: she uses figure drawings from her sketch pads as wrapping paper. Today she has charcoal, paint and a studio in the California desert. Let it snow.