35 Holiday Treats
Give everyone on your gift list a taste of comfort and joy with these beautiful books
NONFICTION
‘Capote’s Women: A True Story of Love, Betrayal, and a Swan Song for an Era’ By Laurence Leamer (G.P. Putnam’s Sons), $28 Truman Capote’s final novel, “Answered Prayers,” was a thinly fictionalized look at a group of wealthy women based on the real-life rich ladies — among them, Lee Radziwill and Gloria Guinness — Capote called his “swans.” When a few chapters were published in Esquire, Capote’s gal pals were incensed, and the book was never published. Leamer gives a fascinating look at the friendship and betrayal, and the great novel that never was.
‘Bourdain:The Definitive Oral Biography’
By Laurie Woolever (Ecco), $29.99 Bourdain’s longtime former assistant interviewed around 100 of the late food great’s friends, family and colleagues to craft this richly rounded portrait. It covers both well-trod aspects of Bourdain’s life, such as his years as a middling chef and his tumultuous relationship with actress Asia Argento, while offering up unknown details, including his love of tanning and the aftermath of his first divorce.
‘Not All Diamonds and Rosé: The Inside Story of The Real Housewives from the People Who Lived It’
By Dave Quinn (Andy Cohen Books), $28.99 This exhaustive oral history features dishy interviews with 185 cast and crew members behind the Bravo phenomenon. Fans will delight to read about how it all got started, which fired housewives are angriest with Andy Cohen — and a shocking, neverbefore-revealed incident that happened when the New Jersey cast went to Punta Cana. No wonder the book sold out after it was first released.
‘The Baseball 100’
By Joe Posnanski (Avid Reader Press), $40 Former Sports Illustrated columnist Posnanski looks at the 100 greatest baseball players of all time, from Roberto Clemente to Babe Ruth, in this meaty tome that totals nearly 880 pages. Pulitzer-prize winning commentator George F. Will provides the insightful introduction.
‘Where the Deer and the Antelope Play: The Pastoral Observations of One Ignorant American Who Loves to Walk Outside’
By Nick Offerman (Dutton), $28 The “Parks and Recreation” star offers an insightful, witty look at his outdoorsy pursuits, which have included hiking with Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy and writer George Saunders, road-tripping with actress wife Megan Mullally and their dog, and chatting with farmer-philosopher Wendell Berry.
‘The Beatles: Get Back’
By The Beatles (Callaway Arts Entertainment), $60 This shrinkwrapped beauty begins in 1969 and looks at the Liverpool boys’ last year together and the creation of their final album, “Let It Be.” Editor John Harris draws on over 120 hours of sound recordings to create the feeling of being in the studio with the band. Photographs by Ethan A. Russell and Linda Eastman, who would marry Paul McCartney months later, complete the picture.
‘The Art of Bob Mackie’
By Frank Vlastnik and Laura Ross (Simon Schuster), $50 Billed as “the first ever comprehensive and authorized” compilation of the American fashion designer’s work, this stunning tome features 1,500 photographs and sketches of his show-stopping designs. Adding to the fun is a foreword by Carol Burnett — for whom Mackie designed a curtain-rod dress for her iconic “Went with the Wind” sketch — and an afterword by Mackie muse Cher. ‘To Rescue the Republic: Ulysses S. Grant, the Fragile Union, and the Crisis of 1876’ By Bret Baier with Catherine Whitney (Custom House), $28.99 The Fox News anchor offers up a thoroughly researched account of the Civil War general’s life and work. Baier grippingly portrays the crisis Grant faced at the end of his presidency, when the election produced no clear successor, and the painful compromise that settled it — a historical moment ripe for examination today.
‘Slim Aarons Style’ By Shawn Waldron Kate Betts (Harry N. Abrams), $85
Slim Aarons described his oeuvre as “attractive people doing attractive things in attractive places,” and that’s on full display in this transporting collection of the late magazine photographer’s work. There are vibrant, stylish images of debutantes, pool parties, European holidays and the equestrian set, plus a foreword by designer Jonathan Adler.
FICTION
‘Libertie: A Novel’
By Kaitlyn Greenidge (HarperCollins), $26.95 This highly imaginative, acclaimed work of historical fiction tells the story of Libertie, a young, darkskinned black girl growing up in post-Civil War Brooklyn — and in the shadow of her mother, a pioneering doctor whose skin is light enough to pass. Mom wants her daughter to follow in her footsteps, but Libertie has other ideas. The book is inspired by the real life of Dr. Susan Smith McKinney-Steward, one of the first African-American women in the US to graduate from medical school.
‘The Lincoln Highway’
By Amor Towles (Viking), $30 The author of the bestseller “A Gentleman in Moscow” has crafted another chart-topper. Set in the 1950s, it follows a young man, Emmett Watson, just released from a juvenile work farm in Nebraska after doing time for manslaughter. Watson plans to head West to California, but when he discovers two friends from the farm have escaped, his plans turn on a dime, and the young men hit the road and head to New York City. ‘Apples Never Fall’ By Liane Moriarty (Henry Holt and Co.), $28.99 The bestselling author of “Big Little Lies” and “Nine Perfect Strangers” delivers yet more family drama loaded with secrets. This time around, a family matriarch goes missing, leaving her four adult children to question what they thought was their parents’ happy marriage. No surprise, the TV rights have already been snapped up.
‘Beautiful World, Where Are You’
By Sally Rooney (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), $28 Rooney, a 30-year-old Irish author, is the literary It girl of the moment, and her latest doesn’t disappoint. Like her two previous novels, the focus here is on educated, troubled young people who spend most of their time talking, reading and having sex. It’s at once compulsively readable and totally thought-provoking. ‘Silverview’ By John Le Carre (Viking), $28 The publishing world mourned when le Carre died last December at age 89. Before he passed away, the British espionage writer finished his 26th book and gave the OK for it to be published posthumously. It’s a classic le Carre tale of a bookseller trying to live a quiet life in a small seaside community, until a Polish emigre and a spy chief come to town.
‘State of Terror’
By Hillary Rodham Clinton and Louise Penny (Simon Schuster), $30 The former secretary of state has co-written a compelling race-against-theclock thriller about a secretary of state who must outwit terrorists hellbent on nuking major cities around the world. While it’s a work of fiction, the secretary of state just happens to be a woman in late middle age and various world leaders in the book amusingly resemble real-life heads of state.
‘Harlem Shuffle’
By Colson Whitehead (Doubleday), $28.95 The Pulitzer Prize- and National Book Award-winning author of “The Underground Railroad” returns with another acclaimed bestseller. Set in 1960s Harlem, it tells the story of a furniture-dealing family man struggling to make ends meet while walking the line between an honest living and a life of crime.
‘Tokyo Ever After’
By Emiko Jean (Flatiron Books), $15.99 This bestselling, Reese Witherspoonendorsed YA book is all about Izumi “Izzy” Tanaka, a Japanese-American girl being raised by a single mother in a mostly white Northern California town. When Izzy goes to Japan to find the father she never knew, she learns he’s actually the crown prince of Japan — and she finds herself caught between two drastically different worlds.