Fiction

Year Zero, by Rob Reid

If you take holiday cheer seriously you’ll want the funniest new book you can lay your hands on and this year that will be Year Zero. Never has the principle of writing about what you know been more creatively or effectively employed than by author Rob Reid. Reid is the founder of the Rhapsody music-sharing service and listen.com. His account of a league of culturally advanced aliens who have inadvertently illegally downloaded all of earth’s music in a manner calculated to impoverish the entire universe skewers the music industry in a manner worthy of Douglas Adams.

Non -Fiction

Double Cross, by Ben MacIntyre

Double Cross is an account of the six Double Cross agents used by British Intelligence in a concerted, dangerous, and high stakes effort to convince the Nazi’s that Operation Fortitude, the Allied invasion of Europe, would occur north of Normandy. Considering the immense historical importance of Operation Fortitude, MacIntyre, in making a very convincing argument that the individual personalities and quirks of six unusual individuals played an essential role in D-Day’s success, strongly confirms his core belief that individuality should never be underestimated as an historical lever.

There is a double benefit here, of course, since the intrinsic interest of colorful personalities, and MacIntyre’s gift for capturing them, are also what makes the book so enjoyable. With Double Cross, and particularly with its amazing account of Johnny Jebsen, the reader is left with a profoundly haunting sense of the meaningfulness of our individual actions.

Maine Interest

Maine: The Wilder Half of New England

This nicely illustrated book published by Maine’s Tilbury house provides something that has been sorely lacking: a good, current, popular history of Maine. Barry’s book ably covers Maine historical matters from the pre-history to the present. After all, no one wants to reads about the tamer half of New England. Maine it is for the people on your gift list.

The

, by Dahlov Ipcar.

Maine’s Islandport press has been using the classic illustrations of Ipcar, one of Maine’s principal artistic treasures, to make new board books, featuring images from her older children’s books paired with simple new text for younger readers. This ABC board book is the best yet.

Picture Books

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, by William Joyce

Always a wonderful illustrator, Joyce has penned a truly lovely story here of a life captured and sustained by the magic of books. Books nourish Morris Lessmore throughout his life until his own life story enters into the pages of a story opened by a young girl whose own journey is beginning. The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore is a delight meant for sharing.

Black Dog by Levi Pinfold

When a family is visited by a gigantic Black Dog, only the youngest in the family has the courage to go out and play with him. As the story progresses, the dog slowly shrinks, giving children a very clever sense of how fear shapes our perceptions of the world. Filled with spectacular illustrations with multiple storylines running in smaller panels throughout, Black Dog is sure to delight and engage young readers and listeners.

Coffee Table Book:

More Than Human, by

Apart from sharing a title with the great Theodore Sturgeon, Tim Flach, photographic author of Dogs and Equus, has delivered yet another amazing book of animal photography. Each picture is an intricate world unto itself. My advice is as follows: Go to a bookstore, stand slack jawed and gasp at the pages. Take home a sealed copy for the holidays.

Holiday Books

Twelve Kinds of Ice, by Ellen Obud, illustrated by Barbara McClintock

This new edition of a holiday season classic can’t be praised too highly for its gentle evocation of the wonder of nature and the delight it offers. McClintock’s illustrations are the perfect accompaniment to Obed’s timeless description of the twelve kinds of ice. You won’t find a lovelier gift book anywhere.

Young Adult and Middle Grade

The Peculiar, by Stefan Bachman.

The Peculiar takes us to the debased world of a 19th century London which has consumed but not erased an incursion from the realm of the fae. The great strength of the book lies in its imaginative power, for its deeply evocative phrases reinforce the subtle power of the faerie world. Everything about The Peculiar whispers that it is so much easier to stay asleep and passive under the sway of dark and questionable currents. How difficult it is to act, to come fully awake in this world – the reader rises energetically into this void. The Peculiar is a gripping and satisfying read. Its sense of the fae, of dangerous bridges from one realm into the other, is both traditional and authentic.

The Shadow of the Hawk, by Curtis Jobling

If you read primarily for pleasure sooner or later you’ll encounter a book which makes you ask the really tough questions. Are fun and escapism truly more edifying than realistic drama? Am I horizontally enlightened or just shallow? One such book is The Shadow of the Hawk, the third volume of The Wereworld series. This third book firmly establishes the Wereworld series as being preposterously entertaining. In Shadow of the Hawk, Jobling does big things with the Spartacus story as Drew the young Werewolf heir to the throne, our hero, captured by the evil slaver Weregoat Kesslar, and sold into Gladiatorial pits of the even more evil Werelizard Ignus, leads his fellow slaves to freedom in spectacularly exciting manner.

So why are these Werewold books so much fun? Because they contain the timeless pleasures of great storytelling epics, red blooded villains, heroes and heroines we love and identify with, dark sorcery, heart pounding danger, friendship and romance, multiple storylines racing along, each as happily absorbing as its neighbors. Put these books in the hands of young readers and they will devour them without pause and clamor for more, leaving all this ponderous, philosophical breast beating to adult fans.

Whatever gifts you choose to share with your loved ones make sure to purchase them from the stores which share a community with you.

Kenny Brechner is the owner of Devaney Doak & Garrett Booksellers, in Downtown Farmington. He can be reached at [email protected], or online at www.ddgbooks.com