Book Club Girl - Book Group Recommendations, Reading Group Guides, Audio Book Club Podcasts

Merry Christmas!

Sorry for my absence the last few days, getting everything ready for Christmas with a three-week-old baby takes its toll....We had a wonderful holiday and I hope everyone else did as well. We missed out on our girl being the Baby Jesus at church on Wednesday night because I didn't raise my hand quickly enough, darn it, but it was nice to debut her anyway ;). The kids got a lot of books yesterday and my favorite so far is Make Van Gogh's Bed, a book that introduces toddlers to great works of art by Renoir, Monet, Degas and Van Gogh. If you have a bookstore gift certificate burning a hole in your pocket, I definitely recommend it. And it looks like it's part of a series. Another early fave is A Pocket for Corduroy, which we didn't have. We enjoyed that last night with my son adorned in his new Corduroy pajamas.

5 Signed Copies of Wally Lamb's The Hour I First Believed to Be Given Away!

I have five signed copies of Wally Lamb's acclaimed and highly anticipated new novel, The Hour I First Believed, to give away, just in time for the holidays! How to enter? Well in keeping with our theme of buying books this holiday season, simply post a comment about what book or books you've bought so far for holiday gift giving this year and I'll draw 5 winners from all the comments received by midnight EST on Tuesday, December 2nd! I'll go first: today I stopped into a bookstore and picked up the newly reissued classic Free To Be...You and Me for my son's three-year-old friend (she might be a little young, but it comes wih the cd as well, which I know she can enjoy). I also bought Twilight to get myself caught up after having enjoyed the movie so much. Hmm, I guess that doesn't make it a gift, does it? But I did buy a  Twilight bookmark for my daughter's stocking!

And Speaking of Buying Books for the Holidays...

Today's New York Times offers up four lists of the best books of the year. The one from critic Michiko Kakutani includes Marie Brenner's Apples & Oranges about her late brother, as well as Fred Kaplan's new biography of Lincoln (which was also recently seen in the hands of our President-Elect). Janet Maslin's list includes Dennis Lehane's historical novel of Boston The Given Day, as well as a book I hadn't heard of but am now itching to see underneath the Christmas Tree -- Pictures at a Revolution: Five Movies and the Birth of the New Hollywood which examines film through the prism of the five movies up for best picture in 1967. They also list the top coffee table books as well as art books of the year. This Sunday's Times includes the 100 Notable Books of the Year, which you can get a preview of online now. These are five great lists to take with you to the bookstore!

Books Make Great Gifts

You may have noticed the lovely new button on the left-hand side of the blog here that shouts "Buy Books for the Holidays!". The ingenious Amy, of My Friend Amy, creator of the extravaganza that was Book Blogger's Appreciation Week, has done it again with the launch of a campaign for bloggers to encourage the purchase of books as gifts this holiday season! The button will take you to this great blog, filled with suggestions of great gift ideas along with reasons why books make wonderful presents.

If you're a book blogger, join her campaign here to commit to buying books for the holidays and spread the word. And if you're a consumer, consider books when doing your holiday shopping. We'll all be watching our dollars so carefully this year and books come in all price ranges (not to mention that they always fit!). Rather than buying yet another toy for the child in your life, why not buy them a book, a gift that truly keeps on giving, each time you read it with them, or they read it on their own! Giving a book to your friends and family is like giving them multiple gifts because they will open it and find something new for days and days as they read it!