Great picks for holiday gifts!

By michele on December 04, 2008 | Add a Comment

Last night over fifty people came to our Holiday Book Recommendations event.  Lesley Vasilio and Ron Koltnow of Random House, Anne DeCourcey of HarperCollins, and Katie McGarry of Simon & Schuster spoke about some of their favorite books of the year that make the perfect gift.  Tom Holbrook, owner & manager of RiverRun, spoke about some of the great autographed books we have, like Pulitzer Prize-winner David Hackett Fischer's Champlain's Dream and Hannah Tinti's The Good Thief.

Books on the list are available at our store or on this website

For those of you who couldn't make it, I highly suggest you check out the list below.  There are more than just bestsellers on here.  Be sure to check out Anne's recommendation of State by State and Lesley's fun pick of Doomed Queens to see examples of the eclectic variety of this list!

Katie’s Picks        

Peter and the Wolf-Chris Raschka
I Got Two Dogs-John Lithgow
Chains-Laurie Halse Anderson
The Bill Martin Jr. Big Book of Poetry
Deck the Halls-Norman Rockwell   
The Olivia Gift Sets-Ian Falconer
A is for Art-Stephen Johnson 
Tea for Ruby-Sarah Ferguson
Peter Pan-Robert Sabuda
Predators by Lucia and Meera Santoro
Here Comes Santa-David Pelham
Big Bug Book-David Carter
Yellow Square-David Carter
Night Before Christmas-Robert Sabuda
12 Days of Christmas-Robert Sabuda

  

  

  

Anne’s Picks

Alex & Me-Irene Pepperberg
The Given Day-Dennis Lehane
The Glory Game-Frank Gifford
Hate That Cat-Sharon Creech
The Hour I First Believed-Wally Lamb
Immoveable Feast-John Baxter
John Lennon: The Life-Philip Norman
A Lion Among Men-Gregory Maguire
Louise, The Adventures of a Chicken-Kate DiCamillo
The Mental Floss History of the World- Erik Sass
The Nutcracker-Patricia Fry
The Runaway Dolls-Ann M. Martin
Science Fair-Dave Barry
Second Helpings of Roast Chicken-Simon Hopkinson
Serena-Ron Rash
Spain: A Culinary Road Trip-Mario Batali
State by State-Matt Weiland
The Widow Clicquot-Tilar Mazzeo
Everything is Illuminated-Jonathan Safran Foer
The Mysteries of Pittsburgh-Michael Chabon
Unbearable Lightness of Being- Milan Kundera
Old Bear by Kevin Henkes
Pocket Dangerous Book for Boys-Conn Iggulden
Pocket Daring Book for Girls-Andrea Buchanan

Lesley’s Picks

Doomed Queens-Kris Waldherr
Traitor to His Class-H.W. Brands
Descartes’ Bones-Russell Shorto
Revolutionary Road-Richard Yates
A Mercy-Toni Morrison
The Private Patient-P.D. James
Bridge of Sighs-Richard Russo
The Widows of Eastwick-John Updike
The Forever War-Dexter Filkins
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo-Stieg Larsson
The Comforts of a Muddy Saturday-Alexander McCall Smith
I See You Everywhere-Julia Glass
Icarus at the Edge of Time-Brian Greene
War & Peace-Leo Tolstoy
“Have You Seen…?”-David Thomson
The Complete Robuchon-Joel Robuchon
The Northern Clemency-Philip Hensher
Sacred Places of a Lifetime-National Geographic
Visions of Paradise-National Geographic
National Geographic:The Photographs-Leah Bendavid-Val
1001 Foods You Must Taste Before You Die
Family Christmas Treasures-Kacey Barron
Blindspot-Jane Kamensky
Oxford Project- Peter Feldstein

Ron’s Picks

American Lion-Jon Meacham
Annie Leibovitz at Work-Annie Leibovitz
Ballistics-Billy Collins
Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics-Ina Garten
The Clothes They Stood Up In-Alan Bennett
Deciding the Next Decider-Calvin Trillin
Giada’s Kitchen-Giada De Laurentiis
Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Society-Mary Ann Shaffer
Let’s Play Doctor-Mark Leyner
Martha Stewart’s Cooking School-Martha Stewart
The Snowball-Alice Schroeder
Watchmen-Alan Moore
Why Do Men Have Nipples?-Mark Leyner