Reds Holiday Shopping Ideas for Book Lovers!

SUSAN ELIA MACNEAL: Since we've now left Thanksgiving in the dust, it's time to start thinking about holiday gifts. And if you're bookish the way the Reds are (and I'm assuming so, if you're reading this blog!), we have some ideas for you bibliophiles out there!

First off, something free!

Penguin Random House is having a contest for copies their beautiful classics, with new covers illustrated by Anna Bond of Rifle Paper Co. Aren't they gorgeous? Today's the last day you can enter, so don't dawdle!



And three runners-up will receive ALICE IN WONDERLAND, celebrating its 150th anniversary!




For the writer in your life, I found these fab pencils.... (Ordered for the Kiddo's stocking...)





If you'd like something festively bookish to carry your new pencils (or, you know your regular stuff), this book-illustrated pouch is gorgeous (and keeps lead and ink and whatnot from getting on things in your bag).



And for the mystery fan who has everything, I recommend the new ANNOTATED SHERLOCK HOLMES — a boxed three-volume set with gorgeous illustrations of all of Doyle's stories, as well as annotated goodies to enjoy.





Reds, what books and bookish gifts are you giving (or do you want) for the holidays?





RHYS BOWEN: I know one bookish gift I've already put on my own wish list. I'm a big fan of Kate Morton and she's just come out with a new book called The Lake House. And I already have a signed copy of another book for one of my daughters, but I can't tell you what it is because she reads this page sometimes. I've just realized my whole family reads this page so I can't tell you any other brilliant suggestions. For my birthday my brother gave me a beautiful fountain pen in natural Tasmanian wood. My kind of gift!



SUSAN ELIA MACNEAL: Rhys is being quite modest, as her Christmas book, AWAY IN A MANGER, just came out — but more on that on Saturday!


HALLIE EPHRON: I lust after lovely pens and pencils, but I know better -- I lose them too fast. One of my favorite gifts for readers and writers is personalized stationery. I know, from another era. But because use email and messaging so much, an actual handwritten letter has more meaning. Love the designs on tinyprints.com. And is there the equivalent of Netflix for audio books?


HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Oh, gosh, thank you. You remind me I have to think about this. Yes, I love pens and pencils, too, and paper. And notebooks! I found some wonderful notebooks. They're made by a non-profit called More Than Words, from the covers of old video boxes. You know? The covers are the fronts of the cardboard boxes that held video rentals, and they've been made into spiral bound notebooks. So brilliant. I love them! I have Sabrina, For Your Eyes Only, and Only The Valiant. And Spiderman. And the good part--they are so inexpensive, I'll actually use them. I have a whole stash of gorgeous notebooks that I don't use because (so silly) I think oh, what I'm writing is not important enough. So the secret--use cool but inexpensive notebooks--I'm not afraid to write in them!

DEBORAH CROMBIE: My daughter and I made a stop at Barnes & Noble last week. Coloring books galore! I have asked for one called Hidden Paris--so fun. AND I saw the Robert Galbraith book and the new Jim Butcher (beginning of a new series.) Both big doorstoppers of books, the kind I love to get for Christmas. Oh, those are all for me, aren't they? Well, there are lots of books by fellow REDS to give to other people...

LUCY BURDETTE: Oh grand ideas, which sent me on an ordering spree...no pens or pencils for us, though, we lose them like Hallie! I love the idea of the notebooks, Hank, but I couldn't find them online. And Debs, you reminded me that my daughter was itching for coloring books--found them very soothing when in the hospital by my mother-in-law's bedside. For John, David Lebovitz's THE PERFECT SCOOP and the Ben and Jerry ice cream book. (You can guess what else Debs talked me in to!) I'm also giving signed copies of Kristan Higgan's IF YOU ONLY KNEW (for lovers of women's fiction), Isabel Allende's THE JAPANESE LOVER, and 100 YEARS OF BEST SHORT STORIES, edited by Lorrie Moore. I'm going to have to put the Kate Morton on my list!

Some other ideas: for short story crime fiction lovers, RED DAWN, for mystery and foodie people, THE MWA COOKBOOK, and for Florida and nature lovers, my own sister Susan Cerulean's gorgeous book, COMING TO PASS.




Julia Spencer-Fleming: The top item on my Christmas list is definitely book-related: the DVD of the first season of POLDARK. I forswore watching it so I could get more work done on my own book, (so that didn't work out quite as planned...) in exchange for the promise that someone in the family would get me the televised version of Winston Graham's beloved saga. My interest is strictly literary, and has nothing to do with hot Aidan Turner.



A book-lover's present I may be giving this year: one of Storiarts' book scarves. They're beautiful cotton knit infinity scarves silkscreened with excerpts from Sherlock Holmes, Jane Austin, Edgar Allen Poe and Charles Dickens, among other classics. A new twist (no pun intended): this year, Storiarts is offering custom-order scarves with the text of your choice. So you can give your favorite author a wearable form of her own book!


SUSAN ELIA MACNEAL: For more ideas, check out Lucy Burdette's Pinterest board, called Mystery Books as Stocking Stuffers.

Lovely Reds, what books or writing things are you planning on giving (or would like to receive) this year? Tell us in the comments!

Kate White Dishes on the Mystery Writers of America Cookbook #giveaway

LUCY BURDETTE: We are thrilled, thrilled, thrilled to host Kate White today--she's here to chat about her latest herding-cats project--editing the Mystery Writers of America cookbook. Kate, welcome! Please tell us about the book!

KATE WHITE: Because I was both a mystery author and have had experience as an editor—I ran Cosmopolitan magazine for 14 years, and four other magazines before that—MWA asked me to edit the cookbook for them. I loved doing it. True, at moments it was a bit like herding cats to get some of those successful authors to send me their recipes, but I enjoyed having contact with famous writers I’d never met and I also got a kick out of seeing what recipes they submitted. There are also some fun sidebars in the book, which I enjoyed researching and writing, like: What Exactly Is a Red Herring? And “Pretty Poisons Right in Your Garden.” The latter got me thinking about using poison again in a mystery. Only a few toxins are routinely tested for in autopsies, so poison can be a good way to kill someone and never be caught.


LUCY BURDETTE: Were you surprised at which writers chose what recipes? (Was there a pattern, like hard-boiled=appetizers, cozy=dessert?) What were some of your favorites?

KATE WHITE: Oh, that’s a great question about patterns. I didn’t see any. For instance, Joseph Finder, the author of such strong, gritty suspense novels, offered a yummy apple crumble recipe. And James Patterson gave me a delicious chocolate cake recipe. (Conclusion: many male suspense writers are real sweeties!)

      There were some wonderful surprises. Gillian Flynn writes such fabulously dark stuff so it took me aback to see her recipe for the very All American-seeming “Beef Skillet Fiesta.” And Nelson DeMille’s funny “Male Chauvinist Pigs in the Blanket” almost made me fall off my chair laughing. 

     Other recipes were like little gifts. For instance, I still remember reading my first J.A.Jance novel year ago (Edge of Evil) and practically smelling the Sugarloaf Café sweet rolls she describes, and lo and behold, she sent in the recipe for them. And thanks to Lorenzo Carcaterra, I finally have my go-to marinara sauce.

     I’ve actually added a few of the wonderful recipes to my regular repertoire, like Kathy Reich’s “Shrimp Scampi” and Hank Phillippi Ryan’s “Worth-the-Effort Turkey Tetrazzini” (I always wanted to know how to use leftover turkey!).

LUCY BURDETTE: Do you like to cook? What menu might you serve at a dinner party?

KATE WHITE: I do love to cook and I do it a lot for friends and family. I’m not imaginative but I’m a cookbook addict, and I’m decent at following recipes. I have all the Barefoot Contessa cookbooks, for instance, as well as those by Nigella Lawson and Giada De Laurentiis. We live in Uruguay part of each winter, and my favorite chef is Francis Mallmann, who has a restaurant not far from us. His cookbooks—Seven Fires and On Fire—are fantastic. He believes that charring both meats and vegetables brings out unusual flavors. And he’s right! What I’ve also learned from him is that simple is so often best. Don’t overthink things, use just a handful of ingredients (but be sure they are the best you can find), and don’t fuss with food that’s grilling (let it char!!!). One of my favorite Mallmann dishes is a salad with thinly sliced raw zucchini, almonds, fresh mint, and parmesan cheese, dressed with olive oil and fresh lemon juice. For a summer dinner party, I might serve that first and then do a main course of grilled chicken, which I’ve marinated to death in lemon and oregano for two days, fresh sliced tomatoes, and Tuscan beans.

LUCY BURDETTE: Your suspense novel, THE WRONG MAN, will hit bookshelves in June. Tell us a little about that. And is it true that part of the book is set in the Florida Keys? 

KATE WHITE: The Wrong Man comes out in June, and yes it’s about Islamorada, which I discovered after being invited to a wedding there. In the book, a woman named Kit Finn takes her vacation in Islamorada and ends up having a very brief but thrilling fling with a man who is staying at the same hotel. He’s from New York City, as she is, and he asks her to dinner at his apartment in the city the week they both get back. But when she arrives, the man who opens the door has the same name as the man she met in Florida, but it isn’t him. That begins a nightmare that doesn’t want to quit.

LUCY: Kate thanks so much for visiting. Reds, we have a giveaway today--a copy of the MWA cookbook! To be entered in the drawing, leave a comment with your email.

KateWhite, the former editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan magazine, is the New York Times bestselling author of six Bailey Weggins mysteries and four stand-alone suspense novels, including Eyes on You, and the upcoming The Wrong Man (June). She is also the editor of The Mystery Writers of America Cookbook. Connect with Kate at katewhite.com