Better to Give?

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: It’s a classic way to enrich and expand your characters’ personalities—what’s in their fridge? What’s in their wallet? What’s in their wastebasket?

But dear friend of Reds Laura DiSilverio has another idea. What gift do they give? And she’s giving YOU a prize—her brand new book AND a t-shirt--if you have the best answer.

Better to Give

    By Laura DiSilverio

Reading Rhys Bowen's recent post about her upcoming Molly book Away in the Manger, I realized that in my 15 published books, none has a Christmas scene. Not one. I plan to rectify that, but in the meantime, it got me thinking about the Readaholics and what Christmas would mean to each of them. 

Even though their new adventure, The Readaholics and the Poirot Puzzle, is set in August, I'm fast-forwarding them to Christmas and spying on their present buying.

         - Lola, with her limited budget and love of plants, gives everyone on her list (besides her Grandma and Axie), a vibrant poinsettia, or an amaryllis from her nursery, Bloomin' Wonderful.

        

- Brooke, the animal lover, tries to talk all her friends into adopting an aging dog or kitten (like this Misty-lookalike my daughter wanted a few years back) from Heaven Animal Haven and underwrites the adoption fee for them (since she married into the richest family in town).

      

   - Kerry, lover of all things practical and Heaven's part-time mayor, gives them each tickets to a singalong performance of The Messiah by the combined choirs of Heaven's churches and high schools, thereby killing three birds with one stone--increasing the audience for a town-sponsored event, boosting the coffers of Heaven's Arts Council, and giving them all a chance to celebrate the season together.

      

   -Maud gives all the Readaholics custom-made calendars constructed from photos her significant other Joe (a wildlife photographer) took of them and the beautiful areas surrounding Heaven, Colorado.       

-Amy-Faye, founder of the Readaholics, gives them all books (of course!), carefully hunted down at used bookstores and garage sales throughout the year. For Maud, she has two Helen MacInnes spy thrillers that she knows Maud has been looking for to complete her collection. For Lola, she found a signed copy of The Language of Flowers.  For Kerry, she got Nora Ephron's essay collection, I Feel Bad About My Neck (because Kerry has begun complaining in a humorous way about the downsides of aging now that she's closing in on fifty), and for Brooke she got the illustrated version of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone because they read the whole series together back before there even was a Readaholics book group.

Let's take it a step farther, now that we're thinking about characters and presents. What would your favorite literary character get that special someone on his or her Christmas list? I can see Hannibal Lecter gifting bottles of Chianti, or Jack Reacher tucking a toothbrush into a stocking.  Ishmael might wrap up that special bit of scrimshaw.  

I'm giving a copy of The Readaholics and the Poirot Puzzle plus a Readaholics T-shirt to the best comment (chosen with total capriciousness, so it might be for the funniest one or the most insightful, or simply the twenty-second one).

HANK: Books, books! Love this.  Charlotte McNally still gives All the President’s Men, she’s old school. Jane Ryland gives the Complete Sherlock Holmes, since she’s all about tracking down bad guys and solving crimes. She’s also giving subscriptions to MORE Magazine, because, yeah. Non-book gifts?  Hamlet is giving a Magic 8 ball, to help his friends decide at least. And Lady Macbeth? Hand sanitizer. 

Please, Reds.  You can do better.
And YAY! The Readaholics gets a starred review from Booklist! Laura, tell us everything!

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Laura DiSilverio is the author of the Swift Investigations and Mall Cop mystery series, as week as the standalone thriller THE RECKONING STONES and the new best-selling READAHOLICS series.

After twenty years as an Air Force intelligence officer – serving as a squadron commander, with the National Reconnaissance Office, and at a fighter wing – she retired to parenting and writing full-time.

Laura says: Spying was easier.