Black Friday Books

LUCY BURDETTE: Reds, what are you doing today?? Anyone braving the Black Friday shopping crowds? I won’t be out there, unless it’s a bookstore. Speaking of books as gifts, how about sharing one recommendation for a book to give for the holidays?

Here's mine: For kids of all ages, I can't rave enough about Bolivar by Sean Rubin, about a little girl living in New York City who discovers a dinosaur living next door. The illustrations are flat out stunning and the story is terrific, too.

HALLIE EPHRON: I'm with my own "little girl living in NYC"... my 5-year-old granddaughter who is a pip. And her baby brother who climbs and jumps off things all day long. Bolivar sounds like a book they'd like. They have the Knuffle Bunny books which are set practically in their neighborhood in Brooklyn. I'm reading a book for our times, POST-TRUTH by Lee McIntyre, a slender volume written by a philosopher (who also writes crime novels).

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN:  LOVED Post Truth. It's brilliant. (in fact, I gave it as birthday gifts to the adult kids over the last year!)  For kids, I just saw Ada Twist, Scientist, by Andrea Beaty, which celebrates girl power and women scientists, and it looks amazing. I always give the Edward Eager books to older kids--9 -ish--they are  wonderful classics, about family and magic and curiosity and sibling power.

For adults, hmm. I haven't read it, but Michelle's book (;-) ) looks pretty irresistible. (And I am deep into book judging, so more I cannot say.) And it's the opposite of festive, but The Radium Girls by Kate Moore is chilling and important--about the women who pointed the  radium dials on watches, and what happened to them, and what happened to occupational health and safety laws as a result.

And no, I would not set ONE TOE into a store on Black Friday. Forget about it.

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Oooh, I love these suggestions. I'm definitely going to check out Bolivar for Wren. I will have to have a good prowl through a bookstore in the next couple of weeks for my gift ideas. I would recommend Ann Mah's THE LOST VINTAGE. It was one of my favorite reads of the year. It's such a good mix of contemporary France, history, mystery, and romance.

No Black Friday shopping for me!!! Although I do want to do more in local stores this year, and resist the lure of on

line...

RHYS BOWEN: No Black Friday for me either. John and I went once to a big electronics store and found amazing bargains... then we saw the line to check out went all the way around the store. No thank you. No bargain is worth that much of my time! I have resorted to Amazon gift cards when I can't come up with anything else. One son-in-law loves to read but he will probably have read all the recently released mysteries/thrillers. Debs I must get THE LOST VINTAGE. I love books set in France.


The book I would love to give as a gift is the WONKY DONKEY. Such a fun book! Alas I have no little children on my list any longer. I'll have to give it to myself and read it out loud. I'm just reading the new Kate Morton and I have to say I'm having a hard time getting into it. So many narrators and time periods and it seems that one of them is a ghost...I was so looking forward to this too. I may put it down and start on Louise Penny's latest. Always a big treat.

How about you Red readers? Black Friday shopping? A holiday book recommendation?