Our Best Books of the Year.

RHYS: A newspaper called me to ask me which were my favorite books of 2014. Needless to say there were Reds among my recommendations, but also Louise Penny's The Long Way Home. and Jacqueline Winspear's The Care and Management of Lies. I felt it was a good year for the sort of books I enjoy--great sense of time and place, strong likable characters.

So which books did you particularly enjoy?
And my second question: which books are on your holiday list?
I have a couple (one was given to me early as a present by Barbara Peters. It's a Hundred Special places for a woman to visit in France..., and the other I've suggested my husband might want to order for me. It's called Lisette's List by Sophie Vreeland, and is about Impressionist art, hidden from the Nazi's in WWII I love books that are set in France/span generations/have an element of mystery/and are about Impressionist art. So I can't wait to read it.

How about you? What books are on your wish list?

LUCY BURDETTE: Books are all I tell family members if they ask what I want for Christmas. This year, my choices seem to be all about food (natch!) and France. I jumped the gun and bought myself David Lebovitz's new cookbook, My Paris Kitchen. But I'm also dying for Dorie Greenspan's Baking Chez Moi, and Anne Willen's One Souffle at a Time.

It has been a great year for Red books, of course--have adored reading the latest from Hank, and Susan, and Debs, and Rhys--and can't wait for you all to get your hands on Hallie's new one, Night, Night, Sleep Tight! And I just ordered Mary Kennedy's NIGHTMARES CAN BE MURDER, and Sherry Harris's debut, TAGGED FOR MURDER. Yay, you'll hear more about her next week!

HALLIE EPHRON: #1 on my wish list is "The World of Raymond Chandler: In His Own Words" edited by Barry Day. Chandler was such a thoughtful writer, one of the reviews quotes him on writing "The Long Goodbye, Chandler": “I watched my wife die by half inches and I wrote the best book in my agony of that knowledge . . . I was as hollow as the places between the stars.” He's a prose poet. I love reading great writers talk about writing.

And my recent favorite to recommend is a wonderful collection of short stories, "In the Company of Sherlock Holmes: Stories Inspired by the Holmes Canon," edited by Leslie Klinger an Laurie R. King. Michael Connelly writes one where Harry Bosch meets a medical examiner who's earned the nickname Sherlock. In one by Michael Sims, the Silver Blaze (the horse) is the narrator. Fun!

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN:  I have been reading like MAD as a judge for a contest, so I can't say anything. I am reading so much my eyes are hurting. (And yes, it was indeed a wonderful year for Reds books. Quite extraordinary.)  I did give in and buy a book for myself,which I could not resist, and it's called WHAT IF. I hoped it as a book of mystery ideas (As if!) but it turned out to be a wonderful book of serious answers to hilarious hypothetical questions. Like: What If: everyone in the world went to the same place, and then jumped up and down at the same time? And: Could you make  rocket ship out of a whole lot of hairdryers?

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Yes, a very good year for REDs, wasn't it. Now if we could just all manage to get in the same calendar year, we'd have a sweep:-) Now I'm struggling to remember what else I've read...  (One of these days I swear I really am going to keep up a book journal. 2015???) Just finished Foxglove Summer by Ben Aaronovitch, which I loved. I discovered author Mark Pryor when I did a panel with him on book tour. I've started with the first in the series, The Bookseller, and am now on the second, The Crypt Thief. Loved Karin Salvalaggio's Bone Dust White. Loved Louise Penny's The Long Way Home. And, this is cheating a bit because it's not actually out until January, but I LOVED A Fine Summer's Day, the new Charles Todd Rutledge novel.

I have so many books I need to read that I haven't thought of asking for any for Christmas, just for fun, but now I want the books on Hallie's list! And Lizette's List from Rhys's list.

SUSAN ELIA MACNEAL: A GREAT year for Reds! Woo-hoo! I'm reading galleys for an award, so I'm a little bombarded (in a good way) with fiction, so I'm hoping for some non-fic — DRINKING WITH MEN by Rosie Shiap (my Brooklyn neighbor!), THE GRAMERCY TAVERN COOKBOOK, Amy Poehler's YES, PLEASE, and Alan Cumming's NOT MY FATHER'S SON.

I'm also obsessing over — get this — a wine scratch-and-sniff book. Yes, you read that correctly! It's called THE ESSENTIAL SCRATCH AND SNIFF GUIDE TO BECOMING A WINE EXPERT: TAKE A WHIFF OF THAT by Richard Betts. I mean, I haven't actually sniffed it yet, but... c'mon.... it sounds so fun!

RHYS: Some great suggestions here for Christmas presents, and if I might include a small plug here (since it's the last day of my week as host) If you have a child in your life and you are looking for a stocking stuffer, or you are seriously missing Harry Potter, please give my new children's book a try. It's called Dreamwalker--an adventure/fantasy novel set at a strange boarding school in Wales and it's available as a paperback and an e-book.
http://www.amazon.com/Dreamwalker-Red-Dragon-Academy-1/dp/150310205X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1417847542&sr=8-1&keywords=dreamwalker+rhys+bowen

Now please share your favorite books of the year and your wishes for holiday gifts!

An Old Fashioned Christmas

RHYS BOWEN: I'm currently writing a Molly Murphy Christmas book, called Away in a Manger,  which is perfect as I can get into the spirit of the season as I write.... or can I? Would Molly have been surprised to learn that some people find a new car under their tree? That all presents can be bought online? That people fight each other to get into stores on pre-Black Friday Thanksgiving Day sales?

Sometimes I think we've completely lost the spirit of the season with this constant desire for bigger and better gifts, more and more of everything. In a way that's why I'm enjoying taking myself back to Molly's time, when children were thrilled to find an orange, some nuts, and maybe a small toy in their stockings. When the Christmas Day feast of turkey/pies/plum puddings really was a treat because the rest of the year meals were very simple. When carolers sang in the streets, and the air was full of pine greenery, roasting chestnuts, baking potatoes.

I took a Christmas market cruise one year up the Danube and visited the markets in small towns along the river. That's about the closest I've come to old fashioned Christmas: stalls with wooden toys and ornaments, serving hot wieners/mulled wine/gingerbread. A brass band playing. A feast for the eyes and ears and nose. Small children, wrapped up against the cold, standing wide-eyed at the magic of it all. I loved it. But would my family really be happy with a carved wooden train?

I remember one year we decided we would make hand-made gifts for each other and get away from the commercial aspects of Christmas. So we worked on them. Clare made lovely velvet pillows. Dominic made fleece hats/scarves and toys. He also made CDs of stories read by him (he's an actor) They were a big success. I did jewelry and throw rugs with family photos all over them. BUT I went to the store and got real presents (just in case). As it turned out, so did everyone else. We opened our gifts to exaggerated delight and then when we were done, one of us cracked. "I just happened to see this as well," and brought out the store-bought gift. Sheepishly we all followed suit.

So I'd love you to share--what does an old fashioned Christmas mean to you? Can you remember things that happened in your childhood that were special to you? Special foods your grandma made or family traditions? I'd love to include some in the book I'm writing.
And did you ever have a Christmas of home-made gifts?

All I Want for Christmas is what???

RHYS BOWEN: Are you all in the holiday spirit? I would be if I could get the bleeping lights on the Christmas tree to work. I've ordered most of my gifts online which avoids going out in the rain. And if you're anything like me, you've received several gazillion catalogs. Some of them are fun and useful but this year I got one of those MOST OUTRAGEOUS AND USELESS GIFTS EVER type of catalog.
So here is my top ten list, starting with the most harmless.

1.The spinning spaghetti fork. It has a thumb-activated button that sets the fork rotating to wind up your spaghetti. At only $20. A bargain if you can't twist a fork by yourself.

2. The Darth Vader Toaster: toast your bread in this likeness of the iconic villain. Would you want Darth Vader staring at you, early in the morning, on your kitchen counter? Who could possibly want Darth Vader on their kitchen counter, unless you are George Lucas or have a Star Wars themed house?

3.The bearded beanie: A special knitted hat with a beard covering in contrasting color for those whose beards get cold (bearing in mind that hair has no sensitivity)

4.And if gets even colder: The Subzero Warm Breath Mask. Preferred by high altitude mountaineers (in case you have any of those on your gift list). It humidifies and warms winter air for more comfortable breathing. Maybe our Red who lives in Maine might think it's wonderful.

5. Light-casting gloves. An LED light in your gloves can shine on the front door as you try to insert your key without taking your gloves off. And the fingers are tipped with a material that mimics human skin so that you can use touch screens without taking gloves off. May be useful to see what you are eating if you go through the drive-through in your car.

6.Now we move to the more exotic. This one fascinates me: THE WORLD'S FIRST 3D PRINTING PEN. It sends out a thin stream of plastic to create 3D drawings. I still don't understand how it works but it's a steal at $99.99

7. Here is my favorite (NOT) a realistic remote controlled tarantula! Anyone who bought one of those for me for Christmas would definitely be on the "naughty" list forever.

8.And for those who like to go big: a 15 foot inflatable Rudolph. In the picture it looks like the reindeer could squash the house if it sat on it. And it's only four hundred dollars. I must get two.

9.And speaking of big things: A LIFE-SIZE TYRANNOSAURUS SKELETON. And I mean life-size. I don't know about you but a forty foot long and fifteen foot high Rex would not fit in my house. (Maybe it could go on the lawn and devour Rudolph). And it's a mere HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS!

10: And last but not least: The Celebrity Robotic Avatar. This robot is adult-sized, has appeared in movies, and is controlled by a wireless remote, small enough to escape detection so that it looks as if the robot is reacting by itself. It can engage in impromptu banter with guests. It's LED mouth lights up when it talks. Shipping weight is 500 pounds and it costs a mere $345,000.
For that amount I could hire a first-class butler whose mouth didn't light up when he talked but could move without a remote!

So Reds:Would you want to put any of these on your Christmas list?  Have you found anything more outlandish than these? Do share.