Gift Guide: Fiction & Non-Fiction
Image: James Ransom
1. For nineteen years in row, New York Times best-selling author Anne Perry has given her readers a gift: a murder mystery set during the holidays. The Wall Street Journal writes, "No author since Doyle has more devotedly combined suspense with the spirit and message of Christmas than Anne Perry, the British author who has, since 2003, included a seasonal Victorian-era book in her prolific output." (Ballantine Books, hardcover, 209 pp.) $22.00
2. Many LDS authors are drawn to personal essays and creative non-fiction. In The Precarious Walk: Essays from Sand & Sky, Phyllis Barber pulls 17 essays written between 2009 and the present that were published in previous volumes and literary journals. The title comes from a probing, questioning essay that tracks Barber's quest to find meaning and purpose in an era of doubt. (Torrey House Press, softcover, 227 pp.) $18.95
3. How to boil down Steven L. Peck's new novel, Heike's Void? This is what the novelist himself says it is: "Heike's Void opens with Baader–Meinhof bombing of the Frankfurt Officers Club and ends in the La Sals (as all great novels do). It takes place in Germany, Africa, Nephi's world, Sweden, and Moab. Heike's Void is like Jack Weyland and David Foster Wallace are in a car crash, and someone sews them back together into a gorgeous Mary Shelleyesque creature, both sentimental and macabre." That'll do. (BCC Press, softcover, 340 pp.) $12.95
4. In her debut novel, Beneath the Wide Silk Sky, Emily Inouye Huey draws a story from her family history as a daughter, granddaughter, and great-granddaughter of Japanese Americans who were incarcerated during World War II in the American West. The novel of teenage romance against the backdrop of racism after the bombing of Pearl Harbor received a starred review from Publisher's Weekly. (Scholastic Press, hardcover, 336 pp.) $19.99
5. Years before Steven R. Covey passed away--the author's books have sold over 40 millions copies and formed the foundation for a business leadership empire--he asked his daughter Cynthia Covey Haller to help him write a book, his last "big idea." Now, ten years after his death comes Live Life in Crescendo: Your Most Important Work Is Always Ahead of You. In this book, the authors provide trademark encouragement for four life phases: mid-life, following up after success, setbacks, and advancing years. (Simon & Schuster, hardcover, 288 pp.) $27.99
6. This is the autobiography that animation fans have been waiting for! After years in Hollywood working alongside Walt Disney, animator Don Bluth made a shocking decision to start his own studio company (and took a fleet of Disney animators with him). Bluth then released era-defining movies of his own: An American Tale, The Secret of NIHM, Anastasia, The Land Before Time (and its 13 sequels), and more. Somewhere Out There: My Animated Life is Bluth's mesmerizing and fascinating, bare-it-all story. (Smart Pop, softcover, 374 pp.) $21.95
7. Kiersten White is the New York Times best-selling author of the trilogies, And I Darken and Camelot Rising, among other books. In Star Wars Padawan, young Obi-Wan Kenobi rebels against his master and sets off on, as the book's Kirkus review notes, an "absorbing adventure with an emphasis on self-discovery." (Disney Lucasfilm Press, hardcover, 400 pp.) $18.99
8. A high school student in Arizona, Jason Olson called his friend Dave around five o'clock in the morning and told him that the Book of Mormon, which he'd been given, was true. "It's true, man," I continued, tears streaming down my cheeks...I felt it. The Book of Mormon is just as true as my Bible is." It's a story that any LDS person with a spirit of missionary work would love to hear. The difference in this case is that Jason Olson was a Jewish boy considering becoming a rabbi, and his budding testimony was only the beginning of an extraordinary story of one man and two faiths. The Burning Book: A Jewish-Mormon Memoir is co-written with James Goldberg. (BCC Press, softcover, 247 pp.) $11.95
9. Syd and Shea McGee's Make Life Beautiful is a book that aims at multiple genres at once. It is a he said/she said memoir of their journey to be the fastest-growing interior design brand in the U.S. and the hosts of the Netflix series, Dream Home Makeover (three seasons and counting). It is full of self-help business and life advice. And it is organized around cleanly contemporary interior design principles that are the McGee brand. (Harper Horizon, hardcover, extended edition, 223 pp.) $26.99