Book recommendations, please!
December 12, 2009 3:26 PM   Subscribe

What book(s) should I buy for my mom for Christmas? She has recently really liked the following:

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
Long Way Down by Nick Hornby
Timbuktu by Paul Auster
The Bear Went Over the Mountain by William Kotzwinkle
The Loop by Joe Coomer
and so on. I think of her reading tastes as stories that remind you what's important, but are also interesting and perhaps a little quirky, but not overly sappy.

I'm usually successful at giving her something that I read recently that I liked, but I've sadly read very little this year, so I'm at a bit of a loss. Any recommendations?
posted by otters walk among us to Media & Arts (12 answers total) 4 users marked this as a favorite
 
If she liked Curious Incident, she will probably also like Marcelo in the Real World, which involves a similar protagonist in a summer job at his dad's law firm who starts his own investigation of one of their major cases.
posted by Flannery Culp at 3:43 PM on December 12, 2009


How about a Michael Chabon book? The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Klay of course, but maybe The Yiddish Policemen's Union.
posted by The Michael The at 4:01 PM on December 12, 2009


She might like Cold Sassy Tree, by Olive Ann Burns. It's something of a coming-of-age story, told by a a 14-year-old boy in Georgia in the early 1900s. It's funny, quirky, light, but does have important underlying themes.
posted by Houstonian at 4:14 PM on December 12, 2009


The Elegance of the Hedgehog. White Tiger. Three Day Road. Shantaram. possibly The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. Weight. Someone Knows My Name. Half of a Yellow Sun. Zeitoun. (you will note I've switched over to hardcovers) Winter Vault. Lacuna.

I would say, as a friendly neighbourhood bookseller, that any of these would work for your mom. and I would add one of my personal favourite authors: Alessandro Baricco. Silk, Ocean Sea and City are all phenomenal and meet your criteria of being good reads that inspire reflection on the good life.
posted by spindle at 4:14 PM on December 12, 2009


Water for Elephants
Life of Pi

Good reads and fit your description of her tastes.
posted by katopotato at 4:27 PM on December 12, 2009


Steve Martin's novels reminded me, in ways of The Curious Incident . . ., and would make pretty great gifts because of the quirky-factor of decent books by an actor.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 4:33 PM on December 12, 2009


Water for Elephants. I volunteer at a Humane Society Thrift Store, about 25 volunteers
(most of them are older women) have read it and everyone loved it so much that we keep a copy on hand to share with new volunteers.
posted by misspat at 5:48 PM on December 12, 2009


Yes, Cloud Atlas. Definitely. Ghostwritten is also fantastic.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 6:26 PM on December 12, 2009


Response by poster: Thank you all for the suggestions. I'll head over to the bookseller tomorrow with a nice list.
posted by otters walk among us at 6:49 PM on December 12, 2009


Yeah, I'm reading Mitchell's Black Swan Green now and it fits the bill. Subtly quirky, but hidden in a serious sort-of mis-en-scene disguise.
posted by mannequito at 7:01 PM on December 12, 2009


I enjoyed Notwithstanding very much. Amazon says it's out of print, but I bought it a few weeks ago from a bookstore here, so ymmv.
posted by Emilyisnow at 8:14 PM on December 12, 2009


I just wanted to second Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - I gave it to my mum last year for her birthday and she loved it, and then my boyfriend gave it to his mum for Christmas and she loved it. It's somehow the ideal mum book (I've not read it yet, but I gather it has believable and likeable characters and an interesting history-based storyline, which I suspect is what makes it so appealing).
posted by featherboa at 1:29 AM on December 13, 2009


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