Still looking for that perfect gift? The clock is ticking. Luckily, we asked a few Austin-area authors for their holiday shopping suggestions:
Stephen Harrigan is a local author, journalist and screen writer. His works include Challenger Park, The Gates of the Alamo and Comanche Midnight.
Wolf Hall by Hillary Mantel. A powerful and eerily authoritative novel about court intrigue during the reign of Henry VIII. Winner of the Mann-Booker prize.
Traitor to His Class by H.W. Brands. Austin’s own Bill Brands is a world-class biographer and historian and when you’re reading his massive portrait of Franklin Roosevelt you never doubt that you’re in an expert’s hands.
The Fires of Vesuvius by Mary Beard. If, like me, you never get tired of reading about Ancient Rome, this is a must-have book about life in Pompeii.
True Grit by Charles Portis. Obviously not a new novel, but in my opinion one of the greatest American novels ever. Soon to be remade as a movie (in Austin) by the Coen Brothers.
Gutshot Straight by Lou Berney. A lighter-than-air caper novel distinguished by great wit and inventiveness and, as I say in a cover blurb, the best McGuffin ever.
Then Came the Evening by Brian Hart. A compelling, relentless and beautifully written new novel by one of the recent star graduates of the Michener Center for Writers. Will be published Dec.22nd
John Pipkin is the author of Woodsburner, winner of the 2009 First Novel Prize from the Center for Fiction.
To my mother-in-law we gave the Heretic’s Daughter (a novel about the Salem witch trials) by Dallas writer Kathleen Kent, and Jamie Ford’s The Hotel at the Corner of Bitter and Sweet (a novel about the persecution of Japanese immigrants in Seattle during WWII).
To my father-in-law we gave Frank Delaney’s latest novel, Shannon, because his family is originally from County Kilkenny and he loves all things Irish. (And I should mention that I was fortunate to sit on a panel with both Kathleen and Frank at the Miami Book Festival in November, and I sat on a panel with Jamie here in Austin at the Texas Book Festival. They are all great people, as well as fantastic writers.)
Moving to the other side of Europe, I gave my father a copy of Heart of Europe: The Past in Poland’s Present by Norman Davies. This is sort of a “reverse history” that moves backward, chapter by chapter, showing the historical origins of Poland’s 20th-century struggles. My father’s side of the family is from the Krackow region, so I usually can’t go wrong with a Poland-related gift.
We also gave copies of Dan Chaon’s Await Your Reply and Laurie Moore’s The Gate at the Stairs.
And since I have a bunch of little nephews and nieces back in Baltimore, we recently shipped a heavy box of BookPeople purchases back east. Among the titles in the box were the “Flat Stanley” series (by Jeff Brown and Macky Pamintuan) and the “Lunch Lady” series (by Jarrett J. Krosoczka), as well as some of Jon Scieszka’s “Truck Town” books. And, though he doesn’t know it yet, my son is getting Robot Zot (by Jon Scieszka and David Shannon) and This Is the Way to the Moon (by Miroslav Sasek) as well as a stack of “Magic School Bus Bus” books, which he’s crazy about right now.
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