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Windows into Other Worlds: Book Gifts for the 2024 Holidays

A.M. Potter2 Comments

To give a book is to give a window into another world. Here are four gift ideas for the 2024 Holidays.

First, a mystery/detective suggestion:

The Lock-Up by John Banville, 2023. Booker Prize-Winner John Banville writes inventive whodunits that also happen to be eloquent and atmospheric. The Lock-Up, a Strafford and Quirke Mystery, evokes the sights, smells, and sounds of mid-1900s Ireland. If your giftee is a fan of character-driven detective tales, giftwrap The Lock-Up for them.

In Winter I Get Up at Night by Jane Urquhart, 2024. Longlisted for the 2024 Giller Prize. Urquhart’s latest novel cements her reputation as one of Canada’s finest historical fiction authors. The novel is a wide-sweeping tale encompassing artistry, education, and politics in the first half of the twentieth century. Sure to please lovers of Canadiana as well as historical and prairie fiction.

Playground by Richard Powers, 2024. Given his wide fictional lens, Pulitzer Prize-Winner Richard Powers is one of the most thought-provoking American novelists of the past ten years. Although the opening sags a bit, Playground soon lifts off and the story soars, a tale intertwining AI and the future of the world’s oceans. The novel is, by turns, playful and disquieting. It is also inventive, evocative, and forward-looking.

Held by Anne Michaels, 2024. Shortlisted for the 2024 Booker Prize | Winner of the 2024 Giller Prize. Held is poetic without being precious, revealing solid bones under a lyrical skin. The novel won’t be everyone’s cup of tea. Some will find the storyline scattered. Like C.S. Richardson’s All The Colour In the World, Held requires the reader to slow down. If they do, Michaels’ cadence and imagery will pull them in.

Windows into Other Worlds: Book Gifts for the 2023 Holidays

A.M. PotterLeave a comment

To give a book is to give a window into another world. Here are five gift ideas for the 2023 Holidays.

First, two mystery/detective suggestions:

The Wolf and the Watchman by Niklas Natt och Dag, English translation from the Swedish, 2019. The Wolf and the Watchman should please any fan of historical crime/mystery fiction. The novel (set in 1793, in Sweden) presents a captivating tale, beautifully told. The whodunit angle alternates between darkness and light, judiciously balancing good and evil. The Wolf and the Watchman is the first book in the Jean Mickel Cardell trilogy, which includes The City Between the Bridges and The Order of the Furies.

Muskie Falls by Ron Corbett, 2023. The first novel in Corbett’s Detective Yakabuski series, Ragged Lake, revealed that Corbett (from Ottawa, Canada) was a born storyteller. With Muskie Falls, the fourth novel in the series, his story-telling virtuosity becomes even clearer. Muskie Falls is equal parts riveting mystery and stylistic tour-de-force. The plot unfolds on the fictionalized Northern Divide, an unforgettable locale, perfectly rendered. The story is delivered with nuanced authenticity and the rip-roaring drive of a northern river.

All The Colour In The World by C.S. Richardson, 2023. All The Colour In The World is lean, fast-paced, and atmospheric, more prose poem than traditional novel. If your giftee prefers expansive, detailed novels, this won’t likely be their cup of cheer. On the other hand, if they like reading outside the box, this could be their cuppa, a spare yet powerful story, anchored in Toronto but displaying all the colours of the world.

Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton, 2023. Birnam Wood is both a beguiling story and a novel of ideas, a crucible of eco-idealism, survivalism, and human striving. The novel transports the reader to NZ’s South Island. Catton, a previous Booker Prize winner, knows how to hook an audience. The plot unfolds slowly (perhaps too slowly for some) but cleverly, reaching a thriller-type crescendo.

The Tao of Travel by Paul Theroux, 2011. Some travel books are timeless. Theroux’s The Tao of Travel is one of them. It contains a collection of evocative quotes whose origins span the globe. The reader can open it at any page. They’ll be instantly transported to the quote’s location. When they’re ready to venture off again, they can simply turn the page.

Windows into Other Worlds: Gifts for the 2022 Holidays, North American Authors

A.M. Potter1 Comment

To give a book is to give a window into another world. Here are five gift ideas for the 2022 Holidays. Today, North American authors. See last week for British authors.

First, a mystery/detective suggestion:

The Sweet Goodbye by Ron Corbett, 2022. Corbett has been nominated for both the Edgar and Arthur Ellis awards. The Sweet Goodbye is a complex tale of deceit and retribution set in the wild timberlands of Maine. Like Ian Rankin, Corbett doesn’t dish out genteel whodunits. However, Corbett’s fictional violence isn’t gratuitous; it’s part of life in the hinterland. [NB: The Sweet Goodbye may not suit fans of cozy mysteries.]

On Foot to Canterbury: A Son’s Pilgrimage by Ken Haigh, 2021. Shortlisted for the 2021 Hilary Weston Prize (Nonfiction). Do you have a traveler, hiker, or lover of English history and literature on your gift list? On Foot to Canterbury recounts a walk from Winchester to Canterbury, England, hiking the Pilgrims’ Way. The book delves deeply into England’s past. Haigh weaves together three main threads — travel memoir, English literature, and English history — producing a vibrant tapestry. 

Stray Dogs by Rawi Hage, 2022. Shortlisted for the Giller Prize. Stray Dogs is a collection of sharply-etched stories ranging from Beirut to Montreal to Baghdad. All are sparsely told; all unfold with a quick, addictive pace. Full disclosure: A few of the stories didn’t grab me, but I’m hard to please. 😉 Regardless, Stray Dogs delivers far more delights than disappointments.

American War by Omar El Akkad, 2017. El Akkad won the 2021 Giller Prize for What Strange Paradise. American War is told with taut, clean prose. The novel’s apocalyptic post-oil storyline brings to mind Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. The plot is inventive and disquieting. The post-oil world is artfully rendered. NB: The first 100 pages get mired in a few ruts. After that, the novel takes off.

A Season on Vancouver Island by Bill Arnott, 2022. Arnott is the award-winning author of numerous travel books and novellas. If your prospective giftee has visited Vancouver Island or plans to, present them with A Season on Vancouver Island, a travel memoir for all seasons. Arnott’s writing is humorous, poetical, and illuminating. For those yet to visit one of the world’s most majestic islands (and its surrounding archipelago), the book will whet their appetite and inform their journey. For those who’ve been there, the book will bring them back – to, as Arnott describes it, the language of ravens and the sound of sea-wash.