Bonnie Hudson

Books I love to give as gifts...The Earth at Our Doorstep: Contemporary Writers Celebrate the Landscapes of Home by Annie Stine (editor). Twenty-six contemporary writers share their thoughts and feelings about the places they live.  Authors include ones from many different genres and the geographies are extensive, from living on an island to the mountains and the plains of Dakota. As these writers share their home territories with us, I felt like I was often reading poetry. The short essays grabbed my imagination and my heart. Several places ended up on my 'places to visit' list. I have probably given 15 of these small books as gifts over the years. Children's Book: Absolutely my favorite book for very little ones is Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb by Al Perkins and Eric Gurney. I was able to interest my grandchildren in this 'Dr. Seussian' book as early as 9 months, due to its fun, simple words, rhyming, and great pictures. I often give this as a newborn gift. The children learn it quickly and then 'read it' back to the adult reader.  

Eileen Kohen

Ann Patchett writes creative works of literature with fascinating plots and well-developed characters. I recommend any of her works for holiday gifts. The two novels that I've read so far share a South American setting and unique characters. Bel Canto explores the relationships between terrorists and their international captives in a vice-presidential mansion. In State of Wonder a research gynecologist searches for colleagues in the Amazon jungle. Both novels are page turners! I'm about to read This is the Story of a Happy Marriage---a series of essays and her memoir. Enjoy!

Rosemary Laughlin

For those interested in the search for "Goldilocks planets": Lee Billings, Five Billion Years of Solitude: The Search for Life Among the Stars. Structured on the stories of three scientists (Frank Drake, Jim Kastings, Sara Seager), this book reads like a novel with dialogue and lucid description. Perfect for teen (and older) girls: Christine Heppermann, Poisoned Apples: Poems for You, My Pretty. Themed by fairy tales and accompanied by fascinating photographs, these are clever, funky, serious, and oh so culturally aware. Beautiful small book to handle.

How Dogs Love Us: A Neuroscientist and His Adopted Dog Decode the Canine Brain by Gregory Berns. Why do we bond so strongly with dogs, and they with us?  An Emory neuroscientist seeks answers with the Dog Project, where calm and happy pet dogs enter a noisy MRI machine where their reactions to treats, humans and other dogs are recorded. Much of the book is devoted to how the MRI works and the careful experimental design that reassures the dogs and makes them willing participants. What he discovers is they focus intently on us, anticipate our behavior and act accordingly, showing undeniable social cognition. They respond to the scent of their human family the same way we respond to photos of people we love. The author concludes "What are dogs thinking? The grand conclusion was this: they're thinking about what we're thinking. With their high degree of social and emotional intelligence, dogs reciprocated our feelings toward them. They truly are First Friend." While this shouldn't come as a surprise to dog lovers, the results of these unique experiments are new to science and should inspire researchers to look at nonhuman relationship in new ways.

Susan Shoemaker

Naomi Klein, This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate (2014).

Jane Smith

A great book is Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand. I understand it is being made into a movie, coming out around Christmas, making the book an even better gift this year.

Cheri Sullivan

One of my more successful gifts was one I gave to my mother about fifteen years ago. She had been asking for book recommendations, so I gave her several books -- each the first one in a series that I had enjoyed. That way, if she liked the book, she'd have more to look forward to. The only two I remember now are the first Harry Potter book by J.K. Rowling and the first No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith. She went on to read all the other books in each series!

Denise Taylor

Without a doubt, Philippe Halsman's Jump Book. Out of print (therefore pricey on Amazon, etc.), this collection of photos of (in)famous people literally caught jumping, vaulting, skipping, etc. is a marvelous, tongue-in-cheek snapshot of fame-cum-whimsy. The ridiculous and the sublime! My go-to gift for people with a slightly skewed sense of humor (and authority). It reminds me: "When asked to jump, don't ask 'how high'.

Joy Thornton-Walter

Here's a novel which is a first-time-published book by an unknown Australian woman named M. L. Stedman: The Light Between Oceans. It's timely, in that the effect of World War I on its veterans is one theme. It's about a young couple who become lighthouse keepers on an isolated island many miles offshore from Western Australia. Not a description that would have attracted me at all -- but it's just a wonderful read.

Karen Townsend

Poetry:  The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran. This book explores life on a deep and spiritual level. It touches on the balance of all things good and bad - and reads similar to Homer's Odyssey. It is very simply written with a couple pages devoted to each subject - pleasure vs. pain, houses, children, etc. The lessons enclosed can be applied to all walks of life and transcends daily frustrations. John Grisham wrote a wonderful, easy read entitled Skipping Christmas - it is short and hilarious! A married couple decides to take in warm weather and not celebrate Christmas when they learn their daughter, who is going to college, decides NOT to come home for Christmas. Although it is relatively predictable, it is written with a warm look at the hectic pre-Christmas days and brings in neighbors and their outlook on this family for NOT participating in the annual Christmas decoration contest. The best for a serious winter-by-a-roaring fire read: One Second After by William R. Forstchen. It is "the story of a man's struggle to save his family and his small town after America loses a war that sends our nation back to the Dark Ages." Excellent read and it is based on the scientific principles of an electromagnetic pulse (EMP). If you have lived through the sixties you can identify with this book, and it actually COULD happen. The first time I read it, guess where I found it? ON THE OLLI BOOKSHELVES!!

Martha Weinberg

I've put on my shopping list three books, all by women who grew up under very different circumstances from mine. First on this year's list is My Beloved World by Sonia Sotomayor, a beautifully written, moving description of this first Hispanic Supreme Court Justice's journey from a Bronx housing project to Princeton, Yale Law School and a seat on the Court. Also, in keeping with my interest in reading about the relationship between daughters and their mothers in different countries and cultures, I recommend Alexandra Fuller's Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness (a poignant and loving follow-on book to her earlier Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight, in which she chronicles her British born parents' life in various parts of Southern Africa and focuses on the story of her high-spirited mother as she moved from the Isle of Skye to become "Nicola Fuller of Central Africa." ) I love this book for its pitch-perfect (and often very funny) portraits of her family and of life in the wild African countryside. And one of my fallback favorites in the "growing up in different cultures" category is Jamaica Kincaid's Annie John, published in 1985, but still a classic coming-of-age story from which I've gotten something new when I've reread it at least once every decade since its publication. 

Rosalind Weinberg

Not sure people will think this is a "gift" book but I have just finished and highly recommend Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking. It is a wonderfully perceptive self-analysis of her first year of grieving and then mourning her husband of 40 years. Blown away at how she separates grieving from mourning and the concept of coming to terms with leaving her old life (with her husband) in order to face the one (without him) to come.

Sharon Williams

Both of my daughters-in-law love cookbooks. Last year I gave one of them Around My French Table by Dorie Greenspan. She and my son had honeymooned in France so she loved all the 'extras.' "Packed with lively stories, memories, and insider tips on French culinary customs, Around My French Table will make cooks fall in love with France all over again, or for the first time". This year I plan to give both of them Ina Garten's new cookbook, Make It Ahead. The three of us have all her other cookbooks. "In her ninth book, Garten tackles the question many with busy work lives ask of the food we consider cooking: 'Can I make it ahead?'" Garten became an expert on the topic after running her own specialty foods store in East Hampton for twenty years, and here she shares her tips and tricks for cooking, prepping, and baking in advance. Follow them, and you can actually enjoy yourself come mealtime."