Holiday Rec List

Okay, this doesn't have pretty italicized titles or links yet but if I don't post now and update the post with all that, you might never get the thing, so...here:

Some (slightly) random holiday recommendations for different people that could be on your list :)

Kids Books


Middle Grade (since I realized one of my ‘Kids Books’ was more MG)


Adult Books (Old & New-ones where I think they're similar but also that the 'old' ones have good new ones by the same author and the 'new' ones have good older ones by the same author...)
Old=Billie Letts' The Honk and Holler Opening Soon (Also the author of Where the Heart Is that they made the movie of). Her new book is Made in the U.S.A.. New=Joshilyn Jackson's The Girl Who Stopped Swimming, an older book of hers is Between, Georgia.

Old=John Irving's A Prayer for Owen Meany (it was made into the movie Simon Birch, fyi). A newer book of his is Until I Find You. New=Wally Lamb's book The Hour I First Believed. One of his older books is She's Come Undone.


The older book is Scott Turow’s Presumed Innocent -I just did that one because it looked like the first with a character that's in others, but other books are in paperback/cheaper (I think the newest one he has is maybe 2006, though) and the newer one is John Grisham’s The Appeal in paperback-but he has another book coming out in January and Playing for Pizza that came out September 2007.

Books into Movies (the Books):


Historical Books (from Fiction to Fact): (see what I did there I went from all fictional to factual on the same subject/time period)

Other historical fiction:
Innocent Traitor is the story of Lady Jane Grey (I was bad and didn't know more of it when I read the book, so I'm not going to tell you more either :P), it's fictionalized because the books a novel, but the author also writes nonfiction books so it has enough fact/history in the story to make everything seem very true.
The Last Wife of Henry VIII is a (again fictionalized) first person story of Catherine Parr...Henry VIII's sixth and last wife. It's way, way fictional but hey, Blood Ties was also Henry VIII related but non-historical yet enjoyable. it still gives you the basic who's who and what order the major things happened in. For some things you do need a history lesson sure, but you'll know more (some wrong maybe) than without reading it.
A Company of Swans is another of Eva Ibbotson's semi-historical fictions (the history's not really the focus). From Amazon: "For nineteen-year-old Harriet Morton, life in 1912 Cambridge is as dry and dull as a biscuit. Her stuffy father and her opressive aunt Louisa allow her only one outlet: ballet. When a Russian ballet master comes to class searching for dancers to fill the corps of his ballet company before their South American tour, Harriet’s world changes. Defying her father’s wishes and narrowly escaping the clutches of the man who wishes to marry her, Harriet sneaks off to join the ballet on their journey to the Amazon."

Good (some old) YA books
*to be fair, I haven't actually read Black Tuesday yet-but I have it and really want to ;) (If you want another to substitute, Audrey, Wait! is an Amazon Bargain Book right now)

‘Classics’ besides Austens and Dickens There are obviously others (Pride and Prejudice which is Austen and Tess of the I-Can't-Spell-it-ervilles which is not) but Rebecca and The Awakening are two of my favorite books and I love Fahrenheit besides it being a great book to red for what it's about..

Some of these overlap: My Brother Sam is Dead is also MG, Killing Mr Griffin could also go in the movie category because I think it's what they used for Teaching Mrs Tingle-sort of (Lois Duncan also wrote I Know What You Did Last Summer), Fahrenheit 451 was also a movie (not terribly good and from the 50s or something but still a movie), Rebecca was a great Hitchcock movie, too, Charlotte Doyle's probably also MG, Countess Below Stairs is YA..maybe upper MG?-and whatever Countess is, Comapny of Swans is as well.
Blood and Chocolate is also YA and I thought Holes was MG/YA but then colleges had it on their summer reading, so...I'd still say MG/YA but if mybe someone knows something I don't about it ;) The Caroline B Cooney books are in YA but they're probably MG, too as long as you think the content/stories are fine for whoever you're getting them for :)
And maybe I'm just weird but My Brother Sam is Dead was my favorite book in middle school... I didn't make a seperate List for Boys but the Tripods book is on there because of my brother liking the series in middle school, I Am Legend's about the only book I think he's actually finished lately, and he still agrees the Giver's great (we're also giving it and The Phantom Tollbooth to my cousin this year...). I gave him (my brother) Storm Front too but I don't think he's actually read it yet-he likes the show though so..