Holiday Gift Selections 2006!!

Attention: open in a new window. PDF | Print | E-mail

Here are our selections for your Holiday Gift Giving. We found the best Cookbooks, books to brighten your Home and give Style, Spectacular Photography books, Popular Culture – Musicians and Actors books and Humor!

Cookbooks

Home/Style

Spectacular Photography

Popular Culture – Musicians and Actors

Humor!

Create a PDF to Print

Cookbooks

Baking: From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan (Houghton Mifflin, 2006, $40). Baking at its best with over 100 full-color photos. This book covers all the baking bases, from muffins, cookies and brownies to spoon desserts, pies and cobblers. Village Books’ resident baker, Connie Goetz, baked the cake pictured on the cover. It looked just as beautiful and tasted heavenly!

Barefoot Contessa at Home: Everyday Recipes You’ll Make Over and Over Again, by Ina Garten (Clarkson Potter, 2006, $31). The Contessa is back with nearly 100 simple yet innovative recipes. Each chapter of this lavishly illustrated book opens with a mini-essay on a different aspect of entertaining or welcoming guests, from Designing a Kitchen to The Important Dinner, and most of the recipes include helpful tips on ingredients, substitutions and advance preparation.

Bon Appetit Cookbook, by Barbara Fairchild (John Wiley, 2006, $34.95). Celebrate a half-century of Bon Appetit! Editor-in-chief Fairchild brings together over 1,200 of the magazine’s all time favorite recipes. Packed with test-kitchen secrets, color photos and more, it’s the ultimate culinary companion.

Happy in the Kitchen, by Michel Richard (Artisan, 2006, $45). The Los Angeles Times identifies this as the standout cookbook of the holiday season, “a happy, exuberant cookbook as remarkable for its great ideas as its joie de vivre.” Deborah Jones’ photographs, as stunning as the dishes themselves, highlight Richard’s techniques.

Starting With Ingredients: The Quintessential Recipes for the Way We Really Cook, by Aliza Green (Running Press, 2006, $39.95). Each chapter of this revolutionary cookbook focuses on a single ingredient and features numerous recipes utilizing a variety of cooking methods, flavors and ethnic inspirations.

Home/Style

Glamour’s Big Book of DOS & Don’ts: Fashion Help for Every Woman, by Cindi Leive (Gotham, 2006, $25). This book takes “Glamour’s” best loved feature and distills the advice into a new style guide perfect for any fashion situation. By focusing on what always works and not flash-in-the-pan trends, the fashion advice always stays relevant and shows any reader that great style is within her reach!

How to Walk in High Heels: The Girl’s Guide to Everything, by Camilla Morton (Hyperion, 2006, $24.95). International style and fashion journalist Morton helps the reader navigate through 200 hazards of modern living with grace and aplomb. From the practical – what to do when a heel breaks – to how to swim in sunglasses, this volume overflows with witty advice.

I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence, by Amy Sedaris (Warner, 2006, $27.99). Playwright and comedic actress Sedaris shares with readers her collection of quirky, idiosyncratic tips on entertaining garnered from her mom, Girl Scouts, waiting tables, bartending school and other eclectic sources. Readers will revel in the more than 100 recipes with menus for dozens of occasions (or not!). I wasn’t sure whether I should put this in the Comedy/Humor section or here, but it’s the perfect balance to Martha Stewart. Don’t miss the “poster” on the inside dust cover!!

Martha Stewart’s Homekeeping Handbook: The Essential Guide to Caring for Everything in Your Home, by Martha Stewart (Clarkson Potter, 2006, $45). With Martha’s unparalleled expertise and signature style on every page, this is the ultimate guide to caring for one’s home. From home office to bedroom and every room in between, readers will want this reference at their fingertips every time they’d like Stewart’s opinion on any household task. With 350 photos.

A Passion for Parties, by Carolyne Roehm (Broadway, 2006, $50). One of America’s leading tastemakers, trendsetters, and lifestyle experts showcases her passion for parties in this glorious collection of creative ideas, practical advice and inspiration.

Spectacular Photography

Gardens in Time, by Alain Le Toquin (HNA Books, 2006, $60). Ambitious in scope and a wonder to examine, this beautiful book contains lush and glorious photographs of the nearly 130 gardens that world-renowned photographer Le Toquin explored across 20 countries – the most comprehensive garden photo documentary ever undertaken by a single photographer.

In Vogue: The Illustrated History of the World’s Most Famous Fashion Magazine, by Norberto Angeletti (Rizzoli, 2006, $75). This complete compendium is illustrated with hundreds of covers and archival interiors of past Vogue editions, featuring the work of some of the 20th century’s most respected artists, cover illustrators, and photographers- from Edward Steichen, Toni Frissell and Erwin Blumenfeld to Irving Penn, Richard Avedon, David Bailey, Helmut Newton, Annie Liebovitz, Mario Testino, Steven Klein, Bruce Webber and Herb Ritts. The book explains the making of the magazine – from runways to editorial meetings, to the pages of Vogue and incorporates first person accounts and interviews with editors and photographers and excerpts from stories written in the magazine by many world renowned writers including Truman Capote, Aldous Huxley, Richard Burton, Federico Fellini and Marcello Mastroianni.

Life Platinum Anniversay Collection: 70 Years of Extraordinary Photography, by Life Magazine (Life Publications, 2006, $29.95). Life has always represented the apex in photojournalism and its roster of great photographers is unequaled. One after another, Life presents photos from Hollywood’s greatest stars, from the wonders of small town America, and from the terrible wars, as well as from the zestful years of childhood.

Photographer’s Life: 1990-2005, by Annie Liebovitz (Random House, 2006, $75). This collection of 300 photos includes portraits of well known figures – Johnny Cash, Nicole Kidman, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Keith Richards, Michael Jordan, Joan Didian, Patti Smith, Nelson Mandela, Jack Nicholson, William Burrought, George W. Bush with members of his Cabinet – alongside pictures of Liebovitz’ family and friends, reportage from the siege of Sarajevo in the early 90’s, and landscapes made even more indelible through Liebovitz’ discerning eye.

Work: The World in Photographs, by Ferdinand Protzman (National Geographic, 2006, $35). Under the unifying theme of labor, writer and cultural critic Protzman has collected 190 large, lush photographs from National Geographic’s archives and other major collections of people at work around the world. A wonderful mix of the utterly unexpected and the instantly familiar, this vivid panorama takes an essential human activity and shows us myriad ways in which work is at once universal and delightfully, unforgettably unique.

Popular Culture – Musicians and Actors

All You Need to Know About the Music Business, 6th ed, by Donald Passman (Free Press, 2006, $30). Now in its sixth edition, this definitive guide to the music industry is called “the industry bible” by the LA Times, contains vital new information on the technological advances that are reshaping the business.

The Audrey Hepburn Treasures: Pictures and Mementos From a Life Of Style and Purpose, by Ellen Erwin (Atria, 2006, $49.95). The first-ever souvenir album from the Audrey Hepburn Estate is a unique keepsake collection of interviews, memories, unseen family photos, and beautifully reproduced replicas of Hepburn memorabilia.

Born to Run: The Unseen Photos, by Eric Neola (Insight, 2006, $39.95). Eric Meola shares the photographic alternates and outtakes in stunning black-and-white quadratones, more than 30 years after Bruce Springsteen’s “Born to Run” album was released. In addition to the many never-before-seen photographs, here for the first time and in one place are all of the lyrics from this iconic American album.

Cary Grant: A Celebration of Style, by Richard Torregrossa (Bulfinch Press, 2006, $35). With rare and never-before-published photographs, personal letters and documents this collection reveals the style secrets that helped make Grant a fashion icon.

The Doors, by Ben Fong-Torres (Hyperion, 2006, $45). Marking the band’s 40th anniversary, Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger, and John Densmore, the surviving members of The Doors – one of the most influential rock bands of all time – invite fans inside their world.

Elvis at 21: New York to Memphis, by Alfred Wertheimer (Insight Editions, 2006, $65). In 1956, a twenty-one year old Elvis Presley was at the beginning of his remarkable and unparalleled career and photographer Alfred Wertheimer was asked by Presley’s new label to photograph the rising star. With unimpeded access to the young performer, Wertheimer was able to capture the unguarded and everyday moments in Elvis’ life during that crucial year.

Patti Smith: An American Artist, by Frank Stefanko (Insight, 2006, $39.95). Patti Smith has been called “punk rock’s poet laureate” because of her feminist sensibilities and intellectual approach to her music. As a result, she is one of rock and roll’s most influential female musicians. She was a favorite photographic subject for Frank Stefanko during his college years, and these photos are collected here.

Singing Cowboys with CD, by Douglas B. Green (Gibbs Smith, 2006, $39.95). Telling the fabled story of the men and women who shone brightly during the magical era of the singing cowboy movie star, this treasury features such famed cowboy singers as Gene Autry, Bing Crosby, Dale Evans, Dorothy Page, Riders of the Purple Sage, Roy Rogers, John Wayne and dozens more.

Tupac Shakur Legacy with CD, by Jamal Joseph (Atria, 2006, $45). Ten years after the death of rap artist, political spokesman, poet, actor, writer, humanitarian and entrepreneur Tupac Shakur, Joseph has a unique way to tell his story – a slipcased scrapbook complete with rare family photographs, reproductions of song lyrics, poems and personal papers.

U2 by U2, by U2 (Harper, 2006, $39.95). Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen, Jr. tell the complete story of U2 in their own words. Distilled from more than 200 hours of taped interviews, this oral history is a unique, insightful account of everything fans want to know about the world’s biggest band.

Humor!

America: A Citizen’s Guide to Democracy Inaction (Teacher), by Jon Stewart (Warner, 2006, $15.99). For everyone who was too cheap to buy the hardcover, the #1 New York Times bestseller is now in trade paperback with a new introduction and a text corrected by the most reputable college professor the writers could find and afford.

Curb Your Enthusiasm: The Book, by Deirdre Dolan (Gotham, 2006, $30). The official companion to HBO’s hilariously neurotic, wildly popular, Golden Globe and Emmy Award winning comedy. Includes interviews with cast members, never-before-seen show outlines and more than 100 full-color photos. This should help tide us over until the next season begins!

The Rejection Collection: Cartoons You Never Saw and Never Will See, in the New Yorker, by Matthew Diffee (Simon Spotlight, 2006, $22.95). Thirty of the New Yorker’s cartoonists share their best cartoons that have never been published because they were rejected as too sexy, too odd, or too many. A real treasure trove of humor for that New Yorker addict on your shopping list.

Spy: The Funny Years, by Kurt Anderson (Miramax, 2006, $39.95). This lavish celebration of the brilliantly funny, groundbreaking magazine features the inside story as told by its creators. Includes full-color photos.

Theories of Everything: Selected, Collected and Health-Inspected Cartoons, 1978-2006, by Roz Chast (Bloomsbury, 2006, $45). At last, the comprehensive book of cartoons from beloved New Yorker cartoonist Roz Chast. (Note to Elizabeth – this is No. One on my Christmas wish list! xo Mom)