It’s the last full shopping weekend before Christmas and just in case you didn’t know what to get for me, I figured I’d make a handy list of holiday gifts for my many friends and admirers. Regular readers may have noticed that the majority of my consumer oriented posts fall into four basic categories: Music, Books, DVDs and Technology, so I figured that’s how I’d divide up my 1st Annual Bumpershine Holiday Gift Guide. I had planned to do this as one long post, but now that it’s almost 3AM and I’ve only got books done, I’m breaking it into parts. (Keep your fingers crossed for parts 2-4.)
Music Books
A couple of big music books dropped just in time for the holidays (Jay-Z and Keith Richards I’m looking and at you), but there were also a bunch of other music memoirs, essays, historical accounts and coffee table books that came out in 2010 that are worth mentioning and/or buying for that special someone in your life.
Life – Keith Richards
Decoded – Jay-Z
Just Kids – Patti Smith (Winner of the National Book Award)
Composed – Rosanne Cash
Rat Girl – Kristin Hersh
Star Guitars: 101 Guitars That Rocked the World – Dave Hunter
The Big Payback – Dan Charnas
Soul Mining – Daniel Lanois
Bob Marley and the Golden Age of Reggae – Kim Gottlieb-Walker, Jeff Walker
Bob Dylan by Greil Marcus: Writings 1968-2010 – Greil Marcus
Mustaine: A Heavy Metal Memoir – Dave Mustaine
Between a Heart and a Rock Place A Memoir – Pat Benatar
Late, Late at Night – Rick Springfield
Evening’s Empire – Bill Flanagan
Tattoos & Tequila – Vince Neil
Me, the Mob, and the Music: One Helluva Ride with Tommy James & The Shondells – Tommy James
Please Take Me Off the Guest List – Nick Zinner
Humor Books and/or Books by Comedians:
As always, there were a bunch of comedians who flexed their literary muscles this year each with varying degrees of success (who would have thought Chelsea Handler could sell out five shows at Radio City). In the world of literary humor, The Daily Show also released another bestseller in Earth (The Book) and David Sedaris released a disappointing new book of “animal fables” and a decidedly kitschy vinyl only audiobook.
Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk – David Sedaris
Live For Your Listening Pleasure – David Sedaris
Simple Times – Amy Sedaris
I’m Dreaming of a Black Christmas – Lewis Black
40: A Doonesbury Retrospective – Gary Trudeau
Booky Wook 2 – Russell Brand
Sleepwalk With Me – Mike Birbiglia
Dear Mrs. Fitzsimmons – Greg Fitzsimmons
How to Beat Up Anybody – Judah Friedlander
I’m Not High – Jim Breuer
Earth (The Book) – Jon Stewart
Sexy Book of Sexy Sex – Kristen Schaal
The Bedwetter – Sarah Silverman
I Know I Am, But What Are You – Samantha Bee
Half Empty – David Rakoff
Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang – Chelsea Handler
Al Jaffee’s Mad Life – Al Jaffee, Mary-Lou Weisman
Non-Fiction Books:
When music and humor gets you down, there’s nothing a good dose of highly stylized reality to pump you back up.
Unbroken – Lauren Hillenbrand
Game Change – John Heileman, Mark Halperin
The Big Short – Michael Lewis
Medium Raw – Anthony Bourdain
War – Sebastian Junger
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks – Rebecca Skloot
Literary Fiction
Aside from Jonathan Franzen‘s 800 lb gorilla of a novel, there were a few other books which impressed the literati this year. Check out my list below:
Freedom – Jonathan Franzen
Sunset Park – Paul Auster
Great House – Nicole Krauss
Super Sad True Love Story – Gary Shteyngart
The Unnamed – Joshua Ferris
Luka and the Fire of Life – Salman Rushdie
Her Fearful Symmetry – Audrey Niffenegger
The Widowers Tale – Julia Glass
Imperial Bedrooms – Bret Easton Ellis
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet – David Mitchell
Beatrice and Virgil – Yann Martel
Solar – Ian McEwan
Nemesis – Philip Roth
Last but not least, how could I not mention the book that everyone on the subway was reading at the same time, The Girl With The Dragon Tatoo by Steig Larsson. Runners up in this category include parts 2 and 3 of The Millenium Trilogy, The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest.
PS To see the whole year’s worth of big box book store events, click here.