Holiday Gift Books

by Nina Shengold, November 28, 2007

Unhand that partridge! Here are 12 days of literary sugarplums to make ladies dance and lords leap.

Anthologies:

Antarctica: Life on the Ice
Edited by Susan Fox Rogers
Travelers Tales/Solas House, 2007, $17.95
And you think you’re cold? Editor Rogers and National Geographic adventurer Jon Bowermaster trade the Hudson Valley for the ice-bound continent, where sunset lasts six months, over-wintering workers “go toast,” and “your footsteps will outlive you.” Twenty mind-bending, often hilarious essays from way down under.







Howl: A Collection of the Best Contemporary Dog Wit
By the editors of The Bark
Crown, 2007, $25
Hudson Valley authors Lee Harrington, Melissa Holbrook Pierson, David Smilow, and Abigail Thomas join a litter of very funny bipeds—Dave Barry, Margaret Cho, Kinky Friedman, and dozens of others—to deliver this rollicking tribute to man’s best sidekick. You’ll laugh ’til you yelp.



Visionaries: The 20th Century’s 100 Most Important Inspirational Leaders
Edited by Satish Kumar and Freddie Whitefield
Chelsea Green, 2007, $25
Vermont’s righteous Chelsea Green offers pocket biographies of world leaders (Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr.), spiritual figures (Thich Nhat Hanh, the Dalai Lama), and writers and activists (Wendell Berry, Wangari Maathai) who helped sustain a tumultuous century, including nonpareil local visionary Bob Dylan.