If you’re like me, and you still don’t have a clue what you’re giving your family for the holidays this winter, we’ve prepared a gift guide for this winter season. Our choices are tailored to the specific interests of your loved ones, and I’m sure they’ll pass these great books on to you when they’ve finished reading!

For the Sports Enthusiast:

Cardboard Gods by Josh Wilker

Josh Wilker uses his childhood collection of baseball cards to begin each chapter of his nostalgic and heartbreakingly comic memoir. He recounts his experiences growing up in the 1970s–a time marked by Vietnam, Watergate, counterculture, sexual liberation, and stadium rock. Cardboard Gods announces the arrival of a talented new voice in the stadium of big-league memoirs.

For the Music Lover:

Little Blues Book by Brian Robertson

Little Blues Book is a funky celebration of America’s troubadours in the court of hard knocks. With everything from instructions on how to write your own blues song to a chronicle of infamous blues deaths, Little Blues Book has a rhyme, a face, and a word of advice for just about everything life has to offer.

Rock On: An Office Power Ballad by Dan Kennedy

Dan Kennedy is expecting a glamorous career in the show industry, complete with catered meals aboard a private jet, when he’s hired by a major record label in 2002. Instead, he finds himself eyeball-deep in mass layoffs, artist contract cuts, and all-time-low sales while in a workplace that embodies both This Is Spinal Tap and The Office. Kennedy’s absurdly hilarious and oddly heartbreaking account of his time in the trenches of the music industry is sure to entertain your favorite music fan.

For the Cocktail Lover/Literature Lover:

Hemingway & Bailey’s Bartending Guide to Great American Writers by Mark Bailey

“What’s the use of winning the Nobel Prize if it doesn’t even get you into speakeasies?” Sinclair Lewis’ quote begins his section of this entertaining homage to American writing. Bailey’s profiles of forty-three great American writers include a favorite cocktail, true stories of their saucy escapades, and intoxicating excerpts from their literary works. We recommend purchasing two copies–one for the bedside table and one for the bar.

For the Child at Heart/Literature Lover:

What the Dormouse Said: Lessons for Grown-Ups from Children’s Books by Amy Gash

What the Dormouse Said is a compilation of quotes drawn from both classic and lesser-known kid’s books. The book is organized into helpful sections like “Goodness” and “Eating Habits” so you can have a quote handy for every occasion. The collection ranges from the touching  (“An egg, because it contains life, is the most perfect thing there is. It is beautiful and mysterious”) to the humorous (“This sharing business is for the birds”) and will entertain a reader at any age.

For theFoodie:

52 Loaves by William Alexander

After the success of The $64 Tomato, Alexander set out on a quest to produce a perfect loaf of bread. Alexander’s journey takes him through the back alleys of Morocco, a monastery in Normandy, the famed École Ritz Escoffier in Paris, the New York State Fair, and his own backyard. An original take on the six-thousand-year-old staple of life, 52 Loaves explores the nature of obsession, the futility of trying to re-create something perfect, and the mysterious instinct that makes every person on the planet, regardless of culture or society, respond to the aroma of baking bread.

Seasoned in the South: Recipes from Crook’s Corner and from Home by Bill Smith

A favorite restaurant of many in Chapel Hill, Crook’s Corner has received national acclaim from The New York Times, Bon Appétit, Travel & Leisure, and The Washington Post since it first opened its doors in 1982. Bill Smith, the chef at Crook’s Corner for over a decade, serves up a variety of recipes from his own collection. Readers can now try to recreate the classic, up-scale Southern dishes they enjoy at Crook’s Corner from their own kitchens.

Maman’s Homesick Pie: A Persian Heart in an American Kitchen by Donia Bijan

Award-winning chef Donia Bijan begins her memoir with her childhood in the midst of the Iranian Revolution of the 1970s, as her family is forced to flee their home in Tehran. She continues her story with memories of her teenage years in America, her studies at the Cordon Bleu in Paris, and her life as a successful chef in San Francisco. Sprinkled throughout her book, Bijan shares recipes that blend her life experiences: Ratatouille with Black Olives and Fried Bread, Purple Plum Skillet Tart, Roast Duck Legs with Dates and Warm Lentil Salad, and twenty-seven other delicious dishes.

Man With a Pan: Culinary Adventures of Fathers Who Cook for Their Families by John Donohue

My dad is an excellent chef, and while I didn’t grow up like Mario Batali’s kids did, feasting on monkfish liver and foie gras, I went to bed with a full stomach and a happy heart every night. My dad would likely find community within this collection of twenty-one essays by esteemed writers and chefs including Batali, Peter Kaminsky, Mark Bittman, Stephen King, and Jim Harrison. This entertaining collection features more than sixty recipes, some mouth-watering, others titled “A Pretty Good Cake” or “Whole Roast Cow.”

For the Naturalist:

The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tova Bailey

With beautiful detail, Bailey recounts her experiences with a Neohelix albolabris– a common woodland snail. Sick and bedridden, Bailey observes a wild snail living on her nightstand and begins to explore the meaning of her own confined place in the world. The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating examines not only human existence, but any kind of life, with grace and wit.

Wicked Bugs: The Louse that Conquered Napoleon’s Army & Other Diabolical Insects by Amy Stewart

Following her award winning Wicked Plants, Stewart profiles over one hundred of our worst insect enemies. From the world’s most painful hornet to millipedes that stop traffic, from “bookworms” that devour libraries to Japanese beetles that munch on roses, Wicked Bugs will have even your toughest cousin waking up from nightmares of six- and eight-legged creatures.

The Music of Wild Birds: An Illustrated, Annotated, and Opinionated Guide to Fifty Birds and Their Songs by Judy Pelikan

My mom’s best friend is an avid birder with a whole windowed room in her house dedicated to bird-watching. I can only differentiate between birds by taste: chicken, turkey, duck, etc. The Music of Wild Birds remarkably appeals to both the novice and experienced birder alike. Pelikan takes her readers inside the world of bird music. Learn how to identify a bid by its song–and then how to sing back to it by following musical scores.

For the Fashionista:

Love, Loss, and What I Wore by Ilene Beckerman

In her New York Times bestselling memoir, Ilene Beckerman uses her changing wardrobe to tell the story of her life in Manhattan during the 1940′s and ’50′s. She navigates marriage, divorce, and motherhood with good humor and fabulous clothes. This pithy book is packed with brightly colored illustrations and fashion-inspired anecdotes–some of them comical, and some of them poignant. Love, Loss, and What I Wore is a celebration of love, life, and womanhood.

For the Gardener:

Wicked Plants: The Weed that Killed Lincoln’s Mother & Other Botanical Atrocities by Amy Stewart

When I was in middle school, I watered a neighbor’s plants over winter break while they vacationed.  They paid me with a gift certificate to a local music store, which I used to purchase The Backstreet Boys’ “Millennium” album.  Had they given me this book instead, I might have developed a greater awe and appreciation for botany. Stewart, who tends a poison garden of her own, takes on a tree that sheds poison daggers; a glistening red seed that stops the heart; a shrub that causes paralysis; a vine that strangles; and a leaf that triggered a war in a book that is sure to inform and entertain.

French Dirt: The Story of a Garden in the South of France by Richard Goodman

Few would have the courage to pack up and move from New York to a small village (small = population of 211) in France for a year, but Goodman did.  He begins to work as hired hand in his neighbors’ fields in an effort to make friends, and this sparks within him a yearning for his own plot of land. French Dirt details the love story between a man and his garden, as well as the growing friendship between an American outsider and a close-knit community of French farmers.

A Rose by Any Name: The Little-Known Lore and Deep-Rooted History of Rose Names by Douglas Brenner & Stephen Scanniello

A poetry professor once instructed me never to write about flowers. He clearly never read A Rose by Any Name. Encompassing art, literature, science, technology, history, and everything in between, the stories behind rose varieties include enough curiosities, romance, tragedy, wit, mystery, scandal, and earthy delights to satisfy even the most nit-picky of critics.

For the Armchair Traveler:

Very Charleston: A Celebration of History, Culture, and Lowcountry Charm by Diana Hollingsworth Gessler

Gessler’s guide and illustrations are every bit as charming as the city of Charleston itself.  From winding cobblestone streets and lush gardens to schooners and sailboats, no page in this book disappoints.  Each of Gessler’s wonderful watercolors is accompanied by fascinating facts about Charleston.

Dear Reader,

“Don’t go out without lipstick—you never know who you might run into.”

Grandma Ettie told me that—many times. She had many words of wisdom for me, in addition to the ones in my book, The Smartest Woman I Know.

What about your grandmother—what was she always telling you?

Come share the wise words, and the funny words, you remember your grandmother saying. Or, if you’re lucky enough to be a grandmother, tell us what you want your grandkids to know and to remember.

I’m looking forward to hearing from you.

Email me at talk@ilenebeckerman.com

* * * * *

Grandmothers today are blondes, play tennis, and have French manicures. When I was growing up, grandmothers lived in Brooklyn, knitted sweaters, and made soup. Not my grandmother, the star of my book.

She and her husband had a store on 65th and Madison Avenue—a fancy neighborhood even then.

Everybody who was anybody came into the store and schmoozed with my grandmother. She was the smartest woman I ever knew, even though she never got past the 3rd grade.

Sara Delano Roosevelt, FDR’s mother who lived around the corner, would come in and tell my grandmother how worried she was because her son Franklin had polio. “Don’t worry,” my grandmother told her, “your son’s got a good head on his shoulders. Someday he’ll be president.” My grandmother said that to everyone who had a son. “That’s how you make a customer,” she told me.

The wisdom of my grandmother is now part of the off Broadway hit, “Love, Loss and What I Wore,” based on two of my books. The brilliant Nora Ephron – you know her from “Julie and Julia” and more – optioned my books for a theater piece, now in its second year.

So there’s my grandmother—in spirit—giving out pearls of wisdom about life, love, sex, and Jewish holidays to hip young women at the Westside Theatre. Who could argue with this remedy of hers: “For everything wrong inside the body, hot tea and lemon. For everything wrong outside the body—Vaseline.”

Almost all grandmothers—whether they’re Italian, Irish, African-American, Asian, Hispanic, or something else–have special wisdom to pass on. So, to paraphrase that commercial, “You don’t have to be Jewish to enjoy Levy’s bread,” you don’t have to be Jewish to laugh and get misty-eyed when you read about my grandmother. And, judging from the responses of the young audiences at The Westside Theatre, you don’t even have to be a grandmother!

See the wisdom and worries of my Grandma Ettie. And don’t forget to send me your own memories of your grandmothers!

–Ilene Beckerman

Though she had no more than a third-grade education, Ettie dispensed unforgettable wisdom to Gingy and her sister, Tootsie. She also doled out advice to the customers at her stationery store, including Sara Delano Roosevelt, Irish nannies, and Marlene Dietrich. She provided sage counsel on everything: life and love, food and men, faith and Vaseline. It didn’t hurt that she got some of her best ideas from conversing with God out loud.

Ettie may be gone, but thanks to Ilene Beckerman, her wisdom lives on. Whether this story makes you remember your own grandmother or whether you’re lucky enough to be a grandmother yourself, The Smartest Woman I Know will make you laugh, cry, and remember.

Below is an Introduction to the book from Ilene and a short excerpt. Enjoy!

 * * * * *

Grandmothers today are blondes, play tennis, and have French manicures. When I was growing up, grandmothers lived in Brooklyn, knitted sweaters, and made soup. Not my grandmother, the star of my book.

She and her husband had a store on 65^th and Madison Avenue—a fancy neighborhood even then.

Everybody who was anybody came into the store and schmoozed with my grandmother. She was the smartest woman I ever knew, even though she never got past the 3^rd grade.

Sara Delano Roosevelt, FDR’s mother who lived around the corner, would come in and tell my grandmother how worried she was because her son Franklin had polio. “Don’t worry,” my grandmother told her, “your son’s got a good head on his shoulders. Someday he’ll be president.” My grandmother said that to everyone who had a son. “That’s how you make a customer,” she told me.

The wisdom of my grandmother is now part of the off Broadway hit, “Love, Loss and What I Wore,” based on two of my books. The brilliant Nora Ephron – you know her from “Julie and Julia” and more – optioned my books for a theater piece, now in its second year.

So there’s my grandmother—in spirit—giving out pearls of wisdom about life, love, sex, and Jewish holidays to hip young women at the Westside Theatre. Who could argue with this remedy of hers: “For everything wrong inside the body, hot tea and lemon. For everything wrong outside the body—Vaseline.”

Almost all grandmothers—whether they’re Italian, Irish, African-American, Asian, Hispanic, or something else–have special wisdom to pass on. So, to paraphrase that commercial, “You don’t have to be Jewish to enjoy Levy’s bread,” you don’t have to be Jewish to laugh and get misty-eyed when you read about my grandmother. And, judging from the responses of the young audiences at The Westside Theatre, you don’t even have to be a grandmother!

–Ilene Beckerman

Will you be at Book Expo America this year? The Algonquin booth (#4252) will be rocking all week with author appearances and signings, must-grab galley giveaways, and more. Please join us for the following–all events in the Algonquin booth unless otherwise noted:

Monday
4:30 – 5:45 p.m. Editor’s Buzz Panel: Senior Editor Kathy Pories discusses Naomi Benaron’s Running the Rift (Room 1E13)

Tuesday
10:00 – 11:00 a.m. -  Jon Michaud signs copies of his novel, When Tito Loved Clara
1:30 – 2:30 p.m. – Ilene Beckerman signs Advance Reader Copies of her forthcoming illustrated memoir, The Smartest Woman I Know

Wednesday
10:00 a.m. Tayari Jones signs copies of her novel, the #1 Indie Next Pick Silver Sparrow
2:30 – 3:30 p.m. Martha Southgate signs Advance Reader Copies of her forthcoming novel, The Taste of Salt

Thursday
10:00 a.m. ALTAFF “From Writer to Reader“ panel (Room 1E16) featuring Naomi Benaron (Running the Rift), Senior Editor Kathy Pories, Associate Publisher Ina Stern, and Online and Paperback Marketing Director Michael Taeckens

Left to right: Carol Kane, Caroline Rhea, Lucy DeVito, Ilene Beckerman

“A remarkable and eloquent book, a handful of dresses that write a life.” – Newsday

On Monday, Barnes and Noble hosted an author event with Ilene Beckerman, talking about her book Love, Loss, and What I Wore and the stage adaptation. Some of the current cast from the off-broadway hit (Carol Kane, Caroline Rhea, Lucy DeVito) joined Ilene to promote the book–as well as the success of the play! Read up on the event, as well as Nora and Delia Ephron’s adaptation, here.

And if you happen to be in NYC, head over to The Westside Theater and see the play for yourself!

-Susannah

Originally scheduled for a limited run last spring, the show has been playing to sold-out crowds and has been extended into the New Year because of its popularity.

• As Variety reports, “After setting a house record for advance sales, Nora and Delia Ephron’s show Love, Loss, and What I Wore will extend its run at Off Broadway’s Westside Theater into 2010 . . . Box office reportedly has surpassed $600,000, making it the fastest seller in the 250-seat theater’s history!” The show will now continue through March, and the new Dec. – March cast will be announced in the near future.

• Earlier this morning on the Today show, Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb raved about the performance they saw just yesterday and mentioned that they will be interviewing cast members in the future. To download the clip, click here. (Note: This takes over 10 minutes to complete.)

• This past Tuesday, sisters Nora and Delia Ephron appeared as special guests on The Martha Stewart Show.

• The play is plugged in the current issue of Time (10/19), on The Shortlist arts page.

• In addition to the Associated Press feature on Gingy, Nora, and the play—which is being picked up in papers around the country—there’s now a RAVE Associated Press review of the show: “Boots, bras, handbags and dresses are just some of the apparel items enshrined in zesty, timeless stories and vignettes unfolded through women’s kindred recollections . . . By turns funny, poignant, and occasionally rueful . . . O’Donnell is often fiercely hilarious, particularly in ‘I Hate My Purse,’ about a woman’s ongoing battle with her handbag issues . . . [The women] dispense wisdom and humor in these endearing tales from multiple closets and several generations.”

• On Vanity Fair’s “Culture & Celebrity Blog,” Patricia Bosworth raves about the cast (“absolutely wonderful”), chats with Gingy, and gives two thumbs up to the show: “Wise and witty . . . It’s about clothes and accessories and the funny sad mocking memories they conjure up at various turning points in women’s lives.

-Michael

Enthusiastic assessments for last week’s premiere are in from the New York Times, Variety, Entertainment Weekly, and Newsday, among others. There are also features in the Associated Press (which just hit the wire and will run in newspapers nationwide), Elle, and New York magazine, with much more to come!

The A-list rotating cast for Love, Loss, and What I Wore includes: (through Oct. 18) Samantha Bee, Tyne Daly, Katie Finneran, Natasha Lyonne and Rosie O’Donnell; (Oct. 21-Nov. 15) Mary Birdsong, Tyne Daly, Lisa Joyce, Jane Lynch and Mary Louise Wilson; (Nov. 18-Dec. 13) Kristin Chenoweth, Lucy DeVito, Capathia Jenkins, Rhea Perlman and Rita Wilson.

From left, Tyne Daly, Rosie O’Donnell, Samantha Bee, Katie Finneran and Natasha Lyonne in the play by Nora and Delia Ephron.

Additionally, throughout the fall Elle is promoting a “Love, Loss, & What I Wore” contest for readers–the lucky winner’s story will be selected by the Ephron sisters and performed live, and the winner gets a trip to New York City AND a $1,000 Ann Taylor wardrobe! How great is that??

-michael