HOLIDAY READING AND GIFT SUGGESTIONS:
Minzesheimer, President of the library's Board of Trustees, is a book critic for USA Today and WFUV-FM.
A few suggestions from Bob Minzesheimer for holiday reading or gifts for serious readers.
By serious, I don't mean somber or with no sense of humor. I mean people who take books and writers seriously, whether they love them or hate them. But they read them and talk about them:
Letters of E.B. White: Revised Edition Revised and updated by Martha White; foreword by John Updike
The master essayist ("Here is New York") and children's novelist (Charlotte's Web) left a lifetime of revealing, gracefully written letters. White, a native of Mount Vernon who died in 1985, published a collection in 1976 to help pay his wife's medical bills. His granddaughter, Martha White, a writer herself, has added letters from the rest of his life, spanning the Manhattan literary scene to White's saltwater farm in Maine. Some of the best and funniest letters have to do with White's testy relationship with Hollywood. (He detested the 1973 musical animated version of Charlotte's Web). The letters make for good cautionary reading for anyone going to see the new movie version of Charlotte's Web, opening this month.
And other brief recommendations for readers:
Famous Writers School By Steven Carter
. A funny mystery about three aspiring novelists hoping to learn from an obtuse, pompous instructor via a correspondence course. Useful lessons in how not to become a published author.The Best American Series:
Two three-volume box sets that include The Best American Short Stories. The gold box includes The Best American Mystery Stories and The Best American Sports. The silver box adds The Best American Travel Writing and The Best American Spiritual Writing.
Kafka's Soup: A Complete History of World Literature in 14 Recipes
Written and illustrated by Mark Crick:
A literary feast, imagining cooking tips from "mushroom risotto à la John Steinbeck" to "clafoutis grandmére à la Virginia Woolf."