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My recommendation: "Power Abused, Power Healed" by Judith Barr. It's a unique book, centered around the fairy tale "The Emperor's New Clothes",which exposes all different kinds of abuse and explores how we form our relationships with power and how we can heal our inner wounds to better use our own poower. It's easy to read, but very deep and life-changing. We all have wounds that need healing, especially now during the holiday season...and this book helped me get on the healing path. :)

My wife is Anya Ulinich, so I'm bound by contract to recommend her first book, "Petropolis" which came out this year. It's a picaresque novel about a bi-racial girl who grows up in Siberia and makes her way to the US as a mail-order bride. Locals will particularly enjoy her take on the Carroll Gardens parenting scene.

I also enjoyed Alison Bechdel's graphic memoir, "Fun Home". It perfectly captures those rare moments where children and parents are capable of understanding one another and the lifetimes of confusion and pain in between those moments.

Loving Frank, story of Frank Lloyd Wright's mistress, by Nancy Horen
Water for Elephants, Sara Gruen - Old Age and the circus - 1931 to present

Here are some great graphic novel / comix related choices, for comics-lovers OR folks who've never read one but want to see what all the hoopla'a about:

SHOOTING WAR, by Anthony Lappe & Dan Goldman: A young videoblogger goes to Iraq after being the sole cameraman to tape a suicide bombing at a Starbucks in Brooklyn...Riveting story, gorgeous state-of-the-art art, and enough wink-at-you references to please any current events/pop culture junkie

PULPHOPE, by Paul Pope: An exquisite art/design manifesto by comics rockstar Paul Pope. Fashion, comics, erotica, its all in there.

THE SALON, by Nick Bertozzi: Picasso, Gertrude Stein, Braque, and more frolic in 1920s France, imbibing a mysterious absinthe that lets them enter the painting of their choice.

Fiction: Fire Bell in the Night by Geoffry Edwards

Non-Fiction: The Savage Wars of Peace by Max Boot

Poetry: Good Poems for Hard Times, ed. Garrison Keillor

Cookery: How to Cook Everything Vegetarian by Mark Bittman

I loved Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl.
By the way, what was the name of the graphic novel recommended by a listener?

I love anything written by Irene Nemirovsky - this year we get to read Fire in the Blood and it's amazing. She is the young Russian who left for Finland during the Russian Revolution, got to France as a teen and was a literary darling in France in her 20s. She was murdered by the nazis and her "Suite Francaise" came into English in recent years - then David Golder - now this one. She was as amazing a writer as her life story.

One Drop by Bliss Broyard

Faves from this year:

1491 by Charles Mann

Black Robe, by Brian Moore (from the 1980s, a truly wonderful historical novel about life 17th century N. America -- this is my #1 pick of all)

Henning Mankell's mysteries, starring Kurt Wallander

Grifter's Game (Hard Case, or any other Hard Case book, very popular)

Best non-fiction book: The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil by Philip Zimbardo.

Best fiction book: Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen.

If you like poetry, you can't go wrong with BEING FULL OF LIGHT, INSUBSTANTIAL by Linda D. Addison. I've been following her career for years. She's had stories in all the DARK (Matter, Dreams, etc.) books by African American writers.

Planet of Slums by Mike Davis.

Non-fiction...Incredible.

Planet of Slums by Mike Davis

Non-fiction.
Garish cover, content is overwhelming...

THE BEST BOOKS I READ THIS YEAR WERE:
CARRY ME DOWN
BLACK SWAN GREEN
THE PATH OF MINOR PLANETS

all beautifully written with compelling stories

"God Is Not Great" by Christopher Hitchens

"Jamestown" by Matthew Sharpe, "Spaceman Blues: A Love Song" by Brian Francis Slattery (a Lopate guest) and speaking of graphic novels, "Y: the Last Man"!

I suggest

give an annual subscription to

"The New York Review of Books"

the best thing you can give a reader who doesn't already have one.

Best Book I Read This Year:
Andre Aciman's "Call Me By Your Name" (fiction)

Running the Table, by L. Jon Wertheim, is a fabulously-written story of pool hustler Kid Delicious, a morbidly obese, manic depressive pool hustler. Great story and really fun read.

I'm sorry but Man Gone Down was a painful book to read. My roommate suggested it as he plays volleyball with the author and thought I might dig it. The narrator of the story is so detached from everything going on in the book I could never mustard the concern for him or any of the other characters. Basically, I felt it was an 'angry black man' novel with out any focus for the anger. This novel has more in common with Richard Wright's Native Son then Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man. I am miffed by the Ellison comparisons and the 'rave' reviews for this book.

This year I discovered the authors Rumer Godden and Laurie Colwin and read everything by them I could get my hands on. Colwin writes superb fiction and also wonderful non-fiction books about food and cooking. Godden is nothing less than divine.

I also just finished "Little Heathens: Hard times and high spirits on an Iowa farm during the Depression" which was simply delightful.

It's not new but if your friends haven't read it I highly recommend it as both useful in deciding whom to vote for and as just a really good read.

That's Obama's "Dreams from my Father" written in 1995 before he was running for anything (except maybe mayor of Chicago).

His reading of a somewhat digested version of it won a Grammy. So you could give this to folks who aren't real reader of print but love to listen to their books.

Naiomi Woof's End to America -- I bought copies for all my nieces and nephews for Christmas (and write it into every Christmas card).

My recommendation is "God Is Not Great" by Christopher Hitchens. The book is incredibly relevant for issues ranging from the Middle East to a floating cross in a political ad. Bottom line: a book should make one think.

The History of Love, by Nicole Krauss

I'm reading this novel now, I love it! It's out in paperback too.

I recommend The Secret and Secrets of the Millionaire Mind.

For leisure: anything by Dawn Thompson

Here are three "fun" books for kids and their parents.

The Dangerous Book for Boys
The Daring Book for Girls
and The Dangerous Book for Dogs (a parody)