MarysLibrary

December Books - 3 - Petroski

Everybody has an engineer on his Christmas List and I have the perfect book for this sometimes hard-to-shop-for guy (or girl.) It’s called The Evolution of Useful Things (1992) and it’s by my favorite engineer, Henry Petroski.

Useful Things is about inventions and patents and how everyday artifacts, from forks and pins to paperclips and zippers, came to be as they are.

Other Petroski books that are favorites of mine are The Pencil: A History of Design and Circumstance (1990) and To Engineer Is Human: The Role of Failure in Successful Design (1985.)

December Books -2 - N L Zaroulis

Today's gift recommendations are for your maternal grandmother, who just adores Danielle Steel. One can't with a good conscience give her DS's latest novel. One has standards. What one needs is something not too demanding but with a delightfully busy and romantic plot.

Let me recommend the historical novels of Nancy Zaroulis, especially The Last Waltz (1984) and Call the Darkness Light (1979.) These books are what my friend Sarah calls non-challenging non-trash. Just the thing to wean Grandma from her non-challenging trash.

The Last Waltz follows two girls from their youth to old age. Isabel is beautiful - Marian, the narrator, is poor and plain. Marian's brother dies and nothing is ever the same.

Library Journal's comment on Call the Darkness Light: Set in mid-19th-century New England, this 1979 novel follows the woes of protagonist Sabra Palfrey who, through the course of the action, goes from a minister's daughter to a factory worker, an abolitionist's aide, a utopian wife, a beggar, a thief, a prostitute . . . LJ recommends this "engaging potboiler."

To find older, out of print books like these you need to go to ABE, Alibris, or Biblio.com. You can discover which of these has the books through Bookfinder.

December Books - 1 Fancy Nancy

I'm starting my list of December books a little early because this month’s theme is Christmas Presents. Or Hanukah Presents, or Kwanza Presents, or just plain Presents.

This is the time of year when I go through my mental list of what I’ve read and enjoyed lately and come up (I hope) with The Perfect Book for my father-in-law (the lover of British mysteries) or my friend Isabella (the lover of gems) or my next door neighbor Kara (who is 50 years younger than I am.)

My first recommendation is for the under-five reader with a sense of humor. It’s called Fancy Nancy (2006), by Jane O'Connor. It’s about a girl who likes to get dressed up. She encourages her family to do the same and a hilarious scene ensues.

I love the pictures and I love Nancy, who reminds me very much of my grand-niece, Ella, to whom I gave the book. She has taken it to school for show and tell (more than once) and has proclaimed it her favorite book, which is a valuable unsolicited testimonial to its appeal.

The book is available from Barnes and Noble.