Review staffer picks top books to gift this holiday season | THE BAINBRIDGE BLAB

Published 11:24 am Tuesday, November 17, 2015

I love to give books as gifts.

It’s kind of something I’ve become known for among my friends and family. A well-chosen book, I think, is the perfect mix of thoughtfulness and personalization in a gift, while still being pretty easy on my wallet.

So, with the thick of the holiday shopping season about to descend upon us, I thought I’d take this chance to share with you, dear reader, my picks (in no special order) for the best books I’ve read this year. Not that they all came out this year, mind you. Some are actually quite old, but they were new to me. Any one of them, I know, would make a good gift for a difficult name on your own list this year.

Remember, everyone has a favorite book. Even if they haven’t read it yet.

1. “Finders Keepers” by Stephen King

This book, the second in King’s soon-to-be-completed trilogy of adventures starring the ex-cop character Bill Hodges and his duo of unlikely assistants, is even better than the first (“Mr. Mercedes,” also worth a read), but able to stand on its own. In this installment, Hodges and the gang must thwart the homicidal plans of a crazed ex-con obsessed with recovering manuscripts he stole many years ago from a famous author he murdered.

King is now and has always been my favorite author, and this series shows he remains the peerlessly versatile overlord of modern fiction, easing effortlessly from his favored genre into a dark, psychological cat-and-mouse crime story like a seasoned pro.

Do yourself a favor and buy two copies, one for yourself, because it’s that good.

All hail the King.

2. “Silver Screen Fiend: Learning About Life from an Addiction to Film” by Patton Oswalt

Oswalt is the coolest comedian working today, no question. This, his second book, relates to readers his entertaining memories of coming of age as a young comedian, actor and writer in the late ’90s, all the while obsessively watching classic films at the legendary New Beverly Cinema in Los Angeles.

I actually recommend getting the audiobook version of this one if you can, because the man is first and foremost a performer and his reading of his words adds infinitely to the experience.

Either way, though, you’re bound to laugh – and learn a lot – by spending some time with Oswalt.

3. “The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving” by Jonathan Evison

I actually got to the Evison party a little late and, apparently, everyone around here knew about this Bainbridge-based literary lion before me. But, he is our own best kept secret no longer, and with a big screen adaptation of this, perhaps his best known novel, in the works and his latest “(“This Is Your Life, Harriet Chance!”) in stores now, this holiday season is the perfect time to introduce a friend to our island’s fastest-rising writer.

Check my recent interview with Evison here: http://www.bainbridgereview.com/news/325081941.html

4. “The Sun and the Moon: The Remarkable True Account of Hoaxers, Showmen, Dueling Journalists, and Lunar Man-Bats in Nineteenth-Century New York” by Matthew Goodman

This one seems too weird to be nonfiction, but it is.

Check this out: In the summer of 1835, a series of articles in the Sun, one of New York’s first trashy “penny papers,” convinced the citizens of the growing metropolis that the moon was inhabited. Six articles claimed to reveal the lunar discoveries made by a world-famous British astronomer and went on to actually described the life found on the moon: unicorns, beavers that walked upright and giant flying humanoid bats.

The series quickly became the most read story of the era and the paper itself, a brash working-class rag still less than two years old, became the most widely read newspaper in the world. The strange saga also features colorful cameos by the likes of Edgar Allan Poe, P.T. Barnum and Richard Adams Locke, the moon story’s mysterious author.

5. “The Good Nurse: A True Story of Medicine, Madness, and Murder” by Charles Graeber

Also a nonfiction selection, but of a decidedly darker tone, this is the true story of Charlie Cullen, a nurse who may, in fact, be the most accomplished American serial killer of all time.

After his arrest in 2003, Cullen, a long-time registered nurse, was quickly dubbed “The Angel of Death” by the news media. But Cullen was no mere mercy killer, nor was he a total monster either. He was a complicated man, a favorite son, husband, beloved father, best friend and celebrated caregiver.

He was also implicated in the deaths of more than 300 patients.

Rumor has it that Darren Aronofsky (he of “Black Swan” notoriety) is planning an upcoming film adaptation of this terrifying true tale as we speak.

6. “Stoker’s Manuscript” by Royce Prouty

Prouty’s debut novel puts a lot of the terror “Twilight” sucked out back into the vampire mythos.

When rare manuscript expert Joseph Barkeley is hired to authenticate and purchase the original draft and notes for Bram Stoker’s “Dracula,” little does he know that the reclusive buyer is himself a member of the oldest (one might even say immortal) and most notorious family in Transylvania.

After delivering the manuscript to the legendary Bran Castle in Romania, Barkeley realizes that he’s become a prisoner of the son of the original Vlad Dracul and, to earn his freedom and stay alive, he must use all his talents to decipher cryptic messages hidden in the text of Stoker’s original novel that reveal the burial sites of certain Dracul family members.

A great spooky historical drama – like Dan brown with fangs – which I highly recommend.

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