To: Your favorite bibliophile

50 Favorite Books of 2007

The Rocky

Saturday, November 24, 2007

These books have been selected by Rocky critics as among the finest reads of the year, as well as great gift choices. You'll find a mix of somber literary efforts, humor and titles we felt would be especially appealing to readers in our region. We hope we've found something for everybody, while acknowledging that there were far more than 50 wonderful reads in this, or any, year. A special thanks goes to thriller critic Peter Mergendahl, mystery critic Jane Dickinson and Unreal Worlds critic Mark Graham, who boiled down an entire year of reading to one favorite title each. And to children's critic Jennifer Miller, who offers her 10 favorites from the crateloads of kids' books that poured in during 2007.

Children's books

ANGELA AND THE BABY JESUS (Children's Edition), by Frank McCourt; illustrated by Raul Colon (Simon & Schuster, $17.99, ages 5-10). Pulitzer Prize-winning McCourt retells a poignantly funny story about his mother, Angela, who, at age 6, rescues Baby Jesus from her church altar because he looks cold. As she carries the baby home to her bed, Angela enlists the doll's help scaling a wall. In her head he suggests she toss him over, and though she clears the wall, he lands in the wrong yard. Angela scolds him for not paying attention. Eventually she's found out and must return the baby. But always the good child, Baby Jesus smiles as he did when she saved him.

Why we love it: McCourt's eyes surely twinkled when he wrote this, his first Christmas book, and yours will, too. The book is also printed in an adult edition.

THE ARRIVAL, by Shaun Tan (Arthur A. Levine, $12.99, young adult). Threatened by ominous shapes shadowing over his family's home, a man seeks a safer life in an industrialized city that's hauntingly surreal and full of possibility in this breathtaking wordless book from Australia. Readers watch uncomfortably as the man is demoralized at Customs, only to be em-boldened when he meets up with other migrants with harrowing stories and reunites with his wife and daughter.

Why we love it: Tan's stunning documentary of the immigrant experience leaves you empathetic and, appropriately for a wordless book, speechless.

CATCHING THE MOON, by Myla Goldberg; illustrated by Chris Sheban (Arthur A. Levine, $16.99, ages 4-8). Each night when the moon rises, an old woman casts a fishing line baited with a mouse off the dock. Then on the night of the new moon, when the moon disappears from sight, a round-faced visitor comes calling for tea, and after a few visits, asks why she doesn't use worms for bait. The woman laughs and says she isn't trying to catch fish, but a moon made of cheese so she can stop the tide from battering her oceanside shack.

Why we love it: This is one of those books you instantly expect to become a classic. The story comes alive from the first page; it's amusing, magical and appeals to kids' imaginations, as well as their intelligence. (And even if kids don't know the moon affects tides, they'll know by the end of the book.)

THE DOWN-TO- EARTH GUIDE TO GLOBAL WARMING, by Laurie David and Cambria Gordon (Orchard Books, $15.99, ages 9-12). One of this year's most controversial books for kids, this is also one of the most articulate and clever guides to the climate crisis. In the first sentences, the authors relate global warming to an experience any child will identify with: waking up from sleep all hot and sweaty from too many covers. But unlike a child in bed, the Earth can't kick off the blanket, the layer of gases that traps the sun's heat in the Earth's atmosphere.

Why we love it: This guide is undeniably activist. But it's also upfront, at times irreverent, and by book's end even Kermit the Frog won't think it's hard to be green.

ELIJAH OF BUXTON, by Christopher Paul Curtis (Scholastic Inc., $16.99, ages 9 and up). Elijah, the first child born in a free community of ex-slaves north of Detroit in Canada, hates being thought of as fragile - his mother tells him he's easily rattled, and most folks in Buxton distinguish him as the boy who threw up on abolitionist Frederick Douglass when he was a baby. Then one day when a preacher whom Elijah vouched for scams his friend out of the money his friend was saving to buy his family from slavery, Elijah takes risks even he didn't know he would.

Why we love it: Brilliantly told in period speech with humor and suspense, this is a deeply affecting story about a little-known piece of history.

THE INVENTION OF HUGO CABRET, by Brian Selznick (Scholastic Press, $22.99, ages 9-12). Orphaned Hugo secretly assumes the job of his absent uncle maintaining the clocks at a Paris train station so he can hide away behind the station's walls and fix an elaborate mechanical windup man sketched out by his late father. But then a shopkeeper catches Hugo stealing parts for the windup man and snatches away his father's notebook, leaving Hugo desperate that he may lose it forever.

Why we love it: Like nothing published before, Selznick's masterpiece reads like a classic, looks like a silent film and mesmerizes us with the possibilities of what a toy machine can do.

THE OK BOOK, by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Tom Lichtenheld (Harper Collins, $12.99, all ages). Turning the word OK on its side, Rosenthal and Lichtenheld create one of the most meaningful stick figures to be drawn on paper in this simple yet powerful book about trying new things even if you're never great at them. The stick figure, appropriately named "OK," greets the readers, asking how they are, replying of course that he is OK. He then demonstrates all the things he's only OK at, but enjoys just the same.

Why we love it: Delightfully happy- go-lucky, OK makes it OK to be OK. Readers will be inspired to give everything they fancy a try - and by book's end, will realize everyone can become great at something.

SCRIBBLE, by Deborah Freedman (Knopf Books for Young Readers, $15.99, ages 3-6). From one of the freshest new voices in children's books comes a clever story about a big sister who thinks she knows it all and a little sister who doesn't like to be bossed around. When big sister Emma calls little sister Lucie's drawing of a cat a scribble, Lucie lets Emma know what real scribbling is and draws all over Emma's picture. What happens next is pure delight as the cat drawing comes to life and gets along with big sister's drawing better than the real sisters do.

Why we love it: Freedman knows just how sisters act when they're having a spat and what they daydream about when they draw: seeing their drawings come to life. The way the author weaves the two together is utterly imaginative.

TOY BOAT, by Randall de Seve; illustrated by Loren Long (Philomel Books, $16.99, ages 4-8). Not often do today's books seem as guarding of a young reader's innocence and as effortlessly quaint as the classic Little Golden Books. But Toy Boat comes so close you'll find yourself wishing for a burnished strip of gold on the spine. In this story, a boy does everything with his homemade boat, and while the boat loves his boy, it also longs to drift freely. Then one day the boy loses his hold on the boat's string, and the boat is carried off on an adventure that shows the boat what matters most.

Why we love it: This is a wonderful, nostalgic return to all those warm tales about needing to explore but being ever-grateful to finally come home.

THE WIZARD, by Jack Prelutsky; Illustrated by Brandon Dorman (Greenwillow Books, $16.99, ages 5-10). Seeing the name of Children's Poet Laureate Prelutsky on the cover of any book speaks to its quality, but combine that with illustrations by newcomer Dorman and you've got something irresistible. This enchanting poem about an evil wizard who capriciously transforms one creature into another is made larger-than-life by Dorman's dramatic angles of the wizard unleashing his magic.

Why we love it:Children don't just sit back and listen to The Wizard as it's read, they lean in wide-eyed as one creature is zapped into another, then search the pages for magical details they might have missed before. Better yet, adults will be whisked away as much as the children snuggled beside them.

Fiction

AWAY, by Amy Bloom (Random House, $23.95). Bloom's story, set in the 1920s, revolves around a Jewish immigrant to America whose family was killed in a Russian pogrom. When she hears her young daughter, who she had thought dead, is alive and living with a couple in Siberia, she heads out to find her, consorting with a fascinating cast of characters during her travels. Along the way, Bloom examines what drives people through pain, poverty, heartbreak and even carnal desire.

Why we love it: If this sounds like your standard historical fiction tale, we can only say that Bloom's prose is anything but standard. By turns startling, sad and funny, the novel unfolds so mysteriously and breathlessly that readers simply cannot guess which way it will turn.

BOOMSDAY, by Christopher Buckley (Twelve, $24.99). We can almost see Buckley grinning slyly as he crafts this madcap story about the clash between the younger generation and aging boomers. His story revolves around young blogger Cassandra, whose tongue-in-cheek suggestion that seniors burdening the Social Security system commit suicide in exchange for pre-death perks and tax benefits suddenly begins to take on a life of its own. Soon, mobs of youth are rioting, politicians are jockeying for popular positions - and the story is generating more laughs than a boomers' heart can possibly take.

Why we love it: Buckley not only satirizes boomers, but blogging, politics and the absurdity of modern American life in this laugh-out-loud narrative. Four words: Keep the defibrillator handy.

BRIDGE OF SIGHS, by Richard Russo (Knopf, $26.95). Russo returns to his favorite milieu - the small town - to offer the contemplative story of Louis Charles Lynch, nicknamed Lucy, who lives in a New York town that has faded since its biggest employer, the glove factory, shut down. Lucy, 60, is recording the history of his town and an account of his life, delving into the events and choices in his childhood and adolescence that shaped his life. His early years are intercut with chapters about his childhood friend, an American painter living in Venice, to create a ruminative story revolving around the idea of the road not taken.

Why we love it: The Pulitzer Prize-winning author is a master at creating the special microcosms of a small town. This is a cozy, full-hearted tale stuffed with the sense of how race, class, sex and economics play just under the surface of a community.

THE BRIEF AND WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO, by Junot Diaz (Riverhead, $24.95). It took 11 years for Diaz to follow up his dazzling story collection Drown, and the consensus is nearly unanimous: His raucous new novel was well worth the wait. Diaz brings us the wildly inventive story of a Dominican family suffering from a curse he dubs fuku. Filled with funny, energetic, often crude language, opinionated footnotes and a healthy smattering of Spanish, this isn't exactly the sort of book for readers who prefer safer, saner climes. But those willing to venture into a wonderfully offbeat world won't be disappointed.

Why we love it: Diaz's prose has a hip-hop verve to it that's transporting. All we can say is wow. Or should that be Wao?

DEAD BOYS, by Richard Lange (Little, Brown, $21.99). For years, Lange has worked by day and written at night, reworking a story every time it was rejected, as if freeing the perfect image from a block of stone. It's been a hard road - but his long apprenticeship pays off handsomely in this collection of 12 jaw-dropping stories, written in crisp, minimalist fashion. Lange focuses on men on the fringes of civilized society: the barflies, bank robbers and just plain lowlifes. But there isn't a "bad guy" among them, as Lange gives depth to their plights, painting in glorious shades of gray.

Why we love it: Anyone who appreciates the work of Raymond Carver, William Burroughs and Charles Bukowski will find pleasure in these deeply disquieting, heartfelt - and ultimately unforgettable - noir-tinged stories.

THE GOD OF ANIMALS, by Aryn Kyle (Scribner, $25). Kyle's first novel shoots out of the gate like a gleaming thoroughbred. Twelve-year-old Alice lives in fictional Desert Valley, Colo., on a horse ranch on the brink of insolvency. But that's not her only problem: Her older sister has run off with a rodeo cowboy; her depressed mother hasn't gotten out of bed in years; her father barely notices her; and one of her classmates has recently drowned. As Alice finds herself increasingly drawn into an adult world, Kyle's lyrical prose transforms what might otherwise have been an ordinary coming-of-age story into something remarkable.

Why we love it: Kyle spent most of her childhood in Grand Junction and knows the landscape. Her characters are rich and pure, the story unpredictable and the climax simply stunning.

ON THE ROAD: THE ORIGINAL SCROLL, by Jack Kerouac (Viking, $25.95). Yep, we're on Kerouac overload, too. But it would be a shame to miss something as breathtaking as this just because the hype over the 50th anniversary of Kerouac's iconic novel has you Road-weary. Here, you'll find the text just as Kerouac wrote it on his famed 120-foot scroll in a three-week burst of writing, including the real names of all his characters, such as Neal Cassady and Allen Ginsberg, sex scenes that were deleted from the final version and small differences in the text that bring the reader big insights.

Why we love it: Rare is the book that conveys such energy and sweetly sad soulfulness as On the Road in its raw, unedited version. You've sped through it before, but slow down with this version and you'll see some amazing new scenery.

PONTOON, by Garrison Keillor (Viking, $25.95). If you're looking for laughs from start to finish, wrapped in a story that's loony but never dim-witted, over-the-top but bursting with down-home heart, Keillor's new novel is not to be missed. Set in his trademark Lake Wobegon, the story begins with the death of a good Lutheran lady who's left some unusual funeral instructions: She wishes to be cremated, inserted in a bowling ball and dropped in Lake Wobegon. As the story unwinds, readers encounter a pontoon boat, a tour bus full of renegade Lutheran ministers from Denmark, a pack of parachuting Elvises and more.

Why we love it: If it sounds like lunacy, rest assured: It's all in the capable hands of Keillor, whose gently mocking style culminates in an immensely entertaining read. This Faulkner of the Midwest may tread lightly, but that doesn't mean he doesn't leave a footprint.

RED ROVER, by Deidre McNamer (Viking, $24.95).Set in Montana in the aftermath of World War II, this tale examines shifting loyalties and the effects of war on three men. After two brothers return from the war, Neil picks up his life where he left off, while Aidan suffers a strange disease and bitterness over his experience working undercover for the FBI. When Aidan later dies, an unsettling question lingers: Was his death an accident or suicide? And what was the role of Aidan's former FBI colleague in his fate? Ultimately, the resilience of human beings shines through in this powerful novel.

Why we love it: McNamer's story is far more than the sum of its plots. Its characters' lives intersect and recede through the years until we realize that the author has created an entire evolving community. And did we mention that McNamer's evocation of the Montana landscape is pitch-perfect?

TREE OF SMOKE, by Denis Johnson (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $27). Lean and laconic, Johnson's prose often carries the power of a sucker punch, delivering our worst moments of fear and loneliness in ways powerful enough to make us gasp. No surprise, his latest is a stunner: a big sprawling novel set during the Vietnam War. The story revolves around a brash World War II veteran and colonel in the CIA who pulls strings to get his weak, indecisive nephew under his wing. After a counterintelligence plan involving a double agent is set in motion, the truth breaks apart, and soon no one knows who to trust.

Why we love it: While we thought we'd heard all we wanted to about this regrettable era in American history, it turns out we couldn't have been more wrong. Like a sniper taking aim at our apathy, Johnson has our attention. In fact, we're riveted.

THE YIDDISH POLICEMEN'S UNION, by Michael Chabon (HarperCollins, $26.95). Who else but Chabon would dare throw alternative history, noir detective conceits, chess strategy and Yiddish all in the same pot? But in his hands, this stew is delectable. In this simmering story, Chabon imagines what might have happened had President Roosevelt approved a U.S. Interior Department plan to admit Jewish Holocaust refugees to populate territory in Alaska. When his protagonist, the divorced, alcoholic detective Meyer Landsman, finds that a fellow resident of the flophouse where he lives has been murdered, he takes up the investigation.

Why we love it: This novel proves once again that Chabon is an awe-inspiring stylist. He spins metaphors so stunning, they could break your heart.

THE BROKEN SHORE, by Peter Temple (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $25). Temple's work has won many awards in Australia, and if The Broken Shore gets the attention it deserves, he'll be winning prizes and gaining a wider audience in the U.S. as well. In this beautifully written and wrenching tale of murder and prejudice, Melbourne detective Joe Cashin, stuck in his small hometown while recuperating from injuries, runs up against local hatreds in the investigation of the murder of a prominent citizen. Temple gradually unfolds the long-secret evil at the center of this complex and compelling tale layered with racial and political tensions.

Why we love it: Sharp dialogue and pungent Australian slang keep the plot humming as the murder investigation erupts in confusion and tragedy. Readers won't want to put this one down.

HEART-SHAPED BOX, by Joe Hill (William Morrow, $24.95). This may be Hill's first novel, but he's been writing award-winning stories for a decade, and the experience shows in this rock-and-roll horror novel revolving around Jude Coyne, an aging heavy-metal star. Now in his 50s, Jude hasn't recorded anything new in years and spends most of his time with his live-in, 25-year-old Goth girlfriend and two huge German shepherds at his remote New England farm. But his life takes a drastic turn when he buys a ghost on the Internet - a ghost that's out to destroy him and everyone he cares about.

Why we love it: Downright scary, this is just what you'd expect from Stephen King's son. Box has all the elements of a great horror read: a believable supernatural villain; a protagonist who finds redemption; and just enough pages to be complex while keeping the tension taut, start to finish.

THE TIN ROOF BLOWDOWN, by James Lee Burke (Simon & Schuster, $26). When Hurricane Katrina surged over the levees two years ago, Burke's fans knew the definitive novel about the tragedy would come from his pen. And so it did this past summer in Tin Roof, which follows multiple characters whose lives are interwoven by the past and the rising waters. A priest is killed while trying to save drowning parishioners. A vengeful parent shoots a young pillager. And a brutal and evil past is forced to the surface of the oil-slicked waters of a drowned city.

Why we love it: This is a rare example of fiction that does what hours of unctuous TV news coverage somehow could not: It shows the deepest of human tragedy without a crocodile tear of faked empathy. Entertaining but also a fitting testament to lives forever changed.

Non-fiction

ANIMAL, VEGETABLE, MIRACLE: A Year of Food Life, by Barbara Kingsolver (HarperCollins, $26.95). Blessing us with a story as small as her Appalachian kitchen and as big as global climate change, Kingsolver writes about the year she and her family spent eating almost entirely food they grew themselves or bought locally. Motivated by a desire to eat healthful food, maintain close family ties and support local farmers, they were also hoping to "try not to wreck every blooming thing on the planet while we're here." In support of that cause, Kingsolver and company hoe weeds, make their own cheese and whip up squash umpteen different ways.

Why we love it: Kingsolver weaves details of turkeys' mating habits and Early Girl tomatoes with facts about corporate agribusiness, giving readers an ambitious book with nary an extraneous stroke.

CIRCLING MY MOTHER, by Mary Gordon (Pantheon, $24).Some have flinched from this intensely intimate, occasionally disturbing story, but anyone with the fortitude to face life's often-messy realities will reap handsome rewards. Here, acclaimed writer Gordon looks past her mother's slow, horrible demise in a nursing home to reconstruct her mother's life. She shows us Anna Gagliano Gordon, daughter of a Sicilian father and Irish mother, a woman who put several younger siblings through college, married late and worked proudly as a secretary - all while wielding a wicked sense of humor, drinking too much and often enduring the petty cruelties of her sniping family.

Why we love it: Gordon has done the impossible: brought her mother back to life. Better yet, she's sent her off to work, in readers' minds, dressed in a business suit and smelling of Arpege.

THE DAY OF BATTLE: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944, by Rick Atkinson (Henry Holt, $35). Books about World War II have come so fast and furiously the past few years that it feels like an assault akin to the Normandy landing. In a crowded field, this one's a standout. Pulitzer Prize-winning Atkinson details the Allies' campaign in Sicily and Italy, battles waged in some of Europe's most diffi- cult terrain, led by generals often more concerned with saving their egos than their men. Victories were so hard-won that when some gunners figured it cost $25,000 in artillery shells for every enemy killed, one GI quipped: "Why wouldn't it be better just to offer the Germans $25,000 to surrender?"

Why we love it: Remarkable in depth, exhaustive in detail, colorful in its storytelling, this story dishes the dirt on superstars like Gens. Patton and Eisenhower to boot.

EINSTEIN: His Life and Universe, by Walter Isaacson (Simon & Schuster, $32). First, an admission: We can't say this new biography has made it any clearer to us how that famous equation we've all heard about led to the atomic bomb. But in his fine, affectionate account of the famed scientist's life and thought, Isaacson has made a yeoman's effort to clue us in in layman's terms. Einstein was a high school dropout, a rebel, a man who committed marital infidelity. He was also someone who could stand science on its head, just by making casual calculations on the back of an envelope. Isaacson deftly brings us this complex and intriguing man in full.

Why we love it: This book gently corrects our hero worship without ever diminishing Einstein's towering accomplishments. Do we really need another biography of Einstein? We might have said no - until we read this one.

GOD IS NOT GREAT, by Christopher Hitchens (Warner Twelve, $24.99). In this impeccably sourced and elegantly written narrative, Hitchens makes a case for an end to religion in all forms. The expatriate British journalist and Vanity Fair columnist posits that the existence of God is little more than fairy tale and outdated tribal superstition and reviews in gory detail the brutality sparked by past religiosity around the world. In doing so, he is sure to infuriate Christians, Muslims, Buddhists or anyone else for that matter, but he airs questions that have gained increasing traction in an age when Islamic fundamentalism is wreaking havoc around the world.

Why we love it: In venting his vehement spleen and venom, Hitchens ignites pyrotechnics that are well worth witnessing, wherever you stand on the issue.

GONZO: The Life of Hunter S. Thompson, an Oral Biography, by Jann S. Wenner and Corey Seymour (Little, Brown, $28.99). No surprise, several books have come out about Thompson since his death, with more on the way. But if you had to pick one that presented Thompson in all his crazed contradiction, you can't go wrong with this compilation of remarks from those who knew him best. Johnny Depp, Jack Nicholson, James Carville, George McGovern, Tom Wolfe, Norman Mailer - and many more - all offer their often raucous recollections of the man who lit a fire under a staid journalistic world, then proceeded to fizzle in a haze of drugs, alcohol and guns.

Why we love it: Other books may do a better job of placing Thompson more precisely in the context of his times. This one mostly just dishes the dirt - and we were riveted.

HATE MAIL FROM CHEERLEADERS AND OTHER ADVENTURES FROM THE LIFE OF REILLY, by Rick Reilly (Sports Illustrated Books, $25). In this town, we couldn't ignore the sports fanatics - especially when hometown author Reilly is offering work as entertaining as this. In his new collection of 100 of his Sports Illustrated "Life of Reilly" columns, the author writes about coaching his daughter's middle-school basketball team, watching a Sports Illustrated swimsuit shoot and much more. By turns funny and poignant, Reilly's columns boil down to a simple but satisfying formula for readers of all stripes: The man doesn't just write about sports, but the people who happen to play them.

Why we love it: These are insightful, amusing and often touching pieces. They ought to carry a surgeon general's warning: Prolonged exposure could be habit-forming.

HERE IF YOU NEED ME, by Kate Braestrup (Little, Brown, $23.99).This is a small, unassuming book about monumental, life-and-death themes. The author, mother of four, becomes an ordained Unitarian Universalist minister after her beloved policeman-husband dies in a car accident. She then takes on the relatively new role of chaplain to Maine game wardens, offering wisdom and solace as they attempt to locate lost hikers and recover accident and suicide victims. Love stories, theological reflections, heartwarming family yarns and more all intersect under Braestrup's nurturing hand.

Why we love it: This is serious business, but Braestrup writes of great truths simply, easily. And come on: Who can resist a woman who jokes about stopping "evildoers" by flashing her warden's badge and issuing this warning: "Stop, or I'll pray!"?

HOUSE OF RAIN, by Craig Childs (Little, Brown, $24.99). This is a mystery, wrapped in an adventure, wrapped in history - and all wrapped in Childs' exceptional prose. The author travels through the Southwest, retracing the travels of the Anasazi, a culture that thrived for hundreds of years then vanished seemingly without a trace in the 13th century, leaving historians baffled. Along the way, Childs populates the landscape with his imagination, seeing the men and women of this desert world working, resting and making the pots that are found along the way. Meanwhile, he finds a trail of clues that lead to some surprising conclusions.

Why we love it: This self-described "glorified vagabond" makes a distant culture come alive.

HOW DOCTORS THINK, by Jerome Groopman (Houghton Mifflin, $25).Groopman, a medical doctor and esteemed writer for The New Yorker, offers a fascinating examination of the way doctors make wrong diagnoses, often through snap judgments and ineffective communication with their patients. His book is stuffed with startling facts (did you know that radiologists misread X-rays up to 27 percent of the time?) and telling anecdotes, including a story of an endocrinologist who assumed the unshaven, uncooperative young man in the emergency room was a homeless hippie. In fact, the patient was a student on the brink of a diabetic coma.

Why we love it: Stories like these bring Groopman's text alive, even when the subject is often death.

Medicine may be a science, but in the hands of a skilled writer like Groopman, it's also an art.

THE LONG ROAD HOME, by Martha Raddatz (Putnam, $24.95).Amid a barrage of Iraq books that don't always hit their target, Raddatz's story is a stealth bomb: a spit-and-polish perfect telling of 48 hours in April 2004 when a patrol from Fort Hood's 1st Cavalry Division was pinned down in an Iraqi alley by thousands of armed militia and civilians. As fellow soldiers came to their rescue, they were savagely gunned down, leaving eight dead and more than 70 wounded. Raddatz, an ABC News correspondent in Baghdad at the time of the mission, writes breathless battle scenes - and shifts seamlessly to the wrenching reactions of family members back home, who opened their front doors to news of the worst kind.

Why we love it: This is the battle in which Cindy Sheehan's son was killed. To Raddatz's credit, Sheehan's story is just one of many that will tear through your soul, leaving you sadder but wiser about the profound price of war.

SCHULZ AND PEANUTS: A Biography, by David Michaelis (Harper Collins, $34.95). Schulz's family opened themselves, and the cartoonist's archives, to Michaelis - and he took full advantage of the opportunity. This is a fascinating, nuanced look at a man who rose to fame but never left his insecurities behind. Michaelis depicts Schulz's ongoing melancholy and isolation, frequently including Schulz's comics to show how his art often echoed his life. In one strip, Charlie Brown kicks Lucy off the football team - and the relief is palpable. "Isn't it nice not having her around?" he says. No coincidence, it was written around the time that Schulz divorced his wife.

Why we love it: Schulz's children have objected to Michaelis' portrayal of their father, and we won't pretend to know where the truth lies. We only know that this is a sprawling effort to crack the shell of the man behind Peanuts. Fans of the strip will eat it up.

THE YEAR OF LIVING BIBLICALLY: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible, by A.J. Jacobs (Simon & Schuster, $25). Sure, Jacobs, author of The Know-It-All, a book about his attempt to read the entire Encyclopaedia Brittanica in one year, is fast becoming known as a stunt writer. But in this case, all we can say is: What a stunt! In his latest, the author - who describes himself as "Jewish in the same way that the Olive Garden is Italian" - decides to take a closer look at religion by living for one year strictly adhering to the tenets of the Bible. He grows a beard, keeps the Sabbath, honors his parents - and stones adulterers and eats crickets, among other surprising feats.

Why we love it: In the hands of many, this stunt would seem crass at best. But Jacobs turns it into a laugh-out-loud read that morphs into a deeply moving and inspirational book.

WHY KEROUAC MATTERS: The Lessons of On the Road (They're Not What You Think), by John Leland (Viking, $22.95). Forgive us for double-dipping into the Kerouac mystique - but if you've taken our advice from the fiction choices and picked up Kerouac's On The Road: the Original Scroll, you won't want to miss this book to make sense of it all. New York Times reporter Leland offers an intriguing, unconventional look at Kerouac, reading his classic novel less as an account of counterculture rebels than as a keyhole into the mind of an author who held far more traditional views than many have imagined.

Why we love it: A wry, intelligent writer, Leland has done a close, deep reading of Kerouac's novels, letters, journals and various biographies. The result is a remarkable and utterly fresh look into the mind of an American icon.

Coffee table/gift books

BEST PICK FOR HISTORY LOVERS

1776: The Illustrated Edition, by David McCullough (Simon & Schuster, $65). McCullough's splendid book about one pivotal year in American history lacked only one thing: maps to help readers follow battle developments and troop movements. With this awesome edition, that problem is rectified. But that's not all: Readers will find excerpts of McCullough's original text, along with illustrations depicting key people and events; pull-out facsimiles of letters (George telling Martha, for example, that he didn't volunteer to lead the colonists' armies, but in fact "used every endeavour in my power to avoid it . . ."); replicas of newspaper front pages and more.

Why we love it: Some publishers slap a few facsimiles into vellum envelopes simply to justify the coffee-table price. We're onto that game. This has the look and feel of a project done by people who cared deeply about the subject matter, resulting in a you-are-there experience lacking only the smell of blood and the rot of bodies. (By the way, we're fine without the stench.)

BEST PICK FOR HUMOR LOVERS

Our Dumb World: The Onion's Atlas of the Planet Earth (Little, Brown, $27.99). Consider your average atlas: lots of colorful maps, timelines, fun facts. Now consider Our Dumb World, an atlas just like the one described, with one difference: You might actually want to read this one. Those irreverent merrymakers from the satirical newspaper The Onion have outdone themselves with this trip around the globe, from the page on how to use this atlas ("automatically discount anything not in a brightly colored box as too dense") to the bit about cartography (including the informational graphic "Map to Erica's Party") to the spreads on various countries, each summed up in stunningly succinct headings: "Argentina: A Beautiful Nazi Retirement Community;" "Angola: Just Not the Same Without the Civil War;" "Uganda: No Child Left Alive."

Why we love it: This book has more laughs per page than India has sacred cows. Or should we say, had? A smarter look at our dumb world than you might think.

BEST PICK FOR BABY BOOMERS

The Completely MAD Don Martin. (Running Press Book Publishers, $105). Every year around this time, Running Press gathers a cartoonist's entire oeuvre into volumes so giant they could snap your spine, should you be stupid enough to lift them. This year, it's Don Martin's turn. Baby boomers will recall Martin as the cartoonist whose bulbous-nosed, square-jawed, mishap-prone madmen set the tone of MAD magazine from 1957 to 1987. With his mix of slapdash irony and just plain slapstick - not to mention sound effects that made surprising new uses of the alphabet (PAF! SPLITCH! BZZOWNT!!!) - Martin reset the silly meter for an entire generation. Flip though these pages, including input from Martin's colleagues, and it will all come flooding back.

Why we love it: Call us a sucker for this bigger-is-better bonanza; we love seeing an artist's career evolve from start to finish - though admittedly, this 2-volume, 1,200 page retrospective will be a mixed blessing for aging boomers. Balm for the funnybone, bruising for the back.

BEST PICK FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS - OR SUCKERS FOR A BABY FACE

A Labor of Love: Anne Geddes, An Autobiography, (Andrews McMeel Publishing, $50). OK, we know that some of you snark when Geddes' name comes up. All those cutesy babies dressed like bees. But come down off of that snooty perch for a minute and answer one question: Haven't you always secretly wondered how she gets those newborns to pose so blissfully as peas in a pod and wood nymphs in a forest? In this book, you'll find out how Geddes fit two babies into a pair of worn-out boots (had the boots specially made at a size 22); got a 9-week old to sleep on top of a giant pumpkin (warmed the top of the pumpkin with a hot-water bottle); depicted a sleeping baby as the center of a peony (painstaking computer work). Geddes also includes personal notes on her career and family and answers frequently asked questions.

Why we love it: Pardon us for being so unsophisticated, but chunky babies with droopy cabbage leaves on their heads always make us smile. And the back-stories are equally irresistible.

BEST PICK FOR NATURE LOVERS

Planet Ocean: Voyage to the Heart of the Marine Realm, by Laurent Ballesta and Pierre Descamp (National Geographic, $40). With ever-improving photographic techniques, books taking readers to otherwise unseen worlds (the human body, outer space, etc.) have become more breathtaking every year. This year, we urge readers to take the plunge into this underwater wonder. The authors provide 400 photos of ocean life so crisp and clean, you'd think the sea creatures were swimming in air. Here, you'll see the ridges on the skin of a humpback whale, so fine and precise, it looks like an artist drew them on with a ruler; a fish that's all spikes and fins and translucent enough to be hand-blown glass - and more. Oh yeah, there are articles, too, on such topics as ecotourism and global warming. And we'll read them one day - whenever we come up for air.

Why we love it: This is a whole new world, indeed. Gorgeous.

BEST PICK FOR ART LOVERS

30,000 YEARS OF ART (Phaidon Press Inc., $49.95). Every year publishers look for a new wrinkle in terms of how to package art books for the holidays. This giant volume does it all, encompassing 1,000 pieces from around the world, from 28,000 BC (the mammoth ivory Lion Man of Hohlenstein-Stadel, from what is now Germany) to a work still unfinished (James Turrell's Arizona earthwork, Roden Crater). In between are 998 other paintings, sculptures, installations, ceramics and so on, from diverse cultures. The iconic pieces are all there (from the Euphronious Krater to Les Demoiselles D'Avignon), but so are some intriguing nonstars worthy of attention.

Why we love it: It might require warm-up exercises to be able to tote this hefty book around, but it's worth the sweat. The glossary and contextual timelines provide smart reference tools, too.

BEST PICK FOR QUIRKY COLORADANS

FACES IN THE ROCKS: A Spiritual Journey, by Randy and Judy Brown ($62). It's rare that a self-published coffee-table book is so well-produced and charming that it would stand out among a pack of titles produced by professionals, but the Browns' book is so endearing and unusual, we couldn't leave it out. This book features photos the couple took over a five-year period of hiking in Colorado, in which they captured images of rocks that look like faces. Some are stolid and literally stoney faced, others seem to be showing great sorrow or joy - and all are accompanied by sayings from famous (and not-so-famous) people throughout history that perfectly complement their individual attitudes.

Why we love it: The idea seems wacky, we know. But these photos somehow give the spirit a lift, as if Mother Nature is letting readers in on a wonderful, whimsical secret. Amazingly rock solid.

BEST PICK FOR THE DEVOUT

Biblica: The Bible Atlas , by Barry J. Beitzel (Barron's $50). At 575 pages and roughly 15 pounds, this book is chock-full of information about the historical parameters of the Bible. Want to know where Jesus was raised in relation to where Paul preached his message? Curious about the route the Jews took on their flight from Egypt? Want to know the difference between the Torah and the Bible? It's all here, assembled by Beitzel and a team of 27 scholars who try to put the events of the Bible into context. This encyclopedia is rich in visuals: More than 650 full-color paintings and drawings and etchings, and 125 maps of the Middle East. It's also evenly divided between the Old and New Testaments - and includes the latest archaeological news, including the flap over the ossuary supposedly belonging to James, brother of Jesus, a few years ago.

Why we love it: The prophets (major and minor)? The apostles? The martyrs? They're all here, each given his due, including a healthy dose of skepticism. Start reading this encyclopedia on Christmas day and you could easily be absorbed through New Year's.

BEST PICK FOR POPULAR MUSIC LOVERS

CREEM: America's Only Rock 'n' Roll Magazine, by various writers(Harper Collins, $29.95). Creem was the magazine Rolling Stone thought it was - always an ear to the ground for the best music of the era, being there first and getting it right. Focusing on its '69 to '88 run, this book has some of the best work ever from legendary writers such as Lester Bangs, Jaan Uhelszki, Lisa Robinson, Dave Marsh and more. Even better are the exclusive portraits and candids shot in the era, from Todd Rundgren in a witch's hat to Grace Slick flashing the camera in a bathroom stall. Interviews with George Harrison, The Replacements and The Pretenders are particularly definitive. The look is gorgeous, with color-saturated covers and photos taken from the magazine's rich archive (although a cheap-feeling paper stock makes those pages warped and fragile, even in brand-new editions. Beautiful but flimsy).

Why we love it: This is essential reading, with interviews done in the moment when the artists most mattered.

BEST PICK FOR FILM FANATICS

THE STAR WARS VAULT, by Stephen J. Sansweet and Peter Vilmur (Harper Entertainment, $85). After decades of books on Star Wars - the making of, the art of, the toys of - what could be left? Scraps, basically. But you'd have to search the galaxy for a more attractively packaged collection of scraps. Subtitled Thirty Years of Treasures From the Lucasfilm Archives, the volume's broad pages are packed with 50 removable reproductions of ephemera: stickers, an iron-on T-shirt transfer, a few pages of Lucas' handwritten story for The Empire Strikes Back. Most intriguing is material predating the original release: Awkward ads illustrate how 20th Century Fox had no clue how to market a sci-fi film at a time when the genre was believed dead. The prose is expectedly reverential, but doesn't ignore rare misfires, such as the 1978 Star Wars Holiday Special (Carrie Fisher's singing performance is among the audio gems on two CDs included).

Why we love it: For anyone who's ever longed for another chance to build a cardboard land-speeder from a Burger Chef Funmeal - and you know who you are - this is a must-have.

BEST PICK FOR ADULT POP-UP LOVERS

CHRISTMAS AROUND THE WORLD: A Pop-Up Book, by Chuck Fischer (Little, Brown, $30). We're willing to admit it just might be one page in this book that charmed us: the pop-up of a little French street, lit for the holidays and strung with cutouts of bright stars. Oh to be there for Christmas! But this tour of Christmases around the world has other pleasures, too: pull-out booklets that talk about the origin of Christmas traditions, photos of various celebrations and let's not forget Santa in his sleigh, complete with an elastic leash leading to his little reindeer team.

Why we love it: It's a great little way to get in the holiday spirit. Buy it for yourself now - and you won't need the endless loop of Johnny Mathis Christmas carols on the CD player. Talk about a Christmas miracle.