Already stressed out by the prospect of holiday shopping? Don’t sweat it. We’ve got a book for everyone on your list.
FICTION
By Mario Puzo (G.P. Putnam’s Sons), $50
It’s only the most iconic crime novel ever written. Puzo’s 1969 epic about a mafia family and their bloody struggle for power in post-World War II America remains as seductive and timely as ever. This “deluxe” edition — timed to the 50th anniversary of Francis Ford Coppola’s film adaptation — includes a snazzy new jacket, grimly funny cover board art (spoiler: it features a headless horse) and glossy illustrated endpapers. An offer you can’t refuse.
By Jennifer Egan (Simon & Schuster), $28
A new technology allows people to access and share every memory they’ve ever had — and to access the memories of other people. That’s the backdrop sort-of sequel to Egan’s 2010 hit “A Visit From the Goon Squad” — but like its Pulitzer-winning predecessor, it’s more about the array of loosely interconnected characters that inhabit its techno-future world. And it totally rocks.
By Colleen Hoover (Atria), $17.99
A divorced mom is finding her groove co-parenting a child with her ex-husband when she runs into her first doomed love. This romance delivers on all the goods that has made Hoover — dubbed CoHo by her legions of followers — such a sensation on TikTok: frank sex scenes, high-stakes twists, ingenious plotting and capital-D DRAMA.
By Stephen King (Scribner) $32.50
This dark fantasy novel finds the master of suspense at the top of his game. “Fairy Tale” follows teen Charlie Reade as he befriends a curmudgeonly old neighbor and his dog — and is introduced to a frightening parallel world filled with child-eating monsters, glittering pots of gold, exiled princesses and magic sundials that can turn back time. It’s a good, old-fashioned quest narrative, with all the page-turning twists and turns that King does best.
By Xochitl Gonzalez (Flatiron Books), $27.99
Olga is a wedding planner for the 1%; her brother, Prieto, is a congressman in their gentrifying Latino neighborhood in Brooklyn. All is going dandy until their tempestuous mom Blanca — a militant radical who left her two children to be raised by their grandma — comes roaring back to the city from Puerto Rico ahead of Hurricane Maria. This novel about a Nuyorican immigrant family has it all: explosive family secrets, political corruption, terrible rich people, a natural disaster, romance!
By Marlon James (Riverhead Books), $30
Described as an African “Game of Thrones,” this second installment to James’ Dark Star Trilogy, delivers all the magic, sex, violence and dragons that fans of that HBO series will recognize, but steeped in African mythology and legend. The main character here is a 177-year-old witch, who is hunting down her nemesis and searching for a mysterious missing boy in an attempt to save a kingdom. Her epic story spans a whopping 650 pages that read like Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” combined with Marvel’s “Black Panther.”
NONFICTION
By Bob Dylan (Simon & Schuster), $45
What do you get for the Boomer who already has everything? The answer, my friends, is this Bob Dylan tome. The Nobel-winning bard’s first book since 2004’s excellent “Chronicles” has him riffing on 66 songs from artists as wide-ranging as Little Richard, The Clash and Cher. Splashy photos accompany Dylan’s rambling, often funny essays, making this idiosyncratic volume extra special.
By Natalie Livingstone (St. Martin’s Press), $39.99
This wildly entertaining history looks at the unsung heroines of one of the richest, most powerful banking families in the world. There’s Blanche, an artist who ran a scandalously avant-garde gallery, Rózsika, a Hungarian tennis champ who introduced the overhand serve to the sport, Miriam, a brilliant zoologist and environmentalist known as the Queen of the Fleas for her expertise on those pesky insects, and Nica, a drug-taking “jazz baroness” who drag-raced Miles Davis, hung out with Charlie Parker (who died in her hotel suite) and lived with pal Thelonious Monk for a time in a New Jersey mansion surrounded by 100 cats.
By Sarah Gristwood (St. Martin’s Press), $29.99
Fans of historical romances, clandestine flirtations, knights jousting, ladies fainting and royals behaving badly will fall hard for this book, which looks at how romantic poetry and courtly love shaped the Tudors (Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, et al) and the way they ruled.
By David Maraniss (Simon & Schuster), $32.50
Noted biographer Maraniss tackles the difficult life of arguably the greatest athlete of all time. Native American sportsman Thorpe played football, baseball and picked up two Olympic Golds for track and field. Yet he achieved greatness despite his struggles with racism, alcoholism and money. This hefty book captures the man behind the myth.
By Buzz Bissinger (Simon & Schuster), $34.50
A book for sports fans and World War II buffs. On Christmas Eve of 1944, two Marine regiments training for the invasion of Okinawa challenged each other to a bruising, bloody football game that would become known as The Mosquito Bowl. Bissinger, who wrote so compassionately about a high school football team in “Friday Night Lights,” tells the riveting tale of this mythic game and the fates of the 65 young college-aged athlete-soldiers who participated in it — some tragic, some bound for glory.
By Michelle Obama (Crown), $32.50
The former first lady follows up her bestselling memoir “Becoming” with a self-help book on how to stay hopeful in the midst of so much polarization and uncertainty. Obama draws from her own life experiences to share the tools she’s developed to help adapt to change, overcome obstacles, create meaningful connections and “recognize our own light, [so] we become empowered to use it” and make the world a better place.
By Siddhartha Mukherjee (Simon & Schuster), $32.50
Mukherjee, a cancer physician and researcher in addition to a popular medical historian, tells the story of how scientists discovered cells — those individual living organisms that form the backbone of all life. Starting in the late 1600s, when a pair of curious eccentrics looked into their DIY microscopes, “The Song of the Cell” traces our understanding of cells, how we learned to manipulate them for medicine and how we’re beginning to use them to create new humans. Fascinating stuff!
By Dana Stevens (Atria Books), $29.99
This unconventional history of silent cinema’s most virtuosic performer narrates Keaton’s action-packed life with stylish gusto — and shows how he shaped and touched nearly every form of entertainment that came after him (even GIFs!). Come for the colorful descriptions of little Keaton’s slapstick family act (known as the most violent on vaudeville), the breakdowns of his death-defying stunts, his rise and fall and late-life comeback on TV; stay for the mini-history lessons on entertainment law and lost New York City diners.
By Tom Bower (Atria Books), $29.99
This delicious tell-all from investigative journalist Bower breaks down all the salacious details on Megxit — the rupture between Prince Harry and his Hollywood bride Meghan Markle and the rest of the Royal Family.
By Charles Leerhsen (Simon & Schuster), $28.99
Another year, another Anthony Bourdain book. But this definitely unauthorized biography offers a far grittier, warts-and-all look at the complicated celebrity chef and culinary traveler. He visited prostitutes, he took Viagra, he never stopped drinking and hated himself, at the time of his suicide in 2018 he was estranged from his 11-year-old daughter. Still, this isn’t a takedown, but an attempt to understand and narrate what made Bourdain — a rock star chef at the top of his fame and career — take his own life.
MEMOIR
By Viola Davis (HarperOne), $28.99
Oscar winner Davis said that she wrote this unvarnished account of her life “for anyone running through life untethered, desperate and clawing their way through murky memories, trying to get to some form of self-love.” The young Davis makes her way from Rhode Island to Julliard to Hollywood, continuously fighting against prejudice and her own self-doubt along the way. It’s an astonishing, inspiring read.
By Jennette McCurdy (Simon & Schuster), $27.99
This jaw-dropping memoir from a former child star makes the titular monster in Christina Crawford’s “Mommie Dearest” look . . . not so bad. McCurdy shot to fame at 15 when she was cast in the Nickelodeon series “iCarly,” but behind the scenes she was suffering from eating disorders, addiction and an overbearing stage mother who controlled every aspect of her life. McCurdy’s mom pushed her into acting, put her on a diet — weighing her five times a day — and gave her showers until she was 16 (subjecting her to breast exams). When her mother dies of cancer, McCurdy’s issues only get worse, until she gets therapy, quits acting and decides to reclaim her life. Here she tells her story with deadpan humor and refreshing clarity.
By Nancy Olson Livingston (University Press of Kentucky), $34.95
The 94-year-old Sunset Boulevard star is ready for her close-up. Here, she chronicles her path from the Midwest to Hollywood, reminisces on her marriages to lyricist Alan Jay Lerner (who dedicated the musical “My Fair Lady” to her) and Capitol Records’ Alan Wendell Livingston (who worked with Sinatra, Judy Garland, Nat King Cole and the Beatles), and shares her musings on various celebrities, including William Holden, Marilyn Monroe, John Wayne, Howard Hughes and John F. Kennedy.
By Michael Cecchi-Azzolina (St. Martin’s Press), $29.99
Gourmands will gobble up this “rollicking, raunchy” restaurant-industry memoir, billed as a front-of-house “Kitchen Confidential.” Brooklyn native Cecchi-Azzolina started his career at theater hangout La Rousse, where he served a bibulous Tennesse Williams, and eventually fronted some of the city’s buzziest establishments, from popular date spot Raoul’s (where he dealt with “the absolutely horrid Anna Wintour”) to the elegant River Café (where diners had a view of the “jumpers” off the Brooklyn Bridge). Cecchi-Azzolina has seen it all and isn’t afraid to dish on the less-savory aspects of the restaurant biz.
By Ada Calhoun (Grove Press), $27
Calhoun had set out to complete a biography on the poet Frank O’Hara that her father, the art critic Peter Schjeldahl, had started 40 years earlier. But she ended up writing this beautiful meditation on poetry, difficult father-daughter relationships and artistic ambition instead. Anyone interested in the bohemian East Village of the 1990s, O’Hara and breaking from out of the shadow of a brilliant parent will love this book.
By Steve Martin (Author) and Harry Bliss (Illustrator) (Celadon Books), $30
Martin teams up with New Yorker cartoonist Bliss for this illustrated romp through his film career. The erudite comedian shares anecdotes from the sets of “Three Amigos,” “Father of the Bride,” “Roxanne” and “The Jerk” and his exploits with celebs Paul McCartney, Diane Keaton, Robin Williams and Chevy Chase — as well as with Bliss’ dog, Penny, whom Martin calls his muse.
COOKBOOKS
By Rick Martínez (Clarkson Potter), $35
Martínez, a food video host and former editor at Bon Appetit, takes readers on a culinary journey through Mexico, recreating 104 regional dishes found throughout the country, from sweet shrimp tamales to garlic and lime slow-roasted pork sandwiches to decadent buttered rice.
By Eric Kim (Clarkson Potter), $32.50
In this collection of essays and recipes, Kim provides his unique spin on the classic Korean flavors he grew up eating as the son of immigrants living in Atlanta. His inventive recipes include baked potatoes topped with caramelized kimchi, crispy lemon-pepper bulgogi, roasted-seaweed sour cream and a seductive gochujang chocolate lava cake. Yum!
By Jon Gray, Pierre Serrao and Lester Walker (Artisan), $40
Bronx culinary collective Ghetto Gastro’s first cookbook celebrates the incredible diversity of the borough’s black communities and cultures — with signature humor and panache. The authors riff on family and neighborhood favorites, from a “Purple Haze” sweet potato pie with coconut flakes added to the mix for crunch to their take on classic bodega staple chopped cheese “Chopped Stease,” and highlight dishes from throughout the African diaspora, such as banana leaf fish, jerk and jollof rice.
By Jody Williams and Rita Sodi (Knopf), $40
Chefs and life partners Williams and Sodi share the secrets behind the magical Via Carota, the seasonal Italian restaurant they opened in 2014. Now you can recreate 104 simple but elegant faves such as lasagna cacio e pepe, Tuscan onion soup, sweet ricotta cake and their signature insalata verde. Bravissima!
ART/PHOTO BOOKS
By Alison M. Gingeras (Phaidon), $69.95
This gorgeous volume includes paintings from more than 300 women artists spanning 500 years, from the Renaissance (the Italian portraitist Sofonisba Anguissola) to today (the pop phenom Yayoi Kusama).
By Vikki Tobak (Taschen), $100
What’s cooler than being cool? “Ice Cold.” From Run DMC’s gold Adidas pendants to Roxanne Shanté’s bejeweled nameplate hair clips to A$AP Ferg’s diamond-encrusted grills, this flashy, fun photographic history traces jewelry’s role in 40 years of rap culture and myth-making.
By Claudia Joseph (ACC Art Books), $55
The day Diana Spencer got engaged to Prince Charles, she said, she “literally had one long dress, one silk shirt, one smart pair of shoes and that was it.” That sure changed! This stylish survey traces Di’s evolution from unsophisticated debutante to fashion icon, telling the stories behind her most famous, and infamous, dresses.
By Andy Saunders (Black Dog & Leventhal), $75
Space nerds will geek out over this far-out coffee table book, which features hundreds of never-before-seen images from the Apollo missions, lovingly brought to life by NASA’s photo restorer Saunders. Startling spacewalks, portraits of astronauts in their spacecraft and dazzling new views of the Earth and Moon give new insight and perspective on man’s exploration of space.
By Derek McLane and Eila Mell (Running Press Adult), $45
Tony Award-winning designer McLane reveals how he and other designers create their immersive, razzle-dazzle Broadway sets, with behind-the-scenes photos, personal sketches and lots of interviews. This glossy tome focuses on recent theater hits, like “Hamilton,” “Hadestown” and “Beautiful,” and contributors include Ethan Hawke, Carole King, Wallace Shawn and John Leguizamo.
By Jonathan Weinberg (DelMonico Books/The Columbus Museum of Art) $55
This magical book — the companion to an exhibition at the Columbus Museum of Art — explores six decades of Sendak’s art, with previously unpublished sketches, storyboards and paintings by the endlessly imaginative illustrator and children’s book author, who died in 2012 at 83.
KIDS/TEENS
By Hiroshi Osada (Author) and Ryoji Arai (Illustrator) (Enchanted Lion), $17.95
This publisher produces the most exquisite picture books, and this glorious ode to water — translated from Japanese by David Boyd — is no exception. A parent and child go boating on the river, which leads to an exploration of the water that surrounds them, and the life that water nourishes and sustains.
By Mac Barnett (Author) and Jon Klassen (Illustrator) (Scholastic), $18.99
Once upon a time, there was a bridge, a hungry troll who lived under it, and three billy goats who needed to cross it. This classic Norwegian fairy tale gets a hilarious and thrilling update courtesy of the picture-book kings Barnett and Klassen that will have kids giggling and gasping at the same time.
By Hayao Miyazaki (First Second Books), $27.99
Rejoice! The legendary animator behind “Spirited Away”and “My Neighbor Totoro” is back, this time with a classic 1983 graphic novel, finally published for the first time in English. This enchanting tale follows a prince on a quest for a golden grain that will save his impoverished land.
