A BookishNYC Christmas

I don't know about you, but all of these year-end "Best Of" lists are leaving me a bit fatigued.  Best books, best recordings, best movies, best recipes, best presents for your mother-in-law, husband, brother, lover, surly teenage son, eccentric aunt, co-worker, etc.   But why should that stop me from offering my own suggestions -- bookish and otherwise --  for the holiday season?  

My personal favorite books of the year:  The Hare with Amber Eyes by Edmund de Waal, and Wait for Me by Deborah (Dowager Duchess of) Devonshire:  

For mystery aficionados, I particularly recommend The Sherlockian by Graham Moore, Moonlight Mile by Dennis Lehane, and Portobello by Ruth Rendell.  

  

 

For the music lover:  The Ninth: Beethoven and the World in 1824 by Harvey Sachs:

. . . . and the latest recording from one of my favorite artists, Ian Bostridge, Three Baroque Tenors: 

For the art lover, you can't do better than the catalogue from the Metropolitan Museum of Art's exhibit Man, Myth & Sensual Pleasures: Jan Gossart's Renaissance:  

I loved Bunny Williams' Scrapbook for Living, which is sure to please any design aficionados on your shopping list:

 

 

Any P.G. Wodehouse fan would like this mug, one of a series featuring Penguin Classics covers:  

Gifts of food:  I'm a big fan of the classic peppermint bark from Williams-Sonoma:  

 

Or if you prefer savory to sweet, how about this delectable mixture from Stonewall Kitchen:

Consider these rock crystal and pearl earrings from Kate Hines Jewelry.  Perfect for virtually any woman on your list, in particular divorce lawyers moonlighting as bookish bloggers (ahem!): 

I adore these Christmas ornaments from Bergdorf Goodman -- an elegant lady shopper laden with packages (and of course the iconic lilac-colored Bergdorf's shopping bag), and the doorman ready to help her into her waiting chauffeured car: 

I have previously featured John Derian's fabulous decoupage in these pages, and I love this domed glass paperweight featuring a map of New York's Greenwich Village circa 1857 (other neighborhoods are available as well): 

This Jo Malone candle scented with "English Pear & Freesia" will make your apartment smell so good you won't ever want to leave:

And to cap off a perfect pre-Christmas weekend, why not attend the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols at the Evensong service on December 19th at 4:00 p.m. at the beautiful St. Thomas Episcopal Church on Fifth Avenue, with its magnificent choir of men and boys?  It's magical: 

 

Comments

[Liz F]

I love the Christmas decorations and those earrings - crystal and pearl are so beautifully wintry!
While I would dearly love to buy a Jo Malone candle - if I spent THAT much on a candle and the other half found out I might well be requiring your professional services!

[elizabeth]

I think you have excellent taste.
HARE was my top book pick of the year too

[mytwocentsworth]

Delighted to see one of your two favorites is the "Hare." Turns out it is the one book I have put on my list for Santa this year. The Duchess is also one I'm looking forward to in the near future. She's quite a gal.

[martina]

An excellent list! Thank you. In return I'd like to offer The Last Chinese Chef, which I just devoured over the weekend and currently on amazon at the super price of $5.58. It's a good story, well written with an interesting dialouge on Chinese culture and food. Only downside was I was hungry the entire time I read it.
Also, David Lebowitz' round up of cookbooks is a great listing...

[Karen]

Hi LizF: You need to get HIM to buy you the candle -- LOL!

Hello Elizabeth: Glad you approve my selection of the Hare With Amber Eyes. "Great minds think alike" and all that....

Hi MyTwoCentsWorth: I hope you enjoy them both -- terrific reads!!

Hi Marina: Thanks for the tip. Always looking for new recommendations.

[Felicity Luke]

I have a suggestion for a Christmas present for you: CB I Hate Perfume "In the Library". Available online or at Wyeth Avenue in Williamsburg. The only problem is that the scent evaporates quickly but it smells exactly as described.

I have 2 questions: do you ever sleep? You seem to post at 2.30 a.m.
Do your clients (who admittedly don't seem to be bookish types) ever read your blog and rumble, as we say in England, their identities?

As a retired divorce lawyer and book addict I love all aspects of your blog.

[Karen]

Hello Felicity:

Thanks for the recommendation! I will most certainly look it up.

As for your two questions:

1. Although I AM a chronic imsomniac, I don't actually post at 2:30 a.m.; I write my posts at a perfectly normal waking hour (and some of them -- such as the "Object of Desire" or "Sunday Quote -- I often do weeks ahead), but I then pre-schedule them to publish at 2:30 a.m. I have a lot of English readers, and that way the posts are available to them around breakfast, U.K.-time.

2. If you take a look at my divorce-related posts, you will see that I am very careful to speak in generalities. I often cull specific anecdotes from cases that are 10+ years old, and, as I mentioned in one of the posts, almost all of the cases, past & present, fall rather neatly into one of just a few categories and are not distinguishable enough from one another to contain any identifying characteristics.

Thanks for commenting, and I'm pleased you enjoy the blog!!

[martina]

Oooh, my link for the David Lebowitz roundup didn't show. Will try again:
http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2010/12/favorite-cookbooks-of-2010/
Also, this is a very interesting plea to publishers on how to make a better cookbook:
http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/book-news/cooking/article/45379-10-things-every-cookbook-publisher-should-know.html
Cheers,
Martina
PS - I am glad to know that you don't actually post at 2:30 am. I wondered about that....

[JulieP]

Lessons and Carols at St. Thomas is indeed special, as is Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve/Day. I remember back in the days when I was a parishioner, hundreds of non-parishioners would find themselves in a line stretching down to 6th Avenue while the parishioners got in early to grab the better seats. And, since St. Thomas and St. Patrick's let out around the same time, 5th Avenue in the 50s at midnight was almost as crowded as it was during the day.

[Karen]

Hi JulieP: I recall those lines, as well as the scrambling amongst the parishioners to get a good seat on Christmas Eve. A lot of rather un-Christian-like sharp elbows, as I recall -- LOL! Still, the sublime music makes it worthwhile.

[Thomas at My Porch]

The W-S peppermint bark is the best stuff. I can eat that stuff by the ton. I may have mentioned this before but, John Derian will actually customize those map paperweights. We had one made for a friend that focused on her block.

[Karen]

Hi Thomas -- That peppermint bark is like CRACK! And thanks for the tip about the Derian paperweights; it's already given me a couple of gift ideas, if not for this Christmas, for various upcoming birthdays, etc. Thanks for stopping by . . .

[Another Karen]

Reading your holiday list felt like a gift itself, and made me think I really needed one more book (ha!) before the end of 2010, "The Hare." And oh! to be at the Met and St. Thomas's. Thanks for the memories and inspirations.

[Karen]

Hello "Another Karen" -- I'm happy you enjoyed it. And yes, you really MUST get The Hare With Amber Eyes. Best wishes...