Indies First: What are authors giving and hoping to get this season?
As part of the Indies First celebration on Small Business Saturday 2014, we asked a dozen authors—some local, some further-flung—for their own holiday book-gift suggestions: one book they are giving this year, and one they'd love to receive. You can find their choices (and their own books) on display at Phinney Books:
Blake Bailey, author of The Splendid Things We Planned
Give: Afternoon Men by Anthony Powell
Receive: Letters of Note, edited by Shaun Usher
Kim Baker, author of Pickle
Give: The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex
Receive: Cartwheeling in Thunderstorms by Katherine Rundell
Ryan Boudinot, author of Blueprints of the Afterlife
Give: The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis
Receive: X'ed Out by Charles Burns
Langdon Cook, author of The Mushroom Hunters (signed copies available at Phinney Books)
Give: The Laughing Monsters by Denis Johnson
Receive: Savage Harvest by Carl Hoffman
Renee Erickson, author of A Boat, a Whale, and a Walrus (signed copies available at Phinney Books)
Give: Canal House Cooks Every Day by Hamilton & Hirsheimer
Receive: Polpo by Russell Norman
Ken Jennings, author of the Junior Genius Guides
Give: What If? by Randall Munroe
Receive: Lila by Marilynne Robinson
David Laskin, author of The Family
Give: Augustus by John Williams
Receive: Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi
Brad Thomas Parsons, author of Bitters
Give: Death & Co. by David Kaplan, Nick Fauchald, and Alex Day
Receive: Heritage by Sean Brock
Maria Semple, author of Where'd You Go, Bernadette?
Give: Brother of the More Famous Jack by Barbara Trapido
Receive: The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters
Ed Skoog, author of Rough Day
Give: Book of Hours by Kevin Young
Receive: The Great Enigma by Tomas Tranströmer
Jeff VanderMeer, author of Area X: The Southern Reach Trilogy (Annihilation, Authority, and Acceptance)
Give: The Wilds by Julia Elliott
Receive: The Kills by Richard House
Jenny Williams, author of What My Daughter Wore
Give: Family Furnishings by Alice Munro
Receive: Watch Me by Anjelica Huston