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