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H A P P Y H O L I D AY S
Local book sellers’
Top picks for 2011
Staff members from Books Inc. and Kepler’s list this year’s favorites
W
ith the holiday season upon us, we asked local booksellers Kepler’s and Books Inc. to recommend their staffs’ top five picks for 2011.
Here are some of their favorites, which range from biographies to historical fiction.
“Steve Jobs,” Walter Isaacson, Simon & Schuster: Although written with Jobs’ cooperation, this biography offers a candid and often painfully truthful look at his life and career. Isaacson interviewed a variety of people associated with Jobs, both personally and professionally, many of whom openly painted both the good and the bad aspects of the late Apple leader. Aside from the book’s in-depth look at Jobs the man, it is also a history of the most exciting time in the age of computers, as well as a textbook study of the rise and fall and rise of Apple and the brutal conflicts that ruined friendships and careers. And it is a gadget lover’s dream, with fabulous, inside accounts of how the Macintosh, iPod, iPhone and iPad came into being. Having spent most of my life as a Silicon Valley-ite, I was fascinated by the insights into this brilliant, charming, loathsome, maddening, obsessive, complicated, and very private man. (Pam Grange, Kepler’s) “Boomerang,” Michael Lewis, W.W. Norton & Company Inc.: With his trademark readability, Lewis makes this book about the European debt crisis easy to enjoy. He takes us through the history of the crisis, but adds to this some interesting and thought-provoking ideas about how the national traits of each troubled country may have played into the ensuing mess. You may find yourself repeating parts of this incredible story to anyone who will listen, or urging them to read it themselves. I can’t remember when I found a book about finance to be so engaging, and though ignorance may be bliss, I think this time around it pays to be more informed. This book will help get you there, painlessly. (Linda Reid, Books Inc.) “The Cat’s Table,” Michael Ondaatje, Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc.: Three young boys set off on a three-week voyage bound for England. They pursue their own interests and intrigues with only slight supervision from a distant aunt and a glamorous Page 26ÊUÊ iVi LiÀÊÓ]ÊÓ䣣ÊUÊ*> Ê Ì Ê7ii Þ
cousin. Their home base is established at the first ship’s dinner — they sit at the “cat’s table” set for single passengers, far from the captain’s glittery table. They take to the journey with the thrill of a chase, often underfoot and always observant. I savored the boys’ roaming and chaotic behavior, picturing their wildness and unmasked joy of youth. Ondaatje’s beautiful and elegant storytelling sk ills
Edited by Chris Kenrick