About Books & Literature: Let Shopping Season Begin!

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Books & Literature From Megan Romer, your About Books & Literature Editor I have a hunch that you, as a devout reader of this newsletter, are just the sort of person who loves to pick out fantastic literary gifts for everyone on your shopping list. Now that the season of giving is upon us, let our fabulous Guides help you pick just the right things for everyone on your list. 2011's Best Books to Give as Christmas Gifts Have a film buff in your life? A businessperson? A cook? For these and everyone on your list, here are some specific ideas, plucked from the best releases of this year. See More About:  christmas gifts  book recommendations  The Best Poetry Book of 2011 Bob Holman, one of our intrepid About.com Guides to Poetry, hand-selected this poetry-themed novel as the Best Poetry Book of 2011. Do you have a poet or poet-lover in your life? This may just be the gift for him or her. See More About:  eileen myles  novels by poets  The Best of Pilot Season 2011 Pilot Season is a revolutionary concept in comic book publishing: comic book creators get to submit a single "pilot" comic, eight are chosen to compete each season, and one emerges the winner and becomes a series. Our Guide to Comic Books picks the best of this season -- perhaps the perfect stocking stuffer for the comics fan on your list? See More About:  pilot season  top cow productions  image comics Manga Gifts for 2011 This complete gift guide will surely please any manga lover -- with everything from books to DVDs to animation cels to apparel, there's lots here to choose from, all Guide-approved. See More About:  gift guides  manga art books  manga recommendations Books & Literature Ads Books Top Ten Books Best Kid Books Literature Men Christmas Gifts Featured Articles 'The Waves' by Virginia Woolf Kids in the Holiday Kitchen Cookbook Shakespeare Crib Sheet Oxymorons Found Missing! 'Picasso at the Lapin Agile' by Steve Martin Funny Christmas Quotations   More from About.com 2011's Cutest Winter Boots Snuggly snow boots are essential for women who live in cold climates, but still want to put their best foot forward. More> 10 Budget Work Essentials Figuring out how to pay for a fabulous work wardrobe can be a challenge. These 10 mix-and-max essentials are all under $50. More>   Sign up for more free newsletters on your favorite topics You are receiving this newsletter because you subscribed to the About Books & Literature newsletter. If you wish to change your email address or unsubscribe, please click here. About respects your privacy: Our Privacy Policy Contact Information: 249 West 17th Street New York, NY, 10011 © 2011 About.com   New and Noteworthy Reads '11/22/63' by Stephen King 'Point Omega' by Don DeLillo 'The Magician King' by Lev Grossman Advertisement

About Books & Literature: Give Thanks!

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Books & Literature From Megan Romer, your About Books & Literature Editor It's that time of year again, when we put up with our relatives for an entire day, all in the name of pumpkin pie. Funny Holiday Books I love my family -- of course I do -- but they're a bunch of nutters. The holidays, thankfully, provide plenty of fodder for stories to be told all year 'round... and I'm not the only writer who thinks so. See More About:  christmas books  holiday humor  david sedaris Best Children's Books About Thanksgiving I was at the bookstore the other day looking for some Thanksgiving books to pick up for the wee ones in our family to read as the big day approaches. I was sadly unprepared, though, and spent a ton of time sifting through drivel before I found anything decent. Don't make the same mistake -- start with this list! See More About:  children's books about seasons  children's books about holidays  Famous Authors on Thanksgiving Are you in charge of the Thanksgiving toast this year? (Or do normal families not sit around and wait for long-winded elder relatives to quit babbling before the turkey gets cold?) If so, perhaps include one of these excellent quips from classic literature in this year's big speech. See More About:  thanksgiving  quotes  author quotes Arthur Miller's 'The Crucible' From Maine to California and Alaska to Florida, irony-inclined high school teachers across this great nation of ours are assigning The Crucible this time of year. Haven't read it lately? Check out our study guide and catch up on all of the gory details before your teenager comes to you for help with interpreting the symbolism of this great play. See More About:  the crucible  salem witch trials  arthur miller Books & Literature Ads Books Children Literature Best Fiction Books Authors and Books English Literature Featured Articles Advanced Comic Book Protection 'Healing Music' by Tatsumi Kaiya Edward de Vere - The Real Shakespeare? Best Thanksgiving Quotes Review: Lev Grossman - 'The Magician King' Reading as Writers   More from About.com 2011's Cutest Winter Boots Snuggly snow boots are essential for women who live in cold climates, but still want to put their best foot forward. More> 10 Budget Work Essentials Figuring out how to pay for a fabulous work wardrobe can be a challenge. These 10 mix-and-max essentials are all under $50. More>   Sign up for more free newsletters on your favorite topics You are receiving this newsletter because you subscribed to the About Books & Literature newsletter. If you wish to change your email address or unsubscribe, please click here. About respects your privacy: Our Privacy Policy Contact Information: 249 West 17th Street New York, NY, 10011 © 2011 About.com   Poems for Thanksgiving Day 'The Pumpkin' - John Greenleaf Whittier (1850) 'Thanksgiving' - Kate Seymour Maclean (1880) 'Fire Dreams' - Carl Sandburg (1918) Advertisement

About Books & Literature: New Books from Tayari Jones, Quim Monzo, and More

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Books & Literature From Megan Romer, your About Books & Literature Editor Many of us here in the U.S. are gearing up for some travel within the next week or so, and we'll be needing something to read on our journey. What are you packing in your carry-on? 'Silver Sparrow' by Tayari Jones This book was actually released earlier this year, but it's just now starting to gain some major heat with the book club crowd. That is to say, it's the kind of novel that gets people talking. It's a quick read that tells the story of the two families of a secret bigamist, and all of the hiding and betrayal that that entails. See More About:  silver sparrow  tayari jones  polygamy 'Guadalajara' by Quim Monzo This collection of stories from Catalonian author Quim Monzo is sort of in the alternative history realm, except that instead of revising real life, Monzo revises bits of classic literature. Or, as our reviewer puts it, "What if there was a cockroach named Gregor who woke one day to find he'd turned into a disgusting, fleshy boy? Or, what if the Trojans weren't at all curious about that wooden horse, leaving the Greeks inside to starve and finally resort to cannibalism?" See More About:  short fiction  catalonian literature  Talking With Stephanie Meyer About 'Breaking Dawn' The first half of the final chapter of Twilight hits the big screen this week, and author Stephanie Meyer talked with our Rebecca Murray about the book, the movie, and the end of an era. Read the interview! See More About:  breaking dawn  twilight  stephenie meyer Review: 'The Hugo Movie Companion' Speaking of books-into-movies, the popular children's book The Invention of Hugo Cabret is also headed to the theaters. Is this companion volume with background information about both the book and the movie worth the price? We've got the skinny. See More About:  movie versions of children's books  authors of books for kids and teens  illustrators of books for kids and teens Books & Literature Ads Books Kids Reading Books Children Read Books Fiction Authors and Books Featured Articles Review: 'The Test Vol. 1' 'Bleach' Manga Profile Arthur Miller's 'The Crucible' Mark Twain's 'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn' 'Anonymous' Shakespeare Film Review Classic Essays   More from About.com 2011's Cutest Winter Boots Snuggly snow boots are essential for women who live in cold climates, but still want to put their best foot forward. More> 10 Budget Work Essentials Figuring out how to pay for a fabulous work wardrobe can be a challenge. These 10 mix-and-max essentials are all under $50. More>   Sign up for more free newsletters on your favorite topics You are receiving this newsletter because you subscribed to the About Books & Literature newsletter. If you wish to change your email address or unsubscribe, please click here. About respects your privacy: Our Privacy Policy Contact Information: 249 West 17th Street New York, NY, 10011 © 2011 About.com   Spotlight on Jupiter Hammon Jupiter Hammon, America's First Published African-American Poet Jupiter Hammon: A New Appraisal Poem: An Evening Thought: Salvation by Christ, with Penitential Cries' Advertisement

About Books & Literature: Veterans Day, plus a Steve Jobs Biography & More

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Books & Literature From Megan Romer, your About Books & Literature Editor "How important it is for us to recognize and celebrate our heroes and she-roes!" - Maya Angelou This week, we celebrate Veterans Day here in the United States. It also happens to be Election Day today, so don't forget to honor our veterans by exercising one of the rights that so fundamentally defines our freedom: the right to vote! Poems of War and Remembrance Of course the most famous poem associated with Veterans Day is John McRae's "In Flanders Fields", which he wrote after witnessing the death of a fellow soldier in WWI. It's a beautiful piece, and always worth a re-read, as are the rest of the poems in our War and Remembrance series. See More About:  war poems  william shakespeare  walt whitman Review: 'Steve Jobs' by Walter Isaacson Steve Jobs hand-selected Walter Isaacson (Einstein: His Life and Universe, Benjamin Franklin: An American Life) to write his biography, and it apparently took a fair bit of cajoling to convince the latter to do so. Far from being a vanity piece, though, it's a deeply honest biography that tells a story of a brilliant, flawed, and complex man and how he changed the world. See More About:  steve jobs  walter isaacson  biography Review: 'The Invention of Hugo Cabret' by Brian Selznick Unless you have middle school-aged children, or interact with them regularly, you may well have missed this 2008 Caldecott Medalist, a film adaptation of which is hitting theaters later this month. The book is a work of art -- a challenge to the very idea of what a picture book can be, even -- and I strongly encourage you to give it a read before you see the film. Don't be intimidated by the length; give it a quick flip-through, and you'll see why. See More About:  caldecott winners  illustrators  authors Monty Python, Figuratively Speaking And now for something completely different... Richard Nordquist, About.com's Guide to Grammar and Composition, leads us through a few important rhetorical terms using some of the funniest examples ever written. English teachers and other lovers of language, you'll want to bookmark this one and read it again and again. Books & Literature Ads Books Children Read Books Biography Fiction Novel Books Books on Writing Featured Articles 'The Birds' by Aristophanes November New Book Releases 'The Beauty #1' Review Taste 'Drops of God' Wine 'Hamlet' Study Guide Top Cookbooks for Families   More from About.com What is ADD? Learn more about Attention Deficit Disorder, a condition that affects approximately 2 million children in the United States. More> Living with ADD Distractibility, restlessness, and difficulty organizing oneself are just a few of the issues individuals with ADD must learn to cope with. More>   Sign up for more free newsletters on your favorite topics You are receiving this newsletter because you subscribed to the About Books & Literature newsletter. If you wish to change your email address or unsubscribe, please click here. About respects your privacy: Our Privacy Policy Contact Information: 249 West 17th Street New York, NY, 10011 © 2011 About.com   Tips For Budding Thespians Audition Tips and Techniques Audition Etiquette How To Memorize Lines Advertisement