Cowles Offering Help with Holiday Gift Ideas
The Cowles Library staff strongly recommends giving a good book for a gift during the holidays.
Books are available for all ages and cover all topics.
Links go to the online catalog record for each item or to Amazon.com if it is not available at the library.
Staff suggestions by Author
- Moazzam Begg
-
Enemy Combatant: My Imprisonment at Guantanamo, Bagram, and Kandahar
Perhaps not in the spirit of the holidays, but a good book.
- Dan Brown
-
The DaVinci Code
- Bill Bryson
-
The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid
Buy it for your dad.
- Eoin Colfer
- Artemis Fowl series
-
The Supernaturalists
-
The Wish List
Middle school reading level
- Nora Ephron
-
I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman
A laugh-out-loud, very clever read about women of a certain age.
Perfect for your girlfriends or even your mother. Men? Don't bother. You won't get it.
- Jasper Fforde
- Nursery Crime Series
- Thursday Next Series
-
The Eyre Affair
-
Lost in a Good Book
-
The Well of Lost Plots
-
Something Rotten
High School/adult reading level.
They’re detective fiction/fantasy
Need to be familiar with English language literature to understand most of the humor
- Philippa Gregory
-
The Other Boleyn Girl
-
The Queen's Fool
-
The Constant Princess
Reading level would be high school/adult
Historical fiction--the titles I've listed are from the Tudor period, but she has works
from other eras as well
- Margaret Petersen Haddix
- Shadow children series
Middle school reading level
- Heidi Julavits
-
The Uses of Enchantment
- Andrew Kohut
-
America against the world: how we are different, why we are disliked
- Michelle Knudsen & Kevin Hawkes
-
Library Lion
- Annie Lebovitz
-
A Photographer’s Life
- Madeline Levine
-
The price of privilege: how parental pressure and material advantage are creating a generation
of disconnected and unhappy kids
- Gregory Maguire
-
Wicked
-
Son of a Witch
-
Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister
High school/adult reading level
Essentially he's fleshing out and giving different perspectives on the Wizard of
Oz and Cinderella stories
- Amulya Malladi
-
Serving crazy with curry : a novel
you'll have to stop and order Indian food in the middle of this one
- Yann Martel
-
Life of Pi
for anyone who likes a good read
- Edward Mendelson
-
The things that matter : what seven classic novels have to say about the
stages of life
If you think the classics of literature are no longer relevant, think again - this
compelling book brings them right into the 21st century.
- Cesar Millian
-
Cesar’s Way
The Dog Whisperer
- Greg Mortenson
-
Three cups of tea : one man's mission to fight terrorism and build nations-- one school
at a time
Awesome book about how education is the way to "fight"
terrorism rather than guns.
- Jamie Oliver
-
Jamie’s Italy
- Liz Perle
-
Money, a memoir: women, emotions and cash
- Nina Planck
-
Real food: what to eat and why
- J.K. Rowling
- Harry Potter Series (book and recorded versions – enjoyable to multiple age groups)
- Amy Sedaris
-
I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence
Neither a serious cookbook nor bible of etiquette, this is the perfect gift for that
quirky relative who lives in a different universe. Buy 2 or 3 copies.
- Setterfield, Diane
-
The thirteenth tale : a novel
This book must be read on a cold rainy night by the fire...be prepared for a great story and
some very fine writing (and a ghost or two!)
- Curtis Sittenfeld
-
The man of my dreams
- Sports Illustrated
-
The Baseball Book
Both color and b/w photos of players and moments of the past and present, along with an
all-star cast of essayists interspersed with the great shots.
Here's one for the baseball fan in your life
- Patrick Taylor
-
Oxford Companion to the Garden
- Lynne Truss and Bonnie Timmons
-
Eats Shoots and Leave: Why, commas really do make a difference!
for people who need to know more about punctuation
- Anne Tyler
-
Digging to America
A beautiful story about the blending of three cultures (Iranian, Korean and American) among
three families
Articles:
Links:
Subscribe to News and Events (learn more)
