Tuesday, Doug is joined by area book sellers Ken Sanders of Ken Sanders Rare Books, Catherine Weller of Weller Book Works and Betsy Burton of The King's English with their suggestions for this year's best titles. Sure, you could get that special someone a package of socks or an ugly Christmas sweater – but finding just the right book will kick your holiday gift-giving up a notch. We've got fiction and poetry – non-fiction and illustrated books and of course new and classic children's titles.
Adult Titles: Ken Sanders, Catherine Weller, Betsy Burton
Children's Books: Catherine Weller, Betsy Burton, Ken Sanders
Ken Sanders' Books for Adults, Ken Sanders Rare Books
Utah, The Mormons and Western Americana
- With Golden Visions Bright Before Them: Trails to the Mining West 1849-1852 by Will Bagley, University of Oklahoma Press, hardcover, $45
- Dale Morgan on the Mormons: Collected Works Part 1, 1939-1951 (Kingdom in the West, Volume 14) by Dale Morgan (edited by Richard Saunders, foreword by Will Bagley), Arthur H. Clark Company, hardcover, $45
- Brigham Young: Pioneer Prophet by John G. Turner, Harvard University Press, hardcover, $35
- The Avenues of Salt Lake City by Karl T. Haglund and Philip F. Notarianni (revised by Carl J. LeSieur), University of Utah Press and Utah State Historical Society, paperback, $29.95
- Descriptive Bibliography of the Mormon Church: Volume Three 1853-1857 by Peter Crawley, BYU Religious Studies Center, hardcover, $55
- Later Patriarchal Blessings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by Michael H. Marquardt, Smith-Pettit Foundation, hardcover, $90
- Plain but Wholesome: Foodways of the Mormon Pioneers by Brock Cheney, University of Utah Press, paperback, $19.95
- LeConte Stewart Masterworks by Donna Poulton, Vern Swanson, Mary Muir, James Poulton, and Robert Davis, Gibbs Smith, hardcover, $75
- Lost Canyons of the Green River: The Story Before Flaming Gorge Dam by Roy Webb, University of Utah Press, paperback, $21.95Big Water Little Boats:
- Moulty Fulmer and the First Grand Canyon Dory on the Last of the Wild Colorado River by Tom Martin, Vishnu Temple Press, paperback, $24.95
- The Colorado Mountain Companion by M. John Fayhee, West Winds Press, paperback, $23.99
Poetry
- The Sonosopher: Alex Caldiero in Life…in Sound by Torben Bernhard and Travis Low, Dream Garden Press, DVD, $19.99
- Time of Useful Consciousness (Americus, Book II) by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, New Directions, hardcover, $22.95
Literature, Contemporary Thought
- Men at Work: Rediscovering Depression-era Stories from the Federal Writers’ Project by Matthew L. Basso, University of Utah Press, paperback, $29.95
- Smoke Signals by M. John Fayhee, Raven’s Eye Press, paperback, $22
- Woody Guthrie: American Radical by Will Kaufman, University of Illinois Press, hardcover, $29.95
- Apocalyptic Planet: Field Guide to the Everending Earth by Craig Childs, Pantheon, hardcover, $27.95
- Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic by David Quammen, W.W. Norton, hardcover, $28.95
- Live By Night by Dennis Lehane, Harper Collins, hardcover, $27.99
- A Hologram for the King by Dave Eggers, McSweeney’s, hardcover, $25
- Satantango by Laszlo Krasznahorkai, New Directions, hardcover, $25.95
- The Rebirth of History: Times of Riots and Uprisings by Alain Badiou, Verso, hardcover, $19.95
- The Year of Dreaming Dangerously by Slavoj Zizek, Verson, paperback, $14.95
Catherine Weller's Books for Adults, Sam Weller's Zion Bookstore
- 712 More Things to Draw, Chronicle Books, paperback, $16.95
- Almost Somewhere: Twenty-Eight Days on the John Muir Trail by Suzanne Roberts, University of Nebraska Press, paperback, $19.95
- Apocalyptic Planet by Craig Childs, Pantheon, hardcover, $27.95
- Blashphemy by Sherman Alexie, Grove Press, hardcover, $27
- Building Stories by Chris Ware, Pantheon, slipcased hardcover, $50
- Consider the Fork: A History of How We Cook and Eat by Bee Wilson, Basic Books, hardcover, $26.99
- Far from the Tree: Parents, Children and the Search for Identity by Andrew Solomon, Scribner, hardcover, $37.50
- First Four Notes: Beethoven’s Fifth and the Human Imagination by Matthew Guerrieri, Knopf, hardcover $26.95
- Gershwins and Me: A Personal History in Twelve Songs by Michael Feinstein, Simon & Schuster, $45
- Heads in Beds: A Reckless Memoir of Hotels, Hustles, and So-Called Hospitality by Jacob Tomsky, Doubleday, hardcover, $25.95
- How Music Works by David Byrne, McSweeneys, hardcover, $32
- LeConte Stewart Masterworks by Mary Muir, et al., Gibbs Smith, hardcover, $75
- My Ideal Bookshelf edited by Thessaly La Force illustrated by Jane Mount, Little Brown, hardcover, $24.99
- Nature Wars: The Incredible Story of How Wildlife Comebacks Turned Backyards into Battlegrounds by Jim Sterba, Crown Publishing Group, hardcover, $26
- Orchardist by Amanda Coplin, Harper Collins, hardcover, $26.99
- Place in Time: Twenty Stories of the Port William Membership by Wendell Berry, Counterpoint, hardcover, $26
- Quick and Easy Low-Cal Vegan Comfort Food by Alicia C. Simpson, The Experiment, paperback, $17.95
- Reinventing Bach by Paul Elie, FSG, hardcover, $30
- Telegraph Avenue by Michael Chabon, Harper Collins, hardcover, $27
- Underwater Dogs by Seth Casteel, Little Brown & Co, hardcover, $19.99
- This is How You Lose Her by Junot Diaz, Riverhead Books, hardcover, $26.99
- Wilderness by Lance Weller, Bloomsbury, hardcover, $25
Betsy Burton's Books for Adults, The King's English
Nonfiction
- Far from the Tree: Children and the Search for Identity by Andrew Solomon, Scribner, hardcover, $35
- The Oath: The Obama White House and the Supreme Court by Jeffrey Toobin, Doubleday, hardcover, $28.95
- The Richard Burton Diaries edited by Chris Williams, Yale University Press, hardcover, $35
- Hidden America from Coal Miners to Cowboys: An Extraordinary Exploration of the Unseen People Who Make This Country Work by Jeanne Marie Laskas, Putnam, hardcover, $26.95
- Heads in Beds: A Reckless Memoir of Hotels, Hustles, and So-Called Hospitality by Jacob Tomsky, Doubleday, hardcover, $25.95
- America Again: Re-Becoming the Greatness We Never Weren’t by Stephen Colbert, Grand Central Publisher, hardcover, $28.99
Fiction
- Sweet Tooth by Ian McEwan, Nan Talese, hardcover, $26.95
- The Round House by Louise Erdrich, Harper, hardcover, $27.99
- Mrs. Queen Takes the Train by William Kuhn, Harper, hardcover, $21.99
- Blasphemy: New and Selected Stories by Sherman Alexie, Grove, hardcover, $27
- The News from Spain: Seven Variations on a Love Story by Joan Wickersham, Knopf, hardcover, $24.95
- The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving by Jonathan Evison, Algonquin, hardcover, $24.95
- Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel, Holt, hardcover, $28
- The Dog Stars by Peter Heller, Knopf, hardcover, $24.95
- The Bartender’s Tale by Ivan Doig, Riverhead, hardcover, $27.95
Mystery
- Jewels of Paradise by Donna Leon, Atlantic Monthly Press, hardcover, $25
- A Foreign Country by Charles Cumming, St. Martin’s Press, hardcover, $24.99
- Phantom by Jo Nesbo, Knopf, hardcover, $25.95
- Chalk Girl by Carol O’Connell, Berkley, paperback, $9.99
- The Wreckage by Michael Robotham, Mulholland, paper, $13.95
- The Impossible Dead by Ian Rankin Back Bay, paperback, $14.99
Big Books
- LeConte Stewart Masterworks by Mary Muir, Donna Poulton, Robert Davis, James Poulton, and Vern Swanson, Gibbs Smith, hardcover, $75
- The Book of Kells by Bernard Meehan,Thames and Hudson, hardcover, $95
- On Politics: A History of Political Thought from Herodotus to the Present by Alan Ryan, Liveright, hardcover, $75
Betsy Burton's Books for Children, The King's English
Children's Picture Books
- Oh, No! by Candace Fleming and Eric Rohman, Schwartz Wade Books, hardcover, $17.99
- This Moose Belongs to Me by Oliver Jeffers, Philomel, hardcover, $16.99
- Jangles: a Big Fish Story by Blue Sky Press, hardcover, $17.99
Chapter Books
- Colin Fischer by Ashley Edward Miller and Zack Stentz , Razor Bill, hardcover, $17.99
- The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater, Scholastic, hardcover, $18.99
- Liar & Spy by Rebecca Stead, Random, hardcover, $15.99
- Professor Gargoyle by Charles Gilman, Quirk Books, hardcover, $14.99
Catherine Weller's Books for Children, Sam Weller's Zion Bookstore
- Bear Has a Story to Tell by Philip C. Stead illustrated by Erin E. Stead, Roaring Brook Press, hardcover, $16.99
- Chu’s Day by Neil Gaiman, illustrated by Adam Rex, Harper, hardcover, $17.99
- Chloe and the Lion by Mac Barnett illustrated by Adam Rex, Hyperion, hardcover, $16.99
- Christmas Carol: A Colors Primer by Jennifer Adams art by Alison Oliver, Gibbs Smith, board book, $9.99
- Drowned Cities by Paolo Bacigalupi, Little, Brown and Company, hardcover, $17.99
- Liar & Spy by Rebecca Steed, Wendy Lamb Books, hardcover, $15.99
- Son by Lois Lowry, Houghton Mifflin, hardcover, $17.99
- This is Not My Hat by Jon Klassen, Candlewick Press, hardcover, $15.99
- Unspoken: A Story from the Underground Railroad by Henry Cole, Scholastic Press, hardcover, $16.99
Ken Sanders' Illustrated Books and Books for Children, Ken Sanders Rare Books
- Walt Disney’s Donald Duck: “A Christmas for Shacktown” by Carl Barks, Fantagraphics, hardcover, $28.99
- Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse: Volume 4 “House of the Seven Haunts” by Floyd Gottfredson, Fantagraphics, hardcover, $29.99
- 13+1 by Edgar Allen Poe (Illustrations by Anne Bachelier), CFM Gallery, hardcover, $32.50
- Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There by Lewis Carroll (Illustrated by Anne Bachelier), CFM Gallery, hardcover, $39.95
- Life in Illustration by Hannes Bok (edited by Joseph Wrzos), Centipede Press, paperback, $150.00
- Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, Dover’s Calla Editions, hardcover, $40.00
- Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp, in Rhyme by Arthur Ransome, Dover’s Calla Editions, hardcover, $30.00
- Deck Us All with Boston Charlie by Walt Kelly, Simon & Schuster, paperback, used starting at $9.99
- Shelter (Micky Bolitar Novel #1) by Harlan Coben, Penguin, hardcover, $18.99
- Seconds Away (Micky Bolitar Novel #2) by Harlan Coben, Penguin, hardcover, $18.99
- My Little Blue Robot by Stephen T. Johnson, Harcourt Inc., hardcover/board book, $16.95
- My Little Red Toolbox by Stephen T. Johnson, Harcourt Inc., hardcover/board book, $16.95