Whatever gifts you choose to share with your loved ones make sure to purchase them from a local store. Kenny Brechner is the owner of Devaney Doak & Garrett Booksellers in downtown Farmington. For more information, contact kenny@ddgbooks.com or www.ddgbooks.com.

Gift Book:

“Molecules”

If doing justice to the amazing nature, structures, possibilities, and applications of molecules was the life goal of Theodore Gray, he has succeeded beyond all doubt with the publication of this magnificent treat for the eyes and the mind. Beautiful layouts, engaging text, and stunning photography by Nick Mann make “Molecules” the prefect coffee table book for all ages.

Fiction:

“Magician’s Land”

By Lev Grossman

The third and final volume of Lev Grossman’s “Magican’s” trilogy is good beyond description. Perhaps you were wondering what it all means, and what the price of everything is. What it costs to build a real magical world interconnected with and responsive to the needs and hopes of your former selves, and the debts you owe to your intimate friends. What can an older person who has made and atoned for the same mistakes you made, give you that will actually help you breathe life into your world? The “Magician’s Trilogy” has the answers.

Non Fiction:

By Carl Hoffman

The tragedy of Michael Rockefeller’s death is made far more poignant by the larger tragedy of the environment which surrounded it. Faulty ethnographic assumptions, compounded by unsettling socio-economic factors bring a depth and pathos to Savage Harvest which is reminiscent of the misapprehension at the heart of Orson Scott Card’s “Speaker For The Dead.” This riveting and edifying work of non-fiction maintains throughout a rare balance of mystery and of the author’s slowly unfolding epiphany of understanding.

Maine Interest:

“The Essential Danby”

By George Danby

With a forward by Angus King, this 40-year chronicle of the work of Maine’s most prominent political cartoonist is sure to evoke many old memories and offer even more fresh insights and chuckles.

Picture Books:

“The Book With No Pictures”

By B.J. Novak

Unless you are worried about having too much fun sharing a picture book with no pictures with the young readers in your life, “The Book With No Pictures” needs to come into your life. Laughter and imagination are to accompany every reading.

“Full Speed Ahead! How Fast Things Go”

By Cruschifrom

The best science-based picture books take one simple concept and develop them to spectacular effect. In “Full Speed Ahead” each page lists a speed on the left and then some animals or machines that go that speed on the right. For example, three things moving at two miles per hour are a Tegenaria spider, an excavator, and a person walking. With every new page spread the speed increases. It’s sensational fun, at whatever speed you read it, not to mention educational!

Humor:

“Craft FAIL: When Homemade Goes Horribly Wrong”

By Heather Mann

Whether this account of botched craft projects, of disasters such as Melted Crayon Canvas Inferno, Easter Egg Dropout, and Mutant Milano Sheep, works for your gift recipient as a cautionary tale, a self-esteem booster, or just let’s them know they are not alone, one thing you can be sure of is that they will laugh until their sides hurt.

Young Adult and Middle Grade:

“Death By Toilet Paper”

By Donna Gephardt

Ben Epstein has lost his dad. His mom and he are living on the financial edge and are about to fall off if the “Grand Plan” cannot be implemented before they are evicted. Full of humor and tenderness, this deftly told story will engage its young audience deeply, and yet with warmth and support.

“Half Bad”

By Sally Green

Here we come to a book that grabs readers from the first moment they enter its pages. “Half Bad” affords the sublime fascinations of an alluring, unsafe narrator set in a deeply grey political landscape whose powers are determined to be black and white at terrible cost. Its readers find themselves carried and then swiftly captured in an irresistible current of intrigue and imagination as visceral as it is elegant

Cookbook:

“Plenty More”

By Yottom Ottolenghi

“Plenty More,” The new Ottolenghi cookbook, filled with spectacular photographs of succulent vegetable dishes with creative, easily executed recipes, and featuring the many different ways to prepare vegetables, tossed, steamed, blanched and simmered, just to name a few, is exactly what a gifted cookbook should be — both useful and inspiring.

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