A Better Gift Than a Ferret (or a Carpet Shampooer, or a Barbecue. Or Soap)

A book makes the perfect gift. Unlike a refrigerator, freezer, a barbecue or even something relatively small like a carpet shampooer or a ferret, books are quite painless to give.

A book -- even a big one -- fits neatly into a symmetrical package. The flat sides of a book make it easy to wrap -- even an inelegant book looks elegant when it’s nicely packaged up -- and easy to stow until the time comes to give it away. All of this makes it a painless present to store, prepare and -- finally -- to give.

Simplicity in wrapping is not, of course, the only criterion for a good gift. (If that were the case, we'd all just give each other cutting boards and boxes of soap.) Though gift books shine in the ease of wrapping department, as well. A simple unassuming package, sure. Easy to operate and maintain. No special instructions or tools required. But what a gift! Worlds and lives and entire universes can live between those modest little covers.

So what makes a good gift book? That’s easy: it must be just what the recipient wants, needs, desires or -- at the very least -- one that will amuse. And just as there are millions of people with differing dreams and interests, there are also millions of books reflecting all of those dreams, addressing all of those interests.

The gift of a book can be extremely intimate, demonstrating your love and affection with your choice. Or it can be the most generic present in the pile -- a beautiful coffee table book that says: I don’t know much about you, but I like you well enough to get you something good.

We hope you have a wonderful holiday 2008! And if you’re still hunting about for that perfect last minute gift, remember: what could be more perfect than a book?

Happy Holidays!

Holiday Gift Guide: Lost in the Supermarket: The Indie Rock Cookbook by Kay Bozich Owens and Lynn Owens

The whole premise behind Lost in the Supermarket: The Indie Rock Cookbook (Soft Skull Press) is so bizarre, it just has to be explored. “Moments, whether momentous or quotidian,” the authors tell us in their introduction, “are marked by how they combine music and food.”

Oh-kay.

And then later, “One of the initial draws of this project … was the hope that creativity was not limited to music and a recipe book might seem like an unlikely combination.”

You think? And yet how delicious (!) to have a recipe for Belle and Sebastian’s Thai Sweet Potato Soup or Bliss Blood’s Guacamole? How about an apple pie recipe from USAISAMONSTER? (Like a contradiction in terms, right?) or lemon curd tart from Bunny Brains? Never heard of Bunny Brains? I certainly hadn’t. But the authors set the whole thing up for us in this regard, as well, telling us that “their music is a shambling mess of noisy nihilism.”

Lost in the Supermarket is a lot of fun. More: it’s completely stuffed with really creative interpretations of food you might actually like to eat. “Use the recipes in this book to eat out less,” the authors advise. “Save your money for CDs, shows, books, a trip, whatever …. stay at home and cook, where you can serve and indulge yourself …. Save your cash, and rock out in your kitchen!”

Good advice from an innovative and surprisingly good cookbook. A must for the rock lover in your life.

Holiday Gift Guide: Birdscapes: A Pop-Up Celebration of Bird Songs in Stereo Sound by Miyoko Chu with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology

There’s something deliciously crazy about Birdscapes (Chronicle Books). Cunningly engineered and beautifully designed and executed, to open the book is to initiate a wildlife symphony so convincing, the whole time I played with the book, my dog thought something illicit was happening on my desk. (And, from her perspective, what could be more illicit than colonies of birds taking root in the studio?)

The sounds would be impressive enough, but they’re not alone. Open, for instance, to the two-page spread showing a Pacific Seabird Colony. A rocky seascape rises right out of the book. A paragraph of text explains that “Common Murres court and fight on rocky outcrops, trumpeting to one another. Red-legged Kittiwakes exchange rapid nasal calls from the cliffs,” and so on, but you almost don’t need to be told: so strong are the visuals -- right there in 3-D! -- and so convincing are the sounds, not a snippet of imagination is required in order to partake.

A section at the back of the book explains all seven of the dioramas included in some detail. Birdscapes is breathtaking: flawlessly put together, no bird lover will fail to feel their jaw drop.

Holiday Gift Guide: A Man’s Place is Behind the Bar by Tucker Shaw

The sentiment sounds oh-so sexist, but the execution is light and fun. “A good cocktail,” writes author Tucker Shaw, “carefully balanced and lovingly mixed, is one of life’s greatest pleasures.”

Shaw does not bring a mixologist’s expertise to A Man’s Place is Behind the Bar (Chronicle Books), but rather, as restaurant critic for The Denver Post and an accomplished journalist, he appears to know what he likes as well as how to do the research to be able to share it. For instance, at one point he writes that “Most dedicated gin drinkers pooh-pooh the vodka martini, but I, a fairly dedicated gin drinker myself, don’t. Vodka, treated correctly, is crisp and clean in a way that hoary old gin never could be and for reasons I can’t explain, a fresh vodka martini always seems colder than gin.”

However, most of A Man’s Place is Behind the Bar is not about Shaw’s sterling prose. He wastes no time getting down to mixing. This is a great book for someone who actually would like to know the difference between collins and highball glasses (though I love his explanation of a shot glass: “Duh.”) and what is absolutely necessary for stocking the home bar. The wannabe home mixologist could do worse than A Man’s Place is Behind the Bar. A great idea to help mix things up during this holiday season.

Holiday Gift Guide: The Horror Stories of Robert E. Howard

I’ve often thought that the early death of Robert E. Howard is one of the great tragedies of American literature. Howard committed suicide in 1936 at the age of 30.

Prolific, gifted and, driven, Howard’s work has been admired by Lovecraft and King. It’s possible this author altered the course of macabre writing. Some of his characters will perhaps be better known to you than the author himself: Conan the Cimmerian, Kull of Atlantis, Solomon Kane and Bran Mak Morn all sprung from Howard’s fevered imagination.

The Horror Stories of Robert E. Howard (Del Rey) collects the very best of Howard’s work (including the seminal “Pigeons from Hell”) making this a great gift for fans and students of the macabre. Insomniacs ought to avoid this one like the plague.

Holiday Gift Guide: The U.S. of Eh? How Canada Secretly Controls the United States by Kerry Colburn and Rob Sorensen

“Canadians are peaceable, friendly, unassuming, and adorable. They’re also secretly in control of nearly every aspect of life in the southernmost Canadian territory known as the United States.” So at least we’re told by the back cover of The U.S. of Eh? (Chronicle), which is clearly a very silly book, intended for a chuckle and -- certainly -- meant to be given as a gift, if only because it’s difficult to imagine anyone actually buying this book for themselves. “Once we began to realize that Canada is in control of everything,” write the authors, “we wondered how this could be.”

The premise is that Canadians have gotten their overly polite (and no doubt well groomed) mitts on everything. The U.S. of Eh? includes lists of many Canadian things -- hotties, music, actors, inventions -- as well as lots of general silliness about the “maple leaf conspiracy.” And I can’t imagine the reader who will not learn at least some small (and perhaps interesting) thing here. For instance, did you know that chocolate bars, garbage bags, light bulbs, pabulum, paint rollers and zippers were all Canadian inventions? Less surprising: car heaters, snow mobiles, snow plows and snow blowers all started out in the cold blue north. And what else? Much more. You’ll have to give it -- or get it -- to find out for yourself.

Holiday Gift Guide: The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb

The timing of the mid-November release of The Hour I First Believed (Harper) leads one to think that this is the moment -- this holiday moment -- that the PR mavens at Harper had in mind when they thought things through all those months ago.

A two-time Oprah pick, (for She’s Come Undone and I Know This Much Is True) Wally Lamb tends to sell a lot of books and a lot of people seem to like them. A lot. It makes a new Lamb release a pretty safe pick for someone casting about for a last minute gift for the favorite reader in their life. More: this one is really big and fat and it has a lot of words, making it a terrific bargain by the pound. And if your giftee loved earlier books by Lamb, they’re quite likely to love this one, too.

Here Lamb takes on all the familiar Lambish tropes with matters of faith and race and love and loss and even, this time out, a smattering of danger. It is in places a dark novel, but it’s shored up by intense flashes of light. And, like previous works by this author, much of the writing is truly lovely. Even that which is ugly is given to us with the clear immediacy of the master craftsman. This is one for the list.

Holiday Gift Guide: Food Festivals of Italy by Curti and Fraioli

This is the gift that the true foodie will enjoy for many years to come. More: this is the sort of book -- lush, over the top, practically decadent -- that is best served up as a gift. After all, Italian cookbooks are hardly in short supply. But Food Festivals of Italy: Celebrated Recipes from 50 Food Fairs (Gibbs Smith) takes things to a whole new level.

“We have yet to find anyone who believes us,” write the authors in their introduction, “but it was truly hard, demanding work to uncover, taste, and talk to the purveyors out of the most prized recipes at these various food festivals.” And we feel sorry for them, do we not?

The authors have gone to heroic lengths here -- they really have -- traveling the length and breadth of Italy on a quest to visit all the festivals they could find out about in order to share their findings with us. Artichoke Festival, Chile Pepper Festival, the National White Truffle Fair. Omelet Festival, Polenta Festival, Strudel, Muscat Wine and Vine Santo Festival. I get a little out of breath just thinking about it all.

And the book? The book is fantastic. The photographs rich and deep and either perfectly styled or wonderfully composed, as appropriate. The recipes are clear and interesting and good. I was tremendously excited to try Lumache con Basilico, an actual escargot recipe that was so easy, I almost did it again to make sure I hadn’t left anything out. (I had not.) For less adventurous guests, it would be tough to beat Mozzarella Impanata which is, basically, fried cheese. But the straight-forward instructions combined with an elegant yet rustic presentation make it a great recipe for those times when you want to impress while entertaining, yet not tire yourself out. Plus, again: fired cheese? What’s not to like?

For a gift or for a special treat for yourself, if any of the above has sounded appealing, you will not go wrong with Food Festivals of Italy.

Holiday Gift Guide: Snow Party by Harriet Ziefert, illustrated by Mark Jones

I was a little sad to learn that Mark Jones, who illustrated Harriet Ziefert’s Snow Party (Blue Apple) has never built a snowman. It doesn’t show in his work, though. Or maybe it does. Jones’ snow people live and breathe and interact in a way quite beyond anything we’ve experienced. And so maybe that was his secret weapon. And maybe that’s part of the reason that Snow Party works so well. Perhaps Jones has brought a wistful wishfulness to his illustrations. A “what should be” or, perhaps, “what might have been.” I like to think so, anyway. And it would explain a lot.

Snow Party is intended for very young children. It is sweet and gentle and fun and it celebrates the season in a way that manages to be both non-denominational and non-moralistic. To many of us in the 21st century, the Christmas season has come to be a time of sharing and sweetness and family and food. Snow Party celebrates those ideals. With charm. A lovely, gentle book.

Holiday Gift Guide: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button: A Graphic Novel

Just in time for the holidays, a sort of weird movie tie-in that stands entirely on its own merits, the graphic novel of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Quirk Books) is only slightly short of wonderful, and only then so because I don’t like to rave.

The original story was, of course, by F. Scott Fitzgerald. In a delicious afterword to the graphic novel, Fitzgerald himself explains his muse in this instance:

This story was inspired by a remark of Mark Twain’s to the effect that it was a pity that the best part of life came at the beginning and the worst part at the end. By trying the experiment upon only one man in a perfectly normal world I have scarcely given his idea a fair trial.

Even so, 86 years after the fact, a feature film starring Cate Blanchette and Brad Pitt is doing well at the box office.

In my opinion, the graphic novel adapted by Nunzio DeFilippis and Christina Weir and illustrated by Kevin Cornell deserves to do even better. This is a complete package: Cornell’s illos are nothing short of stunning and -- clearly -- his work deserves an even wider following. The story has been skillfully adapted by DeFilippis and Weir. One just can’t imagine a better job. If you liked the movie, you’ll love the graphic novel; it’s nothing short of brilliant.

Holiday Gift Guide: The Christmas Table by Diane Morgan

Regular January Magazine readers will be familiar with the work of Diane Morgan. Over the years, we’ve reviewed many of her books, including Grill Every Day, Salmon and Delicious Dips. Morgan’s books are of a bankable quality. Gorgeous photos and excellent production, of course. But also a consistently great range of recipes that are clear and easy-to-follow and that run that gamut from incredibly easy and intended for the everyday table, to complicated banquet meals that will challenge the best-equipped and prepared home chef.

The Christmas Table (Chronicle Books) is no exception. As befits both the topic and the season, there’s a rich baroque quality to the book. And, once again, the recipes fit into just about every place you’d expect, and a few besides. From Garlic and Herb-Rubbed Crown Roast of Pork to Macaroni and Cheese with Ham and from Eggnog Cheesecake with Candied Kumquats to Sake Oyster Shooters (and they may sound exotic, but -- truly -- nothing could be more simple) and from Bread Stuffing with Sausage, Apples, and Caramelized Onion to Christmas Kugel (hello!).

For my money, this is the book for the holiday table, 2008. Highly recommended.

Holiday Gift Guide: Barack Obama: Words of Hope and Inspiration

The first thing January Magazine’s art director did when he got a load of Barack Obama: Words of Hope and Inspiration (Sourcebooks) was proclaim that he was certain it hadn’t been created by Obama’s official design team. His contention was that the official Obama graphic designers -- whoever they are -- would have left a superior design mark on their work. And it’s true: all those official posters and t-shirts and other materials available for purchase “in support of” during the campaign was gorgeous, flawless, really great stuff.

Now all of that said, Sourcebooks’ entry into the Obama market is nothing to snuffle at. The Obama calender has been a top-seller since its release back in August. The calendar includes charming photos of president-elect Obama as well as inspirational quotes from Obama, Nelson Mandela, John F. Kennedy and others and the photos included seem mostly unposed. Obama painting a house, waving at crowds, with his family. One just hopes that the Sourcebooks calendar is not prophetic: the Obama image for February shows Obama looking pensive and holding his head in one hand. One hopes not!

Holiday Gift Guide: Last Canadian Beer by Harvey Sawler

Beer aficionados and those with a strong interest in Canadian business and marketing will most enjoy Last Canadian Beer: The Moosehead Story (Nimbus Publishing), an affectionate, insider-y account of the inception and growth of Maritime-based Moosehead Breweries.

Author Sawler’s book is an affectionate look at the family that built one of Canada’s largest and most enduring breweries. If there’s dirt to dish here, Sawler doesn’t go for it. He begins with the Oland family’s long history in Atlantic Canada. So long, in fact, the definitive beginnings of it are lost to history. Then in the 1860s, matriarch Susannah Oland started brewing beer in her backyard. In 1867, the family opened its first brewery. Six generations later, Moosehead remains Halifax-based and in Oland hands.

“This book,” writes Sawler, “admittedly shows the Olands and Moosehead in a positive light, because frankly, that is the way the world sees both the family and the company.” A successful business model enacted by nice people? That seems a thought for the season.

Holiday Gift Guide: Hitman by David Foster

Consider the music producer. Do you know what they do? In the simplest terms, a music producer directs the music, just as a director directs a film. That is, he (or she) brings all aspects of a song to life, from performance to orchestration to mix to final release. Some music producers are famous in their own right; perhaps the most famous is Quincy Jones, who has worked in many different kinds of music, from jazz to pop to film scores.

Interestingly, despite working for so long, Jones doesn’t seem to have a signature style. His work is shaped by the needs of the project. But that can’t be said of every producer. David Foster is one of those who does have an enduring style -- a distinctive voice. For forty-odd years, Foster has been making the music we know and love. He’s worked primarily in pop, though he’s also created memorable instrumental work and composed wonderful film scores. But somehow, even with the variety of genres and the much wider variety of artists he’s worked with, Foster’s music is cohesive. If you listen carefully, you’ll find his style is as distinctive as, say, that of Steven Spielberg.

Over the years, Foster has worked with, oh, let’s just say everybody -- certainly everybody whose name can be reduced to one word: Streisand, Dion, Houston, Groban, Buble, Bocelli, McCartney, Loggins. And then there’s Chicago. Earth, Wind and Fire. I could go on and on. I mean, he discovered Celine Dion, Josh Groban, and Michael Buble. More than perhaps any other producer of the last four decades, David Foster’s work has shaped the sound of our lives. And now he’s collected a lot of his most memorable moments in a new book, Hitman (Simon & Schuster).

This is one fast read. Foster’s life flies by and so does the book. Without dipping into overwhelming detail, he paints his life in choice, telling and fascinating details -- and seems not to hold anything back, even the occasional blemish. Foster is obsessed with work, and he shares his life story in terms of that work. His childhood in British Columbia, when he discovered he had perfect pitch. His first forays into music, playing and traveling with bands. His move to Los Angeles, which is when things really started to happen in a big way. There, he becomes the David Foster we know.

What I love most about his story are the real moments. His preference for milk and cookies at sessions, rather than the drugs of the day. His almost geeky reverence for the iconic performers whose paths he crossed and whose music he helped to create. His awe mirrors our own -- and it makes him comfortably, reassuringly human. In a tough business, that’s pretty meaningful, but his dedication to work and talent and his own values certainly paid off. He’s made music that’s great -- but more, he's made music that counts. And the sales speak for themselves. Fifteen Grammy Awards. Three Oscar nominations. Half a billion records sold.

Part of what’s great about Hitman are the stories about the music that you might know David Foster had a hand in. But even more thrilling was learning about music I love that I didn’t know he’d ever touched. For example, he co-wrote the Cheryl Lynn classic “Got to Be Real.” He produced the Broadway cast recording of Dreamgirls. He created some of Chicago’s career-defining songs, such as “Hard to Say I'm Sorry” and “Hard Habit to Break.” Earth Wind and Fire’s “After the Love is Gone”? His. Whitney Houston’s cover of “I Will Always Love You” from The Bodyguard? His. Natalie Cole’s "Unforgettable" duet with her late father? Foster’s as well.

All this, plus his decades-long work raising money to help Canadian families whose children need organ transplants.

These are the gems that make up a life, but they’re also the gems that make a terrific book. But then, Hitman is more than a book: It’s also a DVD of a new concert, with an accompanying CD. The DVD includes performances by Bocelli, Buble, Dion, Groban, Boz Scaggs, Brian McKnight, and many others. They came out to honor their friend and producer -- and reading his book, learning about his dedication to music, it’s easy to see why. Hitman, indeed.

Holiday Gift Guide: This One Is Mine: A Novel by Maria Semple

It’s possible to know too much about an author before you read the book. For example, while reading This One Is Mine (Little, Brown and Company) I kept thinking it was very filmic and that, for various perfectly good reasons, it would probably make a terrific movie. And, of course, I knew going in that, not only is the book set in the glitzy glam world of west side L.A., this is the debut novel of a former sitcom writer.

Maria Semple has worked on many hit television shows, including Mad About You, Ellen and Arrested Development. So she knows about funny and she knows about story and she knows about the place where those things fit together. Enter This One is Mine’s Violet Perry, a rock ‘n’ roll wife with a perfect toddler, perfect home, perfect life. She’s also perfectly miserable, but that’s not so bad, because she’s fairly close to the time when she’ll find the perfect affair. In fact, we’re there when it happens.

I predict two things about This One Is Mine: considering the subject matter, the location and the core themes of the book, it’s possible that Semple’s debut novel will not find this author a huge following. Considering the journey the United States has been on during the last 12 months, This One Is Mine seems slightly out of touch. In a time when people are losing their jobs and overwhelmed by the reality of their shrinking 401Ks, many of Violet’s concerns seem petty. Understand, though, this is no reflection at all on the author and her touch on reality. Lead times being what they are, when Semple handed this book off to her editor, there was no recession rapidly deepening into Depression. There was no Obamamania. And it’s even possible that “subprime” was still a word only ever used at the butcher’s.

In short, then: This One Is Mine doesn’t really work, but the writing? The writing really, really does. Semple carts us away to her world: and it’s a place a lot of people really love to go. Even so, I’m betting that this author will make her mark with the book she’s working on now.

Holiday Gift Guide: The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K. Rowling

In the final chapter of the Harry Potter tale, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Hermione Granger inherited a book of wizarding children’s fairytales from Professor Dumbledore, who had known that she would be able to use the clues in the text to work out ways of defeating Voldemort. Only one of them, “The Tale of the Three Brothers,” was described in detail, because that one was important to our trio’s quest, but Ron mentioned the others and we learned that they were as familiar to them as Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty are to Muggle children.

Soon after publication of that book, author J.K. Rowling actually wrote the stories mentioned in the novel, illustrating them herself, and six beautifully-bound, handwritten copies were given to friends, a seventh sold for charity and bought by Amazon. Of course, fans who were already hungry for more Potter were frustrated that they might never see these stories. However, one year later, the first mass-market edition has been published just in time for the holidays and we can all read them.

The Tales of Beedle the Bard is a slim, hardcover volume is the right size to fit into a child’s hands and be carried in a backpack or large pocket. It’s a visual treat, with delicately-drawn illustrations strongly reminiscent in style of Pauline Baynes, who illustrated C.S. Lewis’s Narnia books.

There are five stories, along with an introduction by the author, who never leaves the Potterverse, writing about it as if it was all true. She thanks Minerva McGonagall for allowing her to use notes by Dumbledore which are attached to each story. She gives the history of Beedle the Bard, a 15th century wizard, and comments on the difference in style between wizard and Muggle fairy tales. The only mention of the real world here is the fact that the book is being used to raise money for the children’s charity, the Children’s High Level Group, founded by Rowling herself. There’s also an afterword by Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne, who has worked with Rowling on this charity.

The stories (“translated from the original runes by Hermione Granger”) are “The Wizard and the Hopping Pot,” “The Fountain of Fair Fortune,” “The Warlock’s Hairy Heart,” “Babbitty Rabbitty and Her Cackling Stump” and, of course, “The Tale of the Three Brothers.” All of the stories have a moral and -- in case we didn’t notice it -- each is accompanied by notes by Professor Dumbledore. These notes mention that some of the stories which show Muggles in a favourable light (“The Wizard and the Hopping Pot”) or feature Muggle-wizard marriage (“The Fountain of Fair Fortune”) have been banned in the past or re-written. Some of the notes are hilarious, such as Dumbledore’s reminiscence about Hogwarts’s only attempt to put on a school show, a pantomime version of “The Fountain of Fair Fortune,” in which the students in the lead roles got into fights, a boyfriend-girlfriend relationship broke up and the Great Hall nearly burned down. The teacher involved eventually moved to the wizarding world’s version of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, but never produced that pantomime again. The mind boggles at the image of wizard actors, but it opens that universe just a little more for us.

There is a certain poignancy, not to mention irony, in the notes attached to the final tale. For example, Dumbledore admits he might be tempted by Death’s more dangerous gifts, even knowing, as he does, that you can’t really bring anyone back from the dead. It also makes you think more deeply about some of the final events of Deathly Hallows.

The stories are charming and have the flavour of fairytales, but you really do need to be familiar with the universe that Rowling has created to appreciate them. There’s no point, for example, in giving them to children to read before they’ve read the Harry Potter books. It’s a spinoff, just like Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them and Quidditch Through The Ages.

A good choice to complete your Harry Potter collection. It barely needs reviewing for the hungry fan, but it’s well worth buying.

Holiday Gift Guide: Solitude by Robert Kull

“In many cultures, solitude is recognized as an opportunity to journey inward; in our culture, spending time alone is often considered to be unhealthy because we tend to believe that meaning in life is found only through relationship with other people … one of the challenges of solitude is that you have to face yourself.”

Robert Kull is an extraordinary man. In 2001, he put together sufficient supplies to last one year, then he traveled to a remote island in the Patagonian wilderness with the idea of exploring the effects that deep solitude might have on body and mind.

Years before, a motorcycle accident had left him with only one leg, so, right away, one knows that the physical challenge would be greater than might otherwise have been the case. But does that physical challenge even come close to the mental one?

In Solitude (New World Library) Kull’s prose is journal spare: a deep thinker’s notes to himself. “Rock-sitting in the evening rain,” he writes on December 4, 2001, “and then a shift. Light, that seems to come from beyond, floods my soul and brings love, peace, beauty and the gift of Life.”

And the answers he found?

“Some of those answers cannot be put into words,” writes Kull, “but I hope they have come drifting up between the lines of my journal.”

Some of them have.

Holiday Gift Guide: To the Dogs by Peter Culley

Poet Peter Culley’s To the Dogs (Arsenal Pulp Press) is both stunning and fatally flawed. Which of those things weighs the most heavily will most likely depend on where you stand.

Culley explores the canine/human connection with an artist’s eye. That is to say that while books that collect historic and contemporary photographs and tie them together -- even lightly -- with editorial are generally spurred by some passion for the future well-being of all canines. One doesn’t get any of that from Culley. In fact, I’m fairly certain -- though not absolutely sure -- that Culley is not a dog owner at all. His essays are careful, clever and sometimes even insightful, but they never zoom to the place where dogs and humans connect. I suspect this is a place of which Culley is not even aware.

The “faithfulness” of the dog is both cliché and description, and it encompasses not only the dogs loyalty to humans but also its equally reliable connection with their older ways of being. The OED’s historical mosaic speaks to a connection with dogs that transcends both language and circumstance; in photographs and paintings, the postures of the humans can render them barely recognizable in present terms, but the dog is always contemporary.

Part of this distance might stem from the fact that To the Dogs began life as an exhibition at Presentation House Gallery back in the summer of 2007. The book reflects this heritage in every spill of ink. The photographs include the work of Lee Friedlander, Pieter Hugo, Bruce Davidson, William Wegman, Paul Kane, Shari Hatt, Amy Stein and others. The subjects include Yves St. Laurent, General Custer, Peggy Guggenheim and Andy Warhol, plus many more whose attached names would not impress you, yet whose inclusion is intended to underscore the place dogs have held in the history of humankind. It’s an exhibit I would have liked to have seen.

To the Dogs is a worthwhile book. Beautifully produced and presented, in some ways what it lacks in passion and understanding it makes up for in execution. Is that enough? Almost.

Holiday Gift Guide: Jetpack Dreams by Mac Montandon

According to author Mac Montandon, the desire for flight without the aid of a fuselage is probably as old as mankind itself. “Adam and Eve, after all, didn’t bicycle from grace or swim from grace, they fell, and had they had jet engines strapped to their backs everything might have been different.”

It’s this sort of tongue-in-cheek but inarguable logic that makes Jetpack Dreams (Da Capo) such a delight and which sustains us through 261 hardcover pages of Montandon’s quest to strap said jet engine to his own back.

In the course of his quest, Montandon takes us along as he explores the history and even the development of this astonishing -- and oddly tough to nail down -- piece of technology. It’s a great ride and since you’re unlikely to find an actual jetpack under your tree, Jetpack Dreams may well be the next best thing.

Holiday Gift Guide: City Wolves by Dorris Heffron

Though City Wolves (Blue Butterfly Books) has a lot going on, at its core, Dorris Heffron’s latest novel is about the secret lives of wolves and how they relate to humans. Fascinating stuff. There’s more to this historical novel, of course. Quite a bit. It’s the entirely fictional story of Meg Wilkinson, Canada’s first woman veterinarian. And though the life she has chosen provides inspiration at every turn, she opts to take the best of it from the sled dogs she encounters when her work and her travels take her to Canada’s frozen north.

Though City Wolves could have used a sharp edit, (and the author’s bio’s reference to a “fiction novel” almost saw this reader defenestrate the book even before page one) Heffron delivers a story of ideas and heart.

Those with an interest in or passion for women’s issues or Canada’s history -- or both -- will enjoy City Wolves.