The Best Books of 2011

After a year of reading, months of choosing, weeks of editing and days of final preparations, January Magazine’s Best Books of 2011 feature is complete. This is our biggest end-of-year feature ever, with selections in eight categories: fiction, non-fiction, crime fiction (parts one and two), art & culture, cookbooks, books for kids, science fiction & fantasy and biography.

You can read about January’s Best of 2011 feature here, including details about our selection process.

Still hunting for a last-minute gift? Head to your favorite neighborhood bookstore with a selection from our Holiday Gift Guide.

Holiday Gift Guide: Illustration Now 4 and Illustration Now: Portraits edited by Julius Wiedermann

Illustration Now 4 and Illustration Now: Portraits, both published by Taschen and edited by Julius Wiedermann, showcase some of the best and the brightest in contemporary illustration.

Often as fascinating as the illustrations themselves is the variety of media with which they are produced. It’s interesting to note that 15 years ago -- perhaps even 10 -- it would not have been necessary to specify a piece of art as a “hand drawing.” But with so many up-and-comers out there these days there are almost as many ways to produce art as there are artists. The full range is represented here from pencil to 3-D to digital and lots of combinations of all.

It can be difficult to talk about books like this as there is almost an overload of stimulation. With page after page of different illustrations and artists it can be overwhelming. But that’s what these books do best: overwhelm. In the best way possible. Everywhere you look another brilliant visual in an unexpected medium by a talented individual. Illustration Now 4 and Illustration Now: Portraits are books you will come back to again and again as a resource or just for raw inspiration. Classic and timeless. ◊

David Middleton is art director and art & culture editor of January Magazine.

Holiday Gift Guide: Best Food Writing 2011 edited by Holly Hughes

Best of compilations tend to make super gifts for people who you’re not sure what they have or need, but you know what they like. Because it’s the best, right? And in this case, the best of everything on topic, but it pretty digestible chunks. Who wouldn’t like that?

The Best Food Writing 2011 (Da Capo) is the 11th edition that Holly Hughes has edited so, clearly, she knows this beat pretty well. She is also the former executive editor of Fodor’s Travel Publications and the author of Frommer’s 500 Places for Food and Wine Lovers. In the introduction, Hughes sets up what readers can anticipate:

Food writing nowadays isn’t all about trophy dining or over-the-top culinary extravagances -- it’s just as often about food deserts and struggling small producers, about cooking for charity and scrambling to get dinner on the table after a hard working day.

Contributors include Brett Anderson, Colman Andrews, Sophie Brickman, Ann Hood, Eric LeMay, Deborah Madison, Floyd Skloot, Katy Vine and others, writing on topics as varied as a deep-fry champion from Texas and a bread baker in LA and from Financial Times contributor Bryce Elder (writing in Fire & Knives) an engaging piece called “In Defence of Shite Food.” (You just have to love a title like that. A great compilation on an entirely tasty topic… an a terrific gift. ◊

Aaron Blanton is a contributing editor to January Magazine. He’s currently working on a book based on his experiences as an American living abroad.

Holiday Gift Guide

You can’t eat a book. Can’t use it to pay rent or taxes. Physically, you don’t need books. By this definition, books become a luxury item. In leaner times, people buy fewer books for themselves, making them the ideal gift giving item: their appearance under the tree special and welcome.

The January Magazine Holiday Gift Guide has been rolling out for several weeks now and -- knowing us -- it will keeping rolling until the last possible moment. (So many books! So little time!)

The January Magazine 2011 Holiday Gift Guide is here.

Holiday Gift Guide: The Artist of Disappearance by Anita Desai

With a release this close to Christmas, it can’t help but feel like a gift, especially since The Artist of Disappearance (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) feels like a special treat from this deeply accomplished author. She gives us here not one story, but three in the form of a trio of perfectly executed novellas: “The Museum of Final Journeys,” “Translator Translated” and the title story, “The Artist of Disappearance.”

The three stories are all set in an India of recent memory: just far enough behind us to make us think about what has been lost. The stories seem connected by their inhabitants: sharply human characters setting out on journeys determined, in some ways, by art and culture.

Anita Desai’s first novel, Cry the Peacock, was published in 1963. Since then, she has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize three times: for Clear Light of Day (1980), In Custody (1984) and Fasting, Feasting (1999).

Born in India in 1937, Desai is a professor emirates at MIT and now lives in New York. ◊

Linda L. Richards is the editor of January Magazine and the author of several books.

Holiday Gift Guide: Sunday Roasts by Betty Rosbottom

It’s the season of roasts. It really is. Between Thanksgiving, New Years and all the various holidays that fall around Christmas, unless you’re a vegetarian, you’ll probably be partaking in at least one or two roasts over the next month or so. If, along with partaking, you’re also planning on making you might find that Sunday Roasts (Chronicle) by Betty Rosbottom will help boost your repertoire and your confidence.

Rosbottom, who is also the author of Sunday Soup, The Big Book of Backyard Cooking and Coffee, breaks Sunday Roasts into several logical sections. Sections on Beef, Pork, Lamb and Veal, Poultry, Seafood, Sides (as in all the things to be eaten with roasts) and Extras (as in all the butters, chutneys and so on that go alongside the sides) make it simple to narrow down the type of roasting you want to do and find a terrific recipe with which to do it.

And though the word “roast” conjures up the idea of a turkey or maybe a big ol’ slab of beef, while Rosbottom includes recipes for several variations of both of those things, there is so much more here, as well.

Some favorites: Racks of Lamb with Whipped Goat Cheese and Roasted Cherry Tomatoes; Roasted Cod with Tomatoes and Chunky Guacamole Salsa; Turkey Breast with Cremini, Porcini, and Pancetta Stuffing; Ham Roasted with White Wine, Shallots, and Carrots. In all cases, Rosbottom’s instructions are thorough and precise, including number of servings and estimate of cost in terms of “inexpensive,” “moderate” or “splurge” with far and away the most entries being in the “moderate” category.

If when you think “family celebration” you also think “roasted meat,” Sunday Roasts may well be for you. ◊

Aaron Blanton is a contributing editor to January Magazine. He’s currently working on a book based on his experiences as an American living abroad.

Holiday Gift Guide: Highly Inappropriate Tales for Young People by Douglas Coupland and Graham Roumieu

“It’s like a children’s book that you’d never let a child read,” Douglas Coupland told the Globe and Mail when talking about his most recent book. “We just wanted to do something really dark and nihilistic, really, with no social redeeming value.” His plan worked.

It has, it seems, been that kind of year, what with the incredible success of Adam Mansbach’s Go the F*ck to Sleep, which has been on bestseller lists all over North America since before the book’s debut last June. However Highly Inappropriate Tales for Young People (Random House Canada) is a slightly different -- though related -- animal. Seven humorous stories (I can’t bring myself to quote the jacket copy and call them “pants-peeingly funny” because it somehow makes them seem less funny than they are) put us more in mind of Tim Burton (think Edward Scissorhands or Alice in Wonderland) than Mansbach’s cheerful one-off.

Here Coupland’s dark wit is teamed with Graham Roumieu’s cheerfully depraved illustrations. Together they bring us some unforgettable characters in some weirdly demented stories. A sample of the titles: “Donald, the Incredibly Hostile Juice Box,” “Sandra, the Truly Dreadful Babysitter,” “Hans, the Weird Exchange Student,” “Brandon, the Action Figure With Issues.” I could go on, but you get the idea.

Coupland is, of course, the wickedly funny and original mind that delivered Generation X, plus over a dozen works of fiction and non-fiction since then. Roumieu created the Bigfoot autobiographies In Me Own Words, Me Write Book and I Not Dead. One can only imagine that the process of creation here would have been a great deal of fun. ◊

Linda L. Richards is the editor of January Magazine and the author of several books.

Holiday Gift Guide: Bless This Mouse by Lois Lowry

When, for one reason or another, you read extensively in children’s literature, you develop an eye or, perhaps, an ear. There are stories that entertain or teach or merely amuse. A very few do all of those things at once, and they do them in such a way that you know you are encountering a story for the ages. Instant classic is the way that is quite often put, implying a story that will be read and enjoyed by generations of children to come.

These are the thoughts I was having the very first time I read Bless This Mouse (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) by two time Newberry medalist, Lois Lowry. Lowry’s latest tale is an engaging story of a band of churchmice who live under the gentle rule of Mouse Mistress Hildegarde at Saint Bartholomew’s.

Intended for middle grade children, Bless This Mouse manages an involving story of mice in danger from both human discovery and the annual Blessing of the Animals day when the church will be filled with creatures, including cats!

“I’m not scared of cats! I could bite cats!” Harvey bared his big crooked front teeth.

Hildegarde shook him. “Listen to me! Cats are our worst enemy! You must fear cats! And you must watch only from the most hidden and inaccessible places…”

Lowry’s charming tale is illustrated by Caldecott Medal-winning illustrator (for My Friend Rabbit) Eric Rohman. The package is perfect: a very compelling tale enhanced by beautiful pencil drawings. A new classic is born. ◊

Monica Stark is a contributing editor to January Magazine. She currently makes her home on a liveaboard boat somewhere in the North Pacific.

Holiday Gift Guide: The Tipsy Vegan by John Schlimm

I may always remember 2011 as the year the world went vegan. I didn’t, but enough people did that January Magazine saw a record number of books roll in on that topic. According to our editor, January saw more vegan cookbooks than any other single topic.

What does it all mean? Though I could go into a deep philosophical monologue on the the long-term impact of the 50 Mile Diet and other reverberations of the local organic movement, that’s not what I’m getting at here. No: what I’m thinking about with The Tipsy Vegan (Da Capo) in my hands is that for the many, many people who turned to veganism in 2011, this holiday season is going to be super hard. Or it was, rather, until John Sclimm’s whimsical new book showed up. Schlimm explains:

You see, it’s always Happy Hour here in the Tipsy Vegan world. And everything you need to party is now right at your fingertips, whether you’re getting home at the crack of dawn, power lunching, hosting a backyard blow-out…

Or, as it turns out, a Christmas party. Which with a late November publication date, I’m fairly certain the publishers did not miss.

Schlimm’s book is whimsical, sure. But it does offer truly vegan alternatives in a happy, party package. There are surprisingly few drink recipes here: food with booze is what it’s all about. Some of it is silly. But considering the whole tofu-based culture that veganism has a reputation for, it’s been interesting to see it all broken out. Face it: do I really need to eat spaghetti laced with marsala or vermouth? Do I require snap peas cooked in sherry? And does anyone on the planet want hummus made with rum or baba ganoush made with Scotch? But the idea of it all is freeing. Not your everyday vegan cookbook then, you’ll have gathered that. But a party waiting to happen: just add booze and stir. ◊

Aaron Blanton is a contributing editor to January Magazine. He’s currently working on a book based on his experiences as an American living abroad.

Holiday Gift Guide: Roadsworth by Roadsworth with Bethany Gibson

I want Roadsworth to come to my city. I want him to spawn a movement and encourage others everywhere to take up his special brush. It seems that Montreal, or parts of it, anyway, are much more beautiful due to his slightly subversive art.

I say “slightly” because it maybe isn’t as subversive as it once was, but even then it was pretty. In 2001, his art started appearing on the streets of Montreal. A giant zipper where a dividing line would be. A bathtub next to a storm drain. A flight of birds in the place of a crosswalk. In Roadsworth (Goose Lane) his initial motivations are explained:

While Roadsworth had been musing on questions of car culture, consumerism, advertising and the use of public space, it was the aftermath of September 11, 2001, that galvanized him to move from intention to active expression. He felt he had nothing to lose, that the state of the world was such that any illegal action on his part would be innocuous in the grand scheme of things.

And so it began: street art blooming overnight. By 2004, Roadsworth had created 300 pieces of art on the streets of Montreal. Something that looked as though it would come to and end when he was arrested in November of that year and charged with 51 counts of public mischief. However, an international movement sprang to his defense and he was ultimately let go with little beyond a warning. What looked like it would be the end became something of a beginning.

Now Roadsworth is an esteemed and internationally recognized artist. This small coffee table book in some ways confirms but also celebrates his work. It looks at his thoughts, his hopes his motivations and his goals. It is an interesting monograph and a visually stimulating collection. ◊


Sienna Powers is a transplanted Calgarian who lives and works in Vancouver, B.C. She is a writer and conceptual artist.

Holiday Gift Guide: A Free and Hardy Life: Theodore Roosevelt’s Sojourn in the American West by Clay S. Jenkinson

It’s true that no other President is as closely associated with the American West as Theodore Roosevelt. Born and educated in the east, Roosevelt first set foot out west when he was a young man and instantly fell in love with the open spaces and way of

life. These things would come to influence both him and his presidency greatly, his noted conservationism shaped as it was by his extensive association with the life and land then prevalent out West. As Clay S. Jenkinson remarks in A Free and

Hardy Life (Dakota Institute):

In the American West Roosevelt found his health, his adult persona, his conservation ethic, and one of the principal arenas in which to strive valiantly. First the American West transformed Theodore Roosevelt. Then Roosevelt transformed the American West.

Though the focus here is on the Western years, we see slices of all of Roosevelt’s life, from childhood, through both marriages, fatherhood, the presidency and his impact on American life and culture. These glimpse’s into Roosevelt’s life are illustrated by many never-before-published photographs and punctuated with his own words, from various of his writings.

The book is large, brilliantly produced and reproduced and would make a terrific gift. ◊

Aaron Blanton is a contributing editor to January Magazine. He’s currently working on a book based on his experiences as an American living abroad.

Holiday Gift Guide: The Country Cooking of Italy by Colman Andrews

Someone who has a complete collection of Italian cookbooks will obviously require The Country Cooking of Italy (Chronicle) in order to make it more complete. A beautiful book meant to be cooked from and shared, coffee table-style, and with a pedigree that will make aficionados demand it.

Author Colman Andrews is something of an American foodie blue blood. Andrews was a co-founder of Saveur magazine,was the periodical’s second editor-in-chief and has won eight James Beard Awards. Andrews’ last major cookbook, The Country Cooking of Ireland, was a cousin to this book in that both were contracted at the same time by Chronicle. With the accolades that first book won and the attention this second is getting, I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that Andrews was already cooking up more countries in the Country Cooking series. Meanwhile, though, this one is still pretty much hot off the press and there is, in any case, a lot here to take in and enjoy.

To be honest, despite the massive and gorgeous luxuriousness of this book, this isn’t my favorite sort of cookbook. I’m partial to books of a slightly more comfortable size, books that don’t mind spending time in the kitchen getting work done. In so many ways, for me The Country Cooking of Italy just isn’t that sort of book. It’s simply too beautiful to want to banish it to the kitchen or risk mucking it’s gorgeous pages with sauce or cheese. Add to that the fact that, at close to 400 coffee table book-sized pages, The Country Cooking of Italy is too large to lug anywhere comfortably, you just want to snuggle up with it in a comfy chair with a glass of a big barolo at your elbow and maybe a plate of fried fava beans and some caponata.

While Andrews’ book is, of course, a cookbook, it also in a way a culinary tour of rural Italy. This is a book to be cooked from, sure. But it is also intended to be savored, exclaimed over, examined carefully and enjoyed, either alone or with friends. It seems to me to go almost without saying that, for just the right person, this would make the perfect gift. ◊

Monica Stark is a contributing editor to January Magazine. She currently makes her home on a liveaboard boat somewhere in the North Pacific.

Holiday Gift Guide: The Last Testament: A Memoir by God with David Javerbaum

In the beginning, I took a lunch with Daniel Greenberg of the Levine
Greenberg Literary Agency.

For the future of print was without hope, and void; and darkness had fallen upon the face of the entire publishing industry.

There is something pitch perfect about the tone and tenor of The Last Testament: A Memoir by God (Simon & Schuster). Something so frankly charming, as well as funny, it’s hard not to sit and enjoy.

Among other things, in this book, God corrects misunderstandings that have arisen from previous editions of his works. For instance, in the garden it was Adam and Steve not Adam and Eve and two of every animal couldn’t possibly fit on a single boat. “I did not ask Noah to put two of every animal on the ark. I know what it says in the Bible, but consider: A phylogenetically complete double bestiary contained within a 450,000-cubit-cubit watercraft?”

Readers from every religion will find things to laugh at and/or be offended by in this book. And considering both the topic and the cover art, it might well make a perfect gift for someone on your list this holiday season.

And though God gets the attribution, there was human intervention: David Javerbaum is an 11-time Emmy winner and a former head writer and executive producer of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. ◊

Holiday Gift Guide: Architecture Now! Houses: 2 by Philip Jodido

Say the word “house” and everyone creates their own mental picture. A place, perhaps, of comfort. Shelter. Even safety. And those are fine things, maybe even good things. But what we come to understand in Philip Jodido’s book, Architecture Now! Houses: 2, (Taschen) is that “house” can mean so much more.

Jodido brings us the idea -- not a new one, but still -- that “house” can be more than the sum of its parts. It can be all of the things we ever thought, but it can also be artform. It can be physical manifestation of personal expression. It can even be an earthly representation of spirit. It can be all of those things, Jodido teaches us. But it can also be less. And so together we explore: what are the elements of “house” and what are its limitations?

Since this book is the second in an ongoing series, Jodido comments on where houses are today as opposed to 2009 when the earlier book was published. In the new book, Jodido writes:

Because of their rapid construction cycle as compared to larger projects, houses are a veritable barometer of contemporary architecture, or even its future. A modernity that is not reductive, but rather builds on circumstances, sites, conditions, or sometimes just aesthetics is what is driving contemporary architecture today, and these houses demonstrate precisely that point.

Those who gift themselves or a loved one with a copy of Jodido’s book and who are doing so because they’re contemplating building a home will find some important lessons here, as well. If you’re in a position to build during an economic slow-down, Jodido instructs us, you may well find your buying power increased:

For those who hesitate to call on architect because of cost considerations, the current climate should encourage them to be demanding and to set precise limits in their own budget. With somewhat less work, even well-known architects may well be game to take on the challenge of cheaper creativity.

But though the text is interesting and considered and printed in both English and German, the stars of this particular show are the houses themselves. Houses gives us a voyeur’s eye view of some of the most creative and remarkable new houses in the world.

Highlights for me included Letterbox House in Blairgowie, Australia. It sprawls, wave-like, a wedge-shaped timber form. Dune House in Inner Mongolia, China, a concrete bunker of a sculpture whose interior and exterior would not have looked out of place in the original Star Wars movie. And the industrial elegance that is House in the Berkshires, an a-typical (for the region) confection of glass and steel. But, really: I must stop. So many of the houses included either take your breath away or make you think about what really is possible when you think about what is meant by that single word: house. It’s an extraordinary book. ◊


Aaron Blanton is a contributing editor to January Magazine. He’s currently working on a book based on his experiences as an American living abroad.

Holiday Gift Guide: Sinfully Vegan by Lois Dieterly

At a glance, the words “sinful” and “vegan” have no business showing up together in a sentence, never mind the title of a book. But Sinfully Vegan (Da Capo Longlife) puts a lie to all of that, filling a whole book with delicious and completely vegan desserts. Who would have thought that was even possible?

Ironically named author Lois Dieterly says that she enthusiastically embraced a vegan lifestyle a decade and a half ago. She loved every aspect, but she really missed dessert and ultimately set about doing something about it. Sinfully Vegan is the book that resulted from those efforts.

Even if you’re not interested in vegan cooking, but are concerned with a more healthful lifestyle, you’ll find a lot here to like. Dieterly includes nutritional information for each recipe. Thus you can see that her Banana Cannoli (yes, yes!) have 125 calories per serving as well as 5.4 grams of fat, 20.9 grams of carbs, 4.1 grams dietary fiber, 1.6 grams of protein, 0 mg cholesterol, 3 mg of sodium and 49 calories from fat. The nutritional information from each recipe is that complete.

But look at the recipe itself. How could a cannoli ever be vegan? But with a “shell” made mainly with ripe bananas and a creamy chocolate filling mainly made from avocados, it could be argued that, not only is this dessert vegan, it’s also actually good for you. What a concept. A lot of the recipes are like that: something sweet and delicious that will enhance your health… and perhaps your waistline, as well.

It should be noted that this is an updated edition of a book first published in 2003. Twenty new recipes have been added and the timing is much better for this new version. There’s certainly much interest in vegan lifestyle than there was even eight years ago. ◊

Monica Stark is a contributing editor to January Magazine. She currently makes her home on a liveaboard boat somewhere in the North Pacific.

Holiday Gift Guide: 50 Underwear Questions by Tanya lloyd Kyi, illustrated by Ross Kinnaird

It’s difficult to imagine the child who wouldn’t be tickled by the slightly risque nature and spirited delivery of 50 Underwear Questions: A Bare-All History (Annick). What’s Under a Sari? What is a knickerbocker? What kind of underpants should a superhero wear? And maybe the most fun of all: what might future underwear look like?

50 Underwear Questions is more than just whimsical questions and answers, too. There are underwear facts and histories; underwear jokes and even underwear technologies, all covering the topic in more depth than you might think the subject would warrant.

The book is illustrated by Ross Kinnaird who also illustrated two earlier books in the series for Annick Press, both all by Lloyd Kyi: 50 Burning Questions and 50 Poisonous Questions.

Suggested for ages nine-plus, but the tone is sufficiently brisk and the material so fun and different, most anyone will enjoy this one. ◊

India Wilson is a writer and artist.

Holiday Gift Guide: My Last Supper: The Next Course by Melanie Dunea

It’s rare that a really good book be followed by an even better sequel, but that just what’s happened here. Melanie Dunea (Precious, My Country) follows up her wonderful 2007 book My Last Supper with My Last Supper: The Next Course (Rodale). And the next course really is terrific.

Here’s the premise: photographer Dunea asks famous chefs to talk about their own last meal. What would it look like? What would it be? Easy enough, right? But the answers: they’re often surprising. And since Dunea is a photographer first, the book is anchored by intensely good photos of the chefs in question. These are featured with the answers of each chef. And the final section of the book features the recipes the chefs talked about in their musing about final meals. Terrific idea, right? And beautifully executed.

So how is this second volume better? Well, that might be an overstatement, because in many ways it’s the same: same format, same questions, same Vanity Fair-style photography (which is to say: fantastic). But where the first book featured 50 great chefs talking about their final meal, the new volume includes a bunch of great chefs as well as some well known food personalities. It makes the whole thing just a little more accessible to a few more people. So Todd English, Bobbie Flay, Emeril Lagasse, Traci Des Jardins (whose truffle-stuffed roasted chicken I can’t stop thinking about), Martha Ortiz, Wolfgang Puck, Rachel Ray and many others. The result is a book that should have a wider appeal than did the first, but with no less panache and style. And with all of that, of course, it makes a wonderful gift for the foodie dreamers on your list. ◊

Linda L. Richards is the editor of January Magazine and the author of several books.

Holiday Gift Guide: Silence by Becca Fitzpatrick

It’s encouraging to me as a human to see the large numbers of really good authors of young adult and children’s books getting a lot of attention and drawing ever-increasing armies of new readers.

I’d be hard pressed this holiday to choose a single must-have book to buy in the place where a Twilight or a Harry Potter book used to go. Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games books are contenders, of course. As is anything by Christopher Paolini and it’s certainly much too soon to cross Stephenie Meyer off any list of books aimed at this age group. But Becca Fitzpatrick, three novels into Hush, Hush, a very interesting series, is certainly something like a contender.

This might be especially true because that third book, Silence (Simon & Schuster), is easily the best book Fitzpatrick has written. No vampires here and no magical boys: Angels and archangels pepper Fitzpatrick’s books. It’s difficult to tell much without offering up a spoiler or two, so suffice it to say that there is both romance and danger aplenty in Fitzpatrick’s books and possibly a bit more darkness than light. If you’ve not been following the series, Silence is a strong enough book that it really does stand alone.

So is this the single must-have book for YA readers this season? Probably not but, from I’d certainly stack it with the best of those. ◊

Monica Stark is a contributing editor to January Magazine. She currently makes her home on a liveaboard boat somewhere in the North Pacific.

Holiday Gift Guide: Beer Quest West by Jon C. Stott

Though it covers a relatively small region, it does so with amazing depth. If you’re looking for a gift for someone from or in Western Canada who has a passion for beer, Beer Quest West (Touchwood) will answer all the questions… and then some.

According to author Jon C. Stott, Canada’s two westernmost provinces are home to more than 70 microbreweries. Compare this with the ten breweries that operated in the region in 1980. Of those ten, only four still exist: the large, faceless breweries replaced with a legion of much smaller operations mostly making handcrafted brews.

Beer Quest West is a field guide to those new breweries and brewpubs that have sprouted in the last 30 years. It discusses the many different styles of brews being made in the West and features mini-profiles of a lot of the people behind those beers and ales. Just as important, the book includes tasting notes on a lot of the beers those outfits are making.

If the person you’re buying for not only loves beer but has a thirst to know more about it, Beer Quest West will answer many questions. ◊

David Middleton is art director and art & culture editor of January Magazine.

Holiday Gift Guide: My First NHL Goal by Mike Brophy

Though sports journalist Mike Brophy’s My First NHL Goal (McLelland & Stewart) is ostensibly about the goal that marked the beginning of 50 hockey player’s professional career, it’s actually about so much more. Most of this it due to Brophy who knows the game about as well as anyone can and who has, through his career, had access to the top players in the land. Well, in any land, and that’s reflected in the book, as well.

Brophy’s approach was to interview each of his subjects and tell their stories in a journalistic style. Since he’s a seasoned and well regarded writer, this works rather well in this instance, especially considering the company he kept in making this book. Bobby Orr. Wayne Gretzky. Sidney Crosby. Phil Esposito. Jordan Eberle. Dave Keon. Tiger Williams. Mark Messier. Mike Bossy. I could go on, but you get the idea: Brophy delivers on his premise with some of the very top names in the sport. Period. Tough to go wrong.

And considering the talent involved, we end up with a two-pronged book. On the one hand, we have that premise: those first NHL goals. On the other, the keen eyes of a seasoned observer, sharing details about our hockey heros, past and present. Not just on the stated single goal, but also, in many cases, on their lives and their philosophies.

Hockey fans will enjoy this one, end to end. ◊