Not to rush the season, but can we talk about winter, and the pleasures of curling up with an afghan (hound or blanket, you choose), a cup of tea and a great book?  And maybe, like me, you enjoy giving books as holiday gifts.

So, I’ve got some book recommendations you might enjoy yourself– or give as gifts for readers of either gender on your list.  As you’ll see, each book is quite different from the others.

And in my mind were two conflicting thoughts. One was that I wished to continue my travels, continue the adventure the way, it seemed, I was meant to have it. And the other, of course, was that I, too, could put a halt to things. After all, any of us could stop things. Would it be so terrible, to be trapped there? Then he could stay there sleeping beside me forever. In the world where I had never lost him.

That’s an excerpt from The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells by Andrew Sean Greer,  the very best book I’ve read this year. And I read a lot.

 It’s a story about a woman, love –and time travel that happens in the most interesting of ways.

When depression hits Greta Wells, she’s given electro-convulsive therapy, and each treatment sends her time traveling to a life she had in a different era. Besides her “current” life in 1985, she travels to 1918 and 1941, where some of the same people are in her life, but in slightly different roles and situations. Greta’s twin, Felix, is gay, and that’s woven in the story in an interesting and unusual way, because things were quite different for gay people in the 20th century–pretty much the entire 20th century.  Looking back through the lens of this new century added to my experience of the book.

The characters are skillfully-wrought and I found myself loving some so much I wanted to scream out into the book, No! Don’t do that! Things will be different one day!

If you’ve ever wondered, what if? (and who hasn’t) this book will capture your imagination in magical ways.  What if you could keep traveling back and forth–have all three lives? But what if you could pick one of the other lives and just stay there? What if, indeed.

Greer’s prose is beautiful and he’s got a deep understanding of the way women think. Or maybe, the way I think. It’s rare that I actually type out passages, excerpts from books, but I typed up three single-spaced pages of excerpts that I found so haunting, so evocative that I simply wanted to read and reread and ponder them over and over and over.  It’s the first of his books I’ve read, so I’ll be avidly digging into other offerings he has, as well as any that might come next.

 i met Mark Fine on Google+ and was instantly intrigued by his writing. His book, The Zebra AffaIre, is a fast-paced, suspenseful tale  about the racial divide in the police state of South Africa.  The story involves a mixed race relationship during apartheid, riots, tribes at war and the horrors of an unfair and unyielding society. It’s a love story, it’s a societal change story and it’s a war story all at once, the kind of page turner that some of us devour hungrily, anxious for the next thrilling bite.

What’s more, the author has provided side-notes of historical context and information that adds to the understanding of the situation.

I don’t know how many young people today remember the days when apartheid was a very big deal that was in the news all the time, so this novel could very well provide needed historical background to a situation about which many young adults know nothing. In an interesting way, which is the best way to feed history to youth, in my opinion. It’s a good book.

It’s not just a guy’s book, either, although Mark writes with the eye of a man.  I loved its energy and, since it had been a long time since I’d considered apartheid (given how much else has gone on in the world), it was a good reminder of South Africa’s past and present. Mark provided me with a review copy but the opinion is my own. It’s available on Amazon and would make a great gift book, too.

The Voice at the Door by James Sulzer is a quiet little tome for a peaceful winter day. I loved its gentle pace, leaving me plenty of time to think about what I was reading.  It’s about Emily Dickinson and is fiction, though it reads like it could be true. In fact, I went back a few times just to make sure it wasn’t true.  In the book, Miss Dickinson has a love affair with a married man of the cloth–an unlikely scenario, or so it seems. The affair has significant intellectual and spiritual components, as many relationships did among that set, and it was carried out  mostly by post, also common in the day.

I love when a man writes a graceful book that women would so clearly enjoy.  When was the last time you read something that you could describe as tender and cultivated? It’s not a page turner, so save it for a gentle day when all you want is to relax and let your mind wander to a time so different from our own.

I love the idea of you reading this book on a blustery winter day in front of a fire, setting its graceful prose aside to sip a cup of hot tea and then going back into that world of intellectual discourse that was really all about love.  It’s available HERE, through Fuze Publishing, who provided me a review copy.

It’s also available through Amazon.

I’m always wowed when people who are incredibly busy find the time to crank out a book in their spare time. How do they do it? Such is the case with my friend and former student, Bonnie Phelps, who just published her first novel, Julia’s Star.  It’s a romantic tale whose main character ain’t no spring chicken–so those of us of a certain age can relate to it.

The tale’s an old one, but with a bit of a twist. By this age just about all of us have had at least one relationship with someone who seemed such a bad match that friends and family wonder how on earth the relationship could work out. Such is the case with Julia and Jason. Now, I don’t know about you, but I like a good piece of escapist fiction from time to time, and Bonnie’s book fits the bill.  It’s the kind of book you want to settle in with an hour before bed so that you go off to dreamland with a smile and look forward to picking up the book again the next day.

By the way, it’s not too early to consider if any of these books fit friends or family, and even to pick up copies for upcoming birthdays or holidays.  I’ve got a tall stack of books to give in my closet and they’re practically tapping their pages waiting to be wrapped for Christmas!