Misstropolis

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Oprah Who? Our Bookclub’s Better

by Susan Graage

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The sands of time on the holiday shopping hourglass are running out. We have summoned the eleventh (the tenth is taken in the new pantheon, see below) Greek Muse – “Shoperea”, she of the truly inspired gift – who offers some suggestions for the nearly impossible relative. A foolproof list of some well tested gift books, perhaps even some hidden gems that will appear on your own holiday list follows:

The Proust Questionnaire forward by William Carter and Introduction by Henry-Jena Servant, published by Assouline; includes a history of the questionnaire known to many from the back page of Vanity Fair. The questionnaire was popular among Proust’s coterie in Paris in the the 1890’s and is reprinted here, with Proust’s original answers and those of many other celebrated artists and writers. Blank pages are included should you wish to inaugurate the tradition in your household. 

XXX: 30 Porn Star Portraits by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders and Gore Vidal, with contributions by Salman Rushdie, John Malkovich and John Waters. Greenfield-Sanders, a much admired photographer of political figures and cultural icons whose work is in many major museums, enters the debate about the pornification of American culture with his porn star series. Dual portraits of porn stars (one view clothed, the same pose unclothed) such as Jenna Jameson, Sunrise Adams, Ron Jeremy and Chad Hunt will pique everyone’s interest. Wrap in brown paper.

1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die by Stephen Farthing is another highly surfable book of paintings across cultures and time and chosen by art critics all of which are on display in the public domain. (See article image from cover).

A book that will never bore, especially for those with a predilection for a little celebrity dirt, comes from the master of the gossipy no holds barred observation Andy Warhol. Check out the Andy Warhol Diaries, conveniently well indexed for entries on New York icons from the seventies and eighties.

For the music lovers in your lives the Rough Guide to Rock is the definitive manual to the rock universe. Compiled by the travel and reference publisher Rough Guide editor Nick Edwards but written by fans this exhaustive history of Rock and Roll is consulted at least once a week in my house.  For those with more specific musical interests, see also the Rough Guides to Cult Pop, Hip-Hop, Punk and Reggae.

How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read by Pierre Bayard – how can you possibly read everything? A European bestseller now translated into English, Bayard, a Paris University Professor, ironically wants to encourage people to read more by freeing them from the guilt of not having read the classics, say for example Proust! Does most of Swann’s Way count - in Bayard’s cannon a resounding yes.

For the cooks in your life, The Tenth Muse: My Life in Food by Judith Jones.  A longtime food editor at Knopf and the architect behind Mastering the Art of French Cooking she has worked with the most distinguished chefs and food writers of our time including Child, Marcella Hazan, James Beard and Lidia Bastianich. 

Service Included: Four Star Secrets of an Easvesdropping Waiter by Phoebe Damrosch is the account of a former waiter at Thomas Keller’s celebrated restaurant Per Se.  Damrosch blends the personal and private – her affair with the sommelier Andre – with the collective effort of the restaurant’s staff to ensure a four star review from Times critic Frank Bruni.

Finally if you must gift good tale, look back at some of Misstropolis best DML picks for fiction this year. Try Look at Me, by Jennifer Egan, On Beauty by Zadie Smith, Oprah pick The Road by Cormac McCarthy, The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho or GEEK LOVE by Katherine Dunn.