From Prince to Joan Aiken, and Everything Between: Seven Completely Different Books Suitable as Holiday Gifts

Recently, I've featured seven books on Amazon that I think make marvelous holiday gifts. Here's a summary, with links to the features. (Also note Jeffrey Ford's top 10, just posted on Amazon.)James A. Owen's Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica - He's re-created in these books the kind of care and craftsmanship you usually see in limited editions from specialty presses--and done it for a wide and ravenous audience. If you've exhausted the possibilities of Harry Potter, may I tempt you with a dragon or two?Kay Bozich Owens & Lynn Owens' Lost in the Supermarket: An Indie Rock Cookbook - Titled after the 1979 hit by the Clash, Lost in the Supermarket is a really delightful compilation, with comments by each band on their recipes. Just the names of these recipes are likely to make you smile, from Animal Collective's Geologist's Greek Style Shrimp to the Silver Jews' Bob's Chinese Spicy Cold Celery, Quintron and Miss Pussycat's Blackout Fish to Yip-Yip's Wah-Full 'o' Whatever.Will Hindmarch and Jeff Tidball's Things We Think About Games - Each page contains a different thought about gaming. Some are one-liners. Others are paragraph length. Every last one of these thoughts has been carefully chosen from a wide range of contributors that include John August, Pat Harrigan, Fred Hicks, Kenneth Hite, John Kovalic, Michelle Nephew, Philip Reed, S. John Ross, Mike Selinker, and Noah Wardrip-Fruin. Will Wheaton contributes an introduction.Prince and photographer Randee St. Nicholas' 21 Nights - This opulent image-rich vision of three weeks in London on tour with His Purple Majesty includes poetry and a CD of live music. The CD itself is amazing, and the book, especially for Prince fans, contains some stunning photography.Dan Green's Biology As We Know It - Literally a biology book for kids, with a distinctly graphic novel look to it. But it's so utterly delightful for all ages that I'm recommending it to all of my friends. It's the kind of book where you have a little smile on your face the whole time you're reading it. (Seen above with a prior volume in the series.)Joan Aiken's The Serial Garden: The Complete Armitage Family Stories - From the new Big Mouth House (the children's imprint of the brilliant Small Beer Press), this volume collects all 24 classic Armitage stories, four of which are published here for the first time. A charming mix of magic and the hilariously mundane, these stories chronicle the eccentric and wonderfully original adventures of a special family. Ghosts, goblins, and much more make an appearance. It's lovely and sometimes serious stuff--the kind of work that really deserves the "will thrill and delight readers young and old" tag.Eddie Campbell's The Amazing Remarkable Monsieur Leotard - Dear Monsieur Leotard, what a shame you die on page 13 and are replaced by your young nephew Etienne. But that's the way it is with Eddie Campbell (and story co-conspirator Dan Best)--never happy to leave well enough alone. Thus, a great man dies not at the end of this wonderfully chaotic freak show of a graphic novel, but near the beginning. This provides the catalyst for Etienne's rather unusual and surreal adventures. Talking bears in waistcoats? Check. The Titanic? Check. Calabrian fighting midgets? Of course!