We asked Heather Drucker, a publicity director for a major publishing house, to tell us what books she was buying as gifts for others this holiday.
by Heather Drucker
As a publicity director for a major publishing house, I am never at a lack of reading materials. In my spare time, however, I tend to read literary and commercial fiction to relax. These are some of my favorite books that I’ve read this year, and they would all make perfect gifts for anyone on your list who loves fiction. Full disclosure – some of them are books that I worked on!
The Cookbook Collector by Allegra Goodman
This novel is about two sisters living in the SF Bay area in the 90s during the Tech bubble but the story is pure Jane Austen. In fact, you may want to re-read Sense and Sensibility after you read Goodman’s thoughtful novel about food, books, and whether love can stay in a virtual world.
The Innocents by Francesa Segal
A modernization of Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence, Segal’s debut novel takes place in London’s close-knit Jewish Temple Fortune neighborhood where an idealistic lawyer named Adam is betrothed to his childhood sweetheart Rachel, but must come to terms with his attraction to Rachel’s world-wise cousin Ellie.
The Rules of Civility by Amor Towles
This novel came out two years ago, but I am still telling everyone to read it. Like Fitzgerald’s Great Gatsby, but from a young woman’s point of view, this unabashedly romantic novel effortlessly evokes pre-WWII Manhattan and life on the brink of change.
The Tiger’s Wife by Tea Obreht
As adept at writing magical realism as Borges, Marquez or Allende, Obreht uses myth and legend to tell the story of the Serbian Balkans’ conflict to help readers make sense of it all. Gorgeously written, it makes one want to go back and read the news articles of the time.
The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
A re-telling of The Illiad from the perspective of Achilles’ longtime companion Petroclus, this stunning debut, filled with wild-eyed gods and goddesses, depicts the intimate side of the great Achilles who raged against the Trojans, from his childhood to manhood, and during the long war.
The Stockholm Octavo by Karen Engelmann
Tiny Stockholm in Sweden doesn’t often get as much play on the page as France or England in the historical fiction genre, but the 1790s during King Gustav’s Golden Age reign was as vibrant as Paris in the 1890s. This literary debut is a suspenseful tale of political intrigue and one man’s quest for happiness and love, using all of his connections.
