Gifts For the Holidays

The Holidays are creeping up fast and as you know a signed first edition makes a great gift that often gains in value. But we also have:

The Mystery Lover's Puzzle Book
Crosswords with clues from your favorite mystery series!
Now you can enjoy both at the same time. Whether you like the humor of Janet Evanovich or the thrill of the chase with John Sandford, do crossword puzzles containing clues about your favorite fictional mystery characters.
Even if you have not read some of these authors, give the puzzles a try and get hooked on a new writer! The brief review for each series should help you with your reading selection. Whether you like cozies, thrillers, historical or legal suspense, pick a new author by mystery type, location, time period or character.
Keep track of the books you have already read by checking them off on the list of titles provided. Save time by not having to search for the next title in the series and save money by not accidentally buying a book you have already read. Other stand-alone mysteries, written by your favorite authors, are also included in order.
So have a little fun, find new authors, stretch those memory muscles or solve the problem of what to get your mystery-reading friends by trying out the Mystery Lover's Puzzle Book.

Or a few fun non-mysteries:
Don't miss Dave Barry's The Shepherd, the Angel and Walter the Christmas Miracle Dog
A humorous Christmas tale is told by a young boy living in the 1960s in a New York City suburb. or Dave Barry's History of the Mullennium A brilliantly funny look at the tumultuous recent past from the Pulitzer Prize–winning humorist.

Remember when everything was going to go to hell when Y2K struck?

That didn’t happen. Right?

But what did happen? To provide a little perspective on a really messed-up millennium (so far), the one and only Dave Barry slips into his historian’s robe (it’s plush terrycloth) and revisits the defining moments in our country’s recent history—from the Bush years to…jeez, it’s still the Bush years! As an added bonus, Barry quickly—we’re busy here—tosses in the complete history of the last millennium, covering crucial turning points such as the invention of the pizza by Leonardo da Vinci and the computer by Charles Babbage (who died in 1871 still waiting to talk to tech support).

Fellow Americans, the time has come to bone up with Barry as he puts the hysterical in history.

Baseball legend Joe Garagiola has signed his book, Just Play Ball
A view of baseball the way it should be with colorful characters who played for the love of the game, fresh cut grass, rosin bags, and pine tar remind them what the game is all about.

And Southwesten from horticulturalis, Mary Irish has signed her new book Trees and Shrubs for the Southwest

Like gardeners everywhere, gardeners in the Southwest want home landscapes that include lush, thriving trees and shrubs. But contending with difficult soils, three-digit summer temperatures, and minimal rainfall can pose a daunting challenge. To add to the dilemma, many plants that prosper in other parts of the country can't be grown in the Southwest without resorting to wasteful artificial irrigation. The solution to this conundrum is choosing plants that are adapted to the rigors of the southwestern climate. In Trees and Shrubs for the Southwest, readers will find profiles of more than 200 of the most attractive, easy-to-grow, and climate appropriate trees and shrubs. Mary Irish also provides expert information about how to use trees and shrubs in the garden, how to plant and care for them, and how to combat common pests and diseases. This comprehensive title also includes clear and concise instructions on common tasks such as planting, staking, and pruning. From feathery-leaved acacias to bright-flowered desert willows, tough-as-nails mesquites to silvery Texas rangers, homeowners who want to create an attractive, sustainable landscape will find no better resource.

and there the new signed first of Gregory Maguire, the third in his Oz series, Lion Among Men
the much-anticipated third volume of the Wicked Years, we return to Oz, seen now through the eyes of the Cowardly Lion.

While civil war looms in Oz, a tetchy oracle named Yackle prepares for death. Before her final hour, a figure known as Brrr—the Cowardly Lion—arrives searching for information about Elphaba Thropp, the Wicked Witch of the West. Abandoned as a cub, his path from infancy is no Yellow Brick Road. In the wake of laws that oppress talking Animals, he avoids a jail sentence by agreeing to serve as a lackey to the warmongering Emperor of Oz.

A Lion Among Men chronicles a battle of wits hastened by the Emerald City's approaching armies. Can those tarnished by infamy escape their sobriquets to claim their own histories, to live honorably within their own skins before they're skinned alive?

Gregory Maguire's new novel is written with the sympathy and power that have made his books contemporary classics.