Throwback Thursday - Gift Ideas

For your literary friends,  books by a few of the authors we lost in 2016.

Pat Conroy (1945-2016).  A Low Country Heart: reflections on a writing life (Nan A. Talese hardcover, 25 October 2016).

This new volume of Conroy’s nonfiction brings together some of the most charming interviews, magazine articles, speeches, and letters from his long literary career. 

Ranging across diverse subjects, such as favorite recent reads, the challenge of staying motivated to exercise, and processing the loss of dear friends, Conroy’s eminently memorable pieces offer a unique window into the life of a true titan of Southern writing.

Umberto Eco (1932-2016).  The Book of Legendary Lands (Rizzoli hardcover, 5 November 2013).

Eco leads us on a beautifully illustrated journey through these lands of myth and invention, showing us their inhabitants, the passions that rule them, their heroes and antagonists, and, above all, the importance they hold for us. 

He explores this human urge to create such places, the utopias and dystopias where our imagination can confront things that are too incredible or challenging for our limited real world. 

Lois Duncan (1934-2016). Who Killed My Daughter? (Delacorte Press hardcover, 1 May 1992).

The heart-wrenching account of her search for the truth behind the murder of Duncan's 18-year-old daughter, Kaitlyn, was written in real time as the horror story unfolded.
When the Albuquerque, New Mexico, police department dubbed Kait’s death a random shooting, ignoring evidence to the contrary, Duncan launched her own investigation.
Her search for the answers took her into the underworld of Vietnamese gangs and led her to seek the help of the nation’s top psychic detectives, who, along with a courageous newspaper reporter, provided information that proved to her that Kait’s death was far from random.

W.P. Kinsella (1935-2016).  Butterfly Winter (Enfield & Wizenty hardcover, 1 September 2011).  

The story of Julio and Esteban Pimental, twins whose divine destiny for baseball begins with games of catch in the womb. 

They mature quickly and by the age of ten they leave home for the Major Leagues. Julio is a winning pitcher who, much to the chagrin of any team that signs him, will only throw to his catcher brother, who is a very weak hitter.

As they pursue their baseball dreams, events in their homeland, including political brutalities and the outlawing of baseball, continue to shape their lives. 

Elie Wiesel (1928-2016).  Open Heart (Knopf hardcover, 4 December 2012).

Eighty-two years old, facing emergency heart surgery and his own mortality, Elie Wiesel reflects back on his life. 

His family before and during the unspeakable Event. The gifts of marriage and children and grandchildren that followed. In his writing, in his teaching, in his public life, has he done enough for memory and the survivors? 

His ongoing questioning of God—where has it led? Is there hope for mankind? 

The world’s tireless ambassador of tolerance and justice has given us this luminous account of hope and despair, an exploration of the love, regrets and abiding faith of a remarkable man.