Holiday Reading
NPR Samples Some of the Literary Offerings of the Year

December 2001 -- Books on holiday shopping lists range from page-turning novels and vivid art histories to a philosophical take on The Simpsons. For NPR listeners, book reviewer Alan Cheuse offers his book recommendations, Maurice Sendak lends his special voice to Nutcracker and Susan Stamberg cruises bookstores around the country. There's a taste of Parisian haute cuisine in Patricia Wells' new cookbook, and a visual feast in David Hockney's art history -- and more.

Join in and share your favorite reads in the NPR book discussion board.

Photo courtesy Viking

Annual Book Reviews
Every year All Things Considered offers a look at the latest books with the help of Alan Cheuse, who teaches writing at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu, widely recognized as the world's first novel, is one of Cheuse's favorites. He also recommends Circle of Wonder about a Native American Christmas by N. Scott Momaday, and Red, a tribute by Terry Tempest Williams to Utah's canyon country.

Photo courtesy Crown Publishers

Nutcracker
Maurice Sendak is best known for his book Where the Wild Things Are -- the work, he says, that made him controversial. Morning Edition host Bob Edwards talks with Sendak about how he took the same qualities of darkness and strangeness that made Wild Things a hit to breathe new life into the seasonal favorite, Nutcracker.

Books & Books is one of the stores Stamberg visited. Photo Daniel Portnoy

Stamberg's Bookstore Tour
NPR Special Correspondent Susan Stamberg canvasses booksellers every year to find out what people are reading. This time she went to Books & Books in Miami, Florida; Harry W. Schwartz Book Shop in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and Annie Bloom's Books in Portland, Oregon. And she highlights some of those booksellers' best sellers on Morning Edition.

David Hockney

The Great Masters
A conversation with David Hockney, whose controversial new book Secret Knowledge: Rediscovering the Lost Techniques of the Old Masters argues that the great masters used optics more than they let on. Weekend Edition Sunday host Liane Hansen talks with Hockney about the book.

Photo courtesy HarperCollins

Three-Star Repasts from Paris
In past books, veteran food writer Patricia Wells collected casual recipes for bistro food. Now she has produced The Paris Cookbook, a celebration of the three-star establishments of her beloved home city. How did Wells choose the recipes for the book? "I look at recipes that I think are do-able," she says, "but most of all they have to appeal to me." All Things Considered host Linda Wertheimer talks with Wells about her recipes.

John Henry Faulk's Christmas Story
Long a holiday tradition for many NPR listeners, John Henry Faulk's Christmas Story can be heard this year online. The tale of a hitchhiking boy with an orange was originally broadcast in 1974 on the NPR program Voices in the Wind. This year, npr.org invites listeners to hear the story, read a transcript of it, and learn more about storyteller Faulk.

Also Heard on NPR:

Profile of a Music Maker
Conductor Nelson Riddle fashioned distinctive musical arrangements that helped define the sounds of Nat King Cole and Frank Sinatra. Called "probably the finest arranger/leader of modern times" by the Encyclopedia of Popular Music, Riddle is the subject of a new biography, September in the Rain: The Life of Nelson Riddle, by Peter Levinson. Hear NPR's Susan Stamberg interview Levinson and sample some of Riddle's best-loved arrangements on Morning Edition.

Lessons from Dickens
Charles Dickens' story, A Christmas Carol, about a miserly man transformed by the spirit of Christmas, has become a holiday mainstay sometimes watered down into a kind of sentimental mush. But in its day Dickens' story preached a truly radical message, with it's concern for the poor and the plight of children. Hear Cy Musiker report on how the story has helped revive the holiday tradition of charitable giving on Weekend Edition Sunday.