Take advantage of the pandemic book bump with a holiday gift
NEW YORK (AP) — In this world, there's a book for everybody. Take advantage of that sentiment during the holiday shopping season.
Book sales have thrived during the pandemic after initial concerns that it might hurt the publishing business. Come the holidays, some new nonfiction might hit your gifting sweet spots.
A sampling:
“Dressing the Resistance: The Visual Language of Protest through History,” by Camille Benda. From ancient Roman rebellions to the Black Lives Matter movement, dress has empowered the powerless to express dissent. Benda, a costume designer and dress historian, tells the story in more than 150 images, photos and paintings with loads of context in text. Take the simple topi hat, a khadi cloth envelope style popular during India's fight for self-rule. The British authorities banned it, throwing fuel on the fire. $27.50. Princeton Architectural Press.
“The Christmas Owl,” by Ellen Kalish and Gideon Sterer, with illustrations by Ramona Kaulitzki. This delightful Christmas tale is the true story of a little owl dubbed Rockefeller. The young, Saw-whet owl was found stuck in the branches of a towering Norway spruce grown in upstate New York and cut as Rockefeller Center’s holiday tree last year. Uninjured but hungry, she spent a brief stint in a Saugerties rehabilitation center before she was set free. Kalish is executive director of the Ravensbeard Wildlife Center in the Hudson Valley town. $15.49. Ages 4-up. Little, Brown Books for Young Readers.
“Patient Zero: A Curious History of the World’s Worst Diseases,” by Lydia Kang and Nate Pedersen. Disease outbreaks. How do they start? How do they spread? How do we overcome? Those are questions for the times but certainly nothing new. This book explores all that came before COVID-19: plague, yellow fever,...