There’s nothing I love more than buying presents for people, but since I’ve been done with my Christmas shopping for weeks, I want to pay it forward for those of you who have enough restraint to wait until a little bit closer to the big day.
Here are 13 gifts, including some of my favorite books and movies from 2015, for everyone - and every need - on your shopping list.
For the kids in your lives: “The Jolly Christmas Postman,” by Janet and Allen Ahlberg. In the pantheon of children’s book authors, the Ahlbergs rank among the Greatest of All Time. This book, a holiday riff on their book “The Jolly Postman,” follows a delivery man as he drops off Christmas cards at the houses of fairy-tale characters and comes complete with all the letters, games and even a crossword puzzle in the envelopes that intersperse the pages. I’ve already given it a couple of times this Christmas, as I do every year.
For the fantasy fan: “The Goblin Emperor,” by Katherine Addison. I’ve been praising this novel in my chat for a while now; while I was reading “The Goblin Emperor,” I actually slowed myself down because I didn’t want my time in Addison’s world to end. Her novel, about a half-goblin, half-elf named Maia who, against all expectations, suddenly finds himself inheriting his father’s throne. “The Goblin Emperor” is simultaneously a comedy of manners, a tale of palace intrigue and a charmingly old-fashioned love story. It’s the perfect book to relish over a long weekend - or a week off.
For the cinematic sophisticate in need of something a little spicy: Peter Strickland’s “The Duke of Burgundy.” A warning: This movie is not safe for work and definitely not appropriate for children. But that shouldn’t deter you from buying this tender, funny movie about two women negotiating the boundaries of their sexual relationship - all while studying rare butterflies - for anyone who’s up for a great love story. If only “The Duke of Burgundy” was the movie sparking our conversation about what women really want instead of “Fifty Shades of Grey.” Worried the film’s depiction of kink might be a bridge too far? “Magic Mike XXL” is a variation on the theme with its own set of delights.
For the history lovers: “Selma 1965,” by Spider Martin and “SPQR,” by Mary Beard. I was lucky enough to see some of Martin’s wonderful photographs of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. when I was in Savannah, Georgia, earlier this year. And now there’s a handsome new collection of his pictures of the Selma march, chronicled this year in Ava DuVernay’s Oscar-nominated film. For the reader whose inclinations are more ancient than modern, Mary Beard’s history of Rome - from village to republic to Empire - is a terrific, lively read. It’s also the sort of book that teaches us not just about a particular era, but how to think about history in general.
For family movie night: Jonathan Demme’s “Ricki and the Flash.” I’m a big believer in Sonny Bunch’s suggestion that movies are one of the best ways to spend holidays with your family, especially if there are serious disagreements in danger of making for unpleasantness around the dinner table. If you need a new, non-holiday addition to the roster, may I recommend “Ricki and the Flash,” in which Meryl Streep plays a Republican who bags groceries at Whole Foods by day and plays guitar at night, and has to return to the family she abandoned after her daughter’s marriage falters. It’s sweet and smart and it’ll make you want to hug everyone around you at the end.
For the person who loves classic ’60s pop: I’ve told y’all to see the beautiful Brian Wilson biopic “Love & Mercy” often enough this year that I won’t spend an entry on it here. So if someone you know has seen it and loved it, get them “Smile,” the album Brian Wilson finally got to release in 2004 that’s the culmination of the creative activity depicted in the movie. It’s a gentle, sunny record, the perfect thing to put on in the dead of winter to remind yourself that surf and summer will come back again.
For the person who wishes Hollywood were more diverse: “Bright Boulevards, Bold Dreams: The Story of Black Hollywood,” by Donald Bogle. Hollywood may seem awfully monochrome now, but Bogle’s lively history reminds us that the fight for more and better roles for black actors isn’t a new one. The book takes us through the lives of some of the most important figures who fought to make careers for themselves and pushed against the confines studios used to constrain depictions of black life.
For the streaming fanatic in your life: A subscription to commercial-free Hulu. As critics and business analysts have paid more attention to streaming outlets such as Netflix and Amazon (whose chief executive, Jeffrey P. Bezos, owns The Washington Post), elevating them as worthy competitors to premium cable networks, Hulu has often found itself lagging behind in the conversation. The streaming service, founded by a number of the broadcast networks as a way to maximize their streaming revenue, has ramped up its original content program a bit more slowly than its flashier siblings. But if there’s a streamer in your life who doesn’t for some reason have Hulu’s commercial-free offering, hook them up. In between “Casual,” Hulu’s Golden Globe-nominated extended-family comedy, the Criterion Collection movies that are available through Hulu, and the new season of “The Mindy Project,” there are plenty of delights to be had here.
For the person overwhelmed by the glitz of the Christmas season: “The Anchoress,” by Robyn Cadwallader. I know, it’s a little bit hypocritical to use a holiday gift guide to suggest that sometimes our celebrations of Christmas end up being a little bit over-the-top. But if there’s someone in your life you’d like to be nice to, who yearns for a quieter, more contemplative approach to the season, this book might way to go. In it, Cadwallader explores the first year a medieval anchoress spends in her cell, isolated from the world, and examines how her enclosure changes her relationship to her faith.
For the classic film fan: “The Apu Trilogy” and a new Charlie Chaplin collection. One of the great cultural tragedies of our time is the number of silent movies that have been allowed to deteriorate to the point that they’re incomplete, or that no longer exist at all. So it’s always an occasion for celebration when older movies are either recovered or restored in new formats. “The Apu Trilogy,” about the life of a young Indian boy, restores the films after the original negatives were lost in a fire and is high up on my own Christmas list, and this new Chaplin collection restores his work from between 1914 and 1917. Dig in for a delightful marathon either way.
