Rakestraw Books

Return to the Hundred Acre Wood by David Benedictus, illustrated by Mark Burgess (Dutton, $19.99). It was 80 years ago, on the publication of The House at Pooh Corner, when Christopher Robin said good-bye to Winnie-the-Pooh and his friends in the Hundred Acre Wood. Now they are back in a charming new adventure. The best news? They are still making new friends! Share this with the child in your life.

The Twelve Days of Christmas illustrated by Gennady Spirin (Marshall Cavendish, $16.99). Gennady Spirin's sumptuous paintings bring new life and spectacular beauty to this classic song, making it a gift to be treasured at Christmastime.

Waddle! by Rufus Butler Seder (Workman, $12.95). Waddle! is new from the author of the twin bestsllers: Gallop! and Swing!. And, boy, is it irresistible. This animals-in-motion Scanimation book will inspire prancing, hopping, stomping, and scampering.

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery (HMH Books, $35). This exciting pop-up edition of Saint-Exupery's classic story contains the complete original text accompanied by Saint-Exupery's illustrations brought to life through paper engineering. A must-have for longtime fans, this edition will also enchant a whole new generation.

Million-Dollar Throw by Mike Lupica (Philomel Books, $17.99). Nate Brodie is nicknamed "Brady" not only for his arm, but also because he's the biggest Tom Brady fan. He's even saved up enough to buy an autographed football. And when he does, he wins the chance to do something he's never dreamed of -- to throw a pass through a target at a Patriots game for one million dollars.

The Spiderwick Chronicles Completely Fantastical Edition: The Field Guide; The Seeing Stone; Lucinda's Secret; The Ironwood Tree; The Wrath of Mulgarath by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, $29.99). Now the bestselling fantasy series is available in one place! The brand new volume features familiar stories from the first cycle, along with new content -- sketches and more -- perfect for readers new and old. It's a great addition to your fantasy reader's permanent collection.

Everything I Need to Know I Learned from a Children's Book edited by Anita Silvey (Roaring Brook, $29.99). In this attention-grabbing family gift book edited by the distinguished Anita Silvey, more than 100 celebrities and public figures recall the instructive, illuminating, and inspiring lessons they have learned from children's books.

Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child (Knopf, $40). The classic work that forever changed the way America cooks and the inspiration forJulie and Julia! As Julia Child says in the introduction, "If you can read, you can cook."

I Know How to Cook by Ginette Mathiot (Phaidon, $45). The bible of traditional French home cooking and the best-selling cookbook in France for three generations, I Know How to Cook contains over 1,000 recipes revised and updated for the modern kitchen.

Gourmet Today: More than 1,000 All-New Recipes for the Contemporary Kitchen edited by Ruth Reichl (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $40). Featuring more than 1,000 recipes and menus for holidays and other seasonal occasions, an authoritative glossary of ingredients, and hundreds of sidebars, Gourmet Today is the indispensable book for today's cook.

Guardians of Being by Eckhart Tolle, illustrated by Patrick McDonnell (New World Library, $18). Combing words of wisdom by Eckhart Tolle with delightful illustrations by Patrick McDonnell of "Mutts" fame, this book offers lessons of the present moment as embodied by the dogs and cats with whom we share our world.

The Sartorialist by Scott Schuman (Penguin, $25). A beautiful anthology of the photographer Schuman's favorite images, accompanied by his insightful commentary. It includes photographs of well-known fashion figures alongside people encountered on the street whose personal style and taste demanded a closer look.

The Bedside Book of Beasts: A Wildlife Miscellany by Graeme Gibson (Nan A. Talese, $35). The intricate, complex connection between the hunter and the hunted has defined animal life on earth throughout time. In The Bedside Book of Beasts, Graeme Gibson gathers breathtaking works of art and literature that capture the power, grace, and inventiveness of both predators and their natural prey.

Hope for Animals and Their World: How Endangered Species Are Being Rescued from the Brink by Jane Goodall (Grand Central, $27.99). Interweaving her own firsthand experiences with the compelling research of of premier scientists, Goodall illuminates the heroic efforts of dedicated environmentalists and the truly critical need to protect the habitats of endangered species.

Eat Sleep Read Daily Calendar (Workman, $12.95). Created by independent booksellers around the country, this tear-the-page calendar offers daily book trivia and fun facts that will delight and inform every book lover. Some questions are easy, some may stump you, but they all celebrated the joy and fun of reading -- a great gift!

The Magicians by Lev Grossman (Viking, $26.95). "The Magicians is a darker, more adult take on the idea of a secret academy that trains would-be wizards. Lev Grossman explores the realms of magic, alternate realities, and wish fulfillment as visited by less-than-heroic characters. Raising the question of what would you do if you could do watever you wanted, The Magicians is thrilling and deliciously disturbing." (Lisa Wright, Oblong Books and Music, Millerton, NY)

The Crying Tree by Naseem Rakha (Broadway, $22.95). Julie is recommending this powerful novel of a family living on in the wake of tragedy. Fully realized characters combine with a thoughtful meditation on the nature of forgiveness to produce a story that will leave you thinking about it for some time to come. How do we deal with pain? How do we deal with the truth?

The French Gardener by Santa Montefiore (Touchstone, $15). A neglected garden. A cottage that holds a secret. A mysterious Frenchman (handsome, naturally). A family in need of some love. These elements are entwined in this heartwarming novel by the author reviewers consistently compare to Rosamund Pilcher and Maeve Binchy. If you just want a pleasant, light read, this may be the perfect choice for you -- just good, old-fashioned story.

Alive In Necropolis by Doug Dorst (Riverhead, $16). Colma is the only incorporated city in America where the dead outnumber the living. It's the final resting place of folks as varied as Joe DiMaggio, William Randolph Hearst, and Wyatt Earp. It's also the home of a rookie cop, Michael Mercer, trying to live by the book even as he becomes more and more entranced by the fate of his predecessor: Sergeant Wes Featherstone. Featherstone, a good cop, seems to have spent his last years policing the dead at least much as the living leading young Mercer to wonder whether the dead are nearly as "at rest" as they should be. Or is he just imagining it all? Chosen as San Francisco's One City, One Read book for 2009, this is an odd, but wonderful read.

The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson (Knopf, $25.95). "Anyone who read The Girl Who Played With Fire will not be disappointed in Stieg Larsson's latest. Lisbeth Salander, the brilliant -- and odd -- hacker, finds herself not only a murder suspect, but also a victim. With a plot that includes the sex trade in Sweden, this is a novel that will keep you up all night!" (Carol Katsoulis, Anderson's Bookshop, Naperville, IL)

All We Wanted Was Everything by Janelle Brown (Spiegel & Grau, $14). On the day Paul Miller's pharmaceutical company goes public, he informs his wife, Janice, that their marriage is over and that the new fortune is his alone. Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, the Miller's older daughter, Margaret, has been dumped by her hot actor boyfriend and is failing at her job, kind of spectacularly. Sliding toward bankruptcy, Margaret bails and heads for home, where her confused and lonesome teenage sister, Lizzie, is struggling with problems of her own: She's become the school slut. From behind the walls of their Georgian colonial bunker, the Miller women wage battle with divorce lawyers, debt collectors, drug-dealing pool boys, evangelical neighbors, and country club ladies -- and in the process all illusions and artifice fall away, forcing them to reckon with something far scarier and more consequential: their true selves.

Summer Will Show by Sylvia Townsend Warner (NYRB, $16.95). Sophia Willoughby, a young Englishwoman from an aristocratic family and a person of strong opinions and even stronger will, has packed her cheating husband off to Paris. He can have his tawdry mistress. She intends to devote herself to the serious business of raising her two children in proper Tory fashion. Then tragedy strikes: the children die, and Sophia, in despair, finds her way to Paris, arriving just in time for the revolution of 1848. Before long she has formed the unlikeliest of close relations with Minna, her husband's sometime mistress, whose dramatic recitations, based on her hair-raising childhood in czarist Russia, electrify audiences in drawing rooms and on the street alike. Minna, "magnanimous and unscrupulous, fickle, ardent, and interfering," leads Sophia on a wild adventure through bohemian and revolutionary Paris, in a story that reaches an unforgettable conclusion amidst the bullets, bloodshed, and hope of the barricades.

This Is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper (Dutton, $25.95). "Mort Foxman's dying wish is that his wife and four children sit shiva for him. With acute and sardonic perception, we view these seven days of enforced togetherness through the eyes of the middle son, Judd. The result is a narrative that is both hilarious and poignant. You won't want to miss this one!" (Jennie Turner-Collins, Joseph-Beth Booksellers, Cincinnati, OH)

Breath by Tim Winton (Picador, $14). Breath is a story of risk, of learning one's limits by challenging death. On the wild, lonely coast of Western Australia, two thrill-seeking teenage boys fall under the spell of a veteran big-wave surfer named Sando. Their mentor urges them into a regiment of danger and challenge, and the boys test themselves and each other on storm swells and over shark-haunted reefs. The boys give no thought to what they could lose, or to the demons that drive their mentor on into ever-greater danger. Venturing beyond all caution -- in sports, relationships, and sex -- each character approaches a point from which none of them will return undamaged.

Zeitoun by Dave Eggers (McSweeney's, $24). In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, longtime New Orleans residents Abdulrahman and Kathy Zeitoun are cast into an unthinkable struggle with forces beyond wind and water. In this startling and deeply humane work of nonfiction, readers will witness our country's worst natural disaster through new eyes, encountering all the hope and contradiction of a unique moment in American history. Eggers captures the moment in both the city's and the people's lives when they realize that all they had believed to be true isn't any longer. A great book.

South of Broad by Pat Conroy (Nan A. Talese/Doubleday, $29.95). "After far too long an absence, Pat Conroy has returned with an epic tale of friendship that survives school integration, the AIDS epidemic, Hurricane Hugo, and horrific family pasts and secrets. You'll fall in love with Charleston, South Carolina, through the words and life of Leo King as he resolves to right his own life while reaching across racial and class lines to create lifelong bonds with an unlikely band of high school seniors." (Nancy Drott, Blue Willow Bookshop, Houston, TX)

Labor Day by Joyce Maynard (Morrow, $24). "In Labor Day Joyce Maynard has created three well-written and engaging characters, has put them in an extraordinary situation, and has delivered a wonderful book. I admit to being teary during the last few pages." (Lisa Sharp, Nightbird Books, Fayetteville, AR

Au Revoir to All That: Food, Wine, and the End of France by Michael Steinberger (Bloomsbury, $25). France is in a rut, and so is French cuisine. Twenty-five years ago it was hard to have a bad meal in France; now, in some cities and towns, it is a challenge to find a good one. For the first time in the annals of modern cuisine, the most influential chefs and the most talked-about restaurants in the world are not French. Within France, large segments of the wine industry are in crisis, cherished artisanal cheeses are threatened with extinction, and bistros and brasseries are disappearing at an alarming rate. But business is brisk at some establishments: Astonishingly, France has become the second most-profitable market in the world for McDonald's. While in some ways tragic, Steinberger nonetheless maintains a certain Gallic joie-de-vivre.

Thrumpton Hall by Miranda Seymour (HarperPerennial, $14.99). "Dear Thrumpton, how I miss you tonight." When twenty-one-year-old George Seymour wrote these words in 1944, the object of his affection was not a young woman but the beautiful country house in Nottinghamshire that he desired above all else. Miranda Seymour would later be raised at Thrumpton Hall -- her upbringing far from idyllic, as life revolved around her father's odd capriciousness. The house took priority over everything, even his family -- until the day when George Seymour, in his golden years, began dressing in black leather and riding powerful motorbikes around the countryside in the company of surprising friends.