Today Show Features Indie Bookseller Picks

Last Friday, NBC's Today Show included two segments featuring indie bookseller picks for great holiday gifts. Introducing one of the December 12 segments of Today's Friday Whip, Matt Lauer told viewers that if they didn't know where to start looking, "we've got some great suggestions from independent booksellers from across the country."

Booksellers presenting their favorites in both segments were Roxanne Coady of R.J. Julia Booksellers in Madison, Connecticut; Marva Allen of Hue-Man Bookstore in New York City; Vivien Jennings of Rainy Day Books in Fairway, Kansas; and Kristine Abramowitz of Storyopolis in Los Angeles, California.

Coady's on-air selections in the fiction and nonfiction categories were:

• Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri (Knopf)
• The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry (Viking Adult)
• Lincoln: The Biography of a Writer by Fred Kaplan (HarperCollins)
• The Hemingses of Monticello by Annette Gordon-Reed (Norton)

In the category of coffee-table books, Coady recommended:

• The New York Times: The Complete Front Pages 1851 - 2008 (Black Dog & Leventhal)
• National Geographic Society Exploration Experience: The Heroic Exploits of the World's Greatest Explorers by Beau Riffenburgh (National Geographic)
• At Work by Annie Leibovitz (Random House)
• The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest Book by Robert Mankoff (Andrews McMeel)

Allen's on-air picks for the coffee table were:

• 21 Nights by Prince (Atria Books)
• Life: The American Journey of Barack Obama by the Life editors (Little, Brown)
• The Complete Quincy Jones: My Journey & Passions by Quincy Jones (Insight Editions)
• Definition: The Art and Design of Hip-Hop by Cey Adams (HarperCollins)

In the cookbook/food category, Allen recommended:

• Yolele! by Pierre Thiam (Lake Isle Press)
• The Soul of New Cuisine by Marcus Samuelsson (Wiley)
• Chef Jeff Cooks by Jeff Henderson (Scribner)
• Dining In by Gerry Garvin (Meredith Books)

Jennings' on-air cookbook choices were:

• Chanterelle by David Waltuck (Taunton)
• A Year in Chocolate by Jacques Torres (Stewart, Tabori & Chang)
• BakeWise by Shirley Corriher (Scribner)
• The Fireside Cookbook 60th Anniversary Edition by James Beard (S&S)

In the fiction/nonfiction categories, Jennings recommended:

• Sing Them Home by Stephanie Kallos (Atlantic Monthly)
• The Little Book by Selden Edwards (Dutton)
• Wesley the Owl by Stacey O'Brien (Free Press)
• Faberge's Eggs: The Extraordinary Story of the Masterpieces That Outlived an Empire by Tony Faber (Random House)

Abramowitz's on-air choices for kids were:

• Tickets to Ride: An Alphabetic Amusement by Mark Rogalski (Running Press Kids)
• Butterflies in My Stomach and Other School Hazards by Serge Bloch (Sterling)
• The Runaway Dolls by Ann M. Martin, Laura Godwin and Brian Selznick (Hyperion Books for Kids)
• The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, illustrated by Dave McKean (HarperCollins)
• Too Many Toys by David Shannon (Blue Sky Press)
• Kitty Cat, Kitty Cat, Are You Waking Up? by Bill Martin Jr. and Michael Sampson (Marshall Cavendish)
• The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart (Little, Brown)
• Theodosia and the Staff of Osiris by R.L. LaFevers (Houghton Mifflin)

Additional picks by each bookseller are featured along with the segment videos, on the Today Show website.