BY KATHI KAMEN GOLDMARK AND SAM BARRY

The Author Enablers are here to answer your questions about writing and publishing. Together, Kathi and Sam have more than 25 years of experience in book publishing. Kathi is an author, radio producer and former publicist; Sam is a marketing manager at a major publishing company and a freelance editor. They are also proud members of the Rock Bottom Remainders, the all-author rock band founded by Kathi in 1992.

A shopping list of author favorites

Dear Readers,

Ready or not, the holidays are fast approaching. To help with your gift selections, we asked some of our favorite authors what they would buy for the readers in their lives. We suggest you take this list along on your next visit to your local bookstore—and cue "White Christmas"!

Happy Holidays,
The Author Enablers

Jacquelyn Mitchard (Still Summer): I found The Birth House by Ami McKay on a bench in an airport. What a lucky day for me. I nearly missed my plane as I fell head first into this unsparing, emotionally rich but not a bit sentimental story of a young girl who befriends an elderly midwife who claims to have chosen Dora at birth to be the next practitioner of her obsolete art. It was enthralling, transcending any genre, and a darned good story, too.

Daniel Handler, aka Lemony Snicket (The Latke Who Couldn't Stop Screaming: A Christmas Story, illustrated by Lisa Brown): Lately I've been giving people I love a book I love by Joshua Beckman entitled Your Time Has Come. It's a striking, tiny book full of striking, tiny poems, perfect for all the striking people in your life, whether or not they are tiny and whether or not they like poetry.

John Lescroart (The Suspect): Turpentine by Spring Warren. Spring is tremendously talented and this book has utterly captivated everyone who's read it. A great Christmas present—enjoy, and ho ho ho!

Luis Alberto Urrea (The Hummingbird's Daughter): Jack Kerouac's original scroll version of On the Road, amazing for fans and Road maniacs, with all the bad language, real names, and naughty bits restored—and the new Library of America edition of Jack's Road books (Jack Kerouac: Road Novels 1957-60).

Lalita Tademy (Red River): If you've ever wondered how dramatically altered a life could be by making a single momentary choice, read The Post-Birthday World by Lionel Shriver. With fierce insight and complex, nuanced characters, Shriver tells Irina's story (hinging on whether or not she kisses a man to whom she is attracted) in alternating chapters of reality unfolding in different directions.

Sara Davidson (Leap!): Because most of us are obsessed and confused about what we eat, I'd go with Gary Taubes' Good Calories, Bad Calories, which exposes the shockingly shoddy science of nutrition. For spiritual inspiration, I'd give Your Soul's Compass, by Joan Borysenko and Gordon Dveirin.

David Leavitt (The Indian Clerk): Jane Gardam's Old Filth tells the story of a "Raj Orphan"—born in Malaysia to a British Colonial bureaucrat at the turn of the 20th century and then shipped back to England to be educated—and his uneasy adjustment to a world radically different from any he has known. The hero becomes a famous barrister in Hong Kong known affectionately as "Filth" (Failed in London, Try Hong Kong). An engaging, funny, and moving novel.

Crystal Zevon (I'll Sleep When I'm Dead: The Dirty Life and Times of Warren Zevon): My all-time favorite is Stories of God by Rainer Maria Rilke, but this year I'm recommending the beautifully written and thought-provoking novel Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts.

Ben Fong-Torres (The Doors): Elvis at 21: New York to Memphis, by Alfred Wertheimer. Elvis fans, get ready to get all shook up. Wertheimer got a job shooting publicity photos for various, mostly boring recording artists in the '50s. Then along came Elvis, and along with him went Alfred—on the road, into dressing rooms, shooting TV rehearsals, in the recording studio, on stage, and, most deliciously, off stage, canoodling with female fans at coffee shops or in a corridor. A stunning volume.

Janis Cooke Newman (Mary): Everybody with a kitchen should own a copy of Joy of Cooking by Irma S. Rombauer and Marion Rombauer Becker. The 1975 edition is the best, acknowledging the invention of the microwave and including advice on how to prepare opossum.

Leonard Maltin (Leonard Maltin's 2008 Movie Guide): Memories of a Munchkin, by and about Meinhardt Raabe, the Coroner of Munchkinland in The Wizard of Oz. Daniel Kinske has surrounded Raabe's amazing personal memorabilia with a wealth of other Oz-related material, and commissioned a number of great artists (including the late Al Hirschfeld) to provide interpretations of Raabe's famous scene in the film.

April Sinclair (Coffee Will Make You Black): My favorite book to give is Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God, a work that has inspired a lot of writers—including me!

The Author Enablers will resume their regular advice column next month, so send your questions about writing and publishing to AuthorEnabler@aol.com.