Authors tell what’s on their gift lists

The winter holidays are full of celebrations, parties, get-togethers, and feasts with our friends and families. But it’s also a time to curl up in front of a fire with your favorite book or read a holiday favorite to your children all snuggled up in their beds. For so many reasons, this season makes us think of books: books we’d like to give to those on our gift lists, books we’d like to read, and, of course, books we fondly remember this time of year. “Today” asked authors who recently have been on the show to share their favorite holiday books. We’ll be adding authors’ favorite books throughout the holiday season, so keep checking in.

Ken Jennings, author of “Brainiac: Adventures in the Curious, Competitive, Compulsive World of Trivia Buffs.” Villard, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group.
Book I’d like to give: “Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman.” Haruki Murakami is possibly the best novelist in the world right now, but his short stories — odd, elliptical, unsettling — are even better.
Book I’d like to receive: “The Complete Cartoons of The New Yorker.” The accompanying CD-ROM has almost 70,000 cartoons on it! (In fairly low resolution, sadly, but still.)
Book I’m reading this holiday season: Halfway through two: “Rough Stone Rolling,” Richard L. Bushman’s wonderfully even-handed Joseph Smith biography, and “The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana,” Umberto Eco’s novel about a man with amnesia reconstructing his life via the pulp lit of his childhood.
Book that brings back fond memories of this season: I guess my favorite Christmas story is “The Dead” by James Joyce, so I gotta go “The Dubliners” here.
Watch Ken Jennings’ interview on “Today” and read an excerpt.

Sharon Osbourne, author of “Sharon Osbourne Extreme” Springboard Press, an imprint of Warner Books.
Book I’d like to give: Anything by Noel Coward.
Book I’d like to receive: The new Danielle Steel book: “H.R.H.”
Book I’d like to read this holiday season: I would love to re-read all of Jane Austen’s books, like “Pride and Prejudice” and “Sense and Sensibility.”
Book that brings back fond memories of this season: Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.”
Watch Sharon Osbourne’s interview on “Today” and read on excerpt.

Kevin Clash (voice of Elmo), author of “My Life as a Furry Red Monster” Broadway Books
Book I’d like to receive: “The Copper Sun” by Sharon Draper. I think Sharon is a brilliant writer and what I have heard about the book is just riveting.
Book I’d like to give: Any cookbook is a great gift to give. My two favorites at the moment are, “Turn Up the Heat with G. Garvin” and Emeril’s new kids cookbook, “There’s a Chef in My World.” I think cooking is a wonderful and fun thing to do with your family and kids. It is also very therapeutic.
Book I’d like to read this holiday season: “Sesame Street Dad: Evolution of an Actor” by Roscoe Orman. Roscoe is a very good friend of mine but also, during the Sesame Street, we never really know the trials and tribulations our colleagues go through during their career and life. He is also a brilliant actor and I would love to learn some antidotes that I know he shares in the book.
Book that brings back fond memories of this season: “The Night Before Christmas” by Clement Clarke Moore. My mom used to read us this book and it was always a story that would get us into the spirit of Christmas.
Watch Kevin Clash’s   interview on “Today.”

Maurice Sendak, author of “Mommy” Scholastic
Book I’d like to read this holiday season: “The Aspern Papers” by Henry James. James at his best; an utterly breathtaking novel. Deals with personal greed, and fraudulent love with a subtlety only James could master.”
Watch Maurice Sendak’s   interview on “Today.”

Joanna Schlip, author of “Glamour Gurlz,” Random House
Book I’d like to give: “The Four Agreements” was given to me by a friend just before I boarded a plane from LA to San Francisco. I read it from cover to cover before we landed. The sound and simple elegance of this book are sources of great aspiration and enlightenment. It’s just a little reminder for me that the most important agreements are the ones we make with ourselves. And to be reminded of that is a gift in and of itself.
Book I’d like to receive: “The Corrections” by Jonathan Franzen. I have heard so much about this book. How it looks at a whole culture — our culture stretching from Midwest in the mid-century to Wall Street of today — in a funny and powerful way. It sounds right up my alley.
Book I’d like to read this holiday season: “A Year in Provence” by Peter Mayle. This book is a light-hearted autobiography as well as a travel guide and cultural study of the south of France. I am going to re-read this book and recount my years of living aboard in a humorous and affectionate way that will motivate me to plan my August 2007 summer vacation!
Book that brings back fond memories: “Eloise at the Plaza” by Kay Thompson. This story is hilarious. Eloise is a fun-loving whimsical role model with a fantastic sense of adventure. I bought this book to read with my nieces and I loved it just as much as they did! It has now become our tradition to read it together during the holidays.
Watch Joanna Schlip’s   interview on “Today.”

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