Librarian Extraordinaire Nancy Pearl Weighs In on 2013 and the Best Gifts for the Season

With so many end-of-years lists coming out in tandem with the season of gift giving, it seems appropriate that beloved librarian Nancy Pearl would offer up some of her own favorites from 2013 and suggestions for the perfect literary gift for one and all. 

For any of your mystery-lover friends and family, Nancy suggests James Rollins’ Innocent Blood and its prequel Blood Gospel as great mystery books to give this season.  Maybe next year you can give his forthcoming The Kill Switch and The Sixth Extinction and make it a James Rollins holiday tradition? 

Also making Nancy’s perfect gift list is, of course, the Divergent Trilogy by Veronica Roth, for fans of YA adventure and fantasy books.  Now that the final book in the series, Allegiant, has finally come out, it is the perfect time to give—and the perfect excuse to subsequently borrow—the books before the movie adaptation of Divergent, the first in the trilogy, releases in March. 

Nancy also names David Wayne’s Back to Wando Passo, a sweeping tale of love, betrayal, race, revenge, and redemption carried across generations, as a great fiction book to give this season. 

You can check out the full list of Nancy’s picks and suggestions here.  I don’t know about y’all, but if I were going to choose an end-of-year list to pick my holiday gifts from, who better to listen to than someone who has spent years and years selecting the perfect books for people to read?

-Amanda