Still in Need of Presents?

I ate too many cookies today, Squiders, and now feel a bit sick. This is the dangers of baking for the holidays that they fail to warn you about. The only thing saving the peppermint bark is that I made it specifically for presents.

Speaking of which, are you still in need of present ideas for your loved ones? I recommend books. Already bought everyone something? Get them books anyway. Books are awesome and everyone needs more of them.

(My family has expressed dismay that all I want for Christmas is books. And scarves.)

(I don’t even wear scarves that often but I like to collect them, apparently.)

And I almost hate to do this, because I hate it when other people do it, but some of these books are really awesome and I think other people would like them if they got their hands on them. So here are some recommendations, and just take it with a grain of salt that I am indirectly or directly somehow connected with all of them.

First up is Once Upon a Spork. This is a fairy tale anthology, with a healthy mix of adaptations and new tales. There’s only one story in here that I don’t like. Admittedly I love fairy tales almost as much as mythology (and, indeed, would argue that they are sort of a type of mythology themselves), but if you know someone who also likes fairy tales, why not pick this up for them?

As of me writing this post, Amazon has it on sale for $10.45, and you get 13 stories from authors from such exotic locales as Sweden. And California.

Next I’d like to recommend Without Wings, which is a poetry chapbook about love gone wrong. I’m not a big poetry fan; I don’t understand how to do it and it mocks me, so we compromise with haiku and limericks about alpacas and landsquid.

That being said, I really enjoyed this book. The imagery is haunting. Anytime anybody mentions the remotest thing about poetry I bring it up. It is probably obnoxious, but I do it anyway.

There’s no excuse for not buying it, honestly. The paperback version is only $6.99, and the ebook version is a mere $.99.

In general, I rather like all the TDP anthologies. Winter’s Night is an interesting mix of fantasy, science fiction and myth. Seasons Eternal provides an interesting look at how different people imagine a world where seasons have ceased to exist. But The Best of Turtleduck Press, Vol I is a look back at all the short fiction put out through TDP’s three-year existence, and it includes a good range of what TDP offers.

Plus it’s only a dollar. And the paperback versions of the other anthologies are less than $5. Stock stuffers for anybody who likes a good mix of speculative fiction.

And, of course, you can’t have a holiday promotional post without mentioning your own stuff, so don’t forget Hidden Worlds (YA urban fantasy) and Shards (not-YA urban fantasy).

Anyway, Squiders, have any books to recommend?