CRP's Blog

For the last Staff Reads post of 2015 we asked everyone in the office to recall their favorite books either given or received during the holidays. The responses ranged from sentimental to hilarious. #CRPread

Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris has long been a favorite book to give around the holidays. It’s a small trim size, so it makes a great stocking stuffer, white elephant gift, or hostess present for holiday parties. I reread it nearly every year and it never gets old (NPR loves to replay Sedaris’s reading of his story Santaland Diaries, too). –Caitlin Eck, publicity manager

I come from a family of book readers, and we never fail to trade a few titles on Christmas Day. And, because my dad is also an avid sports fan who once wanted to be a sports journalist, we’ve gotten him the latest annual edition of Best American Sports Writing every year since at least 1998 or so. Sometimes he’ll hand an edition off to me if there’s a particularly good story worth reading. If you can find a copy of the article “Lucky Jim,” by Elizabeth Gilbert (pre-Eat, Pray, Love), originally printed in GQ around 2003, I definitely recommend you give it a read. –Geoff George, publicist

I was maybe ten years old when my aunt gave me a copy of Jane Eyre for Christmas. Though I thought it a beautiful little object—smallish trim size, lovely creamy paper, tissuey pages—I didn’t have a clue what it was. I began reading and was quickly bored; was this another depressing nineteenth-century orphan book? It sat on my shelf unfinished for a few more years, until one day my mom dusted it off and started reading aloud from a random page. She happened to choose the part when Rochester asks, “You don’t turn sick at the sight of blood?” And just like that, I knew I’d been wrong to give up on Jane so easily. I devoured the book and have since reread it many times, loving it even more and for different reasons as I get older. Thanks, Aunt Judy! —Ellen Hornor, project editor

For a number of years Jonathan Kellerman had new Alex Delaware novels that were published in November, and so it was a tradition that every Christmas there would be at least one hardcover waiting for me under the tree. I’d usually spend at least one day hunkered down and catching up with Alex, Robin, Milo, Rick, and Spike (the French bulldog. RIP little man.) and whatever mystery Milo and Alex found themselves involved in. –Mary Kravenas, marketing manager

I went to HomeGoods looking for a Christmas present for my brother and found what looked like a blank journal with faded maps on the cover. It was tied together with a fancy-looking rope, but I managed to open it a tiny bit to confirm that it was filled with empty pages. Turns out, I was looking at abnormally large margins. When my brother opened up his present on Christmas day he received Barack Obama’s Dreams from My Father written in Chinese. –Emily Lewis, editorial and marketing assistant

For Christmas of fifth grade, I received FIVE Judy Blume books from my aunt and uncle. The next few days were spent curled up on the couch in the living room or on my bed, reading each of those books for what would be the first of many times. My favorite, to this day, is Starring Sally J. Freedman as Herself with Just As Long As We’re Together running a close second. Fast-forward to high school: I let a girl I babysat borrow Just As Long As We’re Together and I never got it back. Fast-forward to freshman year of college: My new friends and I were discussing Judy Blume books (as you do) and the covers we remembered from childhood. I shared my tragic tale of losing my version of Just as Long as We’re Together with the old cover, and my friends special ordered (this was before we used the Internet for everything) the out-of-print edition of the book for me for Christmas. What a thoughtful surprise! –Meaghan Miller, senior publicist and social media coordinator

 —Compiled by Emily Lewis

See what our authors chose as their favorites here.