Christmas Gift Guide {Gillian's List of Links}

My circle of talented friends is always expanding and continues to create beautiful books.  Here is my 2013 list just in time for your holiday shopping.

Jeanette Montgomery Barron is one of the coolest people I know.  She has always been cool. Her book Scene is a collection of her portraits of her friends in downtown New York city taken in the 1980's.  You know,  people like Andy Warhol and Jean Basquiet. That picture of Keith Haring you have probably seen 1,000 times. Jeannette took that. The gritty streets and artists spaces of Soho are now an open air shopping mall with sidewalks clogged with tourists. Flip through the gorgeous black and white images of Willem Defoe, Francesco Clemente and Robert Mapplethorpe and step back in time to a place that now only exists on these pages.

Like Julia Child before her, Ann Mah is the wife of a diplomat who was posted to Paris. When her husband was unexpectedly called to Bagdad, she had to make a new life for herself in her new home. Travel with her as she journeys through France exploring the very best things to eat. I loved her insight into the "wonderful, horrible" life of a diplomatic spouse, much of which was very familiar to me, and her vivid description of eating steak frites in Paris.

Pasta is the third in the series of books published as part of the Rome Sustainable Food Project (RSFP) at the American Academy in Rome. The book is filled with recipes for sauces to top both dry and fresh pasta and has detailed instructions for making all kinds of fresh pasta. Learn the techniques used in the famed RSFP kitchen explained so that you try them in your own kitchen.

For my readers in Rome, if you are a member of the Friends of the American Academy in Italy (you really should be) reserve a spot for lunch and while you are up there you shop for just about everyone on your list with products produced by the RSFP; limited edition iPhone covers, tea towels, the best almonds ever, jams, olive oil and more.

Looking for more?  Check out last years Christmas gift guide.