The I Believe in Story 2013 Holiday Gift Guide

Still looking for the perfect holiday gifts? Here's my selection of the year's books and exactly who on your list will want to read them. (You can click on an asterisk to read my review of a book.)

For the reader who loves pop culture.

• S. by J.J. Abrams: The chronicle of two readers finding each other in the margins of a book and enmeshing themselves in a deadly struggle between forces they don''t understand.

• The Geek's Guide to Dating by Eric Smith: This hilarious primer leads geeks of all ages through the perils and pitfalls of meeting women, going on dates, getting serious, breaking up, and establishing a successful lifelong relationship. *

For the reader with an active imagination.

• Doll Bones by Holly Black: A doll that may be haunted leads three friends on a thrilling adventure in this delightfully creepy novel. *

• The School for Good and Evil by Soman Chainani: An epic journey into a dazzling new world, where the only way out of a fairy tale... is to live through one. *

For the reader who likes something different.

• Night Film by Marisha Pessl: As journalist Scott McGrath pieces together the mystery of Ashley Cordova's death, he is drawn deeper and deeper into the dark underbelly of New York City and the twisted world of Stanislas Cordova, and he begins to wonder - is he the next victim? *

• The Twelve-Fingered Boy by John Hornor Jacobs: Jack's a quiet kid. Small. Cries himself to sleep too. He's no standard-issue titty-baby, though. There's his hands - more specifically his fingers, all twelve of 'em. And when he gets angry, something weird happens. *

For the reader who thrives on heartbreaking stories.

• Forever, Interrupted by Taylor Jenkins Reid: Ben is out riding his bike when he is hit by a truck and killed on impact. Elsie hears the sirens outside her apartment, but by the time she gets downstairs, he has already been whisked off to the emergency room. At the hospital, she must face Susan, the mother-in-law she has never met -and who doesn't even know Elsie exists. *

• If You Find Me by Emily Murdoch: A broken-down camper hidden deep in a national forest is the only home fifteen year-old Carey can remember. *

For the reader who loves animals.

• A Beautiful Truth by Colin Mcadam: A novel about the simple truths that transcend species, about the meaning of family, the lure of belonging, and the capacity for survival. *

For the reader who adores beautiful prose.

• The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker: A chance meeting between mythical beings takes readers on a dazzling journey through cultures in turn-of-the-century New York. *

• Bone & Bread by Saleema Nawaz: Beena and Sadhana are sisters who share a bond that could only have been shaped by the most unusual of childhoods -- and by shared tragedy. *

For the reader who loves fashion.

• Studio Saint-Ex by Ania Szado: In the glittering world of Manhattan's French expats and 1942 Quebec, a twenty-two-year-old fashion designer on the cusp of launching her career is swept away by the charms of French writer and war pilot Antoine de Saint-Exupéry... and enmeshed in the schemes of his beautiful, estranged Salvadoran wife, who is determined to win back her husband-at all costs and seductions. *

For the reader who loves art.

• Jane, The Fox, and Me by Fanny Britt: This emotionally honest and visually stunning graphic novel reveals the casual brutality of which children are capable, but also assures readers that redemption can be found through connecting with another, whether the other is a friend, a fictional character or even, amazingly, a fox.

• The Encyclopedia of Early Earth by Isabel Greenberg: Before our history began, another now forgotten civilization thrived. The people who roamed Early Earth were much like us: curious, emotional, funny, ambitious, and vulnerable. 

For the reader who spends too much time online.

• Stats Canada: Satire On A National Scale: Canadians everywhere have been deeply confused by the irresponsible and wildly inaccurate data tweeted by Stats Canada since July 2012. While outrageously false, these hilarious "facts" unearth deep truths about Canadians and their culture.

• What Does the Fox Say? by YLVIS: Based on the hugely popular YouTube video with more than 200 million views, this picture book is packed full of foxy fun.

Curious to know what's on my personal holiday wish list? Ella and the Balloons in the Sky by Danny Appleby, Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 9/Volume 4, Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh, and The Wes Anderson Collection by Matt Zoller Seitz. What books are you hoping to find under the tree this month? Let me know in the comments!