Great holiday book and CD gift ideas

BOOKS

Looking for something to stuff the stocking of your nearest and dearest bookworm? There is something for every taste and interest on this year's list of gift books. From Vietnam drama to punk-rock sociology and Prague expatriate literature, these books will keep you and your loved ones reading through the long dark days of winter.

 - Compiled by Stephan Delbos

Lipstick Traces

Lipstick Traces

Matterhorn

Believe in People

Freedom

The Return of Král Majáles: Prague's International Literary Renaissance 1990-2010

Hit the Road

Ringo George Paul John

Paranoia.com

Edel

K pláči i pobreku

By Greil Marcus

The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press

482 pages

Greil Marcus is the modern master of music criticism, and Lipstick Traces is his breakthrough work. Originally published in 1989, this "Secret History of the Twentieth Century" was republished last year to mark the 20th anniversary of the original publication. Ostensibly a history of the punk-rock scene in the United States, France and the United Kingdom in the late 1970s, the book is widely ranging cultural commentary, including song lyrics, comic strips and philosophical quotations. Marcus has gone on to become a cultural icon, writing about everything from film to politics, Bob Dylan to Van Morrison. Lipstick Traces is where he began to set himself apart, and the book has only become more surprisingly insightful with age.

Matterhorn

By Karl Marlantes

Atlantic Monthly Press

600 pages

Marlantes, a highly decorated Marine and a veteran of the Vietnam War, began writing Matterhorn in the 1970s, a task that took 35 years and seems to have been worth the Herculean effort. The novel is a finely crafted narration of Marine platoon leader Waino Mellas' stint in Vietnam. Marlantes does an admirable job weaving several conflicting narratives together, from the daily life of the soldiers in the jungle, the simmering racial tension among the platoons - the Vietnam War unfolded, after all, at the high point of the Black Panthers' influence in the United States - as well as the careerist machinations of the commanders who send soldiers to death in the hopes of tactical glory. At once lyrical and graphic, sentimental and foreboding, Matterhorn is an instant classic, and may be the final fictional word on Vietnam, which has allured dozens of novelists in the decade of its duration and in the decades since.

Believe in People

By Karel Čapek

Translated by Šárka Tobrmanová-Kühnová

Faber and Faber

358 pages

Believe in People is a collection of articles Karel Čapek published in Prague newspapers and magazines throughout the 1920s and '30s. This collection - with insightful introductions by John Carey and translator Šárka Tobrmanová-Kühnová - centers Čapek's life and work in history and brings his daily occupation as a journalist into focus. The book is divided into six conceptual chapters: Culture, Words, England, Noticing People and Things, Letters to Olga (Čapek's wife) and Common Things. Each of these contains as many as 70 individual articles, each titled, dated and organized chronologically. What emerges is a portrait of Čapek as a man of letters who worked at his craft day in and day out. Believe in People collects some of Čapek's finest and most overlooked works.

Freedom

By Jonathan Franzen

Farar Straus and Giroux

562 pages

The most hyped American novel released in 2010, Freedom had everyone from President Barack Obama to Oprah Winfrey singing Franzen's praises. Reviews for the book, which has been widely touted as the great American novel for the 21st century, have been almost unanimously ecstatic, comparing Franzen's scope to masters such as Tolstoy and Dickens. The novel covers several years in the life of the Berglund family and their neighbors, as Franzen attempts to trace the travails of American culture through their example. Interestingly, the book was left off the short list for the National Book Award, which Franzen won with his previous novel, The Corrections. Franzen himself has been rather overexposed as of late, making the obligatory rounds of television and newspaper interviews, but the best way to see if the hype is deserved is to read the novel yourself.

The Return of Král Majáles: Prague's International Literary Renaissance 1990-2010

Edited by Louis Armand

Litteraria Pragensia

938 pages

Certainly the most important book released in Prague's English-language community this past year, The Return of Král Majáles: Prague's International Literary Renaissance 1990-2010 collects a vast and varied body of work from writers who have lived in Prague over the past 20 years. The Return of Král Majáles is a rare example of a book with both literary and historical impact. As such, it will remain a testament to Prague letters, and a vital collection of poetry and prose from an amazingly diverse community of writers. Thanks to Armand's editorial persistence in collecting and cataloguing a vast number of texts and documents, the anthology is not only a record of what became of the past century's experiment, it is a catalyst for experiments to come.

MUSIC

If you are digging deep to find the perfect gift for that audiophile in your life, look no further than some of the most intriguing album releases of the year. From bluegrass or rock to more experimental sounds, these five discs are bound to tease the auditory inclinations of even the most eclectic of connoisseurs.

- Compiled by Darrell Jónsson

Hit the Road

By Monogram

On Monogram

Monogram.cz

Country/Folk

Something certainly rubbed off on the Czech bluegrass band Monogram when they played in Nashville, Tennessee, in 2004. The band had already released three albums at that point and had proved their instrumental prowess at European festivals from Spain to Ireland, but their latest album, Hit the Road, features a quantum leap in the band's use of vocals and harmonies that is both progressive and resonant of the United States' country-music beginnings. This acoustic quartet plows a 21st century "new grass" furrow first seeded by Gene Clark and Doug Dillard in the 1960s and cultivated today by the likes of Ricky Skaggs. The vocals on Hit the Road remind us how the history of folk and sacred music in the United States was shaped at its formative core by the harmonies of Central European Lutherans and Moravian Brethren immigrants. Open-minded bluegrass and country-music lovers will find Monogram's Hit the Road a sparkling full circle of Americans experiencing Central European music and vice versa.

Ringo George Paul John

By B4

On Polí5

Polipet.cz

Rock

Near Karlovo náměstí sits the humble yet welcoming independent bookstore and cultural center known as Polí5, or "At the Five Fields." Since the shop opened its doors in 2006, its owners have been publishing limited editions of video art, audio art and music projects in CD and DVD formats. The title of this outstanding release in Polí5's 2010 CD catalog refers to the former masters of Mersey beat. Meeting such expectations in an obtuse manner, the first track borrows something from John Lennon's experimental "Revolution Number 9" while morphing its fluxus cut-up sound with a dose of 1990s chill-room techno. On the second track, B4 launches into a funky nod to Isaac Hayes but manages to surrealistically fast-forward past the 1960s sound barrier with passages reminiscent of Brian Eno and Cluster. Those who enjoy audio visions of Superfly cruising in his custom Cadillac through the streets of Prague interspersed with moments of lovely Krautrock will find this year's release by B4 transporting.

Paranoia.com

By Phil Shöenfelt and Southern Cross

On Easy Action

Easyaction.co.uk

Rock

Phil Shöenfelt's four decades of work with Manchester, New York City, London, Berlin and Melbourne artists fits the personnel of his Prague-based band Southern Cross like a glove. Bassists Pavel Krtous, drummer Jarda Kvasnička and Pavel Cingl's violin and mandolin make up Shöenfelt's heavyweight rhythm section. Add to this a knack for storytelling that has made Shöenfelt an award-winning novelist, and magic is afoot. Paranoia.com opens with tracks of fervent, lyrical rock 'n' roll full of WikiLeaks media-age protest. This is followed by an evocation of Prague alleyways on Shöenfelt's wintry cobblestone reflection "Footsteps of a Dream." But the heart of Paranoia.com is condensed in the final two tracks of the album, which include the streetwise requiem "Forgiven," dedicated to the late Bruno Adams, the Australian-born longtime Berlin expat guitarist/songwriter. Closing with the gothic hope of "Shrine," Paranoia.com places Shöenfelt on the same path as the artists with whom he has shared the bill over the years, including Nick Cave, Lydia Lunch, Rowland S. Howard and Nikki Sudden. As one enthusiastic concertgoer at Southern Cross' album launch said, "This is rock and roll."

Edel

By Václavek, Zimmermann, Dvořáček and Macht

On Indies Scope

Indies.eu

Rock

Those who do not "get" Czech rock music after listening to the names frequently brandished by the radio might want to listen to the work of Brno-based artists like Pavel Fajt and Vladimír Václavek. These two musicians not only founded the innovative 1980s rock band Dunaj, but also collaborated with singer Iva Bittová on Bílé Inferno, arguably her best work to date. With more than eight albums to his credit, Václavek has returned this year with the concept album Edel. From the Viking ship encased in ice on the album cover to the electric guitars, gentle percussion and four-part chants sung in Czech and German, Edel points to a distant time when wooden ships rode rivers shared by Slavonic and Teutonic tribes. Rather than attempting a storyline, Edel's eight tracks are bathed in musical and lyrical impressionism. Helping Václavek in this effort are German composer and guitarist Frieder Zimmermann and drummers and vocalists Miloš Dvořáček and Matthias Macht. Although Zimmermann is a student of Robert Fripp, the music on Edel owes less to strident progressive rock minimalism than it does to playful jazz.

K pláči i pobreku

By Vobezdud

On Black Point

Blackpointmusic.cz

Rock

Using accordions, violin, trumpets and an upbeat rhythm section, Vobezdud has created an optimistic and dramatic sound as instantly Czech as it is instantly fun. This amalgamation of artists and actresses has been performing in costume in Czech pubs and jamming in the tunnel between Žižkov and Karlín since 2003. Despite the band's rather in-your-face attitude, their music consistently communicates the joy of life with universal revelry. Those who can stop dancing long enough while listening to Vobezdud will notice the violin and accordion parts honing in on the heart of Europe with energetic touches of trans-Carpathian folk music. Trumpet parts that oscillate between references to spaghetti western soundtracks and royal processional fanfares gone mad further put focus on the girlish voices singing unabashedly. The CD package comes complete with a do-it-yourself multiple-choice psychological test. Regardless of the resulting diagnosis, most listeners will agree bumping into Vobezdud is a delightful experience, whether on a CD player, in a beer-soaked Prague pub or in that long dark tunnel connecting Žižkov and Karlín.