The Joe Button Reading Guide for the 2011 Holidays

Now that we’re getting really close to the holiday part of the holiday season (HOORAY!!) we’ve been asking people how they’re going to be spending their precious free time and “catching up on a year’s worth of reading” seems to be quite a popular activity. I guess everyone is a bit too aware of how spending TOO much time with your family can often be counterintuitive and the better option might just be to eat your Christmas dinner, fall into a food coma, wake up, find a big comfy lounge chair and read a I just can’t put it down piece of literature. We love our books at Joe Button (you may have been able to pick that from the names in our Sartorial Collection) and we want to give you our 2 cents in the ultimate holiday reading list (in no particular order because we just can’t pick favorite books!).

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho - "There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure." It's probably been a while since you last read a fable and this is one you'll always remember. This is such a sweet little book and great to read if you want to start the new year fresh and let go of all those inhibitions and insecurities you might have of chasing your dream.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald - "And I hope she'll be a fool - that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool." That quote in itself is telling of how extraordinary and controversial his most finest work is. Let's just say there's a reason why they call the love between Daisy & Gatsby a love of sorts.

A Photographer's Life: 1990 - 2005 by Annie Liebovitz - She's known for her poignant portraits of John & Yoko, of Mandela and the Hollywood elite but in this book, she chronicles pictures from her personal life as well as all those famous faces she photographs. As Liebovitz writes in the introduction of the book, "I don't have two lives". This is perfect for when you've eaten too much and all the blood is in your stomach and you can't read a word but would like to look at amazing pictures!

On the Road by Jack Kerouac - "My first impression of Dean was of a young Gene Autry - trim, thin-hipped, blue-eyed, with a real Oklahoma accent - a sideburned hero of the snowy West." If you've ever wondered who Dean Moriarty is (one of our most popular shirts in the Sartorial Collection), this is it. He is the protagonist to this cult bible of a book that single-handedly brought the beat movement of the 50's and 60's to mainstream America.

Emergency Sex and Other Desperate Measures by Kenneth Cain, Heidi Postlewait & Andrew Thomson - Don't let the provocative title fool you into thinking this book is some R-rated chick-lit not worth your time. It is a brutal and honest recount of three UN peacekeepers who took themselves out of their comfortable western lives to be admist the horror and grief stricken war zones of this world in the early 1990's. Addictive to the bone.

Awkward Family Photos by Mike Bender & Doug Chernack - It started with the office emails and the looks of "WHAT IS THAT??" and then the website Awkward Family Photos and now here's the book of the most horrendous ones - featuring lots of really fugly Christmas sweaters that just didn't make the hip list this year. Great laugh!

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon - “In the immemorial style of young men under pressure, they decided to lie down for a while and waste time.” Read the book before the movie comes out. It's not just for comic lovers - trust us on this one.

                                                                                         HAPPY READING!!