Detroit Free Press: Gift Guide - These Books Will Delight and Inform Readers On Your List

Better than frankincense, gold or myrrh, books are the most personal, intimate and thoughtful holiday gifts. Books are timeless — they have a shelf life of forever. The writer Neil Gaiman commented that “books are great gifts because they have whole worlds in them.” A book has the power to magically begin an incredible journey and conversation between the reader and author. This year has been an excellent and exciting year for all kinds of books — big and small, fiction and nonfiction, stories of courage and redemption and books that will not only enlighten you but also make you laugh and cry. Here are some holiday releases and a selection of the best, most-loved books of the year that will make great presents for the readers in your life. Steve Forbert's Feature: “Big City Cat” by Steve Forbert (PFP, $16.95) Steve Forbert burst onto the music scene in 1978 with his debut album, “Alive on Arrival,” after traveling from Meridian, Mississippi, to New York City and busking on the streets and playing the small clubs of Greenwich Village. Now Forbert has written a compelling memoir covering his early days and relocation to New York City, in the tradition of Bob Dylan and so many others. Utilizing diary entries and scrapbook photos, Steve Forbert tells his own story of an ambitious attempt to find success in the cutthroat music industry, including battles with agents and record companies.