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Mayberry memories, murder maps and more: A gift guide for the 2021 holiday season

If you still have holiday shopping to do, it has long been our contention that you can’t go wrong with books.

You can find a book suited for almost any personality or interest, you can buy them at local bookstores (if they don’t have them in stock they can get them) or you order online if you prefer.

They’re also compact and easy to wrap, which is another huge plus.

We’ve picked a few fiction books by North Carolina authors (for adults and younger readers), a memoir with a local angle, a couple of cookbooks (one is very local and one is not) and a fascinating (and grisly) non-fiction book with no local angles but one which true crime lovers on your will go crazy for.

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Here’s our list. We start with non-fiction.

‘The Boys: A Memoir of Hollywood and Family’

by Ron Howard and Clint Howard. William Morrow, $28.99

This engaging memoir co-written by brothers Ron and Clint Howard is built around their experiences growing up on television and movie sets, but the chapters about their time spent on “The Andy Griffith Show” will be of special interest to local readers.

Ron Howard played Opie Taylor, son of Sheriff Andy Taylor, in the Mayberry, North Carolina-set sitcom starring Andy Griffith. Griffith based Mayberry on his hometown of Mount Airy, NC.

Though Ron was one of the main stars of “The Andy Griffith Show,” Clint was usually also on set (and even had some guest spots), along with father, Rance. Their memories of growing up on that set in the 1960s — and their relationships with stars Griffith, Don Knotts (who played Deputy Barney Fife) and others — is reason enough to buy the book, but there’s so much more to their stories.

The chapters are alternately written by Ron and Clint with fearless honesty. We get the good experiences as well as the bad. It covers the “Happy Days” (Ron) and “Gentle Ben” (Clint) times on through to Ron’s success as a film director and Clint’s struggle with alcohol and drug addiction.

And in the end, “The Boys” is more a story about family and resiliency than it is about Hollywood. (But the Hollywood stories are pretty interesting, too.)

‘Murder Maps USA: Crime Scenes Revisited 1865-1939’

by Adam Selzer, Thames & Hudson, $35

First of all, this book is gorgeous. It has a beautifully designed cover and blood-red edges that immediately catch the eye, but it’s the opening of the book that will steal the attention of any true crime or criminal history fan.

Author Adam Selzer uses period maps, charts and crime scene photos to document some of the most infamous crimes — or, in the case of many a mobster, the rubbing out of some of the most infamous criminals — in our country’s history.

The crimes included here span the country from the end of the Civil War to the beginning of World War II and are divided into four sections: the Northeast, the Midwest, the South and the West (none of the crimes included in the section on the South occurred in North Carolina). The collection covers everything from assassins to crime gangs to serial killers, during a period of American history that saw the start of the FBI laboratory and the first murderer convicted using fingerprinting.

There’s even a detailed “criminology matrix” at the end of the book, classifying the environment, the weapon, the typology, the policing and more, of each crime.

One warning about the content, though. The crime scene photos (and there are lot of them) are graphic, and even in black & white, pretty disturbing. Know your audience when selecting this as a gift.

‘It’s Always Freezer Season: How to Freeze Like a Chef With 100 Make-Ahead Recipes’

by Ashley Christensen and Kaitlyn Goelen, Penguin Random House, $30

The second cookbook from award-winning Raleigh chef Ashley Christensen and writer Kaitlyn Goalen (the first is “Poole’s: Recipes and Stories from a Modern Diner”), takes the best parts of the “make-ahead meals” and “kitchen DIY” trends and delivers an extremely practical guide to managing your freezer.

From the book: “The freezer, more than any other appliance in the kitchen, will help you cook delicious, flavorful meals in less time…it can help you avoid food waste and save money, preserve seasonal ingredients to enjoy throughout the year, and entertain on the fly or provide a meal for a friend or family member who needs the assistance.”

If there’s a foodie on your list who puts a premium on having fresh or homemade items on hand at all times, this is the gift.

‘The New Cooking School Cookbook: Fundamentals’

America’s Test Kitchen, $45

There’s no local angle here, I’m just a sucker for an America’s Test Kitchen cookbook — and for cookbooks that teach the best ways to cook classic dishes that we should all know how to handle.

“The New Cooking School Cookbook” delivers with photos, detailed instructions and explanations behind why you use this method or that ingredient, teaching techniques and recipes but also going into the histories of certain dishes.

You get more than 400 recipes and 200 cooking skills here, everything from making the perfect poached egg to homemade pasta to red velvet cupcakes.

Free advice: whoever you give this book to, you should visit often.

‘Hell of a Book’

by Jason Mott, Dutton, $27

When selecting a novel for a gift, it’s hard to beat the winner of the National Book Award for fiction.

“Hell of a Book” follows a Black author as he travels across the country doing publicity for his new bestselling novel. Along the way, he encounters a possibly imaginary child, called The Kid, and we learn about a young Black boy named Soot, living in a rural town in the recent past.

The National Book Award judges call the book “a masterful novel. In a structurally and conceptually daring examination of art, fame, family and being Black in America, Mott somehow manages the impossible trick of being playful, insightful and deeply moving, all at the same time. A highly original, inspired work that breaks new ground.”

Mott is a North Carolina native and former teacher at UNC-Wilmington. Many readers may be familiar with his popular first novel, “The Returned,” which was the basis for the ABC television series “Resurrection” in 2014.

‘When Ghosts Come Home’

by Wiley Cash, William Morrow, $28.99

The latest novel from this New York Times bestselling author and North Carolina native is a suspenseful murder mystery set on the North Carolina coast.

As Sheriff Winston Barnes investigates the death of a man found near an empty crashed airplane, racial tensions explode, a community is torn apart, and Barnes’ life may never be the same.

The least said about the plot the better, but it’s a page-turner.

Other novels by Wiley Cash, if you’re thinking of a gift set: “A Land More Kind Than Home,” “The Last Ballad” and “This Dark Road to Mercy.”

‘Black Boy Joy’

Edited by Kwame Mbalia, Delacorte Press, $16.99

Raleigh author Kwame Mbalia’s new young adult book “Black Boy Joy: 17 stories Celebrating Black Boyhood” is the perfect gift to give in 2021.

The book is an anthology of prose, verse and comic stories by Black male and nonbinary writers aimed at showing tweens the range of what Black boyhood means. Mbalia edited the anthology and contributed a three-part story that anchors the book.

It has been named one of the best books of the year by The Washington Post, Amazon, The New York Public Library, Publishers Weekly and others.

Mbalia was already a New York Times bestselling YA author, thanks to his “Tristan Strong” graphic novel series, which you can also pick up if you’d like to gift the entire Kwame Mbalia Collection (which we highly endorse).

‘Year of the Reaper’

by Makiia Lucier, Harper Collins, $17.99

Another local YA author is getting tons of buzz with her latest book.

“Year of the Reaper” by Makiia Lucier, a Chapel Hill-based author of Young Adult fantasy novels, has gotten praise from The New York Times, Kirkus Reviews, The School Library Journal and more.

In the book, Lord Cassia returns home as an 18-year-old after disappearing for three years in the midst of a war. But his home has changed — now occupied by an enemy targeting those closest to the queen. Young Cas searches for the killers, aided by a young historian-in-training named Lea, and together they learn not only who is behind the attacks, but why they are happening.