Here’s the best and easiest and happiest idea for a holiday literary party.  You can vary it in all kinds of ways, but what I do is invite all my girlfriends, students, daughters and stepdaughters, to a very casual lunch the first Saturday in December.  Everyone brings a book for a child in need, unwrapped and I have tables with holiday paper and ribbons and post-its (to write the appropriate age the book is for.)  We have some great discussions about why we chose the book we did, then we wrap them, and have lunch. And this is very important: the lunch is easy. I mean Stouffer’s lasagna from Smart & Final, French bread, a big salad, and cookies from Trader Joes.  And maybe a little wine. You don’t want to go crazy with stress over cooking at this time of year.

Then all the books are given to a school where the kids don’t usually have books of their own, and we also collect used books which are given to school libraries.

I did this every December for over a decade however due to family health problems I’ve missed the past two years, but it’s a go for 2015. I got a little carried away the last time I did the party – about seventy women came which was great fun and produced a mountain of wonderful books, but you can also give a much smaller party. You can have it at night, invite guys too, have martinis, whatever. But the point is you’re sending books out into the world and what could be better than giving a child the gift of a book?