Sometimes certain books land in your lap for reasons you can't really fathom. At Reader's Digest we see all sorts of books at all times of the day (and night), many that we're expecting because we've requested them or scouted them or otherwise know about them... And it's always thrilling to see the great ones. But then there are the gifts. The sparkling little gifts. They land with a plunk and announce themselves with an insistence that can't be ignored, and as soon as you pick them up and start reading, you know you were meant to have them. 

    Right now, in these uncertain times, I will take any sort of comfort I can get. And books play a big role in this for me, as I'm sure they do for you and so many others...

    Here are a few good ones to cherish. Add them to my earlier list, and be prepared for more...there will always be more...

    Personal Record: A Love Affair with Running by Rachel Toor (University of Nebraska Press) is a finely written ode to the art, the trial, the lifestyle of marathon running. Toor, an experienced runner, has the ability to take you inside that niche world and make it real. Haven't ever run a marathon. Have no plans to at the moment. But passages like this one underscore the title of the book:

    "While eventually I came to understand that running would be good for my body and for my mind, it took me longer to know what it would do for my heart. Not the knobby muscle that pumps blood through the body, the organ that keeps the physical self alive, but the notional place where feelings pool and clog and eventually spring free. What I didn't realize, when I first started lacing up my shoes, was that for me, running would be so much above love... It's hard to keep the heart uninvolved."

    So many other keenly written passages about training, coaching, pacing and finishing... About what it feels like to get the body in shape; about getting one's head in the game... Toor teaches writing at Eastern Washington (State) University and is a columnist and magazine writer; her talent shines through as she takes the reader through the races she's run and the paces she's put herself through over the years.

    I adore the watercolors that bring NYC to life in A Very New York Christmas by Michael Storrings (St. Martin's Press), with a foreword by Cynthia Nixon. Rockefeller Center, Wollman Rink in Central Park, the Flatiron District, St. Patrick's Cathedral, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Bridge, the Boys Choir of Harlem & The Apollo Theater--these and many other familiar spots are recreated here in a lovely spread of colors and layouts, accompanied by nuggets of text and apt quotes by everyone from E. B. White to Frank O'Hara to Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

    I don't know. Christmas and Hannukah aren't here yet. And who knows what we'll be spending on them this year... I just know that, for now, I was content to drink in the illustrations and stories in this book--and to feel like I'm already preparing for the season and teeing up for it. Something I love to do, especially for my kids.

    And check out Simple Gifts: One Man's Search for Grace by Bill Henderson, just out in paperback with a new Q & A with the author (Free Press). It's a gorgeously written book about the power of hymns--of singing them, studying them, experiencing them, living them. The chapter on "Amazing Grace" alone is worth buying the book for--if you've always loved that hymn or have been fascinated by it, you'll want to read this. Henderson's discussion of how he returned to his faith after a period of doubt and disbelief (and the role that hymns played in that) is also authentic---bedrock real.