Looking for books to buy for the reader on your holiday shopping list this year? Check out NPR’s Books Concierge. The service, which launched last year but has been updated and expanded for 2014, allows you to search the NPR staff’s favorite books of the year based on what you feel like reading.
The Book Concierge lets you mix and match from 26 different categories of reading including: Funny Stuff; Historical Fiction; It’s All Geek to Me; and Let’s Talk About Sex. All of the books are tagged with various categories, and you can hone in on your search. For instance a search for “It’s All Geek to Me” and “Love Stories” recommends Andrew Smith’s 100 Sideways Miles. A search for “Funny Stuff” and “Music Lovers” nets Caitlin Moran’s novel How to Build a Girl. The app features 250 titles.
Here is more from the press release: “This new edition of the Books Concierge features recommendations from familiar NPR names including All Things Considered Weekend Host Arun Rath, Code Switch Correspondent Karen Grigsby Bates, London Correspondent Ari Shapiro, TV Critic Eric Deggans, NPR Music writer Ann Powers, as well as go-to librarian Nancy Pearl, Fresh Air book critic Maureen Corrigan and many other trusted NPR readers.”