By Christopher Schoppa
With the holiday season in full swing, here are three gift books to consider giving:
“Hallmark: A Century of Caring” by Patrick Regan (Andrews McMeel, $40)
Most of us can recite the greeting card giant’s trademark phrase — “When you care enough to send the very best” — by heart. This year marks the firm’s 100th anniversary, and this generously illustrated history traces the enterprise from the Hall family’s hardscrabble Nebraska roots to the establishment of the Norfolk Post Card Co. in Kansas City, Mo., (which capitalized on the craze for illustrated postcards imported from Europe) and its evolution into Hallmark, a producer and distributor of its own line of ubiquitous greeting cards.
“Harmony: A New Way of Looking at Our World” by the Prince of Wales with Tony Juniper and Ian Skelly (Harper, $29.99)
In addition to his views on conservation and architecture, for which he has taken some criticism, Prince Charles wants to push what he names a “Sustainability Revolution.” It’s the crux of his new book in which he calls for putting nature back at the heart of our daily lives. The companion to a documentary film and NBC special that aired in the United States in November, this book has also been adapted for youngsters in the picture book “Harmony: A Vision for Our Future” (Harper, $16.99).
“Art & Nature: Three Centuries of Natural History Art from Around the World” by Judith Magee (Greystone, $50)
The inspiration for much of this elegant, vibrantly illustrated history comes from the Library of the Natural History Museum, London, which the author has managed for more than a decade. Divided into sections (the Americas, Australasia, Asia, Africa, Europe), it provides natural history images rendered by artists over centuries, which depict new forms of flora and fauna that the European world was just discovering — from the banded krait (a snake) to the white-tailed gnu.
