THE HOLIDAY GIFT COLUMN, A TAD EARLY TO ALLOW FOR… MAIL ORDER? SEARCHING? I DUNNO…WEAR A MASK IF YOU'RE OUT, PLEASE, TAKE CARE OF EACH OTHER.

THE GOLFER'S CAROL by Robert Bailey (Putnam). Follows the structure of Dickens's classic fable. A husband and father at a desperate moment in his life dreams four full rounds of golf, each with a different ghost—three, each with a golfing idol: Bobby Jones, Ben Hogan, Jack Nicklaus; and the fourth with his late father, with whom he has had long-standing unresolved, not bitter but painful issues. It's probably only for golfers (both of the column's authors played a little). They'll find it quite sophisticated—the author, a writer of thrillers, was a competitive golfer in college; the book knows the great Augusta National course, yard for yard. And it's really addressed essentially to men (and fathers, but of daughters as well as sons). But the emotional currents are broad ones, family ones, and others might like to join.

THE BAG HOLDS MYSTERIES:

A CHRISTMAS RESOLUTION by Anne Perry (Ballantine). The nineteenth of the lovely and tense and finally lovely again stocking-stuffer novels this master of Victorian historical mysteries has given us at holiday time.

SILENT BITE by David Rosenfelt (Minotaur). A full-value (of course) Andy Carpenter mystery plus courtroom drama—with an especially terrific ending that even regular readers mightn't see coming.

THE GIFT OF THE MAGPIE by Donna Andrews (St. Martin's). Her Meg Langslow novels are funny and charming and romantic year ‘round, but never more than in her Christmas one; this is her seventh.

ROMANCES:

JINGLE ALL THE WAY by Debbie Macomber (Ballantine). A full-length romantic novel, full of adventure (falling into a South American river—while fishing for piranhas!), but with Christmas in it (and a lovely Christmas-card dustjacket). Really, only barely a Christmas novel at all, but a Debbie Macomber romance, anyway, and so a gift.

IN A HOLIDAZE by Christina Lauren (Gallery). A delightful holiday romcom by an author (a team, actually) that the column hasn't covered; the caught-in-a-time-warp “Groundhog Day” plot works beautifully.

IN A CATEGORY OF ITS OWN, AT LEAST HERE:

THE CHRISTMAS TABLE by Donna VanLiere (St. Martin's) #10 of her ongoing series called Christmas Hope: More seriously inspirational, faith-involved; enjoyable, heartfelt and heartstirring, full-length, with a near-historical timeline.

AND . . . A WESTERN?

THE COWBOY WAY: STORIES BY ELMER KELTON (Tor). No Christmas theme here; it just strikes me as especially gift-y, for the sort of guy who mightn't spring for a book of stories. Sixteen, most set in Texas, steeped in Elmer Kelton's bone-deep commitment to the values that the American western lore and traditions embody—and to good storytelling.