Last year I gave copies of “The Whole World Over” by Julia Glass to my best friend and my mother-in-law. It was an obvious choice. I loved that book, even more than “Three Junes,” which got Julie (I call her Julie) the National Book Award.

This year we’re thinking about getting my mother-in-law a laptop instead, and I don’t need to worry about spoiling the surprise by posting that here: she’s never used a computer in her life. Yet. I’m not sure if it’s a selfish thing on our part — we want to be more in touch, and there are a dozen things a day I want to zip her on an e-mail. It could end up being cruel because it could make her flip out. Many of us 30 years younger have been known to flip out when confronted with new technology. Or is it just me?

And this year my best friend is getting jewelry that I found at a crafts fair, my favorite place to find jewelry. Well, crafts fairs and Book Passage in Corte Madera. Book Passage is the perfect book store for many reasons, including good workshops, and the amazing authors who read there. There is a full-time staff at Book Passage just handling all the special events. And if you are an author who is asked to read there … well, it must feel like being knighted by the Queen. In the Bay Area, Book Passage owner Elaine Petrocelli is close to royalty, in a good way.

Anyway, I digress. Book Passage also sells things like purses, bags, luggage and really fabulous jewelry, the likes of which I haven’t seen anywhere else. The designer is Gretchen Shields of San Francisco. It is big, fanciful and sculptural, some on gorgeous thick silk cords. One time I saw Elaine wearing one (I thought) and admired it; that one wasn’t sold at her store, though. She said Isabelle Allende made it for her. If Isabelle Allende ends up running out of ideas for books, she can always make jewelry.

I am giving some books as gifts, however. For one friend, it’s a toss-up between “The Uncommon Reader: A Novella”by Alan Bennett (”The History Boys”). It’s about what happens when Queen Elizabeth II wanders by accident into a bookmobile. The other is “The Vanishing Acts of Esme Lennox” by Maggie O’Farrell. A young woman who runs a stylish dress shop in contemporary Edinburgh suddenly discovers she’s been granted power of attorney for a great-aunt she didn’t even knew existed. Several book store owners have raved about this book. I haven’t read either of the two.

For other friends I’m torn between “Run” by Ann Patchett, which I did read and loved, and “Bridge of Sighs” by Richard Russo, which I’ve heard from booksellers is phenomenal. I have it on my nightstand. There is also “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao” by Junot Diaz.

Another friend, who really should have married Steve Martin (she took me to see him at San Francisco’s Boarding House in the mid-1970s when he was still doing balloon animals) will be getting his autobiography, “Born Standing Up: A Comic’s Life.” That’s almost too easy. My worry is she’ll get about five or six copies. Or maybe I’m the only one who knows about this passion of hers.

And I may have to buy Cornelia Read’s “A Field of Darkness” for my mystery-loving friends. Truly the sassiest protagonist I’ve run across. And sassiest author! I finally finished “The Ghost at the Table” by Suzanne Berne. It would make a GREAT book club selection. Great discussion fodder; there’s some confusing stuff that is best talked out amongst a lot of people. I always like to find out if I’m the only one confused. It happens. I might get this one for my Lafayette book club book exchange, next week. (That book club is the Barefoot Bookclub because my friend Tammy hates to wear shoes. We named it in the middle of winter.)

Right now I’m reading “The Girls” by Lori Lansens. It’s one I’ve had forever but just couldn’t quite pick it up, for whatever reason. Then my friend Caroline, who I really trust when it comes to books (she’s British, therefore frightfully honest), said she couldn’t put it down. I know what she means, now. It’s written in first person by conjoined twins, who have separate brains and bodies but are joined at the head. The two are 29 when the book begins, and both girls write chapters about their life with completely different perspectives.

What other books would make great gifts? Let me know and I’ll compile a list for the website. I’m also working on a list of favorite books of the year. What were yours?

Photo of necklace comes from Gretchen Shields’ Web site