Holiday gift guide: Books under $25

In A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge (197 pages, Pantheon, $24.95), Josh Neufeld achieves in a graphic novel what may have eluded media outlets in their blanket coverage of the hurricane that shut down New Orleans four years ago. By presenting it through the true stories of seven people caught in the storm's path, Neufeld gives the catastrophe a human scale.

Among the characters are a social worker. a pastor's son who is beginning his senior year in high school and a convenience-store owner who refuses to leave his store, even as the floodwaters rise. With its strong reportage and striking use of colors, "A.D." is further proof that graphic novels can tackle more than caped crusaders.

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Green building is one of the few bright spots in construction and home improvement during these recessionary days, and saving money while also possibly saving the planet seems like a win-win for everyone. But where do you start?

Ed Begley Jr. has written a comprehensive book to answer that question. Ed Begley, Jr.'s Guide to Sustainable Living (352 pages, Clarkson Potter, $22.50) covers everything from the perennial green favorites (wind and solar power) to the drawbacks of using disposable diapers. And as Begley points out, going green doesn't have to be expensive. "Do the cheap and easy stuff first," he writes. "Don't focus on the big, shiny objects such as solar panels and wind turbines right away. There are so many things each and every one of us can do right away that cost little or no money."

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Fans of the NCAA basketball tournament are intimately familiar with bracketology. Pairs of rival teams face each other in competition, with the winners advancing to competition in the next bracket and so on, until a single winner emerges.

Now, editors Mark Reiter and Richard Sandomir have applied the concept to 150 disparate topics. The Final Four of Everything (306 pages, Simon & Schuster, $19.95) includes knockout tournaments for supermodels, cocktails and the worst movies by great directors, as well as state birds, Protestant hymns and dangerous animals. Readers might quibble with isolated cases. (Annette Funicello beats Marilyn Monroe in an early bracket for best American pinups?) But it's a great gift for obsessive trivia hounds.

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Ah, the 1970s. As the decade began, the nation struggled with the Vietnam War and The Beatles' breakup, while hippies continued to enjoy their various illegal pursuits. Then disco arrived. And with it came oil embargos, pet rocks and Patty Hearst.

The era was "awful," as Thomas Hine cogently writes in his witty and insightful The Great Funk: Styles of the Shaggy, Sexy, Shameless 1970s (243 pages, Sarah Crichton Books, $16). And yet beyond the awfulness, the crazed decade enjoyed an explosion of outlandish creativity, much of it on display here in nearly 300 illustrations. (After all, you can never get enough shag carpet, polyester and angry placards.) It's the perfect gift for that uncle who refuses to toss out his leisure suits. Alternatively, you could give a copy to his niece, who wonders why he insists on saying "Keep on truckin'" to her every Christmas.

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In the early 1930s, William Edmondson believed he heard God speaking to him. "I was out in the driveway with some old pieces of stone when I heard a voice telling me to pick up my tools and start to work on a tombstone," he later recalled. In response, Edmonson -- the son of former slaves -- began carving tombstones before turning to limestone figures. He didn't make a lot of money selling them from his home in Nashville, but in 1937 he became the first black artist to have a solo show at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Elizabeth Spires' I Heard God Talking to Me: William Edmondson and His Stone Carvings (56 pages, Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux, $17.95) combines striking photographs of Edmondson and his work with 23 poems inspired by his sculptures. It's a superb combination that should appeal to both young and adult readers.

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This year marks the 40th anniversary of the first moon landing, and among the year's best children's books to celebrate the early space program is Andrew Chaikin's Mission Control, This is Apollo: The Story of the First Voyages to the Moon (114 pages, Viking, $23.99).

It documents NASA's efforts to put a man on the moon, beginning with Project Mercury in 1961, as well as exploring the chance that we might one day return to the glowing orb that has drawn scientists and poets alike. It's illustrated by Apollo 12 astronaut Alan Bean, the fourth man to walk on the moon.

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Halloween may be 11 months away, but as any monster-obsessed kid can tell you, stories about ogres, werewolves and ghosts are never out of place, no matter what the calendar says.

Bobbi Katz's beautifully illustrated The Monsterologist: A Memoir in Rhyme (47 pages, Sterling $17.95) visits many of the things that go bump in the night, including krakens, yetis and trolls. Among the standouts: an interview with the Loch Ness monster and a poem about everyone's favorite medieval monster, the Dane-chomping Grendel (complete with a recipe for Danish pastry).

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There are rarities in life (Halley's comet and bipartisanship in Congress, for example). And then there's the snow leopard -- "the most elusive cat on the planet," according to Sy Montgomery's Saving the Ghost of the Mountain: An Expedition Among Snow Leopards in Mongolia (74 pages, Houghton Mifflin, $18).

Between 3,500 and 7,000 snow leopards live in the wild, while zoos shelter about 600. Granted, finding the ones in zoos is fairly easy even for amateurs. But tracking them down in their native habitat challenges even the experts. So Montgomery and photographer Nic Bishop followed snow leopard expert Tom McCarthy around Mongolia, home to as many as one-third of the world's wild snow leopards. The result: fascinating discoveries and beautiful photography.

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Don't be fooled by the title of Heeb magazine's first book. Sex, Drugs and Gefilte Fish: The Heeb Storytelling Collection (266 pages, Grand Central, $13.99) probably wouldn't make a good Hanukah gift for your grandmother. It might be a great gift option for her college-age grandkids, though. "These stories overflow with humiliation and pain," A.J. Jacobs writes in the foreword. "And the results are hilarious and tragic and profound."

In one story, David J. Rosen describes his surreal experience as a guest on a porn show. In another, D.C. Benny recounts buying marijuana for his uncle. Perhaps the collection's best story comes from Alix Strauss . . . but unfortunately, her experience can't be described at length in a family-friendly newspaper. Much less in front of your grandmother.

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Let's test your trivia skills. What's the longest word you can type solely with your left hand? Answer: stewardesses. And your right? Lollipop. And how long does it take a snowflake to fall 3 kilometers? Answer: A leisurely 30 minutes. And the next time you stumble onto an angry rat, keep this in mind: Rats can sprint 100 yards as fast as any human, and they can jump 6 feet in the air.

If you didn't score well on the test, consider grabbing a copy of Tom Nuttall's You Are One-Third Daffodil and Other Facts to Amaze, Amuse and Astound (189 pages, Broadway, $10.99). Then pass copies around as gifts at your next Christmas party and wow the masses with your total recall.

Doug Childers is a Richmond writer and edits WAG, a literary Web site at http://www.thewag.net.