Gift Guide: The Next Rushmore?

There are any number of reasons to dislike Simon Rich: At 26, he's a published author, writer for Saturday Night Live and The New Yorker and can call famed New York Times columnist Frank Rich "dad." Oh, there's also the fact that his first novel, Elliot Allagash, hasn't even been out for a year and is already earmarked for big-screen glory thanks to Academy Award nominee Jason Reitman. Ugh! There's just one reason to not want to smack Rich upside the head: He's really, really talented.

Elliot Allagash reads like a movie pitch: High school loser Seymour gets taken under the wing of the titular Elliot, a boozing, privileged and ridiculously wealthy ne'er-do-well, in a twist on Pygmalion. Needless to say, calamity ensues. Rich is sharp writer, populating Allagash with plenty of dry wit and one-liners. The only problems? At 240 pages, the hipster friend you gift this to will finish Rich's novel in approximately two days, and they'll spend too much time trying to figure out what 13-year-olds will be able to tackle the lead roles in Reitman's film.

$15.64 @ Amazon