I can't in all conscience recommend giving anything so fundamentally joyless as a present, but instead offer up some great vegetarian books, starting with the colourful and joyous Fresh India (Fig Tree) by Meera Sodha, a collection of recipes harvested from her Gujarati-British family and drawing on the rich vegetarian tradition of India.
On a personal note, this scent felt joyous and fresh, the mint tea and watermelon notes simple and sweet while the spices made it dance in a new sphere, a bit like what happens to Marrakech's main square, Jamaa el Fna, when it changes from the morning market to its evening open-air-restaurant and magical meeting place.
Somehow, Microsoft has pulled off the inconceivably difficult task of coming up with a fresh, joyous, beautiful new software design that doesn't look anything like iPhone or Android.
A fresh, joyous, wistful, generous, tough-minded memoir about discovering, with the aid of a brilliant extended family, what the human mind is up to in its discernment of pattern and organization in what first looks like the arbitrary jungle of nature; in other words, science.
Metal Hammer writer Stephen Hill gave the album a nine out of ten, saying "it's hard to pick out highlights when every track sounds so fresh, joyous and casually rule-book torching" and that "this is the kind of album that changes people's lives".
Each detail sounds fresh and joyous, while Stanko's inspired and emotional themes and solos fly high above.
But what the visuals offered mostly was an overall impression of youthfulness, fresh and joyous performers putting out an energy and commitment that came through clearly in sound, even inferior sound.
"Here we have to knock along as best we may without the faintest element of corruption – not a hint of decay, not a breath of Leon Bakst; on the contrary, Christmas cards, Morris dances, children's prattle, woolwork, goodwill and so forth – all that was ever joyous and clear and fresh".
Her 2008 frappato ($35) is lively, light-bodied and surprisingly complex, while the SP68 ($25) is fresh, juicy and joyous.
"Gabriel's Guide" ends in Manhattan, with a gleaming setting of a passage from the New York guide describing the joyous multitude of the city (written, no less, by an anonymous, fresh-faced John Cheever).
