Oceana, by Ted Danson

For the dad who loves oceans and counts Cheers as his all-time favorite sitcom, there's no better gift than actor and activist Ted Danson's Oceana, a lavishly illustrated and compelling account of the state of the world's oceans, and what we can do to save them. ($20 at amazon.com) Goes great with a pair of fair trade elephant bookends carved out of soapstone ($34 at tenthousandvillages.com)

Other book ideas for Dad this year include:

For a corporate climber: Climate Capitalism, by pioneering green thinker L. Hunter Lovins, and Boyd Cohen; or A Force for Nature, John Adams' account of creating Natural Resources Defense Council into a global environmental organization (review)

For a traveler or adventurer: Plastiki, David de Rothschild's account of sailing around the world on a boat made of plastic; or The Tiger, John Vaillant's gripping tale of the hunt for a man-eating lion in Russia's Far East (review)

For a technology nut: Bottled Lightning, Popular Mechanics senior editor Seth Fletcher's account of the latest advances in electric cars and advanced batteries; Powering the Dream, The Atlantic's senior editor Alex Madrigal's account of the "history and promise of green technology"; or Green Lighting, Brian Clark Howard et al.'s eminently useful guide to energy efficient lighting (review)