It's graduation time again. How quickly those years fly by! If you're looking for a little something to give the graduate in your life, here are four books that fit the bill.

"Now What?: The Young Person's Guide to Choosing the Perfect Career" by Nicholas Lore (Fireside, 2008, $16). Yup, you probably should buy this book for that graduate of yours. It's one of the most readable, comprehensive books of its kind, with excellent advice on setting goals, solving problems and choosing career paths.

Based on the career-design methods developed by the author's Rockport Institute, "Now What?" provides a compelling assortment of assessments and personal surveys to help young people plan for the future.

My only gripes are with some of the language used by the author (too many words like "crap" for my taste) and with his obviously high opinion of himself. Lore's claim to be "the original creator of the field of career coaching," for example, doesn't jibe with his having done this work for only 25 years. What do you do with that kind of misconstruction? I guess overlook it, given that the book is such an excellent tool.

AMY LINDGREN

WORKING STRATEGIES

"Job-Hunting Online, 5th edition" by Mark Emery Bolles and Richard Nelson Bolles (Ten Speed Press, 2008, $12.95). Once your graduate has designed his or her career, the next step may seem obvious: Get a job. In fact, if the loans are piling up, getting a job may take precedence. In this book, Richard Bolles (author of "What Color is Your Parachute?") teams up with his techie son, Mark, to provide advice on navigating the job-search process online.

After an initial warning not to rely too much on Internet job searches alone, the Bolleses launch into six helpful chapters on résumés, job boards, networking, counseling and online research.

Probably the best feature of the book is the ratings offered by the authors to help readers understand the value of various sites and strategies. When it comes to the wealth and confusion of online resources, a trusted guide is worth a lot.

"Find Your Inner Ugly Betty: 25 Career Lessons for Young Professionals Inspired by TV Shows" by Tanner Stransky (Kaplan Publishing, 2008, $16.95). And now for something completely different. Once your graduate chooses a career path and hunts down a job, he or she will be faced with the task of succeeding in the workplace. Author Tanner Stransky believes "Ugly Betty" and other popular but fictional television characters can help.

And why not? If we're able to draw endless wisdom from fairy tales and Aesop's fables, why shouldn't we also learn from the workplaces we see on TV? All we need is a guide to interpret what we're seeing, and that's what Stransky does in this unauthorized use of the fictional careers of television's most popular twentysomething characters.

Happily, the extended "Betty" metaphor doesn't outweigh the book's good advice. With chapters on polishing your image, building relationships and advancing your career, there's plenty here for young people to learn. The television characters just make it a little more interesting.

"Cube Monkeys: A Handbook for Surviving the Office Jungle" by the editors of CareerBuilder and Second City Communications (Collins, 2007, $13.95). This book has been kicking around my office for a year or so, and, I have to say, there's not a lot of actual career advice in here that a new graduate couldn't live without. But it is funny, and that alone might be worth the price.

If the person on your gift list is headed into an office or already has landed in one, the funny suggestions for handling paranoid bosses or jazzing up e-mails will make things a bit more bearable. Just be sure the recipient understands that it's all a joke. Actually following these tips will relieve him or her of that office job faster than you can say, "I should have bought a serious book."

- Amy Lindgren owns Prototype Career Service, a career consulting firm in St. Paul, Minn. She can be reached at alindgren@prototypecaree rservice.com or at 1071 W. Seventh St., St. Paul, MN 55102.