Here's a novel gift idea that is more thoughtful and less flashy than mere jewels. What accessory could be more individual or luxurious than your own book? New York-based McParlin Partners boasts a team of highly experienced former Forbes and Dow Jones editors as well as former Time Inc. art directors who will craft anything from a memoir or family history to a coffee-table book in praise of your spouse.

McParlin writers produce a portrait in words, complemented by your own photographs, commissioned photos and/or original art, that depicts the person you fell in love with or want to thank. It is the perfect way to celebrate an anniversary, wedding, graduation or other significant milestone.

Want to honor someone upon retirement? Consider a tribute book, full of reminiscences and career highlights. This is also a professional way to document a dynasty with a family history, ideal for handing out at that annual reunion or to favored clients.

McParlin editors work with clients to distill their management philosophy into a book or tell the story of their rise to the top. "People deserve the chance to tell their own stories in their own voice," says McParlin co-founder Kasia Moreno, an editor at Forbes for more than 20 years.

Moreno notes that, although McParlin also does corporate editorial work and has affiliations with custom publishers in Russia and China, the firm's individual services are a labor of love. "A family history," she says, "is a precious legacy that will be handed down over generations."

Indeed, the firm is named after Alida McParlin (1867-1957), a woman who wrote a memoir about her doting father, Brig. Gen. Thomas McParlin, an Army surgeon who served as Medical Director of the Army of the Potomac during the Civil War. That book sparked the fascination with family history for McParlin co-founder Hugo Moreno, who is also McParlin's great-grandson.

Every McParlin project is completely customized. Prices vary depending on length of the project. For example, a book-length executive memoir starts at $30,000, while a version the length of a magazine cover story can be had for $10,000. A coffee-table book full of commissioned photographs and striking layouts can run into six figures.

• The Top 400 only paid an average of 17% of federal income tax
• 17% is the lowest tax bite in the fifteen-year period of this group's IRS statistics
• In contrast, the top 5% pay an average of 21% of federal income tax and the top 1% pay an average of 23%!

The most expensive fictional house, according to Forbes, is Xanadu, the home of newspaper baron Charles Foster Kane in Citizen Kane, at $160 million. The house is modeled on Hearst Castle (above), the real life San Simeon, Calif., estate of media mogul William Randolph Hearst. In the #2 spot is Richie Rich's cartoon mansion, complete with diamond-walled swimming pool, at $135 million. Elsewhere on the list: Tony Stark's bachelor pad in Iron Man, at $50.8 million; Gone With the Wind's antebellum plantation Tara, at $17.2 million; Croft Manor from Tomb Raider, at $46.1 million; and Jay Gatsby's Long Island mansion from The Great Gatsby, $42.5 million. Click here for a slideshow.