Holiday Gift Book Ideas for Adults

Last Tuesday night there was a presentation on suggested books for holiday giving or for your own reading pleasure. (I have provided a link to library books.)  Here are my recommendations for adults.  I have arranged them by type of reader.  List prices are included.

Veterans, football fans
Dust to Dust by Benjamin Busch  $26.99
Actor and U.S. Marine, Busch offers reflection and introspection mixed with lively stories of his childhood spent outdoors and his physical challenges on the football field and the battlefield.

Book clubs, mystery fans
and when she was good by Laura Lippman  $26.99
Ever wonder how someone becomes a prostitute or how one gets out of the business?  Read this suspenseful story for possible answers.

American History fans 
Unbroken by Lauren Hillenbrand   $27.00
The story of an inspiring survivor who was a juvenile delinquent channeled into track who then won an Olympic medal.  In WWII, he was an Army Air Corps man, crew member on fragile early airplanes, who flew across the Pacific to fight the Japanese.

American Tapestry by Rachel Swarns   $27.99
Learn Michelle Obama's amazing family history.  It is a truly American story which shines a light on mixed race families who struggle, survive and thrive.

Graphic novel fans, teens
American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang
A Chinese American coming of age story, at times humorous and at times heart breaking, told in a beautifully illustrated graphic novel.

Humor, nature fans
A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson  pbk  $7.99
A witty and sometimes laugh-out-loud book about hiking along the Appalachian Trial.  Bryson observes the natural history, ecology and local history, describing it well.  He and his out-of-shape companion, Katz, bicker and struggle to be up to the trip.

Excellent nonfiction fans
Nothing to Envy by Barbara Demick   $26.00
Recent history of North Korea that puts the reader in the shoes of people living in this closed society.  How would you survive a famine?  Six defectors tell about their former lives. These stories give an insight to immigrants from closed, police societies.

Social justice fans
The Casual Vacancy by J. K. Rowling  $35.00
A thought-provoking book about a small village where there is a war between the haves and the have nots.  Teenage characters are well-developed and their parents are realistically portrayed.  This book is the real world not a fantasy realm.

Fans of gentle reads
Blessings by Anna Quindlen  pbk  $15.00
When a teenage couple abandons their baby at the gate of the estate owned by Lydia Blessing, Skip Cuddy, the caretaker, decides to raise the child himself, a decision that has a profound effect on the lives of everyone in the community.

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Susanna Moore  pbk  $15.00
A traditional Englishman develops a friendship with a female Pakistani shopkeeper in his village.  Will he be able to stand up for his feelings against the community's disapproval?

Fans of inspirational stories
Wild: from Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed  $25.95
Following her mother's death and the break up of her marriage, Strayed decides to hike the Pacific Crest Trail. 

Sarge: the Life and Times of Sargent Shriver by Scott Stossel  $32.50
The inspiring life story of the man who created the Peace Corps, headed the War on Poverty, served as ambassador to France, and founded such organizations as Head Start, Job Corps, and the Special Olympics.  He survived the Depression, WWII and life as a member of the Kennedy family.

posted by mb