To my younger son:
Pym by Mat Johnson (A wacky satire involving Poe, Little Debbie snack cakes, a bag of bones and a seafaring journey)
To my eldest son who teaches history in China and travels all over:
When America First Met China by Eric Jay Dolin ("An exotic history of tea, drugs, and money in the age of sail") ***check out the incredibly gorgeous book cover above
China in Ten Words by Yu Hua (a humorous, honest, sometimes shocking portrait of China from the 60s on)
Cambodia's Curse by J. Brinkley (portrait of a country haunted by poverty, corruption and the Khmer Rouge-solutions going forward)
To my friend who loves history & art:
Disappearing Spoon by Sam Kean ("True tales of love, madness and the history of the world, from the Periodic Table")
Bluebeard by Kurt Vonnegut (a satire of the artworld)
To one of my writing students:
The Discomfort Zone: A Personal History by Jonathan Franzen (pieces about Franzen's childhood)
From my writing student to me:
Seven Days in the Artworld by Sarah Thornton (snapshots of the weirdness that is the artworld)
An Age of Madness by David Maine (a novel about an analyst and her estranged daughter)
Riddled with Life by Marlene Zuk (why and how we symbiotically embrace parasites!)
From my younger son to me, knowing I love DeLillo:
The Angel Esmirelda by Don DeLillo (nine stories about astronauts, nuns, terrorists and travelers, in settings from the South Bronx to outer space)
From my younger son to his older brother:
Nero by Edward Champlin (a reevaluation of the callous emperor who fiddled while Rome burned)
At Day's Close, Night in Times Past by A. Robert Ekirch (Crime, fire, theft and the supernatural: illuminating events that happen in the dark)
To me, from me!
The Twelve by Justin Cronin (Sequel to his blockbuster speculative novel The Passage) and Girl of Nightmares (sequel to Anna Dressed in Blood--unfortunately, the sequel isn't nearly as good as the first book!)
Did you give books this holiday? Did you receive books?
Your favorites?