My man, Mark Twain, once said that someone who can read but chooses not to has no advantage over an illiterate person. One can quibble over what constitutes "reading" - is it reading memes on your phone or Facebook? Since that wasn't an option back in Twain's day, I believe he was referring to reading novels, short stories, even newspapers and magazines.
As the son of an English major, whose dad had a library filled with the classics and nonfiction shelves of John F. Kennedy assassination theories; and the grandson of a grandmother whose bookshelves I raided as a kid to get lost in Louis L'Amour westerns; I've consciously pushed reading onto my kids. Truth be known, J.K. Rowlings and Harry Potter did more for that effort than I ever could. But mission accomplished. Both daughters read a lot and my son is more particular and not as avid but does.
As such, I contribute to their habit whenever I can, as evidenced by the books I give them every Christmas - particularly curated for the their interests. This year's gifts:
For Katie - The Sisterhood of Ravensbrück: How an Intrepid Band of Frenchwomen Resisted the Nazis in Hitler's All-Female Concentration Camp
Decades after the end of World War II, the name Ravensbrück still evokes horror for those with knowledge of this infamous all-women’s concentration camp, better known since it became the setting of Martha Hall Kelly’s bestselling novel, Lilac Girls. Particularly shocking were the medical experiments performed on some of the inmates. Ravensbrück was atypical in other ways as well, not just as the only all-female German concentration camp, but because 80 percent of its inmates were political prisoners, among them a tight-knit group of women who had been active in the French Resistance.
Already well-practiced in sabotaging the Nazis in occupied France, these women joined forces to defy their German captors and keep one another alive. The sisterhood’s members, amid unimaginable terror and brutality, subverted Germany’s war effort by refusing to do assigned work. They risked death for any infraction, but that did not stop them from defying their SS tormentors at every turn—even staging a satirical musical revue about the horrors of the camp.
After the war, when many in France wanted to focus only on the future, the women from Ravensbrück refused to allow their achievements, needs, and sacrifices to be erased. They banded together once more, first to support one another in healing their bodies and minds and then to continue their crusade for freedom and justice—an effort that would have repercussions for their country and the world into the twenty-first century.
For Rylee - A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck
Maurice and Maralyn make an odd couple. He’s a loner, awkward and obsessive; she’s charismatic and ambitious. But they share a horror of wasting their lives. And they dream – as we all dream – of running away from it all. What if they quit their jobs, sold their house, bought a boat, and sailed away?
Most of us begin and end with the daydream. But in June 1972, Maurice and Maralyn set sail. For nearly a year all went well, until deep in the Pacific, a breaching whale knocked a hole in their boat and it sank beneath the waves.
What ensues is a jaw-dropping fight to survive in the wild ocean, with little hope of rescue. Alone together for months in a tiny rubber raft, starving and exhausted, Maurice and Maralyn have to find not only ways to stay alive but ways to get along, as their inner demons emerge and their marriage is put to the greatest of tests. Although they could run away from the world, they can’t run away from themselves.
Taut, propulsive, and dazzling, A Marriage at Sea pairs an adrenaline-fueled high seas adventure with a gutting love story that asks why we love difficult people, and who we become under the most extreme conditions imaginable.
For daughter-in-law Kayla - All the Other Mothers Hate Me, Sarah Harman
In this biting, satirical take on the domestic thriller, a failed pop star turned private school parent must clear her son’s name when his bully goes missing. Luckily, she’s just made a new friend—a lawyer who just happens to harbor dreams of private investigating. And her upstairs neighbor is a cop, although not a very useful one. Between the three of them, she’s sure she can track down the little shit precious angel child before her son’s reputation is forever tarnished. If you like quirky characters, scrappy fighters, and a high dose of hijinks, this is your cup of tea!
For Luke - The MeatEater Fish and Game Cookbook: Recipes and Techniques for Every Hunter and Angler
When Steven Rinella hears from fans of his MeatEater show and podcast, it’s often requests for more recipes. One of the most respected and beloved hunters in America, Rinella is also an accomplished wild game cook, and he offers recipes here that range from his takes on favorite staples to more surprising and exotic meals.
• Big Game: Techniques and strategies for butchering and cooking all big game, from whitetail deer to moose, wild hogs, and black bear, and recipes for everything from shanks to tongue.
• Small Game: How to prepare appetizers and main courses using common small game species such as squirrels and rabbits as well as lesser-known culinary treats like muskrat and beaver.
• Waterfowl: How to make the most of available waterfowl, ranging from favorites like mallards and wood ducks to more challenging birds, such as wild geese and diving ducks.
• Upland Birds: A wide variety of butchering methods for all upland birds, plus recipes, including Thanksgiving wild turkey, grilled grouse, and a fresh take on jalapeño poppers made with mourning dove.
• Freshwater Fish: Best practices for cleaning and cooking virtually all varieties of freshwater fish, including trout, bass, catfish, walleye, suckers, northern pike, eels, carp, and salmon.
• Saltwater Fish: Handling methods and recipes for common and not-so-common species of saltwater fish encountered by anglers everywhere, from Maine to the Bahamas, and from Southern California to northern British Columbia.
• Everything else: How to prepare great meals from wild clams, crabs, crayfish, mussels, snapping turtles, bullfrogs, and even sea cucumbers and alligators.
Whether you’re cooking outdoors or in the kitchen, at the campfire or on the grill, The MeatEater Fish and Game Cookbook is an indispensable guide for both novices and expert chefs.
For son-in-law Stetson - The Art of Winning: Lessons from My Life in Football
Winning isn’t a science. It’s an art. And it can be learned.
No one embodies winning more than Bill Belichick, the greatest football coach of all time. Over the past fifty years, Belichick has been a man of notoriously few words, believing that a coach should keep a low profile. After he left the Patriots in 2024, he briefly became a coach without a team. He spent that year writing down the principles he learned from his father, Navy football, and from his forty-nine-year coaching career.
Belichick’s philosophy goes far beyond football. He presents a whole-year, whole-life, whole-mindset approach to greatness that encompasses preparation, motivation, confidence, and leadership. The principles in this book are adaptable to wherever you work. No matter where you are on the ladder, they will help you think like a leader in anticipation of being one.
Drawing on decades of studying the greats of the game, handling colorful personalities and egos, and playing for the highest stakes in sports, Belichick shares memorable examples and practical takeaways from his lived experience. Winning is not about being perfect—it’s about growth. And you will improve only as much as you recognize where you’re weak. Belichick owns up to mistakes like deciding to go for it on 4th and 13 in the 2008 Super Bowl. Then he breaks down how to learn from your mistakes like a leader does—an approach that sustained him throughout his early career challenges and ultimately brought him to the top of the sport.
Belichick’s principles might surprise you at times. At other times, they might seem strangely obvious. (His rule for how to win football games? Score the most points.) Football is about strategy, human nature, and business. Your vision of success might involve breaking into a new, competitive market in your industry; seeing solid returns on a portfolio that you’ve carefully prepared; inspiring your students to earn the highest scores in the district; or raising up trainees to take over your job someday. Whatever the situation, your performance is up to you.
Practical, authoritative, and bursting with unforgettable inside stories, The Art of Winning is an indispensable guide to success from the greatest coach in NFL history.
