SEASON’S READINGS
Not sure what to pick up for that hard-to-buy person on your Christmas list? Books never disappoint, and we’ve got some tome tips for those in need of …
FAITH/ SELF- HELP
Science fiction legend Ursula K. Le Guin, 88, tackles everything from aging to the unknown in the essay collection No Time to Spare: Thinking About What Matters, while religious scholar Reza Aslan explores the Almighty in God: A Human History. Speaking of God, Pope Francis ponders love and understanding in Happiness in This Life: A Passionate Meditation on Earthly Existence, while philosopher Fabrice Midal takes a more direct approach with The French Art of Not Giving a Sh*t: Cut the Crap and Live Your Life.
A THRILL
Lee Child returns with a new Jack Reacher novel, The Midnight Line; Detective Harry Bosch tackles a pair of murder mysteries in Michael Connelly’s Two Kinds of Truth; U.S. President Jack Ryan contends with Chinese diplomacy and spies in Tom Clancy Power and Empire, by Marc Cameron; and A.J. Finn’s nail-biting The Woman in the Window recalls Hitchcock’s classic Rear Window and is being adapted for the big screen before it even hits bookshelves.
A BLAST FROM THE PAST
Walter Isaacson, the journalist whose golden biographical touch helped humanize seismic minds such as Albert Einstein and Steve Jobs in bestselling books, goes back to the future with the original Renaissance man in Leonardo Da Vinci. Meanwhile, lovers of history-infused tales can sink their teeth into Ramses the Damned: The Passion of Cleopatra, by bestselling scribes Anne Rice and Christopher Rice, featuring undead ancient Egyptians in early 20th century England; and Past Perfect, Danielle Steele’s novel of two families – one modern and one from a century earlier – who transcend time and the afterlife to share a home.
A FUTURISTIC FROLIC
From Andy Weir, author of The Martian – later adapted into an Oscarnominated film starring Matt Damon – comes Artemis, about a petty criminal prepping for the ultimate heist while living in the first city on the moon.
CELEBRITY ADVICE
Forget Insta-celebs and pop stars du jour and try a couple who’ve lasted 50 years in Hollywood – Suzanne Somers, 71, and Canadian hubby Alan Hamel, 81 – in Two’s Company: A Fifty-Year Romance with Lessons Learned in Love, Life & Business.
A GOOD LAUGH
Laughter is the best medicine and a great gift, so comedy lovers will get a kick out of the stories behind famed institutions from Second City to Saturday Night Live, and the legendary talents who launched their careers there, in Improv Nation: How We Made a Great American Art by Sam Wasson.