Running out of holiday gift ideas for those on your list? Maybe you’ve been putting it off because it’s simply hard for some people to buy Christmas gifts.
Seniors are often on this list, as are those who insist that every book they receive comes only from the highest level of writing.
Then there are people struggling through difficult circumstances at work or at home, times when they are under enormous pressure to lead and lead wisely, or times when they seem – and probably actually are – miserable. They need some joy in the season that should mark it.
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That’s why we have three book recommendations for you here.
The first is for seniors (and for anyone who wants to accompany a brilliant writer on a life lived extraordinarily well for the past ninety years.)
“We did not, nor could we, see the United States as a racist, brutal capitalist, essentially corrupt country in need of revolutionary change. We thought, and most of us still think, that the United States, for all its shortcomings, is the most interesting, most generous, and greatest country in the world.”
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For more than forty years, Joseph Epstein’s columns, essays, and books of all shapes and sizes—novels, biographies, collections of short stories, meditations on great subjects like “Ambition”—have come into my hands and have always brought with them joy and a keen sense that there are writers and good writers and that there are truly gifted writers. Joseph Epstein is among the few of the latter over the past half century. I don’t think I’m alone in concluding that he is America’s greatest living essayist.
Last year, Epstein gave us an autobiography: “Never say you’ve had a happy life, especially if you’ve had a happy life.” Just those few of his sentences quoted above say so much about the “Silent Generation” (he was born in 1937) that you would have to believe me when I say that every page of the book elicits a nod and often a smile, and that many pages offer insights that we may have been aware of but had never articulated or read. I think I read EM Forster’s conclusion: “You are influenced when you say, ‘I might have written that myself if I hadn’t been so busy'” in one of Epstein’s hundreds of wonderful essays.
‘Beautiful’ because he writes to be understood and does not withhold high knowledge of the kind that forces you to slow down and think. For example, he will pounce on you with a “famous anecdote about Croesus” – an anecdote that you might never heard – but also pass it on succinctly in case you are one of them WHO missed that story.
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Epstein entertains even as he teaches, almost without exception. (The one Epstein book that didn’t captivate me—his biography of Fred Astaire—was loved by my wife. So every Epstein book has, at least indirectly, brought me joy.)
So if you have a reader to buy for, give them this book, which is also a memoir of our country’s collective history over the past 80 years. If Joseph Epstein has somehow escaped your notice until now, perhaps start here with this book movement to his collection of short stories, “The Goldin Boys,” and then delve into one of his collections of essays, general or on literature. He will become your friend.
For those earlier in their lives and careers and in positions that require many difficult and important decisions, Admiral William McRaven (USN, Ret.) has written the perfect Christmas gift this year. Admiral McRaven led a remarkable life during his decades, rising to the top ranks of the American special forces. He started out as a Navy SEAL (and always remained one), but ended his distinguished career at the top of the US Special Operations Command.
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The Admiral has written a few other bestsellers, but this year’s “Conquering Crisis: Ten Lessons to Learn Before You Need Them” is a book for anyone in authority over anything or anyone – from those at the highest levels to parents, from the presidents, to the CEOS and deans of schools to the coaches of each team and leaders of volunteer organizations. The unexpected crisis will come sooner or later for everyone in all these situations, and Admiral McRaven’s ten lessons will stick because they are written in a clear and compelling way, free of management jargon and ridiculous “systems speak.”
Finally, American happiness professor Arthur C. Brooks of Harvard Business School teaches the course on happiness to the HBS grinders and writes monthly about the scholarship on this topic (and it is enormous) for The Atlantic. Brooks has collected his best essays on the subject in “The Happiness Files: Insights on Work and Life.” Whether it’s the person on your list who gives you the most trouble selecting a book is Whether they have the best years or the worst, they will appreciate Brooks’ work.
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The great thing about finishing your shopping on Amazon or one of the other book sites online? These books will be delivered to your home within a few days or can be sent anywhere.
You can finish your shopping in half an hour online and then enjoy the real glory of Christmas, at least free from gift panic.
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