Books Given and Received for Christmas

My holiday week has been so hectic and busy that I almost forgot to tell you about the books we gave and received as gifts.  Obviously that is the best part of the holiday season!

I really love picking out books to give as gifts, choosing just the right book to delight the receiver. Here are the books we gave this holiday season:

• For my brother-in-law who is a high school history teacher and loves to read: Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power by Jon Meacham. He was so excited, he took it right to an empty room ( a real challenge with 10 people in the house) and started reading as soon as we finished opening gifts!
• For my mom, who likes many of the same books I do: Arcadia by Lauren Groff, one of the top books of the year, about a boy growing up on a 70's commune in New York (we are from New York state).
• For my mom's husband, who likes nonfiction, sport, and politics: The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail but Some Don't by Nate Silver.

And we received some great books as gifts, too.  My husband gave me:

• The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker (dying to read this one!)
• The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey
• Blog, Inc. by Joy Deangdeelert Cho (watch for blog upgrades in 2013!)

And I gave him:

• The Likeness by Tara French (he really enjoyed In the Woods)
• Ransom River by Meg Gardiner (one of Stephen King's favorite authors)
• ....and a paperback mystery/suspense novel set in Amsterdam (where he travels for business sometimes) that I can't recall the name of right now!

We gave our son Jamie, 18:

• The Lost Heiress by Catherine Fisher (#2 in The Dark City series)
• Merlin by Stephen Lawhead (#2 in the Pendragon Cycle series)

We also got both of our teen sons a Kindle Fire HD for Christmas, and - wonder of wonders! - our 14-year old (who hasn't read a book voluntarily in years) has already downloaded two e-books on sailing (on a how-to and one a memoir). It's a Christmas miracle! I figured he would use his Kindle exclusively for TV, videos, and games, but he got excited about downloading some books after talking to his grandfather.

So, that was our bookish holiday season!  How was yours?