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Sunday, November 25, 2007

The Christmas List: 20 Books Worth Giving

Posted by: Hugh Hewitt at 7:27 PM

This time of year I am often asked to recommend books. My list has some titles familiar to anyone who listens to the show, and some new names as well.

But first, for small children, try one or all of the five DVDs in the Life at the Pond series. Like VeggieTales, the Pond is a hit with parents who want their younger children to get a message as well as a laugh and a story.

Now, to a list twenty books that should provide something for everyone on your list.

For those who wonder where this world is headed, send them one or all of the six books that explain this world:

Lawrence Wright's The Looming Tower:

The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 (Vintage)

Mark Steyn's America Alone

America Alone: The End of the World As We Know It

Norman Podhoretz's World War IV

World War IV: The Long Struggle Against Islamofascism

Robert Kaplan's Imperial Grunts and Hog Pilots, Blue Water Grunts

Imperial Grunts: On the Ground with the American Military, from Mongolia to the Philippines to Iraq and Beyond

Hog Pilots, Blue Water Grunts: The American Military in the Air, at Sea, and on the Ground

And Bernard Lewis' The Crisis of Islam

The Crisis of Islam: Holy War and Unholy Terror

For those who love history, two books about FDR:

Jonathan Alter's The Defining Moment

The Defining Moment: FDR's Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope

Amity Shlaes' The Forgotten Man

The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression

One book detailing 60 years of CIA history:

Timothy Weiner's Legacy of Ashes

One book explaining the past 300 years

Walter Russell Mead's God and Gold

God and Gold: Britain, America, and the Making of the Modern World

For Supreme Court watchers:

Clarence Thomas' My Grandfather's Son

Jeffrey Toobin's The Nine

The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court

For those who want to laugh, or at least smile:

Lileks' Gastroanomolies, Gallery of Regrettable Food, Mommy Knows Worst, and Interior Descecrations

Gastroanomalies: Questionable Culinary Creations from the Golden Age of American Cookery

Mommy Knows Worst: Highlights from the Golden Age of Bad Parenting Advice

Interior Desecrations: Hideous Homes from the Horrible '70s

Anything and everything by Joseph Epstein, including his most recent, In a Cardboard Belt, or his fine assessment of friendship, Friendship: An Expose.

In a Cardboard Belt!: Essays Personal, Literary, and Savage

And for those who really want to know what is happening in the presidential race (and wll continue to happen)

A Mormon In The White House: Ten Things Every American Should Know About Mitt Romney.

A Mormon in the White House?: 10 Things Every American Should Know about Mitt Romney

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Maineac writes:	Monday, November, 26, 2007 7:47 PM
Thans for that, MikeH
'With the Old Breed' is THE best war memoir ever written. Sledge and my dad served in the same Marine company, the one that took Sugarloaf Hill in the Battle for Okinawa. So my reading of it has a personal appeal. That said, no one has ever captured the reality of combat better. It is a remarkable book - as remarkable as Sledge was a man. When my dad was suffering under the ravages of Pick's Disease (similar to Alzheimer's) and losing his ability to read, there remained but one book always on his bedside table. It was 'With the Old Breed'.
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MikeH writes:	Monday, November, 26, 2007 7:33 PM
OK - two cents added
Along with Hugh's No. 1, I'm trying to get these read before the New Year: E.B. Sledge's "With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa" http://www.amazon.com/Old-Breed-At-Peleliu-Okinawa/dp/08914 19195/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196123014&sr=8-1 Bill Shirer's "The Collapse of the Third Republic: An Inquiry into the Fall of France in 1940" http://www.amazon.com/Collapse-Third-Republic-Inquiry-Franc e/dp/0306805626/ref=pd_bbs_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196123186 &sr=1-1
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Maineac writes:	Sunday, November, 25, 2007 10:26 PM
No Pentagon's New Map?
...or Blueprint for Action? Actually I don't blame you. Barnett has gotten kind of tiresome lately.
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