Holiday books 2023: 50 books that make great gifts from hip-hop histories to Christmas ghost stories
Stephen Nissenbaum, in his terrific 1997 history of the holiday season, “The Battle for Christmas,” goes briefly in search of the very first advertisement for Christmas presents — the Yuletide Patient Zero, if you will — and finds an ad urging Americans to buy a good book at the holidays. The year that advertisement ran: 1806, in New England. Within 50 years, this newspaper was running holiday ads for scarves and silk dresses, but a chunk of its Christmas ads were still for books — velvet-covered Bibles, illustrated travelogues of Italy and more. I like to imagine 19th century Americans knew what wise 21st century Americans know: Books are a perfect gift to wrap if you don’t know how to wrap gifts.
That or they understood early on that books were easier to tailor than silk dresses. What follows are the best new books for giving this holiday, organized by the type of people you have on your list. Just remember: Think cleverly designed books. Think keepsakes.
Or just think personal.
For ride-or-die Midwesterners
by former Tribune staffer Lauren Viera, part of an international series of “Hidden” guides, is the savviest of local dives — you don’t need to leave your bungalow to stumble on an undiscovered nook. “Unlikely” art spots, neighborhood “go-tos.” Crisply written, thoughtful. Like TikTok, only smart. by architect Thomas Leslie, is an ambitious history that’s less the usual roundup of Loop landmarks than an architecture junkie’s dense wandering intriguingly away from downtown. by Paul Fehribach of Andersonville’s Big Jones, finds room for green bean casserole and hyper-regional dishes — the runza yeast rolls of the Plains, anyone? Still, it’s the odd histories — the latke’s traditional place in Wisconsin fish fries, for one — that
