Manly Holiday Book Guide

Ever wanted to know what to get the men in your life besides tools,  a silly tie or something which will end up in the attic on January 1?

Here are the answers to your prayers.

• For the “I want to read just one book I could talk about in parties” type of guy: 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
• For the “I like emotional books but want people to think I’m reading a war novel” manly man: The Polski Affair by Leon H. Gildin
• For your “I like intellectual books” boyfriend who wants to impress you: Georg Letham: Physician and Murderer by Ernst Weiss
• For the “hey dude, it’s a classic” guy:The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller
• For your uncle that grew a stomach and converted to Buddhism: Across Many Mountains by Yangzom Brauen or Fire Monks by Colleen Morton Busch
• For your second cousin that keeps saying how he hates the classics: Dracula by Bram Stoker
• For your neighbor that decorates his house the day after Halloween: Jacob T. Marley by R. William Bennett
• For your long lost cousin. living in a log cabin and still believes that the South shall rise:The Civil War: A Visual History
• For your brother that loves world affairs: The Attack by Yasmina Khadra
• For your cousin that “simply hates” the holiday season: Auschwitz by Dr. Miklós Nyiszli
• For your fifth cousin twice removed that wishes he was born 60 years earlier to fight the good fight in the civil rights movement: Elizabeth and Hazel by David Margolick
• Some food for thought for your loving conspiracy theorist: Pandora’s Grave by Stephen England or Tangled Webs –How False Statements are Undermining America by James B. Stewart
• For the “I want to live in Amsterdam” pothead: Winter in Wartime by Jan Terlouw
• For your co-worker that is still looking for that perfect woman: A Short History of a Tall Jew by Dennis Danziger
• For your “I didn’t watch the royal wedding… but didn’t she look pretty” father in law: Lionheart by Sharon Kay Penman
• For your “kill’em all” sensitive man: Holy Terror by Frank Miller
• For the “I want to work for myself” person: Startup From the Ground Up by Cynthia Kocialski
• HA, HA, HA – I Love Monkeys: Primacy by J.E. Fishman
• For the “I only read first hand, non-fiction accounts” snob: Siberian Prison by E.V. Enzmann or SEAL Team Six: Memoirs of an Élite Navy Sniper by Howard E. Wasdin & Stephen Templin
• For the “what the hell is YA?” father – Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
• For the intellectual neighbor that can’t shut up about philosophy: The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery
• For the traveler: Turn Right at Machu Picchu by Mark Adams or The Lost City of Z by David Grann
• For your loving space junky: First Man by James R. Hansen
• For that proud Navy man or for that Marine you want to piss off: Fly Navy by Alvin Townley
• For that special man whose dark humor you don’t really get (ask my wife): Centuries of June by Keith Donohue
• For the street pharmacist that keeps on harping to”legalize all drugs”: At the Devil’s Table by William C. Rempel
• For the newly minted tired father: Go the F–k to Sleep by Adam Mansbach
• For the professional solider: The Profession by Steven Pressfield or Citizen Soldiers by Stephen Ambrose or Killing Rommel by Steven Pressfield
• For your “friend” who keeps complaining he needs to find a new series to read: The Ranger by Ace Atkins or The Devil’s Star by Jo Nesbø
• For your grandfather that is taking Chinese at the community college because he is convinced they are about to take over the world: On China by Henry Kissinger
• For your great uncle that still has a bomb shelter in his back yard in case “the big one” is going to hit: Berlin 1961 by Frederick Kempe or Field Gray by Philip Kerr
• For that co-worker that thinks he’s always so funny: The Pun Also Rises by John Pollack
• For that guy that creepy guy that you got stuck as a secret Santa for: Scandalous Women by Elizabeth Kerri Mahon
• For your second cousin on your father’s side who loves rescue stories: Lost in Shangri-La by Mitchell Zuckoff
• For your minimum wage martyr who thinks Walmart are like Nazis: The Perfect Nazi by Martin Davidson or Gated Grief by Leila Levinson
• For Doctor Bob: A Fierce Radiance by Lauren Belfer or Pox: An American History by Michael Willrich
• For the sports fan: Playing For Pizza by John Grisham
• For your “it’s all a scam” uncle: The Jersey Sting By Ted Sherman and Josh Margolin or so much for that by Lionel Shriver
• For the “I only read biographies” man: Hero The Life and Legend of Lawrence of Arabia by Michael Korda or Washington: A Life by Ron Chernow or Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff
• For your boyfriend that “can’t remember shit”: Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer
• For the Occupy Wall Street tent dwelling dude: The Death Instinct by Jed Rubenfeld
• For that sensitive “I love kids” guy that has been afraid to ask you out for the last six years: Little Princes by Conor Grennan
• For the history/musical theater lover (really? You know one?): And The Show Went On by Alan Riding
• For the men whom you don’t know what they would like: Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
• For that special man who you want to buy a special book: We, The Drowned by Carsten Jensen

And finally:

• Just because you have to get a Chanukah gift: The Instructions by Adam Levin or The Fifth Servant by Kenneth Wishnia or The Purples by W.K. Berger

Of course there is always the default: Amazon Gift Cards!

Let me know how you like the list and if it helped you.
Anything you’d like to add?

Zohar – Man of la Book