Books I’m Not Recommending for Christmas

I’ve noted before that I don’t recommend books for Christmas. For me, books are personal, and about the only person who knows how to find a book that I’ll like is my wife.

That said. A lot of good books that I read were published this year, and some were published earlier but I only caught up with them this year. No surprise: the list is heavy on poetry. And my publisher would give me a dark look if I didn’t at least mention Poetry at Work, which would make a fine gift and a timely one, given that National Poetry at Work Day is Jan. 14.

So, I mentioned it. And here’s the rest of the list of books I’m not recommending for Christmas this year.

Poetry

Christian Wiman’s Every Riven Thing: Poems

Dana Gioia’s Pity the Beautiful: Poems

A Clown Walks at Midnight: Poems by Andrew Hudgins

Poet in New York by Federico Garcia Lorca

Bone Fires: Poems by Mark Jarman

Metaphysical Dog: Poems by Frank Bidart

99 Psalms by SAID

Talking About the Movies with Jesus: Poems by David Kirby

Weak Devotions: Poems by Luke Hankins

Aimless Love: New and Selected Poems by Billy Collins

The Customs House by Andrew Motion

Fallow Field: Poems by Scott Edward Anderson

Crow by Ted Hughes

Fiction

When Mockingbirds Sing by Bill Coffey

Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry

Thunder and Rain by Charles Martin

Mystery/Suspense

January Justice by Athol Dickson

Hurt by Travis Thrasher

Winner Lose All by William Brown

Litany of Secrets by Luke Davis

The Notting Hill Mystery by Charles Warren Adams

The Tenth Plague by Adam Blumer

Fantasy/Children’s

Dragonfyre by Ian Thomas Curtis

The Crystal Scepter by C.S. Lakin

The Glade Series by Martha Orlando: A Trip, A Tryst and a Terror; Children in the Garden; and The Moment of Truth.

Faith/Church

A Week in the Life of Corinth by Ben Witherington

Life After Art by Matt Appling

Activist Faith by Dillon Burroughs, Daniel Darling and Dan King

My Bright Abyss by Christian Wiman

Raising Ephesus: Christian Hope for a Post-Christian Age by T.E. Hanna

The Furious Longing of God by Brennan Manning

Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art by Madeleine L’Engle

The Crime of Living Cautiously by Luci Shaw

History/Biography/Literary Study

Foundation: The History of England from its Earliest Times to the Tudors by Peter Ackroyd

The Genius of Dickens by Michael Slater

What Poetry Brings to Business by Clare Morgan

Booked: Literature in the Soul of Me by Karen Swallow Prior

Walking Dickens’ London by Lee Jackson

Business/Leadership

Growth in Leadership by Dr. Larry Little and David Rupert

Photograph by Nick Bell via Public Domain Pictures. Used with permission.