Season's Readings!

You can watch it unfold hundreds of times on Youtube: it's Black Friday again and packs of manic-eyed bargain hunters cluster at the glass entrance of a nameless megastore, their faces blanched under the sharp florescent light. The doors open and pandemonium ensues. In Los Angeles, a woman pepper-sprays 20 competing consumers for a discounted Xbox. In West Virginia, shoppers gingerly sidestep the prostrate body of a local pharmacist who's suffered a coronary.

Taken altogether, it's enough to snuff out anyone's holiday spirit. Christmas shopping? In this economy? In this environment? Bah-humbug!

But if sometime in the next week -- out of obligation, custom, or God forbid, actual Christmas spirit -- you should feel compelled to sneak in some last minute holiday shopping, the Tyee is here again to help. Handpicked from among the best reads of 2011, our staff members and contributors have thrown together a list of books for all manner of holiday celebrants and cynics alike. With over 30 recommendations to choose from, these are sure to make great gifts and great reads. Even better, none of them are liable to get you pepper-sprayed at checkout.

For your siblings, god bless their rivalrous little heads:

The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt (House of Anansi Press Inc., 2011)

When the pillow I threw at my sister got stuck in her braces one holiday, the fight was over. Most sibling tousles tend to end just as lamely, but we still reminisce about them forever. That's why Vancouver Island-born deWitt's novel is so much fun. Set in gold-rush era Oregon and California, brothers Eli and Charlie Sisters are a pair of professional assassins and hilarious bickerers. The duo is on assignment for their latest kill, and to find their target, the mysterious Hermann Kermit Warm, they embark on a treacherous journey across the Western frontier, cavorting with women, discovering the toothbrush, and killing interlopers all along the way. Whether you're more brother Eli, a soft soul and insecure dieter, or brother Charlie, a tough-shit bully who cares for nought but brandy and blood, you'll probably relate to this book's seasonal theme of wanting to rip your sibling's head off.

The perfect read for your armchair Occupier:

A Place of Greater Safety by Hillary Mantel (Picador, 2006)

Reading about political revolt need not be a long slog across vast tracts of, well, tracts. This page-turner about the French Revolution traces the political and sexual lives of three amorous agitators: lawyers Georges-Jacques Danton and Maximilien Robespierre, and pamphleteer Camille Desmoulins. Teaser: One of them is a bisexual engaged to a woman... and obsessed with her daughter. Along the way, while hardly noticing, you get a seminar on the rise of café society, public opinion formation, and how pulling off an Occupation of historic proportions unfortunately can lead to getting your head chopped off.

For the ethical killer in your life:

Facing the Hunter, Reflections on a Misunderstood Way of Life by David Adams Richards (Doubleday Canada, 2011)

Richards writes of the "philosophical and moral duty" of carnivores to kill, at least once in their lifetime, that which they eat. His touching memoir captures the profound beauty and spirituality of hunting. For some, the hunt is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. For others, it is a way of life and a means of survival. Richards defends hunters -- real hunters -- as those in society who hold the utmost respect for animals, life, and the natural landscape.

For a best friend flirting with cosmetic surgery:

Parisian Chic: A Style Guide by Ines de la Fressange (Flammarion, 2011)

In a world where aging is a sin and women are bombarded with marketing bumf demanding they spend a retirement portfolio's worth of funds on everything from lotions to labiaplasty, Parisian Chic is downright subversive. This quirky little style guide by model Ines de la Fressange, who still sashays down the Parisian catwalk at 52, is aimed at what the French call "women of a certain age." It preaches common sense and a very European version of good taste. Considering a facelift? Consider getting more sleep and more sex instead. "Be nonchalant and forget your age," is the tip that sums up her approach. While I might be inclined to disagree with some of her views -- white jeans look good on no one who isn't blessed with her whippet-like proportions -- I can't help but love her acerbic, oh-so-French judgments. "Visible thigh-highs? Not unless you're on stage at the Crazy Horse." Indeed.

For young readers who are ready for a picture tale about a non-cuddly dinosaur (Take that, Barney!):

Ankylosaur Attack by Daniel Loxton (Kids Can Press)

This little gem delivers everything the title promises with sharp, realistic illustrations. With plenty of teeth and terror, it's a natural history-style adventure from the folks who created an award-winning kids' book on evolution.

Triumph of the City: How Our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer, Smarter, Greener, Healtheir, and Happier by Edward Glaeser (Penguin Press, 2011)

Sure, in an age of nuclear weapons and peak everything, the simple life might be getting ever more attractive. But before you drive your converted biodiesel school bus into the bush, consider Harvard economist Edward Glaeser's Triumph of the City. For starters, city dwellers live longer and use less energy than their rural counterparts, Glaeser argues. And yes, cities may be dirty, dangerous and expensive, but they're also the best instruments humans have come up with (so far) to trade goods, services and ideas. The book is an entertaining romp through history and around the world in defence of the modern city as humanity's most powerful invention.

For your niece aspiring to be the modern Dickens or Conan Doyle:

Pigeon English by Stephen Kelman (House of Anansi Press Inc.)

Harri Opoku is an amateur ornithologist, an aspiring drummer, and with his father still working Ghana, the self-proclaimed man of the house. But after the London police fail to turn up any suspects after the tragically typical murder of a teenage boy in Opoku's council estate, the precocious 11-year-old is only too-ready to take on the role of detective. Told with the fresh-eyed anthropological clarity of a brainy kid living in a mindless world, Stephen Kelman's Booker-nominated Pigeon English renders in jaunty Ghanaian slang the hideous hilarious and the mundane extraordinary.

For the guy who's been humming "White is the Color" since 1979:

Bob Lenarduzzi: A Canadian Soccer Story by Bob Lenarduzzi (Harbour Publishing, 2011)

Eight months ago more than 20,000 people crammed into a creaky, temporary stadium in East Vancouver. In markedly un-Canadian-soccer-fan fashion, they jumped up and down, chanted songs and roared a mighty welcome-back to the Vancouver Whitecaps, the newest expansion team in Major League Soccer association. The scene echoed one 22 years before, when many of those same fans were cheering in the same location as the hard-working 'Caps trounced the mighty (and high-priced) New York Cosmos on their way to the old NASL's Soccer Bowl championship. In '79, East Van's Bobby Lenarduzzi was a star of both team and league. In 2011, he's president of the club. What better vantage point to view the rise, fall and resurrection of soccer in Vancouver (and hopefully Canada)? A book worth the time of anyone remotely interested in the history of B.C. sports, soccer in Canada or Vancouver as a city. The Canucks may have come to within a breath of winning the cup, but many would argue the return of the Whitecaps was the highlight of the sporting season.

For your 26-year-old artist kid who still can't move out of your basement:

At the World's Edge: Curt Lang's Vancouver, 1937-1998 by Claudia Cornwall (Mother Tongue Publishing, 2011)

Like a cat with nine lives who rubs up against everyone's legs sooner or later, Curt Lang as a teen drank with Malcolm Lowry and went on to write poetry with Al Purdy, debate modern painting with Jack Shadbolt and help pioneer Vancouver's documentary photography and computer software scenes. A complex, charming, stubbornly creative soul, he comes to life through Claudia Cornwall's biography. And so does a bohemian Vancouver all but priced out of existence 50 years later.

If your Christmas wish list is just a little too long:

The Story of Stuff by Annie Leonard (Free Press, 2010)

Yes, the shopping frenzy of the holiday season is here, but maybe you and the old VISA card should sit this one out. Annie Leonard, the Seattle native, anti-waste warrior and TIME magazine's Hero of the Environment, expands on her short film -- a 2007 viral video sensation -- with a book by the same name. Playful, caring and wonderfully illustrated with cartoons and infographics, The Story of Stuff traces the inefficient life cycle of the stuff we buy from mineral mountains through factories and shopping malls and all the way to the dump. Fortunately, it also offers alternatives for a greener future. Essential reading for shopaholics everywhere.

For the Christmas gift party that looks anything like a game of Clue:

Who Killed Janet Smith? by Ed Starkins (Anvil Press)

When the body of a 22-year-old Scottish maid is discovered -- head bloodied, pistol in hand -- lying on the cellar floor of one of Vancouver's swankiest mansions, the detectives on the scene are quick to call it a suicide. But like all the best capers, nothing is what it seems in Ed Starkins' retelling of one of B.C.'s most infamous unsolved murder mysteries. Replete with scintillating political scandal, Dickensian inequity, Klan kidnappings, and high-society decadence, Who Killed Janet Smith? is a "true crime story" that just happens to be true. Re-released with a new forward and epilogue, this book reads like a civic history textbook written by Raymond Chandler.

For your brother-in-law who's working hard to get into the one per cent:

The Trouble With Billionaires by Linda McQuaig & Neil Brooks (Viking Canada, 2010)

If you thought our southern neighbours hold the monopoly on economic inequality, think again. McQuaig and Brooks put our own economy under the microscope. The results -- and the consequences down the road -- aren't pretty.

For your aunt, the atheist, or your aunt, the believer:

Hitchens vs. Blair: Be it Resolved Religion is a Force for Good in the World by Christopher Hitchens and Tony Blair (Anansi Books)

It comes up every Christmas, long after the turkey's been tucked away and the sherry's been poured. The argument goes one of two ways: religion is a pile of hooey, a dangerous, antiquated blight on today's society; or religion is a light in these dark times, the reason for the season, and the only thing that compels humans to maintain their humanity. World-renowned atheist (and late author) Christopher Hitchens, and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair duke it out over the merits of religion so you don't have to hear it every Christmas. Next year's debate: who won?

For your spouse the teacher or trustee:

Worlds Apart: British Columbia Schools, Politics, and Labour Relations Before and After 1972 by Thomas Fleming's (Bendall Books, 2011)

What happened to British Columbia's schools? Look back to the first half of the century and you'll find an education system that is entirely apolitical. That all changed in a very, very big way after the first NDP government arrived. We've yet to live down the aftermath.

For the music fan who thought hip-hop was dead:

Dirty South: Outkast, Lil Wayne, Soulja Boy, and the Southern Rappers Who Reinvented Hip-Hop by Ben Westhoff (Chicago Review Press, 2011)

East coast and west coast rap rivals found common enemy in Southern hip-hop, which came of age in the late '80s and hit its stride with the likes of Nelly and Chamillionaire in the mid-'aughts. Characterized by its slowed-down sound and simple, slangy lyrics, the genre has taken much flak from more established rappers and MCs for being too pop -- its artists more concerned with image and marketing than craft or substance. But, as music journalist Ben Westhoff argues in this fascinating account, southern hip-hop is for the people, by the people -- "unpretentious and always concerned with hitting your pleasure centres." Agree or not, you'll enjoy Westhoff's meticulously reported journey exploring the sub-genres and gregarious players that make up the Dirty South.

For your awkward male cousin who just can't seem to find a girlfriend:

Spaz by Bonnie Bowman (Anvil Press)

Average in height, weight, intelligence, and temperament, Walter Finch ambles through life with a bumbling gait, humbly contented to live out a suburban existence as the manager of a shopping mall shoe store. Prince charming, he isn't. But when his life-long quest to design the woman's perfect pump starts influencing his once-conventional love life, Walter's world suddenly begins to look anything but average. With punchy prose and deadpan wit, Bonnie Bowman's Spaz is a quirky fairy-tale for Canadian suburbia.

For your local MP (especially if he or she is a Tory):

Harper's Team: Behind the Scenes in the Conservative Rise to Power by Tom Flanagan (McGill -- Queen's University Press, 2011)

The Tories didn't rise to power on their good looks and personal charm, let alone their policy promises. In Harper's Team, Flanagan describes how the last elections really worked. Through fear tactics, dirty tricks, and with the help of "self-effacing media people," Harper message was uncritically broadcast and accepted.

For your local MP (if he or she happens to be a Liberal or an NDP):

When the Gods Changed: The Death of Liberal Canada by Peter C. Newman (Random House, 2011)

Peter C. Newman, the tireless political pontificator, declares the death of Canada's natural governing party. And it's a death by suicide. Both Dippers and Libs alike may choose to disagree.

What to give the history buff who loves to write in the margins:

Views from the Dark Side of American History by Michael Fellman (Louisiana State University Press, 2011)

Fellman, a frequent contributor to The Tyee, is a noted scholar of 19th century America, particularly the Civil War, about which he's written numerous trenchant books and journal articles. In a unique literary experiment, the retired SFU professor looks back on a professional lifetime of academic works, wrapping them in new essays that deconstruct who he was and what he was trying to say at the time. The result is a meditation on the ideal of wisdom hard won. If you've ever dug out an old paper from college and asked yourself "What was I thinking?" you'll relate.

What to give your friend who likes to colour inside the barricade lines:

The Stephen Harper Colouring & Activity Book by Dave Rosen (Pop Boom Bang Books)

No, that isn't the latest irreverent title to the Canadian political nonfiction market. The Stephen Harper Colour & Activity Book is exactly what it sounds like. Ever wanted to cut out a paper puppet of the Prime Minister? Ever felt the need to furbish a fantastical new hairdo atop to head of Canada's head of government? Have you ever been seized by the unshakable desire to wear down every pinkish shade of your Crayola box set adumbrating the many nooks and crannies of a full-frontal Stephen Harper centerfold? No? Well, I guess politics isn't for everyone.

For anyone who dreams of quick ways out of sticky situations:

Introducing Sophia Firecracker by A.A. Riley (Awordxica Press)

Named after a 19th century black slave who escaped north to Canadian freedom, Sophia Firecracker is a 9-years-old superhero. At least, so she says. This is a book that combines grade school social drama with the quest for super powers. Super power which, coincidently, would have been useful at the book's Victoria launch where balls were bounced, heads were bonked, and ginger ale was spilled.

If PETA's half-naked, bloodied and cellophane-wrapped activist demos have left you doubting the ethics of carnivory:

Meat: A Benign Extravagance by Simon Fairlie (Chelsea Green Publishing, 2010)

This is a powerful and controversial book aiming to spark behavioural change. Meat dives deep into the social, ethical and environmental dilemmas facing today's eaters and even hopes to push eaters off the vegan train -- or at least have them shed the thought that we all ought to quit meat to save the world. At a time when food gurus tell us to avoid meat to save our health and the environment, Fairlie argues that farm animals are essential to the long-term sustainability of global agriculture and presents small integrated farming operations, complete with free-range livestock systems, as the final answer to the Western world's confusing meditation on meat.

For your coming-of-age nephew who's never heard of The Doors:

Don't Be Afraid by Steven Hayward (Alfred A. Knopf Canada)

Jim Morrison is used to being overshadowed. No, not that Jim Morrison, but James Fortitude Morrison of Cleveland Heights, Ohio, a 17 year old living in the shadow of a charismatic older brother, a domineering father, and a legendary namesake who died in a Paris bathtub just three days young Jim's birth. But when a freak accident kills his brother Mike, it falls on Jim to hold his shattered family together while conducting his own investigation into exactly what happened. Straddling the fine line between comedy and tragedy, Toronto-native Steven Hayward's third novel might just light your fire.

For your college-aged second-cousin thinking of dropping her "useless" history degree:

Telling it to the Judge: Taking Native History to Court by Arthur J. Ray (McGill-Queen's University Press)

With their heads typically lodged between the brittle pages of dusty archived texts, historians rarely get the opportunity to actually make history. But since the Supreme Court of Canada ruled in its 1973 Calder decision that Aboriginal land claims predate the colonization of Canada, historians like Arthur J. Ray have come to play an improbably significant role in redefining the legal rights of First Nations and Inuits in Canada today. Drawing upon over three decades of experience as an expert witness before a jury, Ray's Telling it to the Judge is equal parts memoir, history lesson, and courtroom drama.

For herbalists, home brewers and garage tinkerers everywhere:

Making It: Radical Home Ec. for a Post-Consumer World by Kelly Coyne and Eric Knutzen (Rodale, 2011)

Have you ever wanted to make your own soap? Looking for a good recipe for mead? Curious about designs for edible houseplants? Look no further. Kelly Coyne and Eric Knutzen go well beyond chicken coops and bee hives (although those are in there too) to deliver a fun snapshot of America's growing maker movement. True to the do-it-yourself ethic, the couple's latest book is a collection of home and garden projects developed through trial and error on a 1/12-acre farm in the heart of Los Angeles. Even if you're not ready to give up toothpaste for chew sticks or bring olive oil into your shaving repertoire, this is a great read for anyone looking to buy less and make more.

For that niece who wants to be a ballerina:

Where Snowflakes Dance and Swear: Inside the Land of Ballet by Stephen Manes (Cadwallader & Stern, 2011)

Writer Stephen Manes was working in film and TV when a mad pash for dance sent him to investigate Seattle's Pacific Northwest Ballet in a 900+ page doorstop of a book. Unlike much of the romantic drivel written about the tulle-and-pointe-shoe crowd, Mane's tome offers a fascinating look at the minutiae of how ballet makes it to the stage. While dance fans will be intrigued by details like soloist Ariana Lallone being an astounding 5'11 (making her 6'5 en pointe), most readers will enjoy a glimpse into a mysterious industry shrouded in romance. Overall, this book is a nice reality check for aspiring dancers and a fine antidote to the melodramatic nonsense peddled by films like The Red Shoes and Black Swan.

For your hypochondriac sister:

Parasites: Tales of Humanity's Most Unwelcome Guests by Rosemary Drisdelle (University of California Press, 2010)

Nova Scotia's Rosemary Drisdelle writes about plenty of Canadian content, including Cryptosporidium in some of our reservoirs and Giardia (beaver fever) in our sparkling mountain streams. Raw fish? You eat it. And then it eats you.

For your cousin, the helicopter parent:

Caesarion by Tommy Wieringa, translated from Dutch by Sam Garrett (Portobello Books, 2011)

Ludwig, our hero, is born to an abandoned mother, Marthe. After years of living in Alexandria, Ludwig and Marthe take off to Suffolk, England, to live in a house eaten away by woodworms, high atop an eroding cliff. It's a situation as precarious as their relationship: Marthe, vain, dramatic and stifling; Ludwig, so sheltered from the outside world that the lines between mother and lover become disturbingly blurry. Not a treatise on the dangers of having only one parent, but on taking parenting too far. 

For your cousin in the States, the Civil War buff:

The Judges of the Secret Court by David Stacton (NYRB Classics, 2011)

Stacton, who died in 1968, was a prolific author of historical novels, mysteries, and gay pornography. This republished novel about the assassination of Abraham Lincoln and the pursuit of John Wilkes Booth has Stacton's trademark irony and epigrammatic style. He deserves to be rediscovered.

For anyone who wants another excuse to take a pass on the eggnog:

Memoirs of an Addicted Brain: A Neuroscientist Examines His Former Life on Drugs by Marc Lewis (Doubleday Canada)

Marc Lewis has a complicated relationship with his own brain. After spending the first three decades of his life soaking his gray matter in alcohol, opioids, hallucinogens, nitrous oxide, and any other chemical capable of sustaining a high, Lewis got clean for good at 30 years old and launched his career as a developmental psychologist and neuroscientist. A consummate expert on addiction from both the inside and out, Lewis explains in fascinating and heartbreaking detail how and why the human brain is programed to insatiably covet the next fix.

If you're looking to alienate the self-righteous foodie in your family:

Empires of Food: Feast, Famine, and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations by Evan D.G. Fraser and Andrew Rimas (Free Press)

Reminiscent of Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel and rich in narrative storytelling, Empires of Food is a powerful lesson in world history told through the lens of food. Fraser and Rimas trace the ups and downs of the world's hungriest societies, from the excesses of imperial feasts in Mesopotamia and the Fertile Crescent to the water shortages and ballooning food prices of modern China and the United States. Finally, Empires of Food lambastes today's foodies and gourmands with a sobering reminder: food is not about fashion. It's about survival.

What to give your city councillor who keeps saying climate change isn't a local issue:

Resiliency: Cool Ideas for Locally Elected Leaders by Various (Columbia Institute, 2011).

The Vancouver-based Columbia Institute regularly gathers local movers, shakers and policy mavens to exchange successful sustainability practices in B.C. and beyond. The result this year is a compendium of articles on topics ranging from urban design to fostering the new green economy to communicating with constituents. Think of it as a handbook for doing the right thing and not getting voted out of office for your troubles. With an opening chapter by Bill Rees, Resiliency is fifth in the Columbia Institute's Going for Green Leadership Series. Order the book here or go here to find other titles published by the Vancouver-based think tank.