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.