Books Given, Gifts Received

Frankly, if it somehow ever gets to the point that my family has absolutely no interest in books whatsoever, I might just have to swear off Christmas forever since I'd have no idea what to buy for anyone.

GIVEN:

• For my Anglophile mom: Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall
• For my freelance writer niece (whom I hope will help me comprehend the latter): Nathanael West, The Day of the Locust/Miss Lonelyhearts
• For my countercultural nephew: Don De Grazia, American Skin; Jeff and Ann VanderMeer, editors: Steampunk
• For my Harry Potter fanatic niece (who has worn out her entire series in paperback and is now collecting the hardcovers): J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
• For my Hoosier sister of uncertain literary tastes: Audrey Niffenegger, The Time Traveler's Wife
• For my brother-in-law (whom I hope likes the crime fiction I've bought him the past two years): Stieg Larsson, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

RECEIVED:

• Michael T. Fournier, The Minutemen: Double Nickels on the Dime
• Nelson Algren, The Last Carousel
• Knut Hamsun, Tales of Love and Loss
• Kent Haruf, Eventide

I've already started reading the first two, both of which are quite good. I loved Algren's forty-years-later post mortem on the 1919 Black Sox (sort of wizened-grownup, journalistic companion piece to "The Silver-Colored Yesterday", his magnificent chapter in Chicago: City on the Make which describes his boyhood reaction to the scandal), which I read while sitting on the couch at my mother-in-law's house on Christmas afternoon, completely absorbed and to the considerable amusement of my in-laws. And after I've read the Minutemen book, I plan to read it again while listening to the album, as their song titles have such a tenuous connection with their songs that I'm not always sure which song the writer is discussing at any given time.