Big stocking stuffers: Books for all the readers on your list

I remember one Christmas Eve family gathering when my cousin Ricky, who couldn’t have been more than 5, exclaimed, “All I get for Christmas is underwear and socks. Socks, socks, socks.”

Today it would be more common to hear “books, books, books” from someone who’s hard to shop for, but that’s OK … in my book.

With a trip to a local bookstore, you can find something to please everyone on your gift list.

For the mystery reader, consider Louise Penny’s “The Grey Wolf” (actually a thriller with a deathly ending); brothers Andrew and Lee Child’s latest Jack Reacher book, “In Too Deep”; and Michael Connelly’s “The Waiting,” a Bosch and Ballard cold-case mystery with Bosch’s cop daughter embroiled in the unsolved crime.

Otto Penzler’s annual collection of Christmas-themed short mysteries, “Christmas Crimes at the Mysterious Bookshop,” featuring one by Michigan author Loren D. Estleman, is another great Christmas Day read.

Three Michigan-related coffee-table books are also excellent choices for the ship, train and trolley, and printer nerds in the family.

“The Michigan Railway Company: The Northern and Southern Divisions,” by Norman L. Krentel, follows the short-lived histories of local rail-based transportation systems in mid-Michigan, including Lansing. Did you know sugar beets were transported on urban railways and that Haslett had a mammoth sinkhole?

“Citizen Printer,” by Amos Paul Kennedy Jr., a Detroit printer, artist and author, is a compendium of more than 800 reproductions of Kennedy’s radical, social justice and just plain funny posters and broadsheets. My favorite is a simple poster proclaiming, “Ladies: NO! Fighting in the Bathroom” for a bar in York, Alabama.

“Sail, Steam and Diesel: Moving Cargo on the Great Lakes,” by Eric Hirsimaki, is a Great Lakes shipping geek’s delight that will keep them busy until the Soo Locks reopen in the spring.

A teenager or even a precocious preteen will enjoy the new Taylor Swift biography, “Heartbreak is the National Anthem: How Taylor Swift Reinvented Pop Music,” by middle-aged music writer Rob Sheffield.

For more adult novels, look to Louise Erdrich’s “The Mighty Red,” a coming-of-age story of confusing young love and a complicated tale of a small town living through a recession. Of course, Erdrich’s own Indigenous roots and ownership of an independent bookstore play large, along with sugar beets and fracking. Also, “James,” Percival Everett’s National Book Award-winning reimagining of Mark Twain’s “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” will keep you reading into the night.

For aging hippie music lovers, two books stand out this year: “The MC5: An Oral Biography of America’s Most Revolutionary Band,” compiled, edited and written by a legendary editor of Creem magazine, Jaan Uhelszski, and respected rock writer Brad Tolinski, who shepherded the unfinished manuscript of the late Ben Edmonds into print.

On the softer side, “Traveling: On the Path of Joni Mitchell,” by rock critic Ann Powers, delves into the life and times of this force in music, a life that has been described as “kaleidoscopic in scope.” This book comes along when we may need it the most.

Alice Randall’s unique book “My Black Country,” about country music from an African American perspective, is a heck of a read even if you have no interest in the genre. Randall is an author and country-music songwriter who has written for Trisha Yearwood. A previous book, “Black Bottom Saints,” won a Michigan Notable Book award. She was born in Detroit.

Knee nippers will be fascinated by the nautical-themed children’s book “The Ship in the Window,” written by Michigan children’s librarian Travis Yonker and illustrated by Caldecott Medal-winning artist Matthew Cordell. This picture book will captivate youngsters and their adult readers as they follow Mabel, a mouse, who takes a model ship on a cruise.

For non-fiction readers who lean toward history and memoirs, check out “Freedom: Memoirs 1954-2021,” by former German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and “Patriot: A Memoir,” by Alex Navalny, a heroic tale of the fight against a despot.

Lately, I’ve been recommending two urban history classics: “The Power Broker,” Robert Caro’s encyclopedic look at Robert Moses, and “The Death and Life of Great American Cities,” by Jane Jacobs. They both have a modern relevance to Lansing.