Books for Christmas 2025

Surveys indicate that reading books is dropping precipitously across all age groups. This is a tragedy in itself; it’s also a social disaster, as a post-literate society risks becoming a post-rational society. All the more reason, then, to consider giving books for Christmas: books that entertain, inform, and open new horizons of understanding. Here are 11 suggestions, including recent publications and what the Sixties radio DJs used to call “oldies but goodies”:

Jeeves and the Yule-Tide Spirit and Other Stories, by P.G. Wodehouse: The idyllic, imaginary world of foolish Bertie Wooster and his intrepid gentleman’s gentleman, Jeeves, is both completely unbelievable and totally credible. And if Wodehouse doesn’t make you laugh, you have no sense of humor.

Growing into God: The Fathers of the Church on Christian Maturity, by John Gavin, S.J.: Catholics who pray the Liturgy of the Hours meet the great Christian spiritual masters of the first millennium almost daily. Father Gavin, who teaches at Holy Cross, is a sure and accessible guide to the riches of the patristic period, the rediscovery of which is one of Catholicism’s great theological accomplishments of the past century and a half.

On the Dignity of Society: Catholic Social Teaching and Natural Law, by F. Russell Hittinger (edited by Scott J. Roniger): In the era of Pope Leo XIV, many find themselves wondering about Pope Leo XIII. Russ Hittinger is our most accomplished commentator on that great pope; the pivotal chapter in this fine essay collection, “The Accomplishment of Leo XIII,” is required reading.

Church, State, and Society: An Introduction to Catholic Social Doctrine (Second Edition), by J. Brian Benestad and Ryan Connors: This revised and expanded edition of a masterful work brings the story of the “Church’s best kept secret” up through Pope Francis. Highly recommended as a textbook.

An Anxious Age: The Post-Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of America, by Joseph Bottum: Why has the United States become so cranky in recent decades? Poet and philosopher Bottum offers an intriguing proposal — because the old Protestant cultural hegemony collapsed when liberal Protestantism imploded into post-Christian wokery; Catholicism failed to fill the cultural vacuum (as it might have done through the teaching and example of John Paul II); and spiritual anxiety reigns supreme, taking various bizarre forms. Think of this distinctive work as both a primer for the New Evangelization and a penetrating analysis of the roots of our 21st-century political discontents.

Make Peace Before the Sun Goes Down: The Long Encounter of Thomas Merton and His Abbot, James Fox, by Roger Lipsey: Abbot James is typically presented as the authoritarian nemesis of the world’s most famous Trappist during their lifetimes. The relationship certainly had its complexities, but Dom James took Merton as his confessor for fifteen years, even as they were battling over various aspects of monastic life. That the two men are buried side by side at the Abbey of Gethsemani has always struck me as something deeply Catholic; this uneven but fascinating book confirmed that intuition.

Zbig: The Life of Zbigniew Brzezinski, America’s Great Power Prophet, by Edward Luce: Catholic readers will be particularly interested in Ed Luce’s discussion of the relationship between Brzezinski and Pope John Paul II, which had a significant effect on history during the rise of the Solidarity movement in 1980 and the Soviet threat to crush it by military force.

The Golden Thread: A History of the Western Tradition, Volume One, by Allen C. Guelzo and James Hankins: A magnificent, detailed overview of the evolution of the West from antiquity to the Renaissance, and, thanks to the good people at Encounter Books, the most beautiful piece of bookmaking in decades. Give it to every college student you know.

If Russia Wins: A Scenario, by Carlo Masala: A brief, deeply informed analysis of what might happen around the world if the United States and Europe do not gather the wit, will, and capacity to resist the new Russian imperialism.

On Active Service in War and Peace, by Henry L. Stimson: A reminder of the days when men of experience and character brought distinction to public service rather than getting notoriety from it, and an elegy for the days when bipartisanship characterized U.S. foreign policy.

The Last Manager: How Earl Weaver Tricked, Tormented, and Reinvented Baseball, by John Miller: Given the subject’s salty vocabulary, don’t read this aloud with children around. But if you want to know how contemporary baseball “analytics” trace their roots to a bookie in Depression-era St. Louis, this fine biography of the “Earl of Baltimore” is for you, and for anyone who loves the great game.

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