Holiday book list (to give or read)

List prepared by Natalie Hutchinson,
Director of Wellehan Library
Annotations by Charmaine Daniels and Marybeth Keniston ’06

SISTERS: CATHOLIC NUNS AND THE MAKING OF AMERICA by John Fialka
In this book about Catholic nuns in America over the past 215 years, Fialka focuses on the Sisters of Mercy and includes many stories told by the Sisters themselves.

1776 by David McCullough
This book on the American Revolution’s second year offers a fascinating look at the opposing armies and the role of King George III and George Washington.

NICKEL AND DIMED: ON (NOT) GETTING BY IN AMERICA by Barbara Ehrenreich
Ehrenreich went undercover as an unskilled worker in this first-hand account of the struggles of Wal-Mart clerks, chambermaids, waitresses and nursing home assistants.

HOW THE IRISH SAVED CIVILIZATION by Thomas Cahill
Cahill explains how the Irish held on to Western culture during the Dark Ages, when barbarians routinely raided Europe.

TWENTY ADS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD: THE CENTURY’S MOST GROUNDBREAKING ADVERTISING AND HOW IT CHANGED US ALL
by James Twitchell
Many ads have affected American culture, and Twitchell provides the stories of 20 ads that left a lasting mpression.

THE YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING by Joan Didion
This touching memoir details the eye-opening, emotional experience Didion faced when her husband of 40 years, author John Gregory Dunne, died.

BLINK: THE POWER OF THINKING WITHOUT THINKING by Malcolm Gladwell
Gladwell writes about the ability to make immediate judgments and choices, sometimes called intuition, including how we can improve this ability.

GUNS, GERMS, AND STEEL: THE FATES OF HUMAN SOCIETIES by Jared Diamond
This Pulitzer Prize winner gives an account of the effects that geography and climate have on the wealth and power of a society.

BOTANY OF DESIRE: A PLANT’S-EYE VIEW OF THE WORLD by Michael Pollan
Pollan gives an interpretation of how plants view the world, and specically humans. Apples, tulips, marijuana and potatoes serve as his main subjects.

FREAKONOMICS: A ROGUE ECONOMIST EXPLORES THE HIDDEN SIDE OF
EVERYTHING by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner
The authors make economics intriguing by looking at “riddles of everyday life,” and then asking an unasked – and sometimes unusual – question.