Always read stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.

—P.J. O’Rourke

A Free Life by Ha Jin. The Wu family begins a new life in the U.S. in the aftermath of the 1989 Tienanmen Square massacre.

The Quiet Girl by Peter Hoeg. A fast-paced philosophical thriller set in contemporary Denmark.

Rashi’s Daughters: Miriam by Maggie Anton. A novel of love and the Talmud in medieval France.

Rivalry: A Geisha’s Tale by Nagai Kafu. One of the most convincing and sensually rich portraits of the geisha profession.

Toehold by Stephen H. Foreman. The residents of Toehold, Alaska are an odd collection of eccentric souls reveling in the fierceness of the land.

The Art of Ill Will by Donald Dewey. The story of American political cartoons.

The Bible: A Biography by Karen Armstrong. The conception, gestation, and life of history’s most powerful book.

Big-Box Swindle by Stacy Mitchell. The true cost of mega-retailers and the fight for America’s independent businesses.

Bird Songs of the Pacific States by Thomas G. Sander. Listen to the primary songs of 132 species on CD.

Classics for Pleasure by Michael Dirda. Essays about ninety of the world’s most entertaining books.

The Dead Travel Fast by Eric Nuzum. Stalking vampires from Nosferatu to Count Chocula.

Design Like You Give a Damn edited by Architecture for Humanity. Architectural responses to humanitarian crises.

The Hidden Sense: Synesthesia in Art and Science by Cretien van Campen. What does it mean to hear music in colors, to taste voices, to see each letter of the alphabet as a different color?

Marco Polo: From Venice to Xanadu by Laurence Bergreen. The original globe trekker and the earliest bridge between East and West.

Musicophilia by Oliver Sacks. Tales of music and the brain.

The Scent of Desire by Rachel Herz. Discovering our enigmatic sense of smell.

Subversive Seamstress by Melissa Alvarado and others. Transform thrift store threads into street couture.

Transit Maps of the World by Mark Ovenden. The world’s first collection of every urban train map on earth.

Food and Cooking:

Kitchen Mysteries by Hervé This. Revealing the science of cooking

Laura Werlin’s Cheese Essentials. An insider’s guide to buying and serving cheese, with 50 recipes.

The Story of Tea by Mary Lou Heiss and Robert J. Heiss. A cultural history and drinking guide.

Christmas: A Candid History by Bruce David Forbes. The story of Christmas from its pre-Christian roots, through the birth of Jesus, to its transformation by modern consumer culture.

Christmas Stories, ed. by Diana Secker Tesdell. Short fiction by great writers of the past two centuries.

Chrismukkah by Ron Gompertz. Everything you need to know to celebrate the hybrid holiday.

How to Spell Chanukah, and Other Holiday Dilemmas ed. by Emily Franklin. Eighteen writers celebrate eight nights of lights.

Why Does Santa Wear Red? by Meera Lester. 101 Christmas curiosities unwrapped.

The Devil Came on Horseback (U.S., 2007) An exposé of the genocide raging in Darfur, seen through the eyes of a former U.S. marine.

Into Great Silence (France/Switzerland/Germany, 2005) A view of life inside the Grande Chartreuse in France, one of the world’s most ascetic monasteries.

No End in Sight (U.S., 2007) The inside story of Iraq’s descent into chaos.

Snow Cake (U.K., 2006) Three lives are altered when a man traumatized after a fatal car accident picks up a young female hitchhiker.

Anne Cheadle, Moscow Library, recommends:

Speed Cleaning by Jeff Campbell and the Clean Team.

Few people really like to houseclean and I’m no exception. This book about ways to shorten cleaning time and still get the job done is funny and to the point. Even my daughter laughed at its reference to VLT—valuable leisure time—as the rationale behind cleaning more efficiently. Now my brain is filled with new terms: “Red juice” and “blue juice,” and pithy recommendations: “If it isn’t dirty, don’t clean it.” I may never outfit the apron the book recommends, but cleaning is already more fun.