Inspired by my friend and Acculturated colleague R.J.
Moeller, who recently suggested a list
of novels for your reading pleasure in 2014, and by the always thought-provoking
journalist and blogger Rod Dreher, who
just posted his own handful of book
recommendations in time for Christmas, I hereby submit four nonfiction books for readers in search
of last-minute Christmas gifts for others (or themselves). In between making your
way through R.J.’s novel-a-month reading schedule, you can’t go wrong by
interspersing these entertaining, edifying titles among them. Not in any
particular order:
In his recent What Jefferson Read, Ike Watched, and Obama
Tweeted: 200 Years of Popular Culture in the White House, Tevi Troy
examines how presidents have interacted with pop culture from our nation’s
beginning to today, from the Founding Father bibliophiles to our own pop
culture-savvy president, Barack Obama. Why should this matter to anyone?
Because “how a president engages popular culture,” Troy writes, “tells us about
the people who elected him, the changing nature of American politics and
society, and the tension between high-, low- and middle-brow pursuits.” The
book “is an exploration of how presidents have made use of a multiplicity of
cultural pursuits… and how those pursuits have in turn shaped them and the
nation.” Acculturated’s own Abby W. Schachter actually wrote about it here,
and I reviewed it elsewhere,
calling it a fun, light read, and eye-opening for anyone who dismisses the
significance of pop culture in the grand political scheme of things.
Seven Men and the Secret of Their Greatness
by Eric Metaxas addresses what it means (or should mean) to be a man today, in
our era in which manhood is under siege. Written in a clear and engaging
style, Metaxas asks what it takes to be an exemplary father, brother,
husband, son. What does it mean to stand for values like honesty, courage, and
charity, in a world that constantly tests your commitment to those values? Rather
than lecture us directly, Metaxas profiles seven men whose lives serve as
inspirational examples: George Washington, William Wilberforce, Eric Liddell, Dietrich
Bonhoeffer, Jackie Robinson, John Paul II, and Charles Colson, who share one noble
quality: “that of surrendering themselves to a higher purpose, of giving away
something that they might have kept.” Yes, the book is about manhood but women
too will benefit enormously from it, even if only by sharing it with the men in
their lives. And yes, as you might expect from Metaxas, the book is infused
with a Christian perspective, but not in a proselytizing way.
For a radical change of tone, if you’re not already a fan of
Greg Gutfeld, host of Fox’s late night show Red
Eye, you will be after reading his hilarious attack on political
correctness titled The Joy of Hate: How to Triumph Over Whiners
in the Age of Phony Outrage. “I see our country under attack,” says
Gutfeld. “Not by offensive people like me, but by people who claim to be
offended. By people like me.” He despises the hypocrisy of what he calls
“artificial tolerance,” and urges that we “replace the idiocy of open-mindedness
with a shrewd judgmentalism” [read: common sense] that rejects stupidity. In
his aggressively sarcastic style, Gutfeld cuts through the nonsense and makes the
truth laugh-out-loud entertaining.
(I’m looking forward as well to his new book coming out in
March, Not Cool: The Hipster Elite and Their War on
You, Gutfeld’s battle plan for “reclaiming the real American ideal of
cool”: building businesses, protecting freedom, taking personal responsibility,
and leaving other people to live “as they damn well please.”)
Last but certainly not least comes The
Little Way Of Ruthie Leming: A Southern Girl, a Small Town, and the Secret of a
Good Life by the aforementioned Rod Dreher. It’s about his late sister,
a small-town Louisiana schoolteacher who was fatally stricken with cancer at
the age of 42. Rod, the “city mouse” to Ruthie’s “country mouse,” describes this
beautiful book best himself: “The luminous courage with which she met her
death, and the way the people of my hometown walked with her until the very
end, caused me to rethink the value of the life I left behind—and to return to
raise my own children.” For a preview of that moving book, check out
Acculturated’s podcast with Rod here.
If chosen from the heart,
books make meaningful, sometimes life-changing gifts. Feel free to offer any
nonfiction book recommendations of your own below…
(This article originally appeared here on Acculturated, 12/24/13)
