Exciting Books for Christmas Reading

Compiled by Jamie H. Vaught

Are you looking or shopping for a nice Christmas gift? Here’s a list of recently-published books that you may want to consider as a special gift for a loved one or a friend.


--The Greatest Sentence Ever Written by Walter Isaacson (Simon & Schuster, $20) reveals the origins of the most revolutionary sentence in the Declaration of Independence, the one that defines who we are as Americans — and explains how it should shape our politics today. To celebrate our country's 250th anniversary in July, the bestselling author takes readers on a fascinating deep dive into the creation of one of history’s most powerful sentences: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” Drafted by Thomas Jefferson and edited by Benjamin Franklin and John Adams, this line lays the foundation for the American Dream and defines the common ground we share as a nation. The readers will gain a fresh appreciation for how it was drafted to inspire unity, equality, and the enduring promise of America.

--The Christmas Stranger by Richard Paul Evans (Gallery Books, $22) is a powerful and thought-provoking novel about love, loss, and the mysterious workings of heaven. Three years after losing his family in a Christmas Eve accident, grief-stricken Paul Wanlass hasn’t just given up on Christmas, he’s given up on life. He can’t imagine anything to keep him here — not his work as a computer repairman, not the residents in his Salt Lake City neighborhood, and certainly not the idea of connecting with someone new. When a stranger knocks on his door, claiming to be picking up a laptop, Paul allows him in — but discovers the man has a very different mission in mind. Paul wakes the next morning unsure if his encounter with the stranger really happened or was just a dream but when the stranger shows up again, Paul challenges him to give him just one reason to live. The stranger agrees to the challenge but warns Paul not to expect a path he would have guessed or chosen. As the stranger promised, Paul’s life takes a wild and fateful turn. A robbery connects him with a woman who has also lost the love of her life, and, in a seemingly unrelated incident, Paul rescues a young boy from bullying, only to find the boy needs a different kind of rescue. The twists leave Paul wondering what these people have in common, and why they were brought together. Who — or what — really is this Christmas stranger, and how will Paul find meaning once again?

--The Last Days of Marilyn Monroe: A True Crime Thriller by James Patterson and Imogen Edwards-Jones (Little, Brown and Company, $32) is a true crime thriller about a woman who changed Hollywood history, and whose indelible image captures our imagination to this day. In life, Marilyn Monroe’s superstardom defies classification. In death, she remains shrouded in mystery. In the months before her death, Marilyn polishes the script for her ultimately unfinished film, Something’s Got to Give. In the weeks before her death, she drinks champagne on Santa Monica Beach with the last photographer to take her picture. In the days before her death, she’s a guest of Frank Sinatra in the Celebrity Room at the Cal Neva Lodge. In the hours before her death, she argues with U.S. Attorney General Bobby Kennedy and his brother-in-law Peter Lawford. In an emergency session with her psychiatrist, she confesses: “Here I am, the most beautiful woman in the world, and I do not have a date for Saturday night.” On June 1, 2026, the world celebrates Marilyn Monroe’s 100th birthday … without her.

--Life, Law & Liberty: A Memoir by Anthony Kennedy (Simon & Schuster, $30) is a remarkable story about the former U.S. Supreme Court Justice, exploring his personal life, his time as a professor and his reflections on constitutional law and the role of a judge. Throughout his 30-year tenure on the Supreme Court, Justice Kennedy authored landmark opinions on some of the most contested issues, including abortion, gay rights, and free speech. At the ideological center of a divided Court, Kennedy sided with justice, fairness, and the liberty our Constitution guarantees. The 15th-longest-serving Supreme Court Justice in U.S. history, Kennedy crafted headline-making opinions that legalized gay marriage, protected political speech, abolished the death penalty for minors, and, in a nuanced ruling, upheld a woman’s right to choose — decisions that were both celebrated and criticized across political lines. How did this devout Catholic, Reagan appointee to the Court, and conservative in both temperament and politics end up authoring some of the most consequential liberal decisions of our time? The last Justice to be confirmed to the Court unanimously (97–0) by the Senate, Kennedy serves as a role model for our fractious times, an example of civility, decency, and ethics, and a deeply principled guardian of liberty.

--My Big Red Machine: The Tales, Drama, And Revelations Of A Fan Turned Journalist Covering Baseball's Greatest Team by Terence Moore (Moore Sports Inc., $19.95) is a fascinating story about the Cincinnati Reds of the 1970s as written through the eyes of an sportswriter who went from living and dying with his sports heroes as a youth to dealing with them up close and personal on a regular basis. And he eventually built a lifetime bond with several of them while becoming an award-winning journalist and a Baseball Hall of Fame voter. The author, who had just graduted from college, had to learn how to control his awe around a clubhouse filled with perennial All-Stars and future Baseball Hall of Famers. Since newspapers still were in their heyday during the Big Red Machine's era, he also had to find ways to survive and to prosper in that competitive media environment. That was despite two things. Moore usually was the youngest writer by far consistently around those Reds and he was the first full-time African American sportswriter ever to work for a major newspaper in the region.

--Without Precedent: How Chief Justice Roberts and His Accomplices Rewrote the Constitution and Dismantled Our Rights by Lisa Graves (Bold Type Books, $32) explodes the falsehood that Roberts is a fair-minded institutionalist who works to blunt the worst impulses of other Republican appointees to the court when, in fact, he has led the rightward transformation of the court’s jurisprudence while presiding over the most corrupt and corrupted Supreme Court in American history. In the last 20 years the U.S. Supreme Court has radically curtailed voting rights, undermined anti-corruption measures, encouraged extreme political gerrymandering, restricted the regulation of guns, and obliterated the constitutional right to control one’s reproductive choices. Informed by author's experience working on judicial issues for all three branches of the federal government, and based on years of intensive research, the book not only exposes Roberts as the reactionary politician in robes he has always been but delivers a vigorous plan of judicial reform designed to overcome the divisive, discriminatory, destructive, and anti-democratic machinations of the Roberts court. 

--Masters of the Game: A Conversational History of the NBA in 75 Legendary Players by Sam Smith and Phil Jackson (Penguin Press, $32) is loaded with conversations of high-grade analysis and high-grade gossip about the former stars as told by legendary sportswriter Sam Smith and 11-time NBA champion coach Phil Jackson. The duo chops it up about the basketball life, the sport, and the genius and the shadow side of the all-time greats: Jordan, Kobe, Shaq, Magic, Bill Russell, Wilt, Jerry West, Bird, LeBron, KD, Steph Curry, Bill Walton, and more. There are so many huge characters here, and Smith and Jackson can hold their own with any of them. Their spirit—sharp, wise, irreverent, honest, respectful of the lore and legacy of the game but never pious—and the clash of their different perspectives combine to make this book a joyous ride, a short course in greatness open to all students.

--Retribution: Donald Trump and the Campaign That Changed America by Jonathan Karl (Dutton, $32) brings us behind closed doors deep inside the White House and presidential campaigns, revealing the extraordinary moments that ended one man’s presidency and brought another back to power. From President Biden’s shocking withdrawal and Vice President Harris’s historic run, to the multiple assassination attempts on President Trump, his election, and the changes he has brought to every corner of the country, this book reveals in surprising new detail how we got here, and what we can expect from American politics in the years to come. Karl is a longtime journalist with ABC News.