Books I Hope Santa Brings

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All I want for Christmas is books! Actually, that's not true. I'm trying really hard to read the books I already own instead of acquiring new ones. However, I do have 4 books on my Christmas wish list. I know I won't get them because my family won't buy me books, but I can dream.

🤶  Books On My Wish List  🎅

How To Say Babylon: A Memoir by Safiya Sinclair

Memoir

Throughout her childhood, Safiya Sinclair’s father, a volatile reggae musician and militant adherent to a strict sect of Rastafari, became obsessed with her purity, in particular, with the threat of what Rastas call Babylon, the immoral and corrupting influences of the Western world outside their home. He worried that womanhood would make Safiya and her sisters morally weak and impure, and believed a woman’s highest virtue was her obedience.

In an effort to keep Babylon outside the gate, he forbade almost everything. In place of pants, the women in her family were made to wear long skirts and dresses to cover their arms and legs, head wraps to cover their hair, no make-up, no jewelry, no opinions, no friends. Safiya’s mother, while loyal to her father, nonetheless gave Safiya and her siblings the gift of books, including poetry, to which Safiya latched on for dear life. And as Safiya watched her mother struggle voicelessly for years under housework and the rigidity of her father’s beliefs, she increasingly used her education as a sharp tool with which to find her voice and break free. Inevitably, with her rebellion comes clashes with her father, whose rage and paranoia explodes in increasing violence. As Safiya’s voice grows, lyrically and poetically, a collision course is set between them.

Why I want to read it: It's being compared to Educated by Tara Westover and Born A Crime by Trevor Noah, which are two memoirs I thoroughly enjoyed. They're both about young people who use education and talent to escape from abusive situations. I know nothing about Rastafari, but I'm interested to learn more.

Buy it on Amazon

I've Tried Being Nice: Essays by Ann Leary

Memoir

Having arrived at a certain age (her prime), Ann Leary casts a wry backward glance at a life spent trying—and often failing—to be nice. With wit and surprising candor, Leary recounts the bedlam of home bat invasions, an obsession with online personality tests, and the mortification of taking ballroom dance lessons with her actor husband. She describes hilarious red-carpet fiascos and other observations from the sidelines of fame, while also touching upon her more poignant struggles with alcoholism, her love for her family, her dogs, and so much more.

Why I want to read it: Apparently, Ann Leary is a well-known fiction writer who's married to someone famous. I've never heard of her or Denis Leary, her husband. This book sounds relatable. I definitely have people-pleasing tendencies that have gotten me in trouble more than once. Reviewers say the memoir is a light, funny, quick read. I need more of those in my life.

Buy it on Amazon

The Faithful Executioner: Life And Death, Honor And Shame In The Turbulent Sixteenth Centry by Joel F. Harrington

History Nonfiction

The extraordinary story of a Renaissance-era executioner and his world, based on a rare and overlooked journal.

In the late 1500s a Nuremberg man named Frantz Schmidt began to do something utterly remarkable for his era: he started keeping a journal. But what makes Schmidt even more compelling to us is his day job. For forty-five years, Schmidt was an efficient and prolific public executioner, employed by the state to extract confessions and put convicted criminals to death. In his years of service, he executed 361 people and tortured, flogged, or disfigured hundreds more. Is it possible that a man who practiced such cruelty could also be insightful, compassionate, humane—even progressive?

In his groundbreaking book, the historian Joel F. Harrington looks for the answer in Schmidt’s journal, whose immense significance has been ignored until now. Harrington uncovers details of Schmidt’s medical practice, his marriage to a woman ten years older than him, his efforts at penal reform, his almost touching obsession with social status, and most of all his conflicted relationship with his own craft and the growing sense that it could not be squared with his faith.

A biography of an ordinary man struggling for his soul, The Faithful Executioner is also an unparalleled portrait of Europe on the cusp of modernity, yet riven by conflict and encumbered by paranoia, superstition, and abuses of power.

Why I want to read it: It's so cool that a journal from the 1500s has survived. It sounds completely fascinating. Can you imagine killing 361 people? Can you imagine having a medical practice at the same time? I guess if you know how to fix somebody, you also know how to destroy them. I'm interested to learn how someone becomes and executioner and why. It's a job I'd never do.

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Trailed: One Woman's Quest To Solve The Shenandoah Murders by Kathryn Miles

True Crime

In May 1996, two skilled backcountry leaders, Lollie Winans and Julie Williams, entered Virginia’s Shenandoah National Park for a week-long backcountry camping trip. The free-spirited and remarkable young couple had met and fallen in love the previous summer while working at a world-renowned outdoor program for women. During their final days in the park, they descended the narrow remnants of a trail and pitched their tent in a hidden spot. After the pair didn’t return home as planned, park rangers found a scene of horror at their campsite, their tent slashed open, their beloved dog missing, and both women dead in their sleeping bags. The unsolved murders of Winans and Williams continue to haunt all who had encountered them or knew their story.

When award-winning journalist and outdoors expert Kathryn Miles begins looking into the case, she discovers conflicting evidence, mismatched timelines, and details that just don’t add up. With unprecedented access to crucial crime-scene forensics and key witnesses—and with a growing sense of both mission and obsession—she begins to uncover the truth. An innocent man, Miles is convinced, has been under suspicion for decades, while the true culprit is a known serial killer, if only authorities would take a closer look.

Why I want to read it: I heard about this case when I was a child, and it traumatized me because my family camped a lot. It's something I think about whenever I camp alone. I didn't know the case was still unsolved. I want to know why, even though I'll probably traumatize myself all over again.

Buy it on Amazon

Which books are on your holiday wish list?