What books of this year (and years past) might make good gifts this holiday season? National Review Online’s recommendations of great books to go under the tree continues. JULIE GUNLOCK For food lovers and history buffs, William Grimes’s new book, Appetite City, (which I reviewed for the November 23 NR) is an exciting and meticulously researched book about New York’s rich culinary history. But it isn’t just New Yorkers who will enjoy it; everyone will take pleasure in Grimes’s imagery of New York’s early open markets and oyster bars and his amusing descriptions of some of the city’s food-related scandals. For serious food-minded people, consider the revised and updated Larousse Gastronomique: The World’s Greatest Culinary Encyclopedia. At over 1,200 pages, it covers every imaginable question one might have in the middle of a food crisis. A good reference for any active home cook. For a bit of kitsch, consider the The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Recipes from an Accidental Country Girl. The author, Ree Drummond, has written a blog — The Pioneer Woman — for years, recording her daily adventures on the ranch and in the kitchen. The recipes are basic and easy but they’re also good meat-and-potatoes fare that would satisfy the hungriest of ranch hands. Looking for a gift for your mini Emeril or Ina? Consider The Silver Spoon for Children. Its adult companion — The Silver Spoon Cookbook – is considered by many to be one of the best works on Italian cooking. This new kids’ cookbook is a good gift for slightly older children looking for something beyond the wacky “green eggs and ham” and “peanut butter and jelly pancake” recipes so often included in children’s cookbooks. Kids will enjoy these slightly more sophisticated yet simple and delicious recipes — such as bruschetta, pizzas, simple pasta dishes, and creative Italian desserts. Julia Child was 2008’s foodie It girl — best-selling books about her life, a high-grossing film starring an Academy Award–winning actress — Julia Child posthumously received the credit she deserved for educating the American cook. And while most of the attention has been focused on her seminal work, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Child authored several additional books that would make a nice addition to anyone’s collection. In Julia’s Delicious Little Dinners: Six Perfect Small Dinner Parties to Share with Family and Friends, Julia offers lessons in entertaining, proper menu planning, and wine pairing. Similarly, Julia’s Casual Dinners: Seven Glorious Menus for Informal Occasions offers the reader a solid lesson in keeping it elegant even when it’s less formal. However, keep in mind, Child’s idea of casual is a bit different from today’s standards — she nonchalantly calls for chafing dishes to heat the items on one’s buffet table because doesn’t everyone own a own collection of chafing dishes? Nevertheless, the book offers a wealth of information and some solid entertaining tips. If you’re looking for something besides a cookbook for that food-and wine-obsessed friend, how about a foodocentric board game? Foodie Fight is the Trivial Pursuit of the foodie set, and while the questions can be tough (“What shape of whisk is best for blending flour into fat?”), not all are impossible, making it a fun family game — even for your Hot Pocket–eating younger brother. And if you’re trying to find some sort of cooking implement or a small food-related stocking stuffer, here’s an idea for a reasonably priced and very clever kitchen gadget. I’m generally not a gadget girl in the kitchen. I think a good knife and a proper pan are all one needs to cook a good meal. But I have to admit, I was impressed with this new find: the julienne peeler. While it looks exactly like a regular peeler, the julienne version has a serrated blade, so that when you drag it over a carrot, squash, cucumber, whatever, long skinny ribbons are released rather than the wider sheets. Julienning a vegetable can be a rather laborious task requiring time, patience, and pretty good knife skills. So save time (and a finger) with this peeler. – Julie Gunlock, a former congressional staffer, is now a stay-at-home mom. VICTOR DAVIS HANSON Donald Kagan’s recently released Thucydides: The Reinvention of History is a different and much-welcomed take on the greatest of Western historians. Kagan, in methodical fashion, shows Thucydidean primacy in establishing history as a discipline — but then demonstrates how Thucydides’s own conclusions are not only often eccentric and at odds with popular consensus, but even contrary to the historian’s own evidence earlier adduced in his history. A fascinating read, whose implications go well beyond the Peloponnesian War. Lord Mahon’s The Life of Belisarius (written in 1829, when the author, Philip Henry Stanhope, Fifth Earl of Stanhope, was 24) remains an unappreciated classic. It is based (and footnoted) on close readings of ancient sources, and written in a beautiful 19th-century prose, full of antitheses and irony. That said, the story of Belisarius is riveting — not merely his amazing victories against all odds throughout the Mediterranean, but because of Belisarius’s selfless loyalty to his emperor, Justinian, who never quite earned the devotion and brilliance of his best and most loyal general. I don’t know much about electronics. But in one 24-hour period two weeks ago, I used my beat-up iPhone as a flashlight to find the door key, a wristwatch, an alarm clock, a GPS system to navigate through southern California, an Internet surf machine, an e-mailer, a phone, a weather station, and a calculator — and those are just the basic tools that I can figure out. – Victor Davis Hanson is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and a recipient of the 2007 National Humanities Medal. EMILY KARRS A copy of O. Henry’s The Gift of the Magi is a welcome addition to any library, and a lovely reminder of what animates the spirit of gift-giving at Christmas. Forthose seeking to examine the spirit of Christmas, why not celebrate the Incarnation by bringing The Practice of the Presence of God into someone’s life? This slim collection of letters and remembrances of the humble Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection could slip easily into a Christmas stocking, but remain substantial enough to have inspired Christians of all stripes to a sense of spiritual intimacy for centuries. For non-book gifts from kitchenware to jewelry to stationery, browse around Etsy.com, a website that connects buyers directly to individual artisans and their handmade wares. Not only will your gift be a unique item (there’s even the option of requesting bids from artists for gifts made according to your specifications), you can experience the satisfaction of supporting the very smallest of small businesses. — Emily Karrs is an associate editor of National Review Online. KATHRYN JEAN LOPEZ Bill Bennett’s American-history series is a readable primer that will make up for the education a young person in your life may not be getting or salt his well-fed historical curiosity. It’s handsome and comes in a set. It’s made to be given. Looking for a good contemporary thriller? Banquo’s Ghosts is the answer. Historical fiction? John J. Miller’s debut novel, First Assassin. Anyone who hasn’t read Clarence Thomas’s beautifully candid and inspiring My Grandfather’s Son, should. It’s a gift that gives. For anyone on your list who likes facts and history, I’m forever passing out copies of these recent classics by friends: Liberal Fascism, Party of Death, and Women Who Make the World Worse. The latest entry on this list is Liberty and Tyranny. If you’re looking to meet Christ at Christmas, or know someone who wants to, Pope Benedict’s Jesus of Nazareth isn’t a bad start. The Blessed Columba Marmion’s Christ in His Mysteries will not disappoint. Nor will his Christ, the Life of the Soul. For clear spiritual thinking — a toolbox for it — anything by Fr. Timothy Gallagher is a totally Ignatian treasure of a gift. For an accessible, sensible, and compelling read, Fr. Thomas Williams’s Can God Be Trusted? can be trusted. A delightful short read, Amata Means Beloved, for girls of any age comes from a blogging Dominican sister in New Jersey whom Maureen Dowd needs to meet. And while you’re browsing convent shops: You won’t have to pray that these hand creams and soaps and candles are well received. I made some regular customers out of friends and family and NRO readers last year. They are wholly (and holy) reliable. Try coffee and mustard and caramels, too. They’re ecumenical delights.

How about making an investment in the conservative future? A donation in a Right-minded friend’s name to the National Review Institute’s programs for young Washington talent will be put to good use. Include a Firing Line DVD with the Christmas card.

And don’t forget to send Christmas thanks to our military personnel abroad with the aid of a group like Books for Soldiers or Move America Forward. – Kathryn Jean Lopez is an editor-at-large of National Review Online. CLIFFORD D. MAY I’m putting Michael Ledeen’s Accomplice to Evil: Iran and the War Against the West under the Tannenbaum. The 20th century was the bloodiest in history, in large measure because so many people — not least most leaders in the West — refused to see the malevolent menace that was staring them in the face. Michael argues persuasively that this disability remains with us today. Unless we recognize the threat posed by Islamism, in Iran and elsewhere, the 21st century is likely to break the previous record. “Acknowledging the existence and actions of evil enemies means accepting that we are at war,” Michael writes, “and then designing and conducting a strategy to win it.”

There are those who think Jack Weatherford is too sympathetic to the Mongol Hordes in Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World, but it’s a great read, with much that will shock, surprise, and amuse. A few examples:

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‐The “Forbidden City” was called that because the Mongol emperor and his companions kept it off limits to the Chinese, who were not to see them living as they had on the steppes: getting drunk, slurping their soup, and cutting meat with knives at the table, which “would have disgusted the Chinese, who confined such acts to the kitchen during preparation.”

The Mongols killed “one hundred thousand soldiers in Hungary and Poland, what the Europeans mourned as ‘the flower’ of their knighthood and aristocracy.” This would soon mean the “total destruction of European feudalism and the Middle Ages.”

‐ The Siege of Mecca: The 1979 Uprising at Islam’s Holiest Shrine was written by Yaroslav Trofimov in 2007, but I’m ashamed to say I didn’t get around to reading it until this year. It explains a great deal about how we got to where we are now. The siege — by what might be called ultra-Wahhabis — was “the first major explosion of Sunni Islamist violence in the modern world.” Most journalists and policy makers misunderstood its meaning and significance. Highly entertaining is Blacklisting Myself: A Memoir of a Hollywood Apostate in the Age of Terrorism, by Roger L. Simon. It’s also good to know there are some people, even in La-La Land, who are waking up and smelling the coffee. Finally, and not just for Hanukkah, I’m recommending Start-Up Nation: The Story of Israel’s Success, by Dan Senor and Saul Singer, and The Israel Test, by George Gilder. Together, these books make clear why Israel is not just a reliable and valuable ally but also a pillar of the Judeo-Christian West. – Clifford D. May, a former New York Times foreign correspondent, is the president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a policy institute focusing on terrorism. JOHN J. MILLER Something new: Starvation Lake, a debut crime novel by Bryan Gruley. I found it by chance at a bookstore on Mackinac Island this summer. It was better than the fudge we also brought home. The story takes place in northern Michigan and involves the mysterious death of a youth-hockey coach. The characters are first-rate. Gruley has a bright future in the genre.

Something old: With Malice toward None: The Life of Abraham Lincoln, by Stephen B. Oates. There is no shortage of great writing on Lincoln, but this biography is my favorite, possibly because it’s the first one I picked up. That experience inspired me to start thinking about writing the book that would become my first novel.

– John J. Miller is national correspondent for National Review and the author of The First Assassin, a historical thriller. His personal website is www.HeyMiller.com.