HUGH HEWITT: Stop procrastinating: Three Christmas books that solve the holiday gift-giving nightmare

Are you out of holiday gift ideas for those on your list? Maybe you put it off because it’s hard to buy Christmas presents for some people.

Adults are often on this list, as well as those who insist that any book they receive is only of high quality writing.

Then there are people who struggle with difficult situations in their work or home lives, times when they are under a lot of pressure to lead and lead smartly, or times when they appear to be – and maybe actually are – sad. They need some joy in the season to be marked by it.

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So, here are three recommendations for your books.

The first one is for adults (and anyone who wants to keep up with the brilliant author’s incredibly well-lived life over the past ninety years.)

“We couldn’t, we couldn’t, look at the United States as a racist, cruel, really corrupt country that needed revolutionary change. We thought, and most of us still think, that the United States, for all its faults, is the most interesting, the most generous, the greatest country in the world.”

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For more than 40 years, Joseph Epstein’s columns, essays and books of all kinds – novels, biographies, collections of short stories, meditations on great topics like “Ambition” – have come into my hands and have always brought joy and a deep feeling that there are good writers and writers and then there are truly gifted writers. Joseph Epstein is among the very few at the end of the last half century. I don’t think I’m alone in concluding that he is America’s greatest living journalist.

Last year, Epstein gave us the gift of an autobiography — “Never Say You’re Lucky to Be Alive, Especially When You’re Lucky to Be Alive.” Those few sentences quoted above convey so much about the “Silent Generation” (born in 1937) that you have to believe me when I say that every page of the book raises the head and often makes you laugh, and many give insight that we probably knew but never revealed or read. I think I read EM Forster’s conclusion that “You are influenced when you say ‘I could have written that myself if I hadn’t been so busy'” in one of Epstein’s wonderful letters.

It’s “amazing” because he writes to be understood and doesn’t hold back the kind of superficial knowledge that forces you to slow down and think. He will jump at you with “the famous anecdote about Croesus,” for example – which you can find out about never you’ve heard it – but also pass it on briefly if you’re one of those WHO missed that story.

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Epstein entertains as much as he teaches, almost without exception. (The one Epstein book I didn’t pick up—his biography of Fred Astaire—was loved by my wife. So every Epstein book has brought me joy, at least indirectly.)

So if you have a student to buy for, give them this book, which is also a reminder of our country’s past 80 years. If somehow Joseph Epstein didn’t see it by now, start here with this book, maybe maybe deliver to his collection of short stories, “The Goldin Boys,” and to any of his collections of essays, general or literary. He will be your friend.

For those early in their lives and careers and in positions that require many difficult and important decisions, Admiral William McRaven (USN, Ret.) has written the perfect Christmas gift this year. Admiral McRaven has lived an extraordinary life in his decades rising to the very top of America’s special forces, starting as – and remaining – a Navy SEAL, but ending his distinguished career at the top of the US Special Operations Command.

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The lawyer has written several other bestsellers, but this year’s book “Conquering Crisis: Ten Lessons to Learn Before You Need Them” is a book for everyone who has authority over anyone and anything – from those in the C-suite to parents, from presidents, to principals.s and school administrators to coaches of all teams and leaders of volunteer organizations. Unforeseen disaster comes sooner or later to everyone in any of those situations, and Admiral McRaven’s ten lessons will stick because they are written in a clear and compelling way, without administrative jargon and meaningless “talking systems”.

Finally, an American happiness professor, Arthur C. Brooks of Harvard Business School, teaches happiness courses to HBS alumni and writes about scholarship on the subject (and it’s great) every month in the Atlantic. Brooks collected his best essays under the title “The Happiness Files: Thoughts on Work and Life.” It’s the person on your list that gives you the biggest problem choosing a book is something For better years or worse, they will appreciate Brooks’ work.

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The beauty of completing your shopping at Amazon or other online book sites? Those letters will arrive in a few days at your doorstep or they can be sent anywhere.

You can complete your purchase in the middle half an hour online and enjoy the true glory of Christmas, free at least from the insult of the gift.

Hugh Hewitt is a Fox News contributor and host of “The Hugh Hewitt Show“Hear weekday afternoons from 3 PM to 6 PM ET on the Salem Radio Network, and simulcast on the Salem News Channel. Hugh calls Americans home on the East Coast and lunch on the West Coast to more than 400 embassies across the country, and on every broadcast platform where SNC can be seen. He is a regular guest on Fox News Channel on the Brett news program at 6 pm. Ohio and a graduate at Harvard College and the University of Michigan Law School, Hewitt has been a Professor of Law at Chapman University’s Fowler School of Law since 1996. Hewitt launched his eponymous radio show from Los Angeles in 1990. Hewitt has appeared frequently on all major national news networks, hosting television programs for PBS and MSNBC. major American papers, has written a dozen books and moderated the scores of the Republican presidential debates, most recently the 2023 Republican presidential debate in Miami and four Republican presidential debates in the 2015-16 cycle. Hewitt focuses his radio program and his column on the Constitution, national security, American politics and Guardians. Hewitt has interviewed tens of thousands of guests from Democrats Hillary Clinton and John Kerry to Republican President George W. Bush and Donald Trump in his 40 years on the air. This column previews his radio/TV show today.

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