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Caroline Kennedy's new Christmas anthology opens with her 1962 letter to Santa. In it, she wished for skates, dolls and a "pet reindeer" for herself and "some noisy thing" for her brother John. But a family tradition shunned toys for oranges and walnuts.

Author Philip Dodd traveled the world to find out how common words like guppy, saxophone and even the Mercedes got their names. The stories he uncovered in The Reverend Guppy's Aquarium are fascinating, funny and sometimes tragic.

In The Good Rat, legendary writer Jimmy Breslin gives readers an inside look at the everyday life of the New York mafia. Breslin goes inside mob watering holes, describes famous body dumping grounds and captures legendary mafia moments.

Benazir Bhutto made the last few edits on Reconciliation, her final book, on the morning that she was assassinated. In that book — part political manifesto, part memoir — Bhutto wrote that she was prepared for the worst upon her return to Pakistan from exile.

For seven years, sociologist Sudhir Venkatesh lived in one of Chicago's worst housing projects. His research and insights into one of the country's most violent gangs is captured in Gang Leader for a Day.

Retired U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez commanded ground troops in Iraq from 2003 to 2004; it was on his watch that the Abu Ghraib prison scandal took place. Subsequently, Sanchez has vocally criticized the conduct of the Iraq war — especially the Bush administration's "catastrophically flawed, unrealistically optimistic war plan." His new book is Wiser in Battle: A Soldier's Story.

Journalist James Glanz is Baghdad bureau chief for The New York Times; he's just reported on a government study criticizing the Bush administration for broadly overstating certain gains in Iraq.

Whether he's lancing boils, getting crabs from thrift-store trousers or sitting in a hospital waiting room dressed only in his underwear, one thing is clear: David Sedaris is not shy about sharing embarrassing, cringe-worthy moments.

In But Didn't We Have Fun?, author Peter Morris explores America's pastime even before it was America's pastime — and long before the days of big clubs, big stadiums and big crowds. He looks at how baseball evolved in the fields across America.

"No country has ever closely scrutinized itself visually," the legendary photographer once said. A new book documents hundreds of the Depression-era images she took and the descriptions she wrote of them.