New Books for Christmas!

My awesome brother-in-law, Andrew, added five new books to my shelves this Christmas.

On Boxing by Joyce Carol Oates: If you know Joyce Carol Oates, you probably know her for her beautiful (and powerful) fiction. What you might not know is that she served as boxing stringer and wrote one of the best nonfiction boxing books I've read, On Boxing. I love this book, but around ten years ago, I lent my copy to a friend and never got it back. It'll be a joy to reread this one after all these years.

Speaking of Joyce Carol Oates, she also has a story in American Supernatural Tales. Edited by S.T. Joshi, this anthology includes stories by a lot of horrors heavy-hitters, including Lovecraft, Poe, Bradbury, and King, but I'm most excited to read "The Events at Poroth Farm" by T.E.D. Klein, which the best-read guy I know, Chris Shearer, says is the most perfect story ever written. Apparently Chris reads the story at least once a year. Now I'll have that option, too!

In my constant effort to balance light and darkness, I'm excited to dive into another collection, The One Year Book of Psalms. I've read the book of Psalms at least a couple of times, but I've never studied it. The One Year Book of Psalms splits the psalms into 365 readings, each psalm or psalm-piece paired with a devotional reading, a hymn stanza, and some additional feature, like a fact, quote, or Biblical parallel. I read the Bible every morning and plan to read The Old Testament and The New Testament back-to-back, start-to-finish, during 2013, so I'll just tack this onto my daily reading.

Before I meditate overlong on "turning the other cheek," however, I'll likely gobble up a book I've been wanting to read for a long time: Real Fighting, Adrenaline Stress Conditioning through Scenario-Based Training by Peyton Quinn. As the title suggests, this book is a look at "real" fighting -- as opposed to dojo sparring -- with a focus on learning "to control the adrenaline rush that occurs in the fear, confusion, and intensity of a violent confrontation." This book interests both on a personal level, as someone long obsessed with fighting and conflict, and on a professional level, as someone who writes horror stories and thrillers.

Another book that interests me both as a person and a writer is Gavin De Becker's The Gift of Fear. I first learned of this book through another excellent read, Meditations on Violence by Rory Miller. Shortly thereafter, The Gift of Fear was recommended to me by a friend who'd worked as an FBI agent and S.W.A.T. team member. Recently, thriller writer August McGlaughlin echoed the recommendation, saying The Gift of Fear was one of the best books she'd ever read. The subtitle, "And Other Survival Signals that Protect Us from Violence," gives one a fair idea of the book's content, which focuses on learning to spot "even subtle signs of danger -- before it's too late." This should be a great read!

Well, that was my holiday book haul, and I'm looking forward to these five reads. Now it's your turn: What books have you received lately?