Edmund De Waal

I'm constantly telling anyone who will listen that there's no such thing as a boring family, and many writers are discovering that their own families are a surprisingly rich source of material.

I've vanquished the flab in my bookshelves, oiled the joints on my bifocal sunglasses, and bulked up the piles of new reading material.

If your friends and family know that you're a big-time reader, you're surely going to get books for the holidays. And if they don't know you well, y...