As someone who considers a well-chosen book the best of all possible gifts, my recommended first stop in the December issue must be the special Christmas for Readers section. Among the “Thrillers and Throwbacks,” Gyles Brandreth’s Oscar Wilde mystery looks especially promising, and several of the “Lives and Legacies” (Brad Gooch on Flannery O’Connor, Blake Bailey on John Cheever) sound tempting. I only wish I knew a child to whom to give one of the “Wondrous and Silly” picture books. (I must confess: I’m tempted to buy Leo Politi’s Pedro: The Angel of Olvera Street for myself.)

I also find myself returning to Dana Gioia’s poem “Majority,” which—in this season when we think of Christmases past, present, and to come—makes a fittingly gentle and haunting coda to the children’s books section.