Books for Holiday Gifts

Looking for that perfect book to give a special econonerd in your life? Let's assume he or she already owns the world's best textbooks. For other books on economics, check out my summer reading list, which really works all year long.

If your special econonerd has read all those, then maybe it's time for some works of fiction of the noneconomic variety. Here are a few of my favorites, which are good reading even for the econ-averse:

• "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time" by Mark Haddon
• "The Mind-Body Problem" by Rebecca Goldstein
• "Interpreter of Maladies" by Jhumpa Lahiri
• "Crossing to Safety" by Wallace Earle Stegner
• "Happenstance: Two Novels in One About a Marriage in Transition" by Carol Shields