In the previous 11 Holiday Book Guides, the New College community has reviewed diverse and exciting books. This year’s 12th Annual Guide is no exception. Our reviewers have been drawn to authors who deal with important contemporary issues; examine exceptional lives in biographies or autobiographies; distinguish themselves by winning national and international prizes; challenge and fascinate us in their experiments and innovations; explore Florida in fiction and history; reach deeply into the past; gain knowledge about other living creatures; and probe some of the world’s greatest disasters, searching for perspectives and meanings that can help us to shape our own choices. For the first time, however, many of our reviewers have turned not only to books that children and young adults will enjoy, but also to books that transcend these categories, that speak to all audiences, young and old, in a compelling way. Reading these books, adults can recapture qualities of perception, imagination, language, and thought that were important to us earlier in our lives, and which may be of special value at this time of social and cultural upheaval. With all of these goals in mind, the New College faculty, administrators and staff present our Holiday Book Guide, with reviews compiled by English professor Andrea Dimino.