The 38 best books to gift for Christmas 2023

FICTIONCrook Manifesto by Colson Whitehead (Doubleday), $29Ex-fence Ray Carney has sworn off a life of crime — until he needs Jackson 5 tickets for his daughter. Two-time Pulitzer winner Whitehead presents a kaleidoscopic portrait of 1970s Harlem as Carney plunges into New York City’s seedy underbelly.The Exchange by John Grisham (Doubleday), $29.95In this sequel to the 1991 blockbuster “The Firm,” Grisham explores what became of Mitch and Abby McDeere after they blew the whistle on the corruption and murder at the Memphis law firm that Mitch signed on to after law school. Happiness Falls by Angie Kim (Hogarth), $28A father goes missing.

His youngest son Eugene — the last person to see him — is autistic and nonverbal, and can’t communicate what has happened when he comes home from their walk bloody and in distress. The family’s desperate search to find their patriarch leads to surprising twists and revelations.Hello Beautiful by Anne Napolitano (The Dial Press), $28A young man falls under the spell of four tight-knit sisters — until a catastrophe shakes their devotion to one another and causes a violent family rift. Napolitano delivers another crowd-pleasing tear-jerker with this multigenerational “Little Women” homage.Holly by Stephen King (Scribner), $30One of King’s most beloved characters, Holly Gibney, is back.

This time, the reclusive detective grudgingly takes on a missing-girl case to distract herself from her mother’s death from COVID. Her investigation leads her to a creepy elderly husband-wife duo — two of the horror master’s most sadistic creations — who are hiding some gruesome secrets in their basement. Pineapple Street by Jenny Jackson (Pamela Dorman Books), $28This delicious family saga provides a voyeuristic look into the lives of an ultra-wealthy Brooklyn Heights clan.