Award-winning Washington Post pop culture writer Hank Stuever is one for the bright lights. Not those of Washington, D.C., nor New York or Las Vegas—although you might be getting 'warm' if you guessed the last. No, the other of the engaging essay collection, Off Ramp, sought out the very bright lights of Frisco, Texas. In Tinsel: A Search for America's Christmas Present (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), he finds a place that does the over-the-top decorating for Christmas, has some empathetic fun, and asks some good 'larger' questions along the way. "In this dazzling feat of reportage, Hank Stuever gets at what's best and worst not just about Christmas, but about us as Americans. Hilarious, insightful, compassionate, and hugely entertaining." - Curtis Sittenfeld.