“Cultural anthropology at its most exuberant.” – The New Yorker
“Laugh-out-loud funny. … Stuever’s keen eye misses very little.” – USA Today
“A delicately calibrated combination of rigorous reporting, observational humor, and old-fashioned empathy, Tinsel is the book that saved Christmas for this curmudgeon.”– Laura Miller, Salon
“With impeccable research and solid reporting, Stuever has written the gift book that keeps on giving—Christmas consumerism wrapped together with traditional family values.”– Publisher’s Weekly
“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, Tinsel is a gift (holiday or otherwise) to anyone who loves great writing.”— Curtis Sittenfeld, author of American Wifeand Prep
“Stuever knows his way around a wry observation and catalogs his subjects’ excesses with gentle bemusement. … His epistle from big-box America is revealing and humane.” – Texas Monthly
“[A] sometimes hilarious, sometimes cynical, but always heartfelt look at the meaning of Christmas to Americans. Completely wonderful.” – Booklist
“Illuminate[s] how far we’ve strayed from a family holiday to the commercial and economic abyss we have created for ourselves as a country. Tinsel is well worth reading, but it’s a coin toss whether those who do so will find it funny or sad. Regardless, it is a snapshot of contemporary America in search of meaning.” – San Jose Mercury News
The book you need to read to get ready for the season is Hank Stuever’s livelyTinsel. … Stuever is both a magnificent prose stylist and a compelling storyteller, and his richly detailed reportage rings true. … The book doesn’t judge; it reveals.” – Rod Dreher, The Dallas Morning News
“Insightful, funny/sad, filled with poetry and despair. Who better than Hank Stuever to take on the Christmas-Industrial Complex with such ultimate humanity, given that he writes like an angel?” – David Rakoff, author of Half Empty and Fraud
“A stylishly written and often delightful book that aims to capture all the things that Christmas is about—family, values, religion, ritual, celebration, kitsch. It’s fortunate that a writer of Stuever’s gifts has undertaken this mission. On page after page, he is wry and witty and astute.” – Jamie Malanowski, Washington Monthly
“A certain wicked charm.” – Kirkus Reviews
“The ultimate holiday drop-in.” – Redbook
“Scrupulously observed … Tinsel is not just the obligatory snapshot of America with Santa, it is a meticulously detailed portrait of a society that remains true to its hunter/gatherer/capitalist roots.” – San Antonio Express News
“Stuever unwraps both appalling consumerism and genuine holiday spirit — sometimes in the same package — and treats the people he writes about with respect and affection, even when they’re doing things he can’t quite believe.” – St. Petersburg Times
“[Tinsel] debunks the myths of the holiday and straightens out the picture on our never-quite-accurate nostalgic images. Not exactly the kind of book to read by the hearth with Nat King Cole playing in the background on Christmas Eve. But in Stuever’s hands, it is immensely entertaining. … A fast-paced examination of what December 25 has done to Americans and vice-versa.” — The Buffalo News
“Marvelously written and sharply observed. You will definitely laugh; you will probably learn; you might get angry. … Some reporters go to the halls of government to take the pulse of the nation; [Stuever] goes to Bed Bath & Beyond. The man can see the secret life of America in a Slurpee cup.” – Patrick Beach, Austin American-Statesman
“Stuever’s fascination with and empathy for the human experience are abundant.”– Minneapolis Star Tribune
“Behind it all are people trying to be happy, trying to bring their families together and trying to have the type of holiday they’ve been told they have to have — and Stuever feels for them. Reading Tinsel is a nice antidote to the blizzard of obligations, expectations and traditions that bury us at the end of each year.” – Cleveland Plain Dealer
“Hank Stuever wades bravely into that strange, terrifying maw that is Christmas, returning from the McMansionvilles of the flyover territories with a book that is not just hilarious but is suffused with the unexpected sweetness and warmth of—dare I say it?—100 Yule logs. Tinsel is about what America has become while Santa wasn’t watching.” – Sandra Tsing Loh, author of Mother on Fire
“Stuever’s clear-eyed examination of America in holiday-orgy-mode is energetic, acerbic, and informative.” – The Stranger
“Whether you love Christmas, hate Christmas or just love to hate it, this book is fun. (Batteries not included.)” – Albuquerque Journal
“[A] frequently entertaining, informative and laughter-inducing journey into the American consumer psyche. It’s a world of Wal-Marts, Best Buys, Olive Gardens, Targets and shopping malls. …There are moments when the characters surprise us (as human beings often do) with their tenderness, realism and understanding that these holiday shenanigans are just part of one big game in which they are bit players.” – Christopher Carbone, The Faster Times
“Tinsel is a fascinating look at how we celebrate the holidays today and perhaps provides a lesson or two on how to avoid the pitfalls and problems [of] trying to create the ‘perfect’ Christmas.” – Las Vegas Review-Journal
“A study of Christmas excess as an exercise in American anthropology. … [Stuever] manages to find the heart in his characters’ obsessive consumerism [and] the somewhat jolly realization that no matter how prepackaged and homogenized the holiday has become, something about it remains inviolably personal.” – Entertainment Weekly
“Thoughtful, illuminating, compassionate, and even affectionate, and very funny. Mr. Stuever is one of those increasingly rare creatures: a journalist who has his heart in the right place.”– Joe Queenan, author of Closing Time
“Amazingly reported.” – New York (“Approval Matrix”)
“Spot-on observations about how modern America celebrates the holiday — in all its retail madness. Satisfying and illuminating … the book [is] difficult to put down. And why should you? It’s the holiday season, after all.” – The Palm Beach Post
“[Hank Stuever] is a frank and funny observer, unafraid to use sarcasm. He is also earnest and kind, seeking understanding rather than relying on a quick joke. [This] refreshing book describes both the excesses and the genuine joys of the season.”– West End Word (St. Louis)
“What emerges [in Tinsel] is much more than the contest between sacred and secular. It’s how the happiest time of year can also be melancholy and how holiday rituals collide with popular culture.” – The Oklahoman
“A book both hilarious and moving. … Excess is Christmas. Excess is us.” –Macleans
“Stuever’s biting humor undercuts the sticky sentimentality of the season. But it’s his skills as a reporter in noticing the small, telling details that make this book such a fascinating read.”– Bookreporter
“Hilariously entertaining account about our Christmas culture. … Tinsel will make you re-evaluate how you spend your Christmas, and whether you’re so blinded by the sale signs and the spectacle that you forget what Christmas is about.” – The Seattle Times