Here are a few books Houstonist thinks your friends and family won't use for doorstops (that's the fruitcake, right?). Everyone likes a good read, or at least a smart-looking book to sit on the nightstand. Give these a try. And shop at your local independent bookstore -- they can give you even more recommendations, and probably a good cup of coffee as well. Fun, mostly fiction books for people who are... Houstonians and/or architecture......

The This weekend, why not head over the Houston Museum of Natural Science to see some skinned dead people? Tomorrow's the opening day for Body Worlds 3, an exhibit of 200 preserved, mostly skinless human cadavers in various poses that is premiering in Houston. Body Worlds exhibits — the other two are currently in Toronto and Philadelphia — have drawn more than 18 million people in cities around the world since they started touring 10......

There's nothing quite like dueling museum exhibits — especially when they involve dead bodies. And Houstonians will have the chance to see both of them this year: Bodies: The Exhibition, which opens in mid-April at the Museum of Health & Medical Science, and Body Worlds, opening this summer at the Museum of Natural Science. The exhibits showcase preserved, skinned cadavers in various poses: playing chess, running, stretching and even holding their own skins as if......