Staff Picks

 

Set in the Prohibition era, follow Buddy and his friend as they save up to make fruitcake to give as gifts (even buying whisky from a bootlegger called Haha); they even send one to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Family, tradition, and memory make this story timeless and heartwarming.

 

Publisher's description:

Taking its place next to Breakfast at Tiffany's and In Cold Blood on the Modern Library bookshelf is this new and original edition of Capote's most famous short stories: "A Christmas Memory", "One Christmas", and "A Thanksgiving Memory". All three stories are distinguished by Capote's delicate interplay of childhood sensibility and recollective vision.

 

Find A Christmas Memory in our online catalog.

There isn't any shying away from the hard edges of the world in this slim little tale, but it also features themes of justice, hope, and redemption. The writing is crisp and lovely. The characters and setting are absolutely believable. And though this may not matter to other readers, the Christmasy scenes and descriptions rank up there with those of Capote, O. Henry, and even Dickens. They are why I picked this book up in the first place. But I stayed for the story and will read that story again, many times. This is truly a read for all seasons.

 

Publisher's description:

It is 1985 in a small Irish town. During the weeks leading up to Christmas, Bill Furlong, a coal merchant and family man faces into his busiest season. Early one morning, while delivering an order to the local convent, Bill makes a discovery which forces him to confront both his past and the complicit silences of a town controlled by the church.

 

This beautiful classic is a lovely read aloud to share over the holidays. My favorite edition is illustrated by Edward Ardizzone. You can also find the original recording read by the author online.

 

Publisher's description: The Welsh poet Dylan Thomas recalls the celebration of Christmas with his family and the feelings it evoked in him as a child.

 

A wonderful and humorous adaptation of the Christmas classic on a Native theme. I also loved the glossary at the end, which explained words like "hoka-hey" (a Lakota term of encouragement that Old Red Shirt shouts to his team of buffalo).

 

Publisher's description:

An innovative retelling of the classic Christmas tale, this full-color book takes a whimsical look at what Christmas Eve might be like for an American Indian family.

 

For the first time on Saturday June 19th 2021, our country formally observed Juneteenth, the newest federal holiday that celebrates the Emancipation of enslaved Americans. I wanted to know more about Juneteenth, and this short book by Gordon-Reed was a perfect education. Enslaved people in Galveston, Texas (Texas is the author's home state) didn't learn that they had been freed two years earlier until June 19, 1865. She tells the story of Black people's history in Texas and the state's history with them, including how Juneteenth has long been a big festival there. She also interweaves, to strong effect, stories of her own childhood (including how she integrated her school) and her family's history. Well-written and succinct and full of good stories, this book will get you ready for next year's Juneteenth celebrations--and will make you eager to learn more about Black history in general.

 

Publisher description:

Interweaving American history, dramatic family chronicle, and searing episodes of memoir, Annette Gordon-Reed, the descendant of enslaved people brought to Texas in the, recounts the origins of Juneteenth and explores the legacies of the holiday that remain with us. From the earliest presence of black people in Texas-in the 1500s, well before enslaved Africans arrived in Jamestown-to the day in Galveston on June 19, 1865, when General Gordon Granger announced the end of slavery, Gordon-Reed's insightful and inspiring essays present the saga of a "frontier" peopled by Native Americans, Anglos, Tejanos, and Blacks that became a slaveholder's republic. Reworking the "Alamo" framework, Gordon-Reed shows that the slave-and race-based economy not only defined this fractious era of Texas independence, but precipitated the Mexican-American War and the resulting Civil War. A commemoration of Juneteenth and the fraught legacies of slavery that still persist, On Juneteenth is stark reminder that the fight for equality is ongoing.

Find On Juneteenth in our online catalog