From the Stacks
By Carol Ann Robb, PPL Reference Librarian
It’s that time of year when I have an agenda full of cleaning, grocery shopping, and food prep in anticipation of probably my favorite holiday, but all I want to do is plop down with a good book this weekend. And I even have one that’s just sitting there at home, calling to me. Yep, it’s Thanksreading.
Gratitude is something I should cultivate more but I am always thankful for good reading material. This past year has been spotty—like the precipitation around here, I had a bit of a book drought this summer. But now that the holiday rush is fast approaching, I’m inundated with a number of titles that I want to read. Figures.
So far my list includes “Boys From Biloxi” by John Grisham, “Santa’s Little Yelpers” by David Rosenfelt, and the latest installment of David Baldacci’s Memory Man series, “Long Shadows.”
I’ll want some lighter fare, too, so will check the shelves for “By the Book” by Julia Sonneborn, “The Old Place” by Bobby Finger, or Claire Alexander’s “Meredith Alone.”
There are also a couple of non-fiction that have caught by eye: “Hell’s Half Acre: the Untold Story of the Benders, a Serial Killer Family on the American Frontier” by Susan Jonusas, and “Deliberate Cruelty: Truman Capote, the Millionaire’s Wife, and the Murder of the Century” by Roseanne Montillo (those are for the times when I’ve overdosed on too much sugary sweetness in any format: books, films, and/or food).
I suspect some of those will be put on the backburner because holiday books are best read around the holidays. And they usually have the advantage of being shorter, quick reads.
Since we know that time is a precious commodity for most of you, beginning next week we’re going to make getting those holiday books even easier for you. Come up to our special shelves of “Christmas Quick Picks” where two or three holiday books will be bundled together. All you’ll have to do is come upstairs, grab one (or two) and check them out. We’ll do our best to choose titles that have proven popular—they may not be award winners but they’ll tell a good story in short order and that’s what many readers are looking for during the holiday season (I can almost guarantee they’ll have happy endings, too).
So enjoy your Thanksgiving meal, your Thanksreading books, and then head full steam ahead to the hustle and bustle of Bookmas.