PATRON PICKS--Holiday Favorites

Happy Holidays!  Do you have a favorite Holiday book that you read every year?  Or a favorite Holiday movie that you watch over and over again?  

Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol is one of my favorite stories and I love the movie version, too (the one with George C. Scott).  Other movies I watch over and over are A Christmas Story (a family favorite!), The Bishop's Wife (Cary Grant & Loretta Young), and The Homecoming (the movie that inspired the popular series, The Waltons).

How the Grinch Stole Christmas and The Polar Express are big favorites with our patrons.  Here are some other Patron Picks...


Kate
Favorite Holiday Book:  The Latke Who Couldn't Stop Screaming
Favorite Holiday DVD:  Christmas in Connecticut




Eileen
Favorite Holiday Book:  The Night Before Christmas
Favorite Holiday DVD:  It's a Wonderful Life

Philip
Favorite Holiday Book:  The Nutcracker

Caitie
Favorite Holiday DVD:  The Grinch

Kate
Favorite Holiday Book:  A Christmas Carol
Favorite Holiday DVD:  The Nightmare Before Christmas

Leslie
Favorite Holiday Book:  Hanukkah Cat

Mirelle
Favorite Holiday DVD:  The Muppets Christmas Carol

Lori
Favorite Holiday Book:  How the Grinch Stole Christmas
Favorite Holiday DVD:  It's a Wonderful Life

Olivia
Favorite Holiday DVD:  A Charlie Brown Christmas

Diana
Favorite Holiday Book:  Santa Mouse
Favorite Holiday DVD:  Santa Clause is Coming to Town


Jean
Favorite Holiday Book:  How the Grinch Stole Christmas
Favorite Holiday DVD:  Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas


Marisa
Favorite Holiday Book:  The Polar Express
Favorite Holiday DVD:  The Polar Express

Miranda
Favorite Holiday Book:  The Christmas Robin

Kevin
Favorite Holiday Book:  How the Grinch Stole Christmas
Favorite Holiday DVD:  The Polar Express



Marge
Favorite Holiday Book:  The Shop Around the Corner
Favorite Holiday DVD:  A Christmas Story

Cheryl
Favorite Holiday Book: Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins

Aidan
Favorite Holiday Book:  How the Grinch Stole Christmas
Favorite Holiday DVD:  The Polar Express

Taryn
Favorite Holiday Book:  Llama Llama Holiday Drama

Alice
Favorite Holiday Book:  Olive, the Other Reindeer
Favorite Holiday DVD:  The Muppets Christmas Carol



"May your walls know joy, may every room hold laughter, and every window open to great possibility." 
--Mary Anne Radmacher

Enjoy all your holiday favorites this season!
--Patti

STAFF PICKS--The Routes of Man: Travels in the Paved World

Valerie's Pick:  The Routes of Man:  Travels in the Paved World, by Ted Conover

Conover reveals the highway as common social territory, particularly as the meeting place between men and women.  His travels take him from Peru's illegal jungle logging camps, to the Himalayan frontier of Kashmir and through Israeli checkpoints in Palestine's West Bank.  His writing is so evocative that the reader definitely has a "you are there experience."

AUTHOR PICKS--Holiday/Winter Favorites

What books do authors enjoy reading during the holidays/winter?  Here's what they said...

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Lauren Willig, author of the The Orchid Affair (Pink Carnation series) 

Holiday books....  I'd say mine are Little Women, Debbie Macomber's Angel books (The Trouble With Angels, etc.),  Elizabeth Young's Fair Game (A Promising Man and About Time, Too in the US), Jo Beverly's Winter Fire, and an old, old holiday anthology called A Holiday of Love, featuring Judith McNaught and Jude Deveraux (old school romance!). Sometimes Judith McNaught's Paradise, too.

Kristan Higgins, author of Until There Was You

A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens. I read it every year and watch two movie versions.

The Christmas Bear, by Henrietta and Paul Stickland. The illustrations are so charming…exactly what you'd imagine Santa's house should look like.

The Polar Express, by Chris Van Allsburg. Spare, mysterious and utterly magical. Still can't read the last line without crying, even after all these years.

Leslie Bulion, author of At The Sea Floor Cafe

My favorite Hanukkah picture book is Hanukkah Cat, by Chaya M. Burstein.  It combines a lovely retelling of the Hanukkah story with a more contemporary story of how a boy who tries to help a stray cat brings about his own Hanukkah miracle. 

My favorite winter picture book is Paperwhite, written and illustrated by Connecticut's own Nancy Elizabeth Wallace.  It is the story of good neighbors who spend time together bringing a bit of spring into their winter days.

My favorite Christmas story is How the Grinch Stole Christmas--no explanation necessary!  Who doesn't love Cindy Lou Who?

David Macinnis Gill, author of Black Hole Sun

How the Grinch Stole Christmas, by Dr. Seuss

Mary E. Pearson, author of The Fox Inheritance (The Jenna Fox Chronicles)

Oh, so many but one I really love is The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, by Barbara Robinson.  

In fact, I think it's time for me to reread this one again . . .



STAFF PICKS--The Cold Blue Blood

Cyndi’s pick:  The Cold Blue Blood, by David Handler 

A Connecticut author, Handler has set his Mitch Berger and Desiree Mitry Mystery in the fictional village of Dorset, CT. Look for local landmarks such as Devil’s Hopyard and “The Purple Pup Saloon”. You’ll love the characters of Dorset, well, some of them. One of them has committed murder and hopes to get away with it.  There are presently eight books in the series.

PATRON PICKS--Beautiful Creatures

Victoria's pick:  Beautiful Creatures, by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl



Lena Duchannes is unlike anyone the small Southern town of Gatlin has ever seen, and she's struggling to conceal her power, and a curse that has haunted her family for generations. But even within the overgrown gardens, murky swamps and crumbling graveyards of the forgotten South, a secret cannot stay hidden forever.

Ethan Wate, who has been counting the months until he can escape from Gatlin, is haunted by dreams of a beautiful girl he has never met. When Lena moves into the town's oldest and most infamous plantation, Ethan is inexplicably drawn to her and determined to uncover the connection between them.

In a town with no surprises, one secret could change everything.

Victoria says:  Very suspenseful.  A different, but good book.

PATRON PICKS--Tattoos on the Heart

Kassie's pick:  Tattoos on the Heart:  The Power of Boundless Compassion, by Gregory Boyle

Synopsis:

Father Gregory Boyle's sparkling parables about kinship and the sacredness of life are drawn from twenty years working with gangs in LA.

Kassie says:  Why read a book about gangs in LA?  Because it also is about joy.  And hope (and I laughed out loud).  Just check it out!

STAFF PICKS-- The Art of Racing in the Rain

Diana's Pick:  The Art of Racing in the Rain, by Garth Stein

Synopsis:

Enzo knows he is different from other dogs: a philosopher with a nearly human soul (and an obsession with opposable thumbs), he has educated himself by watching television extensively, and by listening very closely to the words of his master, Denny Swift, an up-and-coming race car driver. Through Denny, Enzo has gained tremendous insight into the human condition, and he sees that life, like racing, isn't simply about going fast. Using the techniques needed on the race track, one can successfully navigate all of life's ordeals.

On the eve of his death, Enzo takes stock of his life, recalling all that he and his family have been through. In the end, despite what he sees as his own limitations, Enzo comes through heroically to preserve the Swift family, holding in his heart the dream that Denny will become a racing champion with Zoë at his side.

A heart-wrenching but deeply funny and ultimately uplifting story of family, love, loyalty, and hope, The Art of Racing in the Rain is a beautifully crafted and captivating look at the wonders and absurdities of human life...as only a dog could tell it.

Diana says:  This book has a very interesting concept, told from a dog's point of view.  If you have a dog, you will love it and probably never look at your dog the same way again.