We are celebrating Halloween on The Point with Mindy Todd today. Mindy, Melanie, & I picked an assortment of titles to get you in the Halloween spirit. Here is the list, and if you missed the show you can listen to it at 7:30 tonight or listen to the podcast whenever you want.

Mindy began the show with suggesting for a good scare you can read Stephen King, and I suggested you might also want to read something by his son Joe Hill.

Jill’s Picks

Monsters in the Movies: 100 years of cinematic nightmares by John Landis. (By the way … the 1965 movie based on the H. P. Lovecraft story “The Colour Out of Space” is “Die Monster Die”.)

Some Things Are Scary by Florence Parry Heide (my copy has pictures by Robert Osborn And if you click on Robert Osborn’s name you can see a much better reproduction of the photo on this page.)

Tales by H. P. Lovecraft (Be sure to read “The Colour Out of Space”)

Zone One by Colson Whitehead

(and the podcast I mentioned is called Pop Culture Happy Hour)

Interview from Harper’s Magazine with Colson Whitehead can be found here.

Haunted Massachusetts: ghosts and strange phenomena of the Bay State by Cheri Revai

The Narrow Land: folk chronicles of Old Cape Cod by Elizabeth Reynard

Real Monsters, Gruesome Critters, and Beasts From the Darkside by Brad Steiger

Ran out of time, but I’m intrigued by all of the mash-ups that are now appearing, wherein a classic work of literature is re-adapted to include supernatural elements. A recent sampling includes:

Little Women and Werewolves by Louisa May Alcott and Porter Grand

Mr. Darcy, Vampyre by Amanda Grange

Jane and the Damned by Janet Mullany

Wuthering Bites by Sarah Gray



Melanie’s Picks

1984 by George Orwell

The Great Big Book of Horrible Things: The Definitive Chronicle of History’s 100 Worst Atrocities edited By Matthew White

The Werewolf Book: The Encyclopedia of Shape-Shifting Beings by Brad Steiger

The World’s Creepiest Places by Dr. Bob Curran

Halloween edited by Paula Guran

M is for Monster: A Modern Bestiary of Classic Monsters compiled by Michael Kelahan

The Night Strangers: A Novel by Chris Bohjalian

Zone One: A Novel by Colson Whitehead

What Was I Scared Of? A Glow-in-the-Dark Encounter by Dr. Seuss

BONUS PICK

Scary story suggestion from Dan Tritle: ”I Have No Mouth … and I Must Scream” by Harlan Ellison.

Dan also wanted everyone to know about H. P. Lovecraft’s character Cthulhu (Kuh-THOO-loo) who made its first appearnce in Lovecraft’s short story “The Call of Cthulhu”, published in 1928. According to Larousse Dictionary of Literary Characters: “Worshipped by the Old Ones, Cthulhu is a vast, amorphous life-form which embodies both the primeval origins of life and its entropic, undifferentiated end. Insofar as it has substance, Cthulhu resembles a jelly fish or giant amoeba” And the Old Ones are described as:”The worshippers of Cthulhu, they are ichthomorphic entities with designs on the human universe. They attempt to interbreed with people in order to take over the earth, but the invasion is thwarted and they dissolve into a noxious goo which resembles sperm.”

And may I just mention that the first reference question I ever answered for Dan revolved around the television series Dark Shadows!

Today’s book topic on The Point with Mindy Todd was books having to do with religion.

Mindy’s Picks

A Month of Sundays :searching for the spirit and my sister by Julie Mars

Unprotected Texts :the Bible’s surprising contradictions about sex and desire by Jennifer Wright Knust.

Jesus, Interrupted :revealing the hidden contradictions in the Bible (and why we don’t know about them) by Bart D.Ehrman

Misquoting Jesus : the story behind who changed the Bible and why by Bart D. Ehrman.

God’s problem :how the Bible fails to answer our most important question–why we suffer by Bart D. Ehrman

God Is Not One :the eight rival religions that run the world–and why their differences matter by Stephen Prothero

Jill’s Picks

And I Shall Dwell Among Them :historic synagogues of the world photographs by Neil Folberg ; essay by Yom Tov Assis

American Sermons :the pilgrims to Martin Luther King, Jr. Edited by Michael Warner

Inside Scientology :the story of America’s most secretive religion by Janet Reitman

Buddha Standard Time :awakening to the infinite possibilities of now by Lama Surya Das

How To Be a Perfect Stranger :the essential religious etiquette handbook edited by Stuart M. Matlins & ArthurJ. Magida

People of the Book: a decade of Jewish Science Fiction & Fantasy edited by Rachel Swirsky & Sean Wallace

A Calendar of Wisdom: daily thoughts to nourish the soul written and selected from the world’s sacred texts by Leo Tolstoy

The Starbridge Chronicles (also known as the Church of England Series by Susan Howatch. The description of each volume comes from Sequels: an annotated guide to novels in series by Janet G. Husband & Jonathan F. Husband

1.Glittering Images (1987) Canon Charles Ashworth suspects some highly irregular behavior in the domestic life of the charismatic Bishop of Starbridge. Father Jonathan Darrow helps Ashworth sort things out. Set in 1937.

2.Glamorous Powers (1988) Father Darrow takes center stage in this volume. After seventeen years as an Anglican monk, he has a vision which leads him to leave the monastic life. Set in 1940.

3.Ultimate Prizes (1989) This focuses on Archdeacon Neville Aysgarth’s crisis of faith following the death of his child. Set during World War II. Darrow appears briefly.

4.Scandalous Risks (1990)Explores the relationship between young Venetia Flaxton and sixty-one-year-old Neville Aysgarth. Set in 1963.

5.Mystical Paths (1992) Nicholas, son of Jonathan Darrow, investigates the possible suicide of his friend Christian Aysgarth and uncovers some dark secrets.

6.Absolute Truths (1995)Focuses on the clash between middle-of-the-road Bishop Charles Ashworth and Dean of the Cathedral Neville Aysgarth whom Ashworth feels is overly heterodox.

Not enough time for an essay by John Fowles called The Tree and recently reprinted as a book with an introduction by Barry Lopez.  To quote: “Perhaps because I was brought up without any orthodox faith, and remain without it, there was also, I suspect, some religious element in my feeling towards woods.”

Melanie’s Picks

God Is Red: The Secret Story of How Christianity Survived and Flourished in Communist China by Liao Yiwu

Absolute Monarchs: A History of the Papacy by John Julius Norwich

Signs of Life: 40 Catholic Customs and Their Biblical Roots by Scott Hahn

Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life by Richard Rohr

Love Wins by Rob Bell

The Novice: a story of true love by Thich Nhat Hahn

The Everything World’s Religions Book by Kenneth Shouler

25 Books Every Christian Should Read A Guide to the Essential Spiritual Classics assembled by RenovarÉ

Patron Pick

When Bad Things Happen to Good People : with a new preface by the author Harold S. Kushner

Tao Te Ching by Lao-tzu

I’m re-posting The Point list here, just in case you missed the first posting! The first posting has all the links to the library catalog.

Melanie’s List

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne

Moby-Dick by Herman Melville

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

Next, The Terminal Man and Prey all by Michael Crichton

I Know This Much is True by Wally Lamb

Tunnel Vision by Gary Braver

Still Alice and Left Neglected by Lisa Genova

Jill’s List

100 Must-Read Science Fiction Novelsby Stephen E. Andrews and Nick Rennison

Brave New Words: the Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction edited by Jeff Prucher

The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy: themes, works, and wonders edited by Gary Westfahl with an introduction by Neil Gaiman

The Annotated Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Blackout by Connie Willis

Passage by Connie Willis

The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury

Ship Fever & Other Stories by Andrea Barrett

Angels & Insects by A. S. Byatt

The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever by Stephen R. Donaldson

The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton

The Gold Bug Variations by Richard Powers

Antarctica by Kim Stanley Robinson

The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell

Not sure that this will actually broadcast today. Indeed it is 9:40 a.m. & I don’t think WCAI has power yet thanks to Tropical Storm Irene. However, here is the list for our pre-recorded show on Science Fiction & novels that teach you something about science. I have actually posted an extended list of my choices, as we ran out of time before I could mention them all! If you have a favorite sci-fi title or a novel that taught you something about science, please post your comment! As we pre-recorded this, there are no listener comments, so we’d love your suggestions here!

Wednesday Morning Update! The show did not broadcast on Monday, but is broadcasting today at 9:30 & again at 7:30, you can also listen to the podcast at www.capeandislands.org. Remember, because we were pre-recorded, we didn’t get any reader suggestions. So please leave your suggestions in the comments box!

Melanie’s List

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne

Moby-Dick by Herman Melville

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

Next, The Terminal Man and Prey all by Michael Crichton

I Know This Much is True by Wally Lamb

Tunnel Vision by Gary Braver

Still Alice and Left Neglected by Lisa Genova

Jill’s List

100 Must-Read Science Fiction Novelsby Stephen E. Andrews and Nick Rennison

Brave New Words: the Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction edited by Jeff Prucher

The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy: themes, works, and wonders edited by Gary Westfahl with an introduction by Neil Gaiman

The Annotated Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Blackout by Connie Willis

Passage by Connie Willis

The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury

Ship Fever & Other Stories by Andrea Barrett

Angels & Insects by A. S. Byatt

The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever by Stephen R. Donaldson

The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton

The Gold Bug Variations by Richard Powers

Antarctica by Kim Stanley Robinson

The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell

This morning, to help celebrate Cape Cod Maritime Days, Mindy, Melanie & I talked about maritime books. And a reminder that tomorrow night at 7:00 p.m. we will be having a maritime concert, Songs of the Sea featuring Hogan’s Goat Irish Band. A FREE Maritime Event, which as we say will be fun for all ages! So now the books (Melanie’s will be added as soon as she gets her list to me):

Mindy’s Picks

Sail Away Ladies : stories of Cape Cod women in the age of sail by Jim Coogan

Sea of Glory : America’s voyage of discovery : the U.S. Exploring Expedition, 1838-1842 by Nathaniel Philbrick

Tupaia : Captain Cook’s Polynesian navigator by Joan Druett

Jill’s Picks

Scallops : a New England coastal cookbook by Elaine Tammi and Karin A. Tammi

The History of Seafaring : navigating the world’s oceans by Donald S. Johnson, Juha Nurminen (BIG book!)

Navigation Through the Ages by Donald Launer

Cape Cod Catboats by Stan Grayson

The Maritime History of Massachusetts, 1783-1860 by Samuel Eliot Morison

Sailors’ Valentines by John Fondas

Kindly Lights : a history of the lighthouses of southern New England by Sarah C. Gleason

Cape Cod Lighthouses and Lightships by Arthur P. Richmond

The Seafaring Dictionary : terms, idioms and legends of the past and present by David S.T. Blackmore

Wooden Ships and Iron Men : the maritime art of Thomas Hoyne by Reese Palley and Marilyn Arnold Palley

Melanie’s Picks

Pirate Hunter of the Caribbean: The Adventurous Life of Captain Woodes Rogers by David Cordingly

How History’s Greatest Pirates Pillage, Plundered, and Got Away With It by Benerson Little

The Pirate Primer: Mastering the Language of Swashbuckers and Rogues by George Choundas

The Hard Way Around: The Passages of Joshua Slocum by Geoffrey Wolff

Storms and Wild Water by Dag Pike

The Wave: In Pursuit of the Rogues, Freaks, and Giants of the Ocean by Susan Casey

Turning the Tide: How a Small Band of Allied Sailors Defeated the U-Boats and Won the Battle of the Atlantic by Ed Offley

The Complete Sailor: Learning the Art of Sailing by David Seidman

Your First Sailboat: How to Find and Sail the Right Boat for You by Daniel Spurr

Mindy’s Pick

The Nature of Cape Cod by Beth Schwarzman

Melanie’s Picks

Molotov’s Magic Lantern: Travels in Russian History by Rachel Polonsky

Travels in Siberia by Ian Frazier

To a Mountain in Tibet by Colin Thubron

Stephen Fry in America: FiftyStates and the Man Who Set Out to See Them All by Stephen Fry

Lost on Planet China: the strange and true story of one man’s attempt to understand the world’s most mystifying nation, or how he became comfortable eating live squid by J. Maarten Troost

The Routes of Man : how roads are changing the world and the way we live today by Ted Conover

The Lunatic Express : discovering the world via its most dangerous buses, boats, trains, and planes by Carl Hoffman

Down & Delirious in Mexico City: The Aztec Metropolis in the Twenty-First Century by Daniel Hernandez

Jill’s Picks

Book Lust to Go : recommended reading for travelers, vagabonds, and dreamers by Nancy Pearl

The Traveler’s Reading Guide : ready-made reading lists for the armchair traveler by Maggy Simony, editor

Art + Travel Europe : step into the lives of five famous painters : a curated guide to your obsessions

The Best in Tent Camping. New England : a guide for car campers who hate RVs, concrete slabs, and loud portable stereos by Lafe Low

city-pick Amsterdam edited by Heather Reyes & Victor Schiferli (for others in the series check out www.oxygenbooks.co.uk)

In motion : the experience of travel by Tony Hiss

The Art of Travel by Alain de Botton

A Week at the Airport by Alain de Botton ; photographs by Richard Baker

George Washington’s America : a biography through his maps by Barnet Schecter

Storybook Travels : from Eloise’s New York to Harry Potter’s London, visits to 30 of the best-loved landmarks in children’s literature by Colleen Dunn Bates and Susan LaTempa

This morning Mindy, Melanie, & I talked about books featuring animals. As always, we had more books in our hands than we had time to discuss, so today’s list will include the books we didn’t have time for as well as those we did, and those suggested by people calling in. Thanks so much to our callers for your suggestions! If you missed the show this morning, it will be rebroadcast tonight at 7:30 on WCAI, or you can listen to the podcast online.

Listener Suggestions:

The Good Good Pig : the extraordinary life of Christopher Hogwood by Sy Montgomery

Tell Me Where it Hurts : a day of humor, healing and hope in my life as an animal surgeon by Nick Trout

Alex & Me : how a scientist and a parrot discovered a hidden world of animal intelligence–and formed a deep bond in the process by Irene M. Pepperberg

The Art of Racing in the Rain : a novel by Garth Stein

Mindy’s Picks

Dog mysteries by Spencer Quinn aka Peter Abrahams, and don’t miss Chet the dogs blog which can be found at www.chetthedog.com

Dog on it : a Chet and Bernie mystery by Spencer Quinn

Thereby Hangs a Tail : a Chet and Bernie mystery by Spencer Quinn.

To Fetch a Thief : a Chet and Bernie mystery by Spencer Quinn

Jill’s Picks:

Animals Make Us Human: creating the best life for animals by Temple Grandin & Catherine Johnson

Homer’s Odyssey: a fearless feline tale, or how I learned about love and life with a blind wonder cat by Gwen Cooper

Dewey’s Nine Lives : the legacy of the small-town library cat who inspired millions by Vicki Myron, with Bret Witter

Pukka : the pup after Merle as told by Pukka to Ted Kerasote

Enslaved by Ducks by Bob Tarte

Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White … if you’ve never read this, right now, go out and get a copy from your library! Here is Wilbur the pigs breakfast description: “Breakfast at six-thirty. Skim milk, crusts, middlings, bits of doughnuts, wheat cakes with drops of maple syrup sticking to them, potato skins, leftover custard pudding with raisins, and bits of Shredded Wheat.” And the lovely last lines of the book: “It is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer. Charlotte was both.”

And here are titles that I didn’t have time for:

A Small Furry Prayer: dog rescue and the meaning of life by Steven Kotler

The Lost Dogs: Michael Vick’s dogs and their tale of rescue and redemption by Jim Gorant

Dog Stories edited by Diana Secker Tesdell. A great collection of stories from O. Henry to Rudyard Kipling to Jonathan Lethem to Doris Lessing.

And some great children’s books:

How to Clean a Hippopotamus : a look at unusual animal partnerships by Steve Jenkins & Robin Page. (Which answers such questions as “Why do a coyote and a badger team up?” as it explores animal symbiosis)

Pond Circle by Betsy Franco, Illustrated by Stefano Vitale. A retelling of “The House that Jack Built” set in a pond. It begins: “This is the water, the deep, still water, that filled the pond by Anna’s house.”

13 words written by Lemony Snicket ; illustrated byMaira Kalman. The 13 words are “bird”, “despondent,” “cake,” “dog,” “busy,” “convertible,” “goat,” “hat,” “haberdashery,” “scarlet,” “baby,” “panache,” and “mezzo-soprano.” Look for the volume of Kafka and the mushy peas on the table of the despondent bird. A “sophisticated” picture book, as much for adults as for kids. As always Maira Kalman’s illustrations are fabulous.

Melanie’s Picks

The Backyard Homestead Guide to Raising Farm Animals edited by Gail Damerow (nobody in CLAMS owns this title yet, but there are a number of books by the author).

Paradise Found : nature in America at the time of discovery by Steve Nicholls

Dog Days, Raven Nights by John M. Marzluff and Colleen Marzluff

Your Dog: the Owner’s Manual: Hundreds of Secrets, Surprises, and Solutions for Raising a Happy, Healthy Dog by Dr. Marty Becker

The Moral Lives of Animals by Dale Peterson

Where the Wild Things Were : life, death, and ecological wreckage in a land of vanishing predators by William Stolzenberg

Ever By My Side : a memoir in eight acts, pets by Nick Trout

Good Old Dog : expert advice for keeping your aging dog happy, healthy, and comfortable by the faculty of the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University ; edited by Nicholas Dodman, with Lawrence Lindner

Not mentioned but fun

Birdology : adventures with a pack of hens, a peck of pigeons, cantankerous crows, fierce falcons, hip hop parrots, baby hummingbirds, and one murderously big living dinosaur by Sy Montgomery

Lucky, the Autobiography of a Goldfish as told to Marjorie Frith; illustrations by his classmates

This morning Melanie, Mindy and I were on WCAI on The Point discussing books focused on microhistory. Basically microhistories explore a specific subject, often providing a different way of looking at familiar objects, products, or events. The best microhistories use their focus on small specifics to reveal a much larger picture. Nancy Pearl has described them as ”one word wonders” … books like Cod and Salt and Stiff.In the book The Real Story: a guide to nonfiction reading interests by Sarah Statz Cords they are described as “story-driven narratives that give their readers the chance to take in a lot of historical information and provide an excellent way for readers to get a ‘feel’ for historical lives, places, and events.”

Listener Picks

The Captain’s Best Mate : the journal of Mary Chipman Lawrence on the whaler Addison, 1856-1860 / edited by Stanton Garner

The Botany of Desire : a plant’s-eye view of the world by Michael Pollan

And a listener who suggested this title after we went off the air: Medusa and the Snail: more notes of a biology watcher by Lewis Thomas

Another listener suggestion, which came in as a comment on our blog. The Marketplace of Revolution : how consumer politics shaped American independence by T.H. Breen.

Jill’s Picks

Pickett’s Charge: a microhistory of the final attack at Gettysburg, July 3, 1863 by George R. Stewart (written in 1959)

Punch : the delights (and dangers) of the flowing bowl : an anecdotal history of the original monarch of mixed drinks, with more than forty historic recipes, fully annotated, and a complete course in the lost art of compounding punch by David Wondrich

A History of the World in 6 Glasses and The Turk : the life and times of the famous eighteenth-century chess-playing machine both by Tom Standage

The Frozen-water Trade : a true story by Gavin Weightman

Two microhistory children’s titles that I didn’t have time for this morning are An American Plague : the true and terrifying story of the yellow fever epidemic of 1793 by Jim Murphy and The Cod’s Tale by Mark Kurlansky ; illustrated by S.D. Schindler. The Cod’s Tale is based on Kurlansky’s book Cod: a biography of the fish that changed the world. He includes a great little sea shanty:

“Cape Cod kids don’t use no sleds,

Haul away,

Haul away,

They slide down hills on codfish heads”

Melanie’s Picks

Tears of Mermaids: The Secret Story of Pearls by Stephen G. Bloom

The Pledge: A History of the Pledge of Allegiance by Jeffrey Owen Jones and Peter Meyer

Coffee Talk: The Stimulating story of the World’s Most Popular Brew by Morton Satin

April 1865: The Month That Saved America by Jay Winik

The History of the Snowman by Bob Eckstein

Fannie’s Last Supper: Re-creating One Amazing Meal from Fannie Farmer’s 1896 Cookbook by Chris Kimball

Not on show:

Seeds, Sex & Civilization: How the Hidden Life of Plants Has Shaped Our World by Peter Thompson

Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do by Tom Vanderbilt

From Melanie’s list of books she read last year:

Dirt Clean: An Unsanitized History by Katherine Ashenburg

A Secret Gift byTed Gup

The Routes of Man by Ted Conover

The Trends of 2010 included dogs, zombies, vampires, green (ecologically friendly), historical fiction, Jane Austen & Mark Twain. For a Mark Twain read try: Twain’s Feast: searching for America’s lost foods in the footsteps of Samuel Clemens by Andrew Beahrs.

Mindy’s Favorites of 2010

The Red Thread by Ann Hood

The Tin Ticket: the heroic journey of Australia’s convict women by Deborah J. Swiss

Fur, Fortune, and Empire : the epic history of the fur trade in America by Eric Jay Dolin

Jill’s Favorites of 2010

The Secret History of the Pink Carnation by Lauren Willig

Room by Emma Donoghue

We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver

Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese

And the Pursuit of Happiness by Maira Kalman

Pocketful of Posies: a treasury of nursery rhymes by Salley Mavor

In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower (translated by James Grieve) and The Guermantes Way (translated by Mark Treharne ) both by Marcel Proust.

One sentence from Proust (there wasn’t enough time to read on air!):

“And thus it was she who first gave me the idea that people do not, as I had imagined, present themselves to us clearly and in fixity with their merits, their defects, their plans, their intentions in regard to ourselves (like a garden viewed through railings with all its flower beds on display), but, rather, as a shadow we can never penetrate, of which there can be no direct knowledge, about which we form countless beliefs based upon words and even actions, neither of which give us more than insufficient and in fact contradictory information, a shadow that we can alternately imagine, with equal justification, as masking the burning flames of hatred and of love.”

Melanie’s Favorites of 2010

Fiction:

The Wives of Henry Oades by Johanna Moran

The Passage by Justin Cronin

The Transformation of Bartholomew Fortuno by Ellen Bryson

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

All the Stieg Larsson novels

Ford County by John Grisham

The Fifth Woman by Henning Mankell

The Secret Speech by Tom Rob Smith

Wolves Eat Dogs by Martin Cruz Smith

City of Thieves by David Benioff

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

A Corpse in the Koryo by James Church

This Body of Death by Elizabeth George

Nonfiction:

Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition by Dan Okrent

Grounded: A Down to Earth Journey Around the World by Seth Stevenson

The Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull, and the Battle of the Little Bighorn by Nathaniel Philbrick

War by Sebastian Junger

A Secret Gift: how one man’s kindness–and a trove of letters–revealed the hidden history of the Great Depression by Ted Gup

This morning (and you can listen to the rebroadcast this evening at 7:30 on WCAI or listen to the podcast online!) we talked about holiday books from Thanksgiving to Advent to Chanukah to Christmas. Books to help you slow down during the busy season, books to help you make the best cookies ever, books to help you craft, and just great books to read. Feel free to add your own suggestions here for books to help you through the holidays. Can Thanksgiving really be this week?? Melanie’s picks will be up as soon as she has a chance to send them to me!

Jill’s Picks

Thanksgiving: the biography of an American holiday by James W. Baker

Watch for the Light: readings for Advent and Christmas

Fa la la la Felt by Amanda Carestio. Both Melanie & I were enchanted with this title.

Gooseberry Patch: Book 12

Cookie Craft: from baking to luster dust by Valerie Peterson & Janice Fryer

Cookie Craft Christmas by Valerie Peterson & Janice Fryer

Gingerbread Cookie Murder by Joanne Fluke, Laura Levine (The Danger of Gingerbread Cookies) & Leslie Meier (Gingerbread Cookies and Gunshots.

The Mischief of the Mistletoe: a Pink Carnation Christmas by Lauren Willig (This Napoleonic-era series includes 7 books … the action of this book begins after The Seduction of the Crimson Rose, but before The Temptation of the Night Jasmine. First book in the series is The Secret History of the Pink Carnation.)

My First Chanukah by Tomie dePaola

Grandloving: making memories with your grandchildren babies to teens—near or far by Sue Johnson, Julie Carlson, & Elizabeth Bower. I forgot to mention that it was the FIFTH edition that I was talking about … improvements have been made with each edition.

Forbidden Fruit: a history of women and books in art by Christiane Inmann

Two I didn’t have time for:

The Christmas Almanac edited by Natasha Tabori Fried & Lena Tabori. “Part reference, part anthology, part cookbook, part history book, part songbook, part shopping guide, part crafts, and part trivia books.” All in ONE! Revised & updated edition.

Tinsel: a search for America’s Christmas present by Hank Stuever … from the author’s web page: “… a true story—sometimes odd, sometimes funny, and sometimes sad—of three consecutive Christmas seasons that I spent observing three families in the well-off Dallas exurb of Frisco, Texas.” He follows three families through an over-the-top Christmas celebration during 2006, 2007, and 2008.

Melanie’s Picks

A Christmas Odyssey by Anne Perry

An Amish Christmas by Cynthia Keller

The Christmas Chronicles: The Legend of Santa Claus by Tim Slover

Saint Francis and the Nativity by Myrna A. Strasser

Fa La La La Felt: 45 Handmade Holiday Decorations by Amanda Carestio

Daisy’s Holiday Cooking: Delicious Latin Recipes for Effortless Entertaining by Daisy Martinez

Very Merry Cookie Party: How to Plan and Host a Christmas Cookie Exchange by Barbara Grunes and Virginia Van Vynckt

A Secret Gift : how one man’s kindness–and a trove of letters–revealed the hidden history of the Great Depression by Ted Gup

And, even though we didn’t have time:

The Zombie Night Before Christmas by Clement C. Moore and H. Parker Kelley

Listener Picks

The Trees of the Dancing Goats by Patricia Polacco

Hundred Dollar Holiday : the case for a joyful Christmas by Bill McKibben