This Week: November 16th

News and Updates

We are getting ready for our annual Thanksgiving trip next week – are you traveling for the holiday? Beyond just packing our bags, I’m also packing books! I’m trying to make sure I have plenty to keep me busy while we’re gone – I know I’ll be up early every morning reading before the family is! This trip also has me thinking about all the bookish places we’ve been on our travels and I want to share some of them with you this week!

This Week

The star of our Thanksgiving meal may be the turkey, but the desserts come in a close second! We’re honoring the chefs and bakers who work hard to put dinner on the table for us this week by reading stories that revolve around them.

Reading Challenge: About a Chef or Baker

I considered finding one of those Hallmark movie-esque books about a cupcake bakery that gets saved from closing by the hunky guy. But something told me the guys out there might appreciate something like this a little more. Billie Letts delivers a tale that feels like melding of Lonesome Dove and every visit to Luke’s Diner on Gilmore Girls in these pages.

I could not put this down and stayed up late just to finish this one. There are moments that will tear at your heartstrings, and moments that put your trust back in humanity. If you are sensitive to gun violence, scenes recounting war injuries, or drug and alcohol abuse, this may not be the best read for you.

If you’re looking for other great books for this prompt, try one of these:

• Chocolat, Joanne Harris
• Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant, Curtis Chin
• Midnight at the Blackbird Cafe, Heather Webber
• The Nantucket Restaurant, Pamela M Kelley

New This week

We don’t have any of our early reads hitting shelves this week, but here’s some great options I have in my preorders you can pick up on Tuesday:

• The Breath of the Gods, Simon Winchester
• The Ferryman and His Wife, Frode Grytten
• Return of the Spider, James Patterson
• 100 Rules for Living to 100, Dick Van Dyke

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In Case You Missed It

Last Week’s Prompt

Charles Alexander Eastman was known among the Sioux as Ohiye S’a over his 80 years. He was a physician, but may be most widely known for the speeches he gave on Native America affairs. In researching Eastman, I was blown away to find facts such as the 32 chapters of the YMCA he founded, or that he was integral in the founding of Boy Scouts of America, or his higher education at both Dartmouth and Boston University. He was also a BIA physician at Pine Ridge, caring for wounded from the Wounded Knee massacre. The Soul of an Indian is but one of a vast collection of written works he produced in his life, but one that I will treasure.

I give The Soul of an Indian 4.25 out of 5 stars. I was reminded of the Navajo creation story Dine Bahane while reading this book. Eastman takes a poignant look at the human aspect of what the white man had deemed a “savage” lifestyle that should be cured and trained out of the Native American tribes. Eastman careful details his own experiences with the culture and spirituality that have been misunderstood for centuries. If you would like to hear more about this culture directly from someone who was alive before all tribes were forced onto reservations and white influence took hold, this is the book for you.

Last Week’s Article

Every year, I put out a list of travel essentials just in time to order before you hit the road for your holiday trips. I’ve updated our list and added a few new things I think you’ll enjoy if you’re hitting the road or trying to fly in the next few weeks!

You can find the full list of gadgets, gizmos and more here.

ps: these would make great gifts for the book lover in your life, too!

Last Week’s Preview

Wildwood is book two in this series from Amy Pease, following a small-town Sheriff and her son as they investigate crimes with the help of the FBI. In Wildwood, we see the sheriff chasing a pill mill and drug traffickers on the lam while searching for a missing girl and a potential murder victim.

I give Wildwood 4.85 out of 5 stars. I loved this so much, I didn’t want to put it down. I even ordered Northwoods, the first book in the series as soon as I finished this so I wouldn’t have to say goodbye to these characters just yet! You’re going to love this one!

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Reading Challenge Prompts

Are you reading along with us for November? Here’s the full list of our upcoming weekly prompts. Not up for reading a book every week? That’s ok – we have a once-a-month prompt, too! Our monthly theme for November is Brown – look for a book with a brown cover or brown in the name.

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What I’m Reading

• Current print book: Yours Truly, Aby Jimenez
• Current audio book: Scrimmage for War, Bill McWilliams
• Book I’m most looking forward to: Cold Zero, Brad Thor