Dec. Free Books!
Our free books for the month of December are both classics within their genres.
The first book, COLD SASSY TREE by Olive Ann Burns, was first published in 1984. It’s one of my favorites. From the cover, “On July 5, 1906, scandal breaks in the small town of Cold Sassy, Georgia, when the proprietor of the general store, E. Rucker Blakeslee, elopes with Miss Love Simpson. He is barely three weeks a widower, and she is only half his age and a Yankee to boot. As their marriage inspires a whilrwind of local gossip, fourteen-year-old Will Tweedy suddenly finds himself eyewitness to a family scandal, and that’s where his adventures begin.”
This give-away edition is in trade paperback format, and is a new, remaindered copy. The page edges at the bottom of the book are marked.
The second book is a classic in inspirational fiction. HOME TO HOLLY SPRINGS by Jan Karon is the first of the Father Tim novels. From the cover, “After more than 38 years, Father Tim Kavanagh returns to his childhood home of Holly Springs, Mississippi, on a profoundly personal journey. He figures Thomas Wolfe was right: You can’t go home again. Then he discovers the truth. A surprising number of old connections have miraculously survived time and neglect.”
This give-away book is a new hardcover edition.
To qualify for the drawing (held December 31) for these free novels, take a look ahead to the warm days of summer and tell us what kind of book (genre) is your favorite beach read! I’m a mystery/suspense beach-reader myself. As always, the person whose name is drawn first will receive his/her choice of these two books and the second will receive the other book.
Please feel free to post a reply even if you are one of our previous winners!
Blessings! Sue
Jackie, Thank you for this information! I love hearing how people in various countries celebrate their holidays. Ireland sounds a lot like what we do in the US, but we also keep some of the St. Nicholas traditions, too. I imagine that as families from various cultures settled in the US and Canada, they kept their traditions and incorporated the traditions of people added to the family through marriage and of neighbors, too. Always interesting!
I love reading historic novels on holiday, I also like reading memoirs of people I find interesting and I love reading cookbooks ALL the time.
I come from the Netherlands but live in Ireland since 8 years now, I really had to get used to the different way of celebrating christmas. In the Netherlands st. Nicolaas is the BIG thing to celebrate:
Sinterklaas is a traditional Winter holiday figure in the Netherlands, Belgium, Aruba, Suriname, Curacao, Bonaire, and Indonesia; he is celebrated annually on Saint Nicholas’ eve (5 December) or, in Belgium, on the morning of 6 December. Originally, the feast celebrates the name day of Saint Nicholas, patron saint of children, sailors, and the city of Amsterdam, among others.
He comes in his steamboat from Spain to all the harbours in Holland, very exciting for children, everyday, for 14 days, the children put their shoe at the door, sing a song, put a carrot and some sugar in the shoe in the hope to find a present the next morning.
Then on the 5th of december, anticipation all day, when it gets dark a big bang is heard in the house (a neighbour will bang the door, but the children think it is st. Nicolaas) and a huge bag with lots of presents is standing outside.
Christmas is celebrated with a tree, maybe a few little presents for adults and nice food for 2 days.
Stollen is always eaten, yummie.
Christmas here in Ireland is celebrated big, presents for everybody and a traditional christmas dinner on christmasday.Christmas is the most important holiday in the Irish calendar. Everything seems to come to a halt for most of December, with celebrations that range from parties and fancy dress balls to races and reveling on St. Stephen’s Day. The centerpiece at every event is the spicy fruitcake known as ca’ca Nollaig.
NOTE: This cake is made several weeks (early in November) before serving. The marzipan is added the day before the cake is frosted and served.
A penny is cooked into the cake, whom ever gets that penny in his/her piece of cake will find luck for the rest of the year.
Sue you amaze me with your great knoweledge of words!I”m learning new things all the time.You have one up on me I have never made Stollen and I do Like it.(I have some German & Scotish blood in me)But my Mum said she was sure that I had Irish!! Back to food.In Australia Pavlova”s are main sweets you can have shells,roll pav & just the normal round one which gets garnished whith lots of nice fruit.Berries are my favourite.Plenty of fruit cakes light and the traditional one.My favourite’s are imported goodies!! German biscuits and real short bread.This time of the year is great to look at the imported foods it’s over the top.
Trish, I think mince pies are not as big a part of Christmas in the US as they are in Australia or Great Britain. Any readers out there who can fill us in on current trends in England, Ireland and/or Scotland? In the little town in Michigan where I was raised, many of the earliest settlers were from Yorkshire, England, and Scotland, and a few from Ireland. To them, mincemeat was always a part of Christmas. I know that my mother-in-law loved mincemeat pie. I “inherited” that love from her! I used to make mincement pie for her when I was younger and had a huge garden. I found a recipe that used green tomatoes and golden raisins and apples rather than meat. I canned it and made “mincemeat” pie every Christmas, much to my mother-in-law’s delight. And mine.
What about other areas of the US? Can anyone fill us in? My family (Dad’s side) is from the South so pecan rules! My grandfather lived to be ninety and always shucked the pecans for us. The pecans were fresh off his sister’s pecan trees, light and tender. They always seemed to taste better than storebought pecans. But you have to work hard to get off the double hulls.
Any other favorite pie traditions? Or holiday treats that seem to make Christmas very special for you? I have learned to make Stollen to celebrate the German-slavic-Jewish roots on my mom’s side.
How about fruitcake? Thumbs up or Thumbs down? Blessings, Sue
Sue Border’s here is the only one you see people sitting around the other book store’s that are quite big do not encourage that and there’s no chairs around plus no coffe spots only Border”s.I have another question.With Xmas celebrations do you make mince pie’s? It’s very big over here.
Trish, to answer your question, larger bookstores usually do have an area where they sell specialty coffees and teas and various confections. They also have chairs and a few small tables situated around the store. Smaller stores don’t have space for these accommodations, or perhaps have a reading/play area only in the children’s book section. I have been in several small book stores that were crammed with books, but also had a sitting area at the front of the store. One had a fireplace with hearthside chairs.
I love to sit and read at a book store . . . or at a library . . . or at home . . . on a plane… Hmmm, just about anywhere I can get away with it!
Sue we have Border’s Book store over here in Perth and it’s the only book store where you see people sitting around reading books and dont always buy them.Our other book stores you cannot do that and there isn’t any place to sit.Do all your book store’s encourage people to sit around reading!
I love those skywalks! So great in cold weather. I don’t recall being in that bookstore. It sounds like a great one!
The best bookstore that Bill & I have found is in Minneapolis – downtown on the mall – where the skywalks are!! It is several floors and just left us amazed as how much fun it was to be there.
Wow! Sounds like a wonderful place! I absolutely love bookstores. My husband and I found a used-book store that was a great place to browse when we were in Williamsburg, VA this past October. I bought a very old edition of WIND IN THE WILLOWS. What a treasure!
If you’re ever in Columbus, OH you should go to The Book Loft. It is the best bookstore anywhere. 32 rooms crammed with every book imaginable in a beautiful brick building in historic German Village (cobblestone streets and everything). There’s a Cup O’ Joe right next door. It’s just about my favorite place in town!
http://www.bookloft.com/
Bookstores are definitely one of my favorite places to visit!!
With such wide variety of books around I find that I”m switching from one genre to another.Suspense & mystteries are favourite of mine and Paranormal.It’s a field day out in book shops but great place to be in.
Dobie, my daughter-in-law’s favorite fiction is of the historical/Royal sub-genre. I have yet to buy her a book for Christmas this year, which will be of that genre. Does anyone have any suggestions for one that has just been released? (So I know she hasn’t read it yet.)
I do find that I go back and forth between genres, especially depending on the time of year. (Summer, mysteries. Winter, long historicals, etc.) So I understand what you mean about reading a variety. Like I read on a T-shirt once, “So many books, so little time!”
You know, I like to read such a variety of books that I can’t choose any particular genre. My preference is stories based on truth, but I can get lost in almost anything. 🙂
As always, my favorite genre to read anywhere is Pre-historic Fiction.
Because of their limited supply (I haven’t found one that I haven’t read in AGES), I am forced to look elsewhere for my reading entertainment.
I can get into just about any fiction.
There is an endless supply of Historical Fiction and I enjoy the Royal sub-genre.
I really believe that I should have been born a princess. I’m not sure what era or nationality . . . but a princess nonetheless.