Thanksgiving Cooking

With just a few days left to prepare for your Thanksgiving feast, now is the time to stop in for a cookbook that might help make the preperations go more smoothly. Here are a few titles that may help:

Looking for more options? Stop by the Reference Desk and speak with a librarian.

New Thanksgiving Stories

Looking for a few Thanksgiving themed stories? Check out these new releases:

Death Rides Again by Janice Hamrick: This cozy mystery, the third in the Jocelyn Shore mystery series, finds Texas high-school teacher Jocelyn Shore's family Thanksgiving disrupted by violent disputes involving a cousin's imminent divorce, which is further complicated by a disappearance, a murder and numerous suspects.

Want Not by Jonathan Miles is a compulsively readable, deeply human novel that charts the course of three intersecting lives—a freegan couple living off the grid in Manhattan, a once prominent linguist struggling with midlife, and a New Jersey debt-collection magnate with a new family and a second chance at getting things right—in a thoroughly contemporary examination of that most basic and unquenchable emotion: want.

Skating Under the Wire by Joelle Charbonneau: When a dead body turns up at her best friend's bridal shower, Rebecca Robbins, while trying to cook Thanksgiving dinner and track down the thieves responsible for a string of home invasions, must solve a murder and get her friend safely married with the help of her Elvis-loving grandmother. This cozy mystery is the fourth in the Rebecca Robbins Mystery series.

Thanksgiving Reading: Giving Thanks

97% of Americans celebrate Thanksgiving by eating turkey.  Beyond that, the the menu is as varied as our nation's melting pot with each recipe telling a story.  Giving Thanks: Thanksgiving Recipes and History, from Pilgrims to Pumpkin Pie by noted food historian Kathleen Curtin explores the deliciously fascinating history of Thanksgiving complete with trivia and amazing archival photographs.  With over 80 recipes and dozens of feel good stories, this book is perfect Thanksgiving reading for everyone!

Mayflower Myths Dispelled

The story of the Pilgrims and their harvest feast has become an integral part of our history but how much do you really know?  Explore the history of the Pilgrim settlement in bestselling author Nathaniel Philbrick's Mayflower.  The true story of the Pilgrims is a 55 year epic dominated by race, violence, and religion.  Learn about popular misconceptions including the nature of the European diseases suffered by the native tribes and the truth about the working relationship between the Pilgrims and Native Americans in this fresh and compelling portrait about the dawn of American history.

Thanksgiving Cookbooks

With the main event a little over a week away, NOW is the time to stop by and grab a Thanksgiving cookbook.  Below you will find some of the most recent additions to our collection.  See see a complete list of our Thanksgiving cookbooks, click here.

Thanksgiving: how to cook it well by Sam Sifton: Sifton, one of food's most celebrated writers, has created a start to finish guide to making Thanksgiving the best meal of the year.

The Harvest Table from Gooseberry Patch includes delicious recipes made from seasonal ingredients and lots of helpful tips.

Vegan for the Holidays by Zel Allen delivers delicious recipes that will be enjoed by vegans and carnivores alike for Thanksgiving through New Years.

Imagining Thanksgiving 1962 in American Boy

Larry Watson's new book American Boy starts on Thanksgiving Day, 1962, when the shooting of a young woman sets off a chain of events in a small Minnesota town.  Booklist, which gave American Boy a starred review, describes the book as a modern-day Catcher in the Rye, and also recommends it as a crossover title for teenaged readers.  Happy Thanksgiving (and happy reading) from your Community Library.

What authors would you invite for Thanksgiving dinner?

Thanksgiving is tomorrow; if you could invite any author (living or dead) to join you, who would it be & why?  Here's one librarian's list:

• Joanne Fluke (Devil's Food Cake Murder) - because she'd bring one heckuva dessert.
• Jane Austen (Pride and Prejudice) - because she died a spinster after having written some of the best love stories of all time, and I've always wanted to ask her about her own love life
• Brandon Sanderson (The Way of Kings) - because he's just a great writer who will always be welcome at my dinner table

Only one week until Thanksgiving

There's one week left until Thanksgiving! Become inspired to count your blessings through these (or other) selections, and please comment: what are you thankful for?

Leszowitz, N. & Sammons, M.B. (2009). Living Life as a Thank You: The Transformative Power of Daily Gratitude

Publisher Summary: The authors present a program for incorporating gratitude into one's life and reaping its many benefits, in a book with motivational quotes, suggested gratitude practice, and anecdotes that is divided into such chapters as "Thank You Power" and "Putting Gratitude into Action."


Emmons, R. (2007). Thanks! How the New Science of Gratitude Can Make You Happier

Publisher Summary: A proponent of the field of positive psychology offers a close-up study of the positive influence on people's lives of the systematic cultivation of gratitude, explaining how the practice of grateful thinking can increase one's chances for happiness and help one cope more effectively with stress, recover more quickly from illness, enjoy better physical health, improve relationships, and other benefits.