Sunday Salon, Dec. 6th

Weather: winter lovely, a bit breezy.

I win the booby prize. Yesterday I drove to Barnes and Noble bookstore at South Center, to buy books to support the Cavalcade of Authors event. A portion of the proceeds of my purchase would go as a fund raiser for the event scheduled for this coming Spring. It is nearly 30 miles to South Center from our house. It was a rainy dark day and I had trouble finding the store, so drove around in circles for a while. When I finally arrived I was pretty late and just barely got there before the event was over, but I did meet and chat with an author, Carl Deuker, who is a great favorite with male readers. Anyway, I shopped and had a lot of books in my cart when I made my way to check-out counter to discover I had left my wallet at home. Sigh. They would not accept a check without ID. All that effort, time, and tension. I drove home, after promising I'd return. I drove back later with Don. 120 miles later, I do have a whole new batch of books for the library but at a high cost in terms of effort and time.

Classics Spin. Join me for Classics Club Spin #11. Check out the details here. I am focusing on female authors for this event. The spin is tomorrow, so hurry and make your list!

That's Christmas to Me by Pentatonix. Have a listen while you read the rest of this post. A new favorite Christmas song.

International Justice Mission: In times like these we all need to think of ways we can promote peace and justice in our communities and world. Consider giving the gift of justice this holiday season. Shop at International Justice Mission and make a donation which makes a difference. Check it out.

Fair Trade Products: another thing we can all do is buy gifts which are fairly made and traded. People should be able to make a living to support their families. Often workers in 3rd world countries toil and toil and still can't support their loved ones.  Spend a little extra on Fair Trade products to make sure the artisan is making a fair wage.  Look for this symbol on the product. Once again the majority of my gifts will be fair trade products, just wanted to let you know family! I went to a wonderful Fair Trade Market at Urban Grace Church Friday with a friend from school sponsored by my friends Merry and Val. We found some wonderful gifts.

Books read this week:

• The Emperor of Any Place by Tim Wynne-Jones...It took me weeks to get through this new YA book but I ended up really liking it and won't be surprised if it gets some attention come award season.

Currently reading (listening to):

• The People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks...Don, Carly, and I listened to 2/3rd of this audiobook en route to Oregon and back for Thanksgiving week-end. Now we are playing share the CDs around between our three cars. Carly finished it yesterday, I have one disc left to go, and Don is on disc 10 of 12. It is a wonderful story and I highly recommend it in this format. Progress 92%.
• The Nightingale by Kristen Hannah...my other audiobook I've listened to this when it wasn't my turn for a CD of the other book. Progress 62%.
• The MARTian by Blythe Woolston...a new dystopian book. What a bleak world. Progress 25%.

Book Lists: This is the season for end-of-the-year-best-books lists. I've compiled a bunch of them if you want to take a look for future reading ideas. List of lists.

Shamelessly promoting bookish products. Earlier this week I made 10 shopping suggestions to give to the book lovers in your life this holiday season. (I get no kick-backs for promoting these products.) Check out the blogpost here. (Open in a new browser.)

Pray today for your enemy. I know this sounds like a weird request. But we have so much hatred in our world right now. We must pray for our enemies or for those people who are so filled with hatred they are looking for a chance to hurt us. Pray that God would flood them with love and hope right now. Only love can conquer hatred.