Happy (C)(H)an(n)uk(k)a(h)!

The Festival of Lights, Latkes, and Infinite Spellings starts on December 1 this year. That's soon, friends. Leftover-turkey soon.

We in the kids' section are ready. We've got our favorite gift recommendations organized by age. We've got heads and shelves full of other suggestions on every topic and in every genre. And if you're looking for something that introduces, honors, or even kibitzes the holiday itself, look no further.

You know how Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar has it all? Counting, bright colors, and even holes in the pages for curious little fingers? Emily Sper's Hanukkah: A Counting Book has all that, too, and some Hebrew and Yiddish for good measure. It's basic enough and eye-catching enough to appeal to the youngest readers, and it's also a good introduction for kids of any age who haven't experienced the holiday themselves. The same goes for Hanukkah, Oh, Hanukkah, by Susan Roth, with its singable text and its colorful mice and dreydels.

For readers who've been there and spun that, we have some irreverent offerings. In Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins, a visitor uses his cleverness to save a village from, dare I say it, Grinchly goblins. And I suspect that nothing needs to be said beyond this title and author: The Latke Who Couldn't Stop Screaming, by Lemony Snicket.

We've got plenty more titles on hand, so come on in!

Kate's Holiday helpful tip o' the week!

Why so glum friend?

I'll tell you why. There's food everywhere. Good food. Your pants are not yet elastic and so you must decide what to eat, and how much. This is one of life's pains.

I think exploring our massive cookbook selection is a good way to focus intention on what you are eating. That way you won't be spending as much time as I do in the diet section of the store.

This time of year is tough...but our Christmas/Hanukkah lights are up, and we've got the heat on and some good tunes. It's kinda like a mini vacation to walk the isles. (kinda)

If things are tight this year, head down to our bargain basement...the new home for our Used, Sale and Remainder books.

Treat yourself well this week. Be extra kind to everyone who crosses your path, because you never know if they are the great pumpkin or not.

(I meant angel, yea....angel)

Annapurna

This book I've been recommending hopelessly for almost a decade. It's about the first expedition, in the 1950's, to ever reach the top of an 8,000 meter peak. It's written, originally in French, by the expedition leader, Maurice Herzog. The horrific frostbite suffered on a disastrous descent cost him, oh I don't recall exactly, but something on the order of 43 toes, half a dozen legs, and two of his noses. And his best pipe. The tale is astounding. It begins in the lowlands, with the arduous hiring of some eighty five thousand locals who are willing to haul 1,400 lbs of equipment on each of their backs, probably including chests full of their native coin with which they will be paid each day they survive on these slopes which they generally avoid because, well, they aren't mad. It ends, as you now know, with Herzog relating how nice the nurses are as they massage the blood back into his elbows and knees. I mean, his extremities.

But the middle part, oh the brief, high middle part.

As Herzog approaches the summit; as his oxygen-starved brain tries to reckon with where he is about to stand, the prose flies free. As his steps, slowed to the pace of perhaps one every twenty seconds, bring him closer to the literal pinnacle of human exploration, it's like the man's soul leaps into the air and off the page.

That middle part is one of the very best things I've ever read, and it is the one and only account that has ever made me want to leave behind the comfortable little rocks and pebbles I have scaled with my tight pointy boots and set foot on the path to the high, cold, pointy places which scratch the outer rim of our world.

And all these years the book has been out of print. I've told thirty or forty customers that they must keep an eye out for this book that they have never heard of, and then, then, today a woman comes in search of this very book. LA LA LA LA LAAAA! (choruses of angels) "Oh, Annapurna, I can't believe you are asking for that book, oh goodness it is one of my very favorite books! " And I look it up as I tell her that it is so long out of print...Wh-wh-what!?!?! It's on our shelves. It. is. here. again.

That's all.

Oh, and there's an old playground slide in Newton that is just over twice my height. I turned around and saw my four year old boy walking up it with no hands, and Herzog's narrative sprung to mind. Except Herzog had no hands on the way down, so I guess it's not really the same.

don't judge a book by its....you know

So can I talk for a minute about reading on the T?

For several weeks I was trying to slog through Obama's Wars. Nothing against the book, but it was pretty dense and not exactly the read I was expecting. But I loved carrying it on the T -- even though I disliked reading it -- because everyone would see me reading Obama's Wars and think, somehow, that I was erudite and political and clearly a smart lady. I remember a situation in which three men in Army fatigues got on, and I literally was so excited to convey the message that I was reading Obama's Wars that I tried extra-extra-hard to make my book cover visible.

When I finished that one, it was on to Living Dead in Dallas, the second book in the Sookie Stackhouse vampire series. Oh boy! I am a major fan of True Blood, which is based on the book series, and I was itching to read the semi-trashy, pulpy novel. "But no!" I thought to myself. "The only time I have to read is on the T! I can't read Living Dead in Dallas on the T! People will see me! GAHHH!" Upon deciding that not reading the book was not an option, I hid the cover as best I could in my lap.

And now I'm reading Tommy's Tale, the self-proclaimed "Queer as Folk meets About A Boy", which features a pair of splayed male legs falling out of a bathtub. (They're attached to said male, of course -- it's not a slasher novel -- but all you can see is the legs.) Now I feel like people are looking at my book cover and thinking that I am reading some party-hard, not-literary, trash. (I also feel this way when I come to sex scenes in books I'm reading on the T -- suddenly embarrassed and quite furtive.)

So I was thinking about my issues with T reading, and why I was so concerned that other people would care about what I was reading. "Self," I said to myself, "when was the last time YOU noticed what someone else was reading on the T?" And the honest answer is -- never.

So I just need to get over my reading-on-the-T complex and display my book covers proudly, whatever they may be. But I know that sometimes I may still hope that people are taking more notice of the "I Love Brookline Booksmith" pin on my bag than they are of my choice of reading material.

More Than Turkey

Can you believe that Thanksgiving is a week from tomorrow? While looking at our Thanksgiving table -- complete with books, little turkeys, chocolates, and more -- I noticed that I've never read many Thanksgiving books. The holiday comes and goes so fast with even bigger ones coming up that they have always escaped. I must admit that holiday books, for the most part, are either great or just eh. I was surprised at a few books though.

The first, It's Thanksgiving, by Jack Prelutsky, which is a great book of poems. Whether you are a person who can't eat on Thanksgiving or has over-eaten, for watchers of football and parades, right down to the repetition of leftovers, there is a poem for everyone in this book and they were all fun to read, too.

Sarah Morton's Day, by Katie Waters, isn't actually about Thanksgiving, but the the life of a pilgrim girl. I liked it because it is relevant to Thanksgiving, but it gives other food for thought -- especially after reading books on the same Turkey event over and over. Even though we live near the same soil as pilgrims here in Massachusetts, life was sure different!

"It takes all kinds of pilgrims to make a Thanksgiving." I was glad I finally got around to reading Molly's Pilgrim, written by Barbara Cohen.  Molly is a Jewish-Russian immigrant who doesn't speak English very well. Yet, as the first Thanksgiving nears, she learns that she too is a pilgrim. Thanksgiving is more about feasting and peace-making; it is about finding religious freedom.

In regards to factual books, If You Were at the First Thanksgiving, by Anne Kamma, is a great Q&A book for kids who already know the ins and outs of Thanksgiving.  Susan Sloat's Pardon That Turkey also gives a plethora of interesting facts about this November holiday we have celebrated for hundreds of years.

Fainting couches and courting candles

There's a book on our shelves that seems to have been written just for me. It's one of those books filled with little bits of trivia and information that you don't have to read in just one sitting. Some people (who I live with) say it's good bathroom reading but that's all I'll say about that. It's called "Let's Bring Back: An Encyclopedia of Forgotten-Yet Delightful, Chic, Useful, Curious and Otherwise Commendable Things from Times Gone By."

I LOVE old things. I love flea markets and Turner Classic Movies and used books. Anything with a past or some history is right up my alley. So I find this book a lot of fun. If I were me, I'd love to get this for Christmas.

Opening the book at random I find gaslit streetlamps, garden parties and gemstone engagement rings. All three worthy of being brought back into our modern life. Though I would argue that gemstone engagement rings are already back as I am wearing one on my finger. Other entries in the book include mini-biographies of old film stars (hooray for Myrna Loy!) and notable yet perhaps forgotten cultural figures like Diana Vreeland, the head of Vogue Magazine from 1962 to 1971. There's even a recipe for the original Girl Scout cookies, circa 1922, which were baked by Scouts at home and sold door to door for about $.25 a box. Yum!

Here are a few things Ms. Blume and I agree should be brought back: Polaroid cameras, dressing for your shape (as opposed to going with the latest fads,) attention spans, mahogany telephone booths in hotel lobbies, the word "masher" (which can be heard regularly in movies from the 30's and 40's,) notions departments in department stores, skating parties and grasshoppers. The drink. But there is so, so much more in this little book.

And since I've got to go I'll leave you with the famous words of Edward R. Murrow, good night and good luck.

fitters for the urban

Um....check out this company, "the frantic meerkat" (yes we have these magnets and no , I'm not good at linking....lay off soldier!) Anyway, on to the weirdest coolest cheapest gifts in town...

I want, nay, NEED people to understand how dependent I am on our Card & Gift room for the affordable luxury I think of as expendable fashion. Without fail I spend a healthy chunk of my income on all my gifty needs at this store. It's easy to do, and I feel like my money is not going to some faceless megacorp that is pushing a liberal agenda sartorially, then backing right wing fundementalisms. My money is going to local artists, and funky small start-ups.

Kerri, our gift buyer doesn't use a vaguely creepy MBA formula to predict, or project the trends that people of my regional /socioeconomic and otherwise-ilk are going to want to buy, she just knows her community and what we dig. I also think she may be some type of witch, and I have it on GOOD authority that she watches all of Brookline sleep. So there's that.

I'm so proud of our card and gift room. It is the great equalizer. If you are loaded and can buy diamonds, you'll find something unique and edgy that Zales can't offer. If you're concerned that the price of Ramen is creeping up, you'll find something CHEAP and gorgeous.

Consider checking us out for your jewelry and gifty-card needs this season. There's no skinny jean requirement to work or shop here...we're cheaper, we wrap... and oh yea....our books are pretty sexy too.