Month: December 2021
Christmas Selection
It’s that time of year again, when sleigh bells ring, lights on houses gleam, and Mariah Carey’s voice follows you from store to store reminding you that Christmas is almost upon us! While there are so many other holidays that are commonly celebrated around the world during the month of December (check out our holiday blog post for more details) Christmas is one of the most commonly celebrated here in northwest Arkansas.
If you’re looking for another way to celebrate the season besides hanging lights and wrapping presents, come visit the Rogers Public Library! We have a large selection of Christmas-themed books to choose from, including:
A Christmas Carol : and other Christmas stories by Charles Dickens: Read the classic that’s been the subject of many movies over the years!
1225 Christmas Tree Lane by Debbie Macomber: “The people of Cedar Cove know how to celebrate Christmas. Like Grace and Olivia and everyone else, Beth Morehouse expects this Christmas to be one of her best. Her small Christmas tree farm is prospering, her daughters and her dogs are happy and well, and her new relationship with local vet Ted Reynolds is showing plenty of romantic promise. But– someone recently left a basket filled with puppies on her doorstep, puppies she’s determined to place in good homes. That’s complication number one. And number two is that her daughters Bailey and Sophie have invited their dad, Beth’s long-divorced husband, Kent, to Cedar Cove for Christmas.”
The Adults : a novel by Caroline Hulse: “Meet The Adults. Claire and Matt are no longer together but decide what’s best for their daughter Scarlett is to have a ‘normal’ family Christmas. Claire brings her new boyfriend Patrick (never Pat), a seemingly sensible, eligible from a distance, Iron-Man-in-Waiting. Matt brings the new love of his life Alex, funny, smart, and extremely patient. Scarlett, who is seven, brings her imaginary friend Posey. He’s a rabbit. Together the five (or six?) of them grit their teeth over Forced Fun activities, drinking a little too much after bed-time, oversharing classified secrets about their pasts and before you know it their holiday is a powder keg that ends–where this story starts–with a tearful, frightened, call to the police… But what happened?”
All I Have To Give : A Christmas Love Story by Melody Carlson: “Anna and Michael have been trying for years without success to have a baby. Now in her late thirties, Anna has given up on the hope of motherhood after heartbreaking miscarriages and shattered dreams. As Christmas nears, she has to consider the possibility that it might be time to empty out the nursery and convert it to a guest room. Amidst her heartache, Anna secretly struggles with strange health problems that have her very worried. But, as often happens at Christmastime, there are miracles in store for Anna and Michael. As each tries to give the other the perfect Christmas gift the magic of Christmas is working its way into their lives.”
Holiday Grind by Cleo Coyle: “Coffeehouse manager and head barista Clare Cosi and her NYPD detective boyfriend discover the snowy body of a man dressed up in a Santa suit, and become convinced the death was more than a mugging gone awry.”
You can also find more Christmas-related books by searching our website or visiting us directly. We have a display set up in the hall between the adult fiction and paperback sections chock full of books like these. You can find the perfect book to sit by the fire with on these rare cold Arkansas days. Who knows? Maybe we’ll even get a little snow this year!
Pearl Harbor Day
At the beginning of December, in the midst of the holiday hustle and bustle, we pause to turn our thoughts toward a place that’s usually a little more tropical this time of year. Not to day-dream about a pleasant day at the beach, but to remember a day that changed the course of the most wide-spread and destructive war in history. On December 7, 1941, the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service performed a surprise military strike on the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Hawaii. This was done without a declaration of war or any other explicit warning, which was highly unusual at the time. During the attack, 2,403 Americans were killed and 1,178 others were wounded. All eight U.S. Navy battleships stationed there at the time were damaged; four were sunk completely with the USS Arizona still underwater to this day. If you visit Pearl Harbor today, you can take a boat out to the memorial that marks the final resting place of not only the USS Arizona but 1,102 of the 1,177 sailors who died on the ship during the attack.
Over the course of 7 hours, beginning with the attack on Pearl Harbor at 7:48 a.m., the Japanese would also launch attacks on the U.S.-held Philippines, Guam, and Wake Island and on the British Empire in Malaya, Singapore, and Hong Kong. Ironically, this was supposed to be a preventative attack to ensure that the United States would stay out of their way during the remainder of the war. The following day, however, the United States would officially declare war on Japan and enter into history’s most destructive war to date.
For more details and first-hand accounts of this historical event, check out books like:
Day of Infamy by Walter Lord
At Dawn We Slept by Gordon W. Prange
Both of these books can be found here at the Rogers Public Library. Did you know that the two World Wars are among the most popular subjects in our non-fiction section? Because of that, we have an extensive collection to choose from. Come check out our website for more information. If you want to learn about a specific topic but don’t know where to start, let us know at the information desk. We’ll be happy to point you in the right direction!