A FEAST OF BOOKS

By Jen Schwartz, Briars & Brambles Books, Windham

This year, I propose a different kind of Thanksgiving Feast, A feast of books. Like a good meal, books provide nourishment, but without the calories! Here’s my suggested menu.

Appetizer: A small dish of food or drink taken before a meal to stimulate one’s appetite.

The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession by Michael Finkle

Stéphane Breitwieser managed to pull off a breathtaking number of audacious thefts. Yet these strange talents bred a growing disregard for risk and an addict’s need to score, leading Breitwieser to ignore his girlfriend’s pleas to stop—until one final act of hubris brought everything crashing down. This is a riveting story of art, crime, love, and an insatiable hunger to possess beauty at any cost.

Amuse-Bouche: French for “mouth amuser.’ Think little bites that chefs send to diners at the start of their meal

Your Table is Ready by Michael Cecchi-Azzolina

A front-of-the-house Kitchen Confidential from a career maître d’hotel who has manned the front of the room at a glamorous and in-demand swath of restaurants from the 1970’s to 2020. From the elegant to the entitled, from royalty to the financially ruined, everyone who wanted to be seen—or just to gawk—at the hottest restaurants in New York City came to places Michael Cecchi-Azzolina helped run.

Main Course: The largest part of the meal (it’s Thanksgiving, Try Both!)

North Woods by Daniel Mason

Traversing cycles of history, nature, and even literature, North Woods shows the myriad, magical ways in which we’re connected to our environment and to one another, across time, language and space. Written along with the seasons and divided into the twelve months of the year, it is an unforgettable novel about secrets and fates that asks the timeless question: how do we live on, even after we’re gone?

The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese

Spanning the years 1900 to 1977, The Covenant of Water is set in Kerala, on South India’s Malabar Coast, and follows three genera- tions of a family that suffers a peculiar affliction: in every generation, at least one person dies by drowning—and in Kerala, water is everywhere.

Palate Cleanser: A palate cleanser is a serving of food or drink that removes food residue from the tongue allowing one to more accurately assess a new flavor.

Tom Lake by Ann Patchett

A meditation on youthful love, married love, and the lives our parents had before they were our parents. Both hopeful and elegiac, the novel explores what it means to be happy even when the world is falling apart.

Dessert: the sweet course eaten at the end of a meal (help yourself to each of these guilty pleasures).

Everybody in My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson

Everyone in my family has killed someone. Some of us, the high achievers, have killed more than once. I’m not trying to be dramatic, but it is the truth. Some of us are good, others are bad, and some are just unfortunate. I’m Ernest Cunningham. Call me Ern or Ernie. I wish I’d killed whoever decided our family reunion should be at a ski resort, but it’s a little more complicated than that.

Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

Over the course of one summer, four customers visit the café in the hopes of making that journey. But time travel isn’t so simple, and there are rules that must be followed. Most important, the trip can last only as long as it takes for the coffee to get cold. Heartwarming, wistful, mysterious and delightfully quirky, Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s internationally bestselling novel explores the age-old question: What would you change if you could travel back in time?

Death by Chocolate Marshmallow Pie by Sarah Graves

Chocolate Pie—need we say more?

Visit Briars & Brambles Books at the corner of Route 296 and South Street in Windham. Jen or another member of her staff will help you pick out the perfect books for your Thanksgiving literary feast.

Plot summaries come from Edelweiss, a subscription service booksellers use to help determine which books they’d like to carry.