Lit Bits

By Lynn Taylor

Cultured Books Curates Holiday Book List

Cultured Books posted their 33 Best Books of 2020 just in time to give the children on your list the gift of stories. All selections support the shop’s mission to foster a love of self by showing positive images and sharing great stories about people of color. The store’s goal is to create a reading culture within the community by curating great books and engaging book clubs and community events that inspire.

Hours are extended for the holiday season from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturdays and from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sundays. The Breakfast Literacy Community happens every Saturday at 10 a.m., where young readers can enjoy books and breakfast then share what they read.

Check out the top 10 titles below. Go to bookshop.org to see the entire list and discover even more great books for children of all ages. “Lupe Wong No Baila” by Donna Barba Higuera “Federico and the Wolf” by Rebecca J. Gomez and Elisa

Chavarri “Swashby and the Sea” by Beth Ferry and Juana Martinez-

Neal “The Moon is Following Me” by JQ Sirls “Your Name is a Song” by Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow “Bedtime for Sweet Creatures” by Nikki Grimes and

Elizabeth Zunon “Freedom, We Sing” by Amyra Leon and Molly Mendoza “Big Ideas for Young Thinkers” by Jamia Wilson and Andrea

Pippins “Kamala Harris: Rooted in Justice” by Nikki Grimes and

Laura Freeman “The ABCs of Black History” by Rio Cortez and Lauren Semmer

Tombolo Books Shares Reader Favorites

Discovering a new book or giving one is always fun, but sometimes it can be tricky to know just which book to select. Indie bookstore Tombolo Books makes that task a little easier with a list of some of their most popular and critically acclaimed books of 2020.

Tombolo has also made local holiday shopping for books easier in pandemic times, offering 30-minute in-store shopping appointments, curbside pick-up, downtown delivery and shipping.

Last Gabber Book Club Meeting of 2020

The Gabber Book Club got off to a great start this August with some good reads and, most of all, readers who were willing to Zoom in to book club each month and share their thoughts on each month’s selection until the group can meet safely in person.

The final book club meeting of 2020 is on December 9 at 7 p.m. December’s selection is “Worm Fiddling Nocturne in the Key of a Broken Heart,” a collection of short stories by local author Kimberly Lojewski, which won a Florida Book Award.

Cultured Books