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Books
Room by Emma Donoghue
Room by Emma Donoghue
321 Pages
Copyright 2010
Published by Little, Brown, and Company
The surface area of the world is 510,072,000 km2; Jack’s world is eleven feet by eleven feet. In his five years of life, he has never left Room. Jack is Emma Donoghue’s main character in her 2010 novel, Room, an unnerving novel of love and survival that was inspired by the Joseph Frizl case in 2009. Donoghue is a writer whose work is typically housed in the contemporary and historical fiction sections of the library. She wrote the bestselling fiction novel, Slammerkin, and she experienced even more success with this, her most recent publication. Room is an international bestseller, and has won multiple awards: Salon Book Award for Fiction, an NPR Best Book of 2010, Bloomberg’s 2010 Top Novel, and Indies Choice Book Award for adult fiction,
The story begins as Jack turns five years old. Told in his voice, we learn how his world works. He lives with Ma in Room, what he calls the small enclosure. He truly believes that there is nothing peculiar about staying in the one room, for Room is all that there is. Life in Room is routine and structured: Eating time, playtime, sleeping time, TV time, repeat. Ma keeps him entertained at all times. However, when nighttime comes, Ma hides Jack in Wardrobe. She is trying to keep him away from the man who kidnapped her seven years ago, whom Jack calls “Old Nick”, who comes to Room each night.
To Jack, Room is comforting; it’s home. To Ma, it’s the prison that has held her for seven years. After Jack’s birth, Ma used the power of a mother’s love for a child to create some sort of life for Jack in the small space. However, now that he is five years old and his curiosity is peaking, Ma believes he might be old enough to comprehend that there is more to the world than just Room.
From Jack’s point of view, this novel is even more compelling and unique. Jack has a refreshing innocence, however at times this innocence hinders him greatly. Several times while reading the book, I found myself so engrossed in the story that I wished I were there with Jack to tell him what to do. Room is a dark, unsettling tale, and Donoghue has made Room feel terrifyingly real. From the first page, I was entranced. “Room is a book to read in one sitting. When it’s over you look up: the world looks the same but you are somehow different and that feeling lingers for days,” says Audrey Niffenegger, author of The Time Traveler’s Wife. Donoghue has created a masterpiece that is exhilarating, shocking, and absolutely riveting. Room is a place that you cannot forget after reading this novel.
Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay
Sarah’s Key by Tatiana DeRosnay
293 pages
Published by St. Martin’s Griffin
Copyright 2007
The Vel’ d’Hiv round up was one of the darkest moments in France’s history. July 16th and 17th of 1942, French police rounded up 13,152 Jewish men, women, and children from Paris and placed them in the Velodrome d’Hiver. They were kept in horrendous conditions there until they were sent to internment camps.
Once they arrived at the internment camps, they were split up into groups of men and then women and children. After being divided, all the men, women, and about 4,000 children were sent to Auschwitz. This piece of French history has been kept away and unacknowledged by the French for years. The French author, Tatiana De Rosnay, has brought this event to the spotlight in her internationally best selling novel, Sarah’s Key.
In this New York Times best selling novel, Julia Jarmand is a journalist for an American magazine based in Paris. She has a Parisian husband, Bertrand, and a daughter named Zoe. In 2002, for the sixtieth anniversary of the Vel’ d’Hiv, Julia begins research on this event that she has never heard of. Amidst her research, Julia discovers darks secrets about Bertrand’s family. As Julia learns more about this event and how the people she knows are connected to it, she can’t stop investigating.
Rosnay also tells the story of Sarah Starzynski. Sarah’s story begins in 1942 when French police knock on her door to take her and her family away. Instinct causes her to hide her younger brother away in a cupboard, swearing that she will come back for him. With impeccable detail, Rosnay portrays the journey and experience of being taken to the Veledrome d’Hiver and then the internment camps.
Rosnay has provided a masterpiece that shows a piece of the Holocaust that so many have never even heard of. This book was impossible to put down till I reached the back cover. “A remarkable novel. Like Sophie’s Choice, it’s a book that impresses itself upon one’s heart and soul forever,” says Naomi Ragen, author of The Saturday Wife.
Furthermore, this heart-thumping story has been made into a movie, starring Kristen Scott Thomas. Sarah’s Key is such a powerful moving piece of literature, that once you read it, you will never forget it.
Dead Unti Dark by Charlaine Harris
Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris
260 pages
Published by Ace Books
Copyright May 2001
Looking for an enjoyable light read? Then Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris is your book. Dead Until Dark is the first book in the Sookie Stackhouse Series (also known as the Southern Vampire Mysteries). Charlaine Harris is an established mystery writer, having written several different series and additional non-series books: The Harper Connelly Mysteries, The Lily Bard Mysteries, The Aurora Teagarden Mysteries, and more. Born and raised in Mississippi, Harris has been writing for thirty years; earning her New York Times Best Selling Author status. Having read over ten of her books, most more than once, I’d say she deserves this recognition. Her latest books, including the Southern Vampire Mysteries, are in the urban fantasy genre.
Dead Until Dark, and the rest of the series, centers on Sookie Stackhouse, a barmaid in Bon Temps, Louisiana. As the story is narrated from her point of view, you learn that she has a little quirk, what she calls a disability; she can read other people’s minds. However, unlike most stories, where a character’s supernatural ability is the main focus of her life, Sookie treats her telepathy as routine and just another obstacle in life. The story begins just a couple years after vampires have “come out of the coffin”. When scientists in Japan created a new synthetic blood, which the vampires could survive off of, the vampire community was able to integrate into human society. However, there were still a number of human-killing and blood-sucking incidents that occurred when some vampires were not amenable to the idea of living alongside humans. Many humans did not agree with the idea of vampires having equal rights, either. So, when a vampire, Bill Compton, walks into Merlotte’s, the restaurant where Sookie works, she is thrilled. However, the sparks that fly between the two may be for the worse, when a murderer begins to go after women who sleep with vampires.
Harris sets herself apart from other authors in this genre by changing the background. Instead of an average middle class hero, this book takes working class people in a small southern town. “Rural America finally has a vampire story to call its own,” says Tanya Huff.
Dead Until Dark is a light read, yet it still offers great entertainment. This vampire romance/mystery has been highly successful. In 2001, it won the Anthony Award for Best Paperback Mystery, and the entire Sookie Stackhouse Series is a New York Times Best Selling series. Publishers Weekly proclaims, “Harris is an author of rare talents.” Additionally, Producer Alan Ball has created an HBO series, True Blood, based on the books.
Dead Until Dark is the perfect read for the beach or airplane. In Dead Until Dark, Harris especially invites female readers to enjoy a tantalizing yet risqué story, but even my father admits that it is a “real page-turner.” So far, there are eleven books in the Sookie Stackhouse Series, and the twelfth, Deadlocked, is finished but not yet released.
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
350 pages
Copyright 2006
Published by Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen is a rare novel with a story so engrossing, once started; one cannot put it down. This thrilling, romantic story is Gruen’s third novel. She has also written the best selling Riding Lessons and Flying Changes. Her environmental values show in all of her books, showing how animals can teach people about love. This New York Times #1 best seller is set on a depression era traveling circus that is brought to life through Gruen’s words. Her impeccable research shines throughout this book; her author’s note mentioning many trips to Sarasota, Florida’s Ringling Brothers Museum.
Though he doesn’t speak of them, Jacob Jankowski, at ninety-something-years old, can still remember the sound of the concessions, the sight of raising the big top, and everything else about his days with the Benzini Brothers’ Most Spectacular Show on Earth.
At twenty-three, Jacob is preparing to take the test that determines his future. After he passes this veterinary exam, he will take on the family business. However, an interruption in the classroom brings grave news when Jacob is asked to go identify his parents’ bodies from a car accident. Following his parents’ death, Jacob finds himself losing his father’s practice and home to the bank. Without money, a veterinary license, and family, he sees no other option than to leave his old town behind. With no endpoint in mind, Jacob makes his way down the train tracks. When a train comes by, he jumps aboard.
This rickety circus train holds the Benzini Brothers’ Most Spectacular Show on Earth. Jacob’s veterinary skills are put to use as he gains the job as the circus’s own vet. At this point in the Great Depression, everyone working on this third-rate circus is lucky to have a job at all. When Jacob sees the equestrian act of the show, Marlena, the star, entrances him. She is also the wife of the boss, August. As the circus loses more and more hope each day, life aboard the Benzini Brothers’ train gets darker and darker. A new optimism comes with Rosie, though. Rosie is the great, loving elephant left behind by a rundown circus. Bonds grow quickly between Jacob and Marlena as they worked alongside each other with Rosie. Even with their new show though, life aboard the train continues to get bleaker, especially as August’s mean streaks shone through. The trio’s bond may be their only hope in survival.
While reading this book, you can feel the wind blowing past you as you sit atop the train, you can hear the character’s voices echoing in your head. “This is a fiction reader’s dream come true, “ says Jeanne Ray, author of Julie and Romeo Get Lucky. The memories of the ninety-something man mix with your own as he tells his tale. You will be completely swept off your feet and into the circus’s dark twist and turns, unable to get out till the last page. This book is simply and positively incredible.
The Pact by Jodi Picoult
The Pact: a love story by Jodi Picoult
389 pages
Copyright 1998
Published by HarperCollins
Jodi Picoult is the bestselling author of twenty novels, including My Sister’s Keeper. She is known for creating provocative themes with family conflicts and difficult moral choices. As one of the most powerful writers in contemporary fiction, Picoult has outdone herself in her fifth novel, The Pact.
For eighteen years, the Hartes and the Golds have been nextdoor neighbors. Their lives were intertwined. The Hartes’ son Chris and The Golds’ daughter Emily were born just months apart and were inseparable since. It was no surprise when their friendship blossomed into something more. Everyone knew they were soul mates. However, just when it seems like nothing could rip these families apart from eachother, tragedy strikes with midnight calls from the hospital. Emily is dead from a gunshot wound to the head, inflicted by Chris as part of a suicide pact. When a single additional bullet is found in the gun, Chris states it was meant for himself. In spite of this, a local detective has his doubts. As Chris finds himself on trial for murder, Jodi Picoult portrays, with extraordinary talent, families in anguish as guilt, loss, and betrayal enter their lives.
Picoult has a true gift in story telling. Switching between different characters and different periods of time allow all points of the story to be heard. “Engrossing… Picoult has a remarkable ability to make us share her characters’ feelings of confusion and horror… The Pact is compelling reading,” said People. This deeply moving novel is filled with compassion and heartbreak. The Pact made me smile and weep, but most of all it made me think.
Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
288 pages
Copyright 2007
Published by Razorbill
Jay Asher is an American author whose primary focus are contemporary novels for teens. Inspired by events from high school, he has created a New York Times and international bestseller: Thirteen Reasons Why.
Teenager Clay Jenson found a shoebox sized package addressed to him on his doorstep one afternoon. Upon opening said package, he found seven audiotapes. No note and no instructions were found, but the sides of the tapes were labeled one to thirteen. Clay is instantly shocked when he hears Hannah Baker’s voice, for 16 year old Hannah killed herself just days ago.
Thirteen of Hannah’s classmates were selected to listen to and pass on the tapes that were mailed the day she committed suicide. “I’m about to tell you the story of my life,” Hannah says, “more specifically, why my life ended. And if you’re listening to these tapes, you’re one of the reasons why.” Each tape was about a specific person, and the tapes were sent to everyone she talked about. Hannah created a system that ensured the tapes would get to all of the intended audiences. Whoever received the tapes would send them to whoever was mentioned after them in the tapes.
All through the night, Clay listens. He follows Hannah’s words through the small town he lives in. He is captivated, devastated, and what he learns changes his life forever.
As a reader, I was as captivated by Hannah’s words as much as Clay was. Jay Asher skillfully combined Hannah’s story with Clay’s ever mounting anxiety and dread. It was impossible to let go of this book after reading the first page. Entertainment Weekly calls Thirteen Reasons Why, “suspenseful and addictive”. This is a book that will stay with you long after you put it back on the shelf.
Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
213 pages
Published by MTV Books/Pocket Books
Copyright 1999
Stephen Chbosky was born and raised in Pittsburgh, PA, which served as the setting of his novel, Perks of Being a Wallflower. Chbosky is an American novelist, film director, and screenplay writer (“Rent”). For Perks of Being a Wallflower, he drew great inspiration from The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger; this novel being very similar yet focused on this day and age. Chbosky grew up in Upper St. Clair and his book is greatly based off of his high school. Even some of the teachers are exactly the same.
Perks of Being a Wallflower is centered on high school freshman, Charlie. He is taken under the wings of two seniors, brother and sister, Patrick and Sam. Charlie tells his story in anonymous letters addressed “Dear Friend”. These letters are “more intimate than a diary”. Charlie’s unique voice is both hilarious and devastating. Family dramas, first dates, mixed tapes, and new friends are all becoming a part of Charlie’s world. At the same time, sex, drugs, and new adventures are also entering his world.
The novel is also soon to be made into a major motion picture starring Logan Lerman and Emma Watson. It is being filmed in Pittsburgh and will be released in 2012.
This coming of age story seized me from the very first page. Chbosky created someone people can connect with and relate to through Charlie. His voice expressed an uncommon innocence that was very appealing as a reader. “The Perks of Being a Wallflower is part of an MTV Books series that targets teen-age readers. But it is more mature than most young adult literature and can be enjoyed by older readers as well,” says USA Today.
This matchless story is must-read. After flying through this book, I couldn’t help but flip back to the beginning and start it again.
New Fiction Week of January 30, 2012
See our newest Fiction, courtesy of our new service: New Book Alerts. Click through to browse other genres and material types. You can also sign up to receive weekly emails about what’s just been added to our collection!
It’s Cold Outside…Warm up with these Books!
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1225 Christmas Tree Lane By Debbie Macomber – 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 left a basket filled with puppies on her doorstep, that’s complication number one. Number two is that her daughters have invited their dad, Beth’s ex-husband, Kent, to Cedar Cove for Christmas.
An Amish Christmas: A Novel By Cynthia Keller – Celebrating life’s simplest but most essential values, packed with laughter and tears, this is a story of forgiveness and the power of love. You will never forget the special moment in time that is An Amish Christmas.
Anne Perry’s Silent Nights: Two Victorian Christmas Mysteries by Anne Perry – Here are two holiday mysteries set in remote, snow-covered regions of Victorian Britain–where the nights are indeed silent but all is not calm, and where some will sleep in eternal peace.
A Cedar Cove Christmas by Debbie Macomber – Mother-to-be Mary Jo Wyse arrives in Cedar Cove on Christmas Eve, searching for her baby’s father. David Rhodes had said he’d be in town. But he isn’t. Which leaves Mary Jo stranded, pregnant and alone. And there’s no room at the local inn…
A Chesapeake Shores Christmas by Sherryl Woods – After years apart, Mick and Megan O’Brien are finally ready to make it official…again. Most of their grown children couldn’t be happier about their rekindled love and impending marriage this holiday season. Only Connor is a holdout. Driven to become a divorce attorney after what he views as his mother’s abandonment of their family, Connor’s not about to give his blessing to this reunion romance.
The Christmas Box By Richard Paul Evans – Richard, a busy and preoccupied father, discovers a Christmas box full of love letters from an old woman to her dead daughter and, with the help of an angel, begins to learn the true meaning of Christmas.
The Christmas Brides by Linda Lael Miller – Lizzie McKettrick is homebound with a Christmas Eve surprise for her family—Whitley Carson. He might seem too interested in the McKettrick money, but she’s certain Whitley cares for her. But fate has a surprise for Lizzie—Morgan Shane. When their train is stranded by an avalanche the handsome doctor takes charge with Lizzie by his side. With faith, hard work and some unexpected help, it might be a joyous McKettrick family Christmas after all.
A Christmas Grace by Anne Perry – With Christmas just around the corner, Thomas Pitt’s sister-in-law, Emily Radley, is suddenly called from London to be with her dying aunt. Leaving her husband and two children behind, she makes the long journey to her aunt’s home in Connemara, an all-but-forgotten town on the coast of Western Ireland. Emily soon discovers that a tragic legacy is haunting the once close-knit community.
Christmas Letters By Debbie Macomber – When Catherine O’Connor, who writes Christmas letters for other people, meets Dr. Wynn Jeffries, a child psychologist, at the French cafe on Blossom Street, their opposing viewpoints on raising children ruins Catherine’s Christmas cheer.
The Christmas List By Richard Paul Evans – A successful but heartless businessman sees his own obituary in the newspaper after a case of mistaken identity, setting in motion a series of events that profoundly changes the lives of several people who have suffered due to his ruthless business practices.
A Christmas Carol: in prose being a ghost story of Christmas by Charles Dickens – Ebenezer Scrooge, a miserly businessman, learns the true meaning of Christmas after he is visited by the ghosts of Christmases past, present, and future.
The Christmas Pearl By Dorothea Benton Frank – The matriarch of a family of belligerent idiots, Theodora finds her efforts at bringing them together for a South Carolina Christmas reunion have gone badly awry, until a very special someone uses Gullah magic and common sense to bring about a miracle.
Christmas, Present By Jacquelyn Mitchard – When Eliot and Laura Banner learn that Laura has a terminal condition, they gather their children and family around themselves during the holiday season to convey her blessings to them for the future and remember their shared history.
The Christmas Quilt: an Elm Creek Quilts Novel By Jennifer Chiaverini – While decorating Elm Creek Manor on Christmas Eve, Sarah McClure discovers an incomplete Christmas quilt and sets out to uncover its history with the help of Sylvia Bergstrom Compson, who reveals why the quilt had never been finished.
The Christmas Sweater By Glenn Beck – A holiday tale relates the story of a thirteen-year-old boy whose final gift from his mother, a sweater, is scorned in favor of more expensive gifts before a tragic car accident ends the mother’s life.
The Christmas Thief By Mary Higgins Clark – Lottery winner-turned-amateur sleuth Alvirah Meehan joins with private detective Regan Reilly to track down the ninety-foot tree, destined for display in Rockefeller Center, that vanished en route to the city.
The Christmas Train by David Baldacci – On a train ride to Los Angeles, cash-strapped journalist Tom Langdon encounters a ridiculous cast of characters, unexpected romance, and an avalanche that changes everyone’s Christmas plans.
The Christmas Wedding By James Patterson – Relates the story of Gaby Summerhill, a widow planning a holiday wedding to a groom whose identity remains a surprise to her four children.
The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen – What appears as a typical Midwestern family is anything but as preparations are made for an ideal family holiday. Alfred, the father is losing his fight to control Parkinson’s disease and dementia. His wife, Enid is no longer in control of her household and feels her choices slipping away. Their three grown children are struggling with their own lives. But for this Christmas, Enid is determined to bring them together for the perfect family holiday.
Dashing Through the Snow By Mary Higgins Clark – In Branscombe, N.H., novelist Nora Regan Reilly and her PI daughter, Regan Reilly, and their close friends Alvirah and Will Meehan, track down a missing employee of Conklin’s Market who is connected with a $160 million lottery and the winnings.
Handknit Holidays: Knitting Year-round for Christmas, Hannukah, and Winter Solstice By Melanie Falick with Betty Christiansen – For many people, the best part of the winter holidays is the anticipation: planning the perfect gifts, decorating the house, looking forward to seeing family and friends. Holidays can be particularly special for knitters, whose preparations often start months in advance and involve their own creations.
Hercule Poirot’s Christmas By Agatha Christie – The cerebral Belgian detective uses impeccable logic to locate the murderer of a millionaire in the dreary English Midlands.
Holidays on Ice By David Sedaris – An anthology of humorous Christmas tales and essays features excerpts from the author’s “Barrel Fever” and “Naked,” as well as “The Santaland Diaries,” “Season’s Greetings to Our Friends and Family,” and a new tale of holiday mayhem.
Joan Nathan’s Jewish Holiday Cookbook by Joan Nathan – Jewish holidays are defined by food. Yet Jewish cooking is always changing, encompassing the flavors of the world, embracing local culinary traditions of every place in which Jews have lived and adapting them to Jewish observance. This collection, the culmination of Joan Nathan’s decades of gathering Jewish recipes from around the world, is a tour through the Jewish holidays as told in food.
Kwanzaa: a Celebration of Family, Community, and Culture By Maulana Karenga – Written by the creator of the holiday, this book presents the continental African and African-American origins of the celebration, a chapter on each of the Seven Principles, explanations of the meaning of related symbols, suggested activities, and a wrap-up section in which Karenga answers frequently asked questions.
Lakeshore Christmas By Susan Wiggs – Prim librarian Maureen Davenport lives for Christmas–and there’s nothing more magical than Christmas on Willow Lake. Finally getting her chance to direct Avalon’s annual holiday pageant, she’s determined to make it truly spectacular.
Lost December By Richard Paul Evans – Presents a story inspired by the biblical tale of the prodigal son in which Luke, a recent MBA graduate, refuses to take over the family business and instead cashes out his trust funds to pursue a life of wanton pleasure.
The Mitford Snowmen: A Christmas Story By Jan Karon – The inhabitants of the small town of Mitford join together at Christmastime for a fun-filled snowman-building contest, complete with hot chocolate, doughnuts, and the joy of the holiday season.
O, Ghostly Night by Tennant Redbank – This 32-page early reader re-tells part of the Walt Disney Studio feature film, A Christmas Carol, the timeless tale of an old miser who must face Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet-to-Come.
The Perfect Christmas By Debbie Macomber – Thirty-three-year-old Cassie wants a husband and kids, and she turns to Simon Dodson, a professional matchmaker for help. Dodson assigns her three tasks to complete, and despite a number of comical mishaps, Cassie completes them all. Her Christmas match turns out to be a wonderful surprise.
The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg – A magical train ride on Christmas Eve takes a boy to the North Pole to receive a special gift from Santa Claus.
Promise Me By Richard Paul Evans – Beth Cardall’s life was falling apart: her six-year-old daughter, Charlotte, was suffering from an unidentifiable illness; her marriage transformed from a seemingly happy and loving relationship to one full of betrayal and pain; her job was increasingly at risk; and she had lost her ability to trust, to hope, or to believe in herself. Then, on Christmas day, Beth encountered Matthew.
A Redbird Christmas By Fannie Flagg – In a tiny and remote Alabama town, an unexpected, unusual, and life-transforming event that occurs on one Christmas morning changes a family and a town forever, in a heartwarming holiday novel by the author of Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe.
Santa Cruise: a Holiday Mystery at Sea By Mary Higgins Clark – Embarking on a mystery seminar cruise during the holiday season, amateur sleuth Alvirah, private detective Regan, and their family members find their voyage overshadowed by a ghost spotting, the disappearance of a fan, and an unexpected storm.
Shakespeare’s Christmas By Charlaine Harris – While attending her sister’s wedding the cleaning lady and karate expert, Lily Bard of Arkansas, investigates an unsolved kidnapping which occurred eight years earlier. It seems both the child and the kidnapper are in town.
Skipping Christmas By John Grisham – Luther and Nora Krank have decided to set sail on a Caribbean cruise on December 25th and skip Christmas. They are about to discover that their decision brings enormous consequences–and isn’t half as easy as they imagined.
The Stupidest Angel: a Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror By Christopher Moore – A humorous tale of what happens when a none-too-clever angel overhears a little boy, who, having witnessed Santa taking a shovel to the head, prays for Santa to return from the dead.
The Thanksgiving Visitor; One Christmas; & A Christmas Memory By Truman Capote – Three stories describe a boy’s relationship with his elderly cousin and alcoholic father and the indelible holiday memories they provided him.
White Christmas Pie By Wanda E. Brunstetter – In this bittersweet holiday romance set in Amish country, Will Henderson, a young man tortured by his past, meets Karen Yoder, a young woman looking for answers as they both become involved with a desperate father searching for his son.
Wishin’ and Hopin: A Christmas Story By Wally Lamb – It’s 1964 and ten-year-old Felix is sure of a few things: the birds and the bees are puzzling, television is magical, and this is one Christmas he’ll never forget.