The Thanksgiving holiday is a time to focus on home, family, feast, and reflection. Here are some recommendations designed for ways to honor old traditions or start new ones; for appreciating family or building new relationships; for revisiting the dishes we look forward to seeing on the table year after year or exploring new foodways; for honoring your holiday traditions or visiting new points of view.
However you pass the holiday, be kind to yourself. We are grateful that you are reading, learning, teaching, and sharing community with us. Thank you!
Consider the Turkey by Peter Singer [Hoopla audiobook] 2024
Singer explains how we can improve our holiday tables-for turkeys, people, and the planet-by liberating ourselves from the traditional turkey feast. In its place, he encourages us to consider trying a vegetarian alternative-or just serving the side dishes that many people already enjoy far more than turkey. Consider the Turkey will make you reconsider what you serve for your next holiday meal-or even tomorrow’s dinner.
The Friendsgiving Handbook by Emily Stephenson 2019
A great resource and a lovely gift for celebrating the holiday with your family by choice. Recipes, decorating, and hosting tips.
From Grief to Gratitude by Catriona Whyte 2024
Whyte tells her story of depression and anxiety along with the tools that helped her manage these challenges, recognizing that the most important life lessons she learned were through her lowest and darkest times. She recognizes that it is OK and indeed part of human nature to experience different emotions simultaneously, such as grieving, whilst still finding happiness. Life is for living and expressing gratitude for this allows us to view the world through a different and more meaningful lens.
Grateful: The Transformative Power of Giving Thanks by Diana Butler Bass 2018
Bass, author of the award-winning Grounded and ten other books on spirituality and culture, explores the transformative, subversive power of gratitude for our personal lives and in communities. Using her trademark blend of historical research, spiritual insights, and timely cultural observation, she shows how we can overcome this gap and make change in our own lives and in the world.
Green Living Gratitude by Uma Valley 2024
“Green Living Gratitude” explores the connection between sustainable living and personal well-being. The book argues that adopting eco-friendly practices can lead to greater fulfillment and happiness, challenging the idea that such a lifestyle requires sacrifice.
New Native Kitchen by Freddie Bitsoie, James O. Fraioli [Hoopla eBook] 2021
Thanksgiving means different things to different Americans. Consider exploring dishes or ingredients that might have been familiar to the people who have been here since long before the arrival of the English Pilgrims –the encounter that forms the foundation of the traditional story we tell about this holiday. This celebration of modern indigenous cuisine could add more than a new dish to your table–it might create new perspectives on old traditions.
Thanksgiving: The Holiday at the Heart of the American Experience by Melanie Kirkpatrick 2021
Journeys through four centuries of history, drawing on newspaper accounts, private correspondence, historical documents, and cookbooks, to bring to life the full history of the holiday and what it has meant to generations of Americans. With Readings for Thanksgiving Day designed to be read aloud around the table.