Books of the week of Nov. 17
Title: “The Judge Who Stole Christmas”
Author: Randy Singer
Christmastime is in full swing in Possum, Virginia, and the live nativity scene is drawing all kinds of attention. Thomas Hammond and his wife Theresa are Joseph and Mary – and they have just received a subpoena to appear for a preliminary injunction before Judge Cynthia Baker Kline, otherwise known as Ichabod.
Jasmine is a third-year law student assigned to help the town attorney represent Thomas. Ichabod orders Thomas to stop setting up the nativity scene in the town square, but the first thing he does is just that – with the approval of the mayor.
The ACLU lawyer comes to serve him another subpoena, even though no one in the town is against what Thomas is doing.
Meanwhile, Jasmine has returned to her old high school gym to watch her little sister’s basketball team struggle to keep up with the winning team. She can hardly believe her ears at the new coach’s comments to the players and the referees. Shortly after she arrives, the coach is thrown out, and Jasmine is asked to help coach for the remainder of the game.
When the coach quits, the principal asks Jasmine to take the job. However, she is neck deep in trying to keep Thomas out of jail while still preserving her reputation at the fancy law firm in New York that just offered her a job.
This is a different sort of Christmas book that talks a lot about the laws surrounding Christmas but also how helping others and giving grace to the supposed enemy might be the spirit of Christmas.
Title: “The Last Chance Library”
Author: Freya Sampson
June Jones is a quiet, meek librarian of a small village in England. She keeps to herself. She finds comfort in her best friends – her books.
When June’s library is threatened with closure, June is faced with the choice to stay hidden behind the shelves or step out of her comfort zone to try to save the one place that holds precious memories of her dear mother.
All the “what ifs” weigh on her.
What will June decide?
The library is the heart of the community. Patrons from different backgrounds find the library to be a vital part of their lives: a young immigrant mother, an elderly man looking for a place of companionship, a teenage girl trying to find a quiet place amidst the chaos to better her education.
So many of us can relate to these characters and the impact a library can have on one’s life.
This motley crew of misfits comes together to save their library, for a library is more than just a home for books: It houses a family – a place where everyone who walks through the doors is treated as an equal.
