Merry Christmas, Friend,
Iâm writing to you during a break from making a Yule log, which is a nice distraction from knowing almost none of our gifts and holiday cards are making it to their destinations by Christmas Day because of the pandemic.
Someone I think about whenever times get tough is my grandmother who grew up impoverished, the kind of poor that required shoving newspaper into the cracks of the shack to keep out the snow and cold. Grandma, whom we grandkids called mammaw, once remarked to me about The Good Old Days, âThere was nothing âgoodâ about âem.â And now one of mammawâs grandsons frets over not getting his custom-made holiday cards into peopleâs mailboxes before Christmas.
Ah, perspective. Itâs a powerful thing, especially in writing. As Hans Christian Andersen never said (as far as I know), âYou canât be a good writer until you can put yourself in someone elseâs clogs.â
Maybe thatâs how we make this Christmas, and the days after, a little brighter for us all. Considering what itâs like to be in someone elseâs Santa boots can bring empathy, compassion, kindness, and patience â no matter what happens outside our control.
Merry Christmas, and thanks for reading,
Nick
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2020 Book Lists
Top Checkouts of 2020 (The New York Public Library)
10 Great Books of 2020 (OnMilwaukee)
The Best Nonfiction Books of 2020 (Bloomberg)
Top Ten Nonfiction Books I Read in 2020 (Fabulous Book Fiend)
Our Favorite Indie Books of 2020 (Refinery29)
The 15 Best Books of 2020 (The Atlantic)
Our Favourite Music Books of 2020 (The Vinyl Factory)
Arts Feature: Recommended Books, 2020 (The Arts Fuse)
Best of 2020: The Top Books by African Writers (Al Jazeera)
2021 Book Lists
My Most Anticipated Nonfiction Books of 2021 (Kristen Kraves Books)
New Books Book Lists
Winter Reading Guide: 20 Books From Joan Didion, Kazuo Ishiguro, Cicely Tyson, More (USA Today)
New Books On the 40th Anniversary of Lennon's Death (The Standard-Times)
13 New Books to Watch for in January (The New York Times)
Sign of the Times Book Lists
Pandemic Reading Ideas: Author Donna Miscolta Shares Some Books She Admires (KUOW)
What Books Should Biden Read? We Asked 22 Writers (The New York Times)
Travel From the Comfort of Home With These 11 Books (The Oregonian)
5 Picture Books About Civil Rights (The New York Times)
Best of the Rest
16 Black Coffee-Table Books to Add to Your Collection (The Strategist)
âThe Queenâs Gambitâ and 5 Other Books About Chess Prodigies (Rolling Stone)
8 Space Opera Books to Read While You Wait for The Mandalorian Season 3 (Polygon)