Episode 713: Native American / Thanksgiving alternatives

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Welcome to Reading With Libraries! Thank you for joining us on the SEVENTH SEASON of our Reader’s Advisory podcast! We have more genres to discuss, new books to recommend, and we’re so glad you’re here to join us. We always enjoy our book group podcast, and we hope you do, too! 

Our organization is the Central Minnesota Libraries Exchange. At CMLE, we work with all types of libraries.

This week on the show we’re learning more about Native American voices and recommending books to read all year round, but particularly around Thanksgiving.

And our returning Guest Host is Stephanie Todd! Steph works at the St Cloud Technical and Community College library. Welcome back to the book group!

We started this podcast to provide information for our library community doing Reader’s Advisory work. It’s hard to be an expert on ALL of the great books out there! So we pick a new genre each week to chat about and hopefully provide you with some insight into what may be an unfamiliar genre!

Beverages:

Each week we like to connect the theme of our books with our beverages! This week we’re enjoying some autumn drinks to celebrate the changing seasons. All recipes are from the Taste of Home website. 

Honey Coffee

  • 2 cups hot strong brewed coffee (French or other dark roast)
  • 1/2 cup whole milk
  • 1/4 cup honey
  • 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • Dash ground nutmeg
  • 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • In a small saucepan, combine the coffee, milk, honey, cinnamon and nutmeg. Cook and stir until heated through. (Do not boil.) Remove from the heat; stir in vanilla. Pour into cups or mugs; serve immediately.

Hot Buttered Cider Mix

  • 1 cup butter, softened
  • 1 cup packed brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup honey
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
  • EACH SERVING:
  • 3/4 cup hot apple cider or juice
  • 1 ounce apple brandy, optional
  • Beat butter and brown sugar until blended; beat in honey and spices. Transfer to an airtight container. Store in refrigerator up to 2 weeks.
  • To prepare hot cider: Place 1-1/2 teaspoons buttered cider mix in a mug. Stir in hot cider and, if desired, brandy.


Pumpkin Pie Martini

  • 1 vanilla wafer, crushed, optional
  • Ice cubes
  • 2 ounces vanilla-flavored vodka
  • 2 ounces 2% milk
  • 2 ounces heavy whipping cream
  • 1 ounce simple syrup
  • 1 ounce hazelnut liqueur
  • 1/8 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
  • Dash ground cinnamon
  • If desired, for a cookie-crumb rim, moisten the rims of 2 chilled cocktail glasses with water. Place cookie crumbs on a plate; dip rims in crumbs. Set aside.
  • Fill a mixing glass three-fourths full with ice. Add the remaining ingredients; stir until condensation forms on outside of mixing glass. Strain mixture into 2 chilled cocktail glasses.

Genre Discussion:

We are all set with our delicious beverages, let’s talk about today’s genre. There’s more to the story of Thanksgiving than you may remember from elementary school. We’ll link to several resources if you want to explore more, but for today’s episode, we’re going to honor and share books from Native American authors. Native Americans lived in North America long before the Pilgrims arrived and it’s important to recognize their voices and perspectives. 

Here’s a link to an article from Bustle with ideas for alternative thanksgiving celebrations, like Native American Heritage Month.

And here’s a link to an article (that includes book recommendations!) with historical information about the holiday to share with students and young people in your life, including suggestions for
learning more about Native American traditions.

Our Book Discussion

We have our beverages, we are familiar with this week’s genre, let’s get to the book discussion! We will give you a list of all the books we share today. You can click on any of these links to go to Amazon.com for more information. If you buy anything while you are there, Amazon will give us a small percent of their profits from your purchase. Thanks in advance for helping to support the mission of CMLE – we appreciate it! 

Conclusion:

Thank you so much for joining us on Reading With Libraries and special thanks to our Guest Host!

Join us next Thursday with another genre, more guest hosts for our book group, and more books to share and discuss. Be sure to subscribe to our podcast so you don’t miss a single episode! And if you want to hear more about the work we do in libraries or expand your library skills, check out our podcast Linking Our Libraries!

Bring your book ideas, bring your beverages, and join us back here on Thursday!