Cathedral Bookstore Advent Newsletter

The Cathedral Bookstore Advent Newsletter 2022

Many people, myself among them, feel better at the mere sight of a book.

~ Jane Smiley

Books for Adults

Dickens and Prince
Nick Hornby

A short, warm, and entertaining book about art, creativity, and the unlikely similarities between Victorian novelist Charles Dickens and modern American rock star Prince.
Hornby shows the cosmic link between two geniuses in their own rights, spanning race, class, and centuries—each of whom electrified their different disciplines and whose legacy resounded far beyond their own time.

Seasons of Wonder: Making the Ordinary Sacred Through Projects, Prayers, Reflections, and Rituals: A 52-week devotional

Bonnie Smith Whitehouse

A devotional designed to allow you to gather together weekly with your loved ones and expand your understanding of divinity, specifically the radical but faithful idea that everything is sacred. Weekly contemplative activities and transformative practices connect to surprise, awe, and wonder, and set readers on a path that leads to a year filled with more hope, more sweetness, more grace, and more love.

Great Circle

Maggie Shipstead

The story of a daredevil female aviator takes readers around the world, through Prohibition and World War II, from Montana to London to present-day Hollywood. At fourteen she drops out of school and finds a dangerous patron in a wealthy bootlegger who provides a plane and subsidizes her lessons, an arrangement that will haunt her for the rest of her life. A century later, an actress eager to redefine herself after becoming imprisoned her in the grip of cult celebrity is cast to play her.As the stories unfold, the two women’s fates–and their hunger for self-determination in vastly different geographies and times–collide.

The Grandest Stage
A History of the World Series
Tyler Kepner
The ultimate history of the World Series—a vivid portrait of baseball at its finest and most intense, filled with humor, lore, analysis, and fascinating behind-the-scenes stories from 117 years of the Fall Classic. Includes essential tales dating back to the beginning in 1903.

The Hawk’s Way: Encounters with Fierce Beauty
Sy Montgomery
A splendid celebration of one of nature’s most perfect and mysterious creatures—the hawk. In this mesmerizing account, the award-winning author vividly reveals the wonderous world of hawks and what they can teach us about nature, life, and love.

Beautiful News

David McCandless

A simple, elegant way to see and understand complex, abstract, and often obscured information important to our lives. A specialist in infographics. McCandless cuts through the noise of data overload, creating visually stunning displays that make facts comprehensive, illuminate their connections, and add context, making information meaningful in beautiful and entertaining way.

Going to Church in Medieval England

Nicholas Orme

Drawing on both surviving churches and contemporary literature and attentive to gender, status, and geography, Orme, who has written more than thirty books on the religious and social history of England, explores what ordinary men and women saw, heard, and experienced when they attended church. Often funny, often moving, and always fascinating, it creates a real feeling for the lives of normal people (so often absent from history books) in a world of great contrasts…a world of humor, and of sadness; not entirely unlike our own. Beautifully illustrated throughout, this study brings home to readers the reality of formal Christian witness as experienced by England’s medieval parishioners.

Books for Children

Sounding Joy

Ellie Holcomb

(ages 2-6, board book)

What does joy sound like?Does it sound like falling snow, or a kiss on your cheek? Award-winning recording artist Ellie Holcomb explores this question through a delightful collection of Christmastime scenes, leading up to the discovery that joy sounds like the angels singing that Jesus had been born.

The Three Billy Goats Gruff

Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen

A brilliantly crafted, hilarious twist on this beloved classicfrom a renowned, award-winning duo.When the three Billy Goats Gruff decide to clip-clop across the bridge to get to the grassy ridge, the troll is already imagining all the way to prepare a delicious goat dinner. But the troll underestimates those seemingly sweet but oh-so-savvy goats!

The Christmas Book Flood
Emily Kilgore and Kitty Moss

(ages 4-8)

Alovely, lyrical picture book, based on a real Icelandic tradition, brings all the sparkle and anticipation of Christmas―and of the joys of reading―to the page.

Will We Always Hold Hands

Christopher Cheng and Stephen Michael King

(ages 4-8)

There are some things that only a best friend can do—hold your hand when reading a scary story, carry you safely across a river, bandage your hurts, say it’s okay if you’re grouchy, and best of all, forever hold you in their heart.Through a series of questions and answers, Bear tells his friend Rat that best friends will always be together, in rain or shine, in good times and bad, forever and ever.

Mr. McCloskey’s Marvelous Mallards: The Making of Make Way for Ducklings

Emma Bland Smith and Becca Stadtlander

(ages 7-10)

Robert McCloskey brings a flock of ducklings into his tiny New York City apartment. But an artist + a bunch of ducklings in his apartment = chaos! There are ducklings in the bathtub and ducklings in the kitchen, quacking at dawn and sitting on his desk. Can he learn to draw them just right before they grow too big?This behind-the-scenes look at the creation of the classic picture book provides a windowon the creative process and shows the importance of persistence.

Working Boats

Tom Crestodina

(ages 7-10)

Filled with full-page spreads of cross sections of ten working boats, this book shows their inner workings, and highlights the unique engineering components that enable them to do their jobs.
It explains what goes on behind the scenes of a Coast Guard rescue, what it’s like to work on a science research vessel, and what’s involved in crabbing, among other nautical experiences.It includes details about maritime instruments, such as how a radar works, on-water safety gear, diesel engines, and mechanics.

An Anthology of Aquatic Life

Sam Hume

(ages 7-9)

The underwater world is so much bigger than young minds can fathom and there is always more to learn. Dive into the wondrous world of water and discover the stories of more than 100 incredible aquatic lifeforms. A stunning ocean encyclopedia for young readers to explore, with reference pages packed with information from the widest ocean to the tiniest puddle.

A Place to Hang the Moon

(ages 8-12)

A heartwarming story about three siblings, evacuated from London to live in the countryside, looking for a permanent home–and a new meaning for family. The children need a guardian, and in the dark days of World War II London, those are in short supply, especially if they hope to stay together. Moving from one spot to another, the children suffer the cruel trickery of foster brothers, the cold realities of outdoor toilets and the hollowness of empty stomachs until they find comfort in the village lending library– a cozy shelter from the harshness of everyday life, filled with favorite stories and the quiet company of Nora Müller, the kind librarian.

Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults

Robin Wall Kimmerer, Monique Gray Smith and Nicole Neidhardt

(ages 12-18)

Drawing from her experiences as an Indigenous scientist, botanist Robin Wall Kimmerer demonstrated how all living things―from strawberries and witch hazel to water lilies and lichen―provide us with gifts and lessons every day in her best-selling book Braiding Sweetgrass. Adapted for young adults by Monique Gray Smith, this new edition reinforces how wider ecological understanding stems from listening to the earth’s oldest teachers: the plants around us. With informative sidebars, reflection questions, illustrations, it provides Indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge, and the lessons of plant life to a new generation.

Gifts and Seasonal Surprises

In addition to these titles and many more, we have a variety of Christmas cards, 2023 calendars, gifts for book lovers, nativities from around the world,lovely candles, charming felt creatures, and other fun seasonal surprises. If you’re looking for something contemplative, we have beautifully-bound editions of the Book of Common Prayer, Anglican prayer beads, and books everyEpiscopalian should have on hand. We’re here to help you find something meaningful for everyone on your list and wrap it up with a bow so you can have a more peaceful Advent—and even find a quiet moment for your own reading and relaxing!

The Cathedral Bookstore is open Monday through Thursday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.,

Sundays 8:45 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and 4:45 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.

The Bookstore will close for Christmas on Thursday, December 22 at 2 p.m.

and reopen on Sunday, January 8, 2023.

For more information, contact Lucy Chambers, Bookstore Manager:

713-222-0286 or [email protected].