I can’t believe that not only is December almost over but so is the year. As with any year, 2008 had its ups and downs and a new year is a welcome relief as we look forward to out with the old and in with the new.

My most memorable childhood Christmas experience was in 1970, it was the last year my grandmother was alive, I didn’t know why at the time but it was so special and I felt close to her in a way I can’t explain. She had twenty six grandchildren but she made us all feel we were favorites. Eight months later, she was gone.

Not one, but two great reads will be given away today. Read the post to find out how you can win a copy of Going Down South by Bonnie Glover and The House at Sugar Beach by Helene Cooper.

Covering the Middle East War in 2003, correspondent Helene Cooper had memories of another war; the war that tore her away from the place of her birth, Liberia. In The House on Sugar Beach: In Search of a Lost African Childhood Cooper wrote a gripping memoir that is not only a family history, but a [...]