Thankful for Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving has always been one of my favorite holidays. I happen to love turkey, dressing, pumpkin pie and all the other yummy Thanksgiving goodies. I also love the leftovers which hopefully last through the weekend. That said, there is certainly more to Thanksgiving than all that food.

These days we need to be thankful for many things. Having a roof over one's head, electricity, heat, fresh water, things we normally take for granted, can be taken away in the blink of an eye. Hurricane Sandy did just that when it barrelled into the East Coast of New Jersey and New York.  Thousands of people along the East Coast lost their homes. Thousands more are still without electricity, heating, fresh water and all the other things we take for granted.

This Thanksgiving season those of us not affected by Hurricane Sandy need to be thankful for what we have. We also need to keep those harmed by Sandy in our thoughts and prayers. If possible, we need to pony-up and send some money/aid their way.

Thanksgiving is a time to be thankful for family and friends, for our health, for our homes, for our livelihood. A time to be thankful for the country given to us by our founding fathers. A time to be thankful that we live in a free and democratic country. No, I'm not going to get into politics here, only to say that in the U.S. we have greater freedom and liberty than found in many other countries. So we need to be thankful for that too.

I grew up with the traditional story of the first Thanksgiving. The Mayflower, pilgrims, Plymouth Colony, were all part of my earliest memories. I was told that I'm a descendant of those first pilgrims. I learned about genealogy early on and knew that I had a genetic connection to those same pilgrims.

Thanksgiving is only a week away. I'm already thinking about the turkey and other goodies. I'm thankful for what I have. I'm thankful for my heritage. I'm thankful for Thanksgiving.

For those of you who follow my blog, I've put together some lists of books about Thanksgiving, the Mayflower, the pilgrims, Plymouth and our other founding colonies. I've divided the lists into History, Fiction and Children's/YA Books. Many of these are available in eBook format. Some of these books I have in my own library or on my Kindles. The books are listed in no particular order.

History (great reads for history buffs & excellent research for writers):

Of Plymouth Plantation 1620 - 1647 by William Bradford*
Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick*
Plymouth Colony: Its History & People 1620 - 1691 by Eugene Aubrey Stratton*
American Colonies: The Settling of North America by Alan Taylor*
Savage Kingdom: The True Story of Jamestown, 1607... by Benjamin Woolley*
The Mayflower and Her Passengers by Caleb H. Johnson
Love and Hate in Jamestown: John Smith, Pocahontas... by David A. Price
A Land as God Made It: Jamestown and the Birth of America by James Horn
A Kingdom Strange: The Brief and Tragic History of the Lost Colony of Roanoke by James Horn
Roanoke: The Abandoned Colony by Karen Ordahl Kupperman
Roanoke: Solving the Mystery of the Lost Colony by Lee Miller
The Times of Their Lives: Life, Love and Death in Plymouth Colony by James & Patricia Deetz
Making Haste from Babylon: The Mayflower Pilgrims and Their World by Nick Bunker
The Name of War: King Philip's War and the Origins of the American Identity  by Jill Lepore
Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England by William Cronon
Everyday Life in Early America by David Freeman Hawke
The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan... by Russell Shorto
Walter Ralegh's Virginia: Roanoke Island and the Lost Colony by Aleck Loker

American Colonial Fiction:

Pilgrim by Hugh Nissenson
White Seed: The Untold Story of the Lost Colony of Roanoke by Paul Clayton**
Roanoke (The Keeper of the Ring Series) by Angela Hunt**
Jamestown (The Keeper of the Ring Series) by Angela Hunt
Sackett's Land (Sackett Series #1) (circa 1600) by Louis L'Amour*
To the Far Blue Mountains (Sackett Series #2) (circa 1600 - 1620) by Louis L'Amour*
The Warrior's Path (Sackett Series #3) (circa 1620s) by Louis L'Amour*
Jubal Sackett (Sackett Series #4) (circa 1620) by Louis L'Amour*
Here Shall I Die Ashore: Stephen Hopkins by Caleb Johnson
Almost Home (The Mayflower's Mary Chilton) (Daughters of the Faith) by Wendy G. Lawton
American Jezebel by Eve LaPlante
Bone Rattler (A Mystery of Colonial America) by Eliot Pattison**
Eye of the Raven (A Mystery of Colonial America) by Eliot Pattison
The Vanishing Point by Mary Sharratt

Children's and YA Books:

The Thanksgiving Story by Alice Dalgliesh
The Pilgrim's First Thanksgiving by Ann McGovern
If You Sailed on the Mayflower in 1620 by Ann McGovern
If You Lived in Colonial Times by Ann McGovern 
Thanksgiving is for Giving Thanks by Margaret Sutherland
The Story of the Pilgrims by Katharine Ross
If You Were At The First Thanksgiving by Anne Kamma
The Very First Americans by Cara Ashrose
The First Thanksgiving (Step-into-Reading) by Linda Hayward
Pilgrims of Plymouth by Susan E. Goodman
Three Young Pilgrims by Cheryl Harness
The Landing of the Pilgrims (Landmark Books) by James Daugherty
Pilgrim Cat by Carol Antoinette Peacock
The Pilgrims of Plymouth by Marcia Sewall
Pilgrim Stories by Margaret Pumphrey

* Books on my Bookshelves
** Books on my Kindles (Kindle Keyboard & Kindle Fire)

Please feel free to add additional books in the comments below. I hope you all have a wonderful and thankful Thanksgiving.