Christmas is a time for sentimentality, reflection, and most of all, renewing hope that all can be right in the world. If you want to celebrate any of this this holiday season, GIOVANNI'S LIGHT should be on your bookshelf or under your tree.

Ryland Falls is a sleepy rural little town where Christmas is celebrated the same way each year --- the merchants hang the usual banners and signs, the plastic Santa assumes his place of honor on the firehouse roof and a woodsman named Giovanni leaves his mountain home on Old Rag to sell holiday trees.

But one Christmas things change. A heavy snowstorm knocks out electricity bringing a halt to all the usual celebrations. Instead the townspeople fill the village square drawn by the light of the bonfire made by Giovanni. From this magical moment comes a piece of artwork that gives a young man a new look at the career he has dreamed of, and changes the course of a town and many of the people who live in it.

If you are looking for a wonderfully sentimental story that you will re-read again and again sitting before your own roaring fire, tuck an extra copy of GIOVANNI'S LIGHT into your shopping bag.

If you want to give more than a book, here are some gift suggestions to pair with this:
a scented candle, a collection of drawing pencils or pastels for an aspiring artist, or a frame with a picture that captures your personal meaning of Christmas.