After a startling diagnosis from his doctor, Oswald T. Campbell leaves behind the cold and damp of the oncoming Chicago winter to spend what he believes will be his last Christmas in the warm and welcoming town of Lost River. There he meets the postman who delivers mail by boat, the store owner who nurses a broken heart, the ladies of the Mystic Order of the Royal Polka Dots Secret Society, who do clandestine good works. And he meets a little redbird named Jack, who is at the center of this tale of a magical Christmas when something so amazing happened that those who witnessed it have never forgotten it.

2) At sixteen, African American Essie Mae Washington found out that her father was Strom Thurmond, a segregationist who would go on to serve in the U.S. Senate. Her memoir reveals the conficted but affectionate relationship between a father and daughter tangled up in the tragic color line of the Old South.

Kate is heartbroken when her favorite tree is cut down and shipped off to Rockefeller Center for use at Christmas, along with the bird who has been living in the tree.