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Text reading: Friendsgiving. Surrounded by orange and yellow botanicals.

Despite the enduring popularity of Thanksgiving, Friendsgiving (a portmanteau of friends and Thanksgiving), a much younger holiday, is growing increasingly popular. According to Merriam-Webster, the term Friendsgiving first appeared in print in 2007, though it likely was used colloquially before then. In 2020, Friendsgiving was officially added to the Merriam-Webster dictionary (and appears in the new dictionary published on November 18, 2025, which is only the 12^th edition published since 1898).

Friendsgiving is often celebrated by groups of friends, who often are unable to return home for the traditional Thanksgiving holiday. Other Friendsgivings are held by people who will return home for Thanksgiving, but still wish to celebrate together. Friendsgiving is, by design, a flexible holiday, so each celebration can be whatever the participants want it to be. It is increasingly popular amongst younger adults, especially those who are in college, or living away from their families, allowing them to engage in their favorite traditions, while changing things up a bit.

Freed from the tradition surrounding traditional Thanksgivings, Friendsgiving encourages people to create new traditions. This could be new food (maybe you only serve soups or sushi, instead of the traditional turkey) or new activities (perhaps you watch movies or play board games).

Interested in celebrating Friendsgiving? Check out our collection of cookbooks here. Want to host a movie night as part of your Friendsgiving celebrations? Check out our movie display on the fourth floor!

Regardless of if you celebrate Friendsgiving, Thanksgiving, Hanksgiving (read more about that holiday here), or just enjoy the extra few days off before finals, we wish you the best!

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Friendsgiving

Thanksgiving has been celebrated annually in the United States since 1863, when Abraham Lincoln began the presidential tradition of proclaiming a day of Thanksgiving to be celebrated in November. Thanksgiving didn’t settle firmly on a date until the 1940s, when FDR and Congress set the fourth Thursday in November as Thanksgiving (learn more about the history of Thanksgiving – and the role that the editor of Godey’s Lady’s Book had in making it a national holiday, in this blog post).Despite the enduring popularity of Thanksgiving, Friendsgiving (a portmanteau of friends and Thanksgiving), a much younger holiday, is growing increasingly popular. According to Merriam-Webster, the term Friendsgiving first appeared in print in 2007, though it likely was used colloquially before then. In 2020, Friendsgiving was officially added to the Merriam-Webster dictionary (and appears in the new dictionary published on November 18, 2025, which is only the 12th edition published since 1898). Friendsgiving is often celebrated by groups of friends, who often are unable to return home for the traditional Thanksgiving holiday. Other Friendsgivings are held by people who will return home for Thanksgiving, but still wish to celebrate together. Friendsgiving is, by design, a flexible holiday, so each celebration can be whatever the participants want it to be. It is increasingly popular amongst younger adults, especially those who are in college, or living away from their families, allowing them to engage in their favorite traditions, while changing things up a bit. Freed from the tradition surrounding traditional Thanksgivings, Friendsgiving encourages people to create new traditions. This could be new food (maybe you only serve soups or sushi, instead of the traditional turkey) or new activities (perhaps you watch movies or play board games).Interested in celebrating Friendsgiving? Check out our collection of cookbooks here. Want to host a movie night as part of your Friendsgiving celebrations? Check out our movie display on the fourth floor!Regardless of if you celebrate Friendsgiving, Thanksgiving, Hanksgiving (read more about that holiday here), or just enjoy the extra few days off before finals, we wish you the best! ...

National Novel Writing Month

Novels are what most people think of when they think of books today. They fill the shelves of public libraries, and even academic libraries such as ours have collections of novels. Famous novelists such as Jane Austen, the Brontës, Leo Tolstoy, George Orwell, Agatha Christie, Terry Prachett, and so many others have made the novel popular, and ensured its continuing success. Novels are written for all ages, in a variety of genres, and are published by both professional houses and by individuals. While today reading novels is a respectable pastime, in the past, novels, and novel reading, were derided as a waste of time, and seen as ruinous to people’s health (just as TV often is today). Novelists were therefore at the very least silly, and at the worst, dangerous to youth. Libraries, and librarians, even controlled who had access to novels, whereas today, many librarians actively encourage novel reading. As part of the support for novels, and those who write them, National Novel Writing Month is celebrated during November. Throughout the month, novelists and aspiring novelists are encouraged to write 1,667 words a day, so that by the end of the month, they have a draft of 50,000 words. Powering through the first draft like this is designed to help writers to just get the first draft over with, to power through what is often the hardest part of the writing process, to just get something on the page.Until 2024, National Novel Writing Month was organized by NaNoWriMo, a non-profit organization founded in 1999 to encourage writers. Even though the official NaNoWriMo organization has closed, and the website is no longer active, each November is still an opportunity to write your own novel. There are plenty of great resources out there to support you as you begin writing, so you don’t have to venture into novel writing alone. Even NaNoWriMo’s collection of pep talks, written by famous novelists for aspiring novelists, are still available here, thanks to the internet archive. Check out the National Novel Writing Month display on the 3rd floor to see some books about novel writing, and for a selection of novels from our collection. And check out the excerpts from NaNoWriMo pep talks below for some inspiration!Gail Carson Levine (author of Ella Enchanted, Fairest, The Two Princess of Bamarre, and among other books), writes, “with all the earnestness I can command, here is the only important piece of advice, which is crucial for any speed of writing, any kind of writing: Do not beat up on yourself. Do not criticize your writing as lousy, inadequate, stupid, or any of the evil epithets that you are used to heaping on yourself. Such self-bashing is never useful. If you indulge in it, your writing doesn’t stand a chance. So when your mind turns on you, turn it back, stamp it down, shut it up, and keep writing.”V.E. Schwab (author of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, A Darker Shade of Magic, and other titles), writes in her pep talk, “So you’re going to write a story. Not a book. Don’t think of it as anything so formal. You’re just writing down a story. Something that you will have ample time to make better, once it’s done. And I know it’s hard—trust me, I know. Because the moment you start writing it down, you begin to see all the flaws, all the shortcomings, all the things that aren’t perfect. But you’re also writing down everything you need, your raw materials.”Kristin Cashore (author of Graceling) writes, “Learning to write 50,000 words means learning a whole pile of skills, but they’re learnable skills, and you learn them by writing.”And finally, in his pep talk, written in his characteristic style, Lemony Snicket (author of The Series of Unfortunate Events), writes, “In short, quit. Writing a novel is a tiny candle in a dark, swirling world. It brings light and warmth and hope to the lucky few who, against insufferable odds and despite a juggernaut of irritations, find themselves in the right place to hold it. Blow it out, so our eyes will not be drawn to its power. Extinguish it so we can get some sleep. I plan to quit writing novels myself, sometime in the next hundred years.” ...

Native American Books

November is Native American Heritage month. One of the ways that we can celebrate Native American Heritage Month all year is by reading books by Native American authors. As books by Native American authors have become more and more popular, encouraged in part by Native-owned publishing houses, it has become easier for all of us to find books in our favorite genres that are written by Indigenous authors. Books such as Birchbark House by Louise Erdrich, We Are Still Here by Traci Sorell, Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley, and There There by Tommy Orange, The Truth According to Ember by Danica Nava.There are several different resources that can help you find books written by Indigenous authors. American Indians in Children’s Literature, written by Dr. Debbie Reese of Nambé Pueblo, and Dr. Jean Mendoza (Euro-American, USA) provides critical analysis of Indigenous peoples in children’s and young adult books. Their website includes lists of books that they do recommend, as well as books that they don’t recommend, and why. The website of the American Indian Library Association (AILA) provides resources for “the library-related needs of American Indians and Alaskan Natives.” It also awards the American Indian Youth Literature Awards in even years. The award was established to, “identify and honor the very best writing and illustrations by American Indians and Alaska Natives. Selected titles present American Indians in the fullness of their humanity in the present and past contexts.” Checking out the list of award winners is another good way to discover more books by Indigenous authors.If you’re looking for more adult and non-fiction recommendations, Birchbark Books is a bookstore owned by Louise Erdrich, who is a well-known Ojibwe author. Browsing through their catalog can be a great way to find books by Indigenous authors that interest you, thanks to their organization by genre. Interested in learning more about Native American history? Check out last year's Native American History Month blog post, or this blog post from 2022, which provides more information about traditional Native Lands. For a good non-fiction history book, check out An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States, by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz. Check out the Native American History month display on the first floor to see some books by Indigenous authors in our collection. Thank you to Hannah Eastburn, Print Materials Processing Specialist at the University of Kentucky for her recommendations of places to find Native authors. Any errors in this post are my mistakes, and do not reflect her excellent advice. ...

Five Reasons to Try a Graphic Novel

This week we welcome to the blog Garrett Hohmann, Public Services Librarian here at Loras. Garrett is an avid advocate for graphic novels, and has written this blog to encourage people to read graphic novels.Five Reasons to Try a Graphic NovelThey are approachable – If you can read this, you are already equipped to read a graphic novel! Some readers are intimated by the format, but the literacy required doesn’t extend beyond making sense of words and pictures. They are a great way to explore complex stories without overwhelming you with text; graphic novels typically do not take long to read. They are diverse – Graphic novels are comic books, but they don’t all look like Spiderman. If you haven’t felt drawn to the art styles of comics, you may have not found the right book. The styles are as diverse as the stories themselves. You can find memoirs, history, fantasy, mystery, romance, sci-fi, and your favorite literary classic adapted into graphic form. They are immersive - If books are more than words on a page, then graphic novels are more than pictures in a frame. Graphic novels tell you a story but show you that story in a way plain text cannot. Reading a graphic novel is like self-directing a movie that progresses at the pace you determine. You decide how long each shot lasts and how much gravity it has.They are an entry point– If you don’t consider yourself a ‘book reader’, graphic novels could turn you into one. While they aren’t a cure for your diminishing attention span, you might find yourself liking the idea of sitting down and having a solitary, uninterrupted session of quiet reading on the regular. This could be habit forming!They are beautiful and unique – To read a graphic novel is to experience an artistic expression distinct from traditional books. There is a sort of magic that emerges between the frames and pages and your imagination once you ‘get it’. I encourage you to try one from our 2nd floor book display which will be up next week after our Ruth Suckow display. ...

Friendsgiving

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