Thanksgiving is my mother's favorite holiday. I'm not sure if it's because of the food, the fact that it's such an inclusive holiday, or that my grandmother's birthday often fell on Thanksgiving Day.

But, whatever the reason, I too honor the holiday by hosting family and friends every year at my huge table in the country. I honor my grandmother by placing the two little battered pilgrim candles (never lit) that graced her table in the middle of my centerpiece.

This year, my mom decided to go to Colonial Williamsburg to celebrate in a different sort of way, and in order to join her in spirit I've been immersing myself in novels about colonial America. On Friday, I saw THE CRUCIBLE and, over the weekend, I read Brunonia Barry's amazing book THE LACE READER and Kathleen Kent's THE HERETIC'S APPRENTICE. Richly textured, both novels are set in Salem. Enough said.

It made me realize that, last year, I read Nathaniel Philbrick's MAYFLOWER, which I highly recommend and my daughter read one of my all time favorite books: THE WITCH OF BLACKBIRD POND by Elizabeth George Speare (a great essay about this book is in Lizzie Skurnick's SHELF DISCOVERY).

However, all these books feature witches and only the children's book is really a romance novel. This led me to a frightening conclusion--Is THANKSGIVING a horribly unromantic holiday?

Sure we've published books with witches, like CHRISTINA DODD's A WELL FAVORED GENTLEMAN, and we've published Christmas books like MRS MIRACLE and Eloisa James' witty and tear-inducing AN AFFAIR BEFORE CHRISTMAS. But is there a Thanksgiving book? Maybe we should challenge one of our writers to create one for next year. What do you all think?

And, to my mom, enjoying an authentic Williamsburg Thanksgiving: watch out for witches!