Holiday books make excellent holiday gifts. I am pleased to recommend "I’ll Be Home for Christmas," a beautiful keepsake book of World War II Christmas memories.

Across five Christmas seasons, many American men and women served their country during World War II so that future generations could live in peace. In the pages of "I’ll Be Home for Christmas" you will find an engaging collection of photographs and personal testaments from these men and women, all from a wide range of sources in the collections of the Library of Congress. Whether these stories are from the papers of General George Patton, a soldier’s diary, or a collection of memorabilia from entertainer Bob Hope, you will marvel at how the spirit of Christmas was kept alive during World War II, both at war and on the home front.

Anyone who lived through World War II will tell you that period of our history will always be regarded as one of America’s darkest and most painful conflicts. History and Hollywood record the horrors of World War II with great frequency, its images preserved so that we can remember what we should never forget.

But there is another component to World War II that also cannot be forgotten. Even as the world stood at the precipice of doom, individuals performed amazing acts of courage, sacrifice, and love. At Christmas during World War II these acts gained their greatest poignancy. This was a time when soldiers were reminded of what they were fighting for: home, family, and country.

"I’ll Be Home for Christmas" is a celebration of that spirit as expressed through a host of touching moments. Full of journal entries, magazine articles, correspondence, and over one hundred photographs, this lavishly illustrated, impeccably researched keepsake volume beautifully commemorates the timeless humanity of the soldiers fighting the war, as well as the feelings of their loved ones back home.

You will learn how Christmas became a twice-blessed occasion for Esther Carlson and her fiancé, Harold, a soldier whose only opportunity to go on leave was during the holiday—making Christmas Day their wedding day.

You will meet Joyce Edwardson, who gives her husband, a serviceman stationed at a distant army base, the ultimate Christmas present by allowing him to hear the voice of his two-month-old daughter for the first time during a long-awaited Christmas phone call.

And you will see the faith and hope of the season commemorated in makeshift Christmas trees the world over, from MacArthur’s family in occupied Japan, to a tropical umbrella plant festooned with medical supplies in Guadalcanal, to a bush decorated with C-ration cans in a foxhole in Germany.

Examining the experiences of soldiers and factory workers, men and women, mothers and sons, "I’ll Be Home for Christmas" opens a window to a unique part of our past that still touches us today and shows us that the worst of times can bring out the best in humankind.

"I’ll Be Home for Christmas" and many other great holiday books are part of the wide range of books available at the Jesse Stuart Foundation Bookstore, 1645 Winchester Avenue in downtown Ashland. For more information, call (606) 326-1667 or visit our website: JSFBOOKS.COM.