Quick summary: Today, we’ll help you get ready for the holiday season with ideas for new reads and shops, plus more gift guides, featuring URL Media staff picks and other recommendations from our partner network.
Credit: Canetti / iStock
Good books, local stores, and more gift ideas for your holidays
Hey, y’all,The weekend after Thanksgiving is a rare chance in the busyness of autumn to take a step back. Your belly might be full of leftovers, you might be cracking open a new book … but you also just might be starting to think about your holiday shopping list. It can be a stressful feeling. Black Friday and Cyber Monday have great deals, but always with the aftertaste of commercialism run wild, which is not a great setup for more shopping, to say the least. Finding the right gifts for your people aside, there’s also the matter of putting your money in places you feel good about. Today is Small Business Saturday, which can help, but with so many deserving local shops out there in-person and online, how do you decide where to bring your business this time around? Don’t worry — we’ve got you covered.First of all, what are you reading? We’ll cover three authors whose work we recommend, whether as a gift to yourself or a loved one, plus some independent booksellers to help you get a copy. Then, we’ve compiled a list of Black-owned LGBTQ+ stores, along with other guides to help you cut through some more of the noise this season. Let’s dive in!
Featured Stories
San Francisco hotel workers just passed their 60th day on strike. The movement is heating up with no immediate end in sight, El Tecolote reports. They are fighting for fairer wages, reasonable workloads, and keeping health insurance and retirement plans intact — protections and benefits they say hotel companies want to phase out. →
Malcolm X’s killer confessed to the crime — but the NYPD never investigated the plot’s connection to the FBI and the CIA. Now, his daughters are suing all three entities. A victory would be a landmark case in exposing systemic harm, PushBlack writes. →
Many people in Lahaina, Maui, lost nearly everything when the Hawaiian town burned in 2023. As the community rebuilds, people are concerned not enough is being doneto prevent the next fire from wreaking similar devastation, AsAmNews reports. →
Despite opposition from advocates and state legislation, a new ICE immigration detention center is progressing through the pipeline in New Jersey. Similar plans are in the works in 15 other states. Read more in Documented. →
As an editor-in-chief who is leading during the time of Trump’s anti-media rhetoric, Lisa Snowden sees clearly the harm that is possible over the next four years, and how Baltimore Beat must respond. Read her letter here. →
