Book Chop: In Dark Streets Shineth

Title: In Dark Streets Shineth
Author: David McCullough
Genre: Historical
Verdict: An excellent Christmas book

This one's a quickie. I met David McCullough at a book signing last May, and he's got a great manner with crowds, a dignified sense of humor and a wonderful presence. This is a man who has accomplished great things, a historian in whom I can find no fault. I hope to do at least one thing as great as he has with every book he's penned.

IN DARK STREETS SHINETH is about Christmas Eve in 1941, a few short weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor. It's a message of optimism and hope, praise to God, and the strength of family and country through wartime. There's a brief snippet of history regarding the hymn "O Little Town of Bethlehem" and some other poetry, and how it mattered in that time period.

Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill are the main "characters," as they spent the holiday together in the U.S. and addressed the American people with this message. (Their individual addresses are included in the back of the book.)

The book comes with a DVD of McCullough narrating the story with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir inside the LDS Conference Center last December. I watched it this morning--it's not super long, but again, very uplifting. I can see it becoming a part of my family tradition in years to come.

Read it and enjoy.