Happy Colorado Sunday, friends.

Here’s hoping that whether this first serious wallop of winter weather delivered a foot of snow or only a few flakes where you are, that you’re warm and well and, perhaps, tucked in on the couch with a good book.

This past year, I’ve been picking away at a pile of banned and challenged books. I’ve loved them all. But I honestly don’t know if a steady diet of young adult fiction — and the bans and challenges will keep coming, so steady is an apt description — is healthy for my brain.

That’s why I’m so grateful for this week’s cover story, curated by SunLit editor Kevin Simpson. I suppose it’s more of a cover list, but as I moved through the reading recommendations from authors I’ve gotten to know in this newsletter, I could see my 2024 stack of must-reads growing. I hope you see a book or two for yourself there, too.

There’s never a bad time to receive a good book. Or give one. And the holiday season is one of the best excuses to select that novel or nonfiction volume that dovetails perfectly with the interests of a special friend or relative. In that spirit, we once again asked some Colorado authors — every one of them a winner or finalist for the most recent Colorado Book Awards — to choose two volumes in their genre and explain to readers why they recommend it. And they responded, big time. Our centerpiece this week includes 20 suggestions, from biographies to thrillers, that include exciting recent releases and even some time-honored classics that take on a new perspective through the lens of some expert commentary.

Of course, there’s no rule that says you can’t gift one to yourself for absolutely no reason whatsoever. And we’ve also highlighted these authors’ own award-worthy work with links to the excerpts that have run throughout the last year in our SunLit feature. If you need further encouragement, check out this column by Laura Pritchett — a past CBA winner who describes the lifelong joys of connecting with the right title.

And, continuing the literary theme of this week’s issue, don’t miss the current SunLit treatment of James LaRue’s illuminating new book “On Censorship” — a topic that has once again gained traction for reasons from politics to parenting. So celebrate literature by visiting your local bookstore. And never take for granted the rich array of options that keep us entertained and informed.

READ THIS WEEK’S COLORADO SUNDAY FEATURE

What makes a photograph memorable? Some Images fade from our memories while some stick around longer, perhaps for a lifetime. The images that are most memorable are the ones that strike your emotions, tell the story, are a unique, but simple, composition, or leave us with more questions than answers. Here are a few that stuck with us from Denver to the slopes.

A graphic showing how much the ingredients in a burger have increased
Simon the cat watches the Ullr festivities Thursday while sitting on the shoulder of his friend, JJ Yosh, on Main Street in Breckenridge. Breckenridge held its first annual celebration of Ullr, the Norse god of winter, in 1963. (Hugh Carey, The Colorado Sun)
A graphic showing how much the ingredients in a burger have increased
Luis, last name not given, gives a razor shave and haircut to Charlie near Speer Boulevard and Zuni Street on Tuesday in Denver. Migrants from Venezuela who have arrived in Denver in recent weeks have stayed in and around a Quality Inn hotel used as a temporary shelter by Denver Human Services. (Olivia Sun, The Colorado Sun via Report for America)
A graphic showing how much the ingredients in a burger have increased
Buildings reflect light from one another Wednesday on 18th Street in downtown Denver. The office vacancy rate in Denver hit a high of 30.6% in the third quarter, the first time it’s been above 30% since 2000, according to real estate brokerage firm CBRE. (Hugh Carey, The Colorado Sun)
Computer literacy teacher Jack Bookout, looking out the window Nov. 22, teaches subjects like computer science, robotics and other hardware literacy at Mitchell High School in Colorado Springs. Bookout, in his first year of teaching high school, worked in information technology for more than 20 years in the Army. (Olivia Sun, The Colorado Sun via Report for America)
Night view of Greek Theater and Colonnade of Civic Benefactors in Denver’s Civic Center park decorated for Christmas in 1929. (L.C. McClure, Denver Public Library Western History Collection)

No matter where I go for the holidays, I always feel a little better when I’m celebrating in Colorado. It’s not the company — my family tends to travel in a pack — it’s the outdoor lighting displays, and especially the ones created by communities and extra-ambitious cul-de-sacs.

Colorado comes by the commitment to holiday lights honestly. The founder of Sturgeon Electric (you’ve probably seen the trucks along the Front Range) is credited with “inventing” colored lights by dipping clear holiday lights in red and green paint in 1914 and hanging them in a tree outside his home in Denver to cheer the mood of his bedridden son. As long ago as 1920, Civic Center park in the middle of the city was lit with twinkling lights, and now City Hall and Denver Union Station are swathed in LED color until the National Western Stock Show is over in January. For decades, old mining equipment on the road between Victor and Cripple Creek has been decked in bright lights and the displays on lonely homes along dirt roads in far-flung Weld County are a sight to behold.

I love seeing the huge illuminated star twinkling from Flagstaff Mountain above Boulder and sometimes feel a little catch in my throat when I’m up early walking the dog and get to experience the tiny white lights that give the feeling of falling snow in my town even when there is none.

It’s hard to call one city’s display better than another’s, or judge a neighborhood for its effort. But Mile High on the Cheap has assembled a long list of reader-submitted suggestions to get you going on your own hunt for lights fantastic. You want to give someone a twinkling gold star? Have at it! My first stop? The Greeley Holidaze House, 1712 37th Ave. in Greeley, for a look at a “Peace on Earth”-themed display put up every year for 40 years in Morrison before Jim and Jo Perry passed a truckload of torches on to their nephew, Adam Artz.

EXCERPT: Author James LaRue has spent a good portion of his professional life answering challenges to library materials, and took note of the recent resurgence in efforts to deny access to them. Librarians have long talked about the issue among themselves, but LaRue wanted to extend the conversation into the public realm. The result is “On Censorship,” in which he takes a deep and thoughtful look at the reasons behind those efforts, and what they could portend for society.

READ THE SUNLIT EXCERPT

THE SUNLIT INTERVIEW: While others have written about fear of demographic change fueling the push to restrict some materials, LaRue explains another factor — parents who panic at two particular stages of their children’s lives. But there’s also something larger at work. Here’s a slice from his wide-ranging Q&A:

SunLit: What did the process of writing this book add to your knowledge and understanding of your craft and/or the subject matter?

LaRue: I came to see the rise of censorship as part of a larger shift in thinking about the public sector generally, and about the infrastructure of democracy (a free press, libraries, trustworthy elections, a robust education system) in particular. There is both a political and psychological profile for those who seek to suppress ideas. Right now, the people who fit that profile are ascendent, even though they are also a distinct minority.

READ OUR INTERVIEW WITH JAMES LARUE

🎧 PODCAST

A curated list of what you may have missed from The Colorado Sun this week.

In “What’d I Miss?” an Indigenous “two-spirit” person explains the changing identity landscape — and the legal fight against a Montana law that defines sex as “binary.” (R. Alan Brooks and Cori Redford, Special to The Colorado Sun)

🌞 This week in the High Cost of Colorado project, Mark Jaffe takes apart Xcel Energy electric bills in service of explaining why they’re so high. (Hint: It’s not the cost of electricity.) And right on cue, the state Public Utilities Commission took up Xcel’s new clean energy plan, which is almost twice as expensive as the one approved in 2021.

🌞 Down in San Luis, the charming little town that you sometimes drive through to get to Taos, work is afoot to revive and revitalize amenities to keep some of that traffic from flowing over the New Mexico border. Tracy Ross visited to learn how a $500,000 grant from the EPA is being turned into tourism dollars.

🌞 There’s not a hot springs in sight, but hopeful people think the ground under Carbondale is warm enough to build a heat-pump based district heating and cooling system for the city’s core. Kinda like downtown Boise, but not. Mark Jaffe has details.

🌞 It’s a shocking reality, but kids in Colorado’s foster care system are less likely to graduate from high school than kids who are homeless. Jennifer Brown checked in with Kids Crossing, a nonprofit that trains foster and adoptive parents, which has developed a Medicaid-funded tutoring program that aims to keep kids in school.

🌞Jennifer Brown and El Comercio de Colorado editor Jesús Sánchez Meleán spent time with some of the Venezuelan families who arrived in Denver just in time for winter. Many of them have found shelter in converted hotels. Some are sending their kids to Denver Public Schools. And a few moms spend most of the day outdoors, watching their kids play and cooking, because food preparation is not allowed inside.

🌞 Montanya Distillers, made famous by delicious rum distilled at high altitude by women, has new owners. Karen Hoskin told Jason Blevins the pandemic took more out of her than she wanted to give, so she’s handing off the Crested Butte business to Montanya’s head distiller, a former head distiller and a brand strategist based in Houston. Hoskin says the team is “one of the most diverse and powerhouse owner teams in craft-spirits history.”

🌞 Is “office” a dirty word in Denver? Kind of. Tamara Chuang and Clare Zhang went to the Colorado Business Economic Summit last week and learned 30% of downtown office space is vacant. Even more buildings are empty, with businesses paying for space where workers never work.

🌞 Used to be that you got a state job not for the wage it pays today, but for the PERA retirement benefits that come later. Brian Eason looked at Colorado’s latest pay survey and found that state workers make about 8% less than their private sector counterparts and learned the retirement benefits no longer make up for the gap.

Thanks for checking in with us again this week, friends. We appreciate your time and the support you provide with your membership to The Colorado Sun. Perhaps you have a hard-to-buy-for friend or family member you’d like to invite to the Colorado Sunday party? It’s an easy-enough transaction. Just visit store.coloradosun.com and a gift membership is only a few clicks away.

— Dana & the whole staff of The Sun

This byline is used for articles and guides written collaboratively by The Colorado Sun reporters, editors and producers.