A Secret Gift / Ted Gup / 355 pages

In painstaking research, investigative reporter Ted Gup recreates the Christmas of 1933 in Canton, Ohio when unbeknown to Ted or anyone else in town, his beloved grandfather Sam Stone anonymously provided a small gift of $5 to families in the direst of straits. That small gift gave many a bit of hope and a chance to unburden themselves of shame and fear. Gup discovers what his grandfather did when his mother bestows upon him a suitcase full of letters. In the process of researching the families and circumstances of those who wrote letters, Gup was also able to solve a mystery about his grandfather's past, a mystery that haunted Sam Stone throughout his entire life. More than the stories of the unbelievable poverty and the spirit of the people who lived through the Depression, readers learn about the beliefs and attitudes of the 30's that gave us the greatest generation and how the make do experiences of the Depression live on in succeeding generations. The story is captivating but most readers will also wonder, could I have made it through the Depression?