Teresa, Diane, David, and Joe share their favorite Holiday (and Holiday-adjacent) reads and traditions.

• Diane: The Briar Club by Kate Quinn
• Teresa: Maria by Michelle Moran
• Joe: Skipping Christmas by John Grisham
• David: The Night Before Christmas by Clement Moore

The Friends take on the big Holiday question: Is fruit cake -- and, by extension, fruit cake cookies -- a sin?

David shares a beloved family Christmas tradition with the very special reading of Clement Moore's classic, The Night Before Christmas and Kooper makes his Four Friends and a Book debut at the 48-ish minute mark.And, of course, the Four Friends wish a Happy Christmas to all and to all a good night.

Teresa, David, Diane, and Joe discuss which books were made into movies they loved, which ones were made into movies they didn't love as much, and which books were so good they couldn't bring themselves to watch the movie at all, lest it ruin the book for them.

Joe expresses his disdain for Mark Wahlberg ("Matt Damon is to Mark Wahlberg as Alec Baldwin is to Stephen Baldwin"), David explains why he believes that Tom Cruise has jumped the shark, and Teresa and Diane try to keep the boys in line. (Good luck with that.)

- Life of Chuck

- The Notebook

- The Hunger Games

- Twilight Saga

- The Godfather

- Leave the Gun, Take the Canoli

- Thursday Murder Club

David regrets having chose Westerns for this week's genre. That is, until Teresa, Diane, and Joe started questioning what exactly makes a Western a Western.

The usual suspects led to discussions of Larry McMurtry, Charles Portis, Louis L'Amour, Cormac McCarthy...but then came Elmore Leonard, John Steinbeck, and even Stephen King.

What makes a Western a Western? Join us to find out!

• Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon
• Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
• Done and Dusted: A Revel Blue Ranch Novel by Lyla Sage
• Blood Meridian, or, the Evening Redness in the West by Cormac McCarthy
• Buried in the Back Water by Drew Strickland
• Fire in the Hole by Elmore Leonard
• No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy
• Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
• The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger by Stephen King
• True Grit by Charles Portis
• Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey

NOTE: This one gets a little adult language-y, so keep that in mind with the littles around.