Danny Aiello, 86

Dec. 12 Character actor who received an Oscar nomination for his role as a pizza shop owner in Do the Right Thing. He was married to his wife, Sandy Cohen, for 64 years.

Herman Boone, 84

Dec. 18 The coach depicted in the movie Remember the Titans, he overcame racial tensions to lead Alexandria, Va.’s T.C. Williams High School to the Virginia state championship in his first year as head coach.

Wild Honey From the Moon by Kenneth Kraegel: How far would Mother Shrew go to make her son Hugo well? All the way to the moon and back if she has to. Since the only remedy for his ailment is wild honey from the moon, she’s determined to make the perilous journey. Carrying her red umbrella, she overcomes obstacles including a horned owl that wants to eat her, “night mares” that run like crazy, and a swarm of bees. “Silence,” she commands the bees.

Betrayal in Berlin by Steve Vogel: During the Cold War, the West was desperate to know what the Soviets were up to. That need for intelligence led to an audacious plan to build a tunnel in Berlin and tap into the East German telephone lines through which calls between Moscow and Berlin flowed. Vogel tells the fascinating story of how the closely guarded tunnel project came about, how CIA officials dreamed it up and carried it out, and how British double agent George Blake betrayed the tunnel project to the Soviets.