♥ A Christmas Carol ¹ by Charles Dickens
* The Christmas Box ¹ by Richard Paul Evans - This was one of those holiday books I'd heard about but never read. In leading up to December I went to the Libby app to search for Christmas related reads that weren't crazy long. This one fit the bill and turned out to be a nice new read.
♥ Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Sleigh by Mo Willems - Mo Willems can do no wrong! His books are so fun and adorable and the Pigeon series is one of the best. I was over-the-moon when I saw that there was a Christmas book featuring this little cutie.
♥♥ Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree by Robert E. Barry - I think of all the Christmas books I've read in recent years, this one might very well be my favourite. It's all about Mr. Willowby's giant tree that turns out to be just a bit too big and they have to snip off the tip. But what to do with the top? It goes to the maid but it's too big for the space she has so she clips off the tip and this happens again and again until at the very end the little family of mice that lives in Mr. Willowby's wall has a lovely Christmas tree, just the right size for their humble home. I cannot recommend it enough!
♥ SantaLand Diaries ¹ by David Sedaris
♥ A Christmas Story ¹ by Jean Shepherd
♥ The Great Christmas Kidnaping Caper by Jean Van Leeuwen - With charming illustrations by Steven Kellogg, this was the perfect book to read while soaking in the tub. Three mice hang out at Macy's New York City in 1975 and catch the eye of Santa, who lovingly leaves little treats for them each night inside the dollhouse they call home. One day he goes missing and the mice team up to find him and bring him back to Macy's for the children of New York. Fun story and a great ending. I'm definitely hanging on to this book for future Christmases.
* The Christmas Shoes ¹ by Donna VanLiere - My mother had liked the TV movie version of this, mostly because of her crush on Rob Lowe, and so I checked it out from Libby. It was good, a bit heavy on the god-stuff for my liking, but in the end, it was a good story.
♥ The Twelve Terrors of Christmas by John Updike - I picked this up online for super cheap and it was wonderful to read Updike's jaded take on the holidays and see the gorgeous Edward Gorey illustrations.
¹ - audiobook
² - abridged version
* - liked
♥ - loved
Any unmarked titles were, in my opinion, so-so.
² - abridged version
* - liked
♥ - loved
Any unmarked titles were, in my opinion, so-so.
POST SCRIPT:
The Inn at the Edge of the World by Alice Thomas Ellis - I bought this book in March of 2021 and decided to start off December with this tale of a group of people that spend Christmas at an inn located in Scotland. I struggled to really get into this book and actually like any of the characters. I also really despise that there are no, NO chapter breaks. Infuriating. So I sat down and wrote up the cast. That always helps and I could begin to visualise things, until...about a quarter of the way in and suddenly (unless I missed a description) it was revealed that one of the characters was old enough to have had a seventeen year old that had passed away a while back. UGH!!! Now I had to god damn re-cast half the characters because I made them too young for it to make sense. Originally I pictured innkeeper Eric as Alan Cumming, Harry was played by Richard Madden, Holliday Grainger as Jessica, Ray Winstone as Ronald, Phyllis Logan as Anita, and Billy Boyd was Jon. Coming up with a new, older Harry was easy and I switched him over to Peter Mullan, who I've liked for decades. Eventually I thought Jane Seymour would make a good Jessica, but who would play Jon?? How about Peter Capaldi? Done! With the main cast complete, I was able to keep on keepin' on, but in the end, none of the characters were particularly interesting and I could care less what they got up to, so I threw in the towel about halfway through.
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