Christmas Reads

What are you reading for Christmas this year? I try to read one Christmas book each week, and I'm always looking for suggestions! Last week I read The Adventures of Nicholas by Helen Siiteri which I found in the "kid's books." A silly thing, but short.

Anyone else?

I recommend Christopher Moore's The Stupidest Angel. So what if Santa gets murdered early on? He comes back to life as a zombie Santa and all is well (heh, heh, heh!).

I always try to read The Dark Is Rising about this time of year - the action takes place from early December to Twelfth Night (Jan. 6). Great book.

And A Christmas Carol, too!

Truman Capote's A Christmas Memory. I read it every year and every year it gets me.

I'm going to be reading A Christmas Carol in installments on DailyLit.

All Seated on the Ground and Miracle and Other Christmas Stories, both by Connie Willis.

I finished A Christmas Visitor by Anne Perry last week, and yesterday I picked up from the library: A Child's Christmas in Wales, Merry Christmas, Mr. Baxter and Capote's A Christmas Memory. I also have The Little Mixer by Lillian Nicholson Shearon in the pile as my "read every Christmas" book. It's an old one about a little Jewish girl who is trying to figure out why Santa won't come to her house. I love it!

Ah, you've reminded me I need to add A Child's Christmas in Wales to my list - I have a lovely audiobook, read by the author.

Someone just returned Skipping Christmas so I will take that home with me today.

>9 staffordcastle: I'll bet that's great. I'm ashamed to admit that I've never read it, but I'll rectify that this week!

>11 tloeffler: It's a short read - quite atmospheric. I read it as a child, then forgot about it until I saw a marvellous Christmas TV special of it some years ago, with Maurice Denham (sp?) as the reminiscing grandfather. It's been a favorite ever since, either in print form, or the audiobook.

You folks might enjoy these two pieces by Charles Dickens:

The Christmas Tree
http://www.classicreader.com/book/876/1/

What Christmas Means to Us, As We Grow Older
http://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/contents/4800/4810/4810_txt.html

(Sorry, touchstone not working)

#12 staffordcastle - I read A Child's Christmas in Wales for the first time a couple of weeks ago. I noticed that my library also had a DVD of a tv adaptation. I would have passed on it thinking it was just a cheesy special but I noticed that it was actually filmed in Wales. I'm next on the holds list and hoping it's the same one you saw.

I just checked IMDB, and it's the 1987 version, with Denholm Elliott as the grandfather, not Maurice Denham - bad memory.

That's it - glad to hear it's a good one!! :)

Lots of great singing in it.

Yes, of course, to A Christmas Carol though I'm not especially fond of Dickens's other Xmas books. I've just finished Wishin' and Hopin', which is called 'a Christmas story' but just happens to end at Xmas, which isn't quite the same thing for me. Other perennial favourites include A Redbird Christmas by Fannie Flagg, The Christmas Mystery by Jostein Gaarder, The Woman in Black by Susan Hill and one or two others that have notable Christmas scenes such as Nicholas Nickleby and A Prayer for Owen Meany.

ETA - Oops, and Little Women, of course!

>13 staffordcastle: Loved The Christmas Tree, staffordcastle! And there were some good messages in What Christmas Means to Us, As We Grow Older. I wonder if kids still have that fabulous sense of wonder. Trees aren't what they were in Dickens' day, and his excitement over little knick-knacks begs the question, Do kids today get that worked up over expensive video games?

Thanks for the links!

Just last week I pulled out one of my favorite SF short-story collections, Gene Wolfe's The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories and Other Stories, for my annual re-read of read "La Befana," a very short but dense story about the Christmas witch.

Now THAT is completely tempting! I wish my library had that book. I'm not sure I'd read all of it, but I'd sure read about the Christmas witch!

>19 tloeffler: My pleasure! Glad you enjoyed them.

A few years ago, at San Francisco's Dickens Christmas Fair, I had the chance to hear Mr. Dickens read "What Christmas Means to Us" - really a great performance.

I finished A Child's Christmas in Wales and A Christmas Memory last week. I really enjoyed the descriptive writing of the Dylan Thomas book, and I LOVED the Capote. I found it touching, and lovely, and sad, and beautiful.

This was the first year I ever thought of reading something just because it was Christmas time. I read Skipping Christmas. I have had it on the shelf for six years since receiving it as a gift. I disliked the book nearly as much as I disliked the movie, I am sorry to say. Maybe I'll try to squeeze in a read of A Christmas Carol to remove the bad taste.

#23 re: A Christmas Memory. Well put. I couldn't agree more.

I just read the last installment of A Christmas Carol on DailyLit. I don't remember if I have ever read the book, having seen the movie every year for as long as I can remember - I never thought I needed to. But I am so glad I did if only to read about the glow-in-the-dark lobsters!

So glad you finally read it mamzel - even with all the dramatized versions that have been made, none of them can include ALL the marvellous details!

I started on my last Christmas book for this year last night: Merry Christmas, Mr. Baxter. I've never read it before, but I get the feeling it's going to be Skipping Christmas done right. It's from 1956, and written by the same author as the original Father of the Bride, so it's different but fun. Why are the very best Christmas books the ones about old Christmases?