charles dickens

10 Christmas books to read this year

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 16 Comments

|| Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. ||

(Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.)

This week we have a freebie post so now that we are in December, I thought I’d share some book ideas to get you into the Christmas or holiday feels.

Did I just write “feels”? Oh my … I did. Let us overlook that and carry on . . .

  1. Shepherd’s Abiding by Jan Karon

I’m starting with this one because this is one I read or read parts of each year now. It’s a favorite Christmas book for me. As my sister-in-law said last night when we were chatting, reading a Jan Karon book is like walking into a warm hug and this book is no different. It’s heartwarming, even though there are some tough topics in it, especially about Father Tim (he’s an Episcopalian priest) as he grapples with his past relationship with his late father.

Description: Millions of Americans have found Mitford to be a favorite home-away-from-home, and countless readers have long wondered what Christmas in Mitford would be like. The eighth Mitford novel provides a glimpse, offering a meditation on the best of all presents: the gift of one’s heart.

Since he was a boy, Father Tim has lived what he calls “the life of the mind” and has never really learned to savor the work of his hands. When he finds a derelict nativity scene that has suffered the indignities of time and neglect, he imagines the excitement in the eyes of his wife, Cynthia, and decides to undertake the daunting task of restoring it. As Father Tim begins his journey, readers are given a seat at Mitford’s holiday table and treated to a magical tale about the true Christmas spirit.

2. A Quilt for Christmas by Melody Carlson

I am actually reading this one right now and am enjoying it.

Description: In this heartwarming Christmas story, widowed Vera Swanson is feeling lonely until young Fiona Albright knocks on her door needing help. With Fiona’s mother seriously ill, Fiona asks Vera to make a special Christmas quilt for her. Vera gathers a group of women, including an artist, a chatty empty nester, and a retired therapist, to fulfill the request. Along the way, Vera discovers the joy of friendship and the warmth of a new “family” during the holiday season.

3. Waiting for Christmas by Lynn Austin

I have not read this one, but have heard good things about Lynn’s work.

Decription: For the first time in her privileged life, Adelaide Forsythe won’t be swept up in it. She couldn’t be happier about the prospect of a quieter Christmas. That’s not to say her transition from Miss to Mrs. has been without challenge. Though she doesn’t regret marrying for love instead of wealth, she can barely light the hearth or cook more than burnt toast. She feels woefully unprepared to run her own household.
Then, on the first Sunday of Advent, winter winds bring change through two unlikely means: a young orphan boy, hiding near Adelaide’s front steps, and a seasoned housekeeper who seems too good to be true.
The boy, Jack, claims he isn’t an orphan at all and is desperate to reunite his family. Adelaide and her husband Howard work tirelessly to solve the riddle of Jack’s story, while Adelaide’s new endeavors open her eyes to a world beyond her past experience—and all the challenge and possibility it holds. As Christmas approaches, small glimmers of wonder light the way toward the answers Adaleide seeks and the most miraculous gift of all.

4.  An Ivy Hill Christmas: A Tales from Ivy Hill  By Julie Klassen

(I have not read this one but it sounds good.)

Description: The younger son of Ivy Hill’s family, Richard Brockwell, hasn’t been home for Christmas for years. He prefers to live in the London townhouse, far away from everyone. His mother threatens to stop funding his carefree life–unless he comes home for Christmas. Out of options, he sets out for Ivy Hill, planning to be back on a coach bound for London and his unencumbered bachelor life as soon as the festivities are over.
But Christmas in the country presents unforeseen surprises, including encounters with an orphaned apprentice, the first love he disappointed years ago, and Arabella Awdry, a young lady who is far more appealing than he recalled . . . and determined to have nothing to do with him.

5. A Christmas Carol and other Christmas Writings by Charles Dickens

(have not read all of these, but have read A Christmas Carol and I did enjoy it.)

Description: This selection of Dickens’s Christmas writings confirms his lasting influence upon our idea of the Christmas spirit: that Christmas is a time for celebration, charity, and memory.

In addition to the beloved A Christmas Carol, this volume includes such festive works as “Christmas Festivities,” “The Story of the Goblins Who Stole a Sexton,” “A Christmas Tree,” “The Seven Poor Travellers,” The Haunted Man and the Ghost’s Bargain, and a Christmas episode from Master Humphrey’s Clock. Beyond the holly and the ivy, Charles Dickens’ writings show readers his references to societal issues in nineteenth century England that revolve around Christmas. Dickens explores issues, which relate to class and memory in order to achieve deeper meaning and human qualities for the characters he creates.

6. A Vintage Christmas by various authors

(I read a couple of these stories from a book similar to this last year and did enjoy them! I hope to read more from it this year. I think I actually listened to a couple too on Audible.)

Delight lovers of classics with this timeless treasury! From Twain’s missive—penned as “Santa Claus” to his 3-year-old daughter—to charming fireside moments, this Christmas collection features 23 nostalgic tales from Alcott, Dickens, Stowe, Twain, Montgomery, and Howells, along with the poetry of Cook, Rossetti, Thackeray, Kilmer, Longfellow, and Coleridge. Includes a presentation page for personalized gifting.

5. A Regency Christmas Wish by Various authors:

(Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs turned me on to these types of books last year. There are various versions of these books, all with different novellas collected into one volume. I had to hunt for these books as they are not all in print anymore, with many of them only available on used sites. I tracked this one down on Thriftbooks. I read two of the novellas last year and I’m going to read a couple more this December. I am not a huge romance reader but these are very light and sweet.)

Description: This collection of five holiday-themed Regency romances includes all-new stories by award-winning and bestselling authors Edith Layton, Emma Jensen, Sandra Heath, Barbara Metzger, and Carla Kelly. Celebrate the joys of Christmas in Regency England with five new stories by some of the most beloved Regency authors of all time. Ringing in the season with fireside warmth, holiday wishes, and Yuletide romance, these stories capture the essence of Christmas. A sparkling collection sure to delight readers all year round, with warmth, cheer, and love.

7. Finding Father Christmas/Engaging Father Christmas (2 books in 1) by Robin Jones Gunn

Description: Two heartwarming Yuletide tales in one volume! In Finding Father Christmas, Miranda’s search for her dad leads her to England where a family welcomes her. Should she reveal her true identity and destroy their idyllic image of her parent? And in Engaging Father Christmas, Miranda plans to accept Ian’s proposal—but the Whitcomb matriarch withholds her blessing.

8. All is Calm/All is Bright (two novellas in one) by Colleen Cobble

Description: Curl up with this Yuletide duo! In All Is Calm, special ops agent Brendan and murder witness Lauren seek refuge at Bluebird Ranch. Can they catch the killer? And in All Is Bright, Delilah is deliberately run off the road. Sheriff Tom Bourne is determined to protect her. Will he save her from her shadowy attacker?

9. The Christmas Candle by Max Lucado

(I have watched the movie this is based on but have not read the book.)

Description: Imagine a Victorian England village in the Cotswolds where very little out of the ordinary ever happens . . . except at Christmas time.

This year, Edward Haddington, a lowly candle maker, is visited by a mysterious angel. That angel silently imparts a precious gift—a gift that’s bungled and subsequently lost. The candle maker and his wife, Bea, struggle to find the gift.

And when they do, they have to make a difficult choice. Who among their community is most in need of a Christmas miracle?

10. You Make it Feel Like Christmas by Toni Shiloh

(I have not read this one yet but I’ve wanted to read one by Shiloh so I might try to squeeze it in this year.)

Description: It’s the most wonderful time of the year–for everyone except Starr Lewis.

As if going home for the holidays jobless and single wasn’t bad enough, she’s dragged into a holiday season full of activities leading up to her sister’s uber-romantic Christmas Eve wedding–to Starr’s ex-boyfriend. But when her brother’s best friend, Waylon Emmerson, attends their family Thanksgiving, she starts to wonder if maybe coming home for Christmas isn’t so bad after all.

As Starr finds the perfect distraction in helping Waylon make over his late mother’s Christmas shop, the most wonderful time of the year works its magic and the spark between them grows. But with the holidays fast approaching, Starr must decide what she wants out of life after the gifts are unwrapped and the ornaments are put away–to go back to New York City or to open her heart to a love that will last beyond Christmas Day?

Have you read any of these books? Or are you reading anything Christmas-related this year? Let me know in the comments.

*This post is also part of the Comfy, Cozy Christmas Link Up for 2024. If you have a Christmas/holiday post you would like to share you can find the link HERE or at the top of the page here on my blog.

Sunday Bookends: cozy mysteries, Little House on the Prairie marathon, and a few photos from the week

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 9 Comments



It’s time for our Sunday morning chat. On Sundays, I ramble about what’s been going on, what the rest of the family and I have been reading and watching, and what I’ve been writing. Some weeks I share what I am listening to.

This week I’m joining up with Kimba at Caffeinated Reviewer, Deb at Readerbuzz, and Kathyrn at The Book Date.

What’s Been Occurring

 It’s still been very cold this past week so we have been lighting a fire every other day.  We lit one last night as the temperature dropped to somewhere around 22 degrees. It looks like temps will warm up this week as we move into Good Friday and Easter.

I wrote a bit about our week last week in yesterday’s Saturday Afternoon Chat post if you want to catch up on other “events” of our week. Spoiler – there weren’t a lot of events actually.

What I/we’ve been Reading

I’m reading A Murder in an Irish Village by Carlene O’Connor. It is very authentic Irish and I’m enjoying it.

I just started The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett but will probably read this one very slowly because of some books I’m reading for tours and to review for Clean Fiction Magazine. I already know the story of The Secret Garden from watching the movie.

I have also started Night Falls on Predicament Avenue by Jamie Jo Wright. This one is for a book tour in April. I honestly think it is going to be too creepy for me but I guess it is good to branch out once in a while.

Just Finished:

Murder Plainly Read by Isabella Alan and The Middle Moffat by Eleanor Estes.

Currently:

I enjoyed both of these books and will have reviews up soon.

Soon to be read:

The Divine Proverb of Streusel by Sara Brunsvold

Who Brought The Dog to Church? By Tracy Smoak

When You Returned by Havelah Mclat

What others in the family are reading: The Boy is reading Horus Rising and listening to A Tale of Two Cities. Little Miss is listening to The Railway Children and we are reading The Middle Moffat together.

The Husband is reading Do the New You by Steven Furtick

What We watched/are Watching

This weekend I watched all things Little House on the Prairie. This year is the 50th anniversary of the debut of the show and they are holding a festival with many of the old cast members in California. I have been watching the show and some footage from the festival such as interviews with Melissa Gilbert and Dean Butler, etc.

I didn’t realize how attached I was to the show until I saw Melissa Gilbert come out in front of all her fans and begin to cry and then I began to cry as well. I have good memories of running home from the bus stop to watch the show when I was a kid. I’ll ramble about that in a future blog post.

Here is the video I watched of the Melissa Gilbert interview if you are interested:

My daughter and I watched a couple of the episodes based more directly on stories in the books, which we read over the last couple of years and then watched three more that were loosely based on stories. I, of course, had to watch with her the episode when Laura pushes Nellie down the hill to prove she has been lying about not being able to walk. After that one, Little Miss was hooked and asked to watch more.

Earlier in the week I always watched Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman and Lark Rise to Candleford.

Over the weekend I watched original Perry Mason episodes with The Husband.

What I’m Writing

I am on the epilogue of Cassie and then I will be beginning book three of the Gladwynn Grant mysteries.

On the blog this week:

What I’m Listening To

On Audible I am listening to A Tale of Two Cities by Dickens (Lord Jesus be with me. Literally.) and The Railway Children (with Little Miss).

Photos from Last Week

Blog Posts I Enjoyed This Past Week

Billyisms and Winnie the Pooh by Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs

This post cracked me up, especially this line: “This was all just to warm up to the topic of my husband being a human Winnie the Pooh, but one who wears pants of course.”

Now it’s your turn. What have you been doing, watching, reading, listening to or writing? Let me know in the comments or leave a blog post link if you also write a weekly update like this.

‘Tis The Season Cinema: The Man Who Invented Christmas

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 8 Comments

Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs and I are starting a feature today where we will share our impressions of Christmas movies, in the same way we did for Halloween movies and the summer classic movies. Yes, we are starting this early at the risk of offending all the Christmas purists who believe you can not watch Christmas movies before December 1. One of those people is my son who showed me this meme when I told him what we were doing:

Anyhow….I digress:

This week we are kicking things off with the origin of the definitive Christmas story (other than the real reason for the season, Christ’s birth) through the movie The Man Who Invented Christmas.

Off the topic (again), but while looking for the movie on Amazon, a ton of movies that started with three words, The Man Who… popped up and made me realize that’s either a very popular title or a very lazy one.

The movie starts with an elated Charles Dickens (Dan Stevens) who is in America, riding the wave of success of Oliver Twist. Within minutes, though, we are tossed into the future where Charles has just had three books flop.

He’s toured Britain and America and been celebrated in the past but now he is home and has what every writer dreads: writer’s block.

He needs a hit, not only for his ego but to pay for all the renovations at his home and to support his growing family.

Did you know that Dickens had 10 children? Because before watching this movie I didn’t either. I looked it up and found some other unpleasant behaviors of his, which was sad, but he was still a fascinating man.

Okay, back to the movie.

His publishers are ready to toss him out on his ear, but his agent suggests they keep him on if he writes a new book. The publishers are excited. Of course they will keep him on if he’s going to write them a new book they tell his agent.

The problem? Charles doesn’t even have an idea for a new book.

Bring in the new housemaid who begins telling stories that ignite his imagination and inspire him to tell the story of a selfish, bitter old man who begins to — quite literally — come alive in his mind.

He decides it will be a Christmas book but it’s halfway through October. “There isn’t time to write and publish a book and market it by Christmas,” they tell him.

He’s left to pay for the book on his own. Pay for it and write it at the same time his estranged father arrives for a visit.

This is the father whose debts left 12-year-old Charles working in a shoe factory to pay off those debts.

His relationship with his manipulative father weighs heavily on his writing of this new book which he eventually titles A Christmas Carol.

This movie takes the viewer on a delightful journey and you don’t have to be a writer to relate to the many interruptions he faces as he tries to write, but being one makes it even more relatable.

The insane creativity of this movie is what drew me in. Watching the characters appear in Dickens’ world as he writes them is fascinating for someone who also writes fiction and experiences characters come alive in my brain. Dickens also draws from his own life to craft his stories, which is again something I can also relate to. The way Charles lives his life with all his characters following him along each step of the way isn’t a far-fetched concept for writers who have done the same, though probably never finding as much success as Dickens and looking even crazier than he did.

My son tells me I’m borderline insane because I have a bunch of people living in my brain and sometimes I talk to them. He is, of course, joking. I think. He’d better be since he talks to the characters in his video games like they are real.

Scrooge (Christopher Plummer) wakes Charles at one point during the night in the movie and I had to laugh because that is when all the best ideas come for writers — when they’d rather be sleeping or need to be doing something else. I often feel like a character is whispering in my ear as I try to drift off, saying things like, “Hey, about that conversation I shared earlier, I forgot to tell you part of it. Can you just get up and write that part down so it’s accurate? That would be great.”

There is a great deal of sadness in the movie as Charles uncovers his own demons at the same time he uncovers Scrooge’s, but there is also incredible hope as he works to push his past heartache and bitterness to the side and find happiness in his life.

“I’m afraid,” he tells his friend/agent.

“What have you got to be afraid of?” the friend asks.

“That if I can’t finish it, I’ll never write again,” he responds.

It was a true fear for Charles, but ultimately unwarranted as he went on to write ten more novels, other novellas and short stories, including Great Expectations, A Tale of Two Cities, and David Copperfield.

Read Erin’s impression of the movie on her blog.

If you’d like to join us in this seven-week feature at any point, you can do so. Here is our list of upcoming movies (the dates are when we plan to publish our blog posts):

Nov. 17 A Christmas Carol Goes Wrong

Nov. 24: White Christmas

Dec. 1: Muppets Christmas Carol

Dec. 8: Holiday Inn                                                                           

Dec. 15: It’s A Wonderful Life

Dec. 22: Charlie Brown Christmas and Emmett Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas