I read and enjoyed several holiday books in December. It’s one of my favorite things to do to get into the holiday spirit! I also read a few fiction and non-fiction books that came available from the library. I also had some advanced book copies to read. Here’s what I read in December:
Gaby wants all her children home for Christmas this year. They haven’t been together since her husband, their father, passed away several years earlier. Gaby has also decided that it’s time for her to do something for herself – get married again. She sends a video announcement to her children announcing she will be married on Christmas day but that the groom will not chosen until that day. At first, all her four children are dismayed, but then they all just know it has to happen the way Gaby wants it to happen – and they’ll all be there to see it in The Christmas Wedding.
Audrey has always loved flying. However, being a female pilot in the 1940s didn’t offer many opportunities to do it as a living. So, she dreamed and planned of owning her own airfield. However, war was looming on America and Audrey left Texas to help train pilot recruits for the military in Hawaii in The Flight Girls. She’s there when Pearl Harbor is attacked and her world will never be the same.
Ashley Davison wants to get home to Seattle for Christmas, but can’t buy a plane ticket. When she tries to get a rental car, she finds it’s the last one, but she’s not old enough to rent it. In Dashing Through the Snow, the man behind her is and he also wants to get to Seattle for a job interview. They decide to share the ride, not knowing that the real reason Ashley can’t buy a ticket is that the feds think she is on the Do Not Fly list – and they’re after her!
How does one continue living a normal day-to-day existence after seeing the worst of humanity? Elie Wiesel is a Holocaust survivor and explores this idea in a novel called Day. In Day, a man is in the hospital after getting hit by a taxi. Even his doctor notices he doesn’t fight for his life like most patients. Trying to understand why, the doctor gets close to finding out about the ghosts that haunt his patient, but can’t truly understand. The man had seen horrors in concentration camps and the dead were always with him.
Isaac is growing up in a traditional Amish community. He loves to play with his friends, enjoys school and tries to avoid chores. In The Little Amish Matchmaker, he sees his older brother acting funny around his teacher, Catherine, and gets it into his head that they would be a good couple. He tries to find opportunities for his brother to help the teacher, and while they start spending more time together, Isaac is frustrated that his brother won’t ask her for a date.
In The Dogs of Christmas, Josh Michaels is almost a modern-day hermit, living in a cabin near Evergreen, Colorado, where he only gets a cell signal out in his backyard. He telecommutes and is rarely interrupted. Then, one day, there is a call that changes his world – his neighbor needs him to watch his dog while he goes to bail his brother out of jail in France. Josh has never had the dog and tries to say no, but Lucy is thrust upon him quickly, even though it’s obvious she’s pregnant. Panic sets in as Josh tries to figure out how to take care of a pregnant dog.
When the U.S. government purchased the Northwest Territory, it gained so much land that needed to be explored. Many people liked the idea, but one man presented a proposal to settle the land that the government couldn’t refuse. Mannasseh Cutler organized a group that traveled west of the Alleghenies, past Pittsburgh and down the Ohio River. There, they started to settle in Marietta. They dealt with hard winters, disease, flooding and tense relations with Native Americans. Yet, they thrived and other settlements branched off of theirs. Their story is told in The Pioneers.
All Lauren wants for Christmas is a family. Her parents both abandoned her at different times and she spent several years in foster care. She has a roommate and a job, but it’s not the same as family. She ends up in a town about an hour away after driving one night to get her mind off her current status. There she finds a grocery store where the bagger gives each customer a message – and hers draws her back to the town again and again. Maybe in The Christmas Town, she can find a family that wants her.
A short and funny Christmas read, The Shepherd, the Angel, and Walter the Christmas Miracle Dog is a story I won’t soon forget. Doug Barnes tells the story of the Christmas when he’s a shepherd in the church pageant and his dog dies. It’s a feel good and funny Christmas story told in Dave Barry’s signature style.
Loserthink is about seeing what ways we all think about things that just don’t make sense or move us forward to better understand an issue. Sometimes it’s just a matter of not thinking logically, but other times it’s falling easily for a hoax or using a false argument. Loserthink is a good book for everyone to read to become aware of their own weaknesses in how they think about issues, especially during a time when it’s hard to trust social media and the news.
Hanna is trying to find a way to stay focused on the present and enjoy Christmas even though she has recently found out her husband died in the war. Then one night, she gets stuck in a snowstorm and seeks shelter in a shed downtown. She falls and strikes her head and ends up finding herself 71 years ahead in the future! She wants to get back home in Journey Back to Christmas.
Not A Creature Was Purring is a Christmas murder mystery set in the cute town of Wagtail where pets are as welcome as the people. Holly not only has to deal with her special Christmas clientele, but finding out the man she’s interested in is engaged and then two people getting murdered in town who were staying at her hotel. Someone among them is a murderer!
Scarlet is finishing up her sophomore year and just knows if she can get a violin chair for the Summerset Festival, her final two years of high school will be fantastic. She will finally be recognized not just for her talent, but as a “cool” orchestra kid. She does make it in the orchestra, but her dreams are torn from her as her sister also makes it in to her dream opportunity – on a baking show in L.A. Her parents decide her sister’s opportunity is a once-in-a-lifetime shot and the whole family should go out to California for the summer. The Main Dish will be released July 7, 2020. I received an advanced copy in exchange for a fair review.
In Wealth, Sorrow, Redemption: The Adventurous Life of a Countess, a small joke took young Enid’s life on an entire different path than she ever expected. Staying out way past her curfew with a cute young man led them to excuse their behavior by saying they got engaged. In the morning, they expected to tell their guardians that it was a joke, but instead the news was all over society. To save face, both families agreed the two should go ahead with the wedding. Harley was focused on fun and started to gamble away his fortune. Enid did not know about his troubles until after the death of their son. Once she finds out, she finally holds her own future in her hands.
Growing up a Jew near New York City might have had its own set of problems for Andrew Klavan, but having parents who actively didn’t want their children to fit in with the other Jews in their neighborhood compounded it. They were better and the world didn’t respect them. Not until Andrew is grown, married and is a father does he realize his childhood left him with problems dealing with day-to-day life. After coming to terms with his past through psychiatric help, there is finally room in his life, heart and soul to contemplate spirituality and shares his journey in The Great Good Thing.
The Choice is a short novel where Alan is put in charge of changing one thing to put humanity on a better track. He gets to interview six other people and talk to his mother and God to try and figure out what choice would be best. I read an advance copy to provide a cover quote. It left me wondering what choice I would make.
What did you read in December? Share with me – I’m always looking for good book recommendations!
