The Christmas Challenge - Completed

This was so fun, it really shouldn't count as a challenge.  I ended up changing my reading a bit from my initial list because I kept finding such wonderful books out there related to my favorite holiday.  So here's what I finally read ( or in a couple instances listened to):

A Christmas Beginning by Anne Perry
The Christmas Cookie Club by Anne Pearlman (see my review)
Secrets of a Christmas Box by S. Hornby
Angels - a pop up book (A fabulous contest win) by Chuck Fischer
Norman Rockwell's Christmas Book
The Paper Bag Christmas by Kevin Alan Milne
Silent Nights -by Anne Perry
Irish Country Christmas by Patrick Taylor (see review)
Shepherds Abiding by Jan Karon.
Under the Tree by Sue Waggoner (we're going to pass this one around to guests tomorrow -- so fun)

Now I'm going to settle back and wait to see whatever Santa may have left under the tree, and have another batch of fun with "Under the Tree". I hope your Christmas wishes are all filled too.

Christmas Challenge: Review- Silent Nights by Anne Perry

Another Christmas book for my challenge.  This one actually consisted of two separate 'novellas' each featuring one of Perry's secondary characters from her William Monk and Charlotte Pitt series.

The first, A Christmas Beginning, features Superintendant Runcorn from Perry's William Monk series.  We see Runcorn arriving on a bleak island off the coast of Wales to spend his Christmas holiday.  There he discovers the secret love of his life whom he met working a case  in London, and further discovers a dead body in the Church yard shortly after his arrival.  In very UN-Runcorn fashion, he treads delicately with the local constable as he helps solve the murder.  There was a completely unexpected ending (in the very last sentence of the story) that really blew me away.  I enjoyed getting to know Runcorn better--I've been a fan of the Monk series for years, and feel I know him better now that this case is finished.  It will be interesting to see if Perry takes these personality developments further in future books in the Monk series.

The second story, A Christmas Grace was a real stretch.  It has Emily Radley (sister of Charlotte Pitt- another of Anne Perry's series) spending her Christmas in very rural Ireland, nursing her dying aunt from whom the entire family has been estranged for years.  I found this story awkward, with the characters very cardboard, and the plot really contrived.  I had to force myself to finish it because frankly, it just wasn't very interesting...

I like Anne Perry's works, but the Christmas stories (I've read 3 now) seem to be quickies thrown together without a lot of thought. I'll try one more next year, but after that, we'll see............

Hidden In Plain View Thursdays: A Christmas Book by Norman Rockwell

Norman Rockwell's Christmas Book

by Norman Rockwell

Welcome to the weekly feature where we use Random.org to pick a book from our library shelves (real or virtual) and bring it out into daylight.  To join in, follow the guidelines posted here.

Be sure to leave us a link to your post so we can compare notes. Unlike previous weeks, we won't ask you to try to pick this one off a shelf--it's been hiding in a credenza where I keep the Christmas goodies.  It will come out later next week to reside on the coffee table next to the bowl of nuts and candies.

This is one of my favorite Christmas books.  It has stories, poems, pictures, music, and many beautiful Rockwell illustrations.  We received it years ago as a gift from my inlaws, and it has been a family treasure since then.  If you can find a copy, grab it.  It will be one book that even non-readers will browse through, over and over again.  And it is one book that does NOT translate to the Kindle or to an audio book.


Do you have favorite seasonal books that you bring out for short periods every year?  Be sure to leave a comment.

The Christmas Challenge

Michelle, The True Book Addict has challenged us to read Christmas books during the upcoming holiday season.  The link to the challenge is on her page.  It's quite simple, you have to read 1-3 books (no kiddie lit allowed) about this wonderful holiday.  Then blog about it and link it to her page via Mr. Linky.  Get over there and sign up.  It will give you something fun to do during these next few stress-filled weeks.

I've been doing a Christmas books category for my 999 Challenge on LT. Here are some of the books I've read or plan to read to complete the 9 for that challenge:

A Christmas Beginning by Anne Perry
The Christmas Cookie Club by Anne Pearlman (see my review)
Secrets of a Christmas Box by S. Hornby
The Gift of Murder (An anthology of Christmas mysteries being sold to benefit Toys For Tots)
Murder for Christmas (another anthology edited by Thomas Godfrey)
The Paper Bag Christmas by Kevin Alan Milne
Maigret's Christmas - a collection of nine stories by George Simenon
Irish Country Christmas by Patrick Taylor (see review)
And one of my all time favorites.......Shepherds Abiding by Jan Karon.

So.....have you started yet?  If not, put a log on the fire and forget the wrapping, decorating, baking for awhile each day.  Give yourself a gift....Where's the eggnog?

Review: The Christmas Cookie Club

This book was part of the BEA Atrium Galley Grab earlier this summer, but I just couldn't bring myself to read about Christmas cookies in the heat.  I grabbed it earlier this week, and can't say I missed too much by waiting. It has good recipes, great little non-fiction essays on the history of various ingredients, like flour, butter, almonds, chocolate, vanilla, etc, loosely tied together by the stories of the 12 women who form the Christmas cookie club.

They meet the first Monday of December to exchange cookies and catch up for the year. Their stories are wooden, formulaic, and re-hash many of today's "women's" issues (sex, divorce, pregnancy, widowhood, money, sullen teenagers, aging parents, etc etc) with nothing much new to say about them. The author could have done a much better job of building some character into these women. They all seem like wax figures from a museum who spit out their stories when someone winds them up and it's their turn.

There seems to be a glut of these women's support group books being published, and it really is going to take some effort to come up with an angle that allows the group to present something fresh. This just didn't work for me. I enjoyed the food parts, but could have easily skipped the soap opera.

Sunday Salon

Sundays are supposed to be the day we relax, enjoy friends and family, take stock of what's been accomplished in the past week, and plan what's coming this week.  I don't even usually do a SS post because I'm generally too wrapped up doing whatever you're supposed to post about.  HOWEVER.........

This Sunday finds me trying to take a breath after a rather busy book week, and trying to get my mental arms around an upcoming ROAD TRIP this week.  So here's a quick splash of what's been happening and what's planned.

In the past two weeks I've gotten 8  books in my mailbox (either ARCs or contest winnings):

When Everything Changed by Gail Collins
Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
The Calligrapher's Daughter by Eugenia Kim
Secrets of a Christmas Box by S. Hornby
The Gift of Murder (A Holiday Crime Anthology I bought to benefit Toys 4 Tots)
The Recipe Club by  Andrea Israel and Nancy Garkinkel
Who Turned out the Lights by Scott Biddle and Jean Johnson
The Gift of an Ordinary Day by Katherine Kenison


I'm trying to decide what to take with me on this trip.  How much reading can I realistically expect to get done while visiting my Mom in Baltimore  (none--it's a fix the computer visit!),  my children (not much--too much food and catching up to do) and my granddaughter (none-girls are supposed to go shopping!).  So much for the first 5 days...

Then there's a week in Florida attending a Navy reunion (reading??? I don't think so) seeing old friends ("excuse me, I know we haven't seen each other in over 20 years, but there's a cozy mystery I need to read!!"), and then more friends on the way back north from FL to Maine.  We even have a planned stop in NJ to have lunch with hubbie's agent for his book (keep your fingers crossed!), so my only reading time will probably be early AM, late evening and in the car. Since there are a total of almost 60 hours in the car, I should be able to knock a couple off the TBR pile.

I'm trying to finish up my 2nd 999 Challenge over on LT, and decided at the last minute to re-arrange my categories to include a Christmas category.  So between now and Dec 31, I have 4 food books, 2 historical fiction, and 7 more Christmas books to finish up.

I think my New Year's Resolution is going to be NOT to add any more challenges to the two I have already for 2010: to read 75 books (that's a no-brainer), and to get at least bios read toward the US President Challenge.  So...here's what going with me when we leave town

• Calligrapher's Daughter and The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane for the historical fiction category.
• Irish Country Christmas (audio), for the Christmas category
• The Recipe Club for the food category
• Aunt Dimity Slays the Dragon and The Dead Cat Bounce for a feature I've been working on about amateur female cozy sleuths
• If You Need Me-- just because I want to read it.

Also my MP3 has 11 mysteries, 9 novels including The Shadow of the Wind which is my current 'ear-read', and 5 non-fictions loaded up, so I'll be able to dip into whatever floats my boat along the drive.  Hubbie and I have similar tastes so we often listen to either a non-fiction or a mystery in the car. In any case, there will be plenty of reviews coming in late November.

So it's going to be a busy week....I know I'll get at least 4-5 hours of listening in while I pack, and run errands around town, so stay tuned.  The laptop is going with me, and we'll be sending back a few pictures of our adventures.  In the meantime, enjoy the crisp autumn air, the beautiful colored foliage, and the smell of wood burning in the fireplace or woodstove. 

I think it's time for a walk ---where's my MP3?

Friday's Favorites from the Past: Betty Crocker's Cooky Book

Oh Christmas Cookies...


Every Friday, Alyce At Home With Books features this meme inviting us to look back at a favorite book from the past.



I come from a family that loves Christmas cookies.
Each mother, grandmother, aunt, sister, niece, daughter, grand-daughter has a special recipe that is a favorite.  Even when we were overseas for years, we baked, and mailed, and shared and gathered even more new cookie recipes.  We go to cookie exchanges, we call each other every year to verify the ingredients for grandma Nona's "Fraguna".  We even published little mini-cookbooks ----like we typed and xeroxed and hole punched and put little ribbons thru the pages --even put a construction paper cover on them with stencilled designs on the cover.

Last weekend, in preparation for a trip to my hometown late this month, I was browsing thru all my cookie recipes and cookbooks--they are kept in a slipcase just for Christmas baking--trying to figure out how many pounds of flour, sugar, butter, raisins, nuts, etc., I might need.  The list of possibilities grows every year (as do the hips!!!), but I always come back to this book--Betty Crocker's Cooky Book-- which I got for a wedding present in 1967.  The pages are caked with batter droppings, stained with green food coloring for the spritz trees, stuck together with candy cane chips, and literally falling out of the spiral binding.  But that Spritz cookie recipe is the only one that works in my cookie gun.

I had a chance to buy one of these books in excellent shape at a used book sale last year, but passed on the opportunity.  It had no character.  Whoever had owned it had obviously never baked anything from it.  The pages were CLEAN.

So in honor of the kickoff of the baking season (rumballs have to 'stew' for at least 6 weeks) I look to Betty Crocker as my favorite from the past.

Do you have a favorite cookbook? cookie book? recipe?

I've been thumbing through Ann Pearlman's Christmas Cookie Club ARC which has been sitting here for weeks, and have decided to add a Christmas category to my 2nd 999 challenge.  I've gotten several holiday themed books in the past couple weeks, so I'm going to settle down in November and really enjoy my favorite holiday.

Stay tuned for Holiday Ho Ho Ho Reviews and Happy Baking...