My first book fictionalized a Christmas Eve from my Eastern European family’s history, so I was curious about this new picture book, in which Frances Gilbert fictionalized a Christmas Eve story from her Scottish family’s history.
I so appreciate how her elegantly simple prose is set to the musical rhythm of David E.J. Varker’s softly detailed illustrations. The effect is magical! We are transported to a quiet landscape of snow and stonewalls where a young boy is concerned. Will Father Christmas visit this year?
Yes, I do have a weakness for Christmas stories that warm our hearts and perhaps raise our own memories. “Believers,” young and old, will love this story based on the lives of real people.
I have been “running” Louise Penny’s Inspector Gamache mysteries since the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020. I don’t read mysteries usually, but hers are addicting.
This book would make a fine Christmas-time read. It tickles our thinking about “the divine” and about being human.
This Penny murder mystery takes Gamache and Beauvoir into the Quebec wilderness to a monastery known for its chanting. The monks here try to “touch the divine” in everything they do while distancing themselves from the recent killing.
I love the author’s thematic artistry with light and darkness, as well as her sensory threading in a monastic setting that attempts to minimize it. As with the characters, our senses are activated all along the footpath of the mystery reveal.
Winner of the Anthony Award for Best Crime Novel Winner of the Macavity Award for Best Crime Novel Winner of the Agatha Award for Best Crime Novel
There is more to solving a crime than following the clues. Welcome to Chief Inspector Gamache's world of facts and feelings.
Hidden deep in the wilderness are the cloisters of two dozen monks - men of prayer and music, famous the world over for their glorious voices. But a brutal death throws the monastery doors open to the world. And through them walks the only man who can shine light upon the dark…
I continue to search for wonderful Christmas fiction that warms the heart. This past year I read several titles of Richard Paul Evans, who some refer to as “the king of Christmas stories.” His small book stories offer protagonists with life challenges and are sometimes partly autobiographical.
Because I am so fascinated with how memory works, I was glued to his story, The Noel Diary.
The male protagonist, a writer, struggles with the deeply unresolved relationships with his parents and with a floating, recurrent memory of a woman he does not know. While cleaning out his deceased mother’s house, he discovers a diary. This triggers an unexpected journey in which he pairs up with a young woman searching for her birth parents.
Imagine…a child is born far too early. He weighs just 1.5 pounds. Amazingly, he is breathing. Now imagine…it is 100 years ago, on the edge of winter and the Christmas season, in a New England farmhouse without modern conveniences.
My grandparents and their midwife lived through this event. My book fictionalizes the story using extensive facts, family history, and research. Family unity, faith, friendship, and determination are themes.
This 10th Anniversary Edition weaves in important birth story elements discovered since the book’s first edition was published. A new survival-themed "Afterword" responds to the many readers who asked, “What happened to the characters after the birth story ended?”
