My kids checked off their Christmas shopping lists in less than an hour of one-stop shopping, came home, wrapped their gifts, and DONE. Meanwhile, I’m still cobbling together lists, eyeing the calendar and wondering if I can get everything ordered and delivered before Christmas as our governor again tightens the reins on retail shopping.
In the waning days of 2020, let’s find a little joy, a little comfort, and a little peace by turning to a good Christmas book (or two, or twenty). I’ve assembled a list for the littlest family members on up. Eventually I’ll get my reviews completed and linked, but in the interest of sharing the list before Christmas, along with some reading and gift-giving links, here are my 2020 picks:
I’m embarrassed to say that The Memory of You by Catherine West was a book I planned on reading in 2017. Oops. Well, I finally got around to it, and I’m so glad I did. This contemporary romance is an emotional powerhouse that tackles a lot of tough stuff, including grief, guilt, and mental illness. A rekindled teenage almost-romance set at a Napa Valley family winery keeps the story from becoming maudlin.
I picked up Above the Fold by Rachel Scott McDaniel for the same reason I grabbed The Memory of You—the alcohol production connection that made its way into one of my Relevant Fiction Reviews posts. I’d intended on reading this Prohibition Era novel regardless, because its Pittsburgh setting caught my eye. Elissa and Cole have a sweet, shared past, but Cole’s return after a stint as a big-city reporter opens old wounds from his ill-timed departure. The newsroom setting keeps the story moving at a good pace, and an unsolved murder lends suspense to the romance.
Jennifer the Damned by Karen Ullo was one of my rare forays into horror. Jennifer, an orphaned vampire under the guardianship of a Catholic religious order of sisters, matures into her soulless fate, her craving for human blood destroying her relationships with the beloved sisters, classmates, and her newly acquired boyfriend. Running from both her past and her future, Jennifer longs to love and be loved, despite being condemned to soulless immortality. Look for my interview with the author on my blog next week!
I’m diving into Christmas reading with Courtney Walsh’s latest, A Match Made at Christmas. I’ve only just begun this romance set on Nantucket, but I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve read by Courtney Walsh, so I can’t imagine not enjoying this story. I’m not doing the early Christmas decorating many are indulging in this year, but I’m ready for a lot of fictional Christmas escape.
My oldest son has been reading Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller. The play features the tragic hero Willy Loman, an aging, failing salesman. I read the play in high school myself but remember little about it other than it was one of a string of depressing books we read. My son agrees with that assessment yet is still enjoying this modern classic.
My seventh-grade daughter used our recently resurrected NOOK to read Washington Irving’s The Legend of Rip Van Winkle. She described it as a “short, good, ominous story” that introduced her to a lot of new vocabulary. Next up is The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.
In conjunction with her history curriculum, she read Saint Helena and the True Cross by Louis deWohl using our parish subscription to Formed. The story recounts the mother of Emperor Constantine’s conversion, Constantine’s rise to power, and Helena’s expedition to the Holy Land. The book is part of Ignatius Press’s Vision Books for young people.
My younger daughter supplemented her study of Peru by reading The Llama’s Secret: A Peruvian Legend by Argentina Palacios. Three of my kids got in on this legend of how the fox got a stained tip to its tail and the llama was revered. It includes colorful illustrations and many native Peruvian animals.
We re-read One Grain of Rice: A Mathematical Folktale by Demi, which I recalled sharing with my oldest child many years ago. The description: “A rajah who believes himself to be wise and fair uses his hungry people’s rice for himself year after year, until a village girl name Rani devises a clever plan using the surprising power of doubling to win a billion grains of rice from the rajah.” The illustrations really bring home the sheer volume of rice in question.
My youngest son has been reading about Australia. Possum Magic by Mem Fox is about a young possum made invisible by his grandma to protect him from snakes. A combination of native foods restores his visibility. This book sent us straight to a recipe search! Lamingtons, anyone?
You’ll recognize the look of Katy No-Pocket by Emmy Payne as it was illustrated by Curious George author H. A. Rey. It’s a cute story of a mama kangaroo who’s missing something critical—a pocket for her joey! She takes a fun journey seeking the advice of many animals until she discovers an innovative solution.
Want more details on An Open Book? You can also sign up for An Open Book reminder email, which goes out one week before the link-up. No blog? That’s okay. Just tell us what you’re reading in the comment box.
THANKS FOR STOPPING BY! STAY A WHILE AND LOOK AROUND. LEAVE A COMMENT. SHARE WITH A FRIEND. IF YOU LIKE WHAT YOU SEE, PLEASE SIGN UP FOR MY AUTHOR NEWSLETTER TO KEEP UP-TO-DATE ON NEW RELEASES, EXTRAS, AND HOT DEALS!
As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
One thread ties the books below together: in some way, each involves the production and/or distribution of alcohol. Some legal, some illegal. A few are Prohibition-era stories. A couple precede Prohibition. One is a contemporary story. There’s wine, hard cider, whiskey, and all manner of spirits. Of course there’s more to the stories than all that, including intrigue, romance, and even humor.
You’ll also find books by Ellen Gable, Erin McCole Cupp, Karin Fabian, Amanda Lauer, and many more authors with novels in a variety of genres including historical, contemporary, romance, science fiction, fantasy, suspense, and mystery.
I confess. I stole my husband’s bible. More than once.
Sure, I have a battered New American Bible from college. And a New Jerusalem Bible, also from college. We have a large, elaborately illustrated family bible. But when I wanted to grab a bible for study or reading, I stole my husband’s Revised Standard Version-Catholic Edition in its lovely leather case.
The black leather-like cover of this Bible is sleek, attractive, and durable and includes a black elastic strap to keep it from flapping open when not in use. The square, rather than common rectangular shape balances nicely in my hands when I’m juggling a computer mouse, pen, and tablet and fits comfortably in my lap.
I’m pleased to announce that All in Good Time is a finalist in the category of Christian/Religious Fiction in the Independent Author Network (IAN) 2020 Book of the Year Awards.
Congratulations to my friend and publisher Ellen Gable, whose historical novel Ella’s Promise is a finalist in the category as well.
Jesus said to him [Thomas], “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me.”
John 14:6
These words from John’s Gospel couldn’t be simpler. the way, the truth, and the life.
Seven simple words.
Despite the many distractions created by my children, these words and their implications burrowed into my mind and heart at Adoration last month.
During the same hour, they stared up at me from the pages of St. Teresa of Avila’s Interior Castle. Then again in a scripture quote in Totus Tuus.
I’m accustomed to not hearing from God very often, whether due to His taciturn way of dealing with me or my own failure to listen, I can’t say. I suspect it’s a bit of both. Either way, I’m quite accustomed to it. That this little verse could move me so deeply, nearly to tears, was highly unordinary and remarkable.
For several minutes, I felt a tiny, infintessimally small fraction of Jesus’s sorrow. His sorrow at our rejection of those words:
“I am the way, and the truth, and the life.”
We’ve replaced those words with something more akin to:
Welcome to the November 2020 edition of An Open Book, hosted both at My Scribbler’s Heart AND CatholicMom.com!
Being named a bishop in the midst of a book launch can’t be bad for sales, can it? That’s what’s happened to Father, now bishop-elect, William Byrne, whose book 5 Things with Father Bill: Hope, Humor, and Help for the Soul, was recently released. The book’s exactly what you’d guess from the subtitle: five short bytes about a variety of themes and occasions. His style and voice lend themselves to an easily accessible book that’s one part humor, one part catechesis, and another part chat with a friend you’d like to share a cup of coffee or a glass of beer with.
The Kissing Tree: Four Novellas Rooted in God’s Love by Karen Witemeyer, Regina Jennings, Amanda Dykes, and Nicole Deese gave me the opportunity to discover two new authors. Karen Witemeyer and Nicole Deese are already on my must-read list, and their stories here don’t disappoint. But I also got to enjoy short historical romances by Regina Jennings and Amanda Dykes, all linked by a grand Texas oak tree standing sentry over generations of lovers.
When I’m With You by Jennifer Rodewald has solidified the author’s spot as one of my favorite Christian contemporary romance authors. I haven’t yet read the previous books in this series, but I was able to dive in without problem. Erstwhile rancher Lane starts out as a first-class jerk but undergoes a dramatic yet believable transformation when he befriends broken-hearted ranch hand Daisy.
The final book in Denise Hunter’s Bluebell Inn series wraps things up tidily. Autumn Skies features the youngest of the inn-owning siblings, Grace, and a secret service agent, Wyatt. Sparks fly despite the gap in their ages and their seemingly incompatible life goals. Both are suffering the long-lingering effects of grief and survivor’s guilt, but God seems to have orchestrated their introduction to spur healing.
If any author’s books have been my favorite escape during COVID quarantine, it’s Mimi Matthew’s Victorian romances. A Convenient Fiction, the third book in the Parish Orphans of Devon series, brings long-lost orphan “brother” Alex Archer front and center as he encounters Laura, whose family has been unscrupulously deprived of her father’s perfumery inheritance.
I’m always intrigued when one of my children picks up a book I’ve previously read. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger filled the bill for my high school senior son’s recent assignment. I was decidedly not a fan of Holden Caulfield; my son, however, though he understands why readers may not like the novel, did enjoy it. The basic premise is a student leaving his Pennsylvania prep school for three days and going underground in New York City.
Seeing that there is a remake of the movie Dune in the works, my son has begun reading the science fiction classic Duneby Frank Herbert. I have no knowledge of Dune beyond the fact that David Bowie appeared in the ‘80s movie adaption, so I’m going to share a portion of the book description: Dune is the story of the boy Paul Altreides, heir to a noble family tasked with ruling an inhospitable world where the only thing of value is the “spice” melange, a drug capable of extending life and enhancing consciousness.
While studying ancient Rome, my seventh-grade daughter readThe Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff, a book I first read for Sabbath Rest Book Talk. I’d never heard of it at the time, but since, my son watched the movie in Latin class and now my daughter’s curriculum recommended it. The story follows a young Roman officer in Britain as he tries to uncover what has become of the mysteriously disappeared Ninth Roman Legion.
Keeping to the same time period, my daughter is also readingAugust Caeser’s World: A Story of Ideas and Events from B.C. 44 to 14 A.D.by Genevieve Foster. The book is not only a biography of Augustus, but also includes a wealth of information on the contemporary leaders, cultures, philosophers, and events and includes many illustrations as well. She’s really enjoying it.
We share stories of saints with our children and hold them up as models of virtue, but Lisa Hendey’s new picture book, illustrated by Katie Broussard, fills a practical purpose in translating hagiographies and simplified saint stories into actions that children can take right now to become saints themselves. Even this middle-aged mom took away a couple of new insights on living a life of virtue worthy of spending eternity in heaven. I highly recommendI’m a Saint in the Making for every Catholic child’s bookshelf.
In anticipation of Halloween, I guided my kids in studying and listening to Edvard Grieg’s “Peer Gynt Suite.” Part of our study included readingIn the Hall of the Mountain King by Allison Flannery. The book, with illustrations that drew the kids’ interest, helped to convey the basic story and mimicked the music’s “action.” We supplemented our discussion with some lesson plans supplied by the author, a YouTube video, and, I admit it, a Little Einsteins episode.
Want more details on An Open Book? You can also sign up for An Open Book reminder email, which goes out one week before the link-up. No blog? That’s okay. Just tell us what you’re reading in the comment box.
THANKS FOR STOPPING BY! STAY A WHILE AND LOOK AROUND. LEAVE A COMMENT. SHARE WITH A FRIEND. IF YOU LIKE WHAT YOU SEE, PLEASE SIGN UP FOR MY AUTHOR NEWSLETTER TO KEEP UP-TO-DATE ON NEW RELEASES, EXTRAS, AND HOT DEALS!
As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
