Having lived in Pennsylvania my entire life, I’ve gone trick-or-treating in the snow multiple times. I remember winters when the snow was piled higher than my head and winters in which the kids didn’t get to play in the snow once. But I can’t remember a winter in which we hadn’t had more than a few sparse flurries this far into winter. While I’ve enjoyed the warmer temps and lack of snow-related mess, there are aspects of snow that I miss.
The novella is the perfect format for this busy time of year! Fit in a quick read between Christmas preparations or while relaxing in the glow of the Christmas tree. I’ve selected five of my favorites followed by a few other recommendations for Christmas short stories (which can easily be read in one sitting) and novels as well as a few items on my Christmas reading pile!
And as a bonus, a Christmas snippet from my novel Rightfully Ours, which I hope to be sharing some exciting news about soon!
As companion to my favorite contemporary Catholic fiction-writers that I posted in August, here are my favorite contemporary Christian romance authors (with a few bonus honorable mentions at the end.) The prominence of Christian themes vary from author to author and story to story, but all are perfectly blended with the story and none are pushy or proselytizing, which frankly, no one wants to read.
Authors are listed in no particular order.
We strode up and down aisles of cows and goats. We marveled at the hours-old piglets. And my three youngest lapped up the soft, furry cuddles at the kids’ petting zoo, where they held kittens, rabbits, and guinea pigs for the first time in their lives.
(As a side note, am I the only (formerly) nursing mama whose heart pangs with empathy when I see a sow conked out while a dozen babies clamor for her teats? Or whose chest aches when I notice a cow’s udder dripping milk? I wanted to scream for someone to relieve the poor bovine posthaste.)
Newborn piglets
Regina Doman
Regina Doman is known for her series of fairy tale novels, which I found at my local library when I was thirsting for contemporary fiction by Catholic authors. My favorite in the series is Waking Rose, a retelling of Sleeping Beauty. You can check out her other books and those she publishes at Chesterton Press.
Despite the fact that I love the outdoors, no one would mistake me for a tree hugger. While I’ve become more and more “crunchy” over the years, I’ve never embraced the moniker “environmentalist,” for a variety of reasons. I was, however, such an ant-litter Nazi, that when a Pennsylvania hotline existed to report littering, I made several calls detailing make, model, and license number of cars from which trash was thrown. But, I digress. In honor of the fact I’m finally reading Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato Si, I’ve compiled a list of my favorite trees.
Trees
by Joyce Kilmer
I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast;A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;A tree that may in summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.
The closest Trader Joe’s is more than sixty miles from our home, so I have only visited the store a handful of times. (I’m so desperate for a local store that I started this.) BUT, for several weeks out of the year, my husband works nearby one of the Pennsylvania locations, and he stocks ups. I mean, STOCKS UP. With my limited ability to peruse the available products, these five stand out as among my favorites. By necessity, they are items that travel well.
Stocking Up
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