Evergreen Tidings from the Baumgartners by Gretchen Anthony: This comic novel deals with the fall-out from a disastrous holiday party, interspersed with the matriarch's annual holiday letters. The wacky hijinks were a bit much for me, but the characters were absolutely endearing, and the reveal about the holiday letters was quite touching.
Unstable Felicity by Cat Hodge: King Lear by way of Hallmark. Really. Jill, a successful accountant in Los Angeles, returns to her small town to save the family inn from the handsome developer intent on buying it. But this novella includes all the questionable decisions and messy emotions TV movies leave out, making it much more satisfying.
A Literary Christmas by the British Library: an anthology of poems, essays, and excerpts from stories, all with a Christmas theme. The book is organized into different sections such as Christmas Eve and the Nativity, making it easy to select according to one's mood. I didn't finish it all this year, but I look forward to reading more.
Sisters of the Winter Wood by Rena Rossner: a winter fairy tale that combines Christina Rossetti's "The Goblin Market," Jewish folklore, and the all-too-real history of pogroms in the Ukraine. I liked the story very much, but the protagonist's incessant worrying and low self-esteem became wearying. As did her refusal to actually talk to anyone who could help.
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