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Thursday, January 19, 2023

Book Round-Up: Belated Christmas Edition

 A Surprise for Christmas and other Seasonal Mysteries, ed. by Martin Edwards: Another collection of Golden Age mysteries put out by the British Library. I don't know why Christmas and cozy mysteries go together, but they do.

The Great Christmas Knit-Off by Alexandra Brown: It's your standard city-girl-whose-life-is-falling-apart-relocates-to-quirky-village tale. Done well, they can be fun and comforting, but this one was too slapstick for my tastes. Why do so many books (and movies) like this revel in humiliating the protagonist repeatedly, before she finally gets the man, new job, and new home? It did inspire me to crochet (not knit) a Christmas pudding, though:

 My True Love Gave to Me: Twelve Holiday Stories, ed. by Stephanie Perkins: Some of these YA short stories were great (like Kelly Link's, one of my favorite authors, and Rainbow Rowell's). Some were ... not. For a genre that has a reputation for being inclusive and progressive, there were a whole lot of stereotypes.

Christmas with L.M. Montgomery and Christmas with Louisa May Alcott: These were adorable chapbooks collecting 2-3 short stories by the authors in question. I preferred the Montgomery stories, because they seemed intended for adults. Next year I want to pick up the others in the series -- Dickens, O'Henry, and Hans Christian Anderson.

I finished all of these before the end of the Christmas season, I swear.

1 comment:

  1. Great recommendations there! Someone has done a very thorough review of the 12 Holiday Stories, it would be interesting to see if you agree!
    https://www.waterstones.com/books/reviews/isbn/9781447272816#review-94467

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