Book Reviews – Page 39

How I Became a Rose Nerd

I was in Safeway, watching hapless men buy long-stemmed red roses for Valentines Day and silently cried “oh you poor guys, those aren’t real roses!”. But 20 years ago, that too was all I knew of roses. Then my mother gave me this little book and it changed everything. Therefore, the subtitle for this post is: It was all my mother’s fault.

Once upon a time—before the 1860s—people loved old roses like “Baronne Prevost” “Marchionesse of Lorne,” or “Autumn Damask.” These were roses from the garden, richly scented and overflowing with petals. The trouble was once cut and arranged, the beautiful blossoms only lasted a few days — oh but those few days were a visual and perfumed delight. The artists of the time captured such lush rose arrangements even including their fallen petals.

Then some enterprising nursery folks developed the hybrid tea roses (as in those long stemmed red roses at Safeway). These were easier to arrange (fewer thorns), more dramatic (brighter colors), and longer lasting (an arrangement of store-bought tea roses can last up to two weeks). But the saddest part of these new roses, was they had no scent…highly scented roses tended to be more delicate and less sturdy. So they bred the scent right out of these florist favorites. As so the old roses were all but forgotten.

But as In Search of Lost Roses tell us, these gently-hued, richly perfumed old roses made a comeback, thanks to the efforts of a crew of eccentric characters who rescued them from back alleys, ramshackle cottages, and overgrown graveyards across the country. Mr. Christopher recounts the fascinating stories of the old roses—how they were created and named—and the unforgettable people who saved them. We go from Texas to California to the American South to visit the interesting people who love and search for lost roses. It’s pure adventure as we join a group of “rose rustlers” as they sneak into secreted walled gardens, tramp through abandoned lots, climb over fences and visit forgotten cemeteries all in an effort to take and propagate cuttings from these old roses.

We meet the famous British old rose experts (Graham Thomas and David Austin*) and learn of how American pioneer wives brought rose cuttings from their far-away homes, lovingly keeping them damp during the journey. Even the rose nomenclature is full of politics, lost loves and secrets. Mr. Christopher’s discussion of rose genetics and propagation was fascinating – well at least to this rose geek. “Heritage’ or ‘heirloom’ roses are defined as those bred before 1867. No two old roses are alike – they come in all shapes – flattened, quartered petal formation, cupped or “overblown as a crinoline petticoat”. I devoured this book, taking notes, and reading bits aloud to my husband who just stared at me quizzically.

Turns out a major hub of old rose fanatics is here out west, where old roses came out with the Gold Rush and were planted around the miners shack doorways, in parks and at loved ones gravesides. When I closed the book I had a list and my mission was clear must — have — these —roses.

My first trip was to the Celebration of Old Roses just across the Bay.

I stopped short, here was a huge room filled with old roses of every color, size, type — and readers — the scent was intoxicating – my idea of heaven on earth. Every rose was identified and categorized — China, Moss, Portland — (I could go on but I’ll save you the yawns). I took notes, talked to growers, got advice for my garden (ocean facing, high winds -not great for most roses but with these hardy old roses, I had a chance), and bought my first old rose bush Monsieur Tiller. I met the celebrities of the old rose world – Miriam Wilkins and the infamous Barbara Worl invited me to visit her garden in Palo Alto during the coming month. I came home happy, exhausted and full of plans. My poor husband quietly mentioned, “but I thought we have a drought resistant garden, roses need a lot of water you know”…I turned a deaf ear and secretly vowed to take shorter showers.

My next trip, suggested by Mr. Christopher’s book was here.

The Sacramento Historic City Center Cemetery. Leaving home at the crack of dawn (not my finest hour), I joined a rose tour of the cemetery during which we were allowed to take a few cuttings. Then a workshop on starting roses from these cuttings -their technique uses zip-lock bags with soil, proper number of days closed and open, then you monitor the root growth …wow sorry — I started to geek-out there.

Soon I was happily starting roses from cuttings “obtained” on our trips. Click on photos to make larger

A climbing rose from an ocean front lodge in Mendocino

A ‘found rose’ from a roadside in Croatia.

I have many David Austin Roses – here’s one of my favorites – James Galway

And like all rose ~~nerds~~ enthusiasts, I mess around for hours arranging my cut roses and then walking by just to smell and admire them.

And so the tale is told, this is the little book that started it all 20 years ago. Both the back and front gardens boast old garden roses and the deck has potted roses struck from cuttings I’ve rustled.

My name is Book Barmy and I’m a rose nerd.

But all geekiness aside, I dare you to read In Search of Lost Roses and not come away wanting at least one old rose for your garden.

Warning, I have another rose book to share with you at a later date — now that will keep you coming back.

* David Austin has developed a modern collection of old garden roses which are disease resistant, repeat blooming and have divine scents. I have many of his lovely roses. For some idea of their beauty click HERE

Neither Here Nor There by Bill Bryson

I was in need of a book that would give me an escape and make me laugh. That’s when I’m grateful for Bill Bryson.
Neither Here nor There is a book I keep to re-read in just such circumstances and when I opened it again the other day — it did the trick — I immediately started to giggle.

From the back cover:

Like many of his generation, Bill Bryson backpacked across Europe in the early seventies — in search of enlightenment, beer, and women. Twenty years later he decided to retrace the journey he undertook in the halcyon days of his youth. The result is Neither Here Nor There, an affectionate and riotously funny pilgrimage from the frozen wastes of Scandinavia to the chaotic tumult of Istanbul, with stops along the way in Europe’s most diverting and historic locales.

Mr. Bryson starts his mid-life crisis journey in Hammerfest, Norway (as far north as you can get in the world by public means of transport, he says) and re-traces his 1970 trip through Europe encountering language barriers, seedy train station hotels and delightful characters along the way.

I could quote this book for pages but will restrain myself to my favorites, get your hands on a copy and find your own:

The best than can be said for Norwegian television is that it gives you the sensation of a coma without the worry and inconvenience.

Romans park their cars the way I would park if I had just spilled a beaker of hydrochloric acid on my lap.

In the evening, I went looking for a restaurant. This is often a problem in Germany. For one thing, there’s a good chance that there will be three guys in lederhosen playing polka music, so you have to look carefully through the windows and question the proprietor closely to make sure that Willi and the Bavarian Boys won’t suddenly bound onto a little stage a half-past eight. It should have been written into the armistice treaty that the Germans would be required to lay down their accordions along with their arms.

The problem is that the pedestrian cross lights (in Paris) have been designed with the clear purpose of leaving the foreign visitor confused, humiliated, and, if all goes according to plan, dead.

She gave me one of those impassive Gallic (as in French) shrugs – the kind where the chin is dropped to belt level and the ears are pushed to the top of the head with the shoulders. It translates roughly as ‘Life is a bucket of shit, monsieur, I quite agree, and while I am prepared to acknowledge this fact I shall offer you no sympathy because monsieur, this is your bucket of shit’.

As you may have now surmised, Mr. Bryson is not afraid to be politically incorrect (he calls France’s population ‘Insufferably French) but he is also a devoted traveler and relishes the wonder and beauty of other cultures and lands.

One of the small marvels of my first trip to Europe was the discovery that the world could be so full of variety, that there were so many different ways of doing essentially identical things, like eating and drinking and buying movie tickets.

I arose each morning just after dawn, during that perfect hour when the air still has a fresh, unused feel to it, and watch the city (Rome) come awake — whistling shopkeepers sweeping up, pulling down awnings, pushing up shutters.

The Thomas Cook European Timetable is possibly the finest book ever produced. It is impossible to leaf through its five hundred pages of densely printed timetables without wanting to dump a double armload of clothes into an old Gladstone and just take off. Every page whispers romance: Montreux-Zweisimmen-Spiez-Interlacken or perhaps Beograd-Trieste-Venezia-Verona-Milano. Who could recite these names without experiencing a tug of excitement? Who could glance at such an itinerary and not want to climb aboard? (Sadly, this guide is no longer published or even on-line – they went out of business in 2013.)

This re-read made my travelers feet itchy. Mr. Byrson travels with open eyes, a sense of adventure, child-like wonder and a marvelous sense of humor. A required skill set for every traveler.

N.B. Neither Here nor There is also educational, you’ll learn important facts about each country. For example, did you know that Liechtenstein is the world’s largest producer of sausage skins and dentures?

N.B.2 Stay tuned, we’re planning a trip to Switzerland …hmm perhaps this itinerary — Montreux-Zweisimmen-Spiez-Interlacken

My Salinger Year Joanna Rakoff

Lets be clear, this is not a memoir specifically about J. D. Salinger, nor another sordid tale of having had an affair with him (thank goodness)–this is a memoir of a young woman working at his literary agency in the mid 1990’s.

Alright I can hear your yawns from here, but I’m always interested in the inner workings of the publishing industry and so I decided to read this memoir by Joanna Rakoff.

It’s the mid 1990’s and Joanna is 23 years old, and much like in The Devil Wears Prada, she really has no experience or interest in publishing but is thrilled to land an “assistant” position at a literary agency – referred to as “The Agency”. This is one of those classy but underpaid positions that presumably one can brag about at dinner parties. Ms. Rakoff has never read anything by Salinger and she thinks when agency staff refer to “Jerry”, their star client, they mean Jerry Seinfield. In fact “Jerry” is their code name for J. D. (Jerome David) Salinger, the notoriously reclusive author.

This is an old-school literary agency. Here is a world of richly carpeted offices, no overhead florescent lighting — just shaded lamps, messengers, martini lunches and book-shelved lined hallways. Computers are only whispered about by the staff.

Joanna is given strict orders to never give out any information on Salinger and the agency must protect his privacy at all costs. Joanna’s main job is to answer Salinger’s many fan letters with a simple but curt form letter:

“Dear ___________
Many thanks for your recent letter to J.D. Salinger. As you may know, Mr. Salinger does not wish to receive mail from his readers. Thus, we cannot pass your kind note on to him. We thank you for you interest in Mr. Salinger’s books.

Best, The Agency”

Her boss insists that Joanna type these letters out individually on a Selectric typewriter (using carbon paper) in order to give the fans a sense that an actual agency person has written back to them. Joanna must also answer her boss’s phone and if “Jerry”calls she is to keep it short and take a detailed message.

Joanna’s personal life is a mess, she lives with a ghastly boyfriend in a run-down apartment with no heat or a kitchen sink (?). She has, for no explanation, left the guy she really loves and he fled to California. Her parents have presented her with all her college bills unexpectedly unpaid and used her credit cards to rack up debt that Joanna must some how pay down. She’s broke financially and in her heart, so the agency is her only solace as Joanna is a lover of books, an avid reader and an aspiring poet.

There’s this lovely quote

On authors: The strange wonder of powerful writing, engaged in like some act of reflective devotion, and then, sent out, as on the wind, to find some home with unknown readers who in turn receive this revelation and transformation. Literature not as `escape’, literature as engagement.

It’s fun when Joanna steers away from the standard form letter and tries writing personal letters to the Salinger fans – with disastrous results. She hopes to become an agent and dips into the agency slush pile, finds an unknown author and tries to get her published. Also in the end, Joanna actually meets Salinger when he make a rare appearance at the agency offices.

That, my friends is about all that was interesting about this memoir. I’ve just saved you the chore of reading it yourselves. I did find some interesting parts about the inner workings of a literary agency – especially the care and feeding of Salinger himself. The grand event of finally getting one office computer for everyone to share was amusing and there’s some sly literary name dropping. This memoir covers a entire year of Ms. Rakoff’s life and it felt equally long to make it through this slow and overly-detailed story. One of the professional reviewers mentioned that this memoir started out as a much shorter magazine story and perhaps it should have stayed in that form.

Advanced review copy provided by Alfred A. Knopf

Small Blessings by Martha Woodroof

Small Blessings follows the intertwined lives of academics and their family members in a small Southern college town.

The above synopsis almost made me pass on this novel – sounded slightly mundane and I’m not a fan of academia novels.

Then, one Saturday morning, I heard Ms. Woodroof interviewed on NPR (she is a staff writer for NPR) and I warmed to her voice, attitude and that she’s a debut novelist at 67 years of age. (Approaching said decade myself, I seek any and all such bright, uplifting statistics, if you please)

I remembered I had Small Blessings on my Kindle and turned the first pages that evening — still convinced it would be a predictable read.

Yes, at first this is your average story: In a small, sleepy college town Tom Putnam, an English professor with a mentally troubled wife, is flatly going about his life when suddenly there is Rose, a lovely new employee of the campus bookstore. Tom and his wife are charmed by Rose and make plans for dinner.

Still thinking oh yes, a Lifetime movie plot is about to unwind, I carried on and wham! The story suddenly twists and turns. The characters become wholly unpredictable…and I found myself turning the pages and falling headlong into Ms. Woodroof’s atmospheric story.

Without giving away too much, Tom’s poor wife dies in an auto accident during the first few chapters, his mother-in-law, Agnes (my favorite character) becomes his ally. Tom falls a little bit more in love with Rose each day. At the same time, a past affair brings him Henry, a 10-year old boy, who may (or may not) be his son. Stir all this up with oddball (often drunk) supporting characters, a Southern town that knows everyone’s secrets, some melodrama and you’re in for a journey.

The campus atmosphere is beautifully rendered in an insulated Southern setting, but Ms. Woodroof also slyly lampoons the institution’s pretenses. The front lawns of the faculty housing are beautifully maintained for showing off to prospective students and parents, while the back yards grow weedy dependent on the faculty to tend – which they don’t.

I had my quibbles with Small Blessings. I found Tom Putnam to be almost catatonic in his passiveness, perhaps as an academic, he lives in his head – but at times I found it very irritating – especially in his marriage to Marjory: “Conscience was such a delicate balancing act. There was what he knew was right, what he ought to think was right, and what he wanted to do, all to be considered. It was the ultimate moral chess match, and it was the only game that mismatched married people got to play.”

The mental illness and death of Tom’s wife, Marjory are treated with a light, almost cavalier hand – as in this from Agnes, her mother: “Marjory is, I really do think, better off dead. I don’t know what dead is, of course, but it’s got to be more fun than my daughter’s life was.” and this later quote “the best thing she ever did in life was to give up on it. And that’s a bleak as a life can get.”

In the end, I found this an unpredictably candid and real storyline. Small Blessings teeters on the edge of soap-opera stereotype, but then surprises the reader with realism. The characters are flawed but ultimately loved. This is a story full of tragic events but it overflows with optimism. One of my favorite quotes: “When the going gets tough, the tough suck it up,” Agnes said. “The rest get run over.”

The outline of this novel screams “make me a TV movie!”, but if it is optioned, I hope they capture the story’s quirks and messiness.

Review copy provided by St. Martin’s Press via NetGalley.

I Like Big Books — I Can Not Lie

I love me a big ole historical novel, especially if it’s steeped in a mystery, set in an old house with an abandoned garden and filled with colorful and compelling characters. Kate Morton has written four such big, addictive books, of which I’ve only read two…but don’t worry her other two are not far behind on my list. I read the first book several years ago and just finished the second.

The House at Riverton, by Kate Morton

98 year old Grace tells her story to a young film maker documenting an unexplained death at Riverton House where Grace served as a maid 80 years before. Told in alternating narratives between past and present, I was in this book’s clutches after just a few pages.

Grace serves as maid to Hannah and Emmeline, two distinctly different sisters who are creepily close to one another. Grace is drawn into the the spoiled sisters web of deceit and secret games. And in 1924 Riverton and its inhabitants are shattered with a shocking suicide on the grounds. All the characters are vibrant and amply developed — there are dysfunctional aristocratic family members with a range of servants, each with their own foibles. And then there’s the glorious manor house of Riverton– a character in itself.

Often flashback narrative can be clunky. This is flashback done brilliantly. Deaths, affairs, missteps are reminisced by Grace telling her story, then the book seamlessly transports the reader back in time to Riverton and you’re there and it’s happening now.

Ms. Morton excels at period research and her attention to detail is superb. Other reviewers remarked that her historical detail bogged down the book, but I wholly disagree. I found the description of the table settings, the details of dressing for dinner, the lavish picnics all added to the richness of the story.

This is a long, sweeping story of class structure and struggle, betrayals, secrets and the devastation of WWI. I was glued throughout its wonderful twists and turns until the gasp-worthy ending. A big enchanting book to fill many a long winter evening.

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The Forgotten Garden, by Kate Morton

This is a classic fairy tale story: a little girl is abandoned on a ship bound for Australia. She hits her head while on the ship and looses her memory. All she has with her is a suitcase with a few clothes and a book of dark fairy tales written by a woman she remembers as the Authoress . Once in Australia, a dock worker and his wife take her in, name her Nell and raise her. Once the girl comes of age, she is told of her rightful identity and she returns to England to discover her people and her story.

Her travels lead her to Blackhurst Manor and she starts to unravel the Mountrachet family’s secrets. She purchases a run down cottage and garden on their property makes it liveable, and carves out a life for herself. While Nell is still trying to solve the mystery of her past, her distraught daughter shows up, dumping her granddaughter Cassandra on her doorstep–permanently. Two generations later, the granddaughter Cassandra inherits the cottage and tries to discover her secrets. Sounds trite — Yes and No.

Ms. Morton takes a fairly well-worn story and weaves it into a rich and compelling story which spans generations, and multiple plots wherein secrets are kept and betrayals are just below the surface. While the English cottage and forgotten garden setting are idyllic (there’s even a maze and a Dickensian-like shop in the village) life is more difficult here and this is a darker story complete with poverty, sickness and workhouses.

At first, I was less enthralled with The Forgotten Garden and found it more difficult to keep the three perspectives and three time periods straight…I kept having to go back a few chapters to figure out where I was. Also Ms. Morton uses very similar names – Blackhurst Estate, Mrs. Blackwell and Mr. Blackwater (whoa I’m confused…). Luckily, by the time I’d read 5 or 6 chapters, things flowed more clearly and I was once again hooked to the end by this marvelous author and her writing.

In an interview, Ms. Morton admitted to a fondness of 19th century Gothic novels and her novels are indeed reminiscent of Daphne du Maurier, or even perhaps even Upstairs Downstairs and Downton Abbey.

Her next two books – The Distant Hours and The Secret Keeper happily await me on my shelf. Call me fool and shut the door because obviously I’m a fan.

The Big Tiny by Dee Williams

Square Feet: 84. Possessions: 305.*

(*This headline is from the NY Times review – I had to swipe it.)

January is my time for sorting through clothes and books, cleaning out the freezer and diving into those mystery boxes under the stairs. By necessity, we are already fairly simplified given our 1,100 sq. ft row house — but after reading this inspirational memoir — we got nothing on Dee Williams.

Ms. Williams decided to build an eighty-four-square-foot house on wheels, by herself — as a way to start building a simpler more meaningful life.

This authentic memoir tells of her challenges both building-wise and health-wise. She is not an experienced builder, but knows her way around tools, so she ventures ahead after meeting and studying others in the “tiny house” movement. It’s not enough that she is dealing with a newly diagnosed heart condition and is often disabled and hospitalized, she also experiences grimace-worthy mishaps. She glues her hair into the siding, almost shears off her ear when some plywood catches on an earring, tries to secure the roof (in flip flops!) and falls from her sleeping loft when the ladder shifts out from under her.

But beyond the Three-Stooges-like mishaps, this is a book to inspire. How can you not be impressed (and perhaps even envious) of someone who can list everything she owns on one sheet of paper (the handwritten list is reproduced in the book). Also enviable, Ms. Williams can clean her entire house in ten minutes and her monthly bills run approximately eight dollars. Granted, she is living in a friend’s back yard and using this friends water, laundry and shower. But Ms. Williams has her own kitchen (one burner), her own toilet (compostable) and a sleeping loft with a view of the stars – risky ladder notwithstanding.

I was fascinated at Ms. Williams perseverance in the face of many hurdles — obstructive city codes, a newly prescribed oxygen contraption that meant snaking a breathing tube from a outside generator into her house, and an aging dog that she carries up and down the sleeping loft ladder. But she remains positive and loving throughout.

Happily, the author is also quirky and likeable, she still lusts after things she doesn’t need at Target (I have the same problem, I blame the hypnotic bulls-eye logo), she delights in fun underwear and prefers flip flops to shoes. There is also a quiet soulfulness throughout, the reader is aware that Ms. Williams has a degenerative disease. She writes with a quiet grace about her newly acquired time to savor every moment — as in this quote.

I stumbled into a new sort of ‘happiness’, one that didn’t hinge on always getting what I want but rather, on wanting what I have. It’s the kind of happiness that isn’t tied so tightly to being comfortable (or having money and property), but instead is linked to a deeper sense of satisfaction – to a sense of humility and gratitude, and a better understanding of who I am in my heart. I found a certain bigness in my little house – a sense of largeness, freedom, and happiness that comes when you see there’s no place else you’d rather be.

This book could have used some strong editing, it does ramble off the tracks, but it should provoke all of us to think on the question “how much is enough?”. Given America’s self storage business is a $25-billion a year industry, Ms. Williams experiences are an inspiration. This book is not so much of a “how-to” guide but a “why to” memoir. While not everyone (not me – see below) is suited to such an extremely tiny house, this book will make you contemplate the “too much stuff” syndrome — why not simplify, declutter and live smaller?

N.B. Living in such a small space alone may be one thing, but can you image two people in 84 square feet? I’m definitely not a candidate. No way I’m making the middle of the night climbs up and down a sleeping loft ladder, I’d be lost without my book collection, I’d sorely miss my tea pots and at the very least — my husband and I already experience too much “togetherness” now we’re both retired — so count me out …. but I must go now and clean out a closet or two.

Advanced reading copy provided by Penguin Group via NetGalley.

By the Book edited by Pamela Paul

By the Book: Writers on Literature and the Literary Life from the New York Times Book Review

My friend Reiko saves me her Sunday NY Times Book Review section and gives me a big stack of them whenever we get together. We laugh because we can judge how long it’s been since we’ve seen each other by the size of the accumulation.

One of my favorite sections of the NY Times Book Review is called “By the Book”, wherein a writer is interviewed about their reading. Each week we get a view into writers favorite books & writers, reading habits, their personal book collection, early childhood reads, etc.

The top interviews are gathered in this one book and while there’s nothing new here, I found it engrossing to read through them. At almost 300 pages and 65 writers interviewed it’s no quick read. I’ve been slowly savoring this book, making my way through this fascinating collection, underlining and making long lists of newly recommended books to read (like I really need more lists of books to read).

Included in the collection are interviews with the expected writers such as Anna Quindlen and John Irving, but also included are Sting and Arnold Schwarzenegger? (The question mark is mine.) But don’t let that dissuade you, this is a fascinating look at writers and their life with books. And, hey guess what? — the Arnold interview reveals he is surprisingly insightful.

When more than three of the authors listed the Patrick Melrose novels by Edward St. Aubyn as their favorites, I had to add them to my list. It was also comforting to see that several writers also found the classics tough going – Dickens, Tolstoy etc.

You’ll discover the vulnerabilities of some writers — who knew Hilary Mantel actively reads self help books or Anne Lamott secretly likes People and US Weekly?

Many writers are delightfully unpretentious in their reading choices. Jhumpa Lahiri states: I am drawn to any story that makes me want to read from one sentence to the next. I have no other criterion. And Scott Turow, The only unfailing criterion is that I can hitch my heart to the imagined world and read on. My favorite quote is from Isabel Allende. A good novel or short story is like making love between clean ironed sheets: total pleasure.

Hilary Mantel wishes for a magic tablecloth to appear with dinner all prepared so she can have more time to read. Sting has kept every book he’s ever read and doesn’t lend books. Scott Turow admits to “reading at” a book, putting it down and then months later picking it up and diving in with enormous enthusiasm.

Jeanette Walls lists her favorite memoirs, which is like getting a food critics top restaurants.

And there’s lots of chuckles: under “The last book that made you cry” – Jeffery Eugenides answers The South Beach Diet.

Then there’s this: James Patterson talks about his first Alex Cross book, “Along Came a Spider.” He said a movie studio would have optioned the book early on in his career, when he could have really used the money –all he had to do was make Alex Cross a white man.

I don’t recommend reading this book all at once. Like the original interviews, it’s best to savor one or two at a time.

Also this book should come with a warning: Reading this book will increase your to-be-read wish list exponentially and may cause unbridled book purchases.

Advanced Readers Copy provided by Henry Holt & Co.

A Tale of Two Covers

Two Days Until Christmas

Christmas Stories – Everyman’s Pocket Classics

I picked this up years ago at the library book sale – attracted by the pretty cover and because I’m fond of the Everyman’s editions, so handsomely done and always with sewn-in ribbon bookmarks (I’m such a sucker for those). These small volumes always have this quote on their frontpiece:

Everyman, I will go with thee and be thy guide, in thy most need to go by thy side.

They really “get” bibliophiles and our most needs to always have a book by our side.

Christmas Stories is a treasury of short fiction by great writers of the past two centuries—including Dickens and Tolstoy to John Updike and Alice Munro. As a literary subject, Christmas has inspired everything from intimate domestic dramas to fanciful flights of the imagination, and the full range of its expression is represented in this wonderfully engaging anthology.

Admittedly, until this year I had only read a the first few stories – all Christmas classics, O’Henry, Dickens and Willa Cather’s delightful The Burglar’s Christmas (I never miss a chance to re-read that one) but last night I delved into the back of this collection and read two short stories that left me really quite depressed. One by Richard Ford about a dispirited dysfunctional family on a ski vacation and then Alice Munro uses two workers to deliver a character study as they dismember turkeys at a slaughterhouse Ugh. I had to make a cup of sleepytime tea just to get the bad taste out of my mouth.

So, I’m putting this charming looking book on trial, and will read a few more to determine its fate as a coveted member of my Christmas Books Collection.

A Literary Christmas – An Anthology from The British Library

From the fly leaf: A Literary Christmas is a seasonal compendium that collects poems, short stories, and prose by some of the greatest poets and writers in the English language. Like Charles Dickens’s Ghosts of Christmas Past and Present, the selections featured here are representative of times old and new. Readers will enjoy a convivial Christmas Day with Samuel Pepys, Anthony Trollope, George Eliot, and Nancy Mitford; venture out into the snow in the company of Jane Austen, Henry James, and Charles Dickens’s ever-popular Mr. Pickwick; and warm up by the fire with the seasonal tales of Dylan Thomas, Kenneth Grahame, and Oscar Wilde.

This awful cover is proof that I shouldn’t be lured by a pretty one (see above) — this is a joyful collection of stories, poems, carols, essays and illustrations. The editors cleverly organized the book in such categories as “Before Christmas”, “Snow and Ice” and “Christmas Fare”.

Look, here’s Samuel Pepys Christmas Day diary entry from 1662 and a treatise on a doctor-prescribed diet just before Christmas by P.G. Wodehouse. An except from Cider with Rosie (an English coming of age classic) and Washington Irving’s description of a grand Christmas dinner. Something for everyone in this lovely book.

Here’s a sample of some of the illustrations within (click to enlarge):

So the sage advice of don’t judge a book by its cover stands true.

BUSTED Uh Oh –both volumes include Trollope Christmas stories –despite my claims from this post. However, we shall speak no further on this subject.

A (very special) Christmas Crime Story

Three Days Until Christmas

Mystery in White by J. Jefferson Farjeon

Get yourself a cup of tea, this is a long story. Back in my college days, I spent several consecutive semesters living and working in the highlands of Scotland (that’s a whole other story). At a local church rummage sale, I came across a beat up old paperback — I think it cost me 10P. This snowy Christmas-time mystery got me through several icy evenings in my digs on the top floor of a frigid stone landowner’s manor, which lacked any sort of central heating. I cuddled under my eiderdown with a hot water bottle (and yes it was a real eiderdown) and read several evenings away. I was due to go home soon, homesick and looking forward to celebrating the holidays with my loved ones.

I lugged that poor paperback back to the states, and would re-read it with my other Christmas books until it had to be rubber banded together to prevent the pages from falling out. During one of my moves, the rubber band broke, random pages went missing and I lost the back cover. Then several years ago in a fit of “this is ridiculous” I tossed it in the recycling bin – the poor thing wasn’t even fit for my donation box. I sometimes remembered this 1930’s classic crime story that kept me mesmerized when I could barely feel my fingers while reading.

So what to my wondering eye should appear but the new British Library Crime Classics reprint series and there it was – my book! Mystery in White – A Christmas Crime Story – all gussied up and sporting a fabulous new cover. I was on Amazon and hitting checkout before I could even take a breath. Originally published in 1937, Mystery in White apparently went out of print and is now republished as part of this new series. (Check out the series for the retro covers alone.) The author is not as well known as many others of the Golden Age yet he was popular in his day. From the book cover:

On Christmas Eve, heavy snowfall brings a train to a halt near the village of Hemmersby. Several of the passengers take shelter in a deserted country house, where the fire has been lit and the table laid for tea – but no one is at home.
Trapped together for Christmas, the passengers are seeking to unravel the secrets of the empty house when a murderer strikes in their midst.

I’m only halfway through my new edition, I keep stopping to marvel at its new incarnation, but I remember this is a surprisingly unusual crime story. While the language is typical of the 1930’s Golden Age and despite its classic situation (strangers-stranded-in-a-blizzard) Mr. Farjeon gives us mysticism, unexpected plot twists, a hapless police inspector who arrives too late to solve the crimes, a dose of romance and chuckle-worthy Noel Coward humor. Some of the situations strain credibility – how do they see the stranded car at night without flashlights? and why does no one seem wet or cold after thrashing about outside in the blizzard? But you’ll soon forget those little reality fails because this is a clever mystery with a snowy Christmas setting that’s sure to keep you warm and happy.

I found an image of the original hardback edition. My paperback had the same cover.

Not a book – but Love Actually

Four Days Until Christmas

For my countdown to Christmas I’m going to add my favorite holiday film. OK you precise people, I admit it’s not a book, but every year, I bring out my cherished DVD to watch it yet again. (My husband just groans, rolls his eyes and goes to the den.)

In case you’ve been living in Kazakhstan, and are unaware of this film, let me explain. Love Actually follows the lives of eight very different couples all immersed with love in various forms. These loosely interrelated tales are set during a frantic month before Christmas in London.

Love Actually has a superb cast, including Bill Nighy as an aging rock star, Emma Thompson as a heartbroken wife, Hugh Grant is the Prime Minister (I know!), Laura Linney, a lonely woman with a secret crush, and Liam Neeson as a sad widower raising his young step-son (oh Liam, I could so cheer you up) .

The romantic entanglements range from comic — to charming — to heartbreaking; a couple fall in love while working in the porn film industry as stand-ins, another couple are unable to communicate given language barriers, and a married couple face an extramarital enticement. And with Hugh Grant as Prime Minister there’s plenty of giggles. Oh, and as a an added bonus, the soundtrack is delightful.

Try and see the film in its original uncut for TV form (cable or Netflix) but if not, Love Actually will undoubtedly come around as a holiday TV movie, so don’t miss it. I dare you not to choke up during the final montage of airport scenes set to the Beach Boys music.

Trailer HERE

What is your favorite holiday film?