I had a hard time finding a Christmas book for the library book club to read in December. It seems to me as if all the newer holiday books written for adults are so saccarine and predictable that they’re not worth the effort. There’s A Christmas Carol, but we’ve all read that, and seen the movies over and over. I was going to select Finding Noel, by Richard Paul Evans, but after just a couple of pages, I knew it was too sweet for me. No way.
Two books I do like with a Christmas theme are Pete Hamill’s The Gift, which takes place in Brooklyn, NY at Christmas time in 1952, and Denis Hamill’s Empty Stockings, also set in Brooklyn, beginning at the Christmas following JFK’s death. These books are slightly sentimental, but in a good way, and I highly recommend either of them for your Christmas reading. (The library book group did Pete Hamill’s book last year.)
This year we opted for two short stories: A Christmas Memory by Truman Capote, and The Gift of the Magi by O.Henry. Does anyone have any recommendations? I’d love to hear them!
