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Book and Author Reviews

By Nancy Ryan

In keeping with the theme of this issue, here are a couple of suggestions to help you through the holidays.

Author Silver Rose presents her book The Holiday Survival Guide, Pave Your Way to The Best Season EVER! Having high expectations during the holidays is something we all share. Money for gifts, family relationships, who will be at your table, travel worries, on and on it goes. Rose asserts that expectations are premeditated resentments. That’s something to ponder. Trying to manage and control everything and everyone is insanity. Everyone does not cooperate! Her survival book gives techniques, tools and mindsets that are easy to implement and are proven to be effective by the many endorsements from her readers.

On another holiday survival note, certified sports nutrition specialist Katie Dunlop offers up The Holiday Survival Guide and Recipe Book. Her book contains over 30 healthy holiday recipes, on-the-go travel workouts and tips, and self-care essentials to help de-stress. There are do-it-yourself gift ideas, shopping checklists and budget trackers.

Book clubs in the area are picking their favorite Christmas books to read and celebrating the holidays, too. Naturally, A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens is at the top of the list!

A Christmas Memory by Truman Capote is another must-read at the holidays. It is a nostalgic look back at holidays past in the life of a young man from rural Alabama and his elderly friend. Each year they make 30 fruitcakes and share them with only the most deserving persons, including one they send to the White House, wondering if the President serves it. A sweet, nostalgic story.

Another Christmas classic is O Henry’s “The Gift of the Magi.” It is a short story published in 1905, but the message is timeless. If you don’t know the story, make sure you read this one. It is a message of sacrifice and love, and a loving ending.

Here are a few other suggestions for holiday reading. One Day in December by Josie Silver centers around a romance that could have been, but wasn’t. Wrong matches are made, friendships are put to the test, and the notion of true love is tested. It is being made into a Netflix presentation.

Winter Street by Elin Hilderbrand was her first foray into Christmas novels on Nantucket. This first one revolves around Kelley Quinn, owner of Winter Street Inn. He is the proud father of four children, Patrick, Kevin, Ava and Bart. The series then follows each of his children in their own book, Winter Solstice, Winter Stroll, Winter Storms, Winter in Paradise.

All I Want for Christmas by Maggie Knox is a light, romantic comedy about two competitors in a country music reality singing competition during the holiday season. As they are thrown together in a publicity stunt romance, their relationship ebbs and flows over time.

Author Liz Curtis Higgs is the author of The Women of Christmas, Experience the Season Afresh with Elizabeth, Mary, and Anna. God reached down from Heaven with the best gift of all! A sacred season is about to unfold for these three women of the Bible. The author’s goal is to help women embrace the Grace of God with joy and abandon.

What are you reading? Email me at nancyryan47@ gmail.com

See you at the library!