End of year reading…
I did read two of my Christmas books after all. But the bulk of the Christmas mysteries will have go back on the shelf for next year. Like everyone else, now I’m ready for a new year and new reading.
A Highland Christmas by M.C. Beaton
M.C. Beaton wrote my favorite Agatha Raisin cozy mystery series, but I’d never read any of this series featuring Hamish MacBeth. M.C. Beaton (aka Marion Gibbons) died in 2019 and is most famously know for these two mystery series. In this short novel, Hamish’s family has abandoned him for Floridian warmth, so he is left alone for Christmas.
At first it felt a bit un-Christmassy with no-one but Hamish having any Christmas spirit and I was about to put it to one side. But I persevered & was so glad I did, because it turns into a enjoyable feel-good Christmas tale.
There are no murders in this one — there is a lost cat, stolen Christmas lights and figuring out what made the grumpy old women into the witch everyone thinks she is — not to mention putting on a Christmas concert for the local old people’s home all while trying to sort out his love life.
A simple story with good characters, lovely settings, and holiday atmosphere.
Jane and the Twelve Days of Christmas by Stephanie Barron
I started this series when it first debuted back in 1996 (beginning with Jane and the Unpleasantness at Scargrave Manor). The series re-imagines Jane Austen as amateur detective. I read the first three and then decided I would rather read (and re-read) the actual Jane Austen novels.
This one being set at Christmas got saved for a rainy holiday season and we’ve had just that — so I dipped in.
The tale opens on Christmas Eve, 1814, as Jane Austen; her sister, Cassandra; and her mother are traveling to spend the Christmas season with her brother James and his family. James is now the rector of Steventon, where Jane grew up, so this is also a journey of return to her childhood home and neighborhood. As they gather to enjoy the twelve days of Christmas together, there is much to celebrate: Mansfield Park is selling nicely; Napoleon has been banished; British forces have seized Washington, DC; and on Christmas Eve, John Quincy Adams signs the Treaty of Ghent, which will end a war nobody in England really wanted.
It won’t spoil anything to tell you that Jane is involved in two somewhat convoluted murders and then searches down a spy who is attempting to aid Napoleon in his war against England. Also, fair warning, like Jane Austen’s books themselves, there are multiple characters, often with the same first names, and complicated familial relations. (I have a little book I found in a used bookstore called Who’s Who in Jane Austen and the Brontes which is invaluable when reading either Austen or Bronte, and now sadly out of print.)
The Austen’s and friends know how to celebrate the holiday season — there are lavish descriptions of food, festivities and dress. But also some bleak accounting of the cold, damp houses, as well as the varying impacts of societal class and wealth.
I had forgotten the delight in Ms. Barron’s writing which deftly captures the style and wit of Austen, as well Regency manners and a true ear for Austen’s dialect. The author painstakingly sifted through Austen’s letters and writings, as well as extensive biographical information, to create a finely detailed portrait of Austen’s life—with a dash of fictional murder.
Jane and the 12 Days of Christmas can be read as a standalone; but you do need to know that the gimmick of the series is a collection of Jane Austen’s personal journals have been discovered (imagined) which tell of her involvement in solving a number of murder mysteries.
As one reviewer said: this series imagines Jane Austen as she might have been in the world of death by murder and intrigue, as opposed to death by boredom.
A digital review copy was kindly provided by Soho Crime via NetGalley.
Now it’s time for a brand new year – please, oh yes please?
I don’t know about any of you, but I’m planning to go to bed early tonight I’m tired – really tired of 2020.
Holiday Advertising
Oh my gosh I almost forgot to give you my annual gift – the best Holiday Commercials I could find.
During this most unusual holiday, advertisers worldwide got the memo — not only is money tight for countless families, but 2020 has left exactly no one in a holly, jolly mood. So many of this year’s holiday ads convey the message that Christmas isn’t about extravagant presents or big get-togethers; it’s about the little moments shared with the ones you love.
Turn up your sound, expand to full screen and enjoy these ads – from me to you! Happy and Safe Holidays everyone.
This German ad for a pharmacy has gone viral, and for good reason: A grandfather’s weightlifting regimen isn’t just a vanity project, as the final moments of this ad reveals. (Translated from German, the tagline at the end reads, “So that you can take care of what really matters in life.”)
When a young ballerina’s performance is canceled due to COVID, her little sister ensures that with the help of neighbors the dancer can put on a (socially distanced) performance. Oh, and also with the help of some Amazon purchases, of course.
In this ad, the North Pole elves convince Santa — played by Steve Carell — to “rethink their whole approach” to Christmas this year (unsaid reason: the pandemic) to find inventive ways to spread the holiday spirit. From Santa team Zoom calls to the bottling of things such as grandpa’s old stories, the elves find a way. “This year has been harder than ever,” Santa tells them and, really, he’s telling us, “and yet, you all found a way to pull this off.”
In this animated commercial from Erste, a Central European financial services company, the elderly, and unhappy, Edgar seemingly prefers to spend time alone in his room, until a loving caretaker finds a way to bring his past into the present. What does it have to do with financial services? Nothing – in the Advertising business that’s called “borrowed interest”
In this over-the-top Coke ad, a father forgets to mail his daughter’s letter to Santa Claus, so he sets off on an epic journey to hand deliver the letter to the North Pole… only to realize that his daughter wants something only he can give.
Speaking of kids with heartwarming wish lists, the young girl in this ad just wants to see her friend and neighbor who has suddenly disappeared. But the woman comes back again on Christmas, hospital bracelet around her wrist, and smiles all around.
And now for something completely different: Capital One spokesperson Samuel L. Jackson reunites with Pulp Fiction costar John Travolta in this ad, with Travolta playing a Jolly St. Nick who puts Samuel on the naughty list for his naughty words.
The starry-eyed granddaughter in this sad, yet poignant animated short proves it’s never too late connect with loved ones — or to put old traditions in a new light.
The U.K.’s Waitrose supermarket chain (formerly John Lewis) is well known for pulling out the grand gestures for its Christmas ads. This year, though, it focuses on small moments — a chain of random acts of kindness that spreads holiday cheer. As always, the ad is beautifully produced, if slightly strange.
Christmas Night Reading
Turns out I wasn’t in the mood for Christmas murder mysteries after all. So I pulled two slim volumes off my shelf and read them last evening in my cheery reading Christmas nook.
Both books were discovered during a 2019 hot and humid summer trip to New England – when my mind was far away from Christmas.
I discovered the first book when I was accidentally left behind at our friend’s home in Maine. Everyone else had driven off in two cars to their nearby lake cottage and each car thought I was in the other one – I had just ducked into the powder room to change into a swim suit. I was not in the least dismayed. All alone, I happily browsed the bookshelves of a kindred spirit book lover. I discovered this little treasure – read it while in front of a fan — and made note of the title so I could get my very own copy – which I did this year.
Lanterns Across the Snow by Susan Hill
This is a gentle little book about an English country Christmas at the turn of the last century. Fanny reminiscences about Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and St. Stephen’s Day when she was nine years old.
A happy childhood is like a magic circle. Lit from within, it throws a beam forward into the present. Snow always fell on Christmas Eve, fat and soft as goose feathers, to lie like a quilt upon the ground all winter. That is what Fanny remembers, now that she is old, at another Christmas time.
This story brings back the magical of Christmas Eve and the expectation of luscious foods, that were not available every day of the year. The contrasts of cold and warmth, of hope and despair, of birth and death all wrapped up in a warm and nostalgic atmosphere. It even has some lovely woodcut illustrations.
It’s short but sweet, and would make great reading for Christmas Eve or a cold winter night by the fire.
Christmas at Eagle Pond by Donald Hall
When visiting New Hampshire, I always try to visit Toadstool Books and dip into one of their three independent bookstores, each of which are beautifully curated. This visit they had a special section dedicated to Donald Hall, the 14th US poet laureate who lived on a farm in New Hampshire. And, although it was July, I purchased this Christmas book to bring home to my collection.
In December of 1940, twelve-year-old Donnie Hall gets on a train from his comfortable Connecticut home to fulfill a dream: to spend Christmas with his grandparents on their farm on Eagle Pond in southern New Hampshire.
He tells of a Christmas in the country; family dinners, being snow-bound, horse-drawn buggies, wood-burning stoves, milking cows in a frigid barn before dawn, and making popcorn balls for the church Christmas party. A vivid portrait of a vanished New England
The illustrations by Mary Azarian are lovely and fit perfectly with the book’s tone.
I’m going to break my rule and give away this little book’s secret, which is revealed in Mr. Hall’s note at the book’s end — he never really got to spend Christmas at his grandparents’ farm when he was a boy. Instead, in his eighties, having inherited Eagle Pond Farm and done most of his greatest work as a poet there, he imagines what a Christmas at Eagle Pond would have been like for his twelve-year-old self. Based on the stories tole by his mother and his grandparents, he wanted to give himself “the thing I most wanted, a childhood Christmas at Eagle Pond.”
This is a beautifully spare and gorgeously written little Christmas tale.
Unlike my intended holiday mystery reads — these slim volumes are quite simple, don’t have a complicated plot, there’s no mystery, and no conflict. That made them my perfect Christmas night’s reading. And, what so many of us want this Christmas to be.
Christmas Reading
Despite what you may believe, Book Barmy Christmas reading is not cancelled ~~ just delayed…
Can’t really say why, no excuses just been busy with other holiday stuff. Had a sewing project and knitted gifts — all finished and on their way to their new owners.
Christmas reads were chosen ages ago, but they are gathering dust in the reading nook. The week between Christmas and New Years will be my cozy reading time. Here’s what I’m planning – as is appropriate for 2020 – I’ve chosen holiday murder mysteries – albeit with wonderful covers. They certainty look nice out on top of the bookshelf.
Never fear, Book Barmy will ride post again.
I’ll leave you with my favorite Christmas Eve tradition:
Merry Christmas everyone
Half Broken Things by Morag Joss
It seems only a minute ago it was Halloween, and now it’s almost Thanksgiving — but then again, early November was gruelingly slow — 2020 is playing strange time games.
I always try and read a good, creepy book over Halloween and this year, my shelves paid off. I found Half Broken Things which I got back in 2004 after I read that P. D. James (one of my favorite mystery writers) had recommended Ms. Joss’s writing.
Sixty-four-year old Jean is one of the unnoticed, a plain woman, in her final year as a house sitter. Raised in emotional poverty, Jean has muddled through the years, her mind often her only companion, a condition that allows her fictional flights of fancy in her current situation as house sitter of Walden Manor. Jean is faced with an insecure future, uncertain finances and the looming years without a real home or family:
“The old Jean simply detached herself, rose up and disappeared into the steam, like a person dissolving into fog.”
Writing a journal at the start of the novel, Jean puts the facts to paper, how she came to her current dilemma in this large and welcoming home, which she has inexplicably taken as her own while the owners are traveling. Resentful of the restrictions put upon her owners during their year abroad, Jean finds many doors locked and her access limited to a cheerless sitting room and the kitchen. She takes this as judgment of her untrustworthiness and a rude reminder of her standing as mere caretaker of other people’s things.
Nursing this subtle rebellion, while dusting and cleaning the house she accidentally breaks a teapot containing the keys to the formerly unavailable rooms and private drawers. Jean now liberated from her restrictions, slowly starts to explore the forbidden rooms, and inhabit the home. Including wearing the wife’s clothing, sleeping in the master bedroom, and taking long baths in the luxurious bathroom.
“People should have what they need, especially if they have to go without most of their lives.”
As she goes about her days in the lovely home, she discovers an extensive wine cellar and fully stocked freezer. Now fully comfortable and at home, Jean uses her imagination to invent a long lost son and places an advertisement in the local paper – seeking this imaginary son
A broke and desperate Michael answers the ad pretending to be her son with his pregnant girlfriend Stephanie. Somewhat surprised at her imaginary son actually showing up at the door, Jean leaps to accept them with no questions asked. Formerly driven by lack, Jean’s life theme has been ~~
“that good things, opportunity, security, affection, should come to me, if at all, only second-hand, and in second-rate scraps.”
Now her days are filled with her second-hand family, and their convoluted reasoning allows them to pretend that they are of the manor born. Of course, this feeble plan will come tumbling down when reality intrudes, but Jean, Michael and Steph are prepared to go to any lengths to maintain their small slice of happiness.
It’s a fascinating but twisted fairy tale — three desperate people performing increasingly desperate acts, dedicated to the well-being of the family at all costs. By turns bizarre and Gothic, Ms. Joss’ unchecked imagination has created a poignant respite for three truly half-broken things who linger on the edge of reason, their need to belong so fierce they go on to justify thievery and even murder.
I found myself quickly racing through Half Broken Things seduced by the writing and mounting tension. On one hand, I was warmed by the isolated manor house and how it gave its new inhabitants comforts and possibilities previously unavailable to them — but then holding my breath and as reality slowly descends upon their contentment.
Ms. Joss delivers a creepy yet compelling tale of complicit falsehoods. The isolation at the manor is seductive, the self made family’s self-justification completely pervasive as the three characters place need above morality in an astonishing tale of belonging at any cost.
Highly recommended – please put Half Broken Things on your list for next Halloween.
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