A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens -- BOOK BEGINNINGS

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

Thank you for joining me for Book Beginnings on this Friday after Christmas. Please share the opening sentence (or so) of the book you are reading this week. You can also share from a book that caught your fancy, even if you are not reading it right now.

MY BOOK BEGINNING

Marley was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that.

-- from A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Until about five minutes ago, I didn't know that the full title is A Christmas Carol in Prose, Being a Ghost Story of Christmas. That's pretty cool. 

I know people who read A Christmas Carol every year but I am not one of them. I've only read it two or three times in my whole life and the last time was at least ten years ago. But the whole novella is included in A Christmas Treasury of Yuletide Stories & Poems (1994), edited by James Charlton and Barbara Gilson, that I'm reading this Christmas week. So I reread Dickens's classic and loved it all over agin. 

Did you read anything Christmassy this year?  

YOUR BOOK BEGINNINGS

Please add the link to your Book Beginnings post in the box below. If you share on social media, please use the #bookbeginnings hashtag.

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THE FRIDAY 56

The Friday 56 is a natural tie-in with Book Beginnings. The idea is to share a two-sentence teaser from page 56 of your featured book. If you are reading an ebook or audiobook, find your teaser from the 56% mark.

Freda at Freda's Voice started and hosted The Friday 56 for a long, long time. She is taking a break and Anne at My Head is Full of Books has taken on hosting duties in her absence. Please visit Anne's blog and link to your Friday 56 post.

MY FRIDAY 56

-- from A Christmas Carol:

Awakening in the middle of a prodigiously tough snore, and sitting up in bed to get his thoughts together, Scrooge had no occasion to be told that the bell was again upon the stroke of One. He felt that he was restored to consciousness in the right nick of time, for the especial purpose of holding a conference with the second messenger despatched to him through Jacob Marley’s intervention.

 

FROM THE WIKIPEDIA DESCRIPTION

A Christmas Carol is a novella by Charles Dickens, first published in London by Chapman & Hall in 1843 and illustrated by John Leech. It recounts the story of Ebenezer Scrooge, an elderly miser who is visited by the ghost of his former business partner Jacob Marley and the spirits of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come. In the process, Scrooge is transformed into a kinder, gentler man.

Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol during a period when the British were exploring and re-evaluating past Christmas traditions, including carols, and newer customs such as cards and Christmas trees. He was influenced by the experiences of his own youth and by the Christmas stories of other authors, including Washington Irving and Douglas Jerrold. Dickens had written three Christmas stories prior to the novella, and was inspired following a visit to the Field Lane Ragged School, one of several establishments for London's street children. The treatment of the poor and the ability of a selfish man to redeem himself by transforming into a more sympathetic character are the key themes of the story. There is discussion among academics as to whether this is a fully secular story or a Christian allegory.

Red & Green Books to Put You in the Holiday Spirit -- BOOK THOUGHTS

BOOK THOUGHTS

Red & Green Books to Put You in the Holiday Spirit

Here’s a red and green stack of Christmassy (or at least wintery) books for a little festive fun.

I'm in a festive mood because I finished my last trial yesterday. The last one! I've practiced law for over 33 years, the last 18 spent working with adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse. My work was rewarding and I love the clients I've helped over the years. But I now have one foot and the toes of the other over the line to retirement. There’s still a fair bit of administrative wind up for my last cases, but (knock wood) I won’t have to go to court again. I loved my lawyer career, but I’m ready to spend time with my retired lawyer husband.

Now I plan to spend more time playing with my books, like this, and reading them. See any books here you’d read or have? I started A Christmas Treasury and am enjoying it tremendously. Just what I needed tto transition from work-mode to holiday-mode. 

Blood Upon the Snow (1944) by Hilda Lawrence

The Case of the Abominable Snowman (1941) by Nicholas Blake

A Holiday for Murder (1938) by Agatha Christie

The Gilded Man (1942) by Carter Dickson

Singin’ and Swingin’ and Gettin’ Merry Like Christmas (1976) by Maya Angelou

Christmas Stories by Charles Dickens

Elizabeth David’s Christmas (2003 compilation) by Elizabeth David

The Drunken Botanist (2013) by Amy Stewart

Evergreen (2023) by Lydia Millen

A Christmas Treasury of Yuletide Stories & Poems (1994), edited by James Charlton and Barbara Gilson

Snow White and Other Grimms' Fairy Tales (2022 MinaLima Edition) by The Brothers Grimm

The St. Nicholas Anthology (1952) edited by Henry Steele Commager

The German Christmas Cookbook (2023) by Jürgen Krauss

Downton Abbey Christmas Cookbook (2020) by Regula Ysewijn

Alpine Style: Bringing Mountain Magic Home (2024) by Kathryn O’Shea-Evans

Christmas Reading -- BOOK THOUGHTS

 

BOOK THOUGHTS

Christmas Reading

Every year, I aspire to read only Christmas-themed books in December. I love Christmas and want to immerse myself in holiday books, movies, food, drinks, parties, decorations – all of it. Then December rolls around and I always have other books I want to read before the end of the year, so I abandon the Christmas book plan.

Not this year! I finished all my TBR 24 in '24 books before November. I’m caught up on my IRL book club books. I don’t have any Instagram buddy reads until January. So this year I am all in on Christmas reading.

Here’s my stack of Christmas book possibilities. I hope to get to as many of these as I can, although I suspect I’ll have a few left over for next year.

🎄 There Came Both Mist and Snow by Michael Innes. I love vintage mysteries and a winter setting makes it all the better. 

🎄 Singin’ and Swingin’ and Getting’ Merry Like Christmas by Maya Angelou. I haven't read any of her books and I love the title of this one. It's a collection of essays and, maybe, poems. I haven't looked through it yet.

🎄 Christmas Stories by Charles Dickens. A Christmas Carol is in here, but so are the other Christmas stories he wrote to publish each December. I've read these all before, so this would be a reread for me, if I get to it. 

🎄 The White Priory Murders by Carter Dickson. I love the British Library Crime Classics series and know they have several with a Christmas theme. Unfortunately, they are not easy to find in the US. I have a few, but this is the only Christmas one. 

🎄 Christmas by Elizabeth David. I read a book of David's food writing earlier this year. I like the idea of a collection of Christmas food essays. 

🎄 A Redbird Christmas by Fanny Flagg. I see this one around a lot and loved her Fried Green Tomatoes book, so am looking forward to this one. 

🎄 The Drunken Botanist by Amy Stewart. OK, so this is not exactly on point. It isn't a Christmas books. But I'm always looking for festive holiday cocktails and the book looked great in the stack. 

🎄 Christmas Holiday by W. Somerset Maugham. I'm reading this one now and it's a good story. It is about a young man living in London who goes to Paris over Christmas and meets a Russian prostitute married to a murderer. That's quite a yarn! It's more engaging than many a Maugham read.

🎄 A Christmas Treasury of Yuletide Stories & Poems, edited by James Charlton and Barbara Gilson. This might be really sappy, but I'll give it a go. 

🎄 Advent: Festive German Bakes to Celebrate the Coming of Christmas by Anja Dunk. This Christmas cookbook looks gorgeous. I plan to read it cover to cover, like a book. 

🎄 The St. Nicholas Anthology, edited by Henry Steele Commager. This is another collection of Christmas bits and bobs. It might be really sappy because it was published in 1948.

🎄 The Official Downton Abbey Christmas Cookbook by Regula Ysewijn and Julian Fellowes. O couldn't resist this one because it is full of Downton pictures and old-fashioned recipes. Another cookbook I will read straight through. 

I also have several Christmas books lined up on my library app to read with my ears because I read a lot of audiobooks, especially while I putter around decorating the house and tree, baking treats, and wrapping presents. The audiobooks I picked are not by authors I’ve read before and they are almost all cozy mysteries or romcoms. I have nothing against either genre, but they aren’t my usual picks. 

We’ll see how this part goes. I've tried a couple that were too sticky sweet for me and I returned them after a few minutes of listening. I listened to a cozy mystery with a rare book dealer as the amateur sleuth and it had some plot holes big enough for Santa's sleigh.

Do you have any suggestions for Christmas reads not in my stack already? I'm planning ahead for next year already. 

A Thank You Windfall -- BOOK HAUL

BOOK HAUL

A Thank You Windfall

A lawyer colleague sent me an Amazon gift card as a thank you for referring a client to him. That was very nice of him! I used it to buy this stack of books I’ve had my eye on. Apparently I was hungry when I ordered, since all but one of these is a food book. 

See any here that catch your eye?

• Greenfeast: Spring, Summer and Autumn, Winter by Nigel Slater. I've had in mind for a while to find a new vegetarian cookbook (or two). I only have two on my shelves, The Greens Cookbook from the famous vegetarian restaurant in San Francisco, and The Moosewood Cookbook from the famous vegetarian restaurant in Ithaca. Both are classics and I bought both at the restaurants, after eating in them. But I need some new ideas!

• Elizabeth David’s Christmas, edited by Jill Norman, with a Foreword by Alice Waters. David pulled together a collection of articles she wrote about Christmas cooking and traditions, along with related recipes, planning to publish it all as a book, but died before she completed the project. Her literary executor Jill Norman completed the book after David died in 1992. This edition is edited for American readers. I am currently reading and completely enjoying David’s essay collection, An Omelette and a Glass of Wine. It makes me want to read more of her work, although I plan to save this one until Christmastime. I added it to my stack of Christmas-themed books.

• The Ha-Ha by Jennifer Dawson (1961) is my only non-food book in this stack. Dawson won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for this autobiographical debut novel. I’m working my way through the list of winners. I haven't been able to find a used copy of this one.  

• Bedside Companion for Food Lovers: An Anthology of Food Delights for Every Night of the Year, edited by Jane McMoreland Hunter. I’m a sucker for a day-by-day anthology, especially one as pretty as this. Now I want to get the other two books in the series, Bedside Companion for Book Lovers and Bedside Companion for Gardeners (even though I don't garden!). 

I almost never buy new books, almost always used. How about you? A stack of spiffy new books is a real treat for me.

It’s my turn to host book club tonight. Which explains why my dining room table is all gussied up, with flowers and everything. The book is Lost for Words by Edward St. Aubyn, a very funny book by the author of the very serious Patrick Melrose books. Apparently St. Aubyn wrote Lost for Words, a comic satire about literary prizes, after he was passed over for a Booker Prize for one of his Patrick Melrose novels. Lost for Words deservedly won the P.G. Wodehouse Prize for best comic novel.  

Merry Christmas!

Mailbox Monday: Hollywood Book Club and P.G. Wodehouse

It is the first Monday in December, which means Mailbox Monday has a jazzy Christmas mailbox picture. Fa la la!

I'm also celebrating this Christmas season, as I always do here on Rose City Reader, with an advent calendar of vintage Christmas cards. Read yesterday's post to learn more about this blog tradition of mine. And check back every day through Christmas to see a different vintage Christmas image. The theme this year is Christmas cats! If you are looking for vintage Christmas images, click the "vintage postcard" or "Advent" tag at the bottom of any of the advent calendar posts and you can scroll through 12 years of vintage Christmas cards.

What new books came into your house last week? We were pretty busy mashing potatoes and baking pies, but two new books did show up:




The Hollywood Book Club by Steven Rea, new from Chronicle Books. This fun book of movie stars reading books is a definite gift option for book and film buffs.

I got my copy from the LibraryThing Early Review program. I plan to take a little "me time" during this busy holiday season and relax with this book, an adult beverage, and a crackling fire in the fireplace.

From the publisher's description:

Audrey Hepburn, Humphrey Bogart, Gregory Peck, Rita Hayworth, Marilyn Monroe—the brightest stars of the silver screen couldn't resist curling up with a good book. This unique collection of rare photographs celebrates the joy of reading in classic film style. The Hollywood Book Club captures screen luminaries on set, in films, in playful promotional photos, or in their own homes and libraries with books from literary classics to thrillers, from biographies to children's books, reading with their kids, and more. Featuring nearly 60 enchanting images, lively captions about the stars and what they're reading by Hollywood photo archivist Steven Rea, and a glamorous stamped case design, here's a real page-turner for booklovers and cinephiles.

Pelham Grenville Wodehouse : Volume 1: "This is Jolly Old Fame" by Paul Kent. I am beyond excited about this one. I am a huge P. G. Wodehouse fan. I keep a list of Wodehouse books here on this blog and am working my way through them.

Paul Kent is writing a three-volume biography of Wodehouse, based in part on new access to Wodehouse's papers and library. This first volume is just out in the UK. For American readers, you have to order it from the publisher, TSB an imprint of Can of Worms Enterprises, or from Book Depository.

For die-hard Wodehouse fans, there could be nothing better.

From the publisher's description:

Whether you re an absolute beginner or an aficionado, Paul Kent has captured the essence of what made Wodehouse tick without spoiling all the fun; and makes a compelling case for why we owe it to our collective sanity to keep on reading him. P.G. Wodehouse 1881-1975 Humourist, Novelist, Lyricist, Playwright So reads the simple inscription on the memorial stone unveiled in London s Westminster Abbey in September 2019, honouring the greatest comic writer of the 20th century. It takes a steady hand and a steely nerve to insist that sweetness and light can prevail in a world that seems hell-bent on proving the opposite, and over 40 years after his death, Wodehouse is not just surviving but thriving all over the world. Young Indian professionals can t get enough of him; he s hugely popular in Japan; his books have been translated into more than 30 languages, from Azerbaijani to Ukrainian via Hebrew, Italian, Swedish and Chinese; and there are established Wodehouse societies in the UK, the USA, Belgium, Holland and Russia. His books are demonstrating the staying power of true classics, and are all currently in print, making him as relevant and funny - as he ever was.

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday, a weekly "show & tell" blog event where participants share the books they acquired the week before. Visit the Mailbox Monday website to find links to all the participants' posts and read more about Books that Caught our Eye.

Mailbox Monday is graciously hosted by Leslie of Under My Apple Tree, Serena of Savvy Verse & Wit, and Martha of Reviews by Martha's Bookshelf.

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