Monday, December 17, 2012

Book Lover's Holiday Hop Winner & Christmas Stories--Got Any Good Ones?

With the Frog Blog Christmas Reunion last week, I'm afraid I didn't announce who won the Book Lover's Holiday hop last week.

The winner of the Book Lover's Basket is:  *drum roll*

M.R. Buttars!!

Congratulations!  I will be contacting you for a snail mail address for your prize package.

I have been reading Christmas stories these past two weeks like The Candy Cane Queen by Janice Sperry, (so cute and fun! Really a great read.)  Bah Humbug by Heather Horrocks, (loved the premise of this one, even if the ending might be a little too happy.  But hey, it's Christmas, right?)  The Christmas Sisters by Annie Jones, It Really Is a Wonderful Life by Linda Rondeau, Mistletoe Mischief by Stacy Netzel (good story, but a shade on the steamy side), and How Will Christmas Find Us? by various authors.  (I loved this one because I got to be part of the compilation.)

I made a goal to read 112 books this year and I'm short of my goal so I've been reading like crazy.  Most of these were freebies on Kindle so I downloaded them and I can only really recommend The Candy Cane Queen, Bah Humbug, and How Will Christmas Find Us?.  The rest were, well, not my Christmas wish for a Christmas story.  One of them actually was so redundant I had to check and see if I was reading the same chapter again because the characters just kept saying the same things over and over.  I love Christmas stories, but I still want to be entertained, do you know what I mean?

So I'm still on my quest for good Christmas stories to read.  I have Kerry Blair's new book, For God So Loved the One, on my to-read list and I'm looking forward to that.

Have you found any new favorites on your Christmas reading list this year? Any good recommendations for me?

8 comments:

Janice Sperry said...

thanks for your review of The Candy Cane Queen. I'm so glad you liked it.

Julie Coulter Bellon said...

Janice, I really did think it was a sweet Christmas story with a great Christmas message without being overly preachy. It will definitely go on my Christmas story favorites list. You did a great job!

M. R. Buttars said...

Finding the Baby Jesus by Kimball Fisher is a cute, short story that makes an awesome Christmas read.

~T~ said...

Have you tried "Sing We Now of Christmas: An Advent Anthology"? It has a nice variety of stories, and it's available on Kindle!

Jon Spell said...

Are you really going to count Kerry's story toward* your 112 count? ;) If so, I've got a 2-pager, unpublished. =D


(* toward? towards?)

Emily M said...

The Legend of Holly Claus is great, even though it is a little longer.

Kerry Blair said...

Hey, Jon! I will have you know that thing is SEVEN pages. And, since you've been so grinchy about it for months now, I compared it to last year's book and two previously published by GAs. It is within 50 words of ALL of them. So there.

Sorry, Julie, this isn't the forum to rant, but you know how endlessly irritating Jon can be. I was bound to snap sometime. :)

You've probably read this a dozen times, but I did my traditional read of "The Fourth Wise Man" by Henry Van Dyke last night. It is not Christmas without that story! A longer book I love is L. Frank Baum's "The Life & History of Santa Claus." I could write a thesis on that. (Oh, wait. I think I did. :)I also read a modern anthology this month, but since it features werewolves I won't share. You're welcome.

Also, welcome home to your blog! Thanks again for the time-share last week.

Jon Spell said...

O Great Lady Kerry, I prostrate myself humbly before thee. I should be forced to read the Twilight series until I have learned the error of my ways and appreciate the glory of your work and magnitude. Verily, your light outshines even the Power Scan 4000 searchlight and I am dimmer than the indiglo hands on my ancient alarm clock. The rocks do tremble and the seas do scream in agony before you. Please forgive my shortcomings.


*** Endlessly irritating, that is not to say irritation without end, but rather describes the nature of Jon.