Holiday Reading Challenge: Blue Christmas

By Mary Kay Andrews

From the book jacket:

“It’s the week before Christmas, and antiques dealer Weezie Foley is in a frenzy to garnish her shop for the Savannah historical district decorating contest, which she intends to win. Weezie is ready to shoot herself with her glue gun by the time she’s done, but the results are stunning. She’s certainly one-upped the owners of the trendy shop around the corner, but suddenly things start to go missing from her display, and there seems to be a mysterious midnight visitor to her shop.”

When I want to relax and laugh with a quick read, I can always count on Mary Kay Andrews. “Blue Christmas” was no exception.

I just love how Mary Kay brings her characters to life with such endearing and charming personalities. You can’t help but fall in love with her stories. They are so fun!

I found this book at a second-hand store not too long ago and thought it would be a good addition to my Christmas collection – and for the Holiday Reading Challenge! I was right.

It was odd, though. Whoever had this copy before I bought it must have been offended by any form of cuss words, including such innocuous terms as “hell” and “damn” because they crossed them out within the text.

They weren’t, however, offended by the gay relationship of the main character’s neighbors because they left those words intact.

Go figure!

Anyway, this is a marvelous little holiday book and I’m glad I decided to take a day off and spend my time reading this.

Holiday Reading Challenge: A Stranger for Christmas

By Carol Lynn Pearson

From the book jacket:

“The holiday season approaches and Florence and Myrna find themselves spending Christmas alone in their California nursing home. They dream of sharing the day with a loving family, singing carols around the piano, and hanging stockings by the fireplace. Myrna still believes in the joy of Christmas, but Florence isn’t so sure. Is there any family out there who might welcome an elderly woman, a total stranger, into their home for Christmas?”

I picked up this sweet little book the other day and sat down to read it. An hour later, I had reached the end and was wishing there was more!

Myrna has always spent Christmas with her family in Idaho, but due to a recent heart attack, the doctor recommends she not make the trip this year.

Florence, on the other hand, never married and never had children, so she’s never experienced a family holiday since she was a little girl.

Now in their 80s, the two women wonder if anyone cares about the elderly. They make a deal to see if Myrna’s family would take in a total stranger for the holidays. She, of course, is sure they will, so they concoct a story about a pen pal in an Idaho nursing home and she begins calling each of her children to find out which one will welcome the stranger into their home.

This is such a precious and charming story. Pearson does an excellent job of bringing the characters into your heart and you soon find yourself falling in love with these two women and wishing you could bring them home for Christmas!

A wonderful Christmas tale that teaches a valuable lesson from the Scripture, “I was a stranger, and ye took me in.”

Holiday Reading Challenge: Christmas Jars

by Jason F. Wright

From the back of the book:
"Hope Jensen is a young, single woman and an aspiring newspaper writer, and when she receives a much-needed but anonymous Christmas gift, she's determined to find her benefactor."

(Yay! I finished my first book for the 2009 Holiday Reading Challenge.)

I bought this book last Christmas and hadn't gotten around to reading it. Yesterday, I decided to take a little break and picked it up thinking I'd start reading a few pages. Well, I never got back up until I finished it!

What a fun holiday read! The main character loses her adopted mother just prior to Christmas, then her home is robbed and trashed. As the police are investigating, a jar of money shows up on her doorstep. No one knows where it came from. So she sets out on a personal mission to find out where it came from.

The twist is -- she hides the fact that she's a reporter and she's planning to use what she finds in a story to boost her career. But that jar leads her on an adventure that changes her outlook on life. She meets wonderful people who all have their own stories to tell.

I just loved this little book. It's a quick, easy read that forces you to take a little time off from the hustle and bustle of the season and relax. This book would be a wonderful stocking stuffer for the reader(s) in your life or for that shy new person at the office you have been trying to make feel more at home. Give it to your teenage daughter, your elderly grandmother, your cranky next door neighbor ... the possibilities are endless. I can't imagine anyone not liking this book.

Now for the kicker! I googled "Christmas Jars" to get a picture of the cover and came across Jason Wright's Web site! You would not believe what I found there!

Jason has written a couple sequels to the book and he has this whole network of Christmas jar givers across the U.S. There's a map that shows where jars have showed up and pages of testimonials from folks who have received their very own jars. It's great fun! You just have to check it out!