Four books and one novella this month.
A Winter Book (2006) by Tove Jansson
A Winter Book is a collection of semi-autobiographical short stories by Tove Jansson of Moomin fame, gathered from five previous collections. The stories in the first two sections deal with childhood and nature while the stories in the third section deal with old age. Spread through the book are black and white photos from the author’s life. While some of the stories didn’t seem to go anywhere, many of the others were quite moving.
A Christmas Carol and Other Christmas Writings (2010) by Charles Dickens
A few years ago, I started reading “A Christmas Carol” every December so when I saw a used copy of the clothbound edition from Penguin Books, I picked it up. I enjoyed “The Goblins Who Stole a Sexton” and “A Christmas Carol” is a five-star read, but I found most of the other stories and essays to be too wordy.
A Maigret Christmas and Other Stories (2017) by Georges Simenon
This is a collection of three crime stories that take place during Christmas in Paris. The first story is an Inspector Maigret story while the other two stories feature other characters from the Maigret novels.
In “A Maigret Christmas,” Maigret is at home with his wife on Christmas morning when two of his neighbors stop by and ask for his help after a break in by a man dressed as Father Christmas.
“Seven Small Crosses in a Notebook” takes place in the police headquarters control room during Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We follow André Lecœur, a telephone operator who works the night shift and keeps track of events by marking crosses in a notebook. Lecœur winds up working with members of Maigret’s team as they try to catch a killer. At first it felt like a standard police procedural but then I became more invested in the story as I gradually learned about Lecœur’s character, a loner whose unique way of looking at things aids in the investigation. It started off a little slow but became a page turner towards the end.
“The Little Restaurant Near Place des Ternes” is a shorter story that takes place in the seedy parts of Paris. A lady of the evening decides to go out of her way to help a naive young woman out on Christmas Eve.
I was initially disappointed when I realized only one of the stories was a Maigret story but in the end, I enjoyed all three stories.
Christmas Gothic Short Stories (2022) forward by Dr. Jerrold E. Hogle
This anthology includes over 400 pages of classic and new Christmas gothic short stories. It’s quite a selection with a nice variety. Most of the stories can be categorized as standard gothic style stories but there are also some humorous ones as well as some that are more horror than gothic. Although there were a few older stories that weren’t that great, it was a fun read.
“The Shepherd” by Frederick Forsyth, from Great Flying Stories (1992) edited by Frederick Forsyth
I’ve been wanting to read this novella ever since reading about it on a book blog.
On Christmas Eve of 1957, the pilot of a De Havilland Vampire jet is flying from northern Germany to Suffolk, England when his plane suffers electrical failure. I enjoyed this novella a lot. I liked the prose and the tension. I liked the ending as well, even as the pilot keeps coming up with rational explanations for what occurred, the reader can see coming.
According to Wikipedia, Forsyth wrote this story as a Christmas gift for his wife after she asked him to write a ghost story for her. He wrote the story on Christmas Day 1974.
This fit in perfectly with the rest of the stories I’ve been reading this month.
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