'Tis the season to be reading

When Christmas is coming, it is time for me to read books for the season and to share them here. I read new ones every year, but I also try to revisit old ones. I blogged before about Christmas Days by Jeanette Winterson. In recent years, it has been my non crime fiction Yuletide discovery and I really enjoyed it. It has a lot to enjoy in it: compelling stories and for each story and day of Christmas, a recipe, none of which I have tried. I was thinking about reading some of it this year, maybe try one recipe, but remembered that last Christmas I left it at my parents' place for my brother Andrews's girlfriend to read. What a freaking genius. I guess I could buy a new copy, like the paperback edition, which has a gorgeous cover, far better than the one I have/had (see pic here, sent by a friend of mine). But I don't think my wife would like it: she thought that I managed to finally get rid of a book that was cramming the place. Well, at least I still have a lot to read, to discover and rediscover 'Tis the season to be reading, after all.

Christmas Days ('Tis the season to be reading)

'Tis the season to be reading. I thought I would give another reading suggestion for Christmas, one of the happy discovery I made last year: Christmas Days by Jeanette Winterson (a fitting author's name for Yuletide stories if there ever is one). It is twelve short stories and twelve Christmas recipes (!), one for each of the twelve days of Christmas. It is a rich and dense book that truly encompass the season's aspects. Winterson give us mostly ghost stories or stories with an element of supernatural, not very scary ones, but all very touching. You also have some very heart warming tales, one about mistreated pupils in an orphanage run by a tyrannical matron, who are saved by magical frogs, another about a dog, a retelling of the legend of Mistletoe Bough and Winterson's own take on the Nativity Story, told by the donkey who carried the Holy Family to Betlehem ("The Lion, the Unicorn and Me", which is one of my favourite). The recipes are stories unto themselves, as each one is associated with a Christmastime memory of the author, not always a happy one. Christmas Days is one of the best discoveries I made last year.

Christmas Days

It is Christmas in less than an hour and I thought that maybe one last time this year I would give a reading suggestion for Christmastime, as this blog is often about books and because 'Tis the season to be reading. If you have time, that is, as I have less and less, especially with a young child. Nevertheless, I am reading at the moment Christmas Days by the aptly named Jeanette Winterson and quite enjoying it. Twelve stories, like the twelve days of Christmas, with... twelve recipes to go with them. So far, it is actually very enjoyable. A lot of them (again: so far) are supernatural (but never scary) in nature, while the recipes are not merely recipes, but filled with anecdotes and autobiographical notes on how she came to discover them. I didn't know Winterson, I think I will read more of her. In any case, this is my seasonal read.