Joy to the Readers: New Christmas Fiction

Shh_ImReading@evpl — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 00:08:00 GMT

Every year, sometimes starting as early as September, the EVPL starts recieving new Christmas fiction. Here are a few of the titles we've gotten in so far this year:

Sarah's Christmas Miracle by Mary Ellis

The Three Kings by Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez

The Mischief of the Mistletoe by Lauren Willig

The Next Queen of Heaven : A Novel by Gregory Maguire

Busy Body: An Agatha Raisin Mystery by M.C. Beaton

A Chesapeake Shores Christmas by Sherryl Woods

Christmas Mourning by Margaret Maron

Call Me Mrs. Miracle by Debbie Macomber

Cat Coming Home: A Joe Grey Mystery by Shirley Rousseau Murphy

Love Finds You Under the Mistletoe: Two Heartwarming Stories of Christmas Past and Present

A Piggly Wiggly Christmas by Robert Dalby

A Darcy Christmas: [a holiday tribute to Jane Austen] by Amanda Grange, Sharon Lathan, Carolyn Eberhart

Christmas at The Mysterious Bookshop : 'Tis the Season to be Deadly : Stories of Mistletoe and Mayhem from 17 Masters of Suspense edited by Otto Penzler

Christmas at Harrington's by Melody Carlson

Christmas with Tucker by Greg Kincaid

A Holiday Yarn: A Seaside Knitters Mystery by Sally Goldenbaum

Christmas Eve at Friday Harbor by Lisa Kleypas

Two Tickets to the Christmas Ball : A Novella by Donita K. Paul

Gingerbread Cookie Murder by Joanne Fluke, Laura Levine and Leslie Meier

A Simple Amish Christmas by Vannetta Chapman

Some of these titles are availble in large print or as audiobooks too!

Matchless is just that ...

myzticrhythmz@evpl — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 01:00:00 GMT

Every year some of your favorite authors pop up with a new title for the holiday season, and this year is no exception. Richard Paul Evans, Linda Howard, Garrison Keillor, Wally Lamb and several others have new books this Christmas.

My favorite this year is a simple little book by Gregory Maguire, author of the Wicked series of Wizard of Oz books. It's called Matchless, and it is an adaptation of the Hans Christian Andersen tale The Little Match Girl. In this retelling, the match girl's story is woven into that of Frederik Pedersen, a little boy whose widowed mother is the seamstress to the queen. The pair are poor, down to their last bit of tea and last matchstick. Next we meet the match girl who, loses her shoes (one of which Fredrik takes) and is freezing, and she lights her matches one by one until they are gone. Maguire takes us through the sadness of the girl's passing and the story ends happily, as a new family is created.

This story is beautiful in its simplicity and its brevity. Maguire wrote Matchless after being asked by National Public Radio to create an original story with a Christmas theme. The author will read his work Christmas Day on NPR's All Things Considered. Tune in and listen, or snuggle into a cozy chair, grab your favorite read, and have yourself a merry little Christmas!

Books Blog : Gregory Maguire

Joy to the Readers: New Christmas Fiction

Matchless is just that ...