Sydney Reads and Reads: December

As a mood reader, Christmas is peak season. For what time of year is a pervading spirit more present than at Christmas? I think you’ll see that reflected in my December reads.

In A Wild Winter Swan, by Gregory Maguire, we meet Laura, a teenager in mid 20th century New York grieving her brother’s death and her mother’s mental breakdown. Now living with her old-world Italian grandparents in a lonely Upper East Side townhouse, we follow along as Laura wades her way through trouble at home, school, and increasing isolation. Complicating things is the handsome swan boy who lands on her roof one evening in need of her help. 

I had high hopes for this title, but ultimately I felt pretty meh about this. I will say, I appreciated the way Maguire approached Laura’s experiences with bullying and making friends. But do I need a man telling me how a teenage girl feels? As always, I enjoyed the NY imagery, but I won’t be recommending this anytime soon. 

In December, our book club chose to switch things up, each of us reading a different Christmas themed book. My choice, A Sweedish Christmas Fairy Tale, by A.E. Radley, falls rather short of the mark.

The story follows Amber Tate, a London publisher, about to lose her job when she’s given one last chance. If she obtains the rights to the popular Lund Collection of fairy tales by Christmas, just a few days away, she can keep her job. The trouble is, the rights to the collection are held by the author’s very reclusive granddaughter, Emilia Lund. Further complicating matters, Lund lives in rural Sweeden and refuses to talk to anyone about her grandmother’s cherished stories. However, Amber is bright and persistent and doesn’t back down until she’s granted a weekend visit to Emilia’s cozy home in Sweeden. The rest is pretty predictable.

My primary reason for choosing A Sweedish Christmas Fairy Tale was because it’s a queer romance. I only wish it was executed with more skill. The predictability of romance novels is part of what makes them enjoyable. No matter the specifics of the characters or setting, you know you’ll get a meet-cute, gradual building affection, some sort of problem, and then the ending. Like Royal Holiday later in this roundup, the truly good ones have an X factor that makes them exciting despite the predictability. An X factor which A Sweedish Christmas Fairy Tale is lacking.

In the end, I’m glad I purchased A Sweedish Christmas Fairy Tale because I want to see more diverse characters and love stories represented in the genre, and in the interest of that, I will always put my money and attention where my mouth is. 

The Book of Longings, by Sue Monk Kid, is about as good as historical fiction gets in my mind. Not only was the story of Ana compelling, but I felt completely immersed and engaged in the history of what was happening around her. History, which despite growing up in The First Presbyterian Church, was largely new to me.

Hold for the Goodreads summary of this book. It touches on so much of what makes this story compelling, and I could not improve it. 

“Raised in a wealthy family in Sepphoris with ties to the ruler of Galilee, Ana is rebellious and ambitious, a relentless seeker with a brilliant, curious mind and a daring spirit. She yearns for a pursuit worthy of her life, but finds no outlet for her considerable talents. Defying the expectations placed on women, she engages in furtive scholarly pursuits and writes secret narratives about neglected and silenced women. When she meets the eighteen-year-old Jesus, each is drawn to and enriched by the other’s spiritual and philosophical ideas. He becomes a floodgate for her intellect, but also the awakener of her heart.

Their marriage unfolds with love and conflict, humor and pathos in Nazareth, where Ana makes a home with Jesus, his brothers, James and Simon, and their mother, Mary. Here, Ana’s pent-up longings intensify amid the turbulent resistance to the Roman occupation of Israel, partially led by her charismatic adopted brother, Judas. She is sustained by her indomitable aunt Yaltha, who is searching for her long-lost daughter, as well as by other women, including her friend Tabitha, who is sold into slavery after she was raped, and Phasaelis, the shrewd wife of Herod Antipas. Ana’s impetuous streak occasionally invites danger. When one such foray forces her to flee Nazareth for her safety shortly before Jesus’s public ministry begins, she makes her way with Yaltha to Alexandria, where she eventually finds refuge and purpose in unexpected surroundings.”

I really can’t say enough good things about this book. I started recommending it to people before I was even halfway through.

Bonus points to Sue Monk Kid for a title that completely sums up life as a single person in 2020. 🤣

Royal Holiday, by Jasmine Guillory, introduces us to Vivian Forest, a career-driven single mother who has been out of the country a total of one time. So when she gets the opportunity to tag along on her daughter’s work trip to England (to style a royal family member), she jumps at it! Vivian is looking forward to enjoying the holiday season in the English countryside and spending time with her daughter. What she doesn’t expect is to fall head over heels in love with the Queen’s private secretary, Malcolm Hudson. 

I liked that the protagonists in this story were over 40, as it grounded the narrative in a really lovely way. Besides, people of all ages fall in love, so why shouldn’t they be the focus of this charming story?! I don’t know if the fascination with the British royal family is exclusively an American thing. Still, the little cameos by The Dutchess (aka Megan Markle) and the Queen were just delightful. 

I’ve now read two books from Guillory’s The Wedding Date series, neither of them sequential. So I can confidently say that anyone can enjoy them as a one-off. Though, be forewarned, reading Royal Holiday will cause you to crave warm scones.

I checked out Virgin River from my library after becoming obsessed with the Netflix show. I’m happy to report that though the novels themselves diverge significantly from the plot Netflix chose for their show, Robyn Carr’s original story begins from the same place. 

A young, recently widowed midwife answers a classified ad to serve as nurse and midwife to a rural Northern California community. Though once she arrives, Virgin River is nothing like she expected. Far from a remote cozy place to rebuild her life, she finds a cold, damp cabin, treacherous roads, and a grumpy town doctor who wants nothing to do with her. But just as she decides to leave down, an abandoned newborn shows up on Doc’s doorstep, and that’s when things start to change.

What I appreciate about Carr’s writing is her balance between male and female characters and the emotional maturity she gives her male leads. The benefit of reading back titles is, no one is fighting to check them out from the library! I’ve continued to borrow the subsequent titles and turn to them to help ground and focus me at the end of my workday. 

I learned a new term today for a novel structure I’ve always enjoyed. The epistolary novel is a novel written as a series of documents, usually in letters. And letters it is for Last Christmas in Paris, by Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb.

We meet our characters in England, August 1914. Evie Elliot’s brother Will and his best friend Thomas are headed off to fight for King and Country in World War 1. Through their letters, we watch as they dream of spending Christmas in Paris, realize the horrors of war, the joys of love, and as Evie works to overcome the privilege of her upper-class upbringing and make a substantive contribution to the war effort. In Christmas 1968, Thomas returns to Paris for one last Christmas, to put his past to rest and read one final letter. 

It took me a while to feel invested in this story, a while. I expected to be immediately drawn into the drama of love, war, and the holidays, but both the relationships and the escalation of war took time to build. A slow build that ultimately paid off, leaving me in tears and eating my words by the final pages.

Publishing this post officially brings me up to date with book posts! I’m already at work on January’s which you will surely see before February is out. Speaking of which, what are you reading for Black History Month? Are you taking this time to step back and inform yourself on the lived experience of others, or are you (my White and other non-Black friends) unnecessarily centering yourself in the narrative? If you’re not sure, then you probably are. I invite you to think about it. -xo Sydney