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Christmas Booklist - Fiction

Something for everyone - from the inspirational to the noirish!
Annotations are from Advance, the Ingram Book Magazine, unless noted.

• Christmas at the New Yorker ( 2003 )
  This timeless anthology of fiction, memoir, poetry, cartoons, and cover art is the first collection of holiday writings and art from The New Yorker .
• The Secret Life of Mrs. Claus
  Author: Alexander, Carly
  Publisher: Strapless $ 12.95 ISBN: 0758209258 Date: 2005
  LJ
  For three very different women trying to get what they want, it's a Christmas where miracles happen; love is magical; and changing their lives is as close as changing their outfits--or their Mrs. Claus costume.
  Suggested Reading: Romance
  Updated 10.24.05
• Blue Christmas
  Author: Andrews, Mary Kay
  Publisher: HarperCollins $ 14.95 ISBN: 0060837349  Date: 2006
  LJ
  Bestselling author Andrews brings back the lovable characters from Savannah Blues and Savannah Breeze for a new funny and touching story that offers a little Christmas cheer with delicious Southern recipes throughout.
  Updated 11.27.06
• Aunt Dimity's Christmas by Nancy Atherton ( 1999 )
  After inheriting a beautiful cottage, Lori Shepherd embarks on a round of seasonal merrymaking. After a wishful snow falls, she and her family discover the nearly dead body of an unknown tramp, leading the Shepherds on a soul-searching journey.
• Auggie Wren's Christmas Story
  Author: Auster, Paul
  Publisher: Holt $ 15 ISBN: 0805077235 Date: 2004
  It begins with a writer's dilemma - asked by "The New York Times" to write a story that will appear in the paper on Christmas morning. The writer agrees, but he has a problem? How does one write an unsentimental Christmas story? The result is Auster's timeless, utterly charming Christmas fable, beautifully illustrated and destined to become a classic.
  Updated 11.30.06
• The Christmas Train by David Baldacci (2002)
  On a train ride to Los Angeles, cash-strapped journalist Tom Langdon encounters a ridiculous cast of characters, unexpected romance, and an avalanche that changes everyone's Christmas plans.
  
• Under the Mistletoe by Mary Balogh (2003 )
  The national bestselling author celebrates the Yuletide season with one all-new Regency Christmas tale--plus four of her most beloved holiday classics.
  
• The Star by Richard Barre (2003 )
• The Shepard, the Angel and Walter the Christmas Miracle Dog
  Author: Barry, Dave
  Publisher: Putnam $15.95 ISBN: 0399154132 Date:2006
  Kirkus
  From the Pulitzer Prize-winning humorist and bestselling author comes a delightful Christmas story for all ages that will touch the heart and make readers laugh out loud.
  Updated 1.13.06
• Bed & Breakfast by Lois Battle ( 1997 )
  The upstairs/downstairs comedies of a Southern inn make a perfect backdrop for this portrait of a family in all its tender, touching, and flawed glory--and a love story that comes as suddenly as sunshine after the rain. "A sumptuous Southern tale from a 'born storyteller.'"--The Washington Post.
  
• Highland Christmas by M.C. Beaton ( 1999 )
  In the highlands of Lochdubh, Scotland, crime doesn't take a holiday. At Christmas, Constable Hamish Macbeth finds himself protecting an unhappy girl, unlocking the secrets of a frightened old woman, and retrieving some stolen holiday goods. Now the lawman must use all his charm and skills to make things right before Lochdubh is forced to face another dreary winter without Yuletide cheer.
  
• The Midnight Before Christmas by William Bernhardt (1998 )
  A seven-year-old boy from a family of divorce is kidnapped by his estranged father. With family members aiding the police force and a snowstorm on the horizon, a race to the rescue ensues. The entire action takes place in 24 hours on Christmas Eve.
• The Angel Doll by Jerry Bledsoe ( 1996 )
  The work of a consummate storyteller who has created believable, sympathetic characters and the authentic atmosphere of the small-town South in the 1950s, The Angel Doll tells a story about childhood reaching out in later life and grabbing hold--never to be forgotten or quite remembered truly. "Affecting. Poignant. Authentically moving".--Publishers Weekly.
  
• Christmas Memory, One Christmas & The Thanksgiving Visitor by Truman Capote ( 1996 )
  Taking its place next to Breakfast at Tiffany's and In Cold Blood on the Modern Library bookshelf is this new and original edition of Capote's most famous short stories: "A Christmas Memory", "One Christmas", and "A Thanksgiving Memory". All three stories are distinguished by Capote's delicate interplay of childhood sensibility and recollective vision.
  
• The Christmas Quilt: Elm Creek Quilts
  Author: Chiaverini, Jennifer
  Publisher: Simon & Schuster $ 18.95 ISBN: 074328657x Date: 2005
  LJ
  A seasonal gift to readers, The Christmas Quilt is a heartwarming rendition of how Christmas traditions at Elm Creek Manor were created--and embellished--over generations.
  Updated 10.24.05
• All Through the Night by Mary Higgins Clark (1998 )
  Alvirah and Willy are helping prepare for the upcoming Christmas pageant at a thrift shop that doubles as an after-school center for neighborhood kids when the future of the shelter is jeopardized. The couple is soon involved in solving a seven-year-old mystery involving a stolen chalice and an abandoned child.
  
• Deck the Halls by Mary Higgins Clark & Carol Higgins Clark ( 2000 )
  Bestselling mother-and-daughter authors join forces to create this entertaining and suspenseful novel played out against a holiday setting. Just before Christmas, Regan Reilly, Carol Higgins Clark's dynamic young sleuth, meets Alvirah Meehan, Mary Higgins Clark's famous lottery-winning amateur detective, and both embark on a desperate search for Regan's kidnapped father.
  
• He Sees You When You're Sleeping by Mary Higgins Clark & Carol Higgins Clark (2001)
  The mother-daughter duo reunite for a heartwarming holiday tale of redemption and love. Sterling Brooks has been waiting for 46 years to get into heaven. A self-absorbed man during his life, Sterling cannot enter heaven until he helps seven-year-old Marissa reunite with her father and grandmother. In helping Marissa, Sterling discovers within himself what it takes to earn his wings.
  
• The Christmas Thief by Mary Higgins Clark ( 2004)
• Scarpetta's Winter Table by Patricia Cornwell ( 1998 )
• Upon a Midnight Clear by Jude Deveraux, etc( 1997 )
  A beautiful collection of holiday love stories from five bestselling romance favorites--Jude Deveraux, Linda Howard, Margaret Allison, Stef Ann Holm, and Mariah Stewart.
  
• A Christmas Carol and Other Stories by Charles Dickens
• Naughty or Nice by Eric Jerome Dickey ( 2003 )
  Eric Jerome Dickey knows who's naughty or nice, and the New York Times bestselling author once again promises to deliver all the humor, heart, and superb storytelling that have made him one of the biggest names in African-American fiction.
  
• Then Came Christmas by Randy Lee Eickhoff ( 2002 )
  Anti-Indian racism and ignorance of the world outside her own door are brought to full life in this story of a 12-year-old South Dakota girl who makes a harrowing Christmas Eve ride in 1954 to spread the joy of Christmas, even if there are those who wish to destroy it.
  
• Visions of Sugar Plums by Janet Evanovich ( 2002 )
  From the bestselling author of Seven Up and Hard Eight comes the perfect holiday gift. It's December in Jersey, and Stephanie Plum has bigger problems than the usual thugs, thieves, and hoodlums.
  
• The Christmas Box by Richard Paul Evans ( 1995 )
  A Christmas classic for our times--the heartwarming story of the depth of a parent's love and the true meaning of Christmas.
• Jingle Bell Rock by Lori Foster, editor (2003 )
  In this fifth contemporary erotic anthology from Brava, here are six tempting tales of romance filled with the sort of naughty-but-oh-so-nice men who make the season so bright it's downright hot.
  
• The Haunted Tea-Cosy: A Dispirited and Distasteful Diversion for Christmas
  Author: Gorey, Edward
  Publisher: Harcourt $ 16ISBN: 0151004153 Date: 1997
  In his Preface to "A Christmas Carol", Charles Dickens wrote that he tried "to raise the Ghost of an Idea" with readers and trusted that it would "haunt their house pleasantly". In December 1997, 154 Christmases later, the "New York Times Magazine" asked its own Edward Gorey to refurbish this enduring morality tale. The result is this "dispirited and distasteful diversion for Christmas".
  Updated 11.30.06
• Star Bright by Andrew M. Greeley ( 1998 )
  Nothing will ever be the same for the Flanigans when Jack brings a young Russian woman home to Chicago for Christmas. "All charm and wit."--Kirkus Reviews.
  
• Skipping Christmas by John Grisham (2001)
  In a major departure from his usual work, bestselling author John Grisham tells a charming fable of one couple's hilarious attempt to escape Christmas, only to be forced by friends and family to rediscover the true meaning of the season.
  
• Christmas in Harmony by Philip Gulley ( 2002 )
  Bestselling author Gulley takes readers back to Harmony, Indiana, at Christmas time as inspiration strikes the inimitable Dale Hinshaw. This stocking-stuffer sized holiday novel offers fresh insight inot the true meaning of Christmas.
  
• The Autobiography of Santa Claus by Jeff Guin ( 2003 )
  An enchanting holiday treasure, The Autobiography of Santa Claus combines solid historical fact with legend to deliver the definitive story of Santa Claus.
  
• Shakespeare's Christmas by Charlaine Harris ( 1998 )
  In this mystery, Lily Bard--a karate devotee by choice and a cleaning woman by trade--heads home to Bartley, Arkansas, for her sister Varena's Christmas wedding, but ends up involved in an investigation with her private detective boyfriend. Seems the sister's new husband is the widowed father of a girl who resembles a kidnapped child.
• The Touch: The Contemporary Story of a Life Changed by Patricia Hickman (2002)
• Mr. Ive's Christmas by Oscar Hijuelos ( 1995 )
  In this finely wrought bestseller, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Oscar Hijuelos crafts "his most powerful book yet . . . both a wonderfully affecting tale of a contemporary job and a finely observed portrait of an innocent abroad in New York" (New York Times). When Mr. Ives loses his son to an act of violence at Christmas, he begins to question the very foundations of his life.
  
• Rockin' Around That Christmas Tree by Donna Hill ( 2003 )
  This touching Christmas novella tells a story of love, family, faith and food, with just a hint of drama that everyone can relate to during the holiday season. Will this family be rockin' around the Christmas tree when all is said and done?
  
• Esther's Gift by Jan Karon ( 2002 )
  While Esther Bolick had planned on making her legendary orange marmalade cakes, she decides it's not worth the cost to spend so much money on people who haven't always measured up to her expectations. The lyrics of a Christmas carol help remind her of the true purpose of a gift.
  
• The Mitford Snowmen by Jan Karon ( 2001 )
  It's Christmastime in Mitford, and everyone's favorite characters are filled with holiday spirit. A swirling snowfall brings them to Main Street for a snowman-building contest complete with doughnuts, hot chocolate, and contagious good cheer. A charming small trim size and enchanting four-color illustrations make this the perfect way to visit Mitford--and gather a heart full of Christmas joy.
  
• An Irish Christmas by John B. Keane ( 2000 )
  In this winning collection of 17 original tales, John B. Keane plumbs the rich folk culture of Ireland as he portrays the holiday dreams and everyday shortcomings of ordinary country people during the Christmas season.
  
• The Woodcutter's Gift by Brad Kessler ( 2001 )
• Gideon's Gift by Karen Kingsbury ( 2002 )
  A little girl's gift to a homeless man forever changes both their lives and reminds them of the true meaning of Christmas.
  
• Season's Revenge by Henry Kisor ( 2003 )
  'Tis the weeks before Christmas in Upper Peninsula, Michigan, and some big events indeed are stirring for Lakota Sheriff Steve Martinez. The normally sleepy town is alive with activity after the body of one of its most respected residents is found at a forest campsite, apparently the victim of a bear attack.
  
• Wish List by Lisa Kelypas, etc. ( 2003 )
  Four of the romance genre's hottest authors present holiday tales that are filled with love and laughter. Featuring the RITA Award-winning novella I Will by Kleypas, along with stories by Lisa Cach, Claudia Dain, and Lynsay Sands.
• The Christmas Child by Max Lucado (2003 )
  The Christmas classic from Max Lucado--formerly titled The Christmas Cross--is now retitled, redesigned, and a major movie in 2003.
• The Present by Johanna Lindsey ( 1998 )
  As the Malory family gathers at Haverston to celebrate the season, a mysterious present arrives. It's an old journal detailing the love affair between the second Marquis, Christopher Malory, and a dark gypsy beauty. Though fate holds them apart, Christmas miracles have been known to happen. From this old-time story, the lessons learned by the present-day Malory family turn out to be a gift indeed.
  
• The Christmas Basket by Debbie Macomber ( 2002 )
  RITA award winner
  From a gifted voice in women's fiction comes a special gift for the holiday season. When Sarah McDowell's and Mary Sutton discover that their grown children are in love, the women must set aside old rivalries to let new love nurture and grow.
  
• The Last Noel by Michael Malone ( 2002 )
  Divided into 12 unevenly spaced vignettes--each set during the Christmas season--the plot traces the star-crossed friendship of Noni Tilden, daughter of her town's richest family, and Kaye King, grandson of Noni's mother's maid, across a span of four decades.
  
• A Very Southern Christmas by Charline R. McCord, editor ( 2003 )
• The Ecco Book of Christmas Stories
  Author: Manguel, Alberto (edt)
  Publisher: Ecco $ 19.95 ISBN: 0060888482  Date: 2006
  Internationally acclaimed anthologist Manguel offers this enjoyable collection of 23 Christmas stories from across the globe with tales by such master storytellers as Alice Munroe, Graham Greene, Truman Capote, and John Cheever.
  Updated 11.30.06
• Christmas Cookie Murder by Leslie Meier ( 1999 )
  For Lucy Stone, the best thing about Christmas in Tinker's Cove has always been the annual Cookie Exchange. But this year, she's busy counting suspects instead of calories when one of the guests is found strangled. It's up to Lucy to ensure that a cold-blooded killer gets his just desserts this holiday season.
  
• Christmas, Present by Jacquelyn Mitchard ( 2003 )
  A family's holiday tragedy becomes a powerful lesson about love in this moving Christmas story from bestselling author Jacquelyn Mitchard.
  
• Santa & Pete: A Novel of Christmas Present and Past
  Author: Moore, Christopher
  Publisher: Simon & Schuster $ 14.95 ISBN: 0684854953 Date: 1998
  PW
  A bus driver takes his grandson along on Saturdays as he travels a historical route around New York City. What comes out of these travels is a series of wonderful adventures that culminates on Christmas Eve, when the bus gets stuck in a snowstorm.
  Updated 11.27.06
  
• The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror
  Author: Moore, Christopher
  Publisher: Morrow $ 14.95 ISBN: 0060590254  Date: 2005
  Little Joshua Barker is sure that he saw Santa take a shovel to the head, and now the seven-year-old prays for Santa to come back from the dead. There's an angel waiting in the wings, but he's botched his sacred mission and sent the residents of Pine Cove headlong into Christmas chaos.
  Updated 11.30.06
• Our Simple Gifts: Civil War Christmas Tales by Owen Parry ( 2002 )
  Kirkus
  In these wonderfully poignant tales, Parry transports readers to a faraway world--a place fraught with despair and uncertainty, where only the holiday spirit could bring hope: the American Civil War. Told in the authentic voices of those who lived and fought during the conflict, here are four stories that embody the simple yet often forgotten pleasures that define the season.
• Strike the Harp: American Christmas Stories
  Author: Parry, Owen
  Publisher: Morrow $ 14.95 ISBN: 0060572361 Date: 2004
  Kirkus
  From the celebrated author of Our Simple Gifts, comes an all-new collectionof heartwarming holiday tales.
  Updated 8.25.04
• Miracle on the 17th Green by James Patterson ( 1996 )
  On Christmas Day, an ordinary man has a dream come true when he plays a round of golf and finds himself in the "zone." Absorbed in his sudden success, he continues to play while his already troubled marriage crumbles. Now on his own, he finds himself living, in one sense, the dream of a lifetime--playing on the Senior Tour. He makes it to the final round where a miracle takes place that changes him--and his family--forever.
  
• The Modern Magi by Carol Lynn Pearson ( 2003 )
  Annabelle Perkins, a middle-aged waitress from a small midwestern town, has always dreamed of a trip to the Holy Land at Christmas. After years of saving her dream is about to come true until something unexpected happens that forces her to make a difficult decision.
  
• The Christmas Thief by Carol Lynn Pearson ( 2003 )
  Megan Evans and her family discover the meaning of forgiveness and love of one's enemies when they set out to find the thief who stole their nativity set.
  
• Two Cooks A-Killing by Joanne Pence ( 2003 )
  Sleuth/chef Angie Amalfi doesn't expect homicide for the holidays, but she soon gets stirred into a stew brewing among the former cast members of a now-defunct soap opera.
• A Christmas Journey by Anne Perry ( 2003 )
  The New York Times bestselling author of Southampton Row offers a Christmas novella to the delight of her many fans.
  
• The Ice Harvest by Scott Phillips ( 2000 )
  Lawyer Charlie Arglist is looking to say goodbye to Wichita by revisiting the landscape of his used-up life. Yet before the sun rises, before he can leave town with a suitcase of stolen money, Charlie's ultimate scam explodes, uncovering a world full of twists that offers no mercy and allows few survivors.
  
• Hogfather
  Author: Terry Pratchett
  Publisher: HarperPrism $ 24 ISBN: 0061050466 Date: 1998
  PW
  It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, or maybe not, in this brilliant Discworld novel of a holiday season turned upside down by Death (the character, not the condition).
  Updated 11.27.06
• The Boat of Dreams by Richard Preston ( 2003 )
  It is 1967 and William Foster is missing in Vietnam--leaving his wife, daughter Lila, and son Will to fend for themselves on the coast of Maine with only an unreliable lobster boat to soothe their grief. As the holiday season nears, Will and Lila suspect that someone has been visiting their home and discover that love is the one power that can overcome all.
  
• Christmas Revels by Mary Jo Putney ( 2002 )
  From one of the romance world's biggest names, this holiday collection presents five couples who discover life's greatest gift, love, at the happiest time of the year.
  
• Zanna's GIft: A Life in Christmases
  Author: Richards, Scott
  Publisher: Forge $ 12.95 ISBN: 0765312379 Date: 2004
  LJ
  From the pen of a masterful storyteller comes a touching and inspirational story of love, loss, and the true meaning of Christmas that is sure to become a timeless classic that will be passed from generation to generation.
  Updated 11.2.04
• Holiday in Your Heart by Leann Rimes ( 1997 )
• The Christmas Garden Affair by Ann Ripley ( 2002 )
  Louise Eldridge is again on the case when a rival garden show host is found pushing up daisies.
  
• The Shoe Box by Francine Rivers ( 1999 )
  One of the CBA's most talented and well-loved authors presents a beautiful Christmas novella that's sure to touch readers' hearts, starring Timmy, a foster child with a very special and mysterious shoe box.
  
• Christmas Stories from Louisiana by Dorothy Dodge Robbins, editor ( 2003 )
  This festive volume celebrates the moods and spirits of the Pelican State at Yuletide with tales from such greats as Robert Olen Butler, Kelly Cherry, Kate Chopin, and Katherine Anne Porter.
• The Christmas Matchmaker
  Author: Savery, Jeanne
  Publisher: Zebra $ 4.99 (paper) ISBN: 0821776533 Date: 2004
  Booklist
  It's a Christmas full of unexpected romance when a man rescues a widow and her child from a raging snowstorm and brings them along to a house party for the holidays.
  Suggested Reading: Romance Stars
  Updated 10.4.04
• Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris ( 1997 )
  This wonderfully subversive holiday gift package reprints Sedaris' deliciously acerbic short story "The Santaland Diaries" and combines it with two equally sardonic Sedaris Christmas classics plus an all-new holiday tale. For everyone who's had enough of the forced good cheer, family madness, and commercial overkill of Christmas, Holiday on Ice is the perfect antidote.
  
• Startling Joy: Seven Magical Stories of Christmas
  Author: Schaap, James Calvin
  Publisher: Revell $ 14.99 ISBN: 0800718771 Date: 2005
  LJ
  This heartwarming read is both moving and magical and will help readers usher in a joyful Christmas season, even amidst the howling winds of winter.
  Updated 9.17.05
• A Treasury of Old-Fashioned Christmas Stories
  Author: Slung, Michele (edt)
  Publisher: Carroll & Graf $ 14.95 ISBN: 078671803X    Date: 2006
  A rich Christmas cake of an anthology, stylishly packaged and brimming over with heartwarming drama, seasonal merriment and unexpected thrills. Michele Slung, who has been creating original and highly praised collections for thirty years, believes in bringing new energy to the term "old-fashioned." That is to say, she's a reader's reader who loves to uncover those stories written in another time that surprise us by their vibrancy, by the way they move us or make us laugh, while also reminding us of our most deeply held values and our ideals.
  Among the writers we might expect to find are such familiar classic masters as Bret Harte, Mark Twain, Sarah Orne Jewett, Saki, O. Henry or Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The real idea, however, is the crafting of a book that is as unexpected in its roster of authors as it is in its effect on our heartsand spirits. - Publisher Marketing
  Updated 11.30.06
• The Christmas Letters by Lee Smith ( 1996 )
  Three generations of women reveal their stories of love and marriage in the letters they write to family and friends during the holidays. It's a down-home Christmas story about tradition, family, and the shared experiences of women.
  
• Giovanni's Light by Phyllis Theroux ( 2002 )
  When it finally snows just four days before Christmas, the people of Ryland Falls are forced to stop hurrying and take time to celebrate. "Reading Giovanni's Light is like being transported by magic into one of those miniature villages under an old-fashioned Christmas tree."--Sue Grafton.
• A Yuletide Universe by Brian M. Thomsen, editor ( 2003 )
  Booklist
  The contributors to this Christmas anthology include well-known writers with strong fan followings such as Bram Stoker and Hugo Award-winning author of American Gods Neil Gaiman, Hugo Award winner Connie Willis, Anne McCaffrey, Harlan Ellison, Clive Barker, and many others.
  
• The Christmas Blessing by Donna Vanliere ( 2003 )
  The heartwarming sequel to the beloved New York Times bestseller The Christmas Shoes.
  
• The Christmas Shoes by Donna Vanliere ( 2001 )
  Destined to become an instant Christmas classic, The Christmas Shoes is an extraordinary tale based on the popular song by the same name. The beautifully rendered book follows the paths of a man and a boy through one fateful, snowy Christmas.
• Tidings by William Wharton ( 1987)
• Midnight Clear by William Wharton ( 1982 )
  From the author of Birdy, a tale of youth and war set in the Ardennes Forest on Christmas Eve, 1944.
  
• Christmas in My Heart by Joe Wheeler, editor ( 1995 )
  The riches of master storytellers such as Pearl S. Buck, Madelein L'Engle, O. Henry, and Taylor Caldwell are combined with stirring tales by unknown authors and fascinating folktales to form a priceless treasury of holiday classics. Destined to become part of every family's celebrations, this precious treasury of Christmas stories is a gift from the heart.
• Christmas in My Soul by Joe Wheeler, editor ( 2001 )
  Wheeler celebrates an old-fashioned Christmas in a new collection of touching, heartwarming stories that reveal the spirit of the season.
• The Twelve Stories of Christmas by Joe Wheeler ( 2001 )
  The author and compiler of the bestselling Christmas in My Heart series presents a collection of all of his original Christmas stories, ranging in style from historical, contemporary, suspenseful, and romantic.
  
• Miracle and Other Christmas Stories by Connie Willis ( 1999 )
  An innovative author takes a gentle and often humorous look at the true meaning of Christmas in this gift book compilation of her popular Christmas stories from "Asimov's" magazine. From a funny dig at lengthy Christmas newsletters to a poignant look at Mary and Joseph's journey to Bethlehem, Willis weaves in her trademark wit and keen observation to remind readers what makes Christmas so special.
  

Links:

BookNook Christmas Fiction
Deck the Hall's With Books - Sachem Public Library
Myshelf Christmas Stories
Reader's Advice Christmas Stories

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