The Reindeer Keeper - Believe Again... by Barbara Briggs Ward

Illustrated by Suzanne Langelier-Lebeda
Published by Wheatmark
Reviewed for Review the Book

One of the most beautiful stories I have ever read. The embrace of the book, its tale of faith and love, yet mixed with sadness and resentment over past loss, touched a chord deep within me. This is a Christmas story, and yet it is a life story. A story of life that goes on through generations, through faith that doesn't fail and love that lives forever. Barbara Briggs Ward knows how to write magic that touches the soul and releases anger and sorrow.

Abbey has grown up without her mother from a delicate age, but she and her father have a wonderful relationship. They live above a funeral home where her father is the funeral director. Abbey helps her father by cutting out all the obituaries for the funeral home file, copies enough for the families, and through her caring mind begins to think about the stories of the lives of those who have passed. Her father is also a caring man, and has befriended a man that seems lonely and without friends. Imagine their surprise when this man dies and leaves a lovely old home and large property to Abbey's father with the stipulation that if her father passes, the property will go to her, and so it does. But this is the prelude to the magic.

Though a perfect Christmas story aimed at adults, primarily those who have lost the child within, or lost their way on the treacherous road of harsh reality, this is also a story for all seasons. This is not a book strictly of religious faith, in fact it is driven by the faith of a child, pure and unadulterated, whether that faith is in a person, a religious deity, or in Santa Claus. As children we have an innate faith and trust, we have an untouchable belief system. But life can change all that through the years. What we need is a reminder and this book provides exactly that.

There are many changes in quick succession in the life of Abbey, but her love for her husband Steve, and the reciprocation of that love is the catalyst for overcoming all obstacles. Life simply is not always smooth and simple, there are always sudden drops, disappointments, and misunderstandings. These are the trials she must overcome, in particular with her feelings about her mother who died when Abbey was young. It's a common enough human feeling in such cases to resent the parent for leaving, and Abby has carried this for too many years of her life. As her family returns home for the Christmas holiday, a magical event happens in her life that changes her entire feeling for her mother and fills her with understanding. It is with this new understanding and the love of her husband and family that she is able to cope with the news she is about to hear. But with newfound strength of heart and faith she is able to accomplish what she sets out to do.

This story brought me comfort. It cloaks the reader with warmth like a down-filled duvet. An impressive debut work of fiction. I highly recommend this book, I just can't say enough about it. I am so thankful I read it. Barbara, you are the believer, and you shared it beautifully.

Six Geese A-Slaying by Donna Andrews

I want to go to Caerphilly next Christmas to watch their parade.  Better still, I wish I had been there to see the one just past! Who knew putting together a Christmas parade could entertain a reader throughout most of a book, have an acting "Mary" go into labor on the nativity float, and in between have and solve a murder? Not to mention the llamas and camels and elephants, oh my!  Elephants? Well, it is really a Holiday parade incorporating several December holidays and Meg Langslow has been put in charge.

Donna Andrews knows how to entertain and be completely unexpected at the same time. In her several books, she consistently brings to her reading audience laughter, mystery, and a cast of characters that must be read to be believed. This is one author I would love to meet, her imagination knows no bounds, even to the name of the town. She also has the uncanny ability to combine characters both human and animal and this time she has done it in a big way.

Her cast of regular characters is surprisingly large and interactive and yet there is always room for more. Who will solve the murder? Why was it committed in the first place, and why at Christmas? There are enough suspects with motive to fill the jail and then some. I’m always sad in a way when the mystery is solved and the story ends, but very thankful that so far there is always another on its way. This is one series you can depend on to lift your spirits. A great cozy read that makes you feel like part of the family. 

Visions of Sugar Plums by Janet Evanovich

Bounty hunters, superheroes and elves, oh my! Stephanie Plum is rushing headlong into Christmas without a thing accomplished. When a strange man literally pops into her kitchen, strange events become the norm. This latest of Janet Evanovich's offerings is bound to give readers a feeling of relief that they are not Stephanie Plum. Especially at Christmas, when time runs short, weird and confusing things are happening, and her wacky family is in top form. Just who is this man who pops in and out of her daily life wreaking emotional havoc? Also, what about the attack elves? Lighthearted and fun, I really enjoyed this unusual Christmas story. 4 1/2 stars.

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

I am so glad I decided to read this book again. This one is the original first edition text from 1843. This edition was reproduced from the original by Dover Publications in 1991 with the following note added:
“The Christmas gift presented to the English-speaking world in 1843 by the preeminent novelist Charles Dickens (1812-1870) has never lost its power to delight. Adapted in numerous ways and for a great variety of media over the yeaars, this modern Christmas myth, which is linked to every Christmas celebration and whose characters have become household names, is still best enjoyed in its inimitable original wording. The text in the present volume is that of the first edition (Chapman and Hall, London, 1843)”.

I quote this from the Dover Classics Edition because it is very true. Much as it wouldn't seem like Christmas without "A Christmas Carol" in one form or another, nothing tells it as well as Charles Dickens' original. My favorite movie version is the second made, with Alistair Sim, which sticks to the original fairly well. But the last time I read the book was in 1952. I loved it then and I love it now.

Dickens' descriptions of mid-1800s London are so real and so chilling one wonders how the English survived those times. The attitudes are spot on, as Dickens' characters always are. What makes "A Christmas Carol" different is the absolute fear that Scrooge feels upon seeing his old "dead as a doornail" partner visit him on Christmas Eve. The feel of Dickens' writing is so powerful nothing can be ignored.

The visits of the three spirits are amazing in the depth they are given and in what they accomplish and how. As most people do know the story in one form or another, I won't go into the visits other than how imaginative the story is in the way Scrooge's background and Scroogeness is dealt with so succinctly. This book is a must-read at least once in a reader's life, even if seen as plays, movies, even cartoons and remakes. Nothing is so satisfactory as the book itself.

Santa Claus Is Coming by M.J. Rodgers

This book was a pleasant surprise to me. M.J. Rodgers has concocted a warped version of “The 12 Days of Christmas” in this suspenseful and fast-paced foray. The tension, both physical and mental, builds constantly to an ending that took me completely by surprise. “Santa Claus Is Coming” brings two totally opposing personalities together working as movie critics in point and counterpoint, a good description of their interaction. They are drawn together in this rapid chase to find the person who is threatening Belle Breeze at the TV station and at home. I read this entire book in one go, something I don’t often manage. This is a Harlequin Intrigue, copyright 1993. 4 stars

The Christmas Train by David Baldacci

A lighthearted read evoking a simpler time, the story centers around a disillusioned journalist and his chance to complete what his father had never been able to accomplish. Tom Langdon had known for years that there was a familial connection to Samuel Clemens aka Mark Twain but he was not aware that his father had a last wish for Tom to complete a story that Twain had never finished. A story of taking a train across the country at Christmastime. Twain supposedly took many notes on the trip, but had never made a story from them.

As it turns out, Tom is planning to travel across the country to be in California by Christmas to be with his girl-friend, and will be traveling by train because he is not allowed to travel by air due to a volcanic temper tantrum in the airport after a long, tiring flight and a probing search at the security gate. Thus he decides to follow through on his father’s deathbed wish. He decides he will take his own notes and compile them into a story. Traveling by rail he hears the stories of many people who have made the trip many times before. He also meets a young couple wanting to get married on the train, an eccentric old woman who seems to know everyone very well, a film director, and a person from his own past. At one point on the trip there also appears to be a bit of a thief, and this story runs along in the background.

David Baldacci has created a little rolling world peopled with interesting and varied characters. Then everything comes to a screeching halt as they become trapped in this little world with apparently no way out. I really enjoyed this book, and particularly the subtexts and direction changes, red herrings and subterfuge with a dash or humour. This was a good Christmas story and the ending took me completely by surprise; I’m sure to be reading it again next Christmas. Surprisingly, this is the first Baldacci book I have read and I know this is not his usual fare, but of course I will be reading some of his other books in 2009! I definitely recommend it.

To Every Thing There Is a Season by Alistair MacLeod

A beautiful little book that I could relate to so well. This is a Christmas memory of the author, Alistair MacLeod, at the age of eleven on the threshold of leaving childhood behind. The story takes place on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia in 1940, on a small family farm. Snow season begins as early as October in Cape Breton. In the author's words, "My family had been there for a long, long time and so it seemed had I. And much of that time seems like the proverbial yesterday. Yet when I speak on this Christmas 1977, I am not sure how much I speak with the voice of that time or how much in the voice of what I have since become....For Christmas is a time of both past and present and often the two are imperfectly blended."

To every thing there is a season, and to every page there is a gorgeous illustration. Illustrated by Peter Rankin, the time and place are beautifully captured. This is a warm, comforting "olden days" portrait of Christmas; although it is written for 1940, it conjures Christmases of an earlier time as well. An excellent short story to read for Christmas, it is only 47 pages long including history, author note and illustrations. It would make a nice traditional family Christmas story to read every year.