Guest post by Henry Young.
There’s something for everyone at your local library this Christmas! This December, we have renowned singer, songwriter, and storyteller Ed Boxall in Rye. We host the Choral Society in Heathfield and Accord Voices in Crowborough. And we also have a range of festive crafts and activities in libraries across East Sussex.
This month, we’ve chosen a selection of seasonal reads. Christmas-theme books that are both heartwarming and horrifying!
Top Christmas fiction
A Christmas Memory by Truman Capote
Capote’s 1965 semi-autobiographical work describes his childhood memories of the real-life Sook, a distant relative who was ‘the only stable person’ in his life. Capturing the essence of Christmastime in a depression-era Alabama, it’s a love letter to yesteryear brimming with yuletide cheer – and a splash of contraband whiskey.
Unusually sweet for Capote whose acid tongue lost him a lot of friends.
Reserve the paperback book of A Christmas Memory
The Green Road by Anne Enright
In her early old age, difficult, wonderful Rosaleen announces that she’s decided to sell the house and divide the proceeds. Her adult children come back for one last Christmas, with the feeling that their childhoods are being erased, their personal history bought and sold.
A standout chapter is when poor, put-upon Constance (the eldest sister) is doing the Christmas shopping:
Constance bought a case of Prosecco on special offer to wrap and leave on various doorsteps and threw in eight frozen pizzas in case the kids rolled up with friends. Frozen berries. Different ice cream. She got wine, sherry, whiskey, fresh nuts, salted nuts, crisps, bags and bags of apples, two mangoes, a melon, dark cherries for the fruit salad, root ginger, fresh mint, a wooden crate of satsumas, the fruit cold and promising sweet, each one with its own sprig of green, dark leaves. She got wrapping paper, red paper napkins, Sellotape, and – more out of habit, now the children were grown – packs and packs of batteries, triple A, double A, a few Cs…
Reserve the paperback book of The Green Road
Reserve the eAudio of The Green Road
Christmas and Other Horrors compiled by Ellen Datlow
Hugo Award-winning editor, and horror legend Ellen Datlow presents a chilling horror anthology of original short stories exploring the endless terrors of winter solstice traditions across the globe.
The winter solstice is celebrated as a time of joy around the world—yet the long nights also conjure a darker tradition of ghouls, hauntings, and visitations. This anthology of all-new stories invites you to huddle around the fire and revel in the unholy, the dangerous, the horrific aspects of a time when families and friends come together—for better and for worse.
From the eerie Austrian Schnabelperchten to the skeletal Welsh Mari Lwyd, by way of ravenous golems, uncanny neighbors, and unwelcome visitors, Christmas and Other Horrors captures the heart and horror of the festive season.
Reserve the paperback book of Christmas and Other Horrors
Christmas Non-fiction
Christmas on the Farm: Wintry tales from a life spent working with animals by Adam Henson with Jean Ritchie
Farmer and Countryfile presenter Adam Henson has spent his whole life on Bemborough farm – over 50 winters and Christmases. During that time, the troughs have frozen over, snow has fallen so thickly that riding shire horses out to the fields has been the only option, puppies have been found under the Christmas tree – and crises out in the world have almost brought the farm to a close. Christmas for a farmer takes a different shape to everyone else’s, because the animals always have to come first. So settle down – ideally by a fireside and with a cup of something hot – to hear the tales that have defined festivity for the Henson family, and the turbulent times that have ensured Christmas is now more important than ever for Adam and his loved ones.
Reserve the paperback book of Christmas on the Farm
Christmas poems
And So This Is Christmas: 51 Seasonally Adjusted Poems by Brian Bilston
Bilston has been described as “The Poet Laureate of Twitter”. Ian McMillan has described him as “a laureate for our fractured times.” He has been called “the Banksy of the poetry world”!
‘And So This is Christmas’ are fifty-one poems in celebration of the festive season: from bizarre family traditions to the office Christmas party; from voting day for turkeys to the impossible art of gift-giving. So hang your stockings, grab your mistletoe and curl up with this heart-warming collection of Christmas crackers.
Reserve the paperback book of And So This Is Christmas
Christmas Audio
Twas The Nightshift Before Christmas by Adam Kay
Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat . . . but 1.4 million NHS staff are heading off to work. In this perfect present for anyone who has ever set foot in a hospital, Adam Kay delves back into his diaries for a hilarious, horrifying and sometimes heartbreaking peek behind the blue curtain at Christmastime.
Twas the Nightshift Before Christmas is a love letter to all those who spend their festive season on the front line, removing babies and baubles from the various places they get stuck, at the most wonderful time of the year.
Reserve the eAudio of Twas The Nightshift Before Christmas
Reserve the paperback book of Twas The Nightshift Before Christmas
Children’s Christmas Fiction
The Biggest Christmas Secret Ever by L.D. Lapinski
OK, so your mum’s partner, Nick, has a big bushy beard, a thick red coat, a team of reindeer and just happens to be really busy around Christmas Eve – what could that mean…Harper and Will’s lives are already full of festive wonder, but baby sister Yula is about to bring a whole new meaning to the magic of Christmas. Indoor snowflakes, naughty gingerbread biscuits and reindeer running wild spell Christmas chaos! And with the Elf and Safety Department on the lookout for any unexplained festive magic, it’s up to their family to keep the biggest Christmas secret ever.
Reserve the paperback book of The Biggest Christmas Secret Ever
Children’s Christmas Non-fiction
Horrible Christmas by Terry Deary and illustrated by Martin Brown
Filled with all the festive facts every Horrible Histories reader wants to know! The complete horrible history of Christmas tells tales from the dark days when the Puritans tried to abolish Christmas, to Christmas in the trenches when the British and Germans traded bullets for footballs. Plus, dreadful jokes, rotten recipes and a Christmas quiz!
Reserve the paperback book of Horrible Christmas
Can get enough of our book recommendations? Check out November’s round up of great books!
