Having been part of the Bookstagram community this year, the idea of reading some festive-themed books came to mind this year. I intended to read Jostein Gaarder's The Christmas Mystery through Advent though typically, I couldn't find it until yesterday!
The first book I read was 'Christmas at Tiffany's' by Karen Swann, picked up in a charity shop.
A large amount of the book is NOT set at Christmas so I think that perhaps the name is a marketing ploy but it is certainly an entertaining book.
Our heroine of the book, Cassie, finds out, during her anniversary party, that her husband of exactly 10 years has a child and relationship with someone else. She flees together with her best friends who live in London, Paris and New York respectively and their plan (conceived in minutes apparently) is for her to live with each of them for 4 months and decide how she wants to spend her life from here on since she married straight from University and has been rusticating in Scotland since then. She heads first to New York to stay with a friend there where she encounters her friend Susie's brother who she snogged just before she met her husband. In New York, she undergoes a make-over in the style of friend and works for a PR Agency. She meets a man and all seems to go well until a bit of a disaster in terms of work...
In Paris, she changes yet again, discovers new skills, new friends and explores lists to get to know the place that the aforementioned brother has drawn up for her.
Eventually she ends up in London at the final location.
I enjoyed this book and the fairytale element of it although I found all the 'beauty and grooming' aspects of the book made me roll my eyes a bit and wonder why people suffer so much for perceived 'beauty'. I also found the 'hero' of the book rather too perfect and in that sense, with his preplanning, verging on the creepy a bit, even though he was not written in that way! Still, it was a good ol' chick lit book that worked well for me. I like a happy ending!
My second read is a Terry Pratchett book, The Hogfather, which I first tried reading in August about 10 years ago before I had read very much Pratchett. I abandoned it and didn't really get into it.
This time, being more au fait with Disc World, having read quite a few in the last year, I really enjoyed it.
In Discworld, it is almost Hogswatch- Discworld's equivalent of Christmas. The Hogfather is on his way with his hogs driving his sleigh. Except that The Hogfather seems to resemble Death, the Grim Reaper, this year and it seems strange things or happening. Someone or something has killed the immortal Hogfather and the belief that is currently not being used for that is making all sorts of strange creatures that people have suspected exist appear.
Susan Sto Stelitt, Death's Granddaughter, who desperately wants to live a normal life as a governess, despite beating up all the bogeys and horrible things that appear under the bed, gets embroiled when she realises that Death is doing a job he really shouldn't be doing.
I found the book wonderfully imaginative, festive and as usual, full of unbelievably poignant thoughts that strike you. It is dark as usual but with light and amusement. I really enjoyed the characters in it and the imagery and evocative place descriptions Pratchett created such as Bloody Stupid Johnson's shower room that Ridcully discovers. He is so inventive. I always love the fact that there is a mystery to be solved in many of his books, in this case, what has happened to the Hogfather and WHY?
I enjoyed getting to know Death a bit better and realising he is really a sentimental soul in ways. He appears in pretty much all Discworld books but I've not read any with as much detail as this.
This is definitely an alternative, brilliant festive read.
Read,of course, accompanied by snacks!
Have you read any of these?
This is my Advent Calendar for day 21 with Julie at KC's court.