Can Christmas transform your life in the most magical and transformative of ways? We all like to think so; there’s something about this most wonderful of seasons that makes most of us believe that it is somehow set up from the humdrum, pell-mell banality of life and thus is capable Continue Reading
Books
Book review: A Dog’s Perfect Christmas by W. Bruce Cameron
If ever a Christmas called for some feel good love and wonder, it’s this one. Coming at the tail end of a year of pandemic, which shows no sign of bowing out gracefully for a 2021 unfettered by sickness and death, Christmas 2020 feels like it needs all the help Continue Reading
On 11th day of Christmas … I put 15 more pop culture ornaments on my tree incl. Toy Story, Back to the Future, The Muppet Show, Aquaman, The Golden Girls
Remember how I said I bought a LOT of ornaments this year? Well, here’s proof I wasn’t lying! All kinds of things contributed to my ornaments binge, among them the fact that if you see an ornament of a particular character on eBay then you must grab it or you’ll Continue Reading
Book review: The Book of Hidden Wonders by Polly Crosby
While there is a great deal to be said for the fact that the truth will set you free, what is often overlooked is now painful the embrace of that truth can be. It is necessary and far preferable to wrapping yourself in a suffocating blanket of lies and self-delusion Continue Reading
On 8th day of Christmas … I read In a Holidaze by Christina Lauren
Life, it has oft been noted, does not come with do-overs. It would be nice if it did since, despite our best intentions, we seem to keep doing things poorly that require a better, more improved iteration and we are, quite simply stuck with the consequences of our annoyingly flawed Continue Reading
#Christmas book review: The Christmas Surprise by Jenny Colgan
One of the loveliest things about the Christmas novel genre is how they often feel like a great warm, festive hug just when you need it the most. While Christmas is for many people the most wonderful time of the year, it does arrive hot on the heels of 12 Continue Reading
On 4th day of Christmas … I read Christmas: A Biography by Judith Flanders #BookReview
You might ask yourself if Christmas actually needs a biography – aren’t all its many secrets and stories already well known to us? It turns out, as you dive deep into the highly readable Christmas: A Biography by Judith Flanders, that they really, really aren’t. All those stories we know Continue Reading
#Christmas book review: The Twelve Days of Dash & Lily by David Levithan and Rachel Cohn
Is Christmas a romantic time of year? That depends very much on who you ask but it is true, at least for the most part for Lily and Dash, two quite different young people who, after a red Moleskine book full of dares sends them running all New York and, Continue Reading
On 1st day of Christmas … I hung 15 new pop culture ornaments on my tree incl. Scooby-Doo!, Roger Rabbit, Onward, Laurel and Hardy + Captain Marvel, A Bug’s Life, Ghostbusters, Star Wars
If any year needs a filled to the tip of the needles Christmas tree, it is this one. (Let’s be honest, all years need festive decorating but 2020 really needs it.) I will admit to the fact that my Christmas in July tree never really came down – it’s a Continue Reading
Book review: The Trials of Koli (Rampart Trilogy #2) by M. R. Carey
Humanity has risen and fallen and rise again more times than the average historian can count. Ours is not a history built on success after endless success, unpunctuated by failure or loss; rather, we have lost almost as much as we have gained, and yet each times we have been Continue Reading