December Book Picks 2022

December Book Picks 2022. December 1, 2022.

Even while the Bronte-esque Mystery of Udolpho still sits on my nightstand I began one of this month’s book picks. One of those books is The Valancourt Book of Victorian Christmas Ghost Stories edited by Tara Moore. As the title clearly states, this book is a selection of Victorian ghost stories with a Christmas backdrop. And if you like A Christmas Carol then this Dickens-like compilation of short stories should be up your alley. Ghost stories on Christmas Eve were a tradition of Christmas’s past, so this book should delight the right people. I found myself staying up late last night reading one particularly spooky story out of this book. Hair-raising selections vary from Elizabeth Gaskell to Sir Walter Scott. Victorian-era literature lovers will enjoy this book.

Fellow Anglophiles will enjoy the second book pick. An English Christmas, compiled and edited by John Julius Norwich, is a selection of Christmas stories, poems, folklore, etc. about Christmas over the centuries in England. Much of our current Christmas culture stems from old England and you can read another interesting book on how Christmas was revived after near-death. That book title is here. An English Christmas takes selections from Austen, T.S. Eliot, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and much more. I may have to start this one as well before finishing the other 3 books I am working on….

Have a beautiful day!