First Line: I love Christmas.

Connie Willis, one of my favorite authors, loves Christmas and doesn't much care for Hans Christian Andersen:

"Nobody, before Andersen came along, had thought of writing such depressing Christmas stories. Even Dickens, who had killed a fair number of children in his books, didn't kill Tiny Tim. But Andersen, apparently hell-bent on ruining everyone's holidays, froze innocent children, melted loyal toys into lumps of lead, and chopped harmless fir trees who were just standing there in the forest, minding their own business, into kindling."

Willis goes on to say in her Introduction to Miracle and Other Christmas Stories that she prefers Miracle on 34th Street to It's a Wonderful Life when watching holiday films (so do I), and she joyfully rolls with abandon through lists of her favorite Christmas stories. What she sets out to do in this book is provide all sorts of well-written, fun holiday short stories, and she succeeds brilliantly.

For those of you who are more familiar with Willis's science fiction novels, be warned that these stories aren't exclusively in that genre. There's something for everyone. For example, "Inn" is a church choir story with a time-travel twist; "Miracle" is a delightful duel between Miracle on 34th Street and It's a Wonderful Life; and "Cat's Paw" is a British country house Christmas mystery.

My two favorites are "Adaptation" about a divorced bookstore employee trying to spend Christmas Eve with his daughter, and "In Coppelius's Toyshop" in which a world-class jerk gets his just desserts. And if that isn't enough, Willis includes lists of her twelve favorite Christmas stories and movies at the very end.

Normally I don't seek out holiday-themed reads. If they fall into my hands, all's well and good. I'm very glad this particular Christmas book fell into my hands this year. I love Christmas but have found myself lacking the true spirit. (I don't want to sound like Hans Christian Andersen, so I won't go into the reasons why I feel this way.) Miracle and Other Christmas Stories went a very long way in bringing some much-needed cheer into my rather bleak frame of mind. Connie Willis continues to be one of my Go-To Authors. ( )

Connie Willis loves Christmas. This book of eight short stories is both entertaining and though-provoking. My favorites were "Miracle" and Epiphany", the first and last stories in the book. The first is a chaotic, magical story where nothing seems to go right, the last a modern retelling of the Three Magi. And don't skip the introduction or the afterward, you'll find references to great Christmas stories there, as well as in the included lists of twelve great Christmas reads and twelve great Christmas movies. ( )

(Alistair) Well, this was my over-Christmas reading. (I mention this mostly for those of you wondering, as since I am booklogging it in January, it might seem that I read it an an odd time. This is not the case - it's just that my booklogging developed something of a backlog over the holiday season and this is the one I didn't get done. In fact, you're about to get four booklog posts in rapid succession: this one, the two books I read over the Christmas/New Year period, including the Chicago for New Year trip, and the one new book I read today on account of it being small and therefore quick.)

And this was most appropriate for over-Christmas reading, containing as it does a variety of short Christmas stories from the heartwarming "Miracle" to the rather-creepy-even-if-the-bad (i.e. child-disliking) guy-gets-his-comeuppance-stories-are-a-staple "In Coppelius's Toyshop" through the bibliophile-delighting "Adaptation". In genre, it wanders around the various SFnal and fantasy subgenres with merry abandon (probably closest to so-called "magical realism"), around the central Christmas theme, but never fails to please.

Excellent and heart-lightening Christmas fiction, I think is how I would sum it up. I'm fairly certain I shall be digging it out again next year.

(First Note: Actually, this is the first Connie Willis I have managed to get around to reading. Must add some of her other work to the top of my to-be-read-soon pile.)

(Second Note: Also, must really find time to watch Miracle on 34th Street.)
( http://weblog.siliconcerebrate.com/ce... ) ( )

This was a Christmas gift from Margaret. I enjoyed it. I haven't ever really learned how to read short stories, I always feel like I must read them like a book, each one, straight through, from beginning to end. Well, this book went pretty fast, but I didn't care for all the stories. I'm not that excited about Willis's writing style, though she comes highly recommended by Margaret. It's fine and fun and easy to read. Sometimes she seems repetitive and the style seems kind of stilted, particularly for stories that to all appearances are supposed to be pretty contemporary. A few of the stories (The Pony, Epiphany, Adaptation) I didn't really get what had happened at the end. I don't like being left up-in-the-air. My favorites, though, were The Inn (time travel! yeah!) and In Coppelius' Toyshop (weirdly creepy). ( )

http://gr4c5.wordpress.com/2007/12/16... ( )