9 Books & Bookish Gifts to Complete your entire Christmas Shopping

Happy Advent! And happy let's-go-crazy-and-spend-money-and-buy-gifts weekend. Don't forget to support all your favorite bloggers by using affiliate links on Cyber Monday and throughout your online shopping trips.

I'm an ocean away from friends & family so I have to do a lot of my Christmas shopping online. Here are a few good books and bookish gifts I've found:

9 Books & Bookish Gifts to Complete your entire Christmas Shopping

Grandparents:

Book stand pillow

Give wrists a rest while reading in bed.

Amazon

Moms and Aunts:

The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Recipes from an Accidental Country Girl by Ree Drummond
Over 8000 5-star ratings on Goodreads, over 1300 on Amazon, must be good.
Amazon; Barnes & Noble; ChristianBook

Dads and Uncles:

The Auschwitz Escape by Joel C. Rosenberg

Over 1,100 5-star reviews on Amazon and over 1,400 5-stars ratings on Goodreads

ChristianBook; Amazon; Barnes & Noble

Adult nieces, cousins, sisters:

Golden Daughter by Anne Elisabeth Stengl
Newest book in my favorite series. You know I had to put it somewhere in the list.
Amazon; Barnes & Noble

Adult nephews, cousins, brothers

or 

The Complete Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Amazon (a deal on Monday!) or Barnes & Noble

Teen nieces, cousins, sisters:

Live Original by Sadie Robertson

I've enjoyed watching her on Dancing with the Stars this season; I'm sure her book is as warm, friendly, and genuine as she appears.

ChristianBook; Amazon; Barnes & Noble

Teen nephews, cousins, brothers:

The Keeper: The Unguarded Story of Tim Howard by Tim Howard with Ali Benjamin

The goalie for Team USA during the World Cup in 2014 tells his story. Releases Dec 9th.
Amazon; Barnes & Noble; ChristianBook

Under 10 niece, nephew, cousin, sibling, best friend's kids:

The Jesus Storybook Bible 

Over 1440 people gave it a 5-star rating on Amazon

CBD (save 59%!); Amazon; Barnes & Noble

Friends:
Any of the above (or below)

White Elephant gift:

Book Pillows

Amazon

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Remember - Anytime you visit Amazon.com or BarnesAndNoble.com or ChristianBooks.com or Independent Bookstores use an affiliate link to get there. Any purchase you make from a link on my site generates a small kickback. You need not purchase the item I'm featuring, any purchase counts. It costs you nothing extra and is an easy way to support this site.

A December Bride by Denise Hunter

As some of you know I’m a school librarian in Africa, and over Christmas break I got to go home to the States. Before leaving I requested a bunch of books through NetGalley to read on the plane rides (it takes three flights, two of which are between 6 and 8 hours long). Well, I certainly enjoyed the books but then was lazy over break (and so busy with Christmas and seeing people) that I never got the reviews written.

So here is the first of books I read over the 24 hour trip:

A December Bride by Denise Hunter. Zondervan, 2013. 120p. (9780310338741) Series: A Year of Weddings, #1

A fun quick read that I think I started while waiting at the gate and had finished before we took off.

Goodreads Summary:

What started as a whim turned into an accidental - and very public - engagement. Can Layla and Seth keep up the facade in Chapel Springs this holiday season - for the sake of her career . . . and his heart?

Under normal circumstances, Seth Murphy, the best friend of Layla O'Reilly's ex-fiance would be the last person she'd marry. But the news of their upcoming (and phony) nuptials convinces a big client that Layla may be high-society enough to work for his agency, a coup that would put her fledgling home-staging business on the map. Seth has secretly loved Layla for years, even when she was dating his best friend. Maybe she'll never forgive him for the way he hurt her back then, but he has to try. And Layla is willing to keep up their engagement farce until she's landed her client. For Layla, it's the chance to save her career. But for Seth, it's his last chance to win her heart.

My Review:

This was a sweet, quick read and I want to read more stories set in Chapel Springs. At the end is an excerpt of Barefoot Summer and it reminded me that Perfect Match was by the same author. The characters are all connected somehow – friends, sisters, I don’t really remember now.

Seth and Layla were very well portrayed given the length of the book and it was very easy to sympathize with their reasons for getting into the mess of a fake engagement and choosing to keep it up. I don’t like romance stories where everything happens in a short frame of time, it’s not realistic and in real life those strong feelings likely aren’t sustainable. December Bride takes place over two weeks time, but they had met two years prior and there had been some interest way back then, so it was easy to believe the way events unfolded.

A cute, Christmas romance with very nicely written kissing scenes. Not overly described, just enough to let you know it was a perfect, sweet kiss. While thinking how to word that I was reminded of The Princess Bride’s “most passionate, the most pure” kiss and I think Seth and Layla’s first kiss could rank up there. :-)

Not that that is very realistic either, I’ve been told (by newlyweds who ought to know) that kissing is awkward at first and nowhere near as picture perfect as the movies make it out to be. And actually I don't really like Wesley and Buttercup's kiss all that much - too much jaw movement. When we were little my sister made up a word for that, "humjumming" (at least I think that's how you'd spell it).

If you need a quick Christmas romance then this is a great choice!

It’s very easy to reread it

Go read it! Find it at a library near you; Buy it from Amazon; Buy it from ChristianBooks.com; Buy it from Barnes & Noble

Disclosure: I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission.

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Remember - Anytime you visit Amazon.com or BarnesAndNoble.com or ChristianBooks.com use an affiliate link to get there. Any purchase you make from a link on my site generates a small kickback. You need not purchase the item I'm featuring, any purchase counts. It costs you nothing extra and is an easy way to support this site.

A Wreath of Snow by Liz Curtis Higgs

A Wreath of Snow: A Victorian Christmas Novella by Liz Curtis Higgs. WaterBrook Press, 2012. 224p. (9781400072170)

It’s fun but kind of strange to read a story where a snowstorm plays an important part when you’re in a country that doesn’t really have snow and when you won’t see snow for over a year or two.

Goodreads Summary:

Christmas Eve 1894

 All Margaret Campbell wants for Christmas is a safe journey home. When her plans for a festive holiday with her family in Stirling crumble beneath the weight of her brother’s bitterness, the young schoolteacher wants nothing more than to return to the students she loves and the town house she calls home.

 Then an unexpected detour places her in the path of Gordon Shaw, a handsome newspaperman from Glasgow, who struggles under a burden of remorse and shame.

 When the secret of their shared history is revealed, will it leave them tangled in a knot of regret? Or might their past hold the threads that will bind their future together?

 As warm as a woolen scarf on a cold winter’s eve, A Wreath of Snow is a tender story of love and forgiveness, wrapped in a celebration of all things Scottish, all things Victorian, and, especially, all things Christmas.

My review:

I enjoyed this novella. It didn’t strike me as being too short or as if something were missing, although 224 pages seems like a novel and not a novella to me. (I read an ebook version and didn’t know the length until just now.) I did think it odd that Margaret and Gordon would fall in love so quickly – a day or two, especially considering their history.

This wasn’t really a romance though; it was a story of forgiveness. A story that reminded you not to withhold forgiveness and harbor bitterness and anger. A reminder that it’s best to seek forgiveness even if it digs up past pain because healing can’t truly happen until forgiveness is given and received.

Liz Curtis Higgs has done a lot of research on Scotland and many of her books are set there. I particularly loved Here Burns My Candle and Mine is the Night. Check out her website about Scotland to learn more about the author and her love for that country.

In this book she does a great job describing the setting, scenery, traditions and general feel of Christmas in the 1890s. An interesting fact from the author’s note at the end is that the word wreath is “also the Scots word for ‘a bank or drift of snow.’”

Go read it! Find it at a library near you; Buy it from Amazon; Buy it from ChristianBook.com

Disclosure: I received this book for free from the publisher through the Blogging for Books book review program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission.

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Remember - Anytime you visit Amazon.com or BarnesAndNoble.com or ChristianBooks.com use an affiliate link to get there. Any purchase you make from a link on my site generates a small kickback. You need not purchase the item I'm featuring, any purchase counts. It costs you nothing extra and is an easy way to support this site.

The Bridge by Karen Kingsbury

The Bridge by Karen Kingsbury. Howard Books, 2012. 258p. (9781451647013)

This is the first Karen Kingsbury book I’ve read. And I loved it. It is very likely that I’ll be reading more of books in the near future. For some reason I thought her novels tended to have a lot of romance but this one didn’t, it had a very sweet love story.

Back cover:

Number one New York Times bestselling author Karen Kingsbury delivers an instant classic with this heartwarming Christmas story about a hundred-year flood, lost love, and the beauty of enduring friendships.

Molly Allen lives alone in Portland, but she left her heart back in Tennessee with a man she walked away from five years ago. They had a rare sort of love she hasn’t found since.

Ryan Kelly lives in Nashville after a broken engagement and several years on the road touring with a country music duo. He can still hear Molly’s voice encouraging him to follow his dreams; Molly, whose memory stays with him. At least he can visit The Bridge—the oldest bookstore in historic downtown Franklin—and remember the hours he and Molly once spent there.

For thirty years, Charlie and Donna Barton have run The Bridge, providing the people of middle Tennessee with coffee, conversation, and shelves of good books—even through dismal book sales and the rise of digital books. Then in May, the hundred-year flood swept through Franklin and destroyed nearly every book in the store.

Now the bank is pulling the lease on The Bridge. Despondent and without answers, Charlie considers the unthinkable. Then tragedy strikes, and suddenly, everything changes. In the face of desperate brokenness and lost opportunities, could the miracle of a second chance actually unfold?

The Bridge is a love story set against the struggle of the American bookstore, a love story you will never forget.

My review:

I loved the setting, not just because it revolved around a bookstore, but because the author did such a great job describing the scenes and letting the reader feel the joy and contentment, the sorrow and the helplessness right alongside the characters.

The romance was sweet and it was very easy to understand Molly’s thoughts and actions. The reader also gets to know the other side of the story as well and feels Ryan’s pain and frustration. Neither party is innocent yet neither party is completely guilty either. It’s a good reminder that our impressions and thoughts can deceive us.

This isn’t just the story of the young couple though, more so it is the story of Charlie Barton and his love for his wife, Donna, and his desire for the book store to succeed and be a blessing.

It’s a fun read, great for Christmas and chances are I’ll curl up with it again in December.

Go read it! Find it at a library near you; Buy it from Amazon.com; Buy it from ChristianBooks.com

Disclosure: I received this book for free from the publisher through NetGalley. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission.

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Remember - Anytime you visit Amazon.com or BarnesAndNoble.com or ChristianBooks.com use an affiliate link to get there. Any purchase you make from a link on my site generates a small kickback. You need not purchase the item I'm featuring, any purchase counts. It costs you nothing extra and is an easy way to support this site.