Book Chatter

Christmas on Cape Cod
By Nan Rossiter
Zebra, ASIN, B079KTR5ZP, 67 pp.

The Short of It:

A heartwarming story about family, love, and creating new traditions during the Christmas season.

The Rest of It:

I am no stranger to Nan Rossiter’s work. I think I’ve read nearly everything she’s published. Whenever I hear about something she’s written, I’m always eager to read it because it’s guaranteed to make you feel good. Christmas on Cape Cod can now be added to that feel-good list.

Christmas on Cape Cod includes some notable characters from Rossiter’s novel, The Gin and Chowder Club. which I also reviewed on this blog. That said, I don’t think you have to read the books in any kind of order. This story centers around Christmas so now is the perfect time to read it.

Asa and his son Noah head up to see his parents on the Cape for Christmas. As a single parent, Asa has his challenges but his good friend Maddie comes along for the ride and the three of them learn what Christmas means as they figure out this new life together.

I really enjoyed this story. It’s short but so full of good. Christmas stories (and movies) can be a little sappy in the telling but not here. Christmas on Cape Cod is all about family, and traditions and food and drink. It’s about letting go of what you know, in order to create something wonderful and new.

If you want to feel good, pick it up, start a fire and drink a mug of Glug, which is proudly featured in the book.

You can get Christmas on Cape Cod as a stand-alone ebook here.

Or, you can get Making Spirits Bright which is a Christmas anthology including Christmas on Cape Cod. Click here for that.

Source: Review copy provided by the publisher.
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

Sunday Matters

Wow, what a week. We had a shooting threat (three) on campus which forced us to do business in a different way and created some extra work because finals had to be moved online. Finals week without students feels very strange.

Right Now:

I can’t do much more than just sit here. I am a lump and yet I have much to do which probably won’t get done today. But I found out the other day that I need to take more vacation than I planned because of a miscalculation of hours so I get two more days which makes my last day of work this Tuesday. I return to work on January 8th!

This Week:

This week will be spent wrapping what I have and planning our meals for Christmas day. Normally we make reservations but the food hasn’t been great and it’s just too expensive. Last year, the restaurant ran out of food. No joke!

On another note, we adopted a family for Christmas through Adopt-a-Family but even though we opened it up to a couple of groups, donations have been sparse so I will be taking the next few days to figure out what we need to get and then get it so we can deliver it on Saturday.

I also have to do some sorting. My closets are embarrassing. When others are in need and you simply have too much junk… it really makes you second-guess the commercialism of Christmas.

Reading:

Well, I saw that I had one review copy that I forgot to get to so I popped open The Incendiaries and kind of fell into it. It’s short and reminding me of a lot of other books but it’s strangely fascinating.

Watching:

I told you last week I would catch-up on Christmas movies. I lied. Hopefully, this weekend we can catch a few because my list is long.

New Things I’ve Tried:

This stuff is amazing. It’s the Eggnog Liqueur from Trader Joe’s. It’s about $8 a bottle and deadly. You can add it to coffee, or you can drink it straight and it will definitely put some “Merry” into your Christmas.

Grateful for:

That eggnog. Nah, just kidding. Well, not really.

I am grateful for two extra days of vacation. I don’t like to just use up vacation if I don’t have anything planned but I can definitely use those two days with Christmas right around the corner.

My question to you, if you could add a new Christmas or holiday tradition to your routine, what would it be? I would really like to attend one of the Holiday Boat Parades every year. I miss those days on our friend’s yacht.

Chatting with friends about books and life…