Month: December 2023

The beautiful books of Christmas 2023
Books · Christmas · Family · Gratitude

The beautiful books of Christmas 2023

AuntGemLeave a comment

Friends and family showered me with books

Every Christmas – what do you do after the last present has been unwrapped, ooohed and ahhhed over, and the ribbons and paper tossed aside? I don’t know about you, but I grab another cup of coffee and sit down with my new books. And this year was a doozy! Some came from my Amazon wish list, and some came from the stellar gift-giving skills of my friends and family. Here, let me show you:

The first one I read through in just an hour or two – it’s a speedy read at only 108 pages. How the *Bleep* Did You Find Me? is skiptracer Judi Sheek’s story of her 30 years in the skiptracing, or “bounty-hunting” business, as I call it. She actually had one subject ask her the question that became the book’s title point blank. It’s the perfect collection of stories about how we leave evidence of our lives EVERYWHERE. Of course, you think – we have digital footprints all over! But people were doing skiptracing long before the internet. She can find practically any document you’ve ever signed. If you have a utility bill, then you can be found. I loved this book. After reading it I immediately checked to make sure all my social media settings were “private.”

Next, I tore through a commemorative magazine on The Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. Mom knows I’m fascinated by the British royals – all those pretty gowns! The jewels! The tiaras and crowns! – so she made sure I had this copy. It even covered the 2023 coronation of King Charles III.

Art and Wisdom

Next were three beautiful books that arrived before Christmas, from my sweet friend Jill. First one I read was Rooms of Their Own: Where Great Writers Write. She knows I’m working on a story of my own, and I was thrilled to see the different spaces famous writers had created for themselves. Some were pristine, set with windows looking over beautiful views, and others were as messy as mine. Jane Austen made do with a tiny 12-sided table in the family parlor. The book is illustrated with glorious watercolors of the spaces, and some vintage photographs.

Next up is Bedside Companion for Book Lovers: An Anthology of Literary Delights for Every Night of the Year. I’ve read just one item in it, for the day I received the book. Then, I decided to keep it by my bedside for 2024. Each page is numbered by the day of the year – January 1, January 2, and so forth. The night’s selection might be a poem, single paragraph, or a full page. I can’t wait to delve into it each night before bed, last thing before I go to sleep. With this gift I moved the floor lamp behind my bed to function as a reading light.

Jill gave me also a new book from a favorite artist and author – Susan Branch. Her Distilled Genius – A Collection of Life-Changing Quotes is enough to fill three commonplace books. Each page is hand-painted – both text and illustrations – by this wonderful artist. Because of her work I’ve added Martha’s Vineyard, her island home, to my bucket list of places I must visit.

Romance, Thrills, and Horror

When I looked at my Christmas gift from “the Rust gang” – my brother Bill’s family – then I knew I was in for a treat. Sister-in-law Reisha wrapped everything in a bibliophile-friendly book tote, with the covers of famous classics on the front. In addition to many other gifts (stationery AND stamps! An embosser to put my seal on all my books!) I received three books I’ve moved to the top of my must-read pile.

I’ve already started Neal Shusterman’s Unwind and it is living up to the word ‘dystopian.’ A group of teenagers is on the run in a post-war America; an America that fought a civil war over abortion. The two sides signed a treaty that outlawed abortion; but made it possible for parents and the state to “unwind” teens from 13 to 17. It’s a basically organ donation of – everything! And society tells itself that the teen isn’t technically being killed – they keep living in a “divided” state. Now that I type that I realize how ridiculous it is. But I want to find out what happens to these three, so I’m gonna keep on reading!

The two that I haven’t started are When in Rome by Sarah Adams and The Guest List by Lucy Foley. I will probably read “When in Rome” first – it looks like a cheerful romance. Per the cover blurb: “This modern take on the Hepburn classic Roman Holiday is a quick, fun, slow-burn romance.” Sounds wonderful! And then I get to enjoy a Reese’s Book Club selection, “The Guest List.” From the back cover:

An exclusive wedding on a remote Irish island. The bride. The plus-one. The best man. The wedding planner. The bridesmaid. All have a secret. All have a motive. But only one is a murderer.

Yes, please! I’m so excited to have a few days off for the holiday. Lots of time to read!

My eternal Christmas tree
Christmas · holiday

My eternal Christmas tree

AuntGem2 Comments

Years ago I wrote a story about the family Christmas tree. I’m reposting it today, with pictures of my tree through the years, so you can see why I love my inherited, artificial tree. Merry Christmas to you all!

A Tree for All Seasons

First published in the Georgia Guardian, Dec. 24, 1993
Copyright Jennifer Rust

Every family has its Yuletide traditions, and ours is no exception. We’ll be going to parties, attending the Christmas Eve candlelight service at church and decorating the tree. Yet we do something lots of people would never dream of: We pull our tree out of the attic each year.

Yes, we have an artificial tree. During my impossible-to live-with teenage years, I continually referred to it as the fake tree. I would groan and roll my eyes each time my dad pulled it out of its box, telling the story of how he bought it in 1968 for only $15. (What a bargain, I can hear him say.)

When I was in high school I would beg my parents to buy a real tree. We could decorate it with strings of popcorn and other “natural” ornaments. But each year we’d re-assemble that same old tree, sticking branches into the holes on the trunk pole and bending them into place so they’d look right.

As time passed, my brother and I graduated, left the house, got jobs. Now, I have only a few days at home to celebrate the holiday. And I’ve noticed a change in the way I feel about that tree. It happened the year before last, when my dad said, “I think we might replace this one with a new tree.”

You would have thought he suggested we replace Mom. I gasped, “No! You can’t get rid of this tree!” Even as I said it I realized why.

Because of all the laughs we have putting it up each year … because all the made-in-kindergarten ornaments look just right on it … because we’ve had it for 25 years, and how many things last that long? Heck, that tree is the same age as my brother Bill and we’re keeping him.

That artificial, fake but eternal tree has become so much more than a decorative centerpiece upon which to hang the ornaments. It is a symbol of all those Christmases past and all the memories we share. That glorious fake fir has become a holiday tradition of its own. I wouldn’t trade it for the most majestic blue spruce around.

And now for a gallery of tree photos through the years

My dad loved the story I wrote so much he matted and framed it. For years he’d put the story under the tree.   

  • Christmas tree 2015
  • She who must be obeyed - Pickles
Books · Christmas

Quotes on Christmas

AuntGemLeave a comment

Even though we’re still in Advent, I’m looking forward to Christmas. And I’m reading thoughts from my favorite authors about this feast. Below are just a few:

If a man called Christmas Day a mere hypocritical excuse for drunkenness and gluttony, that would be false, but it would have a fact hidden in it somewhere. But when Bernard Shaw says the Christmas Day is only a conspiracy kept up by poulterers and wine merchants from strictly business motives, then he says something which is not so much false as startling and arrestingly foolish. He might as well say that the two sexes were invented by jewellers who wanted to sell wedding rings.

G.K. Chesterton

But I am sure that I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round…as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely.

Charles Dickens

Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before! What if Christmas, he thought, doesn’t come from a store. What if Christmas…perhaps…means a little bit more!

Dr. Seuss

Christmas is a together-y sort of holiday.

Winnie-the-Pooh

And it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us! And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God bless Us, Every One!

Charles Dickens
The benefits of a merry heart
Books

The benefits of a merry heart

AuntGemLeave a comment

After last week’s tough realism, this week I needed a book that helped me relax. “With a Merry Heart” is perfect for the reader who wants to leave the high cost of everything, the war overseas, and every personal problem for just a few hours, and enjoy this tale of childhood in New England.

Author Janet Gillespie grew up in a loving family of five. Her tale begins with vignettes of summers spent at the family place at the shore, where her Victorian grandmama celebrated her birthday with the planting of a special lane of trees. The year was 1914. Each chapter is a look back at her truly merry childhood, with a father (“Pop”) who was a pastor and then chaplain at Princeton, and a mother who loved cuddling her babies.

Tolstoy once said “every happy family is alike.” That may be true, as the pictures of the happy Wicke family in this book are of universals and American traditions: family gatherings, the birth of new babies, childhood playmates, going to school and Christmas celebrations. The beauty of this memoir is in the details. Gillespie tells the stories of her young life so that we are transported back a century and more; it made me feel I was there on the Point, their summer place, taking part in the sledding at their childhood home in Holyoke, or sitting surrounded by plush green tufted chairs and mahogany furniture in her Pop’s study, reading before dinner.

This book is a magical experience. As Pop exclaimed each morning at the Point, “This is the day which the Lord has made! Let us rejoice and be glad in it!”