If you didn't get a chance to read A Christmas Carol, you should give it a try.
Since I've seen so many renditions of this story, it was a quick read. I'm sure most everyone is familiar with this classic tale. Ebenezer Scrooge is a grumpy old miser. He has no great love for anyone or anything, with the exception of financial gain.
This compassionless old geezer is visited by the ghost of his former business parter, Jacob Marley. Marley warns Scrooge that his deeds in life will lead him to a miserable afterlife spent doing arduous penance.
After Marley's visit, Scrooge is visited by three other spirits: that of Christmas Past, Christmas Present, and Christmas Yet to Come. By visiting his former, present, and future selves, Scrooge gains a sense of his own humanity.
This change of heart leads Scrooge to act not just with the common courtesy he had neglected to employ heretofore, but with a generosity those around him had never known. He vows to "honor Christmas in [his] heart, and try to keep it all the year." In fact, "it was always said of him that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge." I loved the ending of the book: "May that be truly said of us, and all of us! And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God bless Us, Every One!"
My copy included notes that explained colloquialisms that Dickens used in his novel. Most of them I figured out based on context, but there were a few that I found enlightening. For example: "the name [Scrooge] is derived from a slang term for squeeze or crowd." Maybe I'm just nerdy, but I thought these explanatory notes were interesting.
Dickens has a bit of a sense of humor. After Scrooge has seen Marley's ghost and the ghost of Christmas past, "nothing between a baby and a rhinoceros would have astonished him very much."
A Christmas Carol is a sweet story that embodies the spirit of Christmas. I think this story has endured as a classic because it speaks to something in each of us, even if we only remember it during the Christmas season. Around Christmastime there is an almost palpable change—people become a little more thoughtful, a little kinder, little more honest, a little bit better. Maybe throughout the coming year I will try a bit harder to honor Christmas in my heart.
Speaking of the coming year, can you believe SBC is almost a year old? That's right—I started this virtual book club in January of 2013. Time flies!
To kick off the new year, I've chosen to read
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by Laurie King
From Amazon: What would happen if Sherlock Holmes, a perfect man of the Victorian age--pompous, smug, and misogynistic--were to come face to face with a twentieth-century female? If she grew to be a partner worthy of his great talents?
Most everyone is familiar with Sherlock Holmes, but this book puts a twist on the classic. I love the modern series Elementary, which has Sherlock Holmes-based storyline that strays from the original. I hope that I will like this twist in the story, too.
From Barnes & Noble: In 1915, Sherlock Holmes is retired and quietly engaged in the study of honeybees when a young woman literally stumbles into him on the Sussex Downs. Fifteen years old, gawky, egotistical, and recently orphaned, the young Mary Russell displays an intellect to impress even Sherlock Holmes—and match him wit for wit. Under his reluctant tutelage, this very modern twentieth-century woman proves a deft protégée and a fitting partner for the Victorian detective. In their first case together, they must track down a kidnapped American senator's daughter and confront a truly cunning adversary—a bomber who has set trip wires for the sleuths and who will stop at nothing to end their partnership. Full of brilliant deductions, disguises, and dangers, this first book of the Mary Russell—Sherlock Holmes mysteries is "wonderfully original and entertaining . . . absorbing from beginning to end."
This book has an average rating of 4.11 out of 5 stars on Goodreads, 4.4 stars on Amazon, and 4.5 stars on Barnes & Noble. I have high hopes for this one!
See me next month for my review. Happy Reading!
