Hello. This was December. In sharp contrast to Halloween, when I was still very much in the bowels of what I tend to call The Gloom, I was starting to feel a lot more like myself as the Christmas season approached. Which meant I was able to get more into the spirit of things. Which meant, of course, a lot of themed reading.
Holiday Romance by Catherine Walsh.This had a great premise, but I feel it wasn’t used as effectively as it could have been. Some chapters that felt like they should have a bit of breathing room are rushed through, whereas other, somewhat more trivial scenes tended to drag on and on. The characters are charming as anything, though, and I liked it enough to pick up the sort-of sequel announced at the end of this book. Sometimes you just want to read hokey stuff for the holidays, what can I tell you.
“A Mistletoe Kiss” by Catherine Walsh. A short epilogue to Holiday Romance. I liked it more than the actual book. It was cute as hell, what can I tell you.
“The Stranger Things They Carried” by Casey McConahay. This was written for McSweeney’s, so it’s definitely meant to be satirical and irreverent, but it’s also genuinely good. Despite some of my criticisms and misgivings (I found the final season mostly bland do not @ me), I’m entirely too fond of this show and its characters.
Snowed In by Catherine Walsh. And I liked this one a hell of a lot better than its predecessor. The characters were much more to my liking, and their chemistry felt much more believable. I’ve thought I’d find the fake-dating trope unappealing and tedious, but I guess that, like every other trope in existence, it entirely depends on how it’s executed, and I thought it was done exceptionally well here. I certainly bought into it. It does feel a tad overlong, though, something that it shares with Holiday Romance, but I enjoy spending time with the fictional Fitzpatrick family, what can I tell you.
Merrily Ever After by Catherine Walsh. …So much so that I immediately bought the short story collection after finishing Snowed In. So, fine, I suppose I’m a Catherine Walsh fan now. Again, I just really like the Fitzpatricks and their friends, and this was a delightful, appropriately cheerful, and charming collection of stories. Zoe’s was my favorite, naturally, because Zoe’s great. Oliver’s was my second favorite, which caught me by surprise, because I found him to be a somewhat forgettable character in Holiday Romance. Sean’s was entirely too sweet for me not to fall for it. Hannah’s story was the weakest, I found, but still a lot of fun. Walsh’s dialogue is warm and witty, and I enjoy reading about warm and witty characters who handle everything like adults, even amidst all the Christmas shenanigans. I liked this collection a lot, what can I tell you.
“The Kill Clause” by Lisa Unger. Not an original premise by any means (it felt like an episode of Mr. & Mrs. Smith), but competently written and told. I wish this were a bit more Christmassy, though. I didn’t really feel the holiday vibes. Undoubtedly entertaining, though.
“The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle” by Arthur Conan Doyle. For the life of me I can’t recall if I had ever read this before. It feels like I have, but if I did, I had forgotten all of the particulars. I didn’t even remember what a carbuncle was. Anyway. A short but super fun Holmes affair with a great wintry atmosphere (there’s little I love more than reading about coats and scarves and gaslight). Bit of a nothing ending, though.
A Merry Little Lie by Sarah Morgan. This turned out to be something of a lackluster read, unfortunately. A shame, since stories of Christmas chaos tend to be among my favorite things to read during the holiday season. In many ways, it reminded me of One Big Happy Family, another seasonal novel full of familial chaos, with the inexplicable tendency for nearly every character to talk and act like a therapist—often letting the steam out of what might otherwise have been a pressure-cooker plot. At least that story had something of an edge and a semblance of stakes. Merry Little Lie, in contrast, had little going for it. Everyone in this novel had secrets, to be sure, but even before they are revealed, the other characters have not only mostly figured them out, but also completely understood where they are coming from. This kind of empathetic behavior is commendable and, indeed, ideal in real life, but it is deathly dull in the realm of fiction, again serving only to eliminate what little tension your plot might have had. Alas. Still, it wasn’t without its charm, so I didn’t loathe my experience with it. I simply expected more.
“Understanding the Science” by Camille Bordas. Like most short stories with a literary fiction bent, I had no idea what to think about this one, other than I enjoyed its melancholy, reflective vibe.
Told After Supper: Ghostly Tales for Christmas Eve by Jerome K. Jerome. A sort of send-up of the storied tradition of telling ghost tales at Christmastime by the famed humorist. It’s charmingly and cleverly written, but I wish I had enjoyed this parody as much as I enjoy the tradition it so affectionately spoofed. This little volume is filled with marvelously macabre illustrations by the magnificently named late-Victorian illustrator K.M. Skeaping, which do as much as the text in creating atmosphere. Delightful work.
And that was December. And that was 2025. It was mostly a lovely holiday season, for a change. As for the year… well, it can just go straight to hell.
The blog will be looking a bit different in 2026, as I’ll be stepping away from monthly wrap-ups and focusing mainly on my Booklist reviews. I love doing these summaries, but I often found myself speeding through books just for the sake of having more to write about, or picking up volumes I didn’t much want to read at the time, simply because I figured they would make for a nice feature. And that’s just a poor way to go about reading. I want to return to how I read before the dominance of blogs and social media: intrepidly and intentionally, caring for little else than fully and wholly enjoying the stories before me, rather than appeasing an algorithm or an imagined, exacting audience. I don’t know. We shall see.
Until next time.
BOOKS BOUGHT—AND ANYWAY IT’S CHRISTMAS:
- Snowed In by Catherine Walsh
- A Christmas Menagerie by Keith Simpkins
- The Friday Afternoon Club by Griffin Dunne
- Castle Skull by John Dickson Carr
- The Corpse in the Waxwork by John Dickson Carr
- Mystery in White by J. Jefferson Farjeon
(This is the last we’ll be seeing of this segment, too—I believe I’ve held myself accountable enough.)
ricardo reading 