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A review by 8797999
The Penguin Book of Christmas Stories: From Hans Christian Andersen to Angela Carter by Jessica Harrison
3.0
2023
Although I read this book each Christmas I feel it is time for a revision of my rating and my feelings have altered towards this book.
For a start and I find it more pronounced with this read, despite this being labelled Christmas stories, the stories are not very Christmassy or in the spirit of Christmas. They are all rather bleak and melancholic. They do take place at Christmas but they certainly aren’t festive.
Heartwarming these are not! There is also a lot of forgettable tales in the book. There are some good ones but more misses.
As such I think my rating will be dropped down to a 3/5. I will read selected stories from this next year but not a complete re-read.
That said there are some good stories here but mostly they fall flat in terms of Christmas spirit and it is very American dominated book, where to this British reader the locales and plots is not very appealing. Like a speakeasy bar, ranch and a woman sat on the roof to name a few.
2022
A nice revisit, a couple of stories I didnt remember. As mentioned before some very enjoyable ones but also some Turkeys (most notably the American ones). Nice warm up to Christmas.
Still a good deal for 99p when I purchased it for the Kindle.
Original Review
A mixed bag of stories, some Christmas crackers but also a few turkeys as well. I liked the earlier stories more than the latter ones. It was a nice surprise to read a non-Maigret story by Simenon.
Not a bad pick up for 99p.
Although I read this book each Christmas I feel it is time for a revision of my rating and my feelings have altered towards this book.
For a start and I find it more pronounced with this read, despite this being labelled Christmas stories, the stories are not very Christmassy or in the spirit of Christmas. They are all rather bleak and melancholic. They do take place at Christmas but they certainly aren’t festive.
Heartwarming these are not! There is also a lot of forgettable tales in the book. There are some good ones but more misses.
As such I think my rating will be dropped down to a 3/5. I will read selected stories from this next year but not a complete re-read.
That said there are some good stories here but mostly they fall flat in terms of Christmas spirit and it is very American dominated book, where to this British reader the locales and plots is not very appealing. Like a speakeasy bar, ranch and a woman sat on the roof to name a few.
2022
A nice revisit, a couple of stories I didnt remember. As mentioned before some very enjoyable ones but also some Turkeys (most notably the American ones). Nice warm up to Christmas.
Still a good deal for 99p when I purchased it for the Kindle.
Original Review
A mixed bag of stories, some Christmas crackers but also a few turkeys as well. I liked the earlier stories more than the latter ones. It was a nice surprise to read a non-Maigret story by Simenon.
Not a bad pick up for 99p.