Karen's Book Nook

Starting the second book in my 2009 Holiday Reading Challenge, A Family Christmas by Caroline Kennedy. It’s an audio book version and I’ll be reading it while switching my decor from Fall to Christmas.

About the book: A Family Christmas Caroline shares the Christmas poetry, prose, scriptural readings, and lyrics that are most dear to her, drawing on authors as diverse as Harper Lee, Nikki Giovanni, Martin Luther King Jr., Billy Collins, John and Yoko, and Charles Dickens. There are also many lesser-known gems throughout and personal treasures from her own family — including a young Caroline’s Christmas list to Santa Claus and a letter from her father as President to a child concerned about Santa’s well-being. This diverse and unique anthology will become a timeless keepsake, and will enrich your heart and mind with the spirit of Christmas.  More here.

My thoughts:  I read this via Audio Book and I think it added so much to it. It began with Caroline Kennedy talking about her Christmases as a child growing up and also gave quite a bit of history about the Christmas holiday, Santa Claus, traditions, and Christmases around the world. I honestly learned quite a bit about Christmas that I had never heard before. Then it went in to various essays, memoirs, stories, songs, and poems each read by different readers; some by the authors and some by actors. Once again, reading this via audio book added so much to it!  There’s something to be said for hearing stories from around the world and from different eras read in the voices that were intended.  Since it was a collection set up as an anthology there were natural breaks between stories which were identified by the unique reading styles and voices of the readers.

This will be one that I’ll likely read again and again.

Rating 4.5/5