Five Books for the Yuletide Season
Happy Christmas to all our readers. It has been an incredible year. There have been ups, and there have been downs. We are lucky the Lord has kept us till date. Christmas, as I have always said in this column, is beyond the commercial celebration that it has become. If you have a Christmas tree […]
Happy Christmas to all our readers. It has been an incredible year. There have been ups, and there have been downs. We are lucky the Lord has kept us till date.
Christmas, as I have always said in this column, is beyond the commercial celebration that it has become. If you have a Christmas tree with many lights around your house and you have no charity, then you really are not celebrating Christmas.
Christmas is about giving. It is about forgiveness. It is about praying, it is about healing. It is about togetherness, it is about family. It is about love. It is also about remembrance and sacrifice, to remember that Jesus gave His life as a ransom for our sins. We forget most times that Jesus is the reason for the season; we spend too much time celebrating instead of introspecting.
Let us bring Jesus back into Christmas. Let us emulate his kindness and sacrifice, his charity and all his virtues and qualities during Christmas.
Here then is the Christmas collection:
1) A CHRISTMAS CAROL by Charles Dickens
A Christmas Carol was written in 1843 when the author Charles Dickens was indebted and obligated to his publisher. He wrote the book to support his family’s meagre income.
With its characters exhibiting many qualities – as well as failures – often ascribed to Dickens himself, the imaginative and entertaining tale relates Ebenezer Scrooge’s eerie encounters with a series of spectral visitors. Journeying with them through Christmases past, present, and future, he is ultimately transformed from an arrogant, obstinate, and insensitive miser to a generous, warm – hearted, and caring human being. Written by one of England’s greatest and most popular novelist, a ‘Christmas Carol’ has come to epitomize the true meaning of Christmas.
[2] THE CHRISTMAS CHRONICLE: THE LEGEND OF SANTA CLAUS by Tim Slover
I have always wondered about Father Christmas who gives toys and gifts to children and is so magical. Everywhere you go, at Christmas you find young person’s cued up to collect gifts.
Now heavily commercialized, Father Christmas, otherwise known as Santa Claus, has become one of the legends at Christmas and a high point.
In this holiday classic, Tim Slover crafts a marvelous, magical novel about how Santa Claus became the man he is today. After reading THE CHRISTMAS CHRONICLES, you will believe all over again in the magic of the season.
The clock ticks toward midnight on Christmas Eve while countless children, too excited to sleep, anticipate the arrival of Santa Claus. But in Tim Slover’s deeply charming and utterly thrilling new novel, that is the end rather than the beginning of the story. In this richly imagined tale of Santa’s origins, the man in full finally emerges. THE CHRISTMAS CHRONICLES is at once an action – packed adventure, an inspiring story of commitment and faith, and a moving love story.
It all starts in 1343, when the child Klaus is orphaned and adopted by a craftsmen’s guild. The boy will grow to become a master woodworker with an infectious laugh and an unparalleled gift for making toys. His talent and generosity uniquely equip him to bestow hundreds of gifts on children at Christmas – and to court the delightful Anna, who enters his life on a sleigh driven by the reindeer Dasher and becomes his beloved wife.
[3] BE HAPPY YOU ARE LOVED by Robert H. Schuller
Dr Schuller a multiple award winning author writes a really exciting happiness book in BE HAPPY YOU ARE LOVED. This season is one of the most important seasons for giving and for happiness.
By focusing on the dynamic word, love, Dr. Schuller shows how you can be healthy, creative, vibrant, successful, and the happy person you were created to be. “Love – that is what this book is all about,” says Dr. Robert H. Schuller. “How to get it, how to give it, and how to be really happy. “Dr. Schuller will show you how ‘the three offers of love” – open to every person – are the keys to ultimate happiness. And you will discover the magnetism of love – the more you give, the more love you get in return. Dr. Schuller offers the guidelines for life – transforming love found in 1 Corinthians 13 – the Bible’s “love chapter,” You will begin to understand what love is and is not. And realize the tremendous potential of a force that perhaps you have not yet tapped.
[4] THE MESSAGE OF CHRISTMAS by Eugene H. Peterson
A great gift to give friends and family this Christmas.
Share the biblical story of Christmas with the contemporary and engaging language of THE MESSAGE Bible. This pocket – sized booklet is the perfect way to personally share the message of the hope of Christmas through excerpts that not only highlight the nativity narrative but also the love and hope given to mankind through Christ’s birth.
[5] This is a holiday season and a time to read that big fat book you’ve always wanted to read but had no time.
“1001 BOOKS YOU MUST READ BEFORE YOU DIE” is a good book to start with. Edited by Peter Boxall, it is a bright reference to the novels and the writers that have excited the world’s imagination. It features more than 500 colour images of original book jackets; reviews of the best selling and most acclaimed novels published over the years. Delve into the pages of this sumptuously illustrated book and let general editor, Peter Boxall, guide you through the greatest novels that the world has to offer. Read and enjoy!