Review: The Christmas Book Flood

Posted on December 16, 2025 by Barbara Harper

Jolabokaflod is an Icelandic tradition that translates to “Christmas Book Flood.” It began in 1944 near the end of WWII. Iceland was occupied by the Americans, and their willingness to spend money in town and help arrange for exports of the country’s fish helped Iceland become a little more prosperous than many European nations occupied by Germany.

But many items were still in short supply due to rationing. Icelanders were already great readers and storytellers, but this particular year, books were the main gifts. A tradition began Christmas night of people reading the books they had gotten for Christmas, often while enjoying hot chocolate. Sounds like a great idea to me!

Roseanna M. White has set her novella, The Christmas Book Flood, in this time and place.

Tatiana Eliasdottir is her uncle’s assistant at his publishing house. Tatiana’s sister calls to ask if she can send her seven-year-old daughter for the holidays. Her sister is having difficulties in her pregnancy, and has lost several unborn babies. Her sister’s husband has injured his leg and is out of work. They felt their daughter, Elea, needed a brighter, happier setting for Christmas. Tatiana agrees to host Elea. At first the girl is disconsolate over not being home for Christmas. But getting into some of the traditions and learning she’ll be able to go to work with Tatiana, where her favorite author, Anders Johannsson, also works, begins to lift her spirits.

Author, illustrator, and editor Anders and his secretary agree to help Tatiana watch Elea when Tatiana can’t be at her desk. Tatiana has liked Anders for a while, but he is so shy and quiet and easily flustered that it’s hard to talk much with him.

Anders’ personality tends toward quietness, but he is also that way because he feels like a misfit. His brothers are all hardy, big, strapping fishermen who make fun of him for his shyness and bookish ways.

A true part of the story deals with the publishing companies teaming to form a “Book Bulletin” sent to every home.. The results were so successful–a flood of orders–that they weren’t sure they would be able to fill the orders before Christmas.

Another part deals with Tatiana and Anders getting to know one another and overcoming their misconceptions.

Woven in with the plot was some Icelandic folklore. They don’t have Saint Nicholas, but they do have the “Yule lads“–Troll brothers who take turns visiting in December and leaving gifts in shoes if they find everything to their liking.

This was a delightful novella. I knew very little about Iceland and its traditions and folklore. Then the plot was so different from many Christmas novellas. And, though there’s a slow romance, the book is not at all cheesy. The characters have things to learn and ways to grow along the way.

There were a couple of anachronisms–I don’t know if they talked about “patriarchal” expectations of women then, or “fighting the patriarchy”–at least not in those terms.

Happily, this audiobook did include the author’s notes about the inspiration and research for this book.

I listened to the audiobook, nicely read by Talon David. The only negative to listening was I had no idea what some of the Icelandic terms and names looked like. But there was usually enough explanation that I understood what was going on.

Review: O Little Town

Posted on December 19, 2023 by Barbara Harper

O Little Town is a collection of three stories by three different authors. The town in question is not Bethlehem, but Mapleview, Michigan. Each author’s story takes place in a different time.

Hopes and Fears by Amanda Wen begins in a two-room schoolhouse in November, 1912. Emma Trowbridge teaches the younger students and loves her job. She’s dismayed to learn that her mentor and boss who teaches the upper grades has to take leave due to a family emergency. But she’s totally floored to find out that his replacement is Frederick Oberstein, her rival and nemesis all through school.

Frederick went away for a four-year degree, but Emma took classes at a nearby teaching college. They had not seen each other in years. They start clashing almost immediately. What Emma mistakes as Frederick’s curmudgeonly ways actually reflect weariness and grief. Can they learn not only to work together, but to actually appreciate each other’s gifts?

While Mortals Sleep by Janyre Tromp takes place during WWII. Eleanor Sweers had left her dysfunctional family years ago to become a reporter in California. She comes home due to her sister’s death, the only relative with whom she had a bond. She’s shocked to discover her sister named her as her daughter’s guardian. An old family friend, Gideon Braum, is a lawyer who helps Eleanor (nicknamed Lennie) through the legal process.

Something about Lennie’s sister’s death doesn’t add up, though. Lennie can’t turn off her reporter’s instincts and begins to investigate. She’s stunned to find evidence of a Japanese balloon bomb, similar to one she researched in CA. What is a Japanese bomb doing in Mapleview, MI? Gideon helps her learn more.

The Wondrous Gift by Deborah Raney takes place in present time. The faculty of a small Christian school is stunned to learn the school is closing due to low enrollment and high costs. After the announcement, some of the teachers agree to meet and talk about the situation further. Music teacher Rachel Hamblin and coach Caleb Janssen end up riding together, but they misunderstood where the other teachers were going. As they get to know each other, they hit it off and wonder why they had not noticed each other before.

Though sad about losing their jobs, they each harbor dreams about what they’d really like to do. They cheer each other on as they think, pray, talk, and take tentative steps in their new ventures. Things are going amazingly well until they realize that only one of them can have what they both wanted. Can they work through the issues, or will this derail their fledgling relationship?

I enjoyed experiencing stories in the same small town in different eras. It was fun to occasionally recognize a person or item from the previous era, though I probably missed some of those connections.

I’m afraid the characters in the first story didn’t resonate with me quite as much. Emma’s “force of nature” personality and Frederick’s faulty reasoning both hit me the wrong way.

And the second story’s writing seemed excessive in places. For example, “The hot, laughing breath of the reaper sighed on my neck even as he shoveled dirt over my self-made grave” and “It was a missive from the devil written in the blood of my regrets.”

Plus the narration of the audiobook I listened to seemed overwrought in the first two stories.

The third story was my favorite. I enjoyed the banter between the two characters and the progression of the story. The narration seemed more natural here.

Overall this was an enjoyable Christmas read. I liked that it wasn’t light and fluffy: each story dealt with serious issues and feelings. Each story was clean and seamlessly incorporated Christian truths and principles.

Review: The Christmas Angel Project

Posted on December 13, 2023 by Barbara Harper

In The Christmas Angel Project by Melody Carson, five friends who are different ages and from different walks of life have been meeting together regularly for a book club. Just after Thanksgiving, one of the women, Abby, dies unexpectedly. She seems to have been the glue that kept them together and inspired them.

Some days after Abby’s memorial service, the other women meet together to decide what to do about the group–whether to keep meeting, invite more people, or disband. Abby’s husband gave the group a bag of Christmas gifts that Abby had prepared for them before she passed. They opened them together at their meeting. Abby had made an angel ornament for each of them with their individual characteristics.

Inspired by Abby’s example, the women decide to change their book club to a “Christmas angel” club. Each will choose a project involving their own unique gifts, talents, and resources and report back to each other once a week in lieu of reading books.

Belinda is Abby’s long-time personal friend, divorced with a college-age child. She started a thrift shop years ago that has become something of a boutique.

Cassidy is the youngest, a single veterinarian who struggles with self-confidence.

Grace is newest to the group. She and Belinda had an undercurrent of rivalry for Abby’s friendship. Grace and her husband argue over their twin’s lack of effort in college, among other things. Grace has her own home design business.

Louisa is the oldest of the group. Her husband passed away the year before. Now Abby’s passing has really affected her. She had been an artist, but hasn’t been inspired to create anything since her husband died. She wonders what she’s still doing here, why God didn’t take her instead of Abby.

As each woman struggles to decide what to do for her project, they each experience ups and downs, successes and failures, and learn more about themselves and others in the process.

It’s understandable that the book would start off sad. But it did seem a little depressing at first, especially for a Christmas story. The years when we were most grieving a loss, I don’t know if it would have been helpful to read a book like this or not.

But once they got going on their projects, the story picked up. I did enjoy the book overall. I was happy I discovered the audiobook free in Audible’s members’ Plus Catalog.