Light reading to get you into the Christmas spirit

McClatchy Newspapers (MCT) - They're short. They're a bit saccharin. They're also predictably optimistic, and yet, maybe that's why they're so popular. 'Tis the time of year when Christmas books tempt us with their isn't-it-great-to-be-alive tales. We rounded up half a dozen of this year's collection of confections and here reveal how sweet they are.

"The Christmas Sweater" by Glenn Beck; Threshold Editions ($19.99)

With "The Christmas Sweater," radio-show host, CNN host and best-selling author Glenn Beck pens his own yuletide tale.

The book starts out as a predictable (but sweet!) story about Eddie, a young boy who really wants a new bicycle for Christmas. But money has been tight since Eddie's dad died, and his mom instead gifts him with a handmade sweater. Eddie, 12, does what any reasonable boy that age would do: He gets really mad at his mom, at his family situation and at God. He goes into a major funk.

You can see what's going to happen, right? Eddie is going to go through some profound experience that will teach him the true meaning of Christmas. What's not predictable about this book, though, is the kind of life-changing events that transpire. While the story's end makes sense, Beck weaves in some true elements of surprise.

In the last chapter of the book, Beck gives the story behind this Christian-centered book. We learn about his own struggles with demons and how he found his own personal joy and salvation.

_Catherine Mallette

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"The Shepherd, the Angel, and Walter the Christmas Miracle Dog" by Dave Barry; Berkley Trade ($14)

This short novel by one of America's most popular humor columnists was first published two years ago, and now it's available in a nicely affordable paperback.

"The Shepherd, the Angel, and Walter the Christmas Miracle Dog" is the story of young Doug Barnes growing up in Asquont, N.Y., in 1960. (In the author's dedication, he writes that any resemblance between the characters in this book and the people he grew up with in Armonk, N.Y., is "frankly, a bewildering coincidence.") On the night of the church Christmas Eve pageant, things start to go awry for Doug, who thought this year would be a good one because he is a shepherd. ("It's better to be a shepherd than a Three King because, for one thing, you get to carry a stick.") But the girl he has a crush on is playing Mary (and Joseph is, unfortunately, both athletic and smart), and worse, the family dog is, well, sick as a dog. Can this American family make it through the pageant? Can they even make it to the pageant?

Disaster strikes. Laughter ensues.

_Catherine Mallette

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"Christmas on Jane Street" by Billy Romp with Wanda Urbanska, illustrated by Robbin Gourley; Harper ($12.95)

"Christmas on Jane Street" is a true story based on the adventures of a Vermont family with a Christmas tree business. Every year, they pack up and move down to Manhattan's Jane Street for a month and live in a tiny camper. This particular holiday season, the dad, Billy, starts to feel disconnected from his daughter Ellie, who wants to go to the ballet with her friend, a girl who lives around the corner from Jane Street in a fancy apartment. Billy is worried that Ellie is growing up and away from him and away from the simple, down-to-earth lifestyle he and his family enjoy. His response? He becomes exceedingly grumpy. Can he recover the Christmas spirit?

This simple tale about love, family and parenting had me weeping. Like any good Christmas book, it's a little on the sappy side, but it rings true.

This isn't a new book _ it's a 10th-anniversary edition with some new material at the back that catches readers up on the Romps, who continue to lead simple but remarkable lives. In 1999, the family bicycled across America on a bike built for four, towing the baby behind.

Side note: If the Romp family and its values seem too good to be true, turn off the cynic's voice in your head. On a trip to Vermont this fall, I happened to meet Patti Romp and heard all about her family firsthand. She's inspiring. And she's also a great massage therapist. If you're in Salisbury, seek her out.

_Catherine Mallette

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"A Christmas Grace" by Anne Perry; Ballantine ($18)

Anne Perry's look back at an 18th-century Irish village plagued by a mysterious death is a little dark for those looking for unabashed holiday cheer, but its sharp pacing and acute eye for detail make it an enjoyable page-turner nonetheless. The book opens with Emily Radley trimming her Christmas tree for her family when she receives a letter from her brother-in-law: Her aunt, whom the family disowned after she married a Roman Catholic man, is dying alone and wants company for Christmas. But Emily, who hasn't spoken to her aunt in 10 years and isn't exactly feeling the spirit of giving, doesn't want to go. She insists she needs to stay at home with her children and only agrees to head off to Ireland because her husband guilts her into it.

The reunion between the two is an awkward one, all the more so because Perry has a real gift for quickly drawing a character. Only a few pages in, the reader recognizes Emily as self-centered and shallow, but she has steel and smarts, too. Emily quickly realizes that Aunt Susannah asked her to Ireland for more than just conversation: Susannah wants Emily to get to the bottom of a murder that's poisoning the heart of the village she has come to love.

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Aided by a shipwrecked young man with a penchant for asking probing, uncomfortable questions, Emily sets out to solve the mystery and save the town as one final Christmas gift for Susannah.

_Erin White

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"The Man Who Invented Christmas: How Charles Dickens's 'A Christmas Carol' Rescued his Career and Revived our Holiday Spirits" by Les Standiford; Crown Publishers ($19.95)

Quick: What was the original, most famous small Christmas book? Yes, in 1843, struggling British author Charles Dickens penned what would remain the gold standard in the realm of uplifting, sentimental stories of yuletide hope: "A Christmas Carol."

In this little volume, Les Standiford unveils the story behind that classic. Standiford traces both Dickens' fortunes as a writer and the history of the holiday in the United Kingdom. A lot of scholarship went into this book, and history buffs will enjoy seeing how these two paths intersected: To boost his own struggling career, Dickens departed from his traditional sale of serial novels and instead mostly self-produced a stand-alone story.

He worked feverishly to get the book out by the holidays, and the story of Scrooge and Tiny Tim was widely acclaimed as soon as it hit print. Meanwhile, Christmas as a time of merry celebration (thanks to the Puritans and other rather dour British leaders) had sort of been on the societal back burner. Dickens' characterization of the holiday as a party-giving, feast-eating time renewed for the entire nation that spirit of human bonding and family time still associated with Christmas.

One caveat: This is a bit of an academic book and includes information about matters like the history of authors' copyrights. While Standiford writes in his postscript notes that he intends "this volume to be a fireside pleasure of the Fezziwigian type, and not a formal work of scholarship," the book definitely leans toward scholarship. If you simply want a pleasurable Fezziwigian tale, I'd suggest that you pick up that original Dickens story.

_Catherine Mallette

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"Engaging Father Christmas" by Robin Jones Gunn; FaithWords ($13.99)

You'll find the words "A Novella" on the cover of "Engaging Father Christmas," and that rather tells you what you're in store for here. Gunn's story of a young woman's search for family and true love in the picturesque English village of Carlton Heath is a little Christmas cookie of a story _ not very filling, but very sweet and perfect for this, the season of hope.

The story, the second in a series, is told in first person by Miranda Carson, the daughter of an American actress. Carson had arrived in Carlton Heath the year before in search of her birth father, Sir James Whitcombe, a rather famous British actor who had passed away. To say that she was a surprise to his wife and son is an understatement; they were polite but cool when they finally met her. However, another family in the village adopted the visiting Miranda, and she and their son, Ian, fell in love. It is Ian and his parents who have given Miranda the "family" that she craves, although she has returned this Christmas hoping that the Whitcombe family will come to accept her, too.

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This is a story of Christian love and a rather predictable one at that. And, although the book's title gives away an important plot point, getting to it is half the fun. Gunn's setting, a snowy English village during a season in which even glowing candles and hospital visits have a special significance and poignancy, is the book's real gift to the reader.

_Sandy Guerra-Cline

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© 2008, Fort Worth Star-Telegram.