Book of the Day Roundup: December 22-26, 2025
A Christmas Wish for Little Dala Horse
A Saint Lucia Celebration
Sonja Anderson
Agnieszka Potocka, illustrator
Tyndale Kids
Hardcover $15.99 (32pp)
979-840050098-5
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop)
Its illustrations reminiscent of children’s film classics, with lovely touches of winter starshine and frost, this cheery Swedish picture book follows a woodcarver as she lovingly crafts a Christmas gift for her granddaughter: a red wooden horse. The little horse watches, waits, and wishes for what’s next. On a church outing, he makes a brave choice and learns that “loving others [is] a gift from the heart.” Regional holiday traditions are mentioned throughout, and tomtens (Scandinavian gnomes) appear on the bottom of some pages to translate Swedish terms for an extra educational bump.
MICHELLE ANNE SCHINGLER (October 16, 2025)
Stone Lands
A Journey of Darkness and Light through Britain’s Ancient Places
Fiona Robertson
Pegasus Books
Hardcover $29.95 (400pp)
979-889710011-8
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop)
Finding comfort, meaning, and timeless human connection in Britain’s ancient megaliths, Fiona Robertson’s luminous memoir Stone Lands explores the inner reaches of grief and how, even when confronting the inevitability of loss and death, she chose to love.
Contemplating dualities and contrasts inherent in human life, the book blends personal memories with elements of history, folklore, archaeology, and travel writing. Its is a sensitive, probing search for meaning, illuminating the wonder and resilience of the human spirit. Curious, empathetic observations of human frailty arise as Robertson embraces her vulnerability. She also expresses reverence for Britain’s standing stones, which withstood the ravages of nature and the passing of millennia, watching as civilizations rose and fell.
Detailed descriptions of each ancient site exist alongside Robertson’s emotive vignettes about passing through them, with sonorous descriptions of the “luminous russets, garnets, and golds of bracken, gorse, and grass glow warm and rich, like stained glass.” The lively scenes of her two small children running and playing among the megaliths are immersive too. Also evocative are the images of her husband, a climbing and bird-watching enthusiast who enjoyed the outdoors. Elsewhere, Robertson writes about her encounters with local cattle, who were less than happy to have humans invading their territory.
Respect is paid to the ancient people who raised the megaliths and the anonymous people who, across the centuries, cared for them and found their spirits renewed in their presence. And while the book laments the carelessness of others when it comes to encountering sacred spaces, it also celebrates how the landmarks endure. Indeed, throughout the book, they become a comforting metaphor for all that is eternal in the human spirit.
Stone Lands is an eloquent, moving memoir about love, loss, and healing.
KRISTINE MORRIS (October 17, 2025)
The Knives Before Christmas
A Santa-in-Training Mystery
J. Kent Holloway
Keylight Books
Hardcover $31.99 (240pp)
979-888798071-3
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop)
Set in Christmas, Florida, J. Kent Holloway’s The Knives Before Christmas is a magical murder mystery novel about a grisly death in a cheery town.
When Thomas’s protégé, Trixie, is implicated in the murder of her father, Thomas, who is training to become Santa Claus, becomes a reluctant detective to prove her innocence. Imbued with the power of Kris Kringle and with the help of Peppermint the Christmas Elf, Thomas uncovers shocking secrets, buried crimes, and skeletons hidden in numerous closets.
The mystery is full of ratcheting tension and rising stakes, with red herrings and revelations upending the case. Regular contrasts between Christmas story elements, holiday gags, and procedural elements are played to great comedic effect, as when Thomas’s yuletide powers alter the music in a dive bar while he interrogates a suspect. Other fantastical elements, including Peppermint’s presence and that of a sentient alligator, Tinsel, call back to earlier series entries, filling out Thomas’s wacky world of holiday magic, which is hidden from the view of most around him.
Both the magical and the mundane characters contribute heart and wit. Beyond the book’s comedic moments are scenes of sincerity and earnest growth, including for Trixie, Peppermint the Elf, and goofy Thomas, the latter of whom muses on his fate as a Santa-in-training and the responsibilities that come with the position. Though the story includes a few flimsy leaps of logic, and though Thomas himself admits he is no genius detective, the story works toward an ending in which all is well revealed. Thomas even indulges in a classic denouement, laying out his reasoning to an incredulous audience of witnesses, suspects, and police.
The Knives Before Christmas is an absurd detective story balancing humor, murder, and Christmas spirit.
BRENDAN MCKELVY (October 17, 2025)
I’m Dreaming of a Pink Christmas
Frances Gilbert
George Sweetland, illustrator
Gemini Books
Hardcover $16.95 (32pp)
978-1-83616-072-4
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop)
All the colors of Christmas—though one more than others—are celebrated in this quirky picture book about a girl with a rose-colored perspective. Christmas trees are no longer green, gold stars are replaced with glittery pink unicorns, and even Santa swaps his red suit as the girl lays out her vision for a picture-perfect “Pink-mas.” Colorful illustrations depict the magic of the holiday season with whimsical details, such as pink-ified Santa’s plaid coat with unicorn accents.
DANIELLE BALLANTYNE (October 17, 2025)
The Mushroom Gatherer
Viktorie Hanišová
Véronique Firkusny, translator
Seagull Books
Hardcover $27.00 (300pp)
978-1-80309-569-1
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop)
In Viktorie Hanišová’s lyrical novel The Mushroom Gatherer, a woman uncovers painful childhood memories that lie in wait beneath the surface of her quiet life.
In the seven years since she ran away from home and never looked back, Sisi has spent her summers following the same route through the dense Bohemian Forest, collecting wild mushrooms and selling them to a village restaurant for the meager sum off of which she survives the harsh Czech winters. When she is forced to return to her childhood home after her mother’s death, long-suppressed memories of her childhood begin to resurface. She wades through them to make sense of her life and connections to the environment and people that surround her.
This atmospheric novel moves back and forth between Sisi’s present and her early experiences as the only daughter of a well-respected Czech family. In the present, she lives in near-total isolation, plagued by insomnia and bouts of intense disorientation. As memories of her childhood resurface, it becomes clear that she is caught in the shadows of her adolescent traumas.
The novel moves between its time periods in a seamless manner, resulting in a layered, nuanced meditation on grief, invisible violence, and the aftermath of abuse. Delicate and honest, its power rests in its slow pace and sensitivity to the intricate processes of memory and perception. Vibrant details make meaning of setting and environment, and Sisi’s mushrooms serve as both a reminder of the intimacy between the human and nonhuman worlds and a compelling metaphor for the structure of traumatic memory and creative possibilities for connection and survival.
Bold, candid, and haunting, The Mushroom Gatherer is an affecting novel about how the past shapes the present in intricate and unexpected ways.
BELLA MOSES (October 17, 2025)
Kathy Young
