Weekend Blog Hops - 20 December 2019

Hi all! It's time for those weekend blog hops once again! Sorry I missed the last couple. I got super busy, but I am back again in time for Xmas!
   
What is your favorite Christmas themed fiction or nonfiction book?
As I child there were special Xmas books we only got out at that time of year to reread. However, as an adult, this is a harder question to answer. The only Christmas-themed book that springs instantly to mind is Dicken's A Christmas Carol, so I'll go with that one.

Opening sentence:
Eduard was the name of a wealthy baron in the prime of life and he had been spending the best hour of an April afternoon in his orchard nursery grafting new shoots he had just obtained onto the young trees.

 




From page 56:
She was introduced to the men and was at once, as a guest, treated with especial respect. Beauty is everywhere a very welcome guest.

My Current Read 
Elective Affinities
Goethe

Eduard and Charlotte are an aristocratic couple who live a harmonious but idle life in their estate. But the peace of their existence is thrown into chaos when two visitors - Eduard's friend the Captain and Charlotte's passionate young ward Ottilie - provoke unexpected attraction and forbidden love.

Taking its title from the principle of elective affinities - the theory that certain chemicals are naturally drawn to one another - this is a penetrating study of marriage and adultery.

Inspired by Goethe's own conflicting loyalties as he battled to maintain his relationship with his wife and control his feelings for a younger woman, Elective Affinities is one of the greatest works of the romance era: a rich exploration of love, conflict, and the inescapable force of fate.