Dakota Christmas

De: Joseph Bottum

Narrado por: Brian Troxell

A memoir of childhood Christmases on the South Dakota plains. By turns sweet and comic, sentimental and serious, Joseph Bottum's Dakota Christmas is an instant Christmas classic. In this beautifully written account of the mad joys and wild emotions of Christmas for children, Bottum captures the universal spirit of the season even while he recounts his memories with a sharp particularity that brings them alive for listeners.

"Her hair was the same thin shade of gray as the weather - beaten pickets of the fence around her frozen garden," he writes of one chance Christmas encounter. "She had a way with horses, and she was alone on Christmas Eve. There is little in my life I regret as much as that I would not stay for just one cookie, just one cup of tea."

"Joseph Bottum is one of America’s most gifted writers, with a perfect ear and a matchless style," the essayist Andrew Ferguson notes of Dakota Christmas. And "to watch him deck the halls with his customary humor and generosity of spirit is glad tidings indeed - guaranteed to make your Yuletide bright."

"Families have always loved brief Christmas classics," adds Michael Novak. "Joseph Bottum's Dakota Christmas is such a classic."

©2013 Joseph Bottum (P)2014 Audible, Inc.

Memories

Wonderful. Brings back wonderful memories of childhood Christmas. Recommend for all. Good for the entire family.

Good Kindle Short

This is a good Kindle Short that I wish were a bit longer. It is memories of childhood circling around Christmas time.

Just right for my Christmas feelings

It may be that the author and I are of the same generation, and that I grew up in small town Iowa, but nearly everything he writes about here strikes a chord, from sorrow to joy and all the mixed emotions in-between that characterized those gloriously endless weeks leading up to Christmas each year. Thank you to both the perceptive author and the gifted narrator.

Good message

Good message but meh. I could take or leave it. Not bad for a 45 minutes listen

Nice Essay Collection

The author is a bit theatrically cynical at times but I’d suggest taking it as “fond sarcasm”.
Also a bit funny and a bit poignant in parts.
Overall, I liked it, I probably wouldn’t re-listen.