Christmas Literary Fiction

Read by Juliet Stevenson and Simon Callow, A Literary Christmas is a seasonal anthology that collects together poems, short stories, and prose extracts by some of the greatest poets and writers in the English language. Like Charles Dickens’ ghosts of Christmas Past and Present, they are representative of times old and new - from John Donne’s Elizabethan hymn over the baby Jesus to Rudyard Kipling’s "Christmas in India", from Thomas Tusser counting the cost of a Tudor feast to Laurie Lee’s "Cider with Rosie".

Deep in the southernmost part of Alabama, along the banks of a lazy winding river, lies the sleepy little community known as Lost River, a place that time itself seems to have forgotten. After a startling diagnosis from his doctor, Oswald T. Campbell leaves behind the cold and damp of the oncoming Chicago winter to spend what he believes will be his last Christmas in the warm and welcoming town of Lost River. There he meets the postman who delivers mail by boat, the store owner who nurses a broken heart, the ladies of the Mystic Order of the Royal Polka Dots Secret Society.

'The Queen of Christmas' WOMAN. Cosy up and escape to twinkling Manhattan with a collection of the #1 bestselling author of hit festive movie romcom, SOMETHING FROM TIFFANY'S most heartwarming and romantic New York Christmas tales. Take a stroll along snowy Fifth Avenue past the holiday windows, enjoy a little impromptu ice skating beneath the Rockefeller Christmas tree, followed by steaming hot chocolate and peppermint fudge. Uncover the mystery behind an intriguing letter found in Central Park, locate the true owner of a lost little blue box or stand atop the Empire State Building with ...

In 1860 the Henry Wadsworth Longfellow family celebrated Christmas at Craigie House, their home in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The publication of Longfellow's classic Revolutionary War poem, "Paul Revere's Ride", was less than a month hence, and the country's grave political unrest weighed heavily on his mind. Yet with his beloved wife, Fanny, and their five adored children at his side, the delights of the season prevailed.

Tiny Tim, Bob Cratchit, and Ebenezer Scrooge come to marvelous life in Patrick Stewart's critically-acclaimed solo interpretation of A Christmas Carol. The star of X-Men and The Royal Shakespeare Company, Stewart has performed his one-man stage production of this holiday classic to sell-out audiences.

Twelve nights. Twelve stories. One season of goodwill gone horribly wrong. From horror author Kevin Lintner comes a chilling Christmas collection where cheer curdles into terror and every light on the tree casts a shadow of its own. Under the Mistletoe of Madness unwraps the quiet horrors hiding behind holiday tradition—family dinners, nativity plays, viral kindness, and corporate gifts that bite back. When the carols fade and the snow begins to whisper, you’ll meet: 🎅 The Santa Games — desperate men compete for a mall Santa job, but only the last one standing earns the red suit. ...

Edgar Award-winning editor Otto Penzler collects more than 50 of his all-time favorite holiday crime stories - many of which are difficult or nearly impossible to find anywhere else. From classic Victorian tales by Arthur Conan Doyle, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Thomas Hardy, to contemporary stories by Sara Paretsky and Ed McBain, this collection touches on all aspects of the holiday season, and all types of mysteries. They are suspenseful, funny, frightening, and poignant.

NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A thrilling tale of betrayal and revenge set against the nineteenth-century American frontier, Michael Punke's The Revenant is the astonishing story of real-life trapper and frontiersman Hugh Glass The year is 1823, and the trappers of the...

"...Hammer's voice is brimming with such melody that, if you listen to it long enough, you can probably get drunk off it." — Vulture.com *Now a major motion picture from director Luca Guadagnino, starring Armie Hammer and Timothée Chalamet. Winner of the 2018 Academy Award for Adapted...

Saira Wright is a prominent Black romance author who has been signed to the most prestigious publisher of African American works, Brownstone Literature. Her career has been successful for the past five years. However, she’s in a slump, and so are her sales and reviews. The romance she has been known for seems to be zapped out of her stories and her love life. Eager to get Saira back on top of the charts, her publisher has given her an ultimatum—write a chart-topping holiday romance or be dropped from the publishing house. There’s only one problem: Saira strongly opposes penning holiday books.

Celebrate the holidays with New York Times bestselling author Jenny Colgan’s Christmas Island Collection, featuring two novels—Christmas on the Island and Christmas at the Island Hotel—two romantic and festive tales set on a charming island off the coast of Scotland. “Losing myself in...

Keep the cold at bay and cozy up with New York Times bestselling author Jenny Colgan’s Christmas Book Set, collecting two novels—Christmas at Rosie Hopkins’ Sweetshop and Christmas at Little Beach Street Bakery—a pair of sweet stories full of romance, cheer, and hope for this magical...

Family and babies abound during this fun-filled evening of love, laughter, and happily ever afters! Spend the evening catching up with our loving and loyal Bradens in this holiday celebration and fall in love all over again with each of the Bradens at Weston, and their children. A Very Braden Christmas is a novelette and part of the Love in Bloom big-family romance collection.

"Between author Rooney's story and narrator Xe Sands's craftsmanship, this Walk will sweep listeners off their feet...Through Sands we feel the force of Lillian's personality — with all its drive, wit, and grace — as well as the counterforces that want to constrain it." — AudioFile...

A village mystery… A Victorian Christmas Inspector Josiah Abbs is off to Norfolk, reunited for Christmas with his sister, Hetty. He’s anticipating a quiet week, while he weighs up his future. But beneath the surface, life in sleepy Aylmer is not all it seems. Someone is playing malicious tricks on the villagers. A tragic accident has shocked friends and neighbours. With little time to act, and determined to protect Hetty, Abbs feels compelled to uncover the truth… An Inspector Abbs mystery novella – linking the first and third novels in the series. .

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER The author of Small Great Things returns with a powerful and provocative novel about ordinary lives that intersect during a heart-stopping crisis. Look for Jodi Picoult’s new novel, By Any Other Name, available now! “Picoult at her fearless best . . . Timely...

Years ago Lady Louisa Windham acted rashly on a dare from her brother, and that indiscretion is about to come to light. She knows her reputation will never survive exposure. Just as she's nearly overwhelmed by her dilemma, Sir Joseph Carrington offers himself to her as a solution. But Sir Joseph has secrets as well, and as he and Louisa become entangled with each other, their deceptions begin to close in on them both.

NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE STREAMING ON HULU A warmhearted, "complex, believable, and always intriguing story” (The New York Journal of Books) that celebrates female friendship and second chances This diner in Plainview, Indiana is home away from home for Odette, Clarice, and Barbara...

This Pulitzer Prize–winning novel tells the story of Laurel McKelva Hand, a young woman who has left the South and returns, years later, to New Orleans, where her father is dying. After his death, she and her silly young stepmother go back still farther, to the small Mississippi town where she...

"[Narrator Therese] Plummer's talented performance is both illuminating and poignant." -- AudioFile Magazine Winner of the Pen/Hemingway Award Fortieth Anniversary Edition This program includes a bonus conversation with the author. A modern classic, Marilynne Robinson's Housekeeping is the story...