“Christmas waves a magic wand over this world and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful.” —Norman Vincent Peale
It’s the most wonderful time of year, people. And Rachel’s making it possible for you to focus on being jolly—she’s handling the rest. At least where your best December reads and Christmas book-giving are concerned. Your days are bound to be merry and bright because our gift guide is live! So go ahead and quell the hustle and bustle. Ditch the last-minute madness. Feel free to lean on us for the best book recommends. Your friends and family will be glad you did, since, in the words of Neil Gaiman, “Books make great gifts because they have whole worlds inside of them. And it’s much cheaper to buy somebody a book than it is to buy them the whole world.”
While I’m here, let me just say Annie Hartnett has given me a whole world full meaningful insight, unexpected caring, and of course, some jocularity in her latest book The Road to Tender Hearts. Her newest protagonist is 63-year-old PJ Halliday. Despite completely defying odds and winning the Massachusetts state lottery, PJ has had some bum luck out of life. What’s worse, he’s experienced some real tragedies. He knows drinking doesn’t remotely solve his problems, instead it grows them, but he can’t help himself. Things start looking up when he finds out that his high school sweetheart is widowed. There’s just one problem: she lives in faraway Arizona. PJ optimistically decides to make an improbable cross-country road trip. (He doesn’t own a reliable car, and his soon-to-be-renewed license is currently revoked.) But PJ isn’t one to let trivial details get in the way. Next stop Tender Hearts Retirement Community.
In a road trip rivaling the Griswold’s, Harnett takes readers on an adventure that includes a sober PJ, two orphans, a critical daughter in search of purpose, and a “therapy cat” named Pancakes who predicts or maybe incites death! Named an NPR Best Book of the Year, “The Road to Tender Hearts is absurdly over-the-top in plot yet warms like a heated seat.” I couldn’t agree more with this reviewer: “Hartnett has a gift for turning life’s messiest, saddest moments into something weirdly funny and downright beautiful. Hartnett’s fans will find much to love here.”