And normally I would not say that a book should be judged on its looks, but this book is absolutely gorgeous, with red page numbers and colored illustrations. A traditional spooky-house story, clichés and all, but with many echoes of madonna and child, and lost children. This is New Year's Day and millions of people will be detoxing, dieting and proclaiming Dry January. The touching chapter in memory of Rendell carries the delightful revelation that the queen of crime was quite partial to country music.

Christmas Days by Jeanette Winterson – BOOK SOCIAL Christmas Days by Jeanette Winterson – BOOK SOCIAL

We get flashbacks to build his disdain for the holiday and some humorous recurring moments with his apartment complex security guard ignoring him. But it also becomes clear that Rendell provided Winterson with a haven of unconditional support she had never experienced at home: “I wrote my second novel, The Passion, in her house.

I loved reading about the people she spent time with during various Christmases and New Years including Ruth Rendell, Kathy Acker, and her spouse, Susie Orbach. And now that I’m full of holiday cheer I need to go shovel my driveway because we are getting pounded with snow for the second day in a row.

Christmas Days by Jeanette Winterson review - The Guardian

My favorite short stories were those about a snowperson come to life and restoring hope for a young girl and her mother (‘The Snowmama’); a nativity story told from the point of view of a very special animal (‘The Lion, the Unicorn and Me’); and a touching story about the bereavement of a loved one at Christmastime (‘The Glow-Heart’). Oranges are Not the Only Fruit was a fictionalised account that brought her to fame (my brief review HERE).

In the poignant title story, a young man accompanies his mother to Kok Lukmak, the last in the chain of Andaman Islands—where the two can behave like “farangs,” or foreigners, for once.

Christmas Days - Penguin Books UK Christmas Days - Penguin Books UK

Sometimes the thing we long for, the thing we need, the miracle we want, is right there in front of us, and we can't see it, or we run the other way, or saddest of all, we just don't know what to do with it.

It was the one time of the year when she went out into the world looking as though the world was more than a vale of tears. Winterson covers the past, present, and future of artificial intelligence in this fascinating survey… Through well-paced and articulate prose, Winterson makes granular tech know-how remarkably accessible…This is full of insight. Yet the inconsistency feels significant, because this book is as much about healing and forgiveness as it is about fairytale cruelty to children.