Christmas Books - A Redbird Christmas

I'm taking a break from watching Silence of the Lambs on my Clearplayer. My heartrate was starting to pound a little and I'm all on my own in the house if you don't count the cat. Creeeeeeepy. I'll never look at Stottlemeyer the same in Monk again, that's for sure. *shudders*

Anyone have a clue why my Inkheart post gets hits every week? It's always #1 on my popular posts and I have no idea why. I guess whoever it is is a kindred spirit. :)

A Redbird Christmas by Fannie Flagg

This is one of those books that I would have never picked up if not for it being recommended to me by my library volunteer. Thanks, Margaret!

Turns out the story is rather predictable, but in a good way.

The book follows the life of an elderly man whose doctor demands that he get away from the city and stop drinking if he wants to see another Christmas. So the doctor recommends this little sleepy town by a river in Alabama that has barely 100 inhabitants. Oswald Campbell packs up his life (it fits in one suitcase) and heads out for what he expects to be one last adventure. Raised in an orphanage and named after Campbell soup, Oswald has no earthly ties. Even his marriage fell apart years ago so he literally has nothing to lose.

Yet, there's something about this little town that attracts him. He meets Roy, the man who owns the general store and keeps a redbird (or Cardinal) as a pet. He encounters a little handicapped child named Patsy who was abandoned by her father and taken in by one of the local women. He tries his hardest to avoid romantic entanglements with the widows of the town who've taken a shine to him even though he looks like a "little elf." He learns that life might just be worth living again and the best part is watching his heart soften.

I'm more romantic around Christmas and usually drag out all of my inspirational romances that involve the holidays. While the plot is a little slow around the middle of the book, I just couldn't put it down. Not hard since it's only about 200 pages long. This book is one I wouldn't have chosen for myself but the lack of sexual content and language, plus the gentle and loving natures of the characters, appealed to me. It's cute, it's heartwarming if not original, and it's perfect to read at Christmastime!