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Book Review || Winter Fire: Christmas with G.K. Chesterton by Ryan Whitaker Smith

"Experience the warmth of Christmas through the winsome wit and wisdom of beloved writer G.K. Chesterton. This devotional -- perfect for the Christmas season -- includes selections of Chesterton's writings, accompanied with commentary, Scripture readings, and reflections. Be encouraged by Chesterton's insight, charmed by the Victorian-inspired artwork, and delighted by the traditional English recipes. Make Chesterton's poetry, short stories, and essays a part of your Christmas tradition! A festive celebration of childlike wonder..."

The official summary above pretty much encapsulates everything I was going to say, but -- as I'm here and ready -- I'll still take a stab at it. 

Fresh off the press, my sister sent me this for Christmas and it ended up being a major highlight of the season. I loved it. With thirty Advent readings, it has enough to cover the longest variation of Advent (i.e. when Christmas falls late in the fourth week), then it has additional short stories, essays, and poetry + old fashioned games and recipe ideas to take you right through the Twelve Days of Christmas, which is pretty much the order I followed this year, too, though I'm looking forward to planning ahead and trying the games out more next year. 

The Advent chapters were thought provoking. Chesterton's complex, inverted metaphors and word pictures are always a breath of fresh air and came at the quintessentially perfect time for me this year (thank you, sis! <3).

The short stories were vividly memorable. And the poetry... Oh, the poetry! It just sticks with you and has actually drawn me back to reread it a couple of times, pausing to turn over the delicious phrases, to hear them singing in my head.

To summarize: serious minded and packed with real jollity (the two concepts coincide), this stretched me and also produced a delightfully unexpected laugh numerous times.

So yep, altogether Advent 2023 turned out to be a remarkable season as I found multiple titles I plan to revisit yearly, this being one of them. Can't wait to pull it out again in December 2024!

(Note: Chesterton can be a bit of an acquired taste, though Whitaker does a good job providing suggestions in the foreword for how one might begin developing such a taste, so just consider this a public service announcement to take it slowly and sample / revisit over time if necessary! ;))

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