Rating: 
Summary: If the stress of Christmas doesn't depress you enough ....
Review: Maeve Binchy books are typically a delightful reading experience. I can't say that about this one. It was a downer. Very disappointing. If this had been my 1st Maeve Binchy book, it would have also been my last.
Rating: 
Summary: I laughed, I cried and most of all, I felt!
Review: Maeve Binchy has povided a series of short stories about the holiday season and how it affects people. Many are bitter sweet, some are just plain sad, while others provide hope and insight. While some people may say that the character development is not what you would normally expect from a Binchy story, the fact that these are short stories make the task all the more impressive. Each story hits a nerve. My particular sensitive spot was relfected in the story of the "difficult" step daughter who eats all of the hors d'oerves to the horror of the step mom only to think that they were going to decorate her bedroom for her. An instant bond is built between the two women, one young and one old. Age differences, women in love with married men, widows dealing with the holidays and people with dreams. This is an excellent book for the holiday season. It is easy to read and would make an excellent gift.
Rating:
Summary: What a downer!
Review: My mother buys me a Christmas book every year around the holidays. I've always loved a good uplifting Christmas tale ever since the first time I read "A Christmas Carol" when I was about 13. A few years ago I received this book. Being a fan of Maeve Binchy I was looking forward to reading it. Wasn't I surprised to find that only 2 or 3 of the 15 or so stories were uplifting and even those were borderline? Most of the stories were filled with every kind of downtrodden character you can imagine performing every kind of unsavoury act. The two stars I give this book are only for the writing which is not bad. For content and sentiment I give nothing. If you want a good Christmas story - get yourself a copy of "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens. Don't waste your money on this drivel.
Rating: 
Summary: For the mother-in-law who LOVES the holidays
Review: Of course, it's very Binchy (and if you've read anything by her you'll know that Ms. Binchy can get a bit formulaic and more than a little bit schmultzy), but it's a good read for that mid-December time when you need a lot holiday inspiration. Give it to your Mother-in-Law (the one with the 600 piece Christmas village) as a stocking stuffer. She'll love it.
Rating:
Summary: The end of the year is always a hectic season
Review: The atmosphere around the end of the year is always peculiar, it is specially "crazy", there's a lot of fuss, people are running here and there with their Christmas shopping, we experiment a plethora of mixed feelings and emotions such as melancholy and excitment, and it's mainly the time to think about and evaluate the finishing year. Binchy is a master at capturing these kinds of mood and expressing them in this outstanding collection of 15 short stories. There are some interesting ones about single women who date married men and their turning points that will arrive with the season. Again, the author offers us dialogues that make the characters real and believable - Binchy proves she is perfect at writing both short compact stories and long, full of details, engrossing novels. Pay special attention to "The Ten Snaps of Christmas", about a teenage girl who gets a Polaroid camera and decides to take some "secret pictures" as her Xmas day goes by. It shows readers how families can be hypocritical. What kinds of snapshots would we come across if we had the chance of taking them? And also enjoy the tale of a hard-working carer in an Australian home struggling with a group of four very difficult old people entitled "The Hard Core".
After a year or so you will probably have forgotten many details, and it will be a pleasure to read these stories again and have some new insights.
Rating:
Summary: The end of the year is always a hectic season
Review: The atmosphere around the end of the year is always peculiar, it is specially "crazy", there's a lot of fuss, people are running here and there with their Christmas shopping, we experiment a plethora of mixed feelings and emotions such as melancholy and excitment, and it's mainly the time to think about and evaluate the finishing year. Binchy is a master at capturing these kinds of mood and expressing them in this outstanding collection of 15 short stories. There are some interesting ones about single women who date married men and their turning points that will arrive with the season. Again, the author offers us dialogues that make the characters real and believable - Binchy proves she is perfect at writing both short compact stories and long, full of details, engrossing novels. Pay special attention to "The Ten Snaps of Christmas", about a teenage girl who gets a Polaroid camera and decides to take some "secret pictures" as her Xmas day goes by. It shows readers how families can be hypocritical. What kinds of snapshots would we come across if we had the chance of taking them? And also enjoy the tale of a hard-working carer in an Australian home struggling with a group of four very difficult old people entitled "The Hard Core".
After a year or so you will probably have forgotten many details, and it will be a pleasure to read these stories again and have some new insights.
Rating: 
Summary: Amy - a bookclub member in Ohio
Review: This is in no way an inspirational or uplifting book for the holiday season. I found nearly all of the short stories to be modern day and even realistic stories - but of disfunctional families or relationships. I found it very depressing and hope to warn others that this book will definately not leave you in the holiday spirit but further depress you about the state of the world and how poorly people can treat one another.
Rating:
Summary: <Groan> Predictable
Review: What I am at a loss to explain is why I finished it. Ever hopeful, I guess. These are the basic formulaic Binchy-craft, and just how many women can keep justifying their existence as the mistresses of married men, and why are the men so shallow, and why does it always take a handsome single stranger to lure poor, misunderstood mistress back to righteousness?
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