Christmas in Austin

Christmas in Austin
Author: Benjamin Markovits
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Total Pages: 480
Release: 2019-11-05
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0571363180

'A novel that everyone should read before they face their own family Christmas.' The Times When the four Essinger children gather in Austin for Christmas, they all bring their news. Nathan wants to become a federal judge. Susie's husband has taken a job in England. Jean has asked her boyfriend and (once-married) boss to meet her family. Paul has broken up with Dana, mother of their son Cal. But their parents have plans, too, and Liesel, the materfamilias, has invited Dana and Cal to stay, hoping to bring them back together. As the week unfolds, each of the Essingers has to confront the tensions and conflicts between old families and new.

The Wish Book Christmas

The Wish Book Christmas
Author: Lynn Austin
Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.
Total Pages: 304
Release: 2021-09-07
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1496452542

From the bestselling author of If I Were You comes a nostalgic and endearing holiday story that reminds us that sometimes the most meaningful gifts are the ones we least expect and dont deserve. Best friends Audrey Barrett and Eve Dawson are looking forward to celebrating Christmas in postwar America, thrilled at the prospect of starting new traditions with their five-year-old sons. But when the 1951 Sears Christmas Wish Book arrives and the boys start obsessing over every toy in it, Audrey and Eve realize they must first teach them the true significance of the holiday. They begin by helping Bobby and Harry plan gifts of encouragement and service for those in their community, starting by walking an elderly neighbors yellow Labsince a dog topped the boys wish list for Santa. In the charming tale that follows, Audrey and Eve are surprised to find their own hearts healing from the tragedies of war and opening to the possibility of forgiveness and new love.

The Twenty-four Days Before Christmas

The Twenty-four Days Before Christmas
Author: Madeleine L'Engle
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
Total Pages: 81
Release: 2011-11-04
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 1429945648

Madeleine L'Engle's beloved Austin family stars in a cozy Christmas story, "The Twenty-four Days Before Christmas." Vicky Austin's family does one special thing each day of December to prepare for Christmas. This year, they're also preparing for the birth of a new brother or sister, due after the New Year. Vicky is worried that the baby will come early—what kind of Christmas Eve would it be without Mother to help them hang up stockings and sing everyone to sleep with carols? This classic story of an old-fashioned Christmas is accompanied by merry illustrations by Jill Weber. This special eBook edition includes bonus content not available in the print edition: · Christmas in New York essay by Madeleine L'Engle · Reproductions of 7 unique L'Engle family Christmas cards created and illustrated by Madeleine L'Engle· First chapter of the Newbery Award–winning A Wrinkle in Time

A Weekend in New York

A Weekend in New York
Author: Benjamin Markovits
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Total Pages: 347
Release: 2018-06-05
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0571338070

'Elegant and absorbing.' Guardian'A book to be savoured.' Observer'Intimate, funny . . . Masterfully done.' Daily Mail'Sophisticated and engrossing.' Literary ReviewPaul is a mid-ranking tennis professional on the ATP tour. His girlfriend Dana is an ex-model and photographer, and together with their two-year-old son they form a tableau of the contented upper-middle-class New York family. But Paul's parents and siblings have come to stay in the build-up to the US Open, and with summer storms brewing, several generations of domestic tension are brought to boiling point . . .

Austin Entertains

Austin Entertains
Author: Texas Junior League Of Austin
Publisher: Junior League of Austin Texas
Total Pages: 255
Release: 2001-01-01
Genre: Cooking
ISBN: 9780960590605

This menu-driven cookbook for entertaining is filled with recipes to please any crowd. Rally before a football game; dish up dessert after a theater performance; arrange a formal tea using fabulous menu combinations. Beautiful photographs and a little Austin history also make this book an interesting read. A 2002 Southwest Regional Winner of the Tabasco Community Cookbook Award.

Christmas Stories

Christmas Stories
Author: Pf Farraday
Publisher: Austin Macauley
Total Pages: 267
Release: 2017-11
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9781787107625

A collection of twelve short, wonderful and magical stories to warm your heart this Christmas.

The Ultimate Christmas Show (Abridged)

The Ultimate Christmas Show (Abridged)
Author: Reed Martin
Publisher: Broadway Play Publishing Incorporated
Total Pages: 88
Release: 2016-04-26
Genre:
ISBN: 9780881456653

"Critic's Choice! They tell me vaudeville died some time ago, but...the knockabout, anything for-a-laugh spirit of the ancient genre is alive and well. Agile and quick witted...there's no denying their ingenuity when it comes to grabbing comedy out of thin air." Boston Globe "Gloriously irreverent style...a Christmas pageant gone horribly, hilariously awry." Dallas Morning News "These brilliant clowns take us on an irreverent but heartwarming trip through the holidays guaranteed to step on more than a few sacred cows and mistel-toes'." San Diego Magazine

A Full House

A Full House
Author: Madeleine L'Engle
Publisher: Shaw
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2000-03-07
Genre: Christmas stories
ISBN: 9780877880202

The Austins have a full house on Christmas Eve when fate brings them a new mother and a young woman who is expecting.

Meet the Austins

Meet the Austins
Author: Madeleine L'Engle
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
Total Pages: 242
Release: 2008-09-02
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
ISBN: 1466814144

In book one in the award-winning Austin Family Chronicles young adult series from Madeleine L’Engle, author of A Wrinkle in Time, Vicky Austin experiences the difficulties and joys of growing up. For a family with four kids, two dogs, assorted cats, and a constant stream of family and friends dropping by, life in the Austin family home has always been remarkably steady and contented. When a family friend suddenly dies in a plane crash, the Austins open their home to an orphaned girl, Maggy Hamilton. The Austin children—Vicky, John, Suzy, and Rob—do their best to be generous and welcoming to Maggy. Vicky knows she should feel sorry for Maggy, but having sympathy for Maggy is no easy thing. Maggy is moody and spoiled; she breaks toys, wakes people in the middle of the night screaming, discourages homework, and generally causes chaos in the Austin household. How can one small child disrupt a family of six? Will life ever return to normal? Books by Madeleine L'Engle A Wrinkle in Time Quintet A Wrinkle in Time A Wind in the Door A Swiftly Tilting Planet Many Waters An Acceptable Time A Wrinkle in Time: The Graphic Novel by Madeleine L'Engle; adapted & illustrated by Hope Larson Intergalactic P.S. 3 by Madeleine L'Engle; illustrated by Hope Larson: A standalone story set in the world of A Wrinkle in Time. The Austin Family Chronicles Meet the Austins (Volume 1) The Moon by Night (Volume 2) The Young Unicorns (Volume 3) A Ring of Endless Light (Volume 4) A Newbery Honor book! Troubling a Star (Volume 5) The Polly O'Keefe books The Arm of the Starfish Dragons in the Waters A House Like a Lotus And Both Were Young Camilla The Joys of Love

Christmas in America

Christmas in America
Author: Penne L. Restad
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 240
Release: 1996-12-05
Genre: History
ISBN: 0199923582

The manger or Macy's? Americans might well wonder which is the real shrine of Christmas, as they take part each year in a mix of churchgoing, shopping, and family togetherness. But the history of Christmas cannot be summed up so easily as the commercialization of a sacred day. As Penne Restad reveals in this marvelous new book, it has always been an ambiguous meld of sacred thoughts and worldly actions-- as well as a fascinating reflection of our changing society. In Christmas in America, Restad brilliantly captures the rise and transformation of our most universal national holiday. In colonial times, it was celebrated either as an utterly solemn or a wildly social event--if it was celebrated at all. Virginians hunted, danced, and feasted. City dwellers flooded the streets in raucous demonstrations. Puritan New Englanders denounced the whole affair. Restad shows that as times changed, Christmas changed--and grew in popularity. In the early 1800s, New York served as an epicenter of the newly emerging holiday, drawing on its roots as a Dutch colony (St. Nicholas was particularly popular in the Netherlands, even after the Reformation), and aided by such men as Washington Irving. In 1822, another New Yorker named Clement Clarke Moore penned a poem now known as "'Twas the Night Before Christmas," virtually inventing the modern Santa Claus. Well-to-do townspeople displayed a German novelty, the decorated fir tree, in their parlors; an enterprising printer discovered the money to be made from Christmas cards; and a hodgepodge of year-end celebrations began to coalesce around December 25 and the figure of Santa. The homecoming significance of the holiday increased with the Civil War, and by the end of the nineteenth century a full- fledged national holiday had materialized, forged out of borrowed and invented custom alike, and driven by a passion for gift-giving. In the twentieth century, Christmas seeped into every niche of our conscious and unconscious lives to become a festival of epic proportions. Indeed, Restad carries the story through to our own time, unwrapping the messages hidden inside countless movies, books, and television shows, revealing the inescapable presence--and ambiguous meaning--of Christmas in contemporary culture. Filled with colorful detail and shining insight, Christmas in America reveals not only much about the emergence of the holiday, but also what our celebrations tell us about ourselves. From drunken revelry along colonial curbstones to family rituals around the tree, from Thomas Nast drawing the semiofficial portrait of St. Nick to the making of the film Home Alone, Restad's sparkling account offers much to amuse and ponder.