When this says preformed, it means it. Patrick Stewart does an amazing - of course - job of bringing the various characters together, particularly Scrooge. Turns out this was made after the movie, which is also quite good. Though Richard E. Grant, no mater how good an actor I think he is, is way to tall to play Cratchit. It sadly would have been almost impossible for the man to have reached such a great height with the likely dietary issues he would have faced. One of things the Jim Carey animated version got very right.

Stewart doesn't just read the story, he laughs, cries, and more, bringing Dicken's already descriptive text to life. There are a few places where I think they used the later edition rather then the original text - and turns out it's abridged - but mostly it's the story I've heard and seems so many times before. But he makes it his own, something often hard to do as this story has been done by so many. I know this has long been a favorite of my dad's, and my own.

"Why is a raven like a writing desk?" "Because Poe wrote on both?"

 

“The barriers between reality and fiction are softer than we think; a bit like a frozen lake. Hundreds of people can walk across it, but then one evening a thin spot develops and someone falls through; the hole is frozen over by the following morning.”

I've heard Fforde's work compared to Douglas Adams and Monty Python and there's truth to that. But nothing quite sums up the odd blend of alternate history, literary love, quirky humor, and just sheer brilliance. The book had me at the first chapter: "As the Crimean War enters its one hundred and thirty first year..." Forget the Chronoguard, forget the already depth of world-building going on; this author was using an alternate history of the Crimean War! Who does that?!

When I first heard of Sherlock Holmes visiting St. Paul and America, I was extremely skeptical. I also didn't realize it was a series and so read this, the second book, first. Actually, though I never do this, I suggest starting with this one, as I think it's the better written and for a good deal of the story, more interesting.

No matter how many times I read this book, it never gets old. As a Southern girl (though not quite as Southern as Callie) raised in the mountains but now living in the North, I have two things I turn to when I feel homesick. When I need to "see mountains again, Gandalf, mountains," I watch the Christy TV series from the 90s. I grew up near where it was filmed, so I recognize the beautiful landscape. When I miss the South, I reread this series. The people, the customs and society, and Bojangles (*sigh* Cajun Chicken Biscuits) all are familiar and feels like a homecoming. So please realize, I can't be objective about this book or the series.

I remember buying this when it first came out, reading it, and not finding it terribly interesting. I didn't read it again nor did I read any of the later books, the series slipped beneath my radar and though I attempted to restart it once or twice, I never seemed to manage.

But I decided to give it another chance while I did my reread audiobook extravaganza and I'm glad I did. This time around I really enjoyed it and can't for the life of me remember why I didn't like it in the first place! Crazy.