Books with title Christmas In The Country

At thirteen, Chrissie can’t wait to take part in her family’s tradition: raising a foal of her own in preparation for the annual yearling auction. On Christmas Day, Chrissie watches the birth of the Thoroughbred colt she expects to be given. But when she finally gets her new horse, she’s in for a surprise. Instead of the horse she expected, Chrissie finds the scraggly newborn colt of a second-best mare. Chrissie names the awkward animal Klutz and claims she can’t wait for the auction that will rid her of this gangly beast. But Klutz seems to know how Chrissie feels. The less Chrissie expects, the harder Klutz struggles to prove himself—until one day Chrissie sees that Klutz has grown into a proud, beautiful yearling. Now Chrissie faces a terrible dilemma: How can she stop her parents from selling the horse she has grown to love?

Tracing some of the early influences of what is now considered country music, this book is a description of a cultural journey to the backroads, rural knolls and railway-crossing towns of Mississippi, Alabama, North Carolina and Virginia. The author sets out to show how the first practitioners' music, from the 1930s the 1960s, came to express the rural nostalgia and experience of dislocation that millions of Southern working-class Americans felt as they were forced by the Depression, the dust bowl, urban industrialization and the war, to find new jobs, new homes and new lives. The book includes portraits of leading country performers such as Johnny Cash, Emmylou Harris, Merle Haggard and Chet Atkins.

Barry Laverty, M.B., is looking forward to his first Christmas in the cozy village of Ballybucklebo, at least until he learns that his sweetheart, Patricia, might not be coming home for the holidays. That unhappy prospect dampens his spirits somewhat, but Barry has little time to dwell on his romantic disappointments. Christmas may be drawing nigh, but there is little peace to be found on earth, especially for a young doctor plying his trade in the emerald hills and glens of rural Ireland.Along with his senior partner, Doctor Fingal Flahertie O’Reilly, Barry has his hands full dealing with seasonal coughs and colds, as well as the occasional medical emergency. To add to the doctors’ worries, competition arrives in the form of a patient-poaching new physician whose quackery threatens the health and well-being of the good people of Ballybucklebo. Can one territory support three hungry doctors? Barry has his doubts.But the wintry days and nights are not without a few tidings of comfort and joy. Between their hectic medical practice, Rugby Club parties, and the kiddies’ Christmas Pageant, the two doctors still find time to play Santa Claus to a struggling single mother with a sick child and not enough money in the bank. Snow is rare in Ulster, and so are miracles, but that doesn’t mean they never happen. . . .

Ms. Alcott’s protaganist in this story is Sophie. She lives in a big city with her guardian, but she’s feeling the pressure to make a decision about marriage. She needs some time to get away and think. She decides to travel to Vermont and visit Aunt Plumy and Aunt Plumy’s two grown children, Saul and Ruth. They live on a modest farm and life is much slower there.Sophie asks permission and is allowed to invite two city friends to come up and visit for Christmas. Sophie wants to show them “a real old-fashioned frolic” as it’s done in the country.