Short Story Advent Calendar 2018

I woke up today with a bit of extra excitement because I get to open the first story in my Short Story Advent Calendar. It’s December 1st – and there’s a thrill in counting down to Christmas, even for adults. The chocolate candy calendars are great but give me books and short stories any day.

I discovered this Hingston & Olsen gem through the lovely City Books, Pittsburgh’s oldest used bookstore. Besides a carefully curated used book selection, the bookstore offers some new books (like the short story calendar), various events, a subscription box and a fascinating arts and literature tour. I took the tour in October and it was a wonderful experience – highly recommend.

I picked up my advent calendar on Tuesday from City Books and resisted the urge to break it open until today. The packaging is a work of art.  The collection includes stories from eight different countries. What a joy to open up the sealed booklets each day. And I discovered that after you read the story, you can pop over to the calendar website and read an interview with the author. Super cool.

I cuddled up and read the first story with my tween daughter and we both loved it.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy New Year to you all – and Happy Reading!