Customer Reviews

Especially at Christmas

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This book contains short stories about different people encountered by the author. Most are very simple people and Sibley shows you Christmas and what these people consider blessings through their eyes.

Apparently, this collection of ten short pieces is culled from the newspaper writings of author Celestine Sibley, who reported for the Atlanta Constitution for over 50 years before her passing in 1999. The stories here are about people rather than things, and most of the people are poor. Many of these stories--no, all--are especially moving, none more so than the penultimate piece about Sister Keel, a woman who "took literally Christ's admonition to a would-be follower" (quotation from Atlanta and Environs: A Chronicle of Its People and Events : Years of Change and Challenge, 1940-1976, which profiles Sister Keel) and sold her belongings, including her home, to minister to the poor (especially children).

Assuming these are indeed stories from Celestine Sibley's newspaper writings, the represent some of my favorite type of writing, the kind that lets us know there are good people out there and that they have stories, too, often more important stories than those that are "newsworthy." Here, there are ten people worth meeting and learning from.

Highly recommended.