Looking for the perfect little Christmas present for someone this year?  Look no further!  
 

    Life's Work and other Christmas Stories is a charming collection of whimsical Christmas stories, six in all, including the title story.  The Christmas theme links the otherwise dissimilar stories, each one as comforting as a warm cup of Christmas cider.  

    The title story, "Life's Work," tells the story of Luke Burns, a simple minister, and his lifelong search for angels.  His 'quest' has absorbed him his entire life, until the night when his house burns down in a fire, and Luke finds his angels at last.  Luke's warm-hearted goodness carries the story through, and gives a hopefulness to the story's ending that would otherwise be lacking.

    "Highways to Zion" is about Sharon Pascaglia, a 64-year-old widow whose life seems to have lost some of its 'zing'.  Facing her first Christmas alone since her husband's death, she determines to spend Christmas with her aunt and uncle on Prince Edward Island, where the ghosts and memories of Christmases past give her a new way of looking at her life now.  

    "The Plum-Loaf" was my favorite story of the collection, with its light-hearted, laughing style, the way it mocks itself as a story and has fun doing it.  Like O. Henry's "The Gift of the Magi," this is one of those Christmas stories that I suspect I'll come back to each year around the Christmas season.  It tells the story of a family's making of plum-loaf on Christmas Eve, and the rather unexpected results from a rather unexpected packet of yeast, found in a rather unexpected place, although the story merrily reminds us that we as the readers ought to expect no less.  

    "The Electric Mouse and the Christmas Cat" -- One of the joys of Life's Work is the difference in style between the stories; sometimes it's hard to believe that they were all written by the same person.  If "The Plum Loaf" is reminiscent of a story by O. Henry, then "The Electric Mouse and the Christmas Cat" is reminiscent of one by Hans Christian Anderson, a jolly little story about a boy who goes looking for the spirit of Christmas.  

    "The Sheileen Manuscript" is completely different yet again, a story of an abbot tending a small, barren island on Christmas Eve.  While this story is really quite dark in setting and in tone, it does have a brave, hopeful ending to it.  

    "Christmas Present" is the story of an unusual group of people, thrown together for Christmas when their train is stopped because of the snow.  It focuses on the different lives of the various people on the train, and what they learn about each other and about Christmas itself.  

    In all, Life's Work is a delightful, feel-good collection of stories.  This little book is ideal for stuffing stockings or giving as a gift to friends or coworkers.