Welcome to another installment of Christmas in quarantine. It's Christmas past's impromptu mini-series

of indeterminate length, and it's all about spreading just a little bit of extra Christmas cheer

as we navigate these uncertain times with the COVID-19 crisis. So, first of all, I hope you're

staying safe and healthy. I hope that you're practicing all of the common sense guidelines and taking your advice

only from trained medical professionals.

And second of all, a little programming note.

If you follow me on any of my social media, you may have seen my announcement about this a few days ago.

Christmas and quarantine began back in March when the state of California,

where I live, went on statewide shelter in place. At the time, it was looking like the quarantine

would last about a month, give or take, and my plan was to release one new episode every day.

Now, here we are nearing the end of April, and it's still very uncertain when things will get back to normal, or whatever the new normal is going to be.

Long story short, daily episodes just aren't sustainable indefinitely, at least not the

kind that I've been putting out.

So what that means is that, at least for now, Christmas in quarantine is still very much

here, but just not daily.

Probably more like weekly,

though, if I can do more, I will. And here we are today with an all-new episode.

If you're like me, you're getting a lot of reading done nowadays. My home is full of books to begin with,

and I was lucky enough to have borrowed a bunch from my local library just before everything closed down. Of course,

there's always something Christmasy on my reading list, so I reached out to Carrie Mercer,

host of the Christmas Book Review podcast, to come on and talk about Christmas stories in general

and some of her faves in particular. If you haven't subscribed to Christmas book review,

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