Patrick Taylor's "An Irish Country Christmas"--Light Holiday Reading Fun

Patrick Taylor's "An Irish Country Christmas" is a tale of a fictional town in Northern Ireland at--you guessed it--Christmastime, 1964. The town is picturesque, full of all of the characters you would expect to find in Ireland, and amazingly, without any religious strife. The novel focuses on two country doctors and their quiet lives. 

Overall, this book is a slow, but enjoyable read. It really captures the spirit of a small town at Christmastime--you can almost see the Norman Rockwell paintings (even though Rockwell is American, not Irish). But it is SLOW. The whole book covers a period of less than a month and it's almost 500 pages long. You won't have any trouble understanding what is going on in this book if you haven't read the previous two in the series, because the author seems to recap everything from the two earlier books.  But the discussion of medical techniques and patient care feels authentic, since much of it is based on the author's experience as a country doctor in Ireland during the same period.

I would recommend this book to someone looking for a light, holiday themed read. But it's definitely lightweight, lighthearted material.