Enrich your holiday reading with these story collections from France, Italy, Russia, and Scandinavia. The fourteen tales in A Very French Christmas include Guy de Maupassant's comical "Christmas Eve," and Anatole France's touching "The Juggler of Notre Dame." A Very Italian Christmas features ten stories, including selections from Giovanni Boccaccio and Anna Maria Ortese; A Very Russian Christmas offers up twelve tales, with stories by Anton Chekhov, Fyodor Dostoevsky, and Lev "Leo" Tolstoy; and A Very Scandinavian Christmas highlights the work of such acclaimed writers as Hans Christian Andersen and Karl Ove Knausgaard. Have yourself a very literary Christmas! (KG)