Description: Delilah "Spunky" Spunk is invited to conduct a genome study in a small North Carolina town to discover if there is a genetic influence on one's desire to remain in a community. She unexpectedly finds herself in the cross hairs of a feud between rival Christmas pageants, and along the way discovers she is falling in love.
Brief description:
Emily Janice Card (a.k.a. Emily Rankin) is an actor, writer, and singer from North Carolina, now residing in Los Angeles. In addition to being a narrator, she has directed numerous audiobooks, including the 2007 Audie and Earphones Award winner Hubris, Legacy of Ashes by Pulitzer Prize winner Tim Weiner, and Them by Nathan McCall. Her own audiobook narration has won her four Earphones Awards.
Review Quotes:
"Orson Scott Card brings whimsy to the forefront of his latest novel, A Town Divided by Christmas...One of Card's strengths as a writer is his ability to take intelligent protagonists and make them not only relatable but also humorous through clever dialogue and introspection. From the first page, Spunk pulls readers into a world full of scientific questioning, but in a way that is interesting and compelling for readers of any background. Though the book is more like a novella...it moves swiftly through pages of genetic calculation and data collection through a plot that contains great character quips and quirks, making it feel like a fuller text than it is...A quick and fun read with substance that is certainly worth the while."
-- "San Francisco Book Review"