Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Christmas Table: A Novel
    The Christmas Table: A Novel
    The Christmas Table: A Novel
    Audiobook4 hours

    The Christmas Table: A Novel

    Written by Donna VanLiere

    Narrated by Donna VanLiere

    4.5/5

    ()

    Switch to ebook

    About this audiobook

    This program is read by the author.

    From Donna VanLiere, the New York Times bestselling author of The Christmas Hope series comes another heartwarming, inspirational story for the holidays, The Christmas Table.

    In June 1972, John Creighton determines to build his wife Joan a kitchen table. His largest project to date had been picture frames but he promises to have the table ready for Thanksgiving dinner. Inspired to put something delicious on the table, Joan turns to her mother’s recipes she had given to Joan when she and John married.

    In June 2012, Lauren Mabrey discovers she’s pregnant. Gloria, Miriam, and the rest of her friends at Glory’s Place begin to pitch in, helping Lauren prepare their home for the baby. On a visit to the local furniture builder, Lauren finds a table that he bought at a garage sale but has recently refinished. Once home, a drawer is discovered under the table which contains a stack of recipe cards. Growing up in one foster home after another, Lauren never learned to cook and is fascinated as she reads through the cards. Personal notes have been written on each one from the mother to her daughter and time and again Lauren wonders where they lived, when they lived, and in a strange way, she feels connected to this mother and her daughter and wants to make the mother proud.

    The story continues to from 1972 to 2012 as Joan battles breast cancer and Lauren learns to cook, preparing for the baby’s arrival. As Christmas nears, can Lauren unlock the mystery of the table, and find the peace she's always longed for?

    A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin's Press

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Audio
    Release dateOct 6, 2020
    ISBN9781250770400
    Author

    Donna VanLiere

    Donna VanLiere is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author. Her much-loved Christmas Hope series includes The Christmas Shoes and The Christmas Blessing (both of which were adapted into movies for CBS Television), The Christmas Secret, The Christmas Journey, and The Christmas Hope, which was adapted into a film by Lifetime. She is also the author of The Angels of Morgan Hill and Finding Grace. VanLiere is the recipient of a Retailer's Choice Award for Fiction, a Dove Award, a Silver Angel Award, an Audie Award for best inspirational fiction, and a nominee for a Gold Medallion Book of the Year. She is a gifted speaker who makes regular appearances at conferences. She lives in Franklin, Tennessee, with her husband and their children.

    More audiobooks from Donna Van Liere

    Related to The Christmas Table

    Related audiobooks

    General Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      All For Molly

      Jun 16, 2022

      All For Molly
      4 min read

    • Article

      Two Poems

      Jul 1, 2023

      I The teenaged girl is searching for a placethat goes through, the holeto put the tampon inside. When she finds itshe asks her mother, Is this where the penis would go?Yes, her mother explains.Then I will never have sex. II Sweltering New York City.

      5 min read

    • Article

      The Space Between Us

      Oct 9, 2019

      The Space Between Us
      8 min read

    • Article

      Cricket League

      Jan 1, 2022

      It was an unusual birthday. Colorful banners blanketed the backyard. Kids chased each other through the grass. Adults talked. It all went downhill from there. My little sister was turning five. On her birthday cake, painted in frosting, was a fat, pi

      7 min read

    • Article

      Scapegoat Child

      Mar 15, 2018

      In the crucible of our family my sister burned like molten steel. Once I saw her arms outspread her legs hanging limp and useless wet saliva dripping from her tongue. I screamed they surrounded her lifted her onto the sheets where she convulsed for h

      7 min read

    • Article

      Part 2 SOCKS

      Apr 1, 2022

      Part 2 SOCKS
      7 min read

    • Article

      Better

      Aug 12, 2019

      Better
      18 min read

    • Article

      Under Covers

      Mar 1, 2023

      Alejandro Puyana is a Venezuelan writer living in Austin, Texas. His work has appeared in Best American Short Stories 2020, New England Review, American Short Fiction, Tin House, The Idaho Review, and other publications. He is at work on a novel. My

      18 min read

    • Article

      The Girl on THE MOON

      Mar 3, 2021

      The Girl on THE MOON
      8 min read

    • Article

      “No Brown Sugar in Anybody’s Milk”

      Jun 5, 2023

      Essie T-e-e-e. Essie T. Where is that girl? Essie T., hurry up and come in here and fasten the back of this dress. Honestly, girl, are you always so slow? A big clumsy-looking girl pushed herself across the room. She walked as if she were afraid that

      10 min read

    • Article

      One Carrot

      Jul 2, 2020

      One Carrot
      5 min read

    • Article

      Long Lost

      Apr 22, 2020

      Long Lost
      9 min read

    • Article

      Just the THING

      May 18, 2022

      Just the THING
      3 min read

    • Article

      Night Flying

      Aug 2, 2018

      Night Flying
      10 min read

    • Article

      Family Matters

      May 15, 2020

      Family Matters
      5 min read

    • Article

      Daughters’ Bodies

      Dec 1, 2019

      WHEN I’M about to go away to college, my grandmother dies and my mother silently puts herself up for adoption. LOOKING FOR SOMEONE TO ADOPT ME: Kind, lonely, beautiful woman in her 50s. Dead husband. No children. Cooks and cleans. 4’11 and 90 lbs. Gu

      20 min read

    • Article

      O Fortuna, Velut Luna

      Sep 15, 2018

      What is Miss Treece’s trouble, according to a popular notion? The man A has failed to show up. Arousing herself at the restaurant, she fixes her lipstick when her solo supper concludes and takes herself down the stairs situated behind the bar. There,

      3 min read

    • Article

      Welcome to Reliance

      Dec 1, 2021

      Welcome to Reliance
      11 min read

    • Article

      A Double Life

      Dec 7, 2020

      Sadie is in the kitchen, already dressed in school uniform, fastening the clips on the violin she chose for her most recent birthday, when Gabriela heads downstairs the following morning. Seven years old: how the hell did that happen? Briefly, she wo

      6 min read

    • Article

      What Do You Do, Mum?

      Mar 10, 2021

      What Do You Do, Mum?
      2 min read

    • Article

      Dolly’s Star Turn

      Jul 12, 2023

      Dolly’s Star Turn
      7 min read

    • Article

      The Family Plot

      May 7, 2020

      The Family Plot
      10 min read

    • Article

      Who Was My Mother?

      Sep 12, 2019

      Who Was My Mother?
      7 min read

    • Article

      Someone To Watch OVER ME

      May 25, 2022

      Someone To Watch OVER ME
      9 min read

    • Article

      Evenings with Clarice Lispector’s Newest Translator

      Apr 24, 2018

      1. “I’ve been working on the translation nonstop—it’s like I’m in a trance,” Magdalena Edwards told me in early March 2017, while preparing a gin and tonic at her house in Santa Monica. I walked there from my place—we live very close to one another.

      8 min read

    • Article

      Just good FRIENDS

      Nov 9, 2022

      Just good FRIENDS
      8 min read

    • Article

      Dawn Neesom Mind Of My Own

      Nov 23, 2021

      Dawn Neesom Mind Of My Own
      3 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Christmas Table

    4.5/5

    31 ratings4 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      I think this was my favorite one of the series so far. (Unfortunately I didn’t know it was part of a collection & have only read the last 3.) But I especially enjoyed how the story of the flashbacks intertwined with the present day characters. Of course, it’s all connected in the end, but always beautifully and meaningfully done. Sad to see an end to these characters. A great feel good Christmas story.
    • 5/5
      These book are sweet and safe for all ears. Wish there were more.
    • 4/5
      Loved the continued use of previous well liked believable characters. The storyline kept your interest. I enjoyed this book.
    • 4/5
      Christmas in July - reading The Christmas Table was like the Hallmark Channel in a book, and not at all in a bad way. This was a lovely read full of small town charm and good feelings. It's set in two time periods, 40 years apart - in 1972 John is attempting to build a dining table for his wife, Joan. In 2012 newlywed Lauren finds a great deal on a table that's been recently refinished. When she gets it home, she finds a stash of handwritten recipes with notes from a mother to a daughter. She enjoys learning to cook from the recipe cards, but also feels compelled to try to find the daughter who she's sure would want to have those cards. There's a cast of supporting characters from the town in both stories. I haven't read the other books in this series, and as I came across those supporting characters I had that "there's a backstory there" feeling, but not in a way that kept me from enjoying the story at hand. As a nice bonus - while reading about all the dishes Lauren was learning to cook, I began to wish the recipes were actually in the book. Eventually I took a peek ahead and sure enough - at the end of the book, the recipes are there!
      Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for providing a copy for an unbiased review.