Last season, Jan Karon's small gift book THE MITFORD SNOWMEN: A
Christmas Story was a huge hit with her fans, and other holiday
booklovers. This season's title --- ESTHER'S GIFT --- promises to
have the same success.

Esther Bolick is getting into the holiday spirit baking her famous
orange marmalade cake. As she compiles her list of "cake
recipients," she and her husband do some quick math on how much
each of these cakes is costing her to give. Stunned by the final
cost for each cake, she quickly whittles her list. At the same
time, she loses track of the meaning of the season.

Quicker than a cake can rise, she hears some lines of a Christmas
song and realizes monetizing her gift has dwarfed the real message
of giving. This sends her into the kitchen, to whip up the cakes
and, in fact, give them their best presentation ever.

Karon's fans will appreciate the recipe for Esther's Orange
Marmalade Layer Cake, which can be found in the back of the
book.

If you want to give more than a book, here are some gift
suggestions to pair with this: Bake the Orange Marmalade Layer
Cake, or if baking is not your thing, think about wrapping up the
book with the cake's ingredients in a basket. It would be fun to
get to bake without shopping!