I have several books about the history of the carols of Christmas, so I was extremely excited to receive this book by Andrew Gant on the subject.  The Carols of Christmas is a VERY detailed look at the history of our favorite carols.  While I definitely learned many interesting facts that I’ve never heard before, it did feel as though I was reading a textbook for a music history class.  The author seems to have a very thorough knowledge of the subject matter and obviously spent an enormous amount of time and effort to research and prepare this work, but it would have been much easier to read if he had left out the enormous amount of music theory and instead concentrated on the fun details that everyone would find interesting (such as the connection he made between the song, O Come O Come Emmanuel and J.R.R Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings).

The author, who is a university professor and church musician, obviously has a passion for the history of music.  He writes in a style that is very intellectual and seems to be aiming at giving information rather than entertaining.  If your goal is an easy and inspiring Christmas read, this may not be the book for you.  However, anyone with a similar passion for all things music history and attention to detail could gain a wealth of new information from this book.

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book from BookLook Bloggers in exchange for my honest review