BOOK THOUGHTS
Christmas Reading
Every year, I aspire to read only Christmas-themed books in December. I love Christmas and want to immerse myself in holiday books, movies, food, drinks, parties, decorations – all of it. Then December rolls around and I always have other books I want to read before the end of the year, so I abandon the Christmas book plan.Not this year! I finished all my TBR 24 in '24 books before November. I’m caught up on my IRL book club books. I don’t have any Instagram buddy reads until January. So this year I am all in on Christmas reading.
Here’s my stack of Christmas book possibilities. I hope to get to as many of these as I can, although I suspect I’ll have a few left over for next year.
🎄 There Came Both Mist and Snow by Michael Innes. I love vintage mysteries and a winter setting makes it all the better.
🎄 Singin’ and Swingin’ and Getting’ Merry Like Christmas by Maya Angelou. I haven't read any of her books and I love the title of this one. It's a collection of essays and, maybe, poems. I haven't looked through it yet.
🎄 Christmas Stories by Charles Dickens. A Christmas Carol is in here, but so are the other Christmas stories he wrote to publish each December. I've read these all before, so this would be a reread for me, if I get to it.
🎄 The White Priory Murders by Carter Dickson. I love the British Library Crime Classics series and know they have several with a Christmas theme. Unfortunately, they are not easy to find in the US. I have a few, but this is the only Christmas one.
🎄 Christmas by Elizabeth David. I read a book of David's food writing earlier this year. I like the idea of a collection of Christmas food essays.
🎄 A Redbird Christmas by Fanny Flagg. I see this one around a lot and loved her Fried Green Tomatoes book, so am looking forward to this one.
🎄 The Drunken Botanist by Amy Stewart. OK, so this is not exactly on point. It isn't a Christmas books. But I'm always looking for festive holiday cocktails and the book looked great in the stack.
🎄 Christmas Holiday by W. Somerset Maugham. I'm reading this one now and it's a good story. It is about a young man living in London who goes to Paris over Christmas and meets a Russian prostitute married to a murderer. That's quite a yarn! It's more engaging than many a Maugham read.
🎄 A Christmas Treasury of Yuletide Stories & Poems, edited by James Charlton and Barbara Gilson. This might be really sappy, but I'll give it a go.
🎄 Advent: Festive German Bakes to Celebrate the Coming of Christmas by Anja Dunk. This Christmas cookbook looks gorgeous. I plan to read it cover to cover, like a book.
🎄 The St. Nicholas Anthology, edited by Henry Steele Commager. This is another collection of Christmas bits and bobs. It might be really sappy because it was published in 1948.
🎄 The Official Downton Abbey Christmas Cookbook by Regula Ysewijn and Julian Fellowes. O couldn't resist this one because it is full of Downton pictures and old-fashioned recipes. Another cookbook I will read straight through.
I also have several Christmas books lined up on my library app to read with my ears because I read a lot of audiobooks, especially while I putter around decorating the house and tree, baking treats, and wrapping presents. The audiobooks I picked are not by authors I’ve read before and they are almost all cozy mysteries or romcoms. I have nothing against either genre, but they aren’t my usual picks.
We’ll see how this part goes. I've tried a couple that were too sticky sweet for me and I returned them after a few minutes of listening. I listened to a cozy mystery with a rare book dealer as the amateur sleuth and it had some plot holes big enough for Santa's sleigh.
Do you have any suggestions for Christmas reads not in my stack already? I'm planning ahead for next year already.
Do you have any suggestions for Christmas reads not in my stack already? I'm planning ahead for next year already.
