Brrrr! I’ve been wearing my winter jacket around when I go places, and though it’s not officially winter yet, it sure feels like it. This week’s Top Ten Tuesday is a Holiday/Seasonal freebie, so I decided to talk about wintry and Christmasy books. Last year, we did a TTT on Holiday Reads, so I’m going to broaden the topic out a little bit so I can include a wider variety of books. Plus, we’ve had a whole year to find new books!
“Booked for Christmas” is Lily Menon’s Christmas novella! Lily Menon is a pen name that Sandhya Menon writes her adult books under. This one is not for kids. This is the story about a novelist and her harshest book critic. It would make a great Hallmark movie. If you can’t get your hands on her upcoming book Make Up Break Up, at least you can get this one! It’s only $.99 on Amazon.
The Bear and the Nightingale is a book that definitely gives off those wintry vibes. I need to add The Girl in the Tower to my winter TBR lottery because I haven’t read it yet, and I think the only time I really want to read it is in the winter or spring (when it’s still cold). It’s set in a magical, medieval-ish Russia, which is a plus for me.
For me, the Christmas season is fairly short, and I don’t have time to read a lot of novels most of the time. Besides, there aren’t a ton of holiday novels, even though there are some. This is one of the reason why Christmas novellas and short stories are so great. Rainbow Rowell’s Almost Midnight contains two short stories: “Midnights,” which is a beautiful story that follows two people for several New Year’s Eves in a row, and “Kindred Spirits,” a story about people waiting in line for a Star Wars movie (I can’t remember which one).
This book is good to check out of the library, but I don’t recommend buying it. “Midnights” appears in My True Love Gave to Me (a great anthology which is checked in at my library and I might borrow just to read this story), and “Kindred Spirits” can be purchased on the Kindle for $2.99. Since this little book is almost the same price as the others, if you’re buying, spend a few dollars more for the extra stories.
The Christmas Pact was originally an Audible Original that came out last year, and it’s now available on Kindle or paperback as well. It’s a cute story about two people who work at the same company and have similar names: one is Kennedy Riley, the other Riley Kennedy. When they get some emails mixed up, they become enemies. But… they don’t stay that way. Read this one before the 25th if you’re trying to get into the Christmasy mood.
Some of you may know I do this thing I call the TBR lottery: a list of all the books I’d like to read but can’t decide between. They’re all numbered, and I draw a random number to pick my next book. I typically rewrite the list twice a year, because I don’t want to read a cold-weather book in the middle of the summer. The Great Alone is set in Alaska, and it seems like it would be a cold weather book for me. Which makes it harder to win the TBR lottery. But I hope to read it someday.
Wintersong is another one of those books that leaves my TBR lottery list in the summer. Even the cover is icy. Brrrr!
Kingdom Cold has gotten mixed reviews, but this is another book on my TBR lottery that only is there during the cold months. I can’t imagine reading a book like this in the middle of August.
I have not read the Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer picture book, but I have seen the TV show many times. Poor Rudolph is bullied (and Santa condones it!), at least in the TV show. Fortunately, he gets to be a hero in the end.
I did not like the narration to Frostblood, however, I liked the book enough that its sequel, Fireblood, made it to my TBR lottery, and I just finished it. I definitely like the print version better. Anyway, this book takes place in an icy land, which makes winter the perfect time to read this.
You might think a book with a tent on the cover might be better for summer reading, but not this one. Safe Harbour is a book about a girl who lives in her tent while waiting for her dad to show up… but as the days grow colder, he never does. Did Dad ghost her? What happened? It does have a satisfying ending though.
So there are some wintry books if you’re looking for something Christmasy, or something to read after the holidays while the snow still blankets the ground.
Next week is one of my favorite Top Ten Tuesdays: the seasonal TBR! I love to make these, I love to try to read everything on the list, and I love to see what other people are going to be reading. Not that I need to find new books–my TBR lottery page is bursting! But I like to find new books anyway.