Bookmas Day 13: Holiday Reading

 Hello Interwebs!

So for today I am going to give recommendations for Holiday Reading. A lot of these I haven't read but I've heard them recommended and think they'd be interesting. I have a variety of categories: classics/retellings, children's, mystery, horror/thriller, contemporary/romance, and honorable mention nonholiday Christmassy books. I'll give a brief synopsis of the books where necessary but not necessarily for books that are very well known. 

CLASSICS/RETELLINGS

• A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
  
  
  
• The Afterlife of Holly Chase by Cynthia Hand: this is more contemporary retelling of Dickens's A Christmas Carol. 
  
  
  
• The Nutcracker by E.T.A. Hoffman: this is the classic story that inspired George Balanchine's Nutcracker ballet. 
  
  
  

CHILDRENS

• How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss 
  
  
  
• Merry Christmas Strega Nona by Tomie dePaolo: this is a favorite Christmas story from my childhood about a village witch in Italy named Strega Nona who is trying to prepare for the Christmas Eve feast with the help of her assistant Big Anthony, only to have him ruin the event...or does he. 
  
  
  
• Pig the Elf by Aaron Blabey: this is a picture book about a pug named Pig who is selfish and greedy and doesn't learn any lessons whatsoever but I find delightful and charming. This is currently my toddler's favorite Christmas book.
  
  
  
• Red Ranger Came Calling by Berkeley Breathed: this is a book by the same author/illustrator as the Opus comics about a boy who wants a bike for Christmas and an old man who might be Santa. My dad's best friend used to read it aloud at Christmas gatherings every year when I was a kid. 
  
  
  

ROMANCE/CONTEMPORARY

• Comfort & Joy by Kristin Hannah: this is a story about a woman named Joy who flees the ruins of her old life and finds hope with a widower and his young son in the Pacific Northwest. 
  
  
  
• If the Fates Allow by Rainbow Rowell: this is a Christmas short story about life during (and after) the pandemic starring Regan, Cath's roommate from Fangirl. 
  
  
  
• The Geek Who Saved Christmas by Annabeth Albert: this is a male/male (M/M) grump and sunshine romance between neighbors. 
  
  
  
• Window Shopping by Tessa Bailey: this is a Male/Female romance between a department store owner and the woman he hires on the spot to dress his shop's front windows for Christmas. 
  
  
  
• The Holiday Ex-Files by Jennifer Peel: This is another M/F romance between the exwife of a cheater and the cheater's best friend. 
  
  
  
• Collie Jolly by Leigh Landry: this is a Female/Female (F/F) romance between a sunny dog trainer and the grumpy owner of one of her clients. 
  
  
  
• The Hygge Holiday by Rosie Blake: this is a M/F romance between a young woman on holiday who is determined to give the cozy town of Yulethorpe a holiday makeover and a business man from the big city who gets caught up in her whirlwind of Christmas. 
  
  
  
• A Family for Christmas by Jay Northcote: this is a M/M romance with a fake dating trope where one colleague goes home for Christmas with another and they are assumed to be dating so they just roll with it in a make it till you fake it kind of way. 
  
  
  
• Mangos and Mistletoe by Adriana Herrera: a F/F romance about a female baking team who are trying to win a competition and each others' hearts. 
  
  
  
• Faux Ho Ho by 'Nathan Burgoine: this is another M/M fake dating Christmas romance about a guy from a conservative family who's roommate pretends to be his boyfriend as they go to his sister's wedding for Christmas. 
  
  
  
• In a Holidaze by Christina Lauren: this is a M/F romance about a woman who is spending her last Christmas at her family's cabin before its sold and after wishing for a perfect holiday ends up reliving her trip over and over ala groundhog day style. 
  
  
  
• Christmas by the Book by Anne Marie Ryan: this is a contemporary about a struggling bookstore who begin to send out books to other people having hard times. 
  
  
  
• The Christmas Swap by Maggie Knox: twins, one a chef in LA who has lost her sense of taste and smell in an accident and the other trying to run the family baking business, decide to switch places adn hijinks and love ensue. 
  
  
  
• The Twelve Dates of Christmas by Jenny Bayliss: this is a M/F romance about a gumpy woman whose best friend signs her up for a dating serve that promises she's find love before Christmas and 12 dates ensue. 
  
  
  
• Always, In December by Emily Stone: a M/F romance in which a woman posts a letter to the parents she lost Christmas night every year but this year she collides with a bicyclist who ends up with her letter and romance ensues. 
  
  
  

HOLIDAY READS (NOT CHRISTMAS)

• The Matzah Ball by Jean Meltzer (Hanukkah): this is a Hanukkah themed enemies to lovers M/F romance where a girl whose the daughter of a famous Rabbi is a writer of Christmas romances and volunteers for the Hanukkah event of the season with her old flame to get tickets to inspire her Hanukkah romance. 
  
  
  
• A Holly Jolly Diwali by Sonya Lalli (Diwali): a girl returns to her Indian hometown for a friends wedding and learns about the holiday of Diwali and falls in love. 
  
  
  

MYSTERY

• Hercule Poirot's Christmas by Agatha Christie: this is a Hercule Poirot mystery that takes place at Christmastime. 
  
  
  
• The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding by Agatha Christie: this is also a Hercule Poirot mystery that takes place at Christmastime. 
  
  
  
• Twelve Slays of Christmas by Jacqueline Frost: this is the first book in the Christmas Tree Farm Mystery series and is a cozy mystery about a woman who returns to her Maine hometown to work her family's Christmas Tree farm after her fiancé calls off the wedding and then a dead body is dumped on the property.  
  
  
  

HORROR/THRILLER

• Secret Santa by Andrew Shaffer: this is a horror described as Stephen King meets The Office about a woman who just started working for a book publisher of horror/thriller novels and recieves a mysterious and possibly demonic gift from her work's secret Santa. 
  
  
  
• Krampus: The Yule Lord by Brom: this is a folk horror starring the Anti-Santa Krampus. 
  
  
  
• Santa Took Them by William Malmborg: this is a thriller about a family murdered on Christmas Eve and years later during a blizzard when teenagers begin disappearing again. 
  
  
  

CHRISTMAS ADJACENT

• Little Women by Louisa May Alcott: this classic novel opens up on Christmas and you end up following the lives of four sisters during the mid-1800s. To me with the opening Christmas scenes and the importance of family and subsequent Christmases gives me major Christmas/winter vibes. 
  
  
  
• The Harry Potter Series by JK Rowling: Christmas plays such a big part in each book of this series that this book and the movies feel like Christmas to me. 
  
  
  

So that's all the books I recommend for the Holiday season. Any way you can think of to get into the holiday spirit through reading I think I found something on this list for you. 

Today's Nightmare Before Christmas Funko Pop was a snowman Jack. He's cute, not my favorite but I'm not unhappy with him. 

I'm still working my way through The Matzah Ball and still enjoying it. 

Happy Bookmas!

Richelle