I suddenly realized that I owe an embarrassingly overdue public thank you to Helen at Helen’s Book Blog for a delightful package of goodies she sent me back in November.

Helen was my #TBTBSanta this year. She sent me an amazing box filled with a wonderful assortment of delightfully shaped gifts.

I opened them over a period of three weeks, squeezing a whole lot of joy out of the mystery.

There were little packages that I immediately knew were nail polish — a cheery red and a lovely blue-green. Mum and I both benefitted from that gift.

There were colorful pens.

Helen even sent Corey a present. This is the least blurry shot I have of him playing with his new toy.

And there were books! Three of them! Jasmine Guillory’s Royal Holiday (which I’d been on the wait list at the library for and which I devoured after Christmas), Cath Crowley’s Words in Deep Blue (which matches the nail polish and which has been on my TBR list since it came out in 2016), and Beth O’Leary’s The Flatshare (which got such good reviews this fall and which I saw on several people’s best-of lists for the year).

Thank you, thank you, thank you, Helen, for such a great package. I loved every bit of it, and opening all the packages (and then reading Royal Holiday) brought such light into my Christmas season. I look forward to many more hours of reading this winter.

And thank you, too, to Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl for hosting #TBTBSanta this year. I really enjoy taking part every year, and I appreciate how much work must go into organizing such a massive endeavor.

A two-for-one bookish meme post in which I announce I’m signing up for
Bout of Books 27 (goal this time: read on a majority of days this week).

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda Shofner and Kelly Rubidoux Apple. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, January 6th and runs through Sunday, January 12th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are challenges, Twitter chats, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 27 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. – From the Bout of Books team

I managed a chapter or two of Jennifer Chiaverini’s Christmas Bells on the train amidst my dozing and am continuing to listen to the audiobook of Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts by Kate Racculia.

The Day 2 challenge is to share my bookish resolutions for the new year.

I’ve set a challenge of reading 52 books for the year, which should be perfectly manageable. I’d like to continue working to make my reading more diverse — both in terms of authors and in terms of topics. The former seems far more likely than the latter, since I just have a hard time forcing myself to sit down and spend time reading things I don’t want to read about.

I’m also sharing the top ten dozen new books I’m looking forward to in the first six months of the year (thanks to That Artsy Reader Girl for hosting yet another great topic for Top Ten Tuesday):

1. Libby Page’s The 24-Hour Café (I really enjoyed her debut novel, The Lido, last year.)
2. The Night Country by Melissa Albert (It’s the sequel to The Hazel Wood!)
3. Kate Milford’s The Thief Knot (This is the next story in The Greenglass House world.)
4. Yes, No, Maybe So by Becky Albertalli and Aisha Saeed (Two great YA authors? I mean, obviously!)
5. Sarah-Jane Stratford’s Red Letter Days (I loved Radio Girls and look forward to another historical fiction from her.)
6. A Murderous Relation by Deanna Raybourn (This is the latest in the Veronica Speedwell series.)
7. Stamped by Jason Reynolds & Ibram X. Kendi (I can’t wait to see how this nonfiction adaptation & collaboration turns out!)
8. Check, Please! Book 2 by Ngozi Ukazu (I’m hoping this graphic novel includes some recipes in the back material, since the first book concentrated on talking hockey.)
9. Rebecca Stead’s The List of Things That Will Not Change (I love her middle-grade novels.)
10. Aurora Burning by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff (I’ve loved every sci fi book they’ve collaborated on, even if this series isn’t as good as The Illuminae Files.)
11. Elizabeth Acevedo’s Clap When You Land (Everything she’s written has been great, and this looks like it will be too.)
12. Shuri by Nic Stone (I mean, Nic Stone and the most kick-ass African princess and scientist? Yes, please!)

How about you? Are you joining in the fun of the Bout of Books this time? And what books are you looking forward to being published between now and summertime?

I approached my first read of 2020 — the first book I’d read from in the new year — with seriousness. I hoped it would set a good tone for continuing to read on a daily basis, which meant it needed to hold my interest even when my brain was tired. I struggled to find the mental space for recreational reading in the first few months of my new job; I’ve learned a lot since starting, but it took a toll on what my brain wanted to do when I came home each night.

So, the book needed to be interesting, but not overly challenging. I got several new books for Christmas and considered cozying up with one of them. But new relationships can be a lot of work. For every kindred spirit we encounter at first meeting, there are dozens of awkward conversations about the weather and what we do for a living. Ultimately, I decided, in keeping with the season, an “auld acquaintance” was the right choice.

Charlotte Holmes, who solves mysteries while contemplating whether another slice of cake will bring her too close for comfort to her maximum tolerable chins, was just the ticket. Charlotte would take no pity on my slower mental agility, but she would tolerate it as long as I made an effort to keep up. After all, she has genuine affection for her dear friend, Mrs. Watson, and for her sisters, Bernadine and Livia.

Plus, The Art of Theft, the fourth book in the Sherry Thomas series, is set at Christmastime, so it’s even seasonally appropriate to read it now. And I’d bought it back in the fall, when Sherry Thomas came to town, so it was just waiting on the shelf for me to have the time to spend with its cast.

I did not read much, but I did get through the first couple scenes of the book. And I think it will be the right choice. I look forward to spending more time with Charlotte as she leaves England behind for France.

What was your first read of the new year?

Welcome to the tenth day of the Virtual Advent Tour. Today I’m combining our holiday tour with That Artsy Reader Girl’s Top Ten Tuesday meme to share ten Christmas-themed books (spanning all age groups) that I recommend:

1. The Birds’ Christmas Carol by Kate Douglas Wiggins: This overly sentimental, melodramatic picture book tells the Victorian Era story of an ill girl, Carol, who invites the neighbor children, The Birds, to her Christmas Day birthday party. I wept buckets over this as a child and teen and would borrow it annually from the library in order to do so.
2. The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg: I first encountered this picture book in a French translation, which we read aloud my senior year of high school. Charming in any language, this story, about a boy who takes a train to the North Pole, ultimately is about faith and believing in the unseen, yet still known. The movie adaptation is also quite good.
3. A Child’s Christmas in Wales by Dylan Thomas: This prose piece, a fictionalized memoir about a bygone Christmastime in a Welsh village, was originally written by one of the early 20th-century’s best poets as a radio broadcast. Sentimental without ever becoming sappy, this story is beautiful whether read on the page, listened to as read by its author, or seen performed by actors.
4. The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson: I think, although I don’t remember for certain, that I saw a tv adaptation of this first and then discovered the book, but it could have been the other way around. Either way, this middle-grade novel focuses on the Herdmans, a poor family of under-supervised, over-bullying, mean children, who get it into their heads that they want to take over their local Sunday School production of the Nativity play.
5. Greenglass House by Kate Milford: In this fantastical middle-grade novel, a tween boy and his adoptive parents live in an old inn. Just as they’re closing up for the holidays, a series of strangers parade in and a snowstorm descends, and a mystery is set forward.
6. How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss: Converted into one of the 20th-century’s best loved holiday cartoons, this book is just as charming as its televised (and subsequent films) adaptation. In it, a hard-hearted grinch has had it with his neighbors’ over-exuberant merry-making and decides to ruin their holidays in order to get them to shut up about Christmas already.
7. My True Love Gave to Me, edited by Stephanie Perkins: In this series of romantic Christmas tales by some of the biggest stars in YA literature, you’ll find contemporary romances and historical fiction rubbing shoulders with fantasy and sci fi. In other words, there’s a story for everyone.
8. Let It Snow! by John Green, Maureen Johnson, and Lauren Myracle: In this interlocking trio of stories/novellas (adapted into a charming Netflix film), a blizzard strikes the mid-Atlantic on Christmas Eve, stranding a train heading to Florida just outside Gracetown, Virginia. Included on the train are a horde of high school cheerleaders headed to a competition and two other solitary teenagers, Jeb and Jubilee. Independently, they all head to the Waffle House they can see from the train window through the night’s snow. The stories are what happens next.
9. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens: We all know the bones of the story: a miser is visited by three Christmas spirits who attempt to get him to mend his ways and take a greater interest in his fellow man. But the details of the story often get glossed over in the tv adaptations, and it’s worth a return visit to the source material to see how the Victorian Era’s most beloved social crusader gets his message across.
10. A Redbird Christmas by Fannie Flagg: Typical of Flagg’s quirky small-town-centric novels, this novel focuses on a man who must move to the South for his health and the locals he encounters once he does so.

Thanks for stopping by, and I’ll see you tomorrow for our next door on the Virtual Advent Tour! (I’m a little behind in matching dates with folks who wrote to me over the weekend, but we do still have a couple openings if today is your first visit to our tour and you want to join in.)

It’s been nearly three months since I started this new job, and I’m finding it a struggle to achieve the work-life balance that’s previously been mostly effortless for me. While I haven’t missed a volleyball game yet (yay, physical activity!), my knitting and recreational reading have been at all-time lows.

With only 13 more days in the office this year, I don’t foresee making any radical changes before the holidays, but I do think I could probably make some incremental changes:

T’is the season for Christmas movies, which do not require much brain power. Sock knitting also does not require much brain power and I think if I reach for one of my socks-in-progress, rather than my phone first when we start up a film, I will actually stick with it long enough to make some noticeable progress.

I also think that if I set aside 15 minutes when I get home to decompress with a book I’ll be a happier camper. Finally, I need to finish The Library Book, because it’s detracting from all the lovely fiction I want to read, so I’ll make that a priority while I’m in Connecticut for the holiday weekend.

If nothing else, the new job is making me good at developing actionable plans for accomplishing tasks, right?

Today’s Top Ten Tuesday topic from That Artsy Reader Girl is a Thanksgiving freebie. I’ve decided I’d like to share ten bookstores I’m personally thankful for:

1. Politics & Prose: A D.C. institution, this now trio of shops bring authors to the District on a daily basis. And they have a music buyer on staff, making them pretty much the only place in town I can buy new cds still.
2. Kramerbooks: A mainstay of my Dupont Circle neighborhood, this bookstore, cafe, and bar is open until 1 a.m. weeknights and 3 a.m. Friday and Saturday (and was very handy this year when I realized I didn’t have any cake for Rudi rather late on his birthday this year).
3. Powell’s: This Portland, Oregon, megastore is like a beacon for booklovers, being pretty much a block wide and several stories tall. Do not plan a trip to the Northwest without stopping, and do not stop without several hours to adequately explore.
4. R.J. Julia Booksellers: This was the first bookstore I ever joined as a member. Located in Madison, Connecticut, it has long hosted great author talks and provided hours of entertainment. It also took over the bookstore in Middletown, around the corner from my old house, after I moved.
5. Whitlock’s Book Barn: This is one of Connecticut’s great used bookshops and one of two (that I’m aware of) in the state housed in barns. Located in Bethany in the Housatonic Valley, you can find both antiquarian titles and used paperbacks in this rural paradise that my parents used to drag us to kicking and screaming when we were kids.
6. Capitol Hill Bookstore: This rowhouse near Eastern Market in D.C. is filled to bursting with books. While the fire marshal has clearly vetoed the piles of books that used to sit on each stair tread, they are still in stacks in the bathroom and on every other flat surface. Plus, they are deliciously cranky both in person and on their Twitter.
7. The Strand: New York City’s answer to Powell’s (although don’t tell a New Yorker that), the Strand is home to 18 miles of new and used books. When I win the lottery and am ready to purchase my unabridged copy of the OED, they have a copy of all 20 volumes on hand.
8. The King’s English: This Salt Lake City, Utah, shop is one of my favorite stops when we’re visiting Rudi’s mom.
9. East City Bookshop: This Capitol Hill-area bookstore has quickly built a loyal following, and not just because of their stroller parking area and photo wall of dogs. They boast an extremely knowledgeable kids/YA bookseller and run a plethora of bookclubs, including W(h)ine and Angst, a YA bookclub for adults.
10. Mahogany Books: This tiny bookstore, located in the Anacostia Arts Center, is the only bookshop East of the Anacostia River in D.C. and delivers Black-centric books for “readers in search of books written for, by, or about people of the African Diaspora.” It was this bookshop that introduced me (literally — she came in to pick up a book just after they hand sold me her poetry collection) to Elizabeth Acevedo.

Local runners-up you can visit here in D.C.: Loyalty Books, Solid State Books, Bridge Street Books, Second Story, Lost City (formerly Idle Times), Sankofa, Wall of Books, Carpe Librum, The Lantern, and more.

How about you? What bookstores are you thankful for?

Have you signed up for the Virtual Advent Tour yet? We’d be excited to have you join us!