I’m working on my top ten books of 2023, but in the meantime wanted to share that Bout of Books is currently going on. You should join me in reading — as much or as little as you want — this week.

The Bout of Books readathon is organized by Amanda Shofner and Kelly Rubidoux Apple. It’s a weeklong readathon that begins 12:01 a.m. Monday, January 1st, and runs through Sunday, January 7th, in YOUR time zone. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are reading sprints, daily Discord questions, and exclusive Instagram challenges, but they’re all completely optional. For all Bout of Books 39 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. – From the Bout of Books team

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. I track down my dad’s favorite tea at a grocery store near them. It used to be at nearly every store, then only at stores around Jewish holidays, and now is only stocked by the occasional shop, so it felt really good to bring home a couple boxes. (Particularly since I drank so much of it on them when I was staying up there!)

2. Chris and Neal and I go out for a festive dinner of Italian food.

3. Christmas was different this year. Not bad. Just low-key. But Rudi and I and my parents were all together. And that was enough.

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world lately?

Friends, we’ve made it. Done or not, we have reached the night before Christmas.

Thank you for coming along with us all these past 24 days. Thanks to Rudi, Marg, and raidergirl3 for their posts along the way.

Rudi and I drove north last night, which gave us a chance to listen to WXPN’s Robert Drake in his The Night Before The Night Before. We got the pre-show, but if you tune in to WXPN from Philadelphia anytime today, you’ll catch Drake’s main holiday show.

Another Christmas Eve tradition of mine is to watch Christmas Eve on Sesame Street:

If you don’t have time for the live broadcast, nor an hour for Jim Henson, may I offer Stan Rogers’ “At Last I’m Ready for Christmas,” which is far shorter:

If you celebrate, Merry Christmas. And if you don’t, peace on earth to us all.

Hey, folks!

Earlier this week, Marg from The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader posted about her most recent Christmas reads and invited me to share it on the Virtual Advent Tour. In response to her post, I thought I’d note down the holiday reads I’m either in the midst of or hoping to get to this season (through mid-January when our tree comes down):

Finished:

• A Holly Jolly Diwali, by Sonya Lalli, starts just before Diwali in the fall and carries through until Christmas (with a postlude set at the following Diwali), so I’m counting it. If you want an international romance, much of which takes place in India, and a multicultural approach to holidays, I encourage you to check it out.

Underway, but early days:

• The Mistletoe Motive by Chloe Liese is about rival booksellers, Gabriella di Natale and Jonathan Frost, at an indie shop that is threatened by a national chain, Potters. I’m early in, but expect lots of festive wordplay and allusions to favorite holiday books and movies.
• A Winter in New York by Josie Silver focuses on a young British woman who’s moved to New York after the end of a bad relationship and still reeling from her mother’s death. Then she finds out that her mother’s beloved and secret gelato recipe may have come from a city shop.

Still to come (let me know if I should prioritize any of these):

• Just Like Magic by Sarah Hogle
• A Merry Little Meet Cute by Julie Murphy and Sierra Simone
• The Christmas Appeal by Janice Hallett
• Christmas at The Mysterious Bookshop, edited by Otto Penzler
• The Christmas Orphans Club by Becca Freeman
• Mrs. Jeffries and the Midwinter Murders by Emily Brightwell
• The Christmas Café by Eliza Evans
• The Stupidest Angel by Christopher Moore (my BFF gave me this years ago and I can remember reading the start of it on the metro and cannot tell you why I didn’t finish it. I’m assuming life and figure if ever there was a year to read a Christmas satire, 2023 is it.)

Today is the antepenultimate day of the Virtual Advent Tour for the year. To celebrate, we head back to The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader, where Marg has a post sharing the decorations she and her husband have added to their collection this year.

If you work a traditional job, good luck with the last day before the holiday!

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Neal, Chris, and I go out for supper.

2. Sergio and his wife hire a babysitter so she can make her work holiday party and he can come to our game. We appreciate his presence tremendously.

3. Rudi donated money to a friend’s son’s fundraiser and this week a box of assorted homemade cookies was delivered.

What’s been beautiful in your world lately?