BW51: Books, Christmas, and Winter! Oh My!

 

“I am pieces of all the places I have been,

and the people I have loved. I’ve been stitched together 

by song lyrics, book quotes, adventure, late night 

conversations, moonlight, and the smell of coffee.” ~ Brooke Hampton

Happy Sunday! We have much to celebrate as we approach the end of the year: Christmas, and the beginning of Winter, which of course, leads us to books, books, and more books. 

Speaking of books, the interweb is abuzz with the best books of 2025, and fortune was upon me when I clicked on Literary Hub's Ultimate Best Books of 2025 List.  They did the work for me as they checked out all the lists, compared who and what and which books were repeated multiple times, then linked to all the sites. Oh Boy!  I fell down the proverbial rabbit hole yesterday, exploring all the links and  adding several books to my year end wish list to purchase before my new year buying ban goes into affect. 

Plus it's time to cozy up to the fire with a hot toddy and read books about Christmas and/or set during Winter.  

Read a Cozy Christmas book or  with Christmas in the title, 

Read a book set during Winter, or with Winter in the title. 

A proverbial rabbit holes had me adding to my stacks the young adult science fiction story, Claus: Legend of the Fat Man which fills the bill for a Christmas read as well as Winter. 

"In the early 1800s, Nicholas, Jessica and Jon Santa attempt the first human trek to the North Pole and stumble upon an ancient race of people left over from the Ice Age. They are short, fat and hairy. They slide across the ice on scaly soles and carve their homes in the ice that floats on the Arctic Ocean. The elven are adapted to life in the extreme cold. They are as wise as they are ancient.

Their scientific advancements have yielded great inventions -- time-stopping devices and gravitational spheres that build living snowmen and genetically-modified reindeer that leap great distances. They’ve even unlocked the secrets to aging. For 40,000 years, they have lived in peace.

Until now.

An elven known as The Cold One has divided his people. He’s tired of their seclusion and wants to conquer the world. Only one elven stands between The Cold

One and total chaos. He’s white-bearded and red-coated. The Santa family will help him stop The Cold One. They will come to the aid of a legendary elven

known as...Claus."

Have fun exploring all the titles! 

Note:  Week 52 is going to be really short with only four days  so if you need more time to do a reading wrap up, they may be posted in the new year as L.E.S.T.E.R  begins January 1st.  And if you want to continue with your 52 books goal, the links will be available each week.  

Merry Christmas!  ~Clink~

BW51: Books to fill up your stockings!

 

Happy Sunday! It's time to peruse the best books lists as well as book club lists to fill up your stockings and TBR stacks because Winter is coming. The perfect time to curl up and read or figure out your reading plans for the new year.  So get out those journals and take note! 

Manning and Napier's - Our 2024 Year-End Book List

NPR's massive Books We Love 

Barnes and Noble's Best Books of the Year

Oprah's The Most Thought-Provoking Books of 2024

Vulture's The Best Books of 2024 The novels and nonfiction that offered unique robotproof perspectives.

The Complete List of Reese's Book Club Picks

Jenna Bush Hager Book Club list from the Today Show

The Best Celebrity Book Club Picks of the Year

Before you panic and think the year is almost over, please note book week 52 will run from December 22nd through December 31st.  Plenty of time to enjoy the holidays and ruminate over what you read this year and what you want to read next year.  

Happy Reading! 

BW51: Winter Solstice

 

Happy Sunday!  Christmas is a week away and if you haven't started your Christmas shopping, like me, you'd better hop to it.  Our Christmas tree is decorated and waiting for gifts to fill the tree skirt beneath it. How about you. Winter is also upon us as of December 22nd and heralded by the brisk cold, hot toddies, warm fires, and curling up with a wintery read.  

The Best Winter Books to Snuggle up with in 2023

Winter 2023 Books Preview: 16 titles not to miss

A Wintry Reading List: 15 Books With Immaculate Winter Vibes

25 Classic Winter Books to Read by the Fire

Our post is sponsored by the letter B for ballad, bards, and beats, musical beats, that is. 

BW25: June Solstice

 

Happy Father's day to all our dad's. The June Solstice is upon us as of the 21st and we are celebrating the beginning of Summer here in the Northern hemisphere and Winter in the Southern hemisphere.  

Read a book or books with or about Father, Summer, Winter, or any of their synonyms in the title.

41 Fantastic Father's Day Books to Gift Dad in 2023

Memorable literary dad's - one of my favorite is Arthur Weasley from the Harry Potter series. 

The Ultimate Summer 2023 Reading List

Emily Henry writes some of the best beach reads and I'm currently enjoying People We Meet On Vacation. 

35 Best Winter Themed Books for Cold Days

I love reading books with Winter settings in which the characters must not only battle one another, but the icy, frigid conditions. I thoroughly enjoyed the Kate Shugak series by Dana Stabenow and currently have the 23rd book in the series, Not the Ones Dead in my stacks to read.   Northern Lights by Nora Roberts is also one I return to every year. 

We recently lost Cormac McCarthy, the author of numerous books including No Country for Old Men, The Road, which I thoroughly enjoyed, and most recently The Passenger, which I have on my shelves, and the sequel, Stella Maris.  In honor of McCarthy, I'll be reading The Passenger, sooner rather than later. 

Our post is sponsored by the letter Y which means we can Yahoo, Yarn, and Yodel to our heart's content. 

BW51: December Solstice

 

Happy Sunday! The December solstice is upon us and it's time to celebrate.  It's Winter in our neck of the woods and whilst we're preparing for Christmas and enjoying hot toddies by the fire, it's Summer in the Southern Hemisphere (those lucky dawgs), and folks are enjoying fruity rum drinks on the beach. 

15 Books celebrating Christmas around the World

The Reason for the Season: 9 Books That Celebrate the Meaning of Christmas

RD's 35 Best Christmas Books to read around the holidays

Book Girl's Guide to 30 Best Christmas Books for  Adults

For some reason, I've been in a winter mood all year long, indulging in reads set in frigid cold settings, characters braving the elements, all the while falling in love, finding killers, solving mysteries, or simply exploring.  

I discovered a new to me series this year in Dana Stabenow's Kate Shugak series which is 22 books long but well worth reading.  Once I started reading, couldn't stop.   I can also recommend James Rollins Ice Hunt to Alistair Maclean's Ice Station Zebra to to Nalini Singh's Caressed by Ice to Hampton Side's non fiction tale of In the Kingdom of Ice, . They are all quite good.

Read a book With Snow, Ice or Frost on the Cover or in the Title

Read a Romance Book with Ice in the title. 

Read a book with Winter in the title 

Read about Eskimos, penguins, the Iditarod, or polar bears. 

Tolstoy's Therapy 15 of the Best Books to read on cozy winter days.

Our letter and word of the week are B and Brrr! 

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BW51: Welcome to Winter

 

Winter Dreaming by Josephine Wall

Happy Sunday, my lovelies. Although Winter in our part of the world officially begins on Tuesday, the 21st, it seems to have arrived a couple days early.  Jack Frost was nipping at our toes this morning when we woke to a coating of frost on the ground.  It's the first real freeze we've had in a couple years and I'm hoping its enough to make our morning glory turn dormant for the winter.  The plant is the gift that keeps on giving as we're now sharing it with all our neighbors.  Unintentionally of course.  Fortunately, they all love us.  

Wintertime always puts me in the mood to read about blizzards, icebound explorers, and arctic adventures,  while I hibernate inside my warm house, cozy on the couch with a warm blanket and one of my lap cats. Join me in reading a book that takes place during winter, is set in an icebound location or is about battling the elements.

21 Books Set in Cold and Snowy Destinations to Read This Winter

26 Cozy Winter Reads for 2021

21 authors pick their favorite winter reads

17 Beautiful Icelandic Novels To Inspire a Trip to Iceland

14 Books Set in Greenland That Will Put It At The Top Of Your Bucket List

Winter Science Fiction And Fantasy

And since Christmas is coming up, maybe a Christmas Story or two. 

Classic Christmas Short Stories You Can Read Right Now

33 Best Christmas Books to Read Around the Holidays

Christmas Reads for Adults: 20 Best Books You Must Read This Christmas

Merry Christmas to you and yours! 

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BW51: December Solstice

 

Josephine Wall Snow Angel

Winter is coming in our neck of the woods with rain and snow on the horizon and all kinds of adjectives are coming to mind such as chilly, frosty, icy, foggy, rainy, frozen and so on and so forth.  Whatever shall we do?  

Go forth and brave the brisk, biting weather or cozy up with books about winter  or with winter in the title, while curled up on the couch, drinking cocoa by the fire.  Dip into feel good must reads or dance into the past with a winter romance.  

Maybe read about nippy arctic winds and frozen travelers exploring the North Pole in the Arctic or the South Pole in Antarctica.  Explore the polar regions or take an imaginary polar cruise and delve into one of  12 Must Read Books About Antarctica.  Don't forget to visit Iceland or Greenland during your armchair travels.  

Since Christmas is on our minds this week, dive into books about that which is just about everyone's favorite holiday with old St. Nick, Debbie Macomber's Christmas Angels, or Festive Christmas Books to Get You in the Holiday Spirit.  

Meanwhile I'll leave you with one of my favorite poems which puts me in a wintery, festive mood.

Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening

by

Robert Frost

Whose woods these are I think I know.   

His house is in the village though;

He will not see me stopping here  

To watch his woods fill up with snow.   

My little horse must think it queer 

To stop without a farmhouse near  

Between the woods and frozen lake 

 The darkest evening of the year.   

He gives his harness bells a shake

To ask if there is some mistake.

The only other sound’s the sweep

Of easy wind and downy flake.   

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,  

But I have promises to keep,   

And miles to go before I sleep,

And miles to go before I sleep.

~~~~Cheers~~~~~

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Please share your book reviews and link to your website, blog, Goodreads, Google+, Tumblers, or Instagram page. If you do not have a social media account, please leave a comment to let us know what you are reading. The link widget closes at the end of each book week.

In the Your Name field, type in your name and the name of the book in parenthesis. In the Your URL field paste a link to your post, then check the privacy box and click enter.

BW51: December Equinox

Cumbria Lake District in Winter 

Winter is approaching in the Northern Hemisphere and Summer in the Southern half of the world as we celebrate the December equinox on the 21st. The equinox is the two times a year when the sun is the closest to the celestial equator, which means it is time for a mini reading challenge. Choose a book with winter or summer themes, with seasonal words in the title, a book about nature or a book of poetry by Emily Dickinson. Select one or more of the words from Emily Dickinson's poem below and find a book with one of those words in the title.

Emily Dickinson

Complete Poems
 Part Two: Nature 

50

It sifts from leaden sieves, 

It powders all the wood,

It fills with alabaster wool 

The wrinkles of the road. 

It makes an even face 

Of mountain and of plain,— 

Unbroken forehead from the east 

Unto the east again. 

It reaches to the fence, 

It wraps it, rail by rail, 

Till it is lost in fleeces; 

It flings a crystal veil 

On stump and stack and stem,— 

The summer’s empty room, 

Acres of seams where harvests were,

Recordless, but for them. 

It ruffles wrists of posts, 

As ankles of a queen,— 

Then stills its artisans like ghosts, 

Denying they have been. 

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Brit Tripping

Our Brit Trip is taking us down Watling Way to Cumbria which is a beloved vacation spot with its beautiful Lake District .

Rabbit trails: Beatrix Potter More Beatrix Potter  Kendall Castle Ship building

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BW51: Winter Solstice

Winter is coming!  Officially, Winter begins with the Solstice on December 21st.  Unofficially, with the falling temperatures, it's already began as we've been bundling up in several layers while we take our evening walks around the neighborhood. However, I do chicken out and abandon my poor hubby to the cold, curling up with a good book when it hits below 40.  Sometimes he'll join me in reading. Other days he's determined to get those 25,000 steps.  Brrr! 

A Winter Day

by

Lucy Maud Montgomery

The air is silent save where stirs 

A bugling breeze among the firs; 

The virgin world in white array 

Waits for the bridegroom kiss of day; 

All heaven blooms rarely in the east 

Where skies are silvery and fleeced, 

And o'er the orient hills made glad 

The morning comes in wonder clad; 

Oh, 'tis a time most fit to see 

How beautiful the dawn can be! 

Wide, sparkling fields snow-vestured lie 

Beneath a blue, unshadowed sky; 

A glistening splendor crowns the woods 

And bosky, whistling solitudes; 

In hemlock glen and reedy mere 

The tang of frost is sharp and clear;

Life hath a jollity and zest, 

A poignancy made manifest; 

Laughter and courage have their way 

At noontide of a winter's day.

Faint music rings in wold and dell, 

The tinkling of a distant bell, 

Where homestead lights with friendly glow 

Glimmer across the drifted snow; 

Beyond a valley dim and far 

Lit by an occidental star, 

Tall pines the marge of day beset 

Like many a slender minaret, 

Whence priest-like winds on crystal air 

Summon the reverent world to prayer. 

What wintry books are you contemplating for the season?  Are your characters heading into the arctic and going dog sledding or are they searching for a warm beach to watch the dolphins play. Hmm? Both sound fun.  

I have a mini winter challenge if you want to play.   

• Read a book with Winter in the title
• Read a book written by an author with first or last name of Winter
• Spell out winter, reading one book for each letter.
• Read a book by Lucy Maud Montgomery 
• Pick any word out of the poem above and read a book with that word in the title.
• Pick any word out of the poem above and spell out the word, reading one book per letter.
• Read a book with a winter setting.  

Happy Reading! 

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BW51: Happy Winter Reading Wonderland

Courtesy of Teresa

Winter is the king of showmen,

Turning tree stumps into snowmen

And houses into birthday cakes

And spreading sugar over lakes.

Smooth and clean and frosty white,

The world looks good enough to bite.

That’s the season to be young,

Catching snowflakes on your tongue.

Snow is snowy when it’s snowing,

I’m sorry it’s slushy when it’s going.

~ Ogden Nash 

It is a Winnie the Pooh day today -  quite rainy and blustery,  which is quite appropriate as Winter approaches us in the Northern Hemisphere while it is officially summer in the Southern Hemisphere. Whether you are ensconced all comfy and cozy next to the fireplace or sprawled out on a sunny beach, both are perfect places to read or dream.   Can I have a rousing refrain of this year went by way too fast.  I'll be taking the last two weeks off from lessons to prepare for and celebrate  Christmas as well as work on plans for another round of 52 books.  Of course,  we are going to do it all over again.  I'll post the 2017 52 Books in 52 Weeks announcement sometime this week as well as the I'm Participating link for you to sign up.

It is also time for our Winter / Summer Solstice mini reading challenge. What words come to mind during this season?  Solstice is the two times a year when the sun is at its greatest distance from the celestial equator.  So if you want to broaden your scope, try looking up synonyms for not only solstice but also celestial, equator, or sun to name a few.  Be creative and use one of the words in the Nash poem above.  Look for a book in your stacks with the word you choose in the title.  

Have fun following rabbit trails to the book of your choice. 

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BW25: Summer and Winter Solstice

Josephine Wall - Summer Breeze 

Happy Father's Day to all our dads and welcome to the beginning of Summer for those in the northern hemisphere and Winter for those located in the southern hemisphere. It is  time for a bit of seasonal reading and/or revisiting old friends.  You'd think with all the time I have, now that lessons are done for a while, I'd be reaching for all those new books waiting on my shelves.  Summer busyness is different from all the other busy activities we're involved with during the year.  Don't you think?  So my mind turns to all things fluffy and light. Mind candy! Chick-Lit Romances and cozy mysteries or a visit to flufferton abby!

Flufferton is a term coined by one of our Well Trained Mind mom's in relation to all things regency, both classic and modern.  Regency stories revolve around romance, mysteries, and the Napoleonic war. Modern fiction is set in the regency era and can run the gamut from historical romance fiction to horror to paranormal.

Here are a few lists to spark your reading taste-buds

Best Beach Reads for a Summer Getaway

Goodreads Popular Light and Fluffy Reads

Summer Themed Cozies


and for my friends in the Southern Hemisphere 

Fall into Winter: Ten Coziest Cozy Mystery series

So check your shelves or even the library's shelves and settle in with a beverage of your choice and enjoy!

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