Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

What holiday books do you recommend? They could be for Christmas, Hanukkah, Thanksgiving, Halloween, New Year's, or any holiday.

I guess I don't really read a lot of holiday books, but I will recommend Autumncrow for spooky season! It's a series of short stories all set in a town where every day is Halloween.

A lot of cozy mysteries have holiday-themed books, so I've been waiting until December to read the third book in the Seaside Cafe Mystery series Tide and Punishment

I don't do a lot of holiday reading but I like to read or watch A Christmas Carol just about every year. This year one group I am in is focusing on holiday books for December and I do have some romances and mysteries that fit.

An amusing thing is when I am sitting around on a holiday like Thanksgiving or July 4th reading a random book, and there is a major scene in the book set on that day.

I don't intentionally read holiday books, but I'm reading Central Places right now & it's totally a Christmas book. I'm reading it because it was recommended by Books are Magic (the Brooklyn bookstore), which usually has good lit fic recs, but yeah. It's also accidentally holiday-appropriate (though not exactly festive).

Robin P wrote: "I don't do a lot of holiday reading but I like to read or watch A Christmas Carol just about every year. This year one group I am in is focusing on holiday books for December and I do have some rom..."

I also always try to watch some version of A Christmas Carol every year. Patrick Stewart's version is a favorite. I might try to get my 5 year old daughter to watch the Muppet version with me, though.
I read the book many years ago and really enjoyed it. This year, I aim to listen to A Christmas Carol: What if Scrooge were a woman?

I don't really read any Christmas books, but I do like to listen to Dave Cooks the Turkey

I usually read a few holiday books at Christmas. This year I have planned:
A Highland Christmas by M.C. Beaton
A couple of chick-lit books:
Christmas at the Borrow a Bookshop
Christmas at the Cupcake Café

I'll probably read a few short stories from an anthology I have.

I was just looking for some holiday reads. I often reread A Christmas Carol by Dickens, but I was looking for something different this year. A few I've read that come to mind are:

- Christmas Pudding by Nancy Mitford (if you liked The Pursuit of Love, it's wryly funny in that vein)
- Hogfather by Terry Pratchett is a fantasy take on the holidays set in a fantasy world, but with a lot of social commentary/satire (and emotion too!)
- Hercule Poirot's Christmas - I have vivid memories of reading this in high school...locked room mystery with (apparently) a very memorable solution

As for this year, I was looking into reading more Agatha Christie, namely The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding. Another that caught eye was The Night Before Christmas (not that one) by Nikolai Gogol.

A holiday book I recently enjoyed was Kiss Her Once for Me by Alison Cochrun. It's an LGBT rom-com that exceeded my expectations.

My annual December read is the very Christmassy The Lord of the Rings :D I first read it over holiday break from school when I was 13 and have read it every December since then. This will be my 51st time through. To me it always feels like getting to go back to the place where you had the most exciting, amazing vacation of your life.

As for watching, my extended family watches "Pee-Wee's Christmas Special" every year. I also love the Alastair Sim and the Muppet Christmas Carols, and my sons generally insist on "Christmas in Connecticut."

The only holiday book I re-read is A Christmas Carol. And the last few years with a little one in the house, How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

But I WATCH these every year: the Grinch (animated 1966 version), Charlie Brown Christmas, and A Christmas Story (you'll shoot your eye out....)

Love Charlie Brown Christmas- my nativity set is the Peanuts' characters dressed up like in the show.

A couple more holiday books
A Christmas Memory, One Christmas, & The Thanksgiving Visitor by Truman Capote. Exquisitely written. Also very short, if you're doing the read-a-thon next week. ;)

A Secret Gift: How One Man's Kindness & a Trove of Letters Revealed the Hidden History of the Great Depression

I don't remember what exact holidays are covered, but at least a couple of Jewish holidays are in The Ladies Auxiliary