I’ve set a timer for myself to get this post written, because I have so much else I need to do this morning before work, despite spending all day yesterday (Sunday) doing stuff in preparation for Christmas visits, parties, gift-giving, etc. Luckily for me, my husband does all of the decorating. I’m more of a minimalist, but I like the decorations themselves. I do make one request – downstairs and exterior decorations only. Upstairs is a holiday-free haven for anyone who needs a break from Christmas cheer.
Speaking of to-do lists…on my day off this week, I tried something different. Instead of making a lengthy list and feeling discouraged when I didn’t get it all done, I wrote things down as I did them and crossed them off immediately. Much more satisfying, if less efficient.
Currently Reading
The Month of Borrowed Dreams (Harper, 2021) by Felicity Hayes-McCoy
The Month of Borrowed Dreams by Felicity Hayes-McCoy is set in Ireland in the spring/summer, so I’m reading out of season in both regards. I should be reading The Mistletoe Matchmaker, which is a Christmas book and also the author’s second book set on the Finfarran Peninsula (after The Library at the End of the World), whereas this is the third, but I won a free copy in a publisher’s library giveaway, and Christmas books from the library have a long wait list in December, so that settled it.
Happy Holidays (CreateSpace, 2009) by Craig O’Connor
Happy Holidays is a self-published book of horror stories, each one set on a different holiday. I bought at a local author event years ago and forgot about it! I came across it looking for horror in October and set it aside for December, thinking it started with Christmas. But it starts with New Year’s Eve and ends with Christmas, so I’m ahead with my 2022 reading already! I haven’t decided whether to read it throughout the year on the different holidays or all at once.
Recently Read
Mickey7 (St. Martin’s, Feb. 2022) by Edward Ashton
The Martian meets Dark Matter in Edward Ashton’s high concept science fiction thriller — From the publisher
I won an ARC of Mickey7 by Edward Ashton from the publisher. Told in the first-person, the story’s narrator isn’t as funny and likeable as The Martian‘s, but the dark s/f humor is along the same lines so if you liked The Martian (by Andy Weir), you’d probably like Mickey7. I’ll look for more from this author!
Cloud Cuckoo Land (Scribner, Sept. 2021) by Anthony Doerr
I wrote about Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr in my last “It’s Monday” post and said it would definitely be in my top ten favorite books of 2021. Having finished it, it is now at #1. Loved it, and I’m glad to own my own copy!
Recently Listened To
The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles
The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles was going to be in my top ten favorite audiobooks, I also wrote last time. And it, too, might have been my #1 favorite audiobook of 2021 – the writing and narration both are that amazing – were it not for two events, which literally made me:
If it had been raining I would have gone out in it to cry just like this.
Currently Listening To
Twelve Drummers Drumming (Books on Tape, 2011) by C.C. Benison
Introducing a series utterly perfect for cozy fans of Alan Bradley, Alexander McCall Smith, and Louise Penny. The Reverend Tom “Father” Christmas, the newest vicar of Thornford Regis, an idyllic rural town in England, turns detective when one of his parishioners turns up dead in a drum, and everyone in town seems to have something to confess. Tom Christmas came to picturesque Thornford Regis with his young daughter to escape the terrible experience of losing his wife in the city. Her murder sent him packing to the bucolic and charming town, where violent crime isn’t supposed to happen and the greatest sin is supposed to be nothing a member of the clergy can’t handle.
I guess I have been meaning to start this series on audio for ten years, and I finally have! From the title, I thought it was a Christmas mystery, but it’s not.
This post is linked to “It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?” hosted by Kathryn at The Book Date. Check out the link-up party there for more book lists!
P.S. I went way past the time I had set for myself! #notsurprised
My daughter is bringing The Lincoln Highway home to read over Christmas and will leave it for me. I’ll probably get the audio, too. I love Towles writing, but you have me a little concerned about the ending….
I would have thought Twelve Drummers Drumming was a Christmas book, too. Even if it’s not, it still sounds good.
I like that list idea better. 🙂 December is so hectic with the fast approaching holidays. I hope you get some good reading time and have a wonderful week.
I have a copy of Cloud Cuckoo Land, but it is…so…dauntingly…big.
I really enjoyed Lincoln Highway. Now I’m trying to reconstruct what drove you to madness…
[…] Month of Borrowed Dreams by Felicity Hayes-McCoy is a holdover from last week that I’m reading on my breaks at work, when I’m not listening to an […]