A Flood of Holiday Books

In Iceland they have a tradition that translates into "Book Flood" -- most of their books are released and bought between September and December because a common (and very special) gift is books. More reasons to love Iceland.

The tradition is to give a book on Christmas Eve, and then spend the evening in bed, reading the new book while munching on chocolate. What's not to love? (Well, the spoiler in me feels like you'd get chocolate crumbs in your sheets which would smear and look like poop in your bed, and you'd have to get up to brush your teeth or else stay cozy but wake with a million cavities, which makes me think the chocolate part of this tradition was added by Icelandic dentists...)

Bryce does this tradition in a way, gifting me a hand-selected pile of books on Christmas morning (also on my birthday, I'm a lucky lucky lady). And then, since we went to Vermont right after Christmas, I got two more piles of books because when you are in the Mecca of independent bookstores, it's like law that you need to support them and give them lots of your money. They take the time to curate their selections and group them just so, so I take the time to pick some out, typically ones I haven't seen in mass market chain shops or Target, and bring those home, too.

The holiday Book Flood is real.

So here they are, the books of holiday break, in all their luscious paper glory:

Bryce Finds

1) Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, illustrated edition by J.K. Rowling and Jim Kay
It's now tradition that when a new one of these comes out, it's mine for either Christmas or my birthday. It is going to be SO EXCITING to have the whole set. Also, Bryce has never read these, so we read them together (although we're woefully behind, thanks PhD)

2) In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado
A memoir told in unique format where each chapter is in its own style, following a particular trope. Details the author's experiences and survival of an abusive relationship with a charismatic and volatile woman. Quote from the back: "Carmen Maria Machado has reimagined the memoir genre, creating a work of art both breathtakingly inventive and urgently true. In the Dream House is crucial queer testimony. I've never read a book like it." - Alex Marzano-Lesnevich

3) Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
I started seeing this everywhere when we went to Vermont. My favorite description is the quote on the cover: "Lesbian necromancers explore a huanted gothic palace in space! Decadent nobles vie to serve the deathless Emperor! Skeletons!" - Charles Stross
What's not to love there? (PS, every year there's a theme, like red covers, or black birds, it looks like this year didn't have theme other than dragons and lesbians maybe?)

4) SHOUT by Laurie Halse Anderson
This one I did know about, but hadn't read yet. This is Laurie Halse Anderson's memoir, written in verse like her iconic SPEAK verse novel about the aftermath of rape by someone you know, where she explores her family, her own rape, her year abroad in Denmark to remake herself, and how she became a writer and a champion for freedom to discuss and read about experiences that make the people who censor things uncomfortable but are very much a part of life for so many young people. It's gorgeous (I may have read this one already, so good). My favorite quote from the book:
"too many grown-ups tell kids to follow
their dreams
like that's going to get them somewhere
Auntie Laurie says follow your nightmares instead
cuz when you figure out what's eating you alive
you can slay it."
Yeah, Laurie. That.

5) Shadow Scale by Rachel Hartman
The second in the trilogy that I started at the end with Tess of the Road, a Bryce Find for Christmas last year. Follows Seraphina, a half human-half dragon, as she makes her way in a world that seems to be either/or rather than both/and.

6) Orange World by Karen Russell
A book of short stories by an author I love, who wrote Swamplandia!, Vampires in the Lemon Grove, and St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves, and the novella Sleep Donation. I read the title story in The New Yorker, and I'm excited for the rest. She does magical realism real well.

Blair's Books and More, Formerly Phoenix/Misty Valley Books, Formerly Misty Valley Book Shop

1) Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo
Won the Booker Prize along with The Testaments by Margaret Atwood. Tells the story of 12 characters, mostly women, black, and British, a love letter to London and growing up black and female. Lots of friendships, family, lovers: a bit epic. I hadn't seen it on display yet, so when I saw it I had to get it.

2) Dreadful Young Ladies And Other Stories by Kelly Barnhill.
Bryce found this one on a display shelf and I was suckered in by the cover, admittedly, but then when I found it was hailed as "bold, reality-bending invention underscored by richly illuminated universal themes of love, death, jealousy, and hope" and that Kelly Barnhill was reviewed as a fantasist in the vein of Neil Gaiman... I was sold.

3) Oliver Loving by Stefan Merrill Block
This is a book that has been on my to-read list for years, but it was surprisingly hard to find. This particular copy had some damage to it, but I bought it anyway because I thought it was a sign or something that it was there, cover-out, staring me down in a tiny bookshop in Chester, Vermont. It's a story about a boy who has been paralyzed and wordless for the ten years following a school shooting who may or may not be able to come back to full consciousness due to an experimental treatment. Sounded fascinating.

The Northshire Bookshop 

1) What If This Were Enough? Essays by Heather Havrilesky

This was actually on my "Books I Want to Read" Keep list, but I didn't realize it until after it caught my eye in this wondrous bookshop in Manchester, Vermont. Essays that urge readers to reject the constant pursuit of a shiny shallow future that is promised by the gadgets and technologies of our time and instead to find happiness in the Right Now. Sounded pretty good to me! 

2) View From The Cheap Seats: Selected Nonfiction by Neil Gaiman

I love Neil Gaiman. That's pretty much all I needed to buy this book, which I've never seen before, all collected nonfiction writings on, "authors past and present; music; storytelling; comics; bookshops; travel; fairy tales; America; inspiration; libraries; ghosts; and his experience at the 2010 Oscars." It's not just essays, but also introductions, speeches, and articles. 

3) The 1-Minute Writer by Leigh Medeiros

Gives writing prompts for 1 minute, 5 minute, and 1-15 minute exercises to get your creative juices flowing. It was marked down. so I figured, why not? 

4) Force of Nature by Jane Harper

I haven't yet read The Dry, although it's on my shelf, but this is the same author. It takes place in Australia -- a group of women go into the bush as part of a corporate retreat, but one woman goes missing and everyone's story about what happened is a little different. A mystery! 

5) No One Tells You This by Glynnis McNichol

This was on my "Books I Want To Read" Keep list, and then Loribeth reviewed it, and it was marked down on a central table in the book shop... so I HAD to get it. Any book that is a memoir where things didn't turn out how society dictates and how you may have originally wanted, and it's a way to thumb noses at the idea that your life is tragic if it doesn't work out in certain ways... well, that's a book I want to read. 

6) The Beloveds by Maureen Lindley

Twisty, messed up mystery. An older sister who feels slighted vows to get her "rightful" inheritance back from her "golden" younger sister, no matter what. It involves a weird dog, a bundle of poisonous mushrooms, and a lot of unhingedness. Sounded fun. 

7) Planting the Natural Garden by  Piet Oudolf and Henk Gerritsen

This is just a gorgeous little square gardening book about the glories of a wild, natural aesthetic. It also has the first half as a sort of plant catalog, which I love especially in this time of dormancy. I just drool over the possibilities for new plantings. I have big plans for more spaces in the yard, and this beautiful book will help me! 

There -- the insane number of books I collected between Christmas and New Year's, from Bryce, and from two independent Vermont bookshops. I just love this season of filling the shelves and looking forward to the joy of an unexpected snow day where I can sit in pajamas and read all day!