Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Hope Santa Brings/Bookish Wishes

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.

Previous Top Ten Tuesday Topics

• 24th October: Atmospheric Books
• 31st October: Hallowe’en Freebie – Books featuring spooky hares
• 7th November: Book Titles That Would Make Great Newspaper Headlines
• 14th November: Reasons Why I’m Thankful for Books
• 21st November: Mainstream Popular Authors that I Still Have Not Read
• 12th December: Books On My Winter 2023-2024 To-Read List

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Merry Christmas everybody!

Or whichever holiday you celebrate and observe!

For me, I love Christmas time. We have our tree up – and have had for two weeks now. We have wreaths on the door and around the mantleplace, lights up sort of everywhere inside and out, presents waiting to be wrapped. Batches of mince pies, gingerbreads which we decorate on Christmas Eve, chocolate crackle cookies, heavy fruit cakes that have been steeped in alcohol for two years now, pannetone, pudding, yule log. Christmas does seem to have become very food-oriented!

And of course it is a bookish holiday. Books as gifts. Books set around Christmas time – yes I have just finished Hercule Poirot’s Silent Night and have The Christmas Appeal and a Christmas Jigsaw Murder lurking around on my TBR. Old recipe books dug out. And bookish Christmas trees!

I can also remember fleeing the rather extended family that descended on us when I was a child, seeking the solace and refuge of a good book! Now, with an autistic daughter, our Christmases are significantly quieter.

The books below are linked to my Amazon WishList here. I have loved the chance in previous years to gift books to others in the Top Ten Tuesday community.

This year, I really want to start reading more poetry – more poetry which isn’t just by middle class white men from the 1800s. So recommended poetry books that I’d love would be

Balladz, Sharon Olds

Indiom, Daljit Nagra

Octopus Mind, Rachel Carney

I Think We’re Alone Now, Abigail Parry

The Iliad, Homer and Emily Wilson

There are also books that just look wonderful or have great titles. The Brandon Sanderson – always a reliable read – is a gorgeous cover; whereas the translated Mathias Enard has a great title but is perhaps the least inspiring cover!

Yumi and the Nightmare Painter, Brandon Sanderson

The Annual Banquet of the Gravediggers’ Guild, Mathias Enard

There are also a range of books here that I have read and loved but which I don’t have physical copies of. And then of course there are the back catalogue of beloved authors

So Late in the Day, Claire Keegan

Small Things Like These, Claire Keegan

Treacle Walker, Alan Garner

The Weirdstone of Brisingamen, Alan Garner

The Manningtree Witches, AK Blakemore

The Glutton, AK Blakemore

Water, John Boyne

The Happy Couple, Naoise Dolan

The Wren, The Wren, Anne Enright

And finally, one new author – I think a debut – which really caught my eye, basically due its comparison to Tana French…

Kala, Colin Walsh

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May I wish everyone here – and everyone everywhere – a wonderful holiday and festive season!

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Upcoming Top Ten Tuesday Themes

December 26: The Ten Most Recent Additions to My Bookshelf (Maybe share your holiday book haul?)
January 2: Favorite Books of 2023
January 9: Most Anticipated Books Releasing in the First Half of 2024
January 16: Bookish Goals for 2024
January 23: Books I Meant to Read in 2023 but Didn’t Get To
January 30: New-to-Me Authors I Discovered in 2023
February 6: Top Ten Quick Reads/Books to Read When Time is Short (Books under 150 pages, or if you’re not a novella reader maybe spin this to be books you could read in a day or a single sitting.) (Submitted by Jennifer @ FunkNFiction.com and Angela @ Reading Frenzy)
February 13: Love Freebie (in honor of Valentine’s Day tomorrow)
February 20: Bookish Superpowers I Wish I Had (e.g. never accidentally buying the same book twice, every book I buy would be automatically signed/personally dedicated by the author, the ability to read faster, etc.) (Submitted by Cathy @WhatCathyReadNext)
February 27: Covers/Titles with Things Found in Nature (covers/titles with things like trees, flowers, animals, forests, bodies of water, etc. on/in them) (Submitted by Jessica @ a GREAT read)