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Winter Holiday Reads November 2021 |
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A court of frost and starlight
by Sarah J. Maas
FAN MAA
Book 4 in Court of Thorns and Roses series. While navigating her first Winter Solstice as High Lady, Feyre learns that wounds of those dearest to her have a far-reaching impact on the future of their court.
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Hiddensee : a tale of the once and future Nutcracker
by Gregory Maguire
FAN MAG
The best-selling author of Wicked presents an imaginative tale rooted in early 19th-century German Romanticism that explores parallels between the origin legend of the famous Nutcracker with the life of Drosselmeier, the toymaker who carves him.
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Hogfather : a novel of Discworld
by Terry Pratchett
FAN PRA
The Hogswatchnight yuletide season is disrupted by the evil deeds of the Auditors, who replace the red-suited Hogfather with a scythe-bearing demon, prompting the Unseen University wizards and their monster-bashing nanny to launch a rescue plan.
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A Christmas carol
by Charles Dickens
F DIC
This classic holiday tale of Ebenezer Scrooge, a miserly businessman, who learns the true meaning of Christmas after he is visited by the ghosts of Christmases past, present and future, contains a biographical sketch of the author.
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The adults : a novel
by Caroline Hulse
F HUL
Claire and Matt are no longer together but decide what's best for their daughter Scarlett is to have a "normal" family Christmas. They can't agree on whose idea it was to go to the Happy Forest Holiday park , or who said they should bring their new partners. But someone did--and it's too late to pull the plug. Claire brings her new boyfriend Patrick (never Pat), a seemingly sensible, eligible from a distance, Iron-Man-in-Waiting. Matt brings the new love of his life Alex, funny, smart, and extremely patient. Scarlett, who is seven, brings her imaginary friend Posey. He's a rabbit. Together the five (or six?) of them grit their teeth over Forced Fun activities, drinking a little too much after bed-time, oversharing classified secrets about their pasts and before you know it their holiday is a powder keg that ends--where this story starts--with a tearful, frightened, call to the police... But what happened? They said they'd all be adults about this...
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Once in a lifetime
by Mary Monroe
ROM MON
When she accidentally receives another woman’s passport during the holiday season, Judith Guthrie, whose brother is on the waiting list for a life-giving transplant, decides to deliver it in person and finds her small gesture resulting in a series of big choices and big miracles.
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Winter solstice
by Rosamunde Pilcher
F PIL
Elfrida Phipps loves her new life in the pretty Hampshire village. She has a tiny cottage, her faithful dog Horace and the friendship of the neighbouring Blundells - particularly Oscar - to ensure that her days include companionship as well as independence. But an unforeseen tragedy upsets Elfrida's tranquillity: Oscar's wife and daughter are killed in a terrible car crash and he finds himself homeless when his stepchildren claim their dead mother's inheritance.
Oscar and Elfrida take refuge in a rambling house in Scotland which becomes a magnet for various waifs and strays who converge upon it, including an unhappy teenage girl. It could be a recipe for disaster. But somehow the Christmas season weaves its magical spell and for Elfrida and Oscar, in the evening of their lives, the winter solstice brings love and solace.
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On strike for Christmas
by Sheila Roberts
ROM ROB
Tired of their husbands' refusal to share Christmas responsibilities and the lack of appreciation, Joy, Laura, and other women of Holly decide to stage a boycott in order to make the men decorate, mail cards, shop for gifts, and clean up the holiday mess, but as the strike continues, each couple is forced to confront larger issues in their marriage and concerns about the future.
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The wish
by Nicholas Sparks
F SPA
A successful travel photographer, Maggie Dawes, struggling to come to terms with a sobering medical diagnosis, is unexpectedly grounded over Christmas with her young assistant and begins to tell him the story of the love that set her on a course she never could have imagined.
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Christmas days : 12 stories and 12 feasts for 12 days
by Jeanette Winterson
F WIN
A collection of stories written annually at Christmas by the best-selling author of Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? include tales of trees with magical powers, a tinsel baby that talks, flying dogs, philosophical fairies and a haunted house.
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The white Christmas inn
by Colleen Wright
F WRI
A Christian fiction Christmas read. Jeanne and Tim, the owners of a romantic but failing Vermont inn, children's book author Molly, widower Marcus and his two daughters, disappointed bride Hannah, and her friend Luke, must cope when a Christmas blizzard leaves them snowbound.
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Hark! the herald angels scream : an anthology
by Christopher Golden
F HAR
From chained ghosts to blood-soaked Santas, this collection celebrates another tradition of Christmas-- commercialism and desire run amok; hauntings and ghostly revenge; and pure terror. Have yourself a scary little Christmas!
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NOS4A2 : a novel
by Joe Hill
F HIL
Victoria McQueen has a secret gift for finding things: a misplaced bracelet, a missing photograph, answers to unanswerable questions. On her Raleigh Tuff Burner bike, she makes her way to a rickety covered bridge that, within moments, takes her wherever she needs to go, whether it's across Massachusetts or across the country. Charles Talent Manx has a way with children. He likes to take them for rides in his 1938 Rolls-Royce Wraith with the NOS4A2 vanity plate. With his old car, he can slip right out of the everyday world, and onto the hidden roads that transport them to an astonishing--and terrifying--playground of amusements he calls "Christmasland." Then, one day, Vic goes looking for trouble--and finds Manx. That was a lifetime ago. Now Vic, the only kid to ever escape Manx's unmitigated evil, is all grown up and desperate to forget. But Charlie Manx never stopped thinking about Victoria McQueen. He's on the road again and he's picked up a new passenger: Vic's own son.
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Owl be home for Christmas : a Meg Langslow mystery
by Donna Andrews
M AND
Snowed in at a hotel during a scientific conference, Meg Langslow assists Chief Burke in identifying which of the guests is responsible for the murder of a visiting ornithologist.
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Busy body : an Agatha Raisin mystery
by M. C. Beaton
M BEA (Large Print)
When a Scrooge-like officer with the Health and Safety Board spoils the Costwolds holiday festivities by trumping up reasons to ban town decorations and May Dimwoody's hand-made toys, Agatha Raisin is called on to investigate the officer's subsequent murder.
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The twelve clues of Christmas
by Rhys Bowen
M BOW
While serving as an assistant to the hostess of a large Christmas house party in Tiddleton-under-Lovey, Georgie gets the attention of her retired detective grandfather after dead bodies begin showing up.
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Christmas cow bells
by Mollie Cox Bryan
M BRY
Settling in Shenandoah Springs, organic micro-dairy farmer and cheese-maker Brynn MacAlister finds herself in the middle of a murder mystery when her neighbor dies in a mysterious fire and strange things begin happening in her own pasture.
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A Cajun Christmas killing
by Ellen Byron
M BYR
This year, the Grinch has come to stay at the family-run Crozat Plantation B&B. When he floods travel websites with vicious reviews, Maggie thinks she's identified him as rival businessman Donald Baxter -- that is, until he's found stabbed to death at Maggie's workplace and Maggie and her loved ones become top suspects.
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Christmas cupcake murder
by Joanne Fluke
M FLU
Firing up the Cookie Jar’s ovens to attend a lengthy holiday checklist, Hannah Swensen helps loved ones manage seasonal doldrums before she is challenged to identify a skilled antique restorer found near death outside her bakery.
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Mrs. Claus and the Santaland slayings
by Liz Ireland
M IRE
April Claus is adjusting to life in the North Pole with her new husband, Nick, when the suspicious death of an ill-tempered elf, initially ruled an accident, motivates her to investigate suspects on a potentially lethal naughty list.
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Eggnog murder
by Leslie Meier
M MEI
Collects holiday-themed mysteries by three fan-favorite authors including "Eggnog Murder" by Leslie Meier in which a gift-wrapped bottle of eggnog proves to be a killer concoction for a Tinker's Cove local, and Lucy Stone must seek out the murdering mixologist, as well as "Death by Eggnog" by Lee Hollis and "Nogged Off" by Barbara Ross.
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Murder at an Irish Christmas
by Carlene O'Connor
M OCO
Joining the rest of the O'Sullivan clan to spend a music-themed holiday visit with her future sister-in-law's family, Siobhán investigates the untimely demise of a famous conductor only to become snowed in with the case's chief suspects.
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Murder at the mill : a mystery
by M. B Shaw
M SHA
Renting a cottage in a picturesque Hampshire village to escape her crumbling marriage, Iris Grey is commissioned to paint the portrait of a celebrated crime writer before a tension-filled Christmas Eve party is thrown into turmoil by an untimely death.
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I am half-sick of shadows
by C. Alan Bradley
M BRA
After the whole village descends on Flavia de Luce's family's estate during a blizzard to watch the filming of a movie, a person ends up dead, strangled by a length of film, and the eleven-year-old budding chemist must find the killer
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Visions of sugar plums
by Janet Evanovich
M EVA
A holiday adventure finds Stephanie Plum struggling to remove an intruder from her apartment and falling for a mysterious newcomer.
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Mystery in white : a Christmas crime story
by J. Jefferson Farjeon
M FAR
On Christmas Eve, heavy snowfall brings a train to a halt near the village of Hemmersby. Several passengers take shelter in a deserted country house, where the fire has been lit and the table laid for tea-- but no one is at home. Trapped together for Christmas, the passengers are seeking to unravel the secrets of the empty house when a murderer strikes in their midst.
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A fatal grace
by Louise Penny
M PEN
Sent to a village south of Montreal to investigate the death of CC de Poitiers, an extremely unpopular woman apparently killed in an electrical accident, Armand Gamache of the Sûreté du Quebec finds that nearly everyone in town had a motive to kill her.
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A Christmas return : a novel
by Anne Perry
M PER
Spurred by holiday cheer and a surprise hidden in a Christmas pudding, an elderly aristocrat endeavors to correct a past wrong by solving a decade-old murder.
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Christmas : a biography
by Judith Flanders
394.2663 FLA
The best-selling author of The Making of Home presents a tour of Christmas holiday traditions from the original festival through today, touching on subjects ranging from gift wrap and the holiday parade to the first gag holiday gift book and the first official appearance of Santa Claus.
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Holidays on ice
by David Sedaris
818.54 SED
A best-selling classic features six additional works on the joys and embarrassments of favorite holidays, in a volume that includes tales of tardy trick-or-treaters, the difficulties of explaining the Easter Bunny to another culture, and a barnyard Secret Santa scheme gone awry.
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A literary Christmas
by British Library
820.80334 LIT
A seasonal collection includes poems, prose, and short stories about Christmas by such authors as George Eliot, Anthony Trollope, and P.G. Wodehouse.
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