Ceri Louise Reads

The Christmas Readathon starts on Sunday and I am so excited to get going with some festive reading. I’m working right up to Christmas morning, and hosting family, so I’ve tried not to be too ambitious with my TBR, although after Christmas I have the rest of the year off (!) so hopefully I’ll be able to blitz through a few books to finish the year. Most of the books I’ve picked cover more than one prompt, and I also have options for most prompts. I think the only ones that don’t double up at all are my cosy/feel good reads, which I’ll probably be starting with as they should be easy going while I’m still busy with work.

As most of the books cover multiple prompts, I’ll list the books and which prompts they fulfil, rather than the other way around. So here goes:

1) A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens – this was pretty much a given considering the theme! It’s been a few years since I’ve read this so looking forward to revisiting the original story. I’m planning to do this one on audio, as I am familiar with the story – I sometimes struggle to concentrate on audiobooks but it’s less of a problem when it’s a reread! This means that I’ve covered nearly all of the prompts with this one book! I will also be watching The Muppet Christmas Carol as it’s pretty much my favourite Christmas film and definitely the best adaptation.

Prompts covered: Scrooge, Christmas Past, Christmas Yet to Come, Bob Cratchit, Jacob Marley

2) The Dragon Republic by R F Kuang – this the second book in the Poppy War trilogy and I’ve been meaning to pick it up for ages. I enjoyed the first book but found it quite intense and hard going in places, which may be why I’ve been putting this one off. I’ll probably save it for last when I’m feeling less pressure to get through books! It’s very chonky!

Prompts covered: Scrooge, Christmas Yet to Come

3) The Island of Doctor Moreau by H G Wells – I mainly want to read this for the context, as I was given Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s The Daughter of Doctor Moreau last year and I really want to read that… H G Wells can be a bit hit and miss for me, but this is short and covers several prompts so I should be able to fit it in.

Prompts covered: Scrooge, Christmas Past

4) The Mystery of the Blue Train by Agatha Christie – the first book on this list that only really covers one prompt, although possibly if you consider murder mysteries to be feel-good books (and I do) then arguably it counts for that too… it’s been a while since I picked up a Christie mystery and I want to pick up the pace with my Poirot read through.

Prompts covered: Christmas Past, Fezziwig?

5) The Vela by Yoon Ha Lee, Becky Chambers, Rivers Solomon and S L Huang – As I said earlier, I sometimes struggle with audiobooks, but I have been doing better with narrative podcasts so I’m going to give this one a go. This has come highly recommended by my friend Angela who is a booktuber – her channel Literature Science Alliance is awesome – and the first season is written by some of my favourite science fiction authors so I hope I’m going to love it.

Prompts covered: Christmas Past, Bob Cratchit

6) Winta’s Day by Josie Jaffrey – the latest book in the Seekers series starring disaster-bisexual-vampire-detective Jack Valentine which I have been eagerly anticipating and it has just come out. I’m not super into vampires but I love Josie Jaffrey’s writing and Jack is such a fun character, I’m excited to see what happens next for her. Another one that gives me feel good vibes, even if it’s just me…

Prompts covered: Christmas Yet to Come, Fezziwig?

I have three more that only really fit the Fezziwig prompt, but they are all set at Christmas and I think will all be quick, cosy reads, which is what I’m aiming for this season! The are: An Island Christmas by Jenny Colgan (the third book in her Mure series); Murder on Sea by Julie Wassmer (yes another murder mystery, this is the second in the Whitstable Pearl series); and Coming Home for Christmas by Patricia Scanlan, which I recently picked up as a Blind Date with a Book from a local National Trust house.

So that’s all the books – but there’s two prompts I haven’t mentioned yet! For the Ghost of Christmas Present we are celebrating Jolabokaflod – the Icelandic tradition of giving books and reading on Christmas Eve. I’ve bought my Dad a book for Christmas, as I do most years, and when I finish work on Christmas Eve I hopefully will be able to chill out with a book for a bit, not sure which one yet though!

The final prompt, Tiny Tim, is all about doing something nice for someone else. For this one it really helps that I work for a church as next week I will be delivering gift parcels to people in need in our community. But as that’s part of my job, it could be considered cheating, so I’m planning a little treat for my neighbours as well. Keep an eye on my instagram if you want to see what it is.

So that’s my plans for the Christmas Readathon this year. What are you planning to read?