'Tis the season to be reading: what to read during Christmastime

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  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    Posts: 18,343
    GoldenGun wrote: »
    Thank you @Dragonpol !

    You're welcome. :)
  • Posts: 15,229
    Got this book as a freebie at my son's Christmas school fayre:
    https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/m-g-leonard/the-arctic-railway-assassin/9781529072761

    Snowy train, set during Christmastime, I think we'll read it together, hopefully this year.
  • SecretAgentMan⁰⁰⁷SecretAgentMan⁰⁰⁷ Lekki, Lagos, Nigeria
    edited December 11 Posts: 2,186
    Ludovico wrote: »
    Got this book as a freebie at my son's Christmas school fayre:
    https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/m-g-leonard/the-arctic-railway-assassin/9781529072761

    Snowy train, set during Christmastime, I think we'll read it together, hopefully this year.

    Cool. Looks like a book, that if made into a film, would be scored by John Williams and directed by Steven Spielberg. I think you and your son would enjoy the book @Ludovico Maybe you can listen to John Williams' Hook score as you both read :)
  • Posts: 15,229
    Something I shared on social media in the past:

    'Tis the season to be reading. Tonight's suggestion: On Her Majesty's Secret Service, by Ian Fleming. The one where James Bond gets married. Too often we forget the rest of the novel, which is one of Fleming's finest. Blofeld is back after a brief introduction in the previous novel, Thunderball, but completely shapeshifted and with his deadliest scheme. The novel borrows heavily from the first part of Dracula, but in a completely different genre and setting. But at the core, it is a Christmas story: set in the season, with snowy Switzerland, gluttony of all sorts, turkey, stuffing, alcohol, stockings, people who get naughty and nice. And like all good Christmas stories, this one has a very dark side: death abounds, Blofeld is a Krampus posing as Santa Claus, James Bond falls for a woman with suicidal tendencies... Maybe my favorite Bond novel, maybe even my favorite Christmas novel.
  • GoldenGunGoldenGun Per ora e per il momento che verrà
    Posts: 7,207
    Ludovico wrote: »
    Something I shared on social media in the past:

    'Tis the season to be reading. Tonight's suggestion: On Her Majesty's Secret Service, by Ian Fleming. The one where James Bond gets married. Too often we forget the rest of the novel, which is one of Fleming's finest. Blofeld is back after a brief introduction in the previous novel, Thunderball, but completely shapeshifted and with his deadliest scheme. The novel borrows heavily from the first part of Dracula, but in a completely different genre and setting. But at the core, it is a Christmas story: set in the season, with snowy Switzerland, gluttony of all sorts, turkey, stuffing, alcohol, stockings, people who get naughty and nice. And like all good Christmas stories, this one has a very dark side: death abounds, Blofeld is a Krampus posing as Santa Claus, James Bond falls for a woman with suicidal tendencies... Maybe my favorite Bond novel, maybe even my favorite Christmas novel.

    Reading it as we speak, and thoroughly enjoying it. :)
  • CharmianBondCharmianBond Pett Bottom, Kent
    Posts: 558
    I kicked off December by reading a Christmas novel from one of my favourite authors, Juno Dawson's Stay Another Day, which is a deft balance between quite heavy topics and the standard Christmas romcom fare, but it's also delightfully funny, full of drama and queerness.

    In a similar vein I have a copy of Carol on the shelf I got gifted last year which I still want to read but I think I'll have to settle with watching the adaption again this year because I've been reading a lot of non-Christmassy books this month too.
  • Posts: 15,229
    I kicked off December by reading a Christmas novel from one of my favourite authors, Juno Dawson's Stay Another Day, which is a deft balance between quite heavy topics and the standard Christmas romcom fare, but it's also delightfully funny, full of drama and queerness.

    In a similar vein I have a copy of Carol on the shelf I got gifted last year which I still want to read but I think I'll have to settle with watching the adaption again this year because I've been reading a lot of non-Christmassy books this month too.

    Yeah, I have been kind of dragging #Noirvember this year. But I have a few Christmas books on my shelves I read daily.

    Oh, and last year I read an advert crime novel (in French) . It was kind of rubbish as a novel but fun: one chapter per day until Christmas.
  • Posts: 15,229
    Did I share this one before?

    'Tis the season to be reading and thus here's a reading suggestion for the Season: Sadie When She Died by Ed McBain. Which as you may have guessed features the cops of the 87th Precinct. Mainly Steve Carella and Bert Kling. Sarah Fletcher is murdered in what appears to be a burglary turned horribly wrong. A junky suspect is quickly apprehended and accused and it appears to be an open and shut case, but quickly you see that nothing is quite as it seems. Her husband is openly glad she is dead and it turns out that Sarah had lead a double life as serial adulteresss and borderline nymphomaniac Sadie Collins. While Carella is playing a strange cat and mouse game with the not grieving widower, Kling, still heartbroken from a recent breakup, is trying to flirt with a new girl...whose mysterious and unseen boyfriend seems to be te jealous type. And with connections to the underworld to boot. This is dark, bloody, Hitchcockian by moments (something to expect with McBain) and it's the perfect Christmas crime read.
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