As we are now facing the lions of March, it’s time to recap my reading for Seasons of Reading’s Winter’s Respite challenge.
I began with B.K. Borison’s Good Spirits in which a Ghost of Christmas Past winds up falling in love with one of his assignments.
Harriet is far from the usual sort of person being visited by holiday ghosts in order to mend her ways; she’s a charming soul who runs her late aunt’s antique shop and adores this time of year( even keeps a candy cane or two in her pocket at all times!).
Nonetheless, Nolan is determined to do his ethereal duty by taking Harriet into her past so she’s on the road to redemption by Christmas Eve. Yet, those trips back in time are more pleasant than sad and when one of those journeys takes them both into a moment from Nolan’s mortal life, it’s quite clear that perhaps Harriet isn’t the one in need of saving.
Can Harriet help Nolan get what he needs to move on from his haunting position or will they face some less than Christmas cherry consequences?
Since I have read Borison’s earlier novel,First Time Caller(which was a Book of the Year nominee at Book of the Month Club), this book was a must-have that I was happy to catch up on during the after holiday season.
It’s just as engaging as that Nora Ephron inspired work, only this particular story put me in mind of a different movie and writer altogether.
If I had to pitch this book Hollywood style, I would have to say “It’s a Christmas Carol meets Defending Your Life”-the Albert Brooks 1991 comedy about a man in the afterlife facing his fears and falling in love with a perfectly wonderful woman to boot. See the movie and read this book, trust me-a match made in storytelling heaven there:
After that, I picked up Witch You Would by Lia Amador, set in a modern day Miami where magic is commonplace and spell casting can either be a celebrated art form or just commercially viable.
Penelope wants to do more with her spells than work at a thankless mystical retail outlet and becoming a contestant on the competition show Cast Judgement could truly be her magic ticket to success.
However, this season of Cast Judgement has contenders teaming up with celebrity partners and Penelope is matched with Leandro Presto, an internet sensation best known for his spells going hilariously wrong.
She is less than thrilled with this, wanting to be taken seriously and hoping to make a future business connection as well. As it turns out, Leandro is a bit taken aback as well, due to the fact that his real name is Gil, who created the Presto persona in order to raise funds for his grandfather’s magic school charity.
Gil also has a blog where he helps others fix their spells and through one of those requests, became Penelope’s online pen pal. A chance encounter before the show has Gil recognize her but telling Penelope his secret identity might be tricky in more ways than one.
With the two of them growing closer during the course of the show (and being encouraged to “fake flirting “ by the obnoxious producer), things may unravel quickly for their futures both personally and professionally. Can Gil and Penelope make true magic together or are they cursed to disaster?
This novel is a solidly enchanting read that gives an everyday quality to the magical elements of the story that blend beautifully with the blossoming romance on page.
The character work is nicely done and I look forward to revisiting these two, along with a few new friends, in the author’s next book, which is being highlighted on the side of this blog here! Amador does know how cast a great literary spell on her readers and I look forward to more of her bookish magic:
Alas, I was unable to get to my Ali Hazelwood book but I l’ll just save that one for the summer. In the meantime, much thanks to Michelle Miller at Seasons of Reading for starting us off on another year of great reads.
I’m sure that I don’t have to tell any of you out there just how incredibly awful things are right now and as of this writing, how much worse they may get.
What I would like to say is that sticking together and giving each other the emotional support needed to get through these extremely challenging times is more vital than ever. Despair is completely understandable but let’s not fall into that trap if we can.
Do give yourself breaks from ongoing coverage, if you can, as a means to revive your spirits. I’m rereading a very good romance novel at the moment (Something Wild & Wonderful by Anita Kelly) and it’s really helping me de-stress here.
Whatever hobby or pop culture delight that you have in your life, don’t feel guilty about engaging with it during this time. Your mental health is just as important to maintain as your physical one, especially these days now and yet to come.
Speaking of tension, the next Seasons of Reading readathon will be in April with Spring Into Horror and yes, I already have a trio of books set aside for that! Hopefully, I will finish all three and my chances are good here as a) they’re much shorter in page count than these winter books are and b) scary stories are great for channeling anxiety , particularly those abounding in society of the moment.
Yeah, something tells me this is going to be quite the year for horror, both onscreen and on page(not to mention headlines yet to come) but with any luck. our collective fears will compel us to mightily move forward rather than linger back in timid terror:
If you’re like me at the moment, staying safe as can be inside with a seriously snowy blizzard wailing outside, then making plans to check out some upcoming book based TV sounds ideal indeed.
PBS is the perfect place to start here and set to debut on March 22 is The Forsytes , a new adaptation of the John Galsworthy award winning saga of novels and stories covering more than one generation of a wealthy Victorian family in life, love and loss.
The cast includes such notables as Francesca Annis, Stephen Moyer and Elinor Tomlinson and unlike prior versions, this series seems to be planning to cover all of the source material as a second season has already been announced.
If you’re a fan of The Gilded Age, this drama should quench that thirst rather nicely, I should think(maybe not in the HBO style but still simmering with romantic intrigue nonetheless):
Starting even sooner than that is a new take on Alexandre Dumas’ classic tale of revenge, The Count of Monte Cristo, beginning on March 1.
Sam Clafin stars as Edmond Dante’s, unjustly imprisoned on a remote island institution for years yet with the aid of a clerical fellow prisoner (Jeremy Irons) is able to escape and claim a hidden fortune.
Now, in his new identity, Edmond seeks vengeance on those who wronged him but can he truly reclaim what was lost from his former life?
This is an eight part series , so plenty of emotional depth and detail from the original novel should be rather abundant here, not to mention the quest to avenge some grievous wrongs feels very much in the spirit of the times we’re living in these days:
Now, I don’t have BritBox but it might be worthwhile to check it out later this year because a new Jane Austen themed series is on their schedule for 2026.
Based on Janice Hadlow’s 2020 novel, The Other Bennet Sister does more than revisit Pride & Prejudice; it places Mary Bennet(Ella Bruccoleri) at the center of this story as she tries to figure out her own place in the world, not to mention the family line-up.
I know Mary isn’t the most favored Bennet sister amongst the fans but she does deserve a little bit of the spotlight and hopefully this ten part series gives her some moments to shine. Plus, having Richard E. Grant as Mr. Bennet is a true bonus, if you ask me(yes. he’s my favorite Austen parent and I will not be persuaded otherwise!):
In the meanwhile, I will continue to enjoy PBS programming and I do heartily recommend signing on to PBS Passport as it’s very reasonably priced as well as contributing to such a good cause like quality television in such times as these.
Most recently, my sibling and I watched the season six finale of All Creatures Great and Small, the kind of show that she would usually refer to as a “British coma” yet this heartfelt series set in a time and place far from our own has become one of our favorite shared experiences of late.
Public TV may not be everyone’s cup of tea but it does come in handy when looking for a relief from our everyday troubles and/or some insights into the wider world. Hopefully with all the strife going on all around us, one of the better things that gets us through and remains relatively intact is PBS with viewers old and new to keep tuning in:
One of the benefits that I’ve enjoyed from Book of the Month Club is their Book of the Year(BOTY) prize which gives both authors and readers a nice little treat during this time of year.
BOTM members vote from a list of twenty titles from the past year from which five are chosen as the main contenders. The winner is announced by the end of February, which gives that particular writer a cash prize (the runners-up get one as well) as well as an extra bit of publicity.
For BOTM members, we get to choose a free special edition of either the winner or the other contenders for our March box.
In my case, I have three of the nominees from Book of the Month but have only finished one. Layne Fargo’s The Favorites is stuck on one of my in progress reading piles ( got to unpause that book!) and Bury My Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab was a holiday gift so too soon for that book!
The book that I finished (and voted for) was First Time Caller by B.K. Borison, an enchanting novel inspired by the classic romcom Sleepless in Seattle. Single mom Lucie gets more than she bargained for when her daughter makes a call to a local radio show, asking for help in setting her mother up with a Mr. Right.
Since the radio show in question is in dire need of a ratings boost, DJ Aiden reluctantly agrees to make the search for Lucie’s perfect partner an ongoing series.
As time goes by, however, both Lucie and Aiden find themselves tuning into each other’s hearts rather than seeking out a new love. Can this on-air romance become a n off the charts hit or be banished to the emotional ratings basement there?
It’s a delightful read, even if Sleepless in Seattle is not your favorite Nora Ephron movie(more of a You’ve Got Mail gal myself). Nonetheless, First Time Caller would make an excellent film about life, love and awkward moments between friends and lovers yet for now, it plays well in the mental matinee of your heart:
That being said, this leaves me with a choice of two books here; the first being Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy.
Set on a remote island used to house a seed bank(storage for seeds needed for replanting in case of food emergencies), Dominic Salt and his trio of children are now the only residents left due to the dangers of rising sea levels.
When a mysterious woman named Rowan washes up on shore, her arrival stirs up fear and tension. Even as the family helps their new guest to recover, a number of secrets and lies are battened down for their mutual protection.
As it turns out, Rowan has a few secrets of her own to look after as well. With the threat from the ocean putting them all in peril, can Rowan and Dominic work together to save what they all hold dear?
This does sound intriguing and I did hear plenty of critical praise from readers and reviewers alike about this book. Also, this story is from a newer genre called climate fiction (I think you can guess what that’s all about) and I would like to give that a try.
Plus, the island setting is actually based on a real research protected island (Macquarie Island, home to penguins also) which adds a realistic cherry on top of this saltwater story sundae:
The choice is Florence Knapp’s debut novel, The Names. The story is divided into three separate time lines as the newborn son of British couple Cora and Gordon experiences life with one of the three names available for choosing on his birth certificate.
If his mother had given him Julian, he would have been raised in Ireland with his maternal grandmother yet if given his father’s name, would be living in his paternal home under rather harsh circumstances.
His older sister Maia wanted to name him Bear, which might’ve been the best choice of all but which name really does lead him and his loved ones down a future path that is best for all?
Debut novels are a weakness of mine and this one has a very creative premise indeed. The themes of family dysfunction combined with the notion that one’s name can make or break you is not an easy balancing act for any writer but from what I hear, Knapp achieves this with a rather deft touch.
Both of these books are quite literary in terms of style and happen to be celebrity book club picks(WDS is a Reese’s Book Club, The Names was a Read with Jenna selection). Choosing between them is tricky yet either one should provide some serious food for thought and a quality meal at that:
The choice between two well written books to get for free is a luxury these days to be sure yet I simply don’t want to grab at something because it’s readily available.
Choosing a book is an investment in your time and headspace( not to mention a shelf spot) and while I do read for fun , I also want to spend my mental coin wisely. No doubt either title will be well worth it. However, I will probably wait and see which of the five BOTY nominees win before making my final decision.
In the meanwhile, this does give me something to look forward to at the end of this short month and while I’m rooting for First Time Caller, my congratulations are for all of the books up for this award this time around.
The saying about so many books, so little time is totally true especially for folks with subscription boxes. When it comes to those monthly selections however, creativity is not just found between the pages-it can make bookish storage quite the art form worth admiring:
While Valentine’s Day is nearly upon us, my big plans for this year’s celebration are all about reading.
Specifically, diving into my most recent library haul that included a nice surprise at my local Little Free Library (more on that in a moment). During this incredibly arctic winter, books have become more of a warm comfort than ever before, plus my best romances in life have always been page turners!
The excitement that I felt last week when finding Kelly Bishop’s delightful memoir The Third Gilmore Girl on the shelf was truly passionate in a pop culture sense there.
Being a fan of the now iconic TV series (which celebrated its twenty fifth anniversary last year), Emily Gilmore as critical mother and loving grandmother to Lorelai and Rory was a key component to the success of the show and one of my favorites.
Bishop, who had a thriving career on stage and screen beforehand, gives her personal take on the GG experience as well as her own life and times. While I am interested in seeing how she got along with co-stars such as Lauren Graham and the late great Edward Herrmann, learning more about this grand lady herself should be an adventure worth exploring indeed:
Another pulse pounding moment for me that day was finding a copy of Long Bright River by Liz Moore as well.
This Philadelphia set story follows a pair of sisters, one a police officer, the other an addict on the streets. Mickey hates running into her sister Kacey while patrolling but can’t stop looking out for her.
When Kacey goes missing for longer than usual, it is up to Mickey to try and find her, only to be caught up in a gruesome string of local murders that may or may not be connected to her sister’s situation.
While I haven’t seen the limited series adaptation of the book, I did get a brief start in Moore’s big bestseller The God of the Woods and wound up putting it on pause. I’m hoping that LBR might revive my interest in TGOTW before that book gets an adaptation onscreen:
Before I mention the last library book of this bunch, I do want to talk about the LFL find that I had there.
As I dropped off a Maeve Binchy title (Chestnut Street, which is fine but not a must have for me), my sheer amazement in seeing Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop tucked in there was palatable to say the least. This translated novel by Hwang Bo-Reum was all the literary rage a couple of years ago but I just never got a chance to read it for myself until now, that is!
This charming tale of Yeongju, who flees the corporate world to open up the small bookstore of the title, and the friends she makes along the way was well appreciated during it’s initial release yet with the way things are going these days, I have a feeling that the gentle sentiments of this story are more needed right now.
Plus, it sounds like the kind of low key engaging drama that folks would enjoy tuning into, with it’s takes on life, love and literature as a welcome relief from the hectic pace of reality in all forms:
Back to my haul, the last book that I added to the pile was the final entry in Nora Roberts’ Lost Bride trilogy, The Seven Rings.
Yes, I now have all three volumes on loan and this set combines two of my personal reading challenges for the year(finishing my library reads/Return to Roberts).
However , that’s not the only reason for choosing this particular trilogy here; some of it has to do with the upcoming release of the new Wuthering Heights movie. I know that as of this writing, there’s a big debate over the merits of this film for better or worse (especially the latter) and I have two things to say on this subject:
1) I am not a big Brontë fan (read Jane Eyre several times as a kid and liked it) but do like some Gothic flair from time to time in my stories. The Lost Bride trilogy has a haunted mansion with ghost brides and a new owner dealing with the ancient curse that set this whole thing off and that is really more my jam at the moment.
2) I read WH once as an adult and honestly, found it rather dreary. Yes, it’s a classic worth reading but Cathy and Heathcliff are just too miserable both together and apart for me to want to revisit them either on or off the page.
I have seen a couple of film versions of the book before (did like the one with Ralph Finnes and Juliette Binoche)so I suspect that I’m not missing out on much with what sounds like a very overheated and overdone production at best.
If you’re looking forward to this new Wuthering Heights for your holiday weekend entertainment, I wish you well. Hope you find the fun that you seek from it and plenty of popcorn on hand. As for me, my library finds are the best Valentine and the best version of WH is the Kate Bush song:
Since it has been decreed that six more weeks of winter are our weatherly lot, it’s a good thing that I started my Book of the Month Club subscription right back up this February!
Having a pile of good books on hand does make the colder seasons fly by indeed and while I was eager to get my BOTM groove back on, this month’s main selections weren’t really speaking to me.
Fortunately, they also offer Member Favorites (books from prior months) to choose from instead, so I went with The Ghostwriter by Julie Clark. The title character is Olivia Dumont, who is requested by her late father Vincent Taylor to complete his final book.
Vincent, in addition to being a popular horror writer, also has a past terror of his own dating back to the summer of 1975. His two siblings died tragically, with rumors insisting that Vincent was the one responsible for their mutual demise. No proof was ever found to make that notion true or false.
Olivia kept the fact of her connection to Vincent secret for personal and professional reasons but with this big assignment that could really help her out financially, she’s about to get way more than she bargained for here.
I’ve heard great word of mouth regarding this book and glad to have a chance to enjoy this chilling thrill ride for myself:
As for the add-ons, my first pick was How to Kill a Guy in Ten Dates by Shailee Thompson.
Jamie Prescott is a film student focusing more on her horror movie thesis than any form of social life when her roommate Lauren asks her to join in on a speed dating session.
Figuring it might be good to blow off some study steam, Jamie decided to go but soon enough regrets her choice of wardrobe and footwear. When a slasher strikes the dating event, she’s willing to use her scary movie knowledge to survive but a dress with pockets and comfortable shoes would certainly make this situation a little easier!
I like the notion of a horror romcom and with Valentine’s Day coming up, this dark comedy sounds ideal. After all, what’s more scary than speed dating, am I right?:
For something much more sentimental, my last choice was Libby Page’s This Book Made Me Think of You.
A few months after the death of her beloved husband Joe, Tilly Nightingale gets a phone call from her local bookstore that there’s a birthday present waiting for her.
The owner, Alf, explains that Joe had set aside twelve books for Tilly, each one with a handwritten letter included . Since she had stopped reading due to Joe’s illness, going back to books for pleasure seemed pointless. However, since this was his last gift to her, Tilly decides to try again.
Between the books and a new found friendship with Alf, Tilly starts to appreciate both books and life once more yet she wants to do more. By setting out on a couple of book based adventures, can she connect more to the wider world or should Tilly know when to put a bookmark in her page turning progress there?
This just feels like a charmingly bittersweet read and with the author noting that one of her inspirations for this novel is You’ve Got Mail, how could I resist?:
Between the bitter cold and the bitterness in our daily headlines, this is a hard winter for sure. It does good to have something positive to look forward to as well as keep your mind from getting too bogged down by stress.
For example, this year happens to be the 100 year anniversary of BOTM and they’re doing certain things to celebrate such as release special Centennial Editions of past picks- the first one out this month is All Quiet on the Western Front-and free bookmarks that highlight past favorites to boot.
The bookmark that I received this month was for a 1981 novel called Heading West by Doris Betts. It tells the tale of a small town librarian being swept up into a journey with a mysterious stranger and a hitchhiker that changes all of their lives in one way or another.
I don’t know if this particular book will be reissued by BOTM or not but I am curious about it and might see if my local library has a copy available. At any rate, it’s good to have a new interest on the horizon as we head towards warmer (and hopefully better) days to come:
With everything going on right now, finding joy is far from easy yet this year’s Academy Award nominations offered up some wonderful surprises that couldn’t help but to lift my spirits.
I will get into some of my thoughts about the Oscar race by the end here (especially a certain history making 16 nominations for one of my favorites from last year!)but for the purposes of this blog, we’re going to highlight the Best Adapted Screenplay category and the books they’re based on.
I say books because one of the nominees is a remake of an international film (Bugonia) and the other is rather loosely inspired by the works of Thomas Pynchon (One Battle After Another). Therefore, there are just three out of the five available in traditional literary form.
Let’s start with Frankenstein , adapted by writer/director Guillermo Del Toro, based on Mary Shelley’s iconic tale of a monster and his maker. Therefore film received nine nominations, including Best Picture, Best Makeup and Hair Styling (love how that category has expanded!) and Best Supporting Actor for Jacob Elordi as the Creature.
While I haven’t seen the film (don’t have Netflix right now), I did reread the book recently and have no doubt that Del Toro did well here. I know some folks claim that a female director would’ve been a better choice but this was a passion project for Del Toro, who has loved Shelley’s book along with prior movie incarnations, and his sensibility for cinematic storytelling has never been in serious question.
Based on his nuanced approach with similar material with movies such as The Shape of Water and Cronos, his heartfelt take on what both monsters and the meaning of love truly are is what movie making legends are made of:
Next up is Hamnet, based upon Maggie O’Farrell’s award winning novel which the writer adapted in partnership with director Chloe Zhao.
The film tells the story of what might have inspired William Shakespeare (Paul Mescal) to write Hamlet, mainly the emotional aftermath from the death of his young son.
This intense grief is shared by his wife Agnes(Jessie Buckley, who is up for Best Actress) and by turning their personal tragedy into an epic play , may have paid the ultimate price for his art.
The film is up for eight nominations, with not only Buckley contending for Actress but Zhao as Best Director and placing in the new Oscar category Best Casting to boot. I have heard great praise for both book and film and have no doubt that this will make a fine showing on Oscar night indeed:
For our final nominee. we have Train Dreams which is based on a novella by Denis Johnson. The screenplay was co-written by Greg Kwedar and Clint Bentley. the latter being the movie’s director.
The bare bones of the plot has Robert Grainer(Joel Edgerton) leading a simple yet at times sad life, with more than his fair share of tragedies to deal with as time goes on.
The film received four nominations, including Best Picture and Best Original Song. I’m sure that this is an award worthy film but just sounds too bleak for my taste. Nonetheless, the story does feel to be poignantly relatable so it has a decent chance at winning something here:
While I know all too well that celebrating the arts at the moment seems to be a concern best put aside, the truth is that art in all of it’s forms is one of our best sources of inspiration and hope in terrible times such as these.
The everyday struggles that we’ve been dealing with(particularly what happened just a few days ago) can be made bearable not only by uniting our voices together in demands for change and support for those being directly affected here but by appreciating the good that is still out there worth fighting for. The arts can give relief from the stress of it all as well as provide us a goal to aim for as we make our way towards a better tomorrow.
That being said, seeing Sinners get that ground breaking number of Oscar nominations was wonderful beyond belief! Long have I waited for Michael B. Jordan to receive a Best Actor nod, along with writer/director Ryan Coogler up for Best Original Screenplay, Best Director and Best Picture!!!!
Sinners was the movie I saw for my birthday last spring and it’s definitely the gift that keeps on giving.
This blend of historical fiction with vampire lore felt like a full fledged novel come to vivid life on screen and while I know that the Academy rarely likes to acknowledge anything horror genre related, it’s not entirely impossible for this film to garner some major wins on Oscar night.
Yes, folks are cautioning Sinners fans to not get their hopes up too high(it wouldn’t be the first time that a multiple movie nominee got disappointed on the big night) but this time, it may be truly movie magic on display that rewards one of it’s actual best that evening.
We shall see. As for me, I do hope that Miles Canton is available to perform “I Lied to You “ on stage in the Best Original Song category there. That scene alone is an amazing movie memorable moment that will inspire future creators on and off screen for decades to come:
With everything that’s going on everywhere seemingly all at once these days, any sort of vacation is a welcome relief indeed.
Fortunately for us readers, Michelle Miller at Seasons of Reading will start our new year off right with the Winter’s Respite readathon next month. All of February will be reserved for either catching up on books old and new or just revisiting some comfort classics-your choice!
You can get more details here about it and sign up to join in the fun. As for me, I have a trio of books set aside for this event and yes, one of them happens to be a Christmas romance that I didn’t get to sooner! In the meanwhile, let’s start off a somewhat summery selection:
Problematic Summer Romance:
This Ali Hazelwood novel takes us to a destination wedding in Sicily where 23 year old Maya has more on her mind than her brother’s impending nuptials.
For some time now, she’s been interested in Conor, the best friend of her brother , who feels that he’s much too old for Maya(he’s 38). When the two of them wind up sharing a villa together. Maya hopes to change his mind and he hopes to change hers but both of them might be surprised at what they learn about each other.
While this book is connected to an earlier Hazelwood novel(Not in Love), I believe it can be read as a standalone and I can always backtrack that one later. The age gap trope is tricky but when handled correctly, can be a very reasonable issue for any potential couple to work out and I’m willing to give Hazelwood some leeway here.
Hey, if Jane Austen makes it work for Emma Woodhouse(and her modern day equivalent Cher Horowitz), maybe this could be in that romantic vicinity there:
Witch You Would:
Set in a magic-is-real Miami, Lia Amador’s romcom has a meet cute on a reality show for spell casters that could be the best or worst experience of their lives.
Penelope hopes to change her life for the better by winning Cast Judgement but being paired with celebrity partner Leandro Presto, best known for his viral video prowess, has her in doubt of victory.
Leandro, on the other hand, is thrilled since his real name is Gil Contreras and has been Penelope’s secret pen pal for some time now. They’ve been planning to save his grandfather‘s charity but in order to do that, Gil is keeping up his Presto persona for the show and not telling Penelope who he really is becomes part of that game.
Can the two of the them win the contest and each other’s heart or must one be sacrificed for the ultimate win?
I do like a little witchcraft mixed into my romance and this seems as satisfyingly sweet as a certain peanut butter cup indeed:
Good Spirits:
And we get to the Christmas book and while I did mean to read this in December, my TBR grew unexpectedly during that month(wound up reading four holiday themed titles) and I figured, “Why not save it for February? After all, it is a romance and Valentine’s Day should be suitable enough for this.”
So I am planning to read Good Spirits by B. K. Borison first, just to start things off with a good catching up. Our couple here is Harriet, who has recently inherited an antique shop and Nolan, a Ghost of Christmas Past who is assigned to help her out.
As they get to know each other better, it becomes clear that Harriet is not the one who needs to make peace with her past-rather, it’s Nolan whose emotional rescue is long overdue. Will they be able to make their season bright with love or be lost in a winter wonderland of the heart for good?
I did enjoy Borison’s First Time Caller last year(and hope that BOTM gets her new book, Back to You, soon!), plus a good hearted ghostly love story seems fitting for any time of year. Christmas does give it an extra boost of coziness though:
The Winter’s Respite readathon begins on February 1 and I do hope that if you’re looking for an opportunity to de-stress from the bone chilling weather, not to mention the equally bone chilling headlines, that you take this bookish retreat opportunity up.
As much as I am crossing my fingers that things will get better sooner rather than later, it’s truly hard to tell which way it is going to go. Let’s keep a good lookout for our friends, neighbors and loved ones and do what we can to help each other.
Part of that calls for giving ourselves a time out every now and then to revive our spirits before heading back into the fray. Curling up with a few good books is great for just that as we head into quite the hazy shade of winter going forward:
