The bliss of having a Bookish Secret Santa

This holiday season, I did something that I haven't done since I was a kid; signed up to be part of a Secret Santa group. One big change from the ones I took part all those years ago is that this was a book themed exchange, with the option of adding other items into your parcel.

This particular exchange was arranged by  Michelle Miller of Seasons of Reading, who paired off all of the participants and encouraged us to blog about what we received.The response has been great so far, with some folks even taking photos of their gift packs and putting them up on the official Facebook page for the group.

 Since my tech skills are rather primitive when it comes to that, I decided to go the blog post route. My Secret Santa giver was Sandy Smith Nawrot and I'd like to start this round-up off by saying a very sincere thank you to her for this bounty of bookish goodness:

WISH LIST GRANTED:

For this Secret Santa set-up, you were asked to give a list of desired titles and one of mine was Career of Evil, the third novel in the Cormoran Strike detective series written by J.K. Rowling(aka Robert Galbraith). It was the only hardcover that I put down on the list and seeing it as I unwrapped the first gift was truly a pleasant surprise.

Unfortunately for Strike and his trusty assistant Robin Ellacott, the surprise package they find waiting for them at their office happens to be a human leg. Strike not only takes this gruesome delivery in stride, he can easily think of four people from his past who would send him something like that.

I truly love this series,as the writing is smart and crisp as well as proof positive that Rowling's imagination is boundless and not to be tucked tightly away into a genre corner. I'm holding off reading it for the moment, due to trying to finish a couple of other books up, but not for long as this is a devious delight worth savoring during the holiday season:

CHRISTMAS TREATS:

Another query for the Bookish Secret Santa was if you wanted anything that was out and out Christmas themed and my answer was yes.  I did get a pair of holiday related gifts in my bundle, one of which was a book entitled The Cat Who Came Back for Christmas by Julia Romp.

It's a true story about the mother of an autistic son, who bonded with a stray cat that they adopted and named Ben. Her child had never really connected with animals before yet to her amazement, Ben became a special part of his life and hers as well. As the title says, Ben did go missing for a brief time but the family was happily reunited with this beloved cat. Since I love cats(we have three of them in my house), this story sounds like a lovely seasonal treat indeed.

My other Christmas related gift was socks, which I really appreciate as my feet tend to get very rough. This particular pair is infused with aloe and Vitamin E, making them incredibly comfortable to wear around the house.

Socks have gotten a bad rep as holiday gifts yet that image has begun to change over the past several years. If you think about it, socks are truly something that you always need new ones of, especially around this time of year.

Plus, as Mr. Bean has shown us, socks are a solid part of what makes Christmas the joyous time that it can be:

MORE BOOKISH DELIGHTS:

Cats made a most welcome appearance in this gift package. Along with the book mentioned above, a lovely Christmas card with a cuddly kitten was included as well as a gorgeous cat and mouse bookmark designed by Cynthia Gale.

Bookmarks feel essential when giving books(I included one in the package that I sent) and this lovely silver and gold piece is beautifully distinctive among the paper and tassle trimmed ones that I own.

The last yet far from least bookish gift I got was The Book Lover's Calendar for 2016. It's a page a day calendar that brings back some memories for me. Back in my bookseller days, we used to order extra editions of this particular calendar to give out as gifts to customers who spend a certain amount with us during the holiday season.

We sold some, of course, with the regular box calendars but also keep a good supply of them under the counter to award those special shoppers who were glad to get an extra gift for their efforts.

The Book Lover's calendars are great bibliophile gifts, as each page offers reading recommendations for those looking for something to read while waiting as patiently as possible for their favorite writer to finish working on their next book:

My heartfelt thanks to Sandy for her generous gifts and happy holidays to you and yours. Thank you also to Michelle for setting up this Secret Santa for book folk. I'm happy to report that the person I was assigned to received her gift package and really liked it(Happy Holidays,Heather!). Books may not seem like exciting presents to some people but for readers like me, getting a new book is like having Christmas every day of the year: