The Joy of Christmas | Christmas BookTag

1. Anticipation: The Christmas excitement is real, what book release/releases are you most anticipating?

I'm not anticipating anything & I don't keep track of which books are getting released.

2. Christmas Songs & Carols: What book or author can you not help but sing it's praises?



Hans Fallada - Alone in Berlin

This never-before-translated masterpiece-by a heroic best-selling writer who saw his life crumble when he wouldn't join the Nazi Party-is based on a true story.
It presents a richly detailed portrait of life in Berlin under the Nazis and tells the sweeping saga of one working-class couple who decides to take a stand when their only son is killed at the front. With nothing but their grief and each other against the awesome power of the Reich, they launch a simple, clandestine resistance campaign that soon has an enraged Gestapo on their trail, and a world of terrified neighbors and cynical snitches ready to turn them in.
In the end, it's more than an edge-of-your-seat thriller, more than a moving romance, even more than literature of the highest order-it's a deeply stirring story of two people standing up for what's right, and each other.

Paperback, 568 pages

Published 2009 by Penguin Classics (first published 1947) 

 

3. Gingerbread Houses: What book or series has wonderful world building?



George R R Martin - A Game of thrones ( A song of ice & fire #1 )

Summers span decades. Winter can last a lifetime. And the struggle for the Iron Throne has begun.
As Warden of the north, Lord Eddard Stark counts it a curse when King Robert bestows on him the office of the Hand. His honour weighs him down at court where a true man does what he will, not what he must … and a dead enemy is a thing of beauty.
The old gods have no power in the south, Stark’s family is split and there is treachery at court. Worse, the vengeance-mad heir of the deposed Dragon King has grown to maturity in exile in the Free Cities. He claims the Iron Throne.

Mass Market Paperback, 848 pages

Published August 2005 by Bantam (first published August 6th 1996)

 
4. A Christmas Carol: Favourite classic or one that you want to read?



Jane Austen - Emma

'I never have been in love; it is not my way, or my nature; and I do not think I ever shall.'

Beautiful, clever, rich - and single - Emma Woodhouse is perfectly content with her life and sees no need for either love or marriage. Nothing, however, delights her more than interfering in the romantic lives of others. But when she ignores the warnings of her good friend Mr. Knightley and attempts to arrange a suitable match for her protegee Harriet Smith, her carefully laid plans soon unravel and have consequences that she never expected. With its imperfect but charming heroine and its witty and subtle exploration of relationships, Emma is often seen as Jane Austen's most flawless work.

 

Paperback, Penguin Classics, 474 pages

Published May 6th 2003 by Penguin Books (first published December 23rd 1815)

 
5. Christmas Sweets: What book would you love yo receive for christmas?



April Genevieve Tucholke- Between the devil & the deep blue sea. 

You stop fearing the devil when you’re holding his hand…

Nothing much exciting rolls through Violet White’s sleepy, seaside town… until River West comes along. River rents the guest house behind Violet’s crumbling estate, and as eerie, grim things start to happen, Violet begins to wonder about the boy living in her backyard.
Is River just a crooked-smiling liar with pretty eyes and a mysterious past? Or could he be something more?
Violet’s grandmother always warned her about the Devil, but she never said he could be a dark-haired boy who takes naps in the sun, who likes coffee, who kisses you in a cemetery... who makes you want to kiss back.
Violet’s already so knee-deep in love, she can’t see straight. And that’s just how River likes it.

Blending faded decadence and the thrilling dread of gothic horror, April Genevieve Tucholke weaves a dreamy, twisting contemporary romance, as gorgeously told as it is terrifying—a debut to watch. 

Hardcover, 360 pages

Published August 15th 2013 by Dial

 
 6. Candles in the Window: What book gives you that warm fuzzy feeling?



Anthony Doerr - All the light we cannot see

From the highly acclaimed, multiple award-winning Anthony Doerr, the stunningly beautiful instant New York Times bestseller about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II.
Marie-Laure lives in Paris near the Museum of Natural History, where her father works. When she is twelve, the Nazis occupy Paris and father and daughter flee to the walled citadel of Saint-Malo, where Marie-Laure’s reclusive great uncle lives in a tall house by the sea. With them they carry what might be the museum’s most valuable and dangerous jewel.
In a mining town in Germany, Werner Pfennig, an orphan, grows up with his younger sister, enchanted by a crude radio they find that brings them news and stories from places they have never seen or imagined. Werner becomes an expert at building and fixing these crucial new instruments and is enlisted to use his talent to track down the resistance. Deftly interweaving the lives of Marie-Laure and Werner, Doerr illuminates the ways, against all odds, people try to be good to one another.

Hardcover, 531 pages

Published May 6th 2014 by Scribner

 7. Christmas Trees & Decorations: What are some of your favourite book covers?





Carsten Jensen - We, the drowned

8. Christmas Joy: What are some of your favourite things about Christmas and/or some of your favourite memories?

My favorite thing is to spend so much time with friends & family. Not to forget the wonderful food & watching all of these movies that bring me in to the feeling of christmas.