The fast approaching holidays, the warmer weather, the longer evenings.
Christmas in summer is all about catching up with family and friends, watching the sunset with an ice cold beer and eating ripe mangoes.
Christmas in summer means lazy days by the pool or at the beach. It's the time for cute summer dresses, sandals and slip, slop, slap with the sunscreen.
Working in a bookshop in the lead up to Christmas is fun too - crazy-busy fun!
I love ALL the new releases, I adore the special gift editions - I even love the overstock!
I enjoy the frantic festive vibe, discussions about holiday reading plans and gift wrapping.
With so much talk at work at the moment about good holiday reads I thought it might be fun to create my own summer book list.
Most of the time I prefer to go with the flow and mood read. But when I know that I'm going to be away, I also like to plan which books will go with me - I don't want to waste luggage space on a dud!
So Christmas in Summer is born.
A book for each letter of CHRISTMAS IN SUMMER.
17 books in three months.
Some smudging, fudging and cadging is allowed to make the holiday read of choice fit into the model.
Those in the Northern Hemisphere may like to try a CHRISTMAS IN WINTER list and tell us why a white Christmas or a cold Christmas is special and fun.
My Christmas in Summer reading list* looks something like this:
C - Chamber of Secrets (for EstellaSociety's Harry Potter binge readalong)
H - Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (ditto HP readalong)
R - Reckoning by Magda Szubanski (for my Australian Women Writers challenge)
I - I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith (for my Classics Women's Literature challenge)
S - Story of a New Name by Elena Ferrante (for fun)
T - Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay by Elena Ferrante (more fun)
M - Moriarty, Liane - What Alice Forgot
A - Atul Gawande - Being Mortal (for Being Dewey's readalong)
S - Summer (for my Edith Wharton review in January)
I - Indiana by George Sand (for my Classics Women's Literature challenge)
N - Night and Day (Woolf-a-long with Heavenali)
S - Story of the Lost Child by Elena Ferrante (to finish the series)
U - Unconsoled by Kazuo Ishiguro (the only unread U book on my TBR pile)
M - Moriarty, Liane - The Last Anniversary (because I will need a quick, easy holiday read at some point)
M - Morris Gleitzman's Soon (because I really should read one of my ARC teen books for work)
E - Edna Ferber's So Big (for my #ccspin, Pulitzer and Women's Classic Literature challenges)
R - Rowling J.K. Harry Potter and the Prioner of Azkaban
*I reserve the right to change any of these books for a new release at any time.
My badge is a photo of my neighbours glorious Christmas Bush, Ceratopetalum gummiferum. It is not part of the gum tree family. Gummiferum refers to the gummy substance the appears around the cut bark.
#XmasinSummer #XmasinWinter
I admit ...you come up with some great ideas!
ReplyDeleteThanks for remembering those who are in the cold.....during Christmas!
17 books in three months....now that is a challenge. I will make a list, but will have to keep reviews ' to-the-point' .
Sign up blogpost coming asap!
Can't wait to see your festive reading list Nancy :-)
DeleteI want to scour my bookshelves and dig out some books
Deletethat have been hiding there for years. There are always surprises to be found.
One note: Marlon James' A Brief History of Seven Killings - this is going to be a hard read, shock, violence etc....
Not on my Xmas list...
What a great idea, and an interesting list! Are you going to try to read them in that order?
ReplyDeleteI hadn't thought of that!
DeleteHowever six of the books are part of a series, so no, I won't be able to read down the list in order, as book chronological order beats anything else !
Great idea, and some interesting choices there! I'm tempted to join in but already have so many books scheduled for the next couple of months. I'll have to see if any of them fit in with the letters. Have a great summer - winter's just getting underway here...
ReplyDeleteI was pleasantly surprised how many of my reading challenge books were able to fit into the acrostic framework.
DeleteI hope you enjoy your winter reading whatever it is you decide to tackle :-)
Hmpf, I had just resolved not to make reading plans anymore, and now this. So tempting! Well, who am I kidding. I love making plans. Let me go look at my stacks and see what I can come up with. I might however reserve the right to change titles around as I go along.
ReplyDeleteOne of my 'I's" is already looking shaky!!
DeleteOkay, I'm going to interrogate my TBR stack (which is the focus of my 2016 reading challenge...) and see if I can make this one work :-) *please hold*
ReplyDeleteUpdate: #XmasInWinter #XmasInSummer has hit a slow patch: Innocents Abroad. I will be glad when I finish this book! This challenge has at least kept me reading with a purpose during the dark days in December!
ReplyDeleteI've kept on...but only by making a few adjustments to make this list more summery. A couple of the heavier/darker books have been ditched (for now)!
DeleteFinished. And I did a wrap-up post. Thanks again for hosting.
ReplyDeletehttps://booksaremyfavouriteandbest.wordpress.com/2016/03/03/christmas-in-summer-reading-challenge-wrap-up/