Friday Five – Festive Favourites

I can’t find who started the Friday Five book blog meme. It seems to crop up in many different style such as “Five for Friday”, “Five on Friday” , “FridayFive Challenge”. I also can’t find a topic list like you would have for the Six on Sunday meme. Therefore I am just doing my own thing and setting my own topics just so I can chat books with you.

This weeks topic is

Five Festive Favourites

Five favourite festive books that I like to try read on the run up to Christmas day. Some of them are a little unusual of course there is a good splash of Sci-fi and Fantasy in there but hopefully you will find a read or two that you might not have heard of before. I will admit that these don’t really change from year to year so you may find some of them familiar if you followed my Blogmas post last year but I have also added some my favourite wintery reads in my Five for Friday post on Winter Reads.

Hercule Poirot’s Christmas
Agatha Christie

Hercule Poirot #20

I have said it time and time again there is nothing quite like a cosy mystery in the cold long winter nights and an old favourite like Hercule Poirot is perfect. You can jump into any of the Poirot mysteries as they are all standalone mysteries so you don’t have to worry about missing anything of spoiling anything. There is also The short story collection The Adventures of the Christmas pudding with had several Poirot mini Mysteries and one from Ms Marple or the bind up Midwinter Murders that has a selection of wintery tales from all her various detectives (My review). I have been working my way through the works of Agatha Christie over 2021 as part of my Agatha Christie Project and I am going to continue this into 2022.

The Chronicles of St Mary’s Christmas Short Stories
Jodi Taylor

The Chronicles of St Mary’s

Ok these are not in an official bind up but they are availible in the two short story collections or as little individual ebooks. Jodi Taylor lovingly releases short stories on Christmas day (there is a new one releasing this year that I am excited for) and they are just great fun. They usually follow our favourite trio, Maxwell, Peterson and Markham getting into some kind of Festive trouble that always has a lovely Christmassy ending. These are great little cheap and fast reads to fit in amongst all the hubbub of cooking, cleaning, Christmas movies, cake etc. Perfect for stealing 20 minutes to yourself and feel all Festive.

A Very Scalzi Chrsitmas
John Scalzi

Short story collection

Yes another short story collection. I adore Scalzi’s writing and his humour, and his shorts and just jam packed with laughs. Previous short stories of his were turned into cartoons in Netflix’s Love, Death, Robots and they are both adorable and funny. This collection released last Christmas is the exact same. I honestly recommend the audio book as it is full cast and it had some fantastically funny out of the box thinking. (My Review)

Hogfather
Terry Prachett

Discworld #20

Terry Prachett had a way with words that is enviable, the Hogfather is one of my favourite reads as it perfectly captures, at least the British, Festive season in all its glory. It was the first Discworld book I ever read. I have the Sky mini series adaption on DVD and for me it has become a quintessential Christmas movie. Again its one filled with humour and joy.

The Night Before Christmas
Clement Clarke Moore

I have this very edition, so does my mum and my sister, This is because it is a tradition in my family to sit and read this book before going to sleep on Christmas eve. When I was young we used to all sit in the Living room with the tree and read the poem before going back and looking at all the illustrations, It is a very detailed book with lots of hidden gems to spot under all the tabs. When we moved out and went on with out own lives my mum gifted us a book so we can keep the tradition alive. It is packed away with my Christmas decorations and is proudly displayed every year. I still read it every Christmas eve and I will be doing it this year too. For me this is a special book and it means it really is Christmas!

2021 Christmassy Reads

I have only read a couple of Christmas themed reads this year but I did enjoy them they just didn’t quite make the favourites list they are:

Midnight in Everwood – A Nutcracker retelling, I found the first half which takes place on the run up to Christmas to have really Christmassy vibes with makets and lights and decorations all described.

The Christmas Murder Game – is exactly what it says on the cover, a Christmas locked room mystery that takes place during a Christmas scavenger hunt where the prize is the family estate. It also is a game within the book as well with anagrams and puzzles throughout.

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So these are my Festive favourites. Do you have any books you love to read/reread this time of year?

I would love to chat all things bookish with you! You can comment down below or find me on Twitter or Goodreads!

Happy Reading!