Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Thursday Thirteen 363: Recently Read

As one might expect, there were many holiday-themed books read at the end of 2014. Here's a look at those books, as well as the first few read for 2015. As always, click on any cover or link for more information.















ROW 1: Antiques Slay Ride, Christmas in High Heels, and How the In-Laws Wrecked Christmas were all free reads read over Christmas. The first two were okay, while the last was rather depressing.

ROW 2: The Christmas Violin and Christmas Truce were free reads read over Christmas. Hercule Poirot's Christmas was a December group read for TNBBC, and was the first book purchased on the eReader received for Christmas. Greatly enjoyed this one, but how could you possibly go wrong with Agatha Christie?

ROW 3: The steamy romance Christmas selections, and ones I think Paige especially would like. Naughty Christmas Nights was borrowed from a friend, Vampire for Christmas was a free novella and was pretty good. Last Chance Christmas is the final Sons of Chance book by Vicki Lewis Thompson.

ROW 4: The Collector by Nora Roberts was her most recent single title rom-suspense, which has a Rear Window-esque beginning. PD James was the December featured author for the Cozy Mysteries group -- The Lighthouse was my chosen selection solely because I found it in our local Little Free Library. I did feel a bit lost, not having read previous books in the series, so may go back at some point and read book one. This book straddled December and January. Free Fall is an older contemporary romance plucked out of Mount TBR for a January mini-challenge.

ROW 5: Hans Christian Andersen's Fairy Tales was a free book read over Christmas, and one I think both Colleen and Anita would like for those story-telling basics. I began with a childhood favorite, The Snow Queen, then started back at the beginning. It was interesting re-reading some of these, as well as those I don't remember reading previously.




LINKING TO: Thursday Thirteen





14 comments:

Lea said...

I haven't read any of these. One of my favorite Christmas books is "Skipping Christmas" I think it was made into a movie. Really, really funny story. It is by John Grisham and nothing at all like his lawyer novels.
Hope you have had a good day!
Lea

Shelley Munro said...

I haven't read any of these either. It's fun reading seasonal books.

Heather said...

Lea: I read the John Grisham novel years ago, when it first came out and liked it. Have no desire to see the movie - it's always a bad sign to me when the author refuses to let them use his title.

Heather said...

Shelley: It's fun when they aren't depressing anyway, as a couple of the novellas were. The full-length books were all good, though. *G*

Mia Celeste said...

I like free books, too. Recently I listened to Brandon Sanderson's Mitosis, which is kind of a superhero/villain dystopian tale. I liked it so much I bought the next book, Firefight.
And of course, I’m always checking out your posts for something new to read. Thanks for the suggestions.

http://www.miaceleste.com/?p=518

Alice Audrey said...

You were definitely in the holiday mood. I only read one seasonal this year.

Heather said...

Mia: Free books are always goo, LOL. I've picked up a lot since receiving the Nook for Christmas. I've always purchased a couple "50 Classic" collections, including one for romance and one for mysteries.

Heather said...

Alice: Actually, I wasn't in much of a holiday mood this year, which is probably why I read so many seasonal books -- it was a vain attempt to try to get into the Christmas spirit.

Jennifer Leeland said...

Yeah. I think The Lighthouse had a lot of stuff that referred to previous books. I love the Dalgliesh books though sometimes they're a bit depressing.

Heather said...

Jennifer: Yes, there was a lot of backstory relating to personal/working relationships between the team. Made me feel lost at times, but it was a pretty good book.

colleen said...

Ha! That is the one that jumped out at me. The Snow Queen was the only story I remember being read to me as a child ... by my dad. I LOVED it but also remember it a lot of it was going over my head. I was about 5 at the time. Have re-read it since and probably every one in the collection. The Nightingale might be my favorite.

colleen said...

How about The Christmas Box Miracle? I think I enjoyed the book about that book even more than the book. It was self-published and a big hit some years back.

Forgetfulone said...

The Collector really caught my attention. So did the in-laws book, but not if it's depressing. It's always good to get someone else's opinion before reading a book!

Heather said...

Colleen: I'm glad someone else has fond memories of The Snow Queen. As for The Christmas Box, I don't care for the more religious books, even at Christmas. If I wanted to be preached at in my reading, I'd open the Bible. ;-)

Forgetfulone: The Collector was a good rom-suspense. It kept me turning the pages, long past bedtime.