- Feel Good
- 20th Dec 2024
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The best books to cosy up with over Christmas
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The Penguin Book of Christmas Stories
If all you want for Christmas is more time to curl up with a book, this collection of short stories might just be the thing for you. From enchanted forests in Sweden to midnight mass in Rio, this collection takes you around the world with tales of ghosts, Santas and unexpected guests from the greatest short story writers of all time including Shirley Jackson, Dylan Thomas and Anton Chekhov.
Death Comes at Christmas by Gladys Mitchell
It is December and Mrs Bradley has left London behind for a relaxing visit to the Oxfordshire countryside.
Then, on Christmas Eve, a local solicitor is found dead by the river. Everyone believes that he suffered a heart attack – but Mrs Bradley is suspicious and is soon investigating a series of disturbing clues.
As the frost thaws and spring begins, the inimitable detective must work fast if she is to protect the people close to her from a resourceful killer…
Wintering by Katherine May
Wintering is a poignant and comforting meditation on the fallow periods of life, times when we must retreat to care for and repair ourselves. Katherine May thoughtfully shows us how to come through these times with the wisdom of knowing that, like the seasons, our winters and summers are the ebb and flow of life.
Hercule Poirot’s Silent Night by Agatha Christie and Sophie Hannah
‘The main danger, as I see it, is that you and I will be trapped here for the whole of the Christmas holiday!’
It’s 19 December 1931 and Hercule Poirot and Inspector Catchpool are called to investigate a brutal murder in a Norfolk hospital. Catchpool’s mother, the irrepressible Cynthia, insists that they stay with her nearby so that they can all be together for the festive period while Poirot finds the killer. Cynthia’s friend is being admitted to the same hospital and she is convinced he will be the next victim.
Poirot has less than a week to solve the crime and prevent more murders, if he is to escape from this nightmare scenario and get home in time for Christmas.
Fifty Words for Snow by Nancy Campbell
Snow. Every language has its own words for the feather-like flakes that come from the sky. In Japanese we find Yuki-onna – a ‘snow woman’ who drifts through the frosted land. In Icelandic falls Hundslappadrifa – ‘big as a dog’s paw’. And in Maori we meet Huka-rere – ‘one of the children of rain and wind’.
From mountain tops and frozen seas to city parks and desert hills, writer and Arctic traveller Nancy Campbell digs deep into the meanings of fifty words for snow. Under her gaze, each of these linguistic snow crystals offers a whole world of myth and story.
Murder Under the Mistletoe by Reverend Richard Coles
It is Christmas Day and at Champton Rectory, Canon Daniel Clement and his mother Audrey are joined by the residents and guests of the big house to drink, eat and be merry.
At the festive feast, peace and goodwill prevail.
Until two meet under the mistletoe. One of them falls down dead. And Daniel suspects murder has returned to Champton…
Can Daniel and Detective Sergeant Neil Vanloo solve the crime and catch the Christmas killer?
Winter by Ali Smith
Winter. Bleak. Frosty wind, earth as iron, water as stone, so the old song goes. And now Art’s mother is seeing things. Come to think of it, Art’s seeing things himself.
When four people, strangers and family, converge on a fifteen-bedroom house in Cornwall for Christmas, will there be enough room for everyone?
The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden
In a village at the edge of the wilderness of northern Russia, where the winds blow cold and the snow falls many months of the year, an elderly servant tells stories of sorcery, folklore and the Winter King to the children of the family, tales of old magic frowned upon by the church.
But for the young, wild Vasya these are far more than just stories. She alone can see the house spirits that guard her home, and sense the growing forces of dark magic in the woods. . .
The Comfort Book by Matt Haig
The Comfort Book is a collection of consolations learned in hard times and suggestions for making the bad days better. Drawing on maxims, memoir and the inspirational lives of others, these meditations celebrate the ever-changing wonder of living. This is for when we need the wisdom of a friend or a reminder we can always nurture inner strength and hope, even in our busy world.
A book of timeless comfort for modern minds.
The Christmas Stocking Murders by Denzel Meyrick
It’s just before Christmas, 1953. Grasby and Juggers are investigating a puzzling murder in the remote village of Uthley’s Bay. A fisherman has been found dead on the beach, with a stocking wound tight round his throat.
Hundreds of pairs of stockings, in neat cellophane bags, soon wash up on the shore. A blizzard cuts off Grasby and Juggers from help, and the local innkeeper is murdered. How can they solve the murder when everyone in the village is a suspect?
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