Angieville

Each year, my dear friend Beth and I get together a few days before Christmas to eat popcorn and pomegranates, drink cider and hot chocolate, talk in general and specific terms about the year that's past, and exchange gifts of the bookish variety. It's one of the loveliest nights of the year. But this year, Beth outdid herself in the gift department. Not only is she a talented writer, but she is something of a consummate artist. What this means is that she is the opposite of myself and can essentially turn her hand to any medium and produce something lovely.  Artistic ability is not the only way in which we differ. She comes from a family of eleven children, while I am an only. We've enjoyed many a conversation dissecting the ways in which our family life and upbringing contributed to shaping us into who we are and how we look at the world. This year, she prefaced my gift by saying that she has always felt that books came into my life like siblings. So that we could g...

Remember how roundabout this time last year, Aaron gave me the best early Christmas present ever ? Well, the book closet is all decked out for the holidays this year and it's making my stressed out/overworked/longing-for-Christmas-magic heart lift each time I walk down the hallway. And now that it's a mere week until Christmas, I've been spending the most enjoyable and large part of the time that I wasn't stressing out/overworking/longing handing out book recommendations right and left to loved ones far and near. I absolutely adore it when the emails/texts/calls begin pouring in and I get to happily sift through everything I've read over the last year to find the perfect ones for the people on their lists. No joke, I have said the words, " Six of Crows " no less than 12 times in the last 24 hour period alone. A Desperate Fortune has been not far behind it. In other words, these are the droids books you're looking for. I'm certainly passing ...

. . . a book closet as an early Christmas present! I came home yesterday to this at the end of my hall, and I'm still a bit giddy over the whole thing. We're going to add a French door in the near future, and then I will have to force myself to leave the hall each day. 

I was having a discussion with my co-worker the other day about holiday book gifting. She said her husband traditionally gives only books at Christmas. Just books. They sit down together and carefully pick out a book for each person in the family, tall to small, and then place one whopping Barnes & Noble order. She mentioned they'd chosen Fangirl for one of his sisters at my recommendation (ah, the tingles, I hope she loves it as much as I do). Someone else was getting The Fault in Our Stars , another The One and Only Ivan . A litany of lovely reads. As I mentioned in my last review, this holiday season I've enjoyed rereading a couple of my favorite Christmas novellas from last year as well as discovering a new favorite or two. Silent in the Sanctuary has been calling my name as it always does at Christmas, and I've snuggled up in the light of the tree on several occasions. I've also been busy plotting and acquiring my bookish gifts for friends and loved ones....

Last year I read my very first ever Christmas novellas and shocked myself at how much I enjoyed them. I mean I read a few duds, sure, but I read some real gems as well. And so a couple of weeks ago I found myself eagerly looking forward to rereading a couple of my favorites this holiday season as well as hopefully discovering a few new ones. Happily, the very first new one I read proved to be a home run. I kind of knew it would be, given how much I loved Mary Ann Rivers ' debut novella The Story Guy  earlier this year. When I heard her next book was a Christmas novella in the Heating up the Holidays anthology, I snatched it up the day it released and snuggled up with my Nook for a little pre-holiday reading. I hadn't read any works by the other two authors in the collection (I actually still haven't read their contributions, though I plan on it at some point), but I can tell you the ebook bundle is utterly worth it for Rivers' story alone. Jenny Wright was diagnos...

I won this book awhile back in a giveaway over at The Happily Ever After . It's a slender little hardback novella by Lisa Kleypas , an author I've read all of one book by. To be honest, I wasn't all that enthused by that one, and I haven't been back since. But something about Christine's review of this one made me think it might be time to give Ms. Kleypas another shot. And what better way to do that than with a genre I don't think I've actually ever read before: a Christmas-themed contemporary romance novella? Right? Never say never, though. So it arrived, and I let it sit on my nightstand for a few months (naturally). And (naturally) when it was basically the polar opposite of Christmas, I decided to pick it up and have a go. I was not disappointed. After his sister dies in a car accident, Mark Nolan finds himself appointed the guardian of his six-year-old niece Holly. Though the Nolan family was never what you'd call tight, he and his brother Sam ...

. . . and to all, a good night.

Today you can find me over at Not Enough Bookshelves guest posting on my favorite couple from 2011. I know! How did I narrow it down? It was agonizing. But I think I landed on the two that really set my pulse permanently racing this year. If you've got a minute, be sure to drop in and see who it was . This is the third year running Alexa has hosted her Christmas Couples Countdown and it's always a blast, especially as we usually have several favorite duos in common. Happy holiday reading, everyone!

For Christmas DH gave me this beautiful painting of two love birds atop a row of books. Isn't it just wonderful? It's titled "Well Versed Love" (possibly my favorite part) and I fell in love with it the moment I opened it Christmas morning.  A new Christmas painting from my sweetheart is fast becoming a tradition it seems, as you may remember he gave me this gorgeous one last year. It's currently hanging above the piano in my library and I'm trying to decide which wall I'm going to hang this new one on. Clearly it, too, belongs in the library. I'm pleased as punch with this new tradition, particularly as he has such good taste in art and knows just what I'll love. Apparently he spent hours browsing Etsy leading up to the holiday as a few other lovely items from that wonderful site ended up under my tree as well. That's my boy . . .

I love this time of year. I love plotting and planning which books I'm giving to which loved ones as gifts. And I love coming up with tailored recommendations for the friends, family, and co-workers who ask me. I even found a Christmas read this year--which can sometimes be hard. But I had a craving to revisit Lady Julia Grey and Mr. Nicholas Brisbane the other night. And so I did. And after finishing my re-read of Silent in the Grave , I couldn't just stop there. So I blithely continued right on to Silent in the Sanctuary and it occurred to me that that one is, in fact, a  perfectly lovely Christmas read. Set in a quaint English village in Sussex at Christmastime, it's a festive Victorian confection, complete with a murder mystery, gypsies, Christmas puddings, large quantities of snow, and some rather serious swooning. What more could you ask for? As far as the books I'm giving away this year, at present count the stack includes a little Juliet Marillier , a little ...

So for Christmas DH got me this beautiful painting of a girl reading under a tree. Isn't it pretty? "Literary Captivation" I originally came across it in Trish's post on Bookish Gifts over at Hey Lady! Whatcha Readin'? and loved it. I clicked on over to the Hilaria Galleries shop on Etsy and drooled over her lovely work. Trish had posted the print of the left panel but, when I browsed through the gallery, I realized it was actually one half of a two-panel painting. There were prints available of the left panel but not the right. However, the original painting itself (both panels) was for sell. I IMed DH and, being the devious man that he is, he oohed and ahhed over it with me, agreed how perfect it would look hanging in my library, and then proceeded to tell me (in a shocked IM voice) that it had just sold. Sadness! Woe. It really would have looked so perfect hanging in my library... This was all about a month before Christmas and I regretfully let it go an...

It's late Christmas night here and we're all cozy and warm and ready to turn in for the night. I hope yours was merry and bright and full of wonder and good books. Merry Christmas!

It's that time of year again. The holiday season is in full swing and the phone at Chez Angie starts ringing off the hook. Friends and family checking in asking for book recommendations to give as gifts. For the record, these are my very favorite sort of calls to get. I love searching out the perfect book for someone, passing on the info, and then sitting back with my mug of cider and just savoring how that book will be enjoyed by that someone. If I'm extra lucky, I get to hear about it later. A lot of great books came out this year and I have enjoyed spreading the word about them. Some of them famous and some of them deserving of so much more attention than they got. As well as a host of perennial favorites. Books I'm giving away this year include: Diana Peterfreund 's Secret Society Girl series , Juliet Marillier 's Sevenwaters series , Graceling and Fire by Kristine Cashore , The Hunger Games and Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins , Girl in the Arena by Lise ...

I love the line in 84, Charing Cross Road where Helene writes to Frank telling him, I require a book of love poems with spring coming on. Do you ever feel that way? You can feel a particular season or time approaching and you start to itch for a certain read you always associate with that time or season. It happens to me regularly and last night I realized I require a holiday read with Christmas coming on. I evaluated my shelves and discovered that I don't have a specific book I read every Christmas season or even every winter. This is clearly Not Okay. And so I'm putting the question out there, asking for your recommendations. What are you favorite holiday reads? Because I'm craving a good one.

On this Christmas night I hope that your hearts were full of love and your stockings full of books. Thank you all for making my days merry and bright.