Top 10 Winter Reads

Top 10 Tuesday once again--how the week just flies when you're enjoying a holiday!--and this time, those brilliant folks at The Broke and The Bookish have asked what's on my winter TBR pile.  To be perfectly honest, the list mostly consists of books required for a challenge, so they've been mentioned in previous posts, but I figure, recording them all in one place for everyone to see like this keeeps me accountable to get through them, you know?  Well, that's the theory, anyway.

Books for The Christmas Spirit Reading Challenge:

10.  A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens--I've already finished.  Click to read the review.  5 Stars--big surprise, right?

9.  The Chimes by Charles Dickens

8.  The Cricket on the Hearth by Charles Dickens--I originally only signed up to read two of these three books, but I enjoyed the first so much that I've decided to take three--they're short.


Books for The Regency and Victorian Reads Challenge (several of which I've already finished, so I've only listed the ones I have left):

7.  Mansfield Park by Jane Austen

6. Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen--I'm determined to finally read the last two Jane Austen books that I've never gotten to yet.


Other stuff, some for challenges, some just for fun:

5.  The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle--What better to do on a long winter evening than curl up in my recliner with some Sherlock Holmes adventures?

4.  At Home in Mitford by Jan Karon--I am determined to finally plant this book in my Victory Garden.  I have started it TWICE before and never gotten through it yet.

3. Village Christmas by Miss Read

2.  Christmas Mouse by Miss Read--which, of course, is not the author's real name.  Have you ever read any of the Miss Read books?  Delightful accounts of the adventures of a British schoolmarm of yesteryear, with enough piercing insights into human behavior to make them anything but sappy, I assure you.  I've read one of her Christmas books.  This winter seems an excellent time to get to the others.

1.  Harry Potter and the (Fill in the Blank) by J.K. Rowling--When am I NOT reading the Harry Potter series YET AGAIN?  Right now, I'm into Half-Blood Prince, so I've almost finished them for the 7th(?) time.  Seriously, my motto in life is pretty much, "When in doubt, re-read Harry Potter."

It's a "Silent Night...All is calm" kind of list, I know.  I don't go in for anything too hard-core at the best of times, but when I'm still on the pre-Christmas side of winter, I pretty much like to stick to books that are soft, pretty and gentle on the nerves, like a freshly-falling snow.