Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by Jana over at That Artsy Reader Girl. Every Tuesday, you pick ten books on that week’s topic. And this week we pick our favorite bookish gifts from Santa!
1. Lore Olympus Webtoon by Rachel Smythe
An immensely popular webtoon about the Hades / Persephone pairing. A mythological retelling with a modern comic twist. Last I heard, this is THE most popular webtoon out there, and is up for a TV series as well.
2. The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse by Charlie Mackesy
This one reminded me of Winnie the Pooh, all illustrations and simple quotes that will stay long in the heart. So many bloggers recommended it in this last month of the year, so eager to try this one out.
3. The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey by Susan Wojciechowski and illustrated by PJ Lynch
I know this one’s been hailed as a Christmas classic, but I confess I’ve never read it before! I want to hold the illustrated hardcover in my greedy hands and just gobble it all up. The book cover alone makes me all giddy.
4. Faycalibur by Liam Perrin
Sir Thomas the Hesitant has no interest in becoming a celebrity knight of Camelot, but decides to rescue Merlin, with hilarious consequences. Comic fantasy can be a hit-or-miss, so I rather hope Santa will bring this one for a try-out.
5. Playing the Jack by Mary Brown
In 1785, a runaway orphan joins a traveling band and learns the tricks of their trade. There’s also a volatile, charming, mysterious showman, Jack, who other readers seem to have swooned over a lot. This is an old, old book from 1985, and doesn’t seem to have an ebook version.
6. The Valley of the Wolves by Laura Gallego García
This is supposed to be the Spanish answer to Harry Potter, where a young girl sho can see wolf spirits is invited to study sorcery in the Valley of the Wolves. Intriguing! For some reason, I’m not able to locate an English ebook translation for this, so may be Santa will bring this one.
7. The Innamorati by Midori Snyder
This book won the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature, but is criminally underrated. There’s also no ebook version available. Set in an alternate Renaissance Italy, a maskmaker, poet, priest, actor, peasant girl, and mercenary have to traverse a labyrinth to uncover an important secret.
8. Fossil Men: The Quest for the Oldest Skeleton and the Origins of Humankind by Kermit Pattison
I have a fascination for fossils and geology, so this book about discovering missing links in human origins in Ethiopia in the mid-1990’s caught my eye. (Why is this is the only non-fiction book on this checklist for Santa?!)
9. The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion, Vols. 1, 2 & 3 by Beth Brower
The lovely Angie simply raved about this novella series set in 1883 London. Humorous and charming, and apparently an antidote to pandemic fatigue — so, of course, it’s on my list.
10. Wild Sign (Alpha & Omega #6) by Patricia Briggs
I am so thankful Cathy pointed this one out. I love this werewolf series but Briggs updates this less frequently than her more popular series. It comes out on March 16, 2021, but I wish this was one of my 2020 gifts from Santa …
So: which ones are on your checklist for Gifts from Santa? Would love to know!
Previous Top Ten Tuesday posts can be found HERE.
31 replies on “Top Ten Bookish Gifts from Santa”
I’ve never heard of ANY of these, so of course I’m going to have to run and check some out. Thanks for an awesome list!
Haha, it is a disaster for the TBR!
Oh Wow! What a strong list! I also have The boy, The mole, The Fox and the Horse on my list and if my husband wasn’t a bit under the weather the last couple of days, I would have MADE him go out and get it for me…
Now I guess I’ll have to go get it myself. After Christmas…
Merry Christmas and I hope you receive a pile of nicely stacked books under the tree this Christmas.
Here’s my wish list: !0 Books I hope Santa brings
Merry Christmas. <3 Hope your husband recovers soon :) And I'm off to check out your list!
That fossil book sounds fascinating. I might need to read it. I hope Santa brings all these!
It does look interesting, doesn‘t it? I am leaning towards the audiobook…
Wait, there’s an audiobook? That sounds brilliant (and much more convenient!)
It does, doesn’t it? There’s also a movie called Ammonite with Kate Winslet, which I want to see, because (a) it has Kate Winslet; and (b) it will have some (hopefully) stuff on fossils
Now I also want to read The Boy, The Mole, The Fox, and the Horse.
My post.
It does seem like the warmest book on this list!
I love the Mercy Thompson series, but haven’t read anything else by Patricia Briggs! I need to fix that! Here is my Top Ten Tuesday. Thank you!
Ooooh, if you like Mercy, you should check out the Alpha & Omega Spin-off! It‘s with Charles…
In that case, please, please read Alpha and Omega. It starts off with a novella, so much lower in risk and time commitment. Briggs handles pack dynamics so well
Fossil Men is one I’ve had my eye on too for a while. It sounds super fascnating!
Yes! And as I keep telling people, if you’re interested in fossils, check out the movie Ammonite with Kate Winslet. It’s on my watchlist too
Well, Wild Sign is obviously on my list… 😉
Haha, yes, all thanks to you *winks back*
I hope Santa brings you all of these. It looks like a fun reading list.
I had fun compiling it too. Well, I know where to find Santa ;P
I think I’m probably 1-2 years behind on all the webtoons I used to read! They’re so good, but I easily forget to check up on them for long periods of time.
So glad to come across another Webtoon reader! I confess I got into them because I used to watch Asian dramas, and many of those dramas are now based on Webtoons. Lore Olympus is great, the color palette is just so attractive!
I’m not familiar with most of these, so some to check out! Hopefully Santa leaves a few for you to enjoy.
Glad to add to your TBR pile, haha! Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
You’re the second person I’ve seen who’s mentioned The Boy, the Mole, etc. I noticed it several months ago at the bookstore but didn’t buy it and then forgot about it. That may have to be an after-Christmas gift to myself. Happy holidays!
Haha, yes, we know who Santa is. 🙂 It really looks awesome. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, Jen!
The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse looks brilliant. This is the first time I’m hearing about it, which is odd because it seems incredibly popular. Thanks for putting it on my radar!
Glad you liked the sound of it. It seems to have all the things I wanted for Christmas — lovely quotes, illustrations, feel good vibes.
I still need to check out Lore Olympus! I hope you found some of these under your tree this year!
Well, I did find The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse by Charlie Mackesy. But Lore Olympus, now that’s the one I want to get my hands on, next!
So many of these are new to me, so thank you for sharing them! I hope you had a lovely holiday! <3
Glad you liked the books. And thank you — had a very cozy holiday, hope you did too! 🙂