Ah, Christmas morning… is there anything more blissful than curling up with
one of the brand new books you got for a holiday gift? What stories were on
your holiday wishlist this year? If you’ve already burned through your own
TBR pile (you know who you are), I have some wonderful recommendations to
share for your Yuletide reading pleasure!
First, we’ll start with the obvious. In fact, I’ve been feeling quite
nostalgic about this myself, and may well pull it off the shelf for another
go this week:
*Myrtle Hardcastle Mysteries book 3, Cold-Blooded Myrtle*, features an
Exceptionally Victorian Christmas interrupted by a series of bizarre
murders in Swinburne Village. Can Myrtle & Co. stop an “unhinged villain” (*Buffalo
News*) from ruining Christmas? Will Myrtle ever find the Perfect Christmas
Gift for Miss Judson? And what delectable inedible clue will Peony the Cat
eat next?
Chock full of the erudite H.M. Hardcastle’s pithy observations on the
holiday, and positively dripping with traditional Yuletide spirit, this is
a Christmas mystery sure to delight even the Grinchiest and Scroogiest
readers. And since it’s also available as an audiobook, it’s perfect for
those long drives over the river and through the woods!
Our next recommendation is that Most Exceptionally Christmassy of Victorian
Christmas classics, the book that launched, and then cemented, a thousand
holiday traditions, *A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of
Christmas by Charles Dickens*. That link will take you to Project
Gutenberg, where several free, illustrated versions await your reading
pleasure.
Those who do not finish their To Be Read pile in life are doomed to roam
libraries forever after…
Speaking of ghost stories, *Read More: ‘Tis the Season to be Spooky: The
Ghost Stories of a Victorian Christmas. * Even more wonderful tales of
hauntings to get you in the, ahem, spirit.
We’re still speaking of ghost stories! Our Irrepressible Sleuth and her
Stalwart Governess go ghost hunting—Victorian style (viz, in an
Exceptionally Modern and Scientific Manner)—in the latest *Myrtle
Hardcastle Mystery, Myrtle, Means, and Opportunity*! Downloadable on that
brand-new e-reader you just got… or likewise available on audio, for the
dull drive back home.
And what would a Victorian Christmas be without a goose on the table for
Christmas dinner? In 1892, Arthur Conan Doyle gave that holiday tradition a
diabolical twist in the only Sherlock Holmes story set at Christmas, “The
Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle.” You can read more about this tale here: *A
Sherlockian Christmas*, or just dive right in to one of my own favorite
Holmes mysteries at *this link (sroll past the spoilers!).*
Wherever you are celebrating this December the 25th, everyone here at
Myrtleverse World Headquarters wishes you the very happiest of holidays!
The post #MyrtleMondays: Happy Holiday Reading! appeared first on Elizabeth
C. Bunce.