Seasons come and seasons go, but a full Kindle lasts forever.

Or at least until the battery goes which, thank goodness, isn’t often.

I spent some time this weekend (since I was nursing a cold and feeling sorry for myself) working out which books I’d like to read this winter. I’ve called this a Christmas Reading List but I could just as well have called it my Hibernation List or my Winter Wellbeing list. With the possible exception of the choc-lit on the list, the rest will read very nicely at any time from now until February’s lengthening dawn summons in spring.

I haven’t included all my Advent books this year. Honestly, I haven’t chosen a couple and October and November slid away from me in a mist of incapability. Maybe this year I’ll just sidle one onto the Kindle every Sunday or perhaps I’ll see one in a shop that summons me. Advent One was Stanley Tucci, What I Ate in One Year, in Audible form. I decided if I was going to hear his laconic, mesmeric voice anyway as I read, I might as well have the real thing. Advent Four will be The Grazing Table by Natalie Thomson. I got a wooden charcuterie board for Christmas last year, so this year I plan to put it to good use. Advent Two and Three? No idea. Check me out in The Hygge Nook if you do want to know. I’ll probably post them there or on my Insta.

Other than that, my Winter reading seems to break down into four distinct categories: Ghost Stories, Murder Mysteries and Choc-lit Romances on the fiction side, and memoirs of loss, grief, wintering and weathering on the non-fiction side.

Fiction-wise, then, these are the books of choice this year:

Snow Ghost and The Winter Spirits: These are both ghost story anthologies, one with a Japanese theme and the other more general. Ghosts at Christmas are popular, perhaps because we perceive it as a liminal time, when otherworldliness seems possible. Whatever. I have a small heater with a pretty flame effect, and I’m not afraid to use it.

Murdle by G T Karber and Murder on the Christmas Express by Alexandra Benedict. These are both essentially Be The Detective puzzle books, where you get the clues and the situation,, and you get to work out whodunnit. Good for a cold Sunday afternoon or one of those Romjul days when it’s too wet to play out.

Christmas at the Little Paris Hotel by Rebecca Raisin and Home Again for Christmas by Emily Stone are both (I hope) gentle romances. I liked the premise of the Paris Hotel, and so far it’s been very enjoyable. My reading has been considerably slower this year, and I need gentle and easy reads to get me back in the habit.

My Non-fiction reads this year will provide me with enough meat to test my mettle. These three all seem to be on a similar thread: women who have faced a loss, or a change, had to adjust, are dealing with the fall out of elderly parents and their passing, or have periods of winter cold to pass through in their lives. I’ve found great help and support after losing Mum in reading others’ words. When one is in the middle of a deep ocean, it is consoling to know that others have been floundering there, too, and have found their way back to the shallows.

Samantha Clark’s The Clearing deals with her parents, their illnesses, their home and the complex intertwining of our adult and childhood lives. The reviews attracted me. I think I will find comfort in knowing that the feelings I have are not isolated: I am not the first. I will not be the last.

Cacophony of Bone by Kerri ni Dochartaigh starts in Winter and ends, I believe, in the next winter. The reviews on Amazon, again, were enticing enough to pull me in. Katherine May of both Wintering and Enchantment gives it a good write up, and one might hope she’d know good writing when she reads it!

Finally, Weathering by Ruth Allen connects the weathering of our internal life with the erosion of the external world. Ruth is a geologist and a psychotherapist who uses the natural landscape in her work. It sounds like a really interesting read. I need to reconnect with the natural world again. Too much hospitals and not enough vegetation.

Like I said, I titled the post Christmas Reading but I have no fixed ending period for the books. I can keep reading them until next Christmas if I want to, but I can foresee me eeking them out over hot cups of chai until Springtime, when my natural optimism bursts back into being and I can come out like Mole in Wind in the Willows looking for … what? A new purpose? A better view? Only time will tell.

What’s on your TBR pile this year? Does your reading seem to come in waves as well? Have you read any of these books? Are there similar you’d recommend? Let me know: books (as you know) are a permanent source of comfort and support to me.

How to Hygge the British Way is my gift to the world. I don’t get paid for writing it, I’m not in it for the kudos, financial rewards, to become an influencer, work with brands or otherwise make any money from the blog. That’s why there are no ads, and any products I mention and recommend have either been gifted to me or bought by me with my everyday wages or donations from supporters. Every book I review has been bought and read by me, unless stated otherwise.

I do get a couple of pennies each time someone buys from the Amazon links on my page, as an Amazon Affiliate, but otherwise if you’d like to support me, I like to give something back in return. That’s why I write books. It always feels good if you get a book back in return for some money. You can find a full list of my books at my Author’s Page on Amazon, but especially recommended for this time of year are:

Cosy Happy Hygge: Setting up a rhythm to life and rituals to enjoy it to make for a more balanced life that handles waves and storms better. Lent is a season of rituals and resets. The book has small and easy ways to make your life flow with grace and happiness, which lead to more hygge.

Happier: Probably my most personal book, it’s the story of how I used hygge and the little things in life to help boost my happiness. I still go back and reread to remind myself what I need to do to be a happy human. And it’s always the little things.

IMy Christmas books are always available: Have Yourself a Happy Hygge Christmas is a good place to start, on how to make the season cosier, happier. 

Celebrating a Contagious Christmas was written during covid year, but has useful advice on celebrating when times are hard anyway and Enjoying a Self-Care Christmas is a short e-book on keeping Christmas simpler, easier and better for you, your waistline and your budget. It even includes 25+ suggestions for self-care activities over Christmas, as simple as sipping tea, keeping a list journal or lighting a candle. Bigger is not always better for Christmas.

I’m currently working on two book projects: I have a hankering to rewrite 50 Ways to Hygge the British Way, so it’s not available at the moment, but even dearer to my heart and my next stated aim is to finish and publish my next book, Simple Plus Cosy = Hygge. It will be about homemaking and how the home we create shapes the hygge we have. Hopefully it will be finished by the end of summer 2025.

If you’d like to support me, but don’t want to buy a book, I have a Paypal.Me account as Hygge Jem. Every little helps, so even a few pence goes towards the books, goods and courses I use and recommend on the site. I’m grateful for every little bit that brings me closer to my dream of full-time writing, and I know I couldn’t still be writing if it weren’t for the support of many readers and friends out there. Thank you all for every little bit of support, emotional, physical and financial, you give me.

If you’ve enjoyed this article, don’t forget to share it or save it so others can enjoy reading, thinking about and living hygge as well.

The photo between post and promotions is the completed picture from a Sip and Paint session I attended a couple of weeks ago. I love these sessions: you go with a blank canvas and usually end up with something that, left to your own devices, you might never have figured out how to do. This painting used only five colours and it was how we combined and blended them that made the difference. I’m a very unconfident painter, so this is paradise to me. Call it Fox and Snow, or perhaps The Fox of Delights in honour of one of my favourite Christmas TV programmes.