Little Treats & Long Reads

Something I haven’t shared with you yet is that, even as an adult, I love a good Advent calendar – licorice, chocolate, tea, I’m not picky!

If you’re a fan too, and since there are still a few days to snag one for yourself before December 1st, here are a few of my current faves (including a bookish one) in case they strike your fancy:

I have high hopes that this Bibliophile Advent Calendar for Booklovers will show up at our house before the 1st. It includes 24 mini books, a mini keepsake journal for recording whatever bookish things you desire, and a bookshelf for your teeny tiny library! If I get it, I may have to share each daily treat on Instagram. 

Rogers’ Chocolate is a Canadian institution, and so are their Advent calendars. They feature Canadian artwork, and you can choose between dark and milk chocolate versions. Trust me, these are nothing like the waxy chocolates in the Advent calendars you may have gotten when you were young. 

If you prefer your Advent calendars more digital than analogue, Jacquie Lawson’s annual Advent calendars are always popular. This year, you’ll build a Christmas village day by day, plus there are games, activities, and hidden elves! I may have to get this for myself to start each workday on a festive note!

One caveat: I have not tested all these advent calendars, so please keep that in mind! 

But what about books, you say? 

A big, bookish goodbye

I haven’t been making that much headway into my TBR pile because…well….life. But I did read all 600+ pages of The Book of Dust: The Rose Field (Book of Dust, Volume 3). It was a bittersweet read, which I mentioned before, as it’s time to say goodbye to Lyra, Pan, and Malcolm.

Reading it was a real push-and-pull experience: I wanted to race through it to see what happened and, at the same time, read as slowly as possible so I could prolong finishing the series. I’ve also never seen so many think pieces about a book I was reading while I was reading it.

I saved them all until I’d finished the book. It turns out  I was not alone in my conflicted feelings about how fast to read the last book in the series. Or in wanting to name one of my children Lyra.  Here are just a few of them (as gift links), in case you’re interested:

• How Philip Pullman’s Heroine Changed Her Life — and Mine and Philip Pullman Brings Lyra’s Story to a Close from The New York Times. 
• Philip Pullman’s The Rose Field: a manifesto for how to be human in The Observer. 
• The Rose Field by Philip Pullman – nail-biting conclusion to the Northern Lights series from The Guardian. 

I was predisposed to love The Rose Field, and I was not disappointed. As with all the books in the series, it’s dense and complex. The story weaves together multiple threads that coalesce at the end. Pullman wraps everything up, but not too patly. 

Both bittersweet and timely, the plot looks at how “power is flowing away from governments, and pooling in the offices of theocrats, the coffers of conglomerates, the hands of mobs”, as The Guardian says in its review. The heart of the story is Lyra and Pan’s quest to rediscover her imagination and reunite, which is crucial to her exposing corrupt authority.

There are so many layers and things to say about these books. The best way I can sum it up is to say: if you like adventurous quest stories with philosophical and theological themes, literary allusions, dark subjects, and immersive world-building, I think you’ll like the His Dark Materials and The Book of Dust trilogies. They’ll also appeal to anyone who simply enjoys an excellent story. And talking bears and gryphons.

If you’re inspired to gift these over the holidays, the first three books in the series (His Dark Materials) are more “YA”, even though Pullman doesn’t like to pigeonhole his books. The last three (The Book of Dust) have more adult themes and content, so please take that into account. And if you’re looking for some family viewing over the holidays, the BBC His Dark Materials series was my favourite screen adaptation of the books. 

If you haven’t read any of this series yet, I’m wildly jealous that you get to discover it. I’m still processing The Rose Field, so with my next Everand* credit, I’m going to get the audiobook to deepen my understanding of the story –  and prolong actually finishing the series. 

A short, sweet read

If you’re looking for a reading undertaking that’s a little shorter and less daunting, then I’d recommend Laura Lippman’s Murder Takes a Vacation. Muriel Blossom is a former PI and middle-aged widow who treats herself to a Parisian river cruise after a lottery win. But within 24 hours of starting her vacation, Allan, the dashing man she met on the airplane, is dead, and Muriel’s embroiled in a deadly international mystery. This would be an excellent read over the holidays, when you need something that’s not too demanding with a strong helping of feel-good. 

A little something extra

If you’re stumped for gift ideas, perhaps you could use a little True North Grit? Super-savvy Canadian AI and tech whiz, Avery Swartz built this handy generative AI app to make it easier to buy from small, independent Canadian businesses this holiday season. It comes with a warning that it hasn’t been bug tested, so I ran it through its paces, and it wasn’t half bad! It’s certainly a good place to get inspiration.

As always, if you know a reader who might enjoy these newsletters (or the website or Instagram), it would mean a lot if you’d pass this along to them!

*I’ve been testing Everand as an alternative to Audible. While it can glitch every once in a while, I’m totally fine with that if it means I’m supporting a smaller company while still getting my audiobook fix.