It’s that holiday time of year again, and I am trying to line up my holiday books on my TBR (To Be Read) bookshelves. With our warm weather down here in San Antonio, I rely on my holiday mystery books to get me into the holiday frame of mind.

My Halloween new mystery book discovery is Kate Borden‘s Death of a  Trickster. I also have her Thanksgiving Cozy (Death of a Turkey) so I’m looking forward to being able to read them in their correct sequence.

I have already started stocking up on my Christmas mystery books… The holidays are the only time of year when I will read a book out of its correct chronological order. I am willing to “jump ahead” in hopes that the setting will provide enough snow and windy gusts to make me feel all “cozy” in my house. So, I have stocked up on Kate Kingsbury‘s Christmas mysteries.

I am also planning on trying a new author (to me, that is!) during the next three months. I read several reviews of Cyril Hare’s Christmas mystery book – An English Murder – and wondered how I had missed him!  I cannot wait!!!

I have lined up all of my Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas mystery books in one designated area of my bookshelves. Yes, I actually have designated areas for my different types of books! Some might call this obsessive/compulsive — I call it “being organized.”

Do you have any Halloween, Thanksgiving, or Christmas mystery books that you are looking forward to “making you feel cozy” during the next three months?

Aleta just sent me five additions for our Christmas reading pleasure. Thank you so much for sending these, Aleta. I try to stay on top of the holiday releases, but (obviously!) I’m not too good about it. I love getting additions to these holiday lists (actually any of the authors’ lists, also!) from readers… It makes keeping the site up to date so much easier and faster!

Donna Andrews: Six Geese A-Slaying

Mignon F. Ballard: Hark! The Herald Angel Screamed

Suzanne Brockman: All through the Night: A Troubleshooter Christmas

Rita Mae Brown: Santa Clawed

Heather Graham: The Last Noel

Heather Graham: A Season of Miracles

Kate Kingsbury: Ringing in Murder

G. M. Malliet: Death of a Cozy Writer

Kasey Michaels: Bowled Over

Anne Perry: A Christmas Grace

Elaine Viets: Murder with All the Trimmings

Thanks again, Aleta! (I also added a few that other Cozy Mystery Site readers suggested…)

To access the Christmas Holiday Mystery Book (Hannukah and New Year’s) List page…

To access the entire Holiday Mystery Book List page…

Happy Thanksgiving! (Actually, I am writing this the day before Thanksgiving… since I know I will be busy enjoying my family AND not enjoying the kitchen duties!)

Well, I am going to have to take a break from my Who Killed Father Christmas? novel (by Patricia Moyes) in order to read my Kissing Christmas Goodbye (by M. C. Beaton). I finally got my eighteenth Agatha Raisin novel, and I am so excited about reading it that I am almost giddy!

I know that I have written about this before, but here it is in a nutshell!

I first discovered M. C. Beaton through her Agatha Raisin books. I thought that they were absolutely delightful. In fact, I enjoyed the Agatha novels so much that I didn’t want to read the Hamish Macbeth series, in fear that I wouldn’t like it… since, how many authors can have two wonderful series going at the same time?!? Anyway…. I stayed with solely Agatha until after the (+/-)tenth book of the series. For some reason, I became a little disillusioned with some of Agatha’s antics. That is when I decided to try Beaton’s Hamish books. How glad am I that I did that!!!!?!!!?

I love Beaton’s Hamish series… I still continued to really like the eleventh through fourteenth Agatha novels, but, when Beaton dropped the "Agatha Raisin and the….." part of this series’ titles, I started thinking that at any time, I would stop reading the series… I thought that perhaps the series had seen its final chapters (as far as I was concerned). I got very tired of one of the characters…James (not to worry… I won’t go into details since I don’t want to write any spoilers. But, I can say that it was one of the few times in my reading experiences that I wished the earth was flat so that James could simply walk off the side… never to be heard of/from again!)

Anyway, I have continued with the Agatha Raisin series since I still enjoy the novels… but not as much as I used to. And, since I love holiday-theme cozy mysteries, I think that I am going to enjoy this book.  The cover is absolutely beautiful, but I’m hoping that Agatha is back to her delightfully wicked ways!

On a totally different topic… My husband sent me  a notice about Amazon having a day after Thanksgiving sale (better known as Black Friday Sale). We were totally unaware of that Amazon had a Black Friday Sale in the past….