Happy holiday reading to all of my friends – in case that isn’t said enough, right? As y’all know, I am not big on gift-bragging posts, but the one exception I make is for book hauls. I love seeing what new books are coming into your homes any time of the year, and I gladly reciprocate. So without further prelude, here’s my Christmas book haul from 2021 – and it’s the absolute definition of “an embarrassment of riches.” I was spoiled indeed this year.

Everybody fed my nature and gardening book addiction this year. My brother and sister-in-law gave me Earth Almanac, which is broken out by day – I’m looking forward to reading it all year in 2022, in conjunction with Lia Leendertz’s wonderful Almanac, which I pre-order every year. My mom picked up Emily Dickinson’s Gardening Life, by the fabulous Marta McDowell. I’ve loved several of her other books, so I can’t wait to dig in (see what I did there? #sorrynotsorry) to this one. And finally, Steve presented me with Mid-Atlantic Gardener’s Handbook, a title that has been on my wish list for ages. It’s going to come in handy as I plan my forever garden and putter about in my little rental plot in the meantime.

Some miscellaneous reads – my mom gave me The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse to read to the anklebiters (apparently it’s about kindness?!) and Steve ordered The Carols of Christmas (first one I grabbed off the stack, and I finished it yesterday) and America the Beautiful: Cross-Stitch. I’ve never successfully done counted cross-stitch before, but with so many gorgeous patterns to choose from I might actually pull it off.

When I’m not gardening or cross-stitching, I will be in the kitchen this year. I’ve been itching to get my hands on Martha Stewart’s Vegetables, and the new Dorie Greenspan – Baking with Dorie – looks wonderful. Both from Steve, who always enjoys the fruits of any cookbook gift.

Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without a little murder, right? My mom gave me not one, but two Christies for Christmas – The A.B.C. Murders and Murder in Mesopotamia. I think I read the former back in high school, but I don’t remember it, and I know I’ve not read the latter – so fun times ahead. And Steve presented me with Poirot: The Greatest Detective in the World, a new study of Christie’s most famous sleuth that looks fantastic, and with the new (ADORABLE) hardcover version of Your Guide to Not Getting Murdered in a Quaint English Village, adapted from a hilarious CrimeReads essay. I can’t wait to curl up with it! Preferably on a stormy winter evening, because mayhem.

Also from Steve, which one is not like the others? Four popular culture books – three absolutely stunning, fully-color-illustrated guides to the fashion of the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s; and possibly the most-coveted book on my wish list this year: Welcome to Dunder Mifflin: The Ultimate Oral History of “The Office” – which looks so great, and my eyes keep straying over to it under the tree. Soon.

I love good travel writing, and Steve delivered with Wanderers: A History of Women Walking (looks fantastic!) and Patrick Leigh Fermor: A Life in Letters. I have several books by “Paddy,” who was a renowned travel writer, sparklingly witty correspondent, and friends with luminaries like Nancy Mitford, Evelyn Waugh, and the Duchess of Devonshire. I’ve got a volume of his letters to Debo Devonshire, and I can’t wait to read this – maybe in conjunction with that one, and with some of his travel writing. I may go on a Patrick Leigh Fermor bender later this winter; you have been warned.

Finally, one last – but certainly not least! – grouping: literary classics, my favorite. I’ve been eyeing Olivia Manning’s doorstopping Fortunes of War series (broken into two trilogies, The Balkan Trilogy and subsequently The Levant Trilogy). I’ve been itching to read those; they’ll be a project, but I can’t wait. And both The Feast, by Margaret Kennedy, and Crewe Train, by Rose Macaulay, look fabulous and summery – I think I’ll save them for when the weather warms up; I certainly have enough to keep me going until then.

What a book haul! I was spoiled this year, indeed, and I’m so excited to get through each of these delights this year. Steve half-jokingly, half-seriously, suggested on Christmas morning that we may need another bookshelf, and I think he might be right. The question is: where to put it?

Did you find books under your tree on Christmas morning, too?