I confess, I committed cultural appropriation; I stole a Christmas tradition from Iceland.

Most avid readers have probably heard of Iceland’s Christmas Eve tradition, Jólabókaflóð. Well, okay, they probably don’t know it’s called that. Nor even that it translates as “Christmas Book Flood”. But the idea is that people exchange books on Christmas Eve, and then spend the night curled up reading. Often combined with a hot beverage (like hot chocolate). Apparently, it is tied to WWII when lots of things were rationed or unavailable but paper was easily found, so books were a go-to choice. Equally interesting, the publishing industry in Iceland even gears up for it with new releases every year.

So did I write and release a book in Iceland? No.

Did I go to Iceland and get adopted by a book-giving family? Also, no.

Did I gift or read books by Icelandic authors? Wait, wait…oh. Also, no.

Okay, fine. All I did was buy a bunch of books for my usual shopping targets, give the books to them all wrapped up, and say they were from “Book Santa”. It’s a start. More like lazy cultural inspiration, I suppose.

The books I chose

I was inspired, in part, by the idea that the books themselves should be ones I, as the giver, should choose, not ones they asked for or were on their reading list. It should be “new” to them, perhaps.

Which means I failed entirely for Andrea. She had the book The Testing by Joelle Charbonneau on her “to be read” list on GoodReads, so I went for it. The book is set in the Great Lakes region, as a dystopian future, and is reminiscent of the series Divergent. The main character, Cia, is about to be tested for a Commonwealth graduate program of future leaders. The first of a trilogy, I went for it simply as one I knew she would like.

For Jacob, it’s a bit harder. If Jacob wants a book, we normally just get it. He often asks for certain books as gifts, which often as not are also part of series that he’s already reading. I didn’t want to do that though. I wanted the “surprise”. But he doesn’t have a large ongoing list like Andrea, so I went searching for something a bit more fantasy-like that had good buzz. Legendborn by Tracy Deonn is the first of a trilogy called The Legendborn Cycle, with books 1 and 2 out with good buzz / reviews and book 3 coming out in March. Add in the fact that it has ties to the King Arthur legend, and it was an easy “yes” from me.

After that, things got tough fast. I don’t have much experience buying books for other people, not even the remaining five on my short buying list.

I have some insights into my brother-in-law Dean from his TV and movie watching, and The Compound by Aisling Rawle seemed like it might interest him. It was another favourite of the year on some lists for contemporary / pop culture, and was even a Good Morning America book club pick, too. It’s a story about a young woman, Lily, who lives in a dystopian future (natch) and goes on a reality show for fame and fortune. The premise is a blend of Big Brother (living in a compound) and the typical Survivor twist (doing tasks to earn rewards for your team or yourself). Plus, of course, people get voted off the island out of the compound to whittle it down to the finalists. I snagged an ebook version for myself too and actually read it while I was in Peterborough. I don’t know if he has started it yet, but it’s quite good. It’s the first book by the 27-year-old author, and I’ll read more from her. Dean would probably have preferred it on his Kobo, but it’s not clear how easy that would be to gift to him electronically, nor how to wrap it on Christmas Eve. 🙂 Paper it was!

For my sister-in-law, Becky, it was a bit easier. She, Andrea and their mother frequently share and trade the same books, often with a historical bent plus some romance and/or mystery. Kate Quinn and other authors figure prominently in the swaps, as does WWII, women in non-traditional roles, etc. I chose Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry as it has all three in spades, although perhaps with a bit more romance than they would typically choose. The main characters are two authors vying to write a biography of a former-tabloid-star-turned-recluse, now in her 80s. The mystery is what happened back in the day, plus the romance between two very different authors. It was on many year-end lists, which seemed promising.

For my niece, Grace, she’s into fantasy, and I know some of the other books she is reading. I wanted something a bit different, and I fear I might have gone TOO different. I chose Bury Our Bones In The Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab, who also wrote The Invisible Life of Addie Larue which was excellent. So why do I think it was too different? Well…it advertises itself as being about immortality and hunger and involves a woman in Spain in 1532, another in London in 1827, and another in Boston in 2019. Part character drama, part feminist critique, part horror thriller? I’m not completely crazy, as Schwab is a great writer, and the book did make a lot of year-end lists too! But a feminist horror drama? We’ll see how she likes it. It’ll definitely be different. Heck, even the publisher calls it genre-defying. Hah!

For my mother-in-law, Marney, I mentioned above that I know some of her reading tastes from the books she shares with her daughters. Historical, mystery, romance. I had three reasons for choosing My Friends by Fredrik Backman. First and foremost, it has this intriguing-sounding storyline about a famous painting that has three little figures in the corner of it that nobody ever notices. But the main character, Louisa, wants to find out the backstory of those three figures so she drives across the country to try and figure it out. History, art, mystery, it sounds cool. Second, you’ll notice a theme: it made several end-of-year lists for 2025. But thirdly? I tripped over Fredrik Backman as an author about 18 months ago when a video of him giving a speech at a writing convention went semi-viral. I’ve been intrigued by him ever since, and have other books of his on my reading list, just haven’t made it to them yet.

Of course, if you want to see the original video that sparked my interest, here it is. Not super polished, but still engaging and funny. “Being a writer is the best way to get paid for being insane.” Yep, I hear ya.

The “last” on my list was my father-in-law, Ron, and his was perhaps the easiest of all. He reads a lot of crime novels, as do I, as well as legal thrillers/procedurals. That made choosing The Perfect Marriage by Jeneva Rose relatively easy, I just looked for one that I might enjoy myself! I don’t remember the author, but this is a re-release and re-edit of a book about a female trial attorney defending her husband on the charge of murdering his mistress. It got some surprising buzz, despite being a re-issue, and showed up well in a recent list I was looking at of legal thrillers on Amazon, seeing if there were other writers whose names weren’t Grisham, Turow or Bernhardt that I should consider. I do worry that the premise sounds a bit like Presumed Innocent, by Scott Turow, played by Harrison Ford in the movie. Except in that one, he was the main character, a prosecutor now on trial and his wife was supportive, not defending him. I’ll see if I can snag a copy from the library to read too. Apparently, a sequel is coming out called The Perfect Divorce.

Now, here’s an interesting quirk. I said Ron’s was the last book, but that isn’t exactly true. I didn’t know who else might be there for dinner on Christmas Eve or over the holidays, when we might be opening the presents from Book Santa (Becky, Dean, and Grace didn’t arrive until Boxing Day). I needed one more book as the “extra” in case someone else arrived, so I could include them. Which in and of itself is a challenge. How do you pick a book for no one and everyone? Well, it wasn’t exactly no one, I did have SOMEONE who was a likely candidate, so I went with something I thought might appeal to them.

I’ll confess that I really like Jeffrey Archer’s writing style. I’ve read probably 20 of his books over the years, and always enjoy the fast pace and the breezy narrative. They are highly accessible, certainly never flag with pacing issues, and well, they’re not exactly heavy trodding. They’re relatively light and fun. I hadn’t realized that he had a series of detective novels for a character named William Warwick, but hey, why not get the first one? Nothing Ventured by Jeffrey Archer seemed like a good compromise. As it turned out, we didn’t need an extra gift for a surprise guest. But I figure that books should NOT return to sender, ever, and Book Santa only exists one day a year anyway in this realm (hey, it’s my cultural appropriation slash inspiration, I can make up new rules on the fly!). So I gifted that one to Ron, too, as I know he has read other Jeffrey Archer books.

Wait, there’s one more book

Andrea got me a book, too, so I could be part of the book flood. Except, like Jacob, I don’t really have much of a “book acquisition” list. If I want a book, I usually just get it. But we had both seen a book advertised on Facebook videos: Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson. Funny enough, I had thought it sounded like a great idea for a book, and I wanted it, but never actually ordered it. The book is awesome. It has a wicked style in it, told by a narrator in first person past tense but who openly breaks the fourth wall every couple of pages in a fantastic way. I’ll do a full review, but I’m giving it five stars. There is a serious plot hole that the book glosses over in one spot, which the narrator kind of admits is not a great answer to the obvious question, but I didn’t even care. The rest of the pieces tie together in obvious and not so obvious ways, with callbacks, and misdirections reminiscent of a great magician. He does something with one line that he repeats in two places and while you’re looking for the trick, he does it right in front of your face, and you still miss it. It’s brilliant. In any other book, the plot point would be deadly; here it’s a minor sin. And yes, like the tradition is supposed to unfold, I read it over the holidays, staying up late to finish it. Even though I had a cold and was nursing an abscessed tooth.

I talked about the “new tradition” with Andrea, we’ll see if the books for others resonated with anyone. If not, maybe Andrea, Jacob and I can do it still, just the three of us. I like the idea of doing it almost like drawing names, though, that each person would have to get someone’s name and perhaps a suggested genre, but would have to find a book on their own aka no “lists” or suggestions. I suppose they would have to rule out authors they have everything by or something, I don’t know. Or again, maybe just the three of us.

I liked doing it, even if Icelanders might come for me.