Dear Santa,

Here are 10 books that I would like to read this Winter. I already shared 2 of them with you during our brief Book Chat a month ago, but as you suggested, I'm making the list a little longer. And Santa, you were drinking a lot of eggnog at the time of our book chat - and it had a lot of alcohol in it - so that's why you might not remember that it was YOUR suggestion that I make the list longer ... not mine :-)

Love. Tanya.

10 Books I Hope Santa Brings {My Winter 2011/2012 Reading List}

1. Anna Dressed in Blood, Kendare Blake. One of my favorite book covers of 2011.
Cas Lowood kills the dead. He travels the country with his kitchen-witch mother and their spirit-sniffing cat. When they arrive in a new town in search of a ghost the locals call Anna Dressed in Blood, Cas doesn't expect anything outside of the ordinary: track, hunt, kill. What he finds instead is a girl entangled in curses and rage, a ghost like he's never faced before. Since her death, Anna has killed any and every person who has dared to step into the deserted Victorian she used to call home. But she, for whatever reason, spares Cas's life.

2. The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, Michelle Hodkin. Santa already brought me this one as the library request has come through *yay*
Mara Dyer doesn't think life can get any stranger than waking up in a hospital with no memory of how she got there. It can. Since that day she's been having flashbacks and nightmares. In an attempt to stop her from reliving the past Mara and her family move to Miami Florida. She believes there must be more to the accident she can't remember that killed her friends and left her mysteriously unharmed. There is. She doesn't believe that after everything she's been through, she can fall in love. She's wrong.

3. The Marriage Plot, Jeffrey Eugenides. This is on almost all the "Best Books of 2011" lists.
Eugenides describes a year or so in the lives of 3 college seniors at Brown in the early 80s. There is Madeleine, a self-described "incurable romantic" who is slightly embarrassed at being so normal. Leonard Bankhead - charismatic loner, college Darwinist, and lost Portland boy - who suddenly turns up in a semiotics seminar, and soon Madeleine finds herself in a highly charged erotic and intellectual relationship with him. At the same time, her old "friend" Mitchell Grammaticus - who's been reading Christian mysticism and generally acting strange - resurfaces, obsessed with the idea that Madeleine is destined to be his mate.

4. Legend, Marie Lu.
What was once the western United States is now home to the Republic, a nation perpetually at war with its neighbors. Born into an elite family in one of the Republic's wealthiest districts, fifteen-year-old June is a prodigy being groomed for success in the Republic's highest military circles. Born into the slums, fifteen-year-old Day is the country's most wanted criminal. But his motives may not be as malicious as they seem.

5. Divergent, Veronica Roth. So many bloggers are raving about this book that I have to get to it stat!
Beatrice "Tris" Prior has reached the fateful age of sixteen, the stage at which teenagers in Veronica Roth's dystopian Chicago must select which of five factions to join for life. Each faction represents a virtue: Candor, Abnegation, Dauntless, Amity, and Erudite. To the surprise of herself and her selfless Abnegation family, she chooses Dauntless, the path of courage. Her choice exposes her to the demanding, violent initiation rites of this group, but it also threatens to expose a personal secret that could place her in mortal danger. Veronica Roth's young adult Divergent trilogy launches with a captivating adventure about love and loyalty playing out under most extreme circumstances.

6. Spirit Bound, Richelle Mead. Because I want to finish the Vampire Academy series.
Rose Hathaway has finally returned to St. Vladimir's just in time for graduation. She and her best friend Lissa Dragomir, can't wait for their real lives outside of the Academy's cold iron gates to finally begin. But even with the intrigue and excitement of court life looming, Rose's heart still aches for Dimitri. He's out there, somewhere. She failed to kill him when she had the chance, and now her worst fears are about to come true. Dimitri has tasted her blood, and she knows in her heart that he is hunting her. And if Rose won't join him, he won't rest until he's silenced her ... forever.

7. The Lover's Dictionary, David Levithan. Because romance must not be left out of our lives.
How does one talk about love? Do we even have the right words to describe something that can be both utterly mundane and completely transcendent, pulling us out of our everyday lives and making us feel a part of something greater than ourselves? Taking a unique approach to this problem, the nameless narrator of David Levithan's The Lover's Dictionary has constructed the story of his relationship as a dictionary. Through these short entries, he provides an intimate window into the great events and quotidian trifles of being within a couple, giving us an indelible and deeply moving portrait of love in our time.

8. Mistress of Rome, Kate Quinn.
Thea is a slave girl from Judaea, passionate, musical, and guarded. Purchased as a toy for the spiteful heiress Lepida Pollia, Thea will become her mistress's rival for the love of Arius the Barbarian, Rome's newest and most savage gladiator. His love brings Thea the first happiness of her life-that is quickly ended when a jealous Lepida tears them apart.

9. The Scorpio Races, Maggie Shiefvater.
It happens at the start of every November: the Scorpio Races. Riders attempt to keep hold of their water horses long enough to make it to the finish line. Some riders live. Others die.

10. 77 Shadow Street, Dean Koontz.
The Pendleton stands on the summit of Shadow Hill at the highest point of an old heartland city, a Gilded Age palace built in the late 1800s as a tycoon's dream home. Almost from the beginning, its grandeur has been scarred by episodes of madness, suicide, mass murder, and whispers of things far worse. But since its rechristening in the 1970s as a luxury apartment building, the Pendleton has been at peace. But now inexplicable shadows caper across walls, security cameras relay impossible images, phantom voices mutter in strange tongues, not-quite-human figures lurk in the basement, elevators plunge into unknown depths.

Have you read any of these books? What did you think?
- Meme via The Broke & Bookish