Holidays are the time to read - I hope

I'm hoping for some reading time this holiday season. Of course I'm always reading - but mostly student papers - which still stand in stacks on my office floor waiting for me to finish grading. But when I'm done - well, Markus Zusak's The Book Thief, is still waiting on my coffee table, recommended by my librarian friend Paula, and I bought myself (secret Santa) the new Jan Karon Home to Holly Springs, which I am sure will be delightful (Joyce McClurg of USA Today thinks so). But today's news mentions Patricia Hampl's new memoir The Florist's Daughter, which sounds great. I loved her spiritual memoir/travel book Virgin Time, both for herself and for her writing. So this new memoir is tempting. Plus, I loved working in a florist shop and would enjoy the insie look at her father's business. The review by Marjorie Kehe points out the Hampl loved her father more easily than her difficult mother. I can relate to that as well. Reading the New York Times Book Review was how I taught myself to write and introduced a freelance writing career, and "when I retire" I plan to revive this goal. But it also links to my other jobs - bookseller and librarian. So - as my mother would say - "we'll see."