Wishlist Wednesday | Christmas Edition!

Source: Goodreads

Hi everyone! It’s been a while since I’ve done a Wishlist Wednesday post, but seeing as Christmas is coming up, I thought I would put a list together of my most anticipated reads as well as some books that somehow haven’t made it onto my shelves… yet. 😉

1. Etta and Otto and Russell and James by Emma Hooper (release date: Jan 20, 2015)

I actually am reading this right now, thanks to Penguin Canada and Netgalley. So far, it’s been a tender story about, well, Etta and Otto and Russell and James. I’m loving it! When the book starts, we find out that 82-year-old Etta is leaving home to go on a journey across Canada to see the water on the East coast. She leaves behind her husband, Otto, in Saskatchewan. As the story progresses, we learn more and more about Etta and Otto’s past, and how it has led them up to this point. The book’s synopsis calls it “a beautiful novel that reminds us that it’s never too late to see the things you’ve longed to see, or to say the things you’ve longed to say” and I can’t agree more.

This would make a great belated gift for readers who love quiet, heart-warming character-focused novels. I know I can’t wait to get my hands on a physical copy!

2. Gretel and the Dark by Eliza Granville (release date: Oct 21, 2014)

Source: Goodreads

I came across this novel when browsing in Chapters Indigo a few weeks ago. I was surprised I hadn’t heard of it before because it sounds like something I would really enjoy. From what I gather, it mixes fairy tales with psychoanalysis – two things that I’ve always been extremely fascinated by. I definitely have this on my Christmas wishlist, and I think any reader who loves dark, twisted, fairy tales will want to check it out too!

3. Lullabies by Lang Leav (release date: Sept 16, 2014)

Source: Goodreads

This is another book I came across while perusing the bookstore shelves. It is a poetry collection that “explore[s] the intricacies of love and loss,” according to its synopsis. I leafed through the book while I had it on hand and it seems like the perfect book to read by the fire on a snowy (or rainy) day.

4. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel (release date: Aug 29, 2014)

Source: Goodreads

“An audacious, darkly glittering novel set in the eerie days of civilization’s collapse, Station Eleven tells the spellbinding story of a Hollywood star, his would-be savior, and a nomadic group of actors roaming the scattered outposts of the Great Lakes region, risking everything for art and humanity.”

Station Eleven has been receiving a lot of praise from the blogosphere and I’m itching to find out why! I don’t know too much about it yet, just that many of my blogger friends (like Backlist Books) absolutely loved it.

5. New York 1, Tel Aviv 0 by Shelly Oria (release date: Nov 4, 2014)

Source: Goodreads

My new reading goal for the coming year is to read more short story collections, and what better way than to start with this one with its beautiful, bold cover? From its description:

“The stories in New York 1, Tel Aviv 0 speak to a contemporary generation and explore the tension between an anonymous, globalized world and an irrepressible lust for connection. The result is an intimate document of niche moments, when relationships either run their course, take flight, or enter holding patterns.”

Everything in this short summary appeals to me. Stories about loneliness and human connections will always grab my attention and I am looking forward to reading this promising collection.

What is on your wishlist these days? Have you read any of the books on mine? What did you think of them?