Top Ten Tuesday - TBR Selections for Winter

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by the ladies over at The Broke and the Bookish.  This week's theme is top ten books for Winter off your TBR shelves. My first thought was, "Didn't we just do a TBR list?"  But, as I browsed my TBR shelves, I realized that when I'm looking for something to read, I do have a very specific mindset, and one of the things that affects my book choice is what's happening outside...there are beach reads, scary stuff, gardening and outside stories, amongst a host of others that I probably read more at certain times of the year than others.  So, as I scanned my shelves I thought about what I would want to read on a cold, wet day just like the one we're having today. 

Winter is messy in Mississippi.  If we have snow, we don't have that fluffy stuff everybody else gets; we have wet slushy stuff that makes a complete mess.  Don't get me wrong; we enjoy it just the same, but we Mississippi folks don't have a clue what to do when the roads get slushy or icy; our electricity goes off, and we get stranded at home.  I guess because we're so used to being hot, it's pretty difficult for us to switch to such an extreme temperature.  Of course, I keep saying "WE"; it could be just ME ;)

Anyhoo, Winter is time to stay indoors in Mississippi, wrapped in a blanket and snuggled up by the fire.

All that said because Winter reading to me is cozy reading...similar to Fall reading but not necessarily spooky...Winter to me is cold, drafty castles or older houses and characters keeping warm whilst I do the very same thing.  Winter to me is Classics...but don't laugh because I haven't read these.  Yes, I'm an English major...but I was an American Lit fan, so when given a choice, I skipped over these titles in favor of early colonial American texts.  I  really haven't had time till now to think about going back and reading some of these.    

The following top ten list includes books by non-American authors and are all actually already sitting on my TBR shelves just waiting patiently.  Where do I start??  Any advice??  Warnings?

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Can you believe I actually own this beautiful annotated edition and haven't read it?  

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

I know absolutely nothing about this one...except that lots of people say I should read it...ok, ok.

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

My oldest daughter raves about this one...and chastises me every time she realizes I still haven't read it.

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

My middle daughter hated, and I mean hated this one.  She begged me for the movie and Spark Notes for it in order to pass the test.  I wouldn't give in to either. 

Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

I read A Christmas Carol last year during the holidays and was so deeply involved in the descriptions of Old London that I didn't want the story to end.  I wonder if this Dickens will be as detailed?

Emma by Jane Austen

I actually saw this movie when it was made with Gwenyth Paltrow...don't snicker.  I was and still am somewhat of a Paltrow fan.  

Howard's End by E.M. Forrester

I've seen a snippet or two of this movie with Anthony Hopkins...but not enough to really know what was happening.

Mrs.  Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

I've read A Room of One's Own, The Hours and seen the movie "The Hours."  But, I've never read the Woolf novel that inspired Cunningham to write The Hours. Time to remedy that :)

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

I know this one is about a garden and a couple of kids...that's it.

Black Beauty by Anna Sewell

I'm breaking the law on this one...I've seen the movie...and cried and cried and cried at the end.  But, that was back when my older girls were little so I think I can enjoy the read just as much...if not more.

**I might have read these last two, but if I did, it was so long ago that I won't remember anything anyway :)  Besides that, I'd like to read them with an adult lens now.

Till next week...