Christmas is over, but holiday “down time” for many continues. This is a great opportunity to sit for a bit and escape into a book.

Here are three I picked up or received as gifts this Christmas to try out:

The Shepherd by Frederick Forsyth

A couple of weeks ago, I recommended the film short The Shepherd, and we went on a search for the novella on which it was based. The novella is much quicker read, with more of an abrupt ending, but a great one-sitting story for a cold winter night. A young RAF pilot grabs a chance to fly home for Christmas Eve in what is seemingly an easy trip. Everything goes wrong over the North Sea, from instrument malfunctions to bad weather. He resolves himself to a hopeless fate, when he is suddenly accompanied by pilot in and old WWII era Mosquito who leads him to safety. This brief read is wonderful Christmas tale as well as a celebration of the Shepherds, pilots to rescued and brought home several wartime pilots in distress. Hopefully, there will be reprints soon, but we had to run down online for fairly cheap. If you can pick it up at a used book store, grab it. It is suddenly popular once more.

Tomie by Junji Ito

I had been waiting to get a hold of this definitive example of the master of horror manga. Disturbingly addictive, Ito’s tales are both scary and tragic. The beautiful Tomie Kawakami can make men fall in love with her at her whims. Their obsession is so deep, it can result in jealous, murderous rage. She herself is often killed as result, but I’m giving too much away. This series shows different characters encounters with Tomie, who I will tell you right now isn’t always beautiful. A mix of supernatural and psychological horror, Tomie shows off Ito’s detailed busy and genuinely scary drawings as well as his knack for creating creepy lore. His popularity is rising again after an anime anthology series of his work was released on Netflix, but if you want to get into his manga, Tomie is a great place to start..

The Mammoth Book of Historic Whodunnits edited by Mike Ashley

I love a good anthology, and these short, intriguing mysteries by various crime and mystery author specializing in historic fiction. I stated with “A Christmas Masque” by S.S. Rafferty, set in the Puritan era in “New York colony.” Yet there are tales by several authors set as far back as the days of Socrates to the Middle Ages to the Old West era of Sherlock Holmes and beyond. The stories themselves were written from the mid century to the 1990s, so there’s a least one good mystery found to grab anyone. This is a good book to keep around and pick up for a quick mystery fix will intelligence.

Don’t let that post-Christmas sadness seep in. Escape into a good book this winter and renew your sense of adventure Mfor the coming year.