The Secret Santa Book Swap has been a book club favourite since its inception in 2022. This holiday season, we continued the annual holiday tradition and enjoyed the biggest book swap yet!
Eighteen participants selected a book that they have read and wanted somebody else to enjoy, too. The books were brought wrapped in paper, with only written teasers hinting at their contents, genre, and time period. After all teasers had been read, book after book found its new owner—some without much competition, some by a draw of “Ho ho ho” versus “No no no” lottery tickets. The cerimonious unwrapping was a feast of surprised reactions, expressed love for the book favourites, and joyful anticipation of the upcoming holiday reading.
These books were entered into the Secret Santa Book Swap 2025:
- A String in the Harp by Nancy Bond
- Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea by Rebecca Thorne
- Cinderella Is Dead by Kalynn Bayron
- Circe by Madeline Miller
- Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman
- Good Omens by Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman
- If Tomorrow Doesn’t Come by Jen St. Jude
- If We Were Villains by M. L. Rio
- In My Dreams I Hold a Knife by Ashley Winstead
- Lore and Lust by Karla Nikole
- Lost Boy by Christina Henry
- Nation by Terry Pratchett
- Nutshell by Ian McEwan
- Songs of a Dead Dreamer & Grimscribe by Thomas Ligotti
- The Christmas Swap by Talia Samuels
- The Coin by Yasmin Zaher
- The Fox Wife by Yangsze Choo
- The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien
PADERBORN2READ—The English Book Club wishes happy holidays and happy reading to everybody! Let reading be your small escape from the world. ✨