Ninetoes goes Jolabokaflod on us for Black Friday!

What’s Jolabokaflod? If you read books, you might want to check out this Icelandic holiday season tradition before you go Black Friday shopping!

Hey there, book lovers! It’s your old pal, Ninetoes, coming to you from Ninetoes Loves Books Headquarters. Today, I am going to be talking about my favorite holiday, Jolabokaflod, and have some tips for the reader in your life, thanks to some of my friends. I have coffee in my system and my thinking cap on, so let’s get to it!

So, let’s begin with just what Jolabokaflod is all about. It is an Icelandic tradition that my wife and I have been celebrating for close to ten years now. Translated, Jolabokaflod means “The Christmas Flood of Books”. From September to December, books and chocolate are bought to exchange on Christmas Eve, and you spend the rest of the day reading and eating chocolate.

Personally, this has simplified the holidays for my wife and me, and now my son, my sister, and a few friends. Rather than going all out nuts in the malls, big box stores, etc., we just do books and chocolate. In a way, I have expanded the book part of this to include book-related items. You will see what I mean in a moment.

Now for the Memento Mori Ink crew. A few days ago, I asked my friends at MMI for their favorite book or best book they read in 2025. It would have been easier to ask them for a kidney or their firstborn! I got peppered with questions and requests to simplify the question, which I did, and our fearless leader worded my request perfectly. BUT, we are all readers, and I would expect nothing less. It is like saying, “Which is your favorite child?”

So, after much wrangling, pleading, and begging, I got some titles. What I am going to do is list the member’s name, the book, and the book description.

And away we go!

Thomas R. Clark: The Devils by Joe Abercrombie- Holy work sometimes requires unholy deeds.

Brother Diaz has been summoned to the Sacred City, where he is certain a commendation and grand holy assignment awaits him. But his new flock is made up of unrepentant murderers, practitioners of ghastly magic, and outright monsters. The mission he is tasked with will require bloody measures from them all in order to achieve its righteous ends.

Elves lurk at our borders and hunger for our flesh, while greedy princes care for nothing but their own ambitions and comfort. With a hellish journey before him, it’s a good thing Brother Diaz has the devils on his side.

Lisa Vasquez: The Asylum For Wayward Victorian Girls by Emilie Autumn- “It was the dog who found me.”

Such is the stark confession launching the harrowing scene that begins The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls as Emilie, a young musician on the verge of a bright career, attempts suicide by overdosing on the antipsychotics prescribed to treat her bipolar disorder. Upon being discovered, Emilie is revived and immediately incarcerated in a maximum-security psych ward, despite her protestations that she is not crazy, and can provide valid reasons for her actions if someone would only listen.

Treated as a criminal, heavily medicated, and stripped of all freedoms, Emilie is denied communication with the outside world, and falls prey to the unwelcome attentions of Dr. Sharp, head of the hospital’s psychiatry department. As Dr. Sharp grows more predatory by the day, Emilie begins a secret diary to document her terrifying experience, and to maintain her sanity in this environment that could surely drive anyone mad. But when Emilie opens her notebook to find a desperate letter from a young woman imprisoned within an insane asylum in Victorian England, and, stranger still, bearing her own name and description, a portal to another world is blasted wide open.

As these letters from the past continue to appear, Emilie escapes further into this mysterious alternate reality where sisterhoods are formed, romance between female inmates blossoms, striped wallpaper writhes with ghosts, and highly intellectual rats speak the Queen’s English.

But is it real? Or is Emilie truly as mad as she is constantly told she is?

Jules Terry & Jyl Glenn: Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman- The apocalypse will be televised!

You know what’s worse than breaking up with your girlfriend? Being stuck with her prize-winning show cat. And you know what’s worse than that? An alien invasion, the destruction of all man-made structures on Earth, and the systematic exploitation of all the survivors for a sadistic intergalactic game show. That’s what.

Join Coast Guard vet Carl and his ex-girlfriend’s cat, Princess Donut, as they try to survive the end of the world—or just get to the next level—in a video game–like, trap-filled fantasy dungeon. A dungeon that’s actually the set of a reality television show with countless viewers across the galaxy. Exploding goblins. Magical potions. Deadly, drug-dealing llamas. This ain’t your ordinary game show.

Savannah Fischer: Slasher Cruise by Chris Heinicke and Kate Reedwod-Y2K is the last thing these passengers should fear!

New Year’s Eve, 1999.

Grunge band, Slasher, is headlining a sold-out Bermuda cruise to celebrate the turn of the millennium. The guest list is stacked with rich and famous partygoers from all walks of life eagerly waiting for the clock to strike midnight. Will the New Year arrive, or will the Y2K computer glitch stop the clocks and leave the ship dead in the water?

What the passengers don’t know is that a greater threat lurks aboard the ship, one that stalks the unwary and moves in the darkness. A secret has been following Slasher from venue to venue, leaving a trail of mysterious fatalities in its wake.

Convinced the deaths surrounding the band are more than just bad luck, Supernatural Slayer Bella Morris—accompanied by the ghost of an ’80s rock star—joins the cruise, intent on discovering the truth about Slasher.

Having faced a childhood filled with horrors, Bella is confident she can crack this case. But she’s never encountered a monster like this before.

Christine Winters- Pet Sematary by Stephen King.

When Dr. Louis Creed takes a new job and moves his family to the idyllic rural town of Ludlow, Maine, this new beginning seems too good to be true. Despite Ludlow’s tranquility, an undercurrent of danger exists here. Those trucks on the road outside the Creed’s beautiful old home travel by just a little too quickly, for one thing…as is evidenced by the makeshift graveyard in the nearby woods where generations of children have buried their beloved pets. Then there are the warnings to Louis both real and from the depths of his nightmares that he should not venture beyond the borders of this little graveyard where another burial ground lures with seductive promises and ungodly temptations. A blood-chilling truth is hidden there—one more terrifying than death itself, and hideously more powerful. As Louis is about to discover for himself sometimes, dead is better…

Jason Kuykendal– Sharp Teeth by Toby Barlow: A Los Angeles dogcatcher falls for a female werewolf desperate to keep her monstrous identity a secret in this debut literary horror thriller.

An ancient race of lycanthropes has survived to the present day, and its numbers are growing as the initiated convince L.A.’s down-and-out to join their pack. Paying no heed to moons, full or otherwise, they change from human to canine at will—and they’re bent on domination at any cost.

Caught in the middle are Anthony, a kindhearted, besotted dogcatcher, and the girl he loves, a female werewolf who has abandoned her pack. Anthony has no idea that she’s more than she seems, and she wants to keep it that way. But her efforts to protect her secret lead to murderous results . . .

Blending dark humor and epic themes with card-playing dogs, crystal meth labs, surfing, and carne asada tacos, Sharp Teeth captures the pace and feel of a graphic novel while remaining “as ambitious as any literary novel, because underneath all that fur, it’s about identity, community, love, death, and all the things we want our books to be about” [Nick Hornby, The Believer].

Darren “Ninetoes” Perdue- The Grifters by Jim Thompson: To his friends, to his coworkers, and even to his mistress Moira, Roy Dillon is an honest hardworking salesman. He lives in a cheap hotel just within his pay bracket. He goes to work every day. He has hundreds of friends and associates who could attest to his good character.

Yet, hidden behind three gaudy clown paintings in Roy’s pallid hotel room, sits fifty-two thousand dollars — the money Roy makes from his short cons, his “grifting.” For years, Roy has effortlessly maintained control over his house-of-cards life — until the simplest con goes wrong, and he finds himself critically injured and at the mercy of the most dangerous woman he ever met: his own mother.

Now, here is something I told my friend about Jolabokaflod: If you are unsure of a book to get the reader in your life, go for a book related item. This can be anything from bookmarks to coffee mugs to tea to coffee to hot5 chocolate to a reading light. The sky is the limit.

Remember… December 24 is coming… have fun, eat chocolate, and most of all, HAPPY READING!

Darren “Ninetoes” Perdue is a book and media reviewer. When he is not reading, he is watching true crime shows, cooking for his family, or working on a plan for universal domination. If you see him on his porch, say hi. He does not bite…much.

PLEASE NOTE: The views and opinions of the staff of Memento Mori Ink do not necessarily represent those of Memento Mori Ink or Crystal Lake Publishing. Thank you for understanding.