If you want "light" winter reading try Elizabeth Peters' Amelia Peabody series. Lots of fun, and informative too, takes place at the turn of the 20th century, mostly in Egypt.
I got "Amelia Peabody's Egypt" edited by E. Peters and K. Whitbread for Christmas. Gives an interesting history to "Egyptology" with lots of really good photos.

I have to admit, I wasn't aware of this series. Here are 2 websites that tell more:

An essay "Digging Up Clues with Amelia Peabody (Emerson)" by L.G.

Amelia Peabody.com

The Amelia Peabody website has book summaries, a general introduction to Amelia Peabody Emerson, maps and timelines, and more. Very pretty it shows an Egpytian skyline with a black panther or other feline romping across the screen.

Ah, can't help but comment on the imperialist overtones -- imagine the irony of all people the British trying to recover "stolen" antiquities ("Children of the Storm"). Speaking of which, the scramble to "open up Tibet" and central Asia -- partially for antiquities and the hubris of European scholars of the orient to "save" and "preserve" the treasures of the orient from the orientals themselves and mainly as moves in the geopolitical duel between imperialist nations called The Great Game. Whatever, it makes for some pretty entertaining reading. I'm thinking of Peter Hopkirk's "Foreign Devils on the Silk Road" and "Tresspassers on the Roof of the World." These books are crammed full of colorful characters like Colonel Francis Younghusband, Henry Savage Landor, Sir Aurel Stein -- essentially Indiana Jones, Champollion, Lara Croft, Lewis & Clark, all rolled up into this amazing history about the military, political, and cultural penetration of central Asia.

Hi Jeff, thanks for the website info. I hadn't thought to look for it. However, please keep in mind some of the main points that these books take are an irreverent view of imperialism, and male dominated societies and feminism and... The books make fun of lots of things, after all the bad guy in several of the books is called the "Master Criminal". The early books are extremely funny, the later books, when Ramses, Amelia's son is an adult, the books take a slightly more serious turn.