Atmospheric Winter Recommendations
I love reading seasonally relevant books. Spooky reads in October? Yes please. Contemporary/Romance in Spring and Summer? I’m all for it. Winter is no exception to this and these are a few of my recommendations for this time of year. It is a VERY snowy day here in WV so it feels like the perfect day to post this. Some are centered around the holidays, others are set in very cold places and some just have that touch of magic you want for this time of year.
The Afterlife of Holly Chase by Cynthia Hand - This is a modern day, urban fantasy retelling of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. I often like to reread the Dickens version this time of year, but everyone knows that story and I chose to feature this retelling because you get the essence of the original, but a new story with new characters. In this book we follow Holly Chase. Holly is a terrible person and when she is 17 she’s visited by the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future. They implore her to change her ways, she does not, and then she dies. Upon her death she is recruited by the company Project Scrroge as the new ghost of Christmas past. Project Scrooge picks a new person every year to try and reform. This is Holly’s 5th year working with them and she’s just as miserable as ever, but maybe this is the year that finally helps her as much as she’s now helping others.
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern - This is one of my favorite books of all time, but it’s absolutely not for everyone. If you like fast-paced, on the edge of your seat, plot driven books then this one is not for you. This is an incredibly atmospheric, whimsical, light fantasy tale about a magical traveling circus; Le Cirque Des Reves. The circus shows up and is open each night during its stay from dusk to dawn. Inside you can find stunning otherworldly displays and mouthwatering food and you’ll have the time of your life. Behind the scenes is a competition. Two great magicians have been raising protégées to compete by imagining new exhibits for the circus and then making them come to life. Celia and Marco are those protégées and there is a lot about this competition they were not made aware of, like the fact that only one of them will be left standing at the end something that’s made all the more complicated when they fall in love. This book is full of beautiful, stunningly crafted prose and if you’re the type of reader that likes to fall head first into a world and just live there for a while as a haunting, and exquisitely otherworldly story happens around you then please give this one a try.
Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik - There exist a ton of fairy tale retellings in fantasy these days. I’ve read and enjoyed a number of them myself, but I have to admit that I do sigh and maybe roll my eyes a bit when I hear that there’s another Beauty and the Beast retelling hitting the market. Luckily, this retelling is an eastern European inspired Rumpelstiltskin retelling and the market is not at all saturated with those! In this book we follow a few young women, but it’s primarily the story of one of them. Miryem is the daughter of a moneylender who isn’t very good at collecting the money owed to him (therefore causing Miryem to do the job herself) which leads her to gain the reputation for being able to turn silver to gold. This reputation catches the eye of the King of the Staryk. She is forced to turn silver into gold or have herself turned to ice. The story also features, Wanda and Irina’s stories as they weave amongst each other throughout the book. Novik does some really clever things with this story. She subverts a lot of the traditional tropes both from the original story of Rumpelstiltskin and the stereotype of the Jewish moneylender character and I found that added a layer of complexity to the tale that I appreciated. This book takes place in a very cold and snowy setting so it’s perfect to read while cozy on the couch with a mug of something nice and warm!
The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden - Similar vibes to Spinning Silver’s freezing cold setting; this book will definitely make you feel pretty chilly with its depictions of Russian winters! Vasilisa’s village is located in an area of Russian wilderness where winter lasts most of the year. Vasilisa grows up listening to stories told about the spirits in and around her home that protect them from evil, but also must be fed and acknowledged in order to provide that protection. When Vasilisa’s mother passes away her father goes to Moscow for a new wife who forbids everyone from honoring the spirits. As a result, misfortune strikes the village. Vasilisa must work against everyone she knows and loves in order to bring back the protective spirits and save her family and town. This book is the first in the series and it’s very good. It’s a bit grim and harsh in the way that older fairy tales were before they were made into happy animated movies, but at the same time it still has the whimsy of a fairy tale. Vasilisa as a character is incredibly strong and so motivated to do what it right for her family and her home and as much as I enjoyed this book I really feel that as the world and the story expands into books 2 and 3 it only keeps getting better and better.
My True Love Gave to Me edited by Stephanie Perkins - This book features twelve short stories by various well-known YA authors all set around the holidays. They’re all just little bites of holiday joy that you can devour all at once or you can read just one short story each day for the twelve days of Christmas which is what I did. They’re all fairly light romance stories and it gives you the warm fuzzy feeling of having watched a Hallmark Christmas movie without finding yourself getting sucked into the Hallmark channel watching movie after movie until you look up from the tv and find it’s been three weeks since you sat down to watch just one (hi mom!). I think “Midnights” by rainbow Rowell is my favorite story in the series. It takes place on New Years Eve over a number of years telling the love story of two friends who always spend that holiday together and it’s just so lovely. This whole book is lovely actually and I highly recommend it.
What are your favorite winter books? Let me know!
