Winter is here and the cold, gray days are the perfect excuse to stay inside and cozy up with a good book. So grab yourself a warm blanket, a mug of hot cocoa, and one of the books from this list, and let the winter reading begin!
Beartown by Fredrik Backman
Beartown transports readers to a tiny community nestled deep in the forests of Sweden, where town spirit is born out of the local hockey league. It’s the community’s main source of pride and light in the face of hard times. The people of Beartown revere the game and the players, but it’s all threatened when the reputation of the star player is called into question just when the team has a big win in sight. Beartown is not just a story about sports: it explores the hopes that bring a small community together, the secrets that tear it apart, and the courage it takes for an individual to go against the grain.
In the Midst of Winter by Isabel Allende
During the biggest Brooklyn snowstorm in living memory, Richard Bowmaster, a lonely university professor in his 60s, hits the car of Evelyn Ortega, a young undocumented immigrant from Guatemala, and what at first seems an inconvenience takes a more serious turn when Evelyn comes to his house, seeking help. At a loss, the professor asks his tenant, Lucia Maraz, a fellow academic from Chile, for her advice. As these three lives intertwine, each will discover truths about how they have been shaped by the tragedies they witnessed, and Richard and Lucia will find unexpected, long overdue love.
Last Christmas in Paris by Hazel Gaynor
This epistolary novel tells the story of a great romance. When the Great War begins, Evie believes that it will all be over by Christmas. As her brother Will and his friend Thomas leave for the front, they make plans to meet for a holiday in Paris when the war is resolved. As time passes, Evie feels helpless and struggles to find a way to help the cause, while Will and Thomas experience the trials and terrors of war. The letters between Evie and Thomas are candid and heartfelt. Though the title is Christmas-y, this book is actually wonderful for any time of year, so add it to your reading list at any time.
One Day in December by Josie Silver
This contemporary romance is perfect for fans of holiday tales. Laurie thinks that love at first sight exists only in movies, until the day she looks out a bus window and locks eyes with a man who she knows instantly is the one. As the bus pulls away, Laurie feels strongly that their paths will cross again. She never expects that when they’re finally introduced, the man is dating Laurie’s best friend. One Day in December is a joyous, heartwarming and immensely moving love story to escape into and a reminder that fate takes inexplicable turns along the route to happiness.
Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson
This lyrical and heartbreaking first novel is set in an isolated, snow-covered Washington State island town in the 1950s, where a Japanese man stands trial for murdering a white fisherman. The trial brings the town's painful history and many citizen's long-submerged sense of guilt and shame sharply to the surface; Guterson skillfully unfolds both the history of the town and that of two star-crossed lovers layer by layer.
The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley
During the languid days of the Christmas break, a group of 30-something friends from Oxford meet to welcome in the New Year together, a tradition they began as students 10 years earlier. For this vacation, they’ve chosen an idyllic and isolated estate in the Scottish Highlands — the perfect place to get away and unwind by themselves. The trip began innocently enough: admiring the stunning if foreboding scenery, champagne in front of a crackling fire, and reminiscences about the past. But after a decade, the weight of secret resentments has grown too heavy for the group’s tenuous nostalgia to bear. Now, on New Year’s Day, one of them is dead . . . and another of them did it.
The Searcher by Tana French
Cal Hooper thought a fixer-upper in a bucolic Irish village would be the perfect escape. After 25 years in the Chicago police force and a bruising divorce, he just wants to build a new life in a pretty spot with a good pub where nothing much happens. But when a local kid whose brother has gone missing arm-twists him into investigating, Cal uncovers layers of darkness beneath his picturesque retreat, and starts to realize that even small towns shelter dangerous secrets.
The Winter Soldier by Daniel Mason
In this heartfelt historical fiction novel, young Lucius is a medical student in Vienna when World War I breaks out. Although Lucius has never worked directly with patients, he is eager to serve his country and enlists in the Austrian Medical Corps. What Lucius discovers about the war in the harsh winter landscape of the Carpathian Mountains is much more gruesome than he anticipated.
Winter in Paradise by Elin Hilderbrand
It's a cold, snowy New Year's Eve night when Irene Steele receives a devastating phone call: her husband, away on business, has been killed in a helicopter crash. To find out what happened to her husband, Irene travels with her sons to the Caribbean island of St. John. There, she discovers her husband has been leading a secret life, and that's only the beginning of the mysteries Irene unravels in her search for the truth. This is the perfect winter read for someone looking to trade cold weather for beaches, drama, and intrigue.
Winter Solstice by Rosamunde Pilcher
In this quiet novel, five individuals, each dealing with their own painful personal tragedy, are unexpectedly brought together during the Christmas season in the Scottish countryside — though they've decided not to celebrate the holiday; it's too painful this year. But redemption is found in surprising places, and in the midst of so much loss, love and redemption emerge.