The Book Jewel staff share books they recommend to read when it's just too cold outside
It's raining outside. You've busted out your coziest blankets and the fuzziest socks you own. You got tea in your favorite mug next to you. You turn on the fire and a soft instrumental holiday tunes playlist for the background. Your furry friend knows these signs and readily hops on to your lap.
But wait--you're not sure what book to read from the [let's call it] small stack of to-be read books on your end table. What's the right book that matches your reading mood for a perfect winter's night?
Oh that's right--you remember that you went to The Book Jewel and picked up a book that a bookseller suggested!
Here's what our Booksellers recommend to Readers this winter.
Aidan
Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
It is 1985 in a small Irish town. During the weeks leading up to Christmas, a coal merchant and family man faces his busiest season. One morning, while delivering an order to the local convent, he makes a discovery which forces him to confront both his past and the complicit silences of a town controlled by the church.
Thera
Whiteout by Dhonielle Clayton, Tiffany D. Jackson, Nic Stone, Angie Thomas, Ashley Woodfolk, and Nicola Yoon
Atlanta is blanketed with snow just before Christmas, but the warmth of young love just might melt the ice in this novel of interwoven narratives, Black joy, and cozy, sparkling romance—by the same team of authors who wrote the New York Times bestseller Blackout!
Snowdrops by A.D. Miller
A psychological drama that takes place during winter in Moscow. A thirty-something Englishman's moral compass is spun by the seductive opportunities revealed to him by a new Russia: a land of hedonism and desperation, corruption and kindness; a place where secrets - and corpses- come to light only when the deep snows start to thaw...
Joseph
The Bear and The Nightingale by Katherine Arden
Set in the wilderness of Russia, winter lasts most of the year and the snowdrifts grow taller than houses. But Vasilisa doesn't mind—she spends the winter nights huddled around the embers of a fire with her beloved siblings, listening to her nurse's fairy tales.
After a great misfortune befalls her family, danger circles, and Vasilisa must defy even the people she loves and call on dangerous gifts she has long concealed— in order to protect her family from a threat that seems to have stepped from her nurse's most frightening tales.
Jenise
We Are Never Meeting in Real Life by Samantha Irby
Sometimes you just have to laugh, even when life is a dumpster fire. With We Are Never Meeting in Real Life., "bitches gotta eat" blogger and comedian Samantha Irby turns the serio-comic essay into an art form.
Whether talking about how her difficult childhood has led to a problem in making "adult" budgets, explaining why she should be the new Bachelorette--she's as deft at poking fun at the ghosts of her past self as she is at capturing powerful emotional truths.
The Autobiography of Gucci Mane
Reading an autobiography for the holidays is like going to see that biopic in theaters except you don't have to leave your home and what's better: you get the story straight from the source.
The pioneer of trap music takes us to his roots in Alabama, the streets of East Atlanta, the trap house, and the studio where he found his voice as a peerless rapper. He reflects on his inimitable career and in the process confronts his dark past—years behind bars, the murder charge, drug addiction, career highs and lows—the making of a trap god. It is one of the greatest comeback stories in the history of music.
Valentin
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
If you want a high-stakes mystery, look no further. Ten strangers, each with a dark secret from their past are invited to a private Island by a millionaire whom none of them have met.
One by one, they are being murdered. They soon discover that the deaths are happening with terrifying similarities to the nursery rhyme framed in every room of the mansion.
The ending is brilliant and the story as a whole is an exhilarating whodunnit.
What are you reading this holiday season? Leave a comment below!
