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Hello, friends!
Let’s talk about books.
Winter reading is different from warm-weather Summertime reading. Winter reading involves slippers, a hoodie jacket pulled well over our heads, and hopefully a hot toddy. Winter words don’t flit about on beaches during Summer vacation. I like a little more weight to the books I read in the cold weather, some thing that will match the heavy wool blanket I keep on my bed; the one that’s comforting despite how dang itchy it is.
Here are some reads for our Winter-selves. Aren’t you glad the holidays over so we can be regular people who flop on the couch with books instead of… running around not doing that?
Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff • The twisty, uncomfortable, intimate, and beautiful story of a marriage. I’ve read this and it hurts so good. It’s beautifully written.
Hunger Makes Me A Modern Girl by Carrie Brownstein • From Sleater-Kinney and Portlandia, tell us how you happened, Carrie.
We Are Water by Wally Lamb • It would be fair to say that everything Mr Lamb writes is worth reading. He writes very well about resilience. See also: She’s Come Undone by Wally Lamb • Remember how engrossing this was?
No One Else Can Have You by Kathleen Hale • Let’s throw in some young adult, murder mystery fiction.
It’s What I Do: A photographers life of love and war by Lynsey Addario • A female conflict photographer’s life. I’m reading this now and it’s amazing! I can’t put it down. Let’s choose our lives and live them all the way.
The First Bad Man by Miranda July • Miranda July and Carrie Browstein occupy the same space in my brain, but the way Miranda July tells the story of her characters makes me laugh and breaks my heart.
When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi • A brand new book. A man goes from doctor to patient and explores what makes a meaningful life. Life and cancer and other easy topics.
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith • Let’s read a love story.
A Movable Feast by Ernest Hemingway • Hemingway invites us to 1920’s Paris where we can be broke, beautiful, and in the best company.
I hope you find something cozy to read. What’s on your reading list that I should know about?
xo Joy
Omar
Thank you! It’s always nice to get reading recommendations. I’m appalled at how few in my circle read fiction (good or otherwise). I don’t recall if it was on a prior list but, I just finished All The Light We Cannot See and absolutely loved it.
Meg
Ooh, some good reads here Joy! Just read Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl (loved – 90s forev) and the Lauren Groff is next on my list.
So pleased you have I Capture the Castle on your list – it is one of my most treasured. I remember staying up all night reading it when I was 18, a few days before I moved out of home to live in London. I drank endless cups of peach tea and ate a lot of toast with marmalade and had the Sundays (Reading,Writing and Arithmatic) playing over and over again in the background. I still think of that book and the tea and the feeling of imminent change every time I hear that album. And that has to be one of the best first lines ever: ‘I write this sitting the kitchen sink’…
genevieve y
I read The First Bad Man and it was so weird but good! She just has a magical way of capturing and painting her characters. That is the only Miranda July book I have read, I am really interested in reading more of her books. Excited to check out all these other books!
13bees
ps. I LOVE these threads and looking through everyone else’s responses. It generates my reading list for the next year or so :)
13bees
God and Jetfire by Amy Seek. A memoir about adoption from the birth mother’s perspective. Gorgeously written!
Karen C
I love winter reading!! “We are Water” is such a phenomenal book. Thanks for sharing this list with your readers. I recently read a fantastic crime fiction novel called “Uncontrolled Spin” by Jerry Summers {website link removed} The book is about a multimillionaire marketing expert, Sean Green, and his most recent client who is looking to put her apparel company on the map. During their “business” and “romantic” relationship Sean’s best friend is murdered and the twists and turns in the book don’t stop right up until the very end. This is the first book of the series and I am so excited to have found a book that not only keeps me hooked but offers more than just your typical murder mystery. I think Jerry Summers does a really good job at making it feel like a real romance and interlaces suspense and mystery in a really believable way. Hope you and your readers will check it out
Rachel
Please read “A Little Life” by Hanya Yanagihara. It will totally break your heart (be cautious if you are sensitive to emotionally-challenging subject matter). But it’s so beautifully crafted. Definitely winter reading- good for cuddling up with a giant comforter, a cat, and some tea. Bonus is that it’s part of my New Year’s resolution to read more books by people who aren’t straight, white dudes.
Easy English Eating
Have added all of these to my growing pinterest board. I just read a review of When Breath Becomes Air and it sounds heartbreakingly beautiful.
I am reading the sequel to the Dragon Tattoo books – The Girl in the Spiders Web – that is a gutsy thriller that helps the cold winter evenings to pass.
Angela
I am sold on laura Dave, but that may have been one of your recommendations. She updates the modern love story for the women who came of age ’90s and beyond.
Shona
A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson, the most beautiful book I read in 2015. Just won the Costa Prize. Deep sighs.
Michele
The Painted Veil is a must.
And, for a movie, I just saw Burn After Reading again, it’s so ridiculous and funny… I love it!
dessertfortwo
You give the best book recs! I’m off to find these :)
Iris
I’m in the middle of Erica Jong’s Fear of Dying and find myself laughing and crying almost at the same time! Started it last night and couldn’t put it down until my eyes started closing, which was about page 114. A great read!
Grace
Have you read All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr? It’s a great holiday read but haunting and meaningful at the same time. I absolutely loved it.
Chelsea
I charged (and cried, and blustered, and breathed) through All the Light We Cannot See (Anthony Doerr). Beautiful. Next in my stack is Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist. Sounds amazing AND it comes in a pretty package!