The winter solstice marked the beginning of a new season, one perfect for staying indoors with the companionship of a good book. The wind may bite. The snow may fall. And your stoop may be a treacherous ziggurat of ice. But there's no reason to get cabin fever this year. Instead, pick up one of these books with "winter" in the title and read until you don't remember you're cold anymore.
If on a Winter's Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino
If on a Winter's Night a Traveler tells the story of a reader trying to read a book of the same title. Yet every chapter is "interrupted" by a new book. Have too many books you want to read? Here's looking at you.
The Winter's Tale by William Shakespeare
Before there was Hermione Granger, there was Queen Hermione, and in this Shakespearean plot-twister, her adventures include sexual scandal, conquering death, and even forgiving one deranged husband.
Love Begins in Winter: Five Stories by Simon Van Booy
As the title implies, Love Begins in Winter brims with heart enough to charm even the coolest customers. And in Van Booy's short fiction, love doesn't just begin; it surprises.
Winter's Tales by Isak Dinesen
In Dinesen's hand, seasons may change but stories comprise the bedrock of human experience. As she writes, "The world itself, like a big old book, fell open, and slowly, on its own, turned one leaf after another."
The Winter of Our Discontent by John Steinbeck
Steinbeck may have titled The Winter of Our Discontent in reference to the first line of Richard III, but it was to be the author's last novel. The story of a Long Islander trying to make a buck, this moral drama about the pitfalls of greed and ambition is as timely now as it was at its time of publication over fifty years ago.