Cozy Winter Books to Curl Up With! |
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| I Might Be in Trouble by Daniel AlemanAfter a great Grindr date, struggling novelist David Alvarez awakens to a corpse in his bed. Afraid he somehow killed the older man, David calls his literary agent for help. Wild events ensue as they try to get the man back to the Plaza Hotel. In his adult fiction debut, YA author Daniel Aleman delivers a novel that's "both riotously funny and deeply touching" (Booklist). |
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Under the Whispering Door
by TJ Klune
After he dies, a curious and powerful being gives Wallace one week to cross over to the land of the dead, and Wallace, who finally starts to learn about all the things he missed in life, sets about living a lifetime in seven days. 150,000 first printing.
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| The Voyage Home by Pat BarkerThe Trojan War is over. Forced to be Agamemnon's concubine, Cassandra, along with her servant Ritsa (who often narrates), is taken by the victors to Mycenae, where Agamemnon's wife awaits his return with murder in her heart. Readers can begin here with Booker winner Pat Barker's 3rd Women of Troy book or with the 1st entry, The Silence of the Girls. Read-alikes: Circe by Madeline Miller; Clytemnestra by Costanza Casati. |
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Clytemnestra: A Novel
by Costanza Casati
After her husband starts the Trojan War to bring her sister back, Clytemnestra begins an affair with Aegisthus and plots to kill her husband for sacrificing their daughter in this retelling of the classic Greek tragedy.
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| No Place to Bury the Dead by Karina Sainz BorgoAs a plague causing amnesia and death wreaks havoc, there are few places to bury the bodies. Determined to find a final resting place for her infant twin sons, Angustias connects with a woman running an illegal cemetery on land owned by a cartel leader, who's not happy with these events. For another literary dystopian novel that examines grief, try Leif Enger's I Cheerfully Refuse. |
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The Road
by Cormac McCarthy
Cormac McCarthy's The Road is one of the best-known works of post-apocalyptic fiction: in addition to winning the Pulitzer Prize and being selected for Oprah's book club, it was made into a movie starring Viggo Mortensen. Set in a futuristic and definitively post-apocalyptic world, a father and his young son are making their way on foot through a devastated American landscape. The sun is obscured by ash and the land is dead; many of the few survivors have resorted to cannibalism, and father and son have only each other in this violent, horrific world. Though beautifully written, The Road is not for the faint of heart.
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| Sister Snake by Amanda Lee KoeDuring the Tang dynasty, two sister snakes, one green and one white, use a special lotus seed to turn into immortal humans. In contemporary New York City, struggling Emerald has a violent encounter with a sugar daddy she met on an app, leading Su, the wealthy wife of a government minister in Singapore, to fly to her sister's aid and bring her home. If you enjoy this fantastical, darkly funny look at identity and women's lives, try Kelly Barnhill's When Women Were Dragons. |
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When Women Were Dragons: A Novel
by Kelly Regan Barnhill
After the Mass Dragoning of 1955, when thousands of women, including her beloved Aunt Marla, transformed into dragons, left a trail fiery destruction and took to the skies, young Alex Green must face the consequences of this event as she learns to accept people as they really are.
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| Only Here, Only Now by Tom NewlandsIn 1990s Scotland, teenage Cora Mowat struggles with undiagnosed ADHD and dreams of escaping her poverty-stricken small town. She lives with her disabled mom and her mom's new boyfriend, but after a tragedy, Cora ends up in other locales, including Glasgow, in this atmospheric debut novel. Read-alikes: Michelle Gallen's Big Girl, Small Town; Brad Zellar's Till the Wheels Fall Off. |
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Big Girl, Small Town: A Novel
by Michelle Gallen
A U.S. debut by an award-winning writer from Ireland follows the experiences of a plucky chip-shop worker whose coming-of-age in the post-Troubles years is upended by abandonment and growing tensions between local Catholics and Protestants. Original. 25,000 first printing.
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| Rental House by Weike WangWell-paid consultant Keru, the daughter of frugal Chinese immigrants, and Nate, the son of conservative North Carolinians, rent vacation places in Cape Cod and the Catskills to host their in-laws at different times, but tensions and unexpected guests also arrive. Examining family dynamics, classism, and racism, this witty novel will please fans of Sandwich by Catherine Newman, Real Americans by Rachel Khong, or Long After We Are Gone by Terah Shelton Harris. |
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Long After We Are Gone: A Novel
by Terah Shelton Harris
Told from alternating points of view from all four siblings, this emotional story about the power of family and letting go follows CeCe, Junior, Nance and Angeline, each fighting their own personal battles, as they return home to save their ancestral land—and themselves—after the death of their father.
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Winter Books to Read When It's Cold Outside! |
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| Wandering Stars by Tommy OrangeThis haunting follow-up to There There spans centuries, following Jude Star, who survives the horrors of the 1864 Sand Creek Massacre and imprisonment in Florida, as well as his descendants, who endure the Carlisle Indian School, addiction, PTSD, and more. Read-alikes: Oscar Hokeah's Calling for a Blanket Dance; Michelle Good's Five Little Indians; Mona Susan Power's A Council of Dolls. |
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A Council of Dolls
by Mona Susan Power
Born in 1888, 1925, and 1961, three Native American girls each have a cherished doll that comforts them in this haunting novel that examines the trauma inflicted by Indian boarding schools. Author of the acclaimed 1994 novel The Grass Dancer, Mona Susan Power is an enrolled member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.
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| Margo's Got Money Troubles by Rufi ThorpeAfter 19-year-old Margo gets pregnant by her English professor and ignores his request for an abortion, she starts a successful OnlyFans to pay the bills. With her former pro-wrestler dad helping with the baby, she's managing...until the professor reappears in this funny, entertaining novel. Try these next: Green Dot by Madeleine Gray; Jobs for Girls with Artistic Flair by June Gervais. |
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Green Dot: A Novel
by Madeleine Gray
Despite preferring women to men, Hera, adrift in millennial malaise, meets and falls for a married, middle aged journalist, Arthur, while working at a new outlet moderating their online comments section. 100,000 first printing.
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| Husbands & Lovers by Beatriz WilliamsThe lives of Mallory in modern-day New England and unhappily married British diplomat's wife Hannah in 1950s Cairo, Egypt, connect in this moving dual-timeline novel. Mallory's 13-year-old son needs a kidney transplant, so she reaches out to the famous singer who doesn't know he's a father. Meanwhile, her sister digs into their mother's adoption history. Read-alikes: novels by Lauren Willig (who's co-written books with Beatriz Williams); A Million Reasons Why by Jessica Strawser. |
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The English Wife
by Lauren Willig
A fairytale marriage between two English aristocrats erupts at a Shakespeare-themed ball where the husband dies and the wife is presumed dead, a scandalous event that prompts an unlikely alliance between the husband's sister and a reporter who is determined to uncover the truth. By the award-winning author of The Mischief of the Mistletoe.
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| A Love Song for Ricki Wilde by Tia WilliamsAgainst her wealthy family's wishes, floral designer Ricki Wilde opens a flower shop in Harlem and befriends jazz musician Ezra "Breeze" Walker, a man who's fallen out of time. Light speculative elements and dual timelines add intrigue to this sweeping romance by the author of Seven Days in June. For fans of: Donna Hill's I Am Ayah: The Way Home; Casey McQuiston's One Last Stop. |
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Seven Days in June: A Novel
by Tia Williams
Running into reclusive author Shane Hall at a literary event, bestselling erotica writer Eva Mercy, over the next seven days, reconnects with this man who broke her heart 20 years earlier until he disappears again, leaving more questions than answers. 60,000 first printing.
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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