Five Books For Wintry Evenings

Light the fire, grab a cup of something warm and snuggle under a blanket - winter is here

Dec 10, 2024

*Snow Scene At Argenteuil,* 1875, Claude Monet.

Welcome to Five Books For, a newsletter for people who love great stories. I’m so happy you’re here.

What is Christmas like where you are? Here in Spain the countdown has well and truly begun, although the celebrations take a different form to what I grew up knowing in the UK. Here, the main celebration of Christmas itself takes place on the evening of the 24th rather than the day of the 25th, and there’s no Santa Claus - instead, gifts are delivered by the Three Kings, who come on the 6th January. And the New Year is a much bigger deal here than it is back in the UK. All this means that the festive season here in Spain extends for quite a bit more time than I’m used to, and where previously I’d have been keen to put up the tree and crack out the Christmas playlists on the 1st December, I find myself waiting longer in an attempt to make it last just the right amount of time so that it doesn’t get wearing. One great thing about it is that the days between Christmas and New Year, which always felt deflated and listless in the past, now have new purpose because there’s still lots of festive stuff going on and the Three Kings to look forward to. In our house we combine all of the Spanish and British traditions to have the best of both worlds and it makes for a more relaxed and well-paced celebration. I’d love to hear what Christmas looks like for you guys if you’d like to share!

Setting Christmas aside for a moment, I have some great seasonal reading recommendations for you this month - lots of wintry goodness. We covered Christmas books last year so this year I thought it would be nice to focus on wintry reading instead - the kind of books that are perfect for reading on a cold day in front of the fire. Or, if you live in the southern hemisphere, you might find the perfect book to help you cool down in the summer heat! I’ve chosen things from a range of genres so there will be something for everyone. As ever, I hope you find something new to surprise and delight you.

A big end-of-year thank you

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Okay, let’s dive in!

This Time Next Year by Sophie Cousens

“I find places like this so packed with memories. Visiting them can be like opening a memory jar. You take off the lid and the smells and sounds of a place hit you, unlocking things folded away deep in your brain.”

So what’s it about? Minnie and Quinn were born in the same hospital just minutes apart as the clock changes to the 1st January 1990. While Quinn's family win a cash prize for him being the first baby of the 90s to be born in London, Minnie’s family miss out narrowly and the idea of her having bad luck on her birthdays becomes a family tradition. In 2019, Quinn and Minnie meet again at a New Year’s Eve party. Typically for one of Minnie’s birthdays, someone has vomited over her and she’s gotten trapped in the bathroom, until Quinn sets her free. Soon, they’re building a tentative friendship together, but they each have so many issues that it seems unlikeky they’ll ever end up together - unless, perhaps, fate is bringing them together for a reason?

What’s great about it? I really liked how Cousens brings Minnie and Quinn together and apart again so many times throughout their lives without it feeling unbelievable. I also love the way she used the plot to explore ideas of predestination, free will and good and bad luck in a way that feels fun while still being thoughtful. Both Minnie and Quinn (and indeed their families) experience growth over the course of the novel which is always satisfying and their love story is down to earth while still being romantic. It has a little of the feeling of Sliding Doors about it in the sense that it explores ideas of fate and destiny in a light-hearted way although of course the concept of the book is very different to the movie. It also has quite a bit of humour in it which for me is always a bonus.

Give it a try if: you love love stories; if you’re a fan of a good character development arc; if you’re interested in ideas of fate vs. free will; if you love a sliding-doors-esque story; you love romcoms; you’re looking for a quick read or something lighter to make you smile; you like books which have a lot of humour.

Snow Drops by Andrew Miller

“That’s what I learned when my last Russian winter thawed. The lesson wasn’t about Russia. It never is, I don’t think, when a relationship ends. It isn’t your lover that you learn about. You learn about yourself.”

So what’s it about? Nicholas is an ex-pat lawyer living in Moscow and spends most of his time sanitising corporate deals for his clients so that vast amounts of money can continue to be made from Russian investments in the pre-crisis boom years of the early 2000s. A seemingly chance meeting with two beautiful (and very young) women in the Metro leads Nick to a place where the difference between right and wrong gets gradually much blurrier, until he loses his moral compass altogether.

What’s great about it? This is a vivid portrait of Moscow in the years before the global financial crisis of 2008-9 as well as an incisive portrait of moral decay. Nick is an ambiguous character and as he’s also the narrator of the novel, we as readers have to work out how honest he’s being with himself about what’s happened and how much he truly cares. The main story is framed by a letter to his now-fianceé, confessing what happened while he lived in Russia so that she can decide whether to go ahead and marry him or not. The title refers to the sad discoveries of bodies which are discovered in the spring thaw, having lain hidden underneath it all winter and works as not just an actual plot point in the story but also as a metphor for the novel’s broader themes. Snowdrops is a perceptive exploration of the way in which a gradual blurring of the lines and our very human emotions can lead people into corruption. Moscow itself is rendered in detail and really comes alive, almost as a character in its own right, but even aside from the setting, the questions the book raises around moral culpability and guilt and whether we are all capable of terrible things given the right circumstances are thought-provoking.

Give it a try if: you love great prose; you love literature; you’re interested in Russia; you’re interested in stories of corruption and moral decay; you find the machinations and moral integrity of modern business and capitalism fascinating; you like stories of obsessive, doomed love.

One By One by Ruth Ware

“People are hard, polished shells, their shiny exteriors hiding the inadequacies and anxieties inside.”

So what’s it about? Snoop is a trendy London-based tech startup riding high on its current popularity. When the founders of the company receive a lucrative buy-out offer for it, they’re split on whether to accept it, and so a corporate retreat in the Alps is planned to bring everyone together and help get a decision finally made. The weekend begins like any corporate retreat, with PowerPoint presentations and slightly contentious meetings, interspered with compulsory fun on the ski slopes. However, when an avalanche hits, the luxury chalet where the group are staying is cut off from the world. And suddenly people start dying.

What’s great about it? Ruth Ware is a brilliant mystery/thriller author and this is my favourite of her books so far. The avalanche creates a locked room effect where we know that the only characters here are the Snoopers and the two chalet staff, which gives us a limited suspect pool. Ware is often compared to Agatha Christie and this book in particular to Christie’s And Then There Were None and certainly the concept is similar. Our main narrator is Erin, the lead chalet attendant, but the swapping of perspectives between her and other characters helps to ratchet up the tension as the novel progresses and more people start dying. The characterisation is great: some of the group are unbearable and there’s a sly humour in their portraits, to the point where it’s almost a satire on startup culture, although that’s not at all the main focus of the book but rather just a skillful addition. The plotting is masterfully managed and will keep you turning the pages to just read one more chapter and the solution, as always with Ware’s books, is both clever and satisfying - the howdunnit even more so than the whodunnit. The finale is a spectacular adrenaline-filled set piece and one of the best that I’ve read (and I read a lot of mystery thrillers).

Give it a try if: you love mystery stories, especially where there is limited pool of suspects; you love strong female characters; you love twisty stories; you love suspense thrillers; you love novels which parody the tech world; you love thrillers, especially thrillers with a propulsive end sequence.

The Winter Witch by Paula Brackston

“Does the spider consider herself beautiful? When she gazes into a dewdrop, does her reflection please her? Her web is finer than the finest lace, her body a bobbin working her own whisper thread. It is the web people admire. Its delicacy, its fragile strength. But the spider, poor creature, is thought of as ugly. She repulses some. Sends others into fainting fits. And yet she is beautiful, or so it seems to me. So nimble. So deft. So perfectly fashioned for the life fate has chosen for her.”

So what’s it about? Morgana has always been different to the other children in her Welsh village in the mid-nineteeth century and has led a sheltered life, partly because her powers are uncontrolled and have a way of causing trouble, and partly because her muteness means that the other children find her difficult to interact with. Once she’s old enough, her mother arranges a marriage for her to Cai, a farmer who lives in the distant hills - far enough away that he won’t have heard the rumours that swirl around the village about Morgana. Leaving her mother is heart-breaking for her, and being married to a man she doesn’t know is hard - but she falls in love with the wild landscape and, slowly, with Cai. However, all is not well in her new life: one of the women in her new community seems to have sinister intentions, and Morgana must learn to step into her true powers in order to protect everything she has come to love.

What’s great about it? This is a brilliant wintry read: the landscape of the wild Welsh hills really comes alive in the book and you can almost feel the biting cold that Morgana and Cai have to live with through their first winter together. The love story between them, while not quite the main focus of the novel, is beautifully written and seeing Cai’s steady and patient determination to win Morgana’s love is really touching. The fact that Morgana is mute means that communication has to take various roundabout routes and gives Brackston extra creative scope in building character and atmosphere. Isolda makes a great baddie and the plot will keep you turning the pages, rooting for Morgana all the way.

Give it a try if: you love being transported to a different time and place; you like historical fiction; you love stories about witches; you love magical realism; you love fantasy; you love strong heroines who have to overcome great obstacles on their way to happiness.

A Week In Winter by Maeve Binchy

“Problems don’t solve themselves neatly like that, due to a set of coincidences. Problems are solved by making decisions… Deciding not to change anything was a decision in itself. He hadn’t fully understood this before.”

So what’s it about? Chicky Ryan loves the small Irish seaside town where she grows up. She leaves when, much to the disappointment of her family, she follows her married lover Walter to America but when he abandons her, she is too proud to admit to her family what has happened and instead regales them with tales of how happy she is, until a visit from her niece looms and she tells her family that Walter has died rather than own up to the lie she’s been living. Having worked in a boarding house for many years, she eventually decides to move back to Stoneybridge and restore a derelict mansion, transforming it into a warm and welcoming inn. Over the course of the opening week we see Chicky coming to terms with her past and her family, and her staff and guests all undergoing various forms of transformation and growth.

What’s great about it? This was the last book Maeve Binchy ever wrote and has a slightly different structure to most of her novels in that it’s a collection of interrelated short stories which, as a whole, form the novel. As the title suggests, the events of the book take place over a week in winter, although we learn a lot about the back stories of the various characters in their respective chapters and the structure works brilliantly as a way for Binchy to build a portrait of each character. There aren’t many novels which can give you a large cast of characters and make you care for all of them, sometimes just because of format constraints and sometimes because of the writer’s skill, but Binchy is a master at creating characters the reader can care for and rendering them fully and with depth. The setting of Stoneybridge is also quintessential Binchy: a small Irish town with beautiful scenery and a close-knit community.

Give it a try if: you love cosy fiction of any genre; you love stories about people’s inner lives; you love books about Ireland; you love books with lots of emotional truth; you love books with beautiful settings; you love books with a large cast of characters; you love characters you can really care about.

Thanks for reading!

I hope you found something good to read here and that you’re cosy and warm and looking forward to whatever winter festivities you have in your part of the world. As ever, I’d love to hear if you’ve read and loved (or even hated) any of the books here, and which ones you’d add to the list. You can reply directly to this email or leave a comment by clicking the button below.