Top Ten Tuesday: Wintry Reads

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week’s topic is a holiday/seasonal freebie, so I’m going with a winter theme: wintry covers, snowy settings, books that evoke a cold, wintry vibe – whether literally, through the setting, or metaphorically. Bring on the untouched snowbanks and barren trees, icicles and frost, icy blues and pure whites, ice skating and freezing snow storms.

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Bittersweet by Sarah Ockler: Figure skating girls. Hockey playing boys. Cupcakes described in tantalizing detail. Falling in love and all the worries, fears, and butterflies that come along with it. What more could you want in a holiday read? Along with the cover, the whole novel feels encompassed in wintry vibes.

Lovely, Dark and Deep by Amy McNamara: I haven’t read this yet, but that cover! That title! It sounds like a poetic contemporary novel about grief, set in the woods in the middle of winter. And it seems the title is taken from Robert Frost’s poem, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.

The Tragedy Paper by Elizabeth LaBan: A realistic contemporary novel with similarities to Looking for Alaska – a prestigious boarding school, a clandestine romance, a senior year thesis project, and a slowly unravelling mystery/tragedy.

Once I Was Cool by Megan Stielstra: I’ve heard many great things about this collection of essays – relatable! refreshing! insightful! heartbreaking! – and can’t wait to read it. The essays themselves don’t necessarily relate to this winter theme, but the cover sure does!

Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson: An emotional, lyrical, hard-hitting novel. Snow, ice, and cold are used as symbols throughout.

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The Vanishing Season by Jodi Lynn Anderson: Vanishing girls in a small town. A lonely ghost. A winter snow storm. Despite all of this, The Vanishing Season is actually a slow-moving, introspective coming-of-age story. The setting and descriptions of the snow are so atmospheric, and emphasize the sense of loneliness and isolation.

How to Save a Life by Sara Zarr: This novel takes familiar themes – teen pregnancy, adoption, overcoming grief – and spins a refreshing, compelling, emotional, and ultimately uplifting coming-of-age story. And I remember thinking the alternating viewpoints were done so well!

The Smell of Other People’s Houses by Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock: What a beautiful cover. That was the original reason I added it to my TBR list. The snowy Alaskan setting seems like it would make this book the perfect winter read.

Beartown by Fredrik Backman (and its sequel, Us Against You): Such a quintessential winter scene – playing hockey on an outdoor ice rink in a small town. This book and its sequel are on my TBR list, and I keep hearing rave reviews.

Have you read any of these? What are your favourite wintry reads? Leave me a comment 🙂