Winter often gets a bad rep for its frigid temperatures and dreary, dark days, but it’s also the ideal time to cozy up by the fire with a warm mug of coffee, a sweet-scented candle, and a heartwarming book.
Are you battling the winter blues? Here are four books to warm your heart this season, including both fiction and nonfiction picks.
1. Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert
Winter is often a time when we feel stagnant, bored, and unmotivated. Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert is the ideal book to get you out of both your winter slump and reading slump. Not only does it feature the classic rom-com trope of “good girl meets bad boy,” but it’s also a deeply heartwarming and inspirational read.
This book follows a female main character battling a chronic illness and seeking a more meaningful life for herself. The endearing computer geek isn’t used to leaving her comfort zone, but after enduring a near-death experience, she challenges herself to “get a life.” Some of the items on her bucket list include enjoying a drunken night out, riding a motorcycle, having casual sex, and doing something “bad.” Not a simple feat for a “good girl.”
To help guide her along this unconventional journey, Chloe enlists the help of Redford ‘Red’ Morgan, a heavily tattooed handyman and undercover artist with a motorcycle. It seems he’s the perfect guy for the job. But as the two get closer, Chloe starts to learn of Red’s story and see past his rough exterior.
2. The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst
If you’re looking for a whimsical, feel-good read to warm your cold heart, The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst is the perfect book for you. The story follows Kiela, an introverted, antisocial librarian who is forced to flee her library (and town) when a revolution begins. With the help of her sidekick (and only friend), Caz, a sentient spider plant, she gathers the precious spellbooks she’s been guarding for the past decade and sets sail to her childhood home, which just so happens to sit on a remote island.
When she arrives, Kiela plans to keep to herself as much as possible, as she’s done for the last ten years. However, this proves to be difficult, as her nosy, albeit handsome, neighbor just won’t seem to take a hint. Not to mention, she needs money to survive…
So, using recipes from her late parents’ old recipe book (and the many spellbooks she brought with her), she opens a magical “jam shop” out of her home, from which she also begins to sell illegal spells unbeknownst to her neighbors.
As its synopsis claims, “Like a Hallmark rom-com full of mythical creatures and fueled by cinnamon rolls and magic, The Spellshop will heal your heart and feed your soul.” You can’t find a more picturesque winter book than this one.
3. The Comfort Book by Matt Haig
The Comfort Book by Matt Haig is exactly as it sounds. Like a warm mug of tea, the nonfiction book is essentially a collection of gentle reminders to coddle your tender heart. Each page offers tokens of insight and healing wisdom that ground you in the present moment, connecting you with the little joys in life.
Whether you’re battling seasonal depression or just feeling down in the dumps, this book will encourage you to keep living, dreaming, and trying your best, as brighter days are just around the corner.
4. Wintering by Katherine May
Perhaps one of the more practical books on this list, Wintering by Katherine May is an incredible reminder that winter is a necessary, oftentimes healing, season. While many of us might reject the idea of slowing down or spending more time in solitude, May acknowledges winter as a representation of rest and retreat.
Part self-help, part narrative memoir, Wintering explores the significance of one’s own dark or fallow times (regardless of the time of year), referencing literature, mythology, and nature as symbols. Through the book, May encourages readers to accept, not fight, their apathy and grief, while finding beauty and hope in life’s cyclical nature.
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