r/suggestmeabook • u/scaredbabyy • 14h ago
Winter / “Holiday Season” Books with depth to make NYC winter tolerable
I love living in NYC but I find the winter so depressing, especially that January to March stretch that feels endless. It can be hard to love this city in the depth of winter when everything is gray and dead, and going outside feels like punishment. I've lived in NY for most of my life and still hate the winter.
I'm currently reading The Lovers by Paolo Cognetti and I really love the atmosphere it's built; this loving depiction of the alps and the people who find refuge there. There's a bittersweetness to it that is really resonating with me. I'm looking for books that ruminate on both the sentimentality and the harshness of NYC winter, and/or focus on the quirks and lives of it's residents during that season.
I'm looking for books of any genre that leave you feeling a bit wistful but I'm not looking for stuff that's too cutesy and no YA, please. Thanks!
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u/ardent_hellion 9h ago
Edith Wharton is my current go-to. You could check out some of her short stories and then move to the novels if you enjoy them!
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u/mumblemuse 13h ago
Winter’s Tale by Mark Helprin — you’ll never look at Grand Central Terminal the same way again!
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u/NOLApanam Bookworm Librarian Opinionated 12h ago
Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk by Kathleen Rooney
Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote
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u/No-Pizza4014 4h ago
This book helped me but maybe because it was a “well it could be colder” feeling for my Chicago winters but I loved “the bear and the nightingale” by Katherine Arden
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u/ebals18 13h ago
Okay I am a big winter lover (my apologies) - I don’t know if all of these will be exactly what you’re looking for as far as setting (i.e., urban areas), but here are some things that felt like excellent winter reads to me:
- Bellweather Rhapsody by Kate Racculia: this is about a group of high school students that get snowed in at an old hotel while they’re there for a performing arts contest. It has a little bit of a mystery but would say it’s more character driven than anything else. This was a surprise hit for me a few years ago, I read it in December and thought it was the perfect midwinter read.
- The Memoirs of Stockholm Sven by Nathaniel Ian Miller: this is about a Swedish frontiersman and the family/friends he (reluctantly) has relationships with while desperately trying to live in solitude in the wilderness. Funny and emotional!
- City of Thieves by David Benioff: one of my favorites. Short and punchy, about two men in the winter in Soviet Russia on an ill fated errand from a military colonel. It is funny and heartbreaking and so good.
- Peace Like a River*** ***by Leif Enger: I have a real soft spot for this book. I read it in high school with a great teacher, but I’ve reread it as an adult and also really enjoyed it. It’s about a family searching for one of their children after he goes on the run after getting in some legal trouble. There are some religious themes in the book but it’s not preachy or anything (I’m not religious at all). Lot of this takes place in winter so there are some good wintery scenes.