Books with snow themes to keep you cozy all winter
Snow is a perfect character. It’s relentless, it’s uncaring, it’s destructive, it’s basically unpredictable and, under the right circumstances, devastatingly beautiful. Without a second thought, it will bury, destroy, disturb, upset and entrap. It can soften any noise, or crash like an explosion. It can freeze a person solid. Or in certain cases, protect them.
And in the midst of a real-life blizzard, it can be wonderful meta-reading when it’s snowing inside your book aswell.
Think of “Doctor Zhivago”— who doesn’t envision the magical snow globe of that sleigh ride to Varikyno? Plus Russia. OK, and revolution. But Boris Pasternak knew that snow could also mean romance. Howabout the frozen-in-immortality leopard in the opening of “The Snows of Kilimanjaro”? Ernest Hemingway understood that even imaginary snow could mean death. (And metaphors.)
Whena character looks outside and muses “Ooh, it looks like snow,” that’s when wise readers knowit’s not musing, it’s foreshadowing. And when a character flat out proclaims “winter is coming,” you gotta know that more than a blizzard is on theway. It’s a force that will change everyone’s lives.
Since winter is, indeed, here, make sure all your devices are plugged in, and then, chill out with one of these.
“The Snowman” by Jo Nesbo: OK, this is so creepy. Yes, it’s Norway, so it’s going to be cold, but how sinister is it that on the day of the year’s first snow, a snow man in explicably appears in someone’s
yard. And then, someone in the house disappears. Only her pink scarf remains, and the snow man is now wearing it. And if that’s not bad enough, Inspector Harry Hole discovers it’s not the first time this has happened. A terrific thriller, but if you find a snow man in your front yard, you better hope the kids built him.
“Winter’s Tale” by Mark Helprin: This is a glorious novel, a perfect book for winter reading. Or anytime, really. But the essence-of-winter scenes of the ice-sleigh speeding across the infinitely cold and completely frozen Lake of the Coheeries will carry you off into this magical realism adventure. And there’s somuch more to come. A flying horse, timelines in two different centuries, love and journalism, and justice and magic.
“When Mountains Move” by Julie Cantrell: This book is gorgeous. We follow a World War II-era family as they learn to farm in the beautiful and unpredictable Rocky Mountains —where Mil lie Reynolds has buried a dark secret. As the winter snows set in and choices weigh heavy, every path leads to pain. But Millie will do anything to protect the ones she loves. Eventually, she learns to rely on the mountains to showher theway.
“Smilla’s Sense of Snow” by Peter Hoeg: This came out in 1995, and I am still haunted by it, maybe one of the first Scandinavian-set mysteries I read. Fascinatingly constructed and so chillingly compelling. Remember how innovative the title was? Peter Hoeg’s Nordic noir groundbreaker is the story of a young boywho supposedly fell to his death in the Copenhagen snow. A Greenlander named Smilla tracks downthe killer and, as the description says, “an explosive secret takes her back to theworld of ice and snow from which she comes.”
“One By One” by Ruth Ware: I just love Ruth Ware. Her latest is a perfect contemporary take on an Agatha Christie novel, and it’s somuch fun to read. We all knowthe “group of people trapped in a chalet in a snowstorm in the mountains” routine, and yet, this one is so twisty and so hip with an undercurrent of rich techie millionaires and millionaires-to-be. And as they say, tensions simmer. There’s an avalanche, and the electricity goes out, and there’s nothing to eat, and the one thing you don’t want to do is go outside. Oops, too late.
“Snow Falling on Cedars” by David Guterson: One of the most cinematic books I’ve ever read— touching, poignant, gorgeous and surrounded by this feeling of enveloping, peaceful snow on an island in Puget Sound. In this heartbreaking story, David Guterson created a tense legal thriller wrapped in tragic history, and all these years later, “Snow Falling on Cedars” is still the cold standard.