After a day of braving the cold to shop for gifts or groceries for a fantastic holiday meal, there’s nothing better than curling up at home with a warm blanket and a good book. Here are a few cool suggestions from our backlist to pair with a cozy armchair and a crackling fire.

 

Journey into Christmas and Other Stories

by Bess Streeter Aldrich

“For those who cherish the folksy, lamplit, teakettle-warmth of Bess Streeter Aldrich’s stories, this year’s gift problem is solved.”—New York Herald Tribune Book Review

The Blizzard Voices

Ted Kooser

“In just 64 pages, Kooser brings the people of the great blizzard back to life. You can feel the chill in these pages, hear the voices as if you and the speaker are huddled next to the stove, talking of recent events while the windows rattle in the January wind.”—Nebraska Life

 

Winter Thunder

by Mari Sandoz

“A vivid portrayal of human nature.”—Library Journal

How Winter Began

Joy Castro

“To read Joy Castro’s stories is to witness the world as beautiful and horrible, light and dark, and to see people who are both lovely and ugly. Joy Castro will hold your heart.”—Natalie Sypolt, Los Angeles Review

 

Winter’s Child

by Dea Trier Mørch
Translated by Joan Tate

“Mørch’s gripping narrative of life and death at its most elementary stages is an unusually powerful and honest tale.”—Chicago Tribune

Alexander’s Bridge

by Willa Cather

“A bridge builder, teetering between youth and maturity, between a mistress in London and a wife in Boston, loses his balance when his greatest structure collapses.”—New York Times Book Review