Decent winter read

[tangofan]

Can anyone recommend a good contemporary fiction winter read, not necessarily Christmas themed-though I don't mind that, just not really into the fluffy chick-lit types out there, would like something better - anyone got any suggestions?

The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters. Good Winter read.

The Siege by Helen Dunmore. It's about the siege of Leningrad so not cozy by any stretch of the imagination but very cold and totally gripping.

Other books I would recommend reading in winter are The Shipping News by E Annie Proulx and Miss Smilla's Feeling For Snow by ... some Danish chap whose name I forget (Hoeg?). Both chilly and involving but quite old and v popular at the time so you might well have read them before. Some of Angela Carter's short stories are magically wintry too.

I always think that a mystery or a ghost story or something Victorian is best for a Winter night.

Anthony Horrowitz's 'The House Of Silk' is his take on a Sherlock Holmes story and isn't bad at all, although it doesn't all ring true.

CJ Sansom's 'Dominion' is set in the smog of London around 1952 and is pretty dark, although not an especially challenging read. I really quite enjoyed it.

Lots of people like Sarah Waters and she's certainly the right kind of 'mood' but I personally really dislike her books.

Andrew Taylor's, 'The American Boy' is pretty good for a Winter evening with hot chocolate.

Will keep thinking...

Ooh just remembered, 'The Shining.'

If you don't mind YA books, then the Northern Lights trilogy or The Box Of Delights fit the bill marvellously :)

Kate Mosse - The Winter Ghosts

A Winter Book : Selected Stories by Tove Jansson.

I was looking at this in Waterstones today and remembered your post. Looks good.

The Snow Child ~ split our book club but lots really enjoyed it.

The Snow Child ~ split our book club but lots really enjoyed it.

Vanished by Tim Weaver ~ contemporary thriller. Nothing to do with winter but def. not a chick lit book. I've just read it and couldn't put it down so it might not take you very long though.

Frostbitten by Kelley Armstrong - though it is part of a series it can be read on its own.

Can I ask about Vanished? Looked at the reviews and it sounds superb, but does it have any horrid storyline involving children, because I cannot bear books that do! I love psychological thrillers, detective stories, ghost stories and the such like, but why do they have to bring kids into it?

It does :( I'd avoid it then if I were you. I didn't know beforehand and am like you on that front and can't bear reading about it, even in total fiction.

I'm currently reading Kate Mosse The Winter Ghosts and finding it a little boring. Last month I read Helen Howe's Black is the Colour (mystery/suspense) recommended by a friend, and a lot of it is set through the winter months and really captures the sense of winteriness and a bleak Christmas! If you prefer classics, anything by Dickens does it for me over the festive period.

For a nice thick book to keep you going for a while- Jonathon Strange and Mr. Norrel- so so worth it, the price, the time, the strain in your arms!

The Children's Book by A.S. Byatt is shorter but still quite long and so rich and warm and layered.

I second Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrel (although not sure what a "winter read" is supposed to be like)

If you fancy a bit of euro crime try the ice princess by comilla leckberg