Could anyone recommend a Wintery or Christmassy novel for book club, please?

[ArtisticGina]

For my next book club, we've agreed to all nominate a wintery or Christmassy feeling book to read over the festive period. But I have no ideas.

It doesn't have to be set at Christmas or in winter. It just needs to be the kind of book you can curl up with on dark winter nights, something you can really get lost in.

We're into quiet literary fiction so nothing too vapid or feel good 😅I'm not after a Christmas-movie-just-in-book-form type of novel.

I think The Luminaries would be perfect but I've read it already.
Do you have any recommendations, please?

What about A Spell of Winter by Helen Dunsmore? Very atmospheric and slightly gothic. It's set at the time of the First World War.

Not read it since it was published so I hope I haven't misremembered it too much!

I love The Box of Delights! I must definitely hunt for my copy. There are some interesting looking novels on the thread that I haven't read that I would like to investigate.

The Winter Spirits, a collection of short stories by various authors. Perfect for snuggling down with in the winter.

Mysteries of Glass by Sue Gee set in 1860 during a bitingly cold winter. This reviewer describes it perfectly:

"She is so descriptive, I could see, hear and even smell the words."

I loved it and have read it several times and need to read it again

I've just bought that based on recommendations

Off to download!

Beat me to it! If OP and her fellow club members are up for children's books, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis or Winter Holiday by Arthur Ransome. The latter is possibly my favourite children's book. I re-read it fairly often.

South Riding by Winifred Holtby, published posthumously in 1936 after her tragically early death from kidney disease. Possibly my favourite book fo all time, any genre. Long, absorbing, wonderful characterisation and evocation of place. There's a pivotal episode where the main character, Sarah Burton, who is the charismatic new Headmistress of a girls' school, cancels lessons for the day and sends the girls out into the snow, but learns the hard way that the farmers of the South Riding can't take a romantic view of the weather as they hunt for their lost lambs. Christmas shopping features too.

Last Christmas, I watched the BBC adaptation of The Box of Delights - that was a nice festive treat. Not relevant to the thread, but I was reminded of it when the book was mentioned here.

I think I will add it to my pre-Christmas reading list - which is mostly quite chick-lit-y - a lot of Trisha Ashley, but also includes the Winter Solstice.

Winter Holiday by Arthur Ransome. The latter is possibly my favourite children's book. I re-read it fairly often.

I was going to say Winter Holiday. What I like about reading Ransome as an adult is that his Lakes and Norfolk books aren't just children's holiday stories. They tell the reader a lot about the life of the region at the time the books were published, and earlier.

Murder on the Orient Express has snow!

Jeannette Winterson's 12 Days of Christmas. Wonderful collection of short stories in a winter/Christmas setting with a mix of modern, historical and fairytale genres. She mixes in recipes and some fabulous personal Christmas stories of her own. I am going to add some of the other suggestions already made to my list as well!

Another Children's classic: The Dark is Rising.

Have your tissues ready for this one

Perfect

Skipping Christmas - John Grisham

Has anyone read Festive Spirits by Kate Atkinson?

Just saw it when googling Christmas books and am sure I have read one of her other books and enjoyed it...

Ghost Stories by M R James - spine chilling for a dark cold winter's night.

For a cosy read, A Redbird Christmas, by Fannie Flagg.

Lucy Gayheart by Willa Cather

Perfect.