Starting my winter book-stack: what should I include?

[doyoulikemyyams]

I'm moving from an equatorial country to the Scottish Highlands next month, and so I'm putting in some leg-work to prepare myself for winter after not experiencing one for years!

I want to have a stack of books to work through on cold, dark evenings, and would love your recommendations for what to include...

Generally I love:

• Dysfunctional / multi-generational family stories
• Good-quality mysteries (by which I mean Gone Girl can get in the bin, but Fingersmith was a win)
• Essay collections written by women
• Big fat tomes!

I love Anne Patchett, Zadie Smith, Barbara Kingsolver, Joan Didion, Sayaka Murata, Katherine Arden...

What would you add to a stack of books designed to get someone through this winter in a cosy, cold-weather, wintery way?

Not quite what you normally read but I highly recommend
Kindered by Octavia Butler
Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier
However both books have strong female characters and are obviously written by women!
I only have yo say about the Octavia Butler book, that it's been written in the 1970's and it does show in the writing style. But I still think it's a page turner!

@DancefloorAcrobatics wonderful! Totally up for adventuring out of my usual genres – will definitely check these out!

Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano might tick your boxes.

New York Times audio has a great book review programme and I’m discovering lots through there.

www.nytimes.com/audio/app/2023/10/13/books/review/the-books-were-looking-forward-to-for-the-rest-of-the-year.html?referringSource=sharing

The God of the Woods sounds like a multigenerational dysfunctional family mystery and sounds great!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/God-Woods-once-generation-forget/dp/0008663793

Have you tried Elena Ferante (her famous trilogy in Naples), Rachel Cusk or Deborah Levy?

Or some of the Kate Atkinson mysteries? They’re literary and brilliant, such as “Case Histories” or “One Good Turn”.

enjoy!

For multi-generational family stories:

Jane Smiley's Hundred Years Trilogy and the famous Cazalet Chronicles by EJ Howard (although only the first four - the fifth is a travesty to be avoided), The Friendly Ones by Philip Hensher, The Corrections by Jonathan Frantzen and The Shipping News by E Annie Proulx. Also Pachinko by Min Jin Lee and The Makioka Sisters by Jumichiro Tanizaki.

For good quality mysteries:

The Observations and Gillespie and I by Jane Harris (second is not quite a mystery but a great read), also Stone's Fall by Iain Pears, and the old classic My Cousin Rachel by Daphne Du Maurier.

Essays aren't really my thing and I guess you've read the ones by Ann Patchett (one of my favourite authors too) so no advice there!

I also love big fat tomes though. How about:

Sacred Games by Vikram Chandra
A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth

I've always been drawn to fiction set in the Indian subcontinent as you can see

Oh and good luck with your move. Sounds like a very different lifestyle but hopefully will be great!

I should have also recommended Sunset Song, the first part of A Scots Quair by Lewis Grassic Gibbon. Compulsory reading for pretty much every Scottish school pupil when i was growing up. It's set in rural NE Scotland and is a fantastic book.

Oh my, oh my, this is so exciting!

@ramonaquimby I've been eyeing Hello Beautiful for a while – might actually start that now instead of waiting for winter!

@Adatewithmyself the NYT audio programme sounds like a dream of a listen. I've got a lot of cleaning to do before I leave, so that'll be a nice accompaniment to keep me going.

And of course, Kate Atkinson! Have heard so many good reviews of her stuff but never dived in. Oddly I found My Beautiful Friend a bit bland (despite everyone I've ever met loving it) so haven't returned to Ferante, but maybe one day...

@highlandcoo are you a highlander in username only? This set of recs sounds like someone who's done a few winters in the Highlands already 😂What a goldmine - thank you so much!

Some Scottish recommendations.

Another vote for Sunset Song and the entire A Scots Quair by Lewis Grassic Gibbon.

Have you read any Dorothy Dunnet? They are very popular on here. Depending where you are in the Highlands you will recognise a few of the locations in King Hereafter in particular, which is based on the real life of Macbeth (ignore what you know from Shakespeare, it was completely fictional).

Robert Louis Stevenson's novels are a bit boys own adventure but still fun. John Buchan would scratch the same itch in a slightly more modern way, try The Thirty-Nine Steps.

Shorter but Scottish and dysfunctional Morvern Callar by Alan Warner or O Caledonia by Elspeth Barker. Or Lanark (this one ismore of a chunky read) or Poor Things by Alasdair Gray (much better than the film).

Less well known Scottish authors worth looking at include George Mackay Brown and Neil Gunn. Any bookshop in Scotland will have a well stocked Scottish section.

And being topical, a dramatisation of Amy Liptrot's memoir The Outrun is about to come out starring Saoirse Ronan. The book is fantastic.

@doyoulikemyyams no I am Scottish but a lowlander tbh, however I've spent a lot of time up the west coast of Scotland, love it there (and lowlandcoo didn't sound as good). I should have been a Beltie really

If you like dysfunctional families, I recommend:

Don't Let's Go To The Dogs Tonight
Educated
Running With Scissors
The Glass Castle

and the brilliantly written, cruelly funny but heartwrenching Patrick Melrose novels. Never Mind is the first. Then Bad News, Some Hope, Mother's Milk and At Last. Imo the first two are the strongest.

Non fiction:
The Five (about the lives of the Ripper's victims) is good
The Suspicions of Mr Whicher is a true crime historical mystery - brilliantly written and engrossing

How about some atmospheric classics like Jekyll & Hyde, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, The Moonstone?
The Little Stranger (same author as Fingersmith) is good.

Have you read Demon Copperhead yet? My book of the year, by miles.

I will add it Cemetery of Forgotten Book series by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. Also Babel by F R Kuang, very long and slightly odd but interesting.

Covenant of Water - Abraham Verghese
The Nightingale - Kristin Hannah
The Women - Kristin Hannah

Echo many recommendations here. Just finished the Cemetery of Lost Books series by Carlos Ruis Zafon. Excellent. Another recommendation for Paschinko too.

In terms of intergenerational drama / stories I enjoy Anne Tyler and just about to try Barbara Kingsolver. Quite like Elizabeth Strout too. Just about to try Babel and Dorothy Dunnett (based on threads on here) has been a delight.

Kate Atkinson - Life after Life, God in Ruins matches your brief too. And I really enjoyed the Shrines of Gaiety although more mixed reviews by others. I loved her Jackson Brodie series for thoughtful crime series. She is a superb, witty and insightful but understated writer.

Am about to dip my toes into a new Kate Morton book too. Read some of her earlier work and enjoyed them at the lighter end of the spectrum.

Good luck and report back on what you choose/enjoy. Have found so many good reads via this site.

Homecoming - Kate Morton

Jonathan Franzen 'Crossroads'.
Just absolute perfection of an inter generational family drama.

Isabel Allende! Try House of the Spirits

Also anything by Laura Shepherd Robinson - The Square of Sevens is good.

The Outlander Series by Diana Gabaldon, starting off in the Scottish Highlands and ending in North Carolina during the Amerucan Revolution. It's multi generational and all of the 9 books are tombs 😃. I prefer them on audible as Davina Porter the narrator ir so good at reading them.

The Son - Phillip Meyer
4 3 2 1 - Paul Auster
The Neapolitan series - Elena Ferrante

Anything by Penelope Fitzgerald

Anything by Mitch Alborn. Really thought provoking and very moving but also life affirming.

I've just finished Long Island Compromise by Taffy Brodesser-Akner which is very funny, very dysfunctional and very multi-generational - can recommend!

Holy moly, crew, look at all of these! My bank balance is going to suffer terribly 😂

A few recommendations of things I've read before, but mostly new to me – how exciting!

All My Mothers by Joanna Glen.
I loved this book so much! Very dysfunctional family vibe.

Dark Matter by Michelle Paver
The Winter Ghosts by Kate Mosse
Anything by Paul Theroux
My ultimate winter comfort read though is Lord of the Rings :)

@adatewithmyself Thanks for the tip. I have the NYT subscription but didn't know about the audio side.