So… I’m not good at seasonal recommendations, let’s be honest here. However the winter is a season in which most people are curled up and reading, stuck inside. So I have a few ideas for these (I’m again going to avoid Harry Potter, everyone will be recommending Harry Potter, lets get real)!
Top 5 is of course created by Lainey at GingerReadsLainey. And as usual these are not in any specific order.
5) Wool by Hugh Howey
This book, and the series really, will pull you in and just envelope you.
I have yet to finish it, Dust is literally collecting dust because I don’t want to finish it. I’m honestly scared of what I’ll find. However the first and second are so atmospheric and you can’t stop reading because you have to know what’s happening. Great for long spells sitting while it snows or while it’s just too damn cold to do anything else.
Also, side note, I found an edition that had a sticker on it proclaiming it ‘The next Hunger Games!’. No. Just no. It’s not YA and definitely not for young audiences of any kind, and it’s got nothing to do with Hunger Games. Seriously, WTF is that?
4) Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg
This is another book to combat the cold (are you seeing a theme here in my choices?). This book takes place over a series of years, but most of the stories and scenes are summery. Fannie Flagg’s writing really captures the South, and shows it in a way that gives us the good with the bad. The racism, the blind religion, and the cruelty that breeds while giving us the kindness, and just general family and friend atmosphere it can have. When I need a reminder about why I stay where I’m at, and why I can take some pride in my heritage I look to the good things this book reminds me of.
3) The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly by Stephanie Oakes
This book has some powerful scenes and some very thoughtful
passages. This is one that you’ll want to read when you’re in the mood to reflect. Long after you put it down it’ll take control of your thoughts, at least it did to me. I mulled and pondered it for quite a while after I finished it. Not to mention my complete inability to put it down while reading it. It’s just a sad and haunting story about a girl and what she came from and possibly where she’s going. Something I’ll be revisiting soon, I hope.
2) Blue is the Warmest Color by Julie Maroh
Here is another one to really play with your emotions. This graphic novel is a quick read but one that left me teary eyed at the end. It’s a story about acceptance and finding one’s self. Told from the perspective of letters of a woman who has passed on to her partner it gives us a haunting tale of growing up. I ended this one just muttering over and over ‘No, no, noooo’ in the most anguished of tones. There is a movie, and I’m going to be honest, I have watched it because I’m scared.
1) Hogfather by Terry Pratchett
The auditors of reality have decided that Hogfather (the Santa of Discworld) needs to be killed. Death and Susan go on a quest to find and save the Hogfather, exploring the reasons why we have and need figures like this and where they come from. I adore Terry Pratchett, have we touched base on that lately? If not we will again, I truly love his stories and they always carry a meaning or moral behind them. Hogfather especially, for me at least, strikes a lot of notes that I will cherish. I can’t wait to watch the movie (hopefully already done by the time this goes up) and I want to have a Movie vs Book post up about it shortly after. So good, this is definitely one of my required winter reads.
Sarah Evermotion's Book Thoughts 
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