Time to Read: 10 Fiction Books to Buy Now for Those Cold Winter Evenings

Time to Read: 10 Fiction Books to Buy Now for Those Cold Winter Evenings

If you’re on LinkedIn and you follow me, Yvonne, you know that I talk about fiction as a way to spark creativity for nonfiction writers. I am not alone in that feeling. Those of us who study story and how it works often mention the value of reading fiction to spark your inner sci-fi hero. Who is, after all, just you.

Learning the craft of telling a good story, story narration, I say, and story craft, is a fine pursuit for all of us. Whether we’re writing the great American novel, a sci-fi series, or a book about our business and our life, where we need to share stories, learning the craft is tantamount to learning how to climb a mountain.

Oh, the trials and tribulations we have on our mountain. The joy. The sunshine and rain. The thunder and lightning. The SATISFACTION we enjoy when we reach the top.

The journey is our story. It’s more than the thunder and lightning. More than the monsters who chase us, roaring their fearsome roars, drool dripping from their mighty fangs.

The journey is our invitation to the reader to learn with us. To let us mentor them. Because the only hero of our story is the reader.

Therefore, I am suggesting 10 books you might grab off of Amazon or wherever you buy your books and enjoy this winter during cold afternoons when the snow glistens on the windowsill and your fake fireplace is warming your feet. (Or if you live in a warmer climate, you can just go outside and read on your lanai.)

1. Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

A mysterious island. An abandoned orphanage. A strange collection of peculiar photographs. I found this novel intriguing and unforgettable. It blends fiction and photography in a heart-thumping reading experience. At first reading, I fully bought into the story. I found the images in the book alluring and a little disturbing. More than that, they seemed real. Get the entire series. You’ll have hours of reading pleasure.

2. The Lost Book of Bonn by Brianna Labuskes

An exciting historical mystery that follows a librarian’s quest to find a long-lost medieval manuscript. Emmy Clarke is just a librarian, but in 1946, the Library of Congress sent her to Germany to help catalog literature plundered by the Nazis. While pursuing these books, she discovers a book of poetry with an inscription. “To Annelise, my brave Edelweiss Pirate.” This book takes her far and away from her work, and in her free time, she is determined to find either the person who wrote the inscription or Annelise. You will not be disappointed by this gripping tale of Nazis, books, and love.

3. Relic by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

Relic is the debut collaboration between Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. Their website tells me the novel has been translated into over a dozen languages. It was also made into a major feature film by Paramount. (don’t bother finding the film; it’s awful; it will only disappoint you)

“Just days before a massive exhibition opens at the popular New York Museum of Natural History, visitors are being savagely murdered in the museum’s dark hallways and secret rooms. Autopsies indicate that the killer cannot be human…”

Of course, the museum’s directors decide to hold the splashy bash to celebrate the new exhibition despite the murders.

Museum researcher Margo Green is the hero of this story. She’s amazing! Lincoln and Child have many strong, female characters in their books. That is one reason I love them.

If you aren’t hooked on Pendergast as a character at the end of this book, there is something wrong with you. Well, IMBO.

4. Odd Interlude by Dean Koontz

Featuring Odd Thomas, a short-order cook who communicates with the dead, this book is humorous (Odd Thomas has a great sense of humor, you will LOL sometimes), but also full of mystery and the kind of scary stuff that makes you keep the light on after you go to bed.

THERE’S ROOM AT THE INN. BUT YOU MIGHT NOT GET OUT.

“Nestled on a lonely stretch along the Pacific coast, quaint roadside outpost Harmony Corner offers everything a weary traveler needs—a cozy diner, a handy service station, a cluster of cottages . . . and the Harmony family homestead presiding over it all. But when Odd Thomas and company stop to spend the night, they discover that there’s more to this secluded haven than meets the eye—and that between life and death, there is something more frightening than either.”

Includes a preview of the next novel in the Odd Thomas series: Deeply Odd.

I am such a fan of the Odd Thomas series. I’ve read them more than once and enjoyed each reread. This character is one for the ages. I am only sorry Koontz discontinued the Odd Thomas books.

5. The Ambassador’s Daughter by Pam Jenoff

This historical novel is set in 1919 Paris and follows a young woman caught between duty and love in the aftermath of World War I. Suspense. Surprise. Betrayal. All the elements of a great novel combined with the historical background of a war many of us know little about.

From the website:

“Prologue

“The sun has dropped low beneath the crumbling arches of Lehrter Bahnhof as I make my way across the station. A sharp, late-autumn breeze sends the pigeons fluttering from the rafters and I draw my coat closer against the chill. The crowds are sparse this Tuesday evening, the platforms bereft of the usual commuter trains and their disembarking passengers. A lone carriage sits on the track farthest to the right, silent and dark.

“I had been surprised by the telegram announcing Stefan’s return by rail. There were hardly any trains since the Allies had bombed the lines. At least that’s what the newspapers write—the defunct trains and the British naval blockade are the excuses given for everything, from the lack of new pipes to start the water running again—a problem that has forced us back outside as though it were a century ago—to the impossibility of getting fresh milk. Looking around the desolate station now, I almost believe the excuse.”

6. The Library Thief by Kuchenga Shenjé

A tale of one woman’s journey to finding her place in the world, set in the 1920s and early 1930s, our main character, Florence, persuades her way into Lord Francis Belfield’s home to bind certain books in his library to make them ready for sale. Her place in the world outside, a woman alone, doing a man’s work, and within the manor itself, is tenuous and shadowy.

NPR writes this of this book:

“A 19th-century bookbinder struggles with race and identity in ‘The Library Thief’

“May 10, 202412:50 PM ET By Keishel Williams Hanover Square Press;

“The examination of race and identity can be seen throughout literature, and increasingly today.

“In her debut novel, The Library Thief, Kuchenga Shenjé explores these concepts — and the associated expectations that arise when society demands that every group be neatly categorized. Shenjé delves into the past in this work of historical fiction, posing inquiries about Black people’s lives in the Victorian era.

“In this 19th-century English story, Florence, an ambitious bookbinder, is expelled from her family home by her harsh and unforgiving father for being with a young man. Florence, a clever and savvy woman, persuades Lord Francis Belfield to let her stay at Rose Hall manor by promising to restore the priceless books in his library in time for an impending sale, assuring him that she is just as skilled as her father. Among Lord Belfield’s minimal staff, Florence stands out as an educated, liberal woman.”

Well worth your time during those frigid winter afternoons in January and February.

7. The Women by Kristin Hannah

This shocking book follows three women on their tour as nurses in Vietnam. We don’t hear about the women who were there, in the quagmire and bombs and blood. We hear about the men. Rightly so, but Hannah brings us into the real war. The one that included women, working hand in hand alongside the men.

From the website:

“As green and inexperienced as the men sent to Vietnam to fight, Frankie is overwhelmed by the chaos and destruction of war, as well as the unexpected trauma of coming home to a changed and politically divided America.

“The Women is the story of one woman gone to war, but it shines a light on the story of all women who put themselves in harm’s way to help others. Women whose sacrifice and commitment to their country has all too often been forgotten. A novel of searing insight and lyric beauty, The Women is a profoundly emotional, richly drawn story with a memorable heroine whose extraordinary idealism and courage under fire define a generation.”

I couldn’t put this book down. I felt connected to Frankie, I felt her dismay, her pain, her worry, her tears. It’s time to begin giving women credit for being war heroes too.

8. Believing the Lie by Elizabeth George

A complex mystery novel that will keep you entertained for several days. It’s 610 pages! The story features Inspector Lynley who is called to investigate the suspicious ‘accidental’ death of one Ian Cresswell on the Cumbrian coast. The death is ruled an accidental drowning, leaving Lynley mystified when Bernard Fairclough, the local big deal in the book – you know, the one with all the money – asks him to investigate.

With his friends Simon and Deborah St. James, he leaves no stone unturned. And oh what he finds under those stones! Secrets, lies, and the question of motivation – who had motive to want to murder Cresswell? Suspects abound, of course.

9. Lost and Found by Amy Shojai

 

I’m a bit closer to this series of thrillers. I know Amy Shojai. She was a regular BlogPaws attendee back in the day. We have stayed in touch and support each other’s books. You can watch her Smart Conversation here on the blog, where we discuss the difference between writing fiction and nonfiction (among other writing and publishing things).

I will tell you that Amy knows dogs and cats. She’s been writing about them for many years. Her books are among the few I read that depict animals correctly. I wish more books included pets and other animals since they are a big part of many of our lives, but to do that, the authors should study how Amy writes. I am never screaming at Amy’s books the way I do others. Like this, “A dog wouldn’t do that, you idiot!” Or “You left an elderly dog home alone for 9 hours, and the first thing you do is answer your phone messages? LET THE DAMN DOG OUT!” Sorry, I got carried away.

Here’s the Lost and Found Amazon description, which I think does a great job of introducing this amazing series of books:

“Animal behaviorist September Day protects her broken heart by keeping everyone at arm’s length. Still distraught over her husband’s death in the line of duty, she heads back to her Texas home to launch a dog-training business. But her grief takes a back seat when her autistic nephew goes missing in a freak blizzard.

“Partnering with the boy’s support pup Shadow, September uncovers a shocking conspiracy hiding a deadly “miracle drug.” Hounded by vengeful enemies, including a grieving cop, human and dog must learn to work together and sniff out the source of corruption before more vulnerable kids die.

“Can September and Shadow forge a bond and stop a ruthless conspiracy and relentless killer?

LOST AND FOUND is the first action-packed installment in the gripping September and Shadow series. If you like dark suspense, novice detectives, enemies-to-friends-to-lovers, and courageous animals, then you’ll love Amy Shojai’s roller-coaster thrillers.”

10. 18: A Novel of Ruin and Redemption by J. K. Barnes

The book 18: A Novel of Ruin and Redemption delivers intrigue and mystery that will you on the edge of your seat.

There is ruin here. There is disgrace. Banishment. Golfer Craig Cantwell needs to find redemption, but his path is fraught with broken glass and closed doors. Until a young woman — dealing with serious emotional pain of her own — finds Cantwell and together, with love, determination, and hope, they journey forward.

From the Chapter One: 1978
“Mom, we have to go!”
The boy said it again, louder this time. His mother looked up at him with a dazed look in her eyes. She was bleeding from her nose and her mouth, the left side of her face badly swollen.
* * * *

This, too, is a book that is close to me. We worked with John Barnes to redesign his cover and create a reader’s guide at the back of the book.

• Follow Cantwell through his journey to gain self-respect, as he seeks inner peace and a return to the life he loves. 
• Meet his daughter, Kelly, and watch her struggle with the idea of a dad in her life. Feel her pain and self-doubt when she’s attacked by a man who knows her father well.
• Meet Seth Reade, criminal, prisoner, and personal growth guru with a past more shocking than the evening news.

By the way, when we were working with John Barnes on this book, he gave us a sneak peek into his next book, and we asked him to include Chapter 1 of that next book in 18. It’s sure to grab your attention! John is still working on that next book, but it will come out soon!

I could add 10 more books. And 10 more after that. But it’s I think it’s best to keep my list short enough to entice you. What I’d like from you now, is a list of your own. Share a few favorite books in the comments.

Fiction or nonfiction. And yes, they can be your own. I’m happy to hear about the books you’ve written and would like to share. Or books you’re reading now. Leave a comment with your recommendations for our winter reading list.

p.s. you can also visit your local library to get these books – you don’t have to ‘buy’ all of them!