Winter Reading List 2022

Holy winter has it been COLD so far this year. I can barely walk outside without my cheeks feeling like they’re going to freeze off my face. Even in the South, it’s been biting…

Needless to say, I’ve been spending more time indoors than normal, and what better to do than pick up a new book?

Here are some of our recent favorites to consider adding to your list, and please do share your recommendations as well. 🙂

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, V.E. Schwab

This time-bending story is speculative, lyrical, and oh-so-engrossing. A title that made it onto nearly every 2021 book list, Addie LaRue is brimming with adventure, immortality, loneliness, love, art, beauty, and cruelty. Prepare to be captivated.

This Is How It Always Is, Laurie Frankel

This story about a family raising four boys and a transgender child will crack your heart open — it features, funny, witty dialogue, relatable characters all around, and big emotions. An important and eye-opening book that I’ve personally recommended to everyone I know… and now to you.

Things You Would Know If You Grew Up Around Here, Nancy Wayson Dinan

This evocative book (reminiscent of Where the Crawdads Sing) about a young girl’s experience during a Texas storm and its aftermath is both compelling and beautifully crafted. With a cadence that reflects the swift ferocity of the storm as well as the languorous beauty of the landscape it ravished, this book is lush with naturalism and emotion.

Ariadne, Jennifer Saint

If you loved Circe and The Song of Achilles (🙋🏻‍♀️), go ahead and do yourself a favor and get a copy of Ariadne. One of the recent releases in the “feminist retellings of classic mythology” titles, this will not disappoint. A page-turning book about the intertwined fates of two sisters, Ariadne is filled with dazzling prose, suspense, and power both quiet and resounding.

Malibu Rising, Taylor Jenkins Reid

The latest from the wonderful Taylor Jenkins Reid, Malibu Rising is a riveting dysfunctional family saga set in the 1980s — from fame to the everyday, intimate and quirky sibling dynamics to an annual blowout party, and with Reid’s characteristic dash of suspense, this exciting yet personal story screams of summer glory (aka — get your summer beach reach fix here).

Detransition, Baby, Torrey Peters

Detransition, Baby follows three women whose lives are turned upside down by an unintended pregnancy. A provocative, modern, highly acclaimed book about motherhood, womanhood, gender, and messy relationships, one reviewer exclaimed that it “updates and transcends the Sex and the City model, while fully delivering its many satisfactions.”

Carrying On, Brittany Clair

Yes, this is my book… and yes, I’m shamelessly self-promoting it! I wrote this book while I was pregnant with my second (partly because I’d read every other pregnancy book out there, hah). There are nine chapters, each of which is a deep dive into the history, science, and current advice regarding a different topic (morning sickness, obstetric ultrasound, birth plans, induction, etc.). It’s meant to be an open invitation to reconsider much of what we expect and assume about prenatal health and maternity care in this country.

Cloud Cuckoo Land, Anthony Doerr

This book is a tapestry of different stories spanning from centuries past to the future — it’s transporting, mesmerizing, and ambitious. Critics are hailing it as a masterpiece that defies genre and “will leave you in awe.”

The Paper Palace, Miranda Cowley Heller

A love story set at a summer home in Cape Cod, this book is rich with secrets, sea breezes, and shadows. Described as “sultry,” “beguiling,” “nail-biting,” and “a fever dream of a novel” by book critics, this Reese’s Book Club Pick will draw you in like quicksand. (Note that this book contains depictions of trauma/assault.)

Somebody’s Daughter: A Memoir, Ashley C. Ford

This powerful memoir is as important as it is beautifully crafted: “Somebody’s Daughter steps into the world of growing up a poor Black girl in Indiana with a family fragmented by incarceration, exploring how isolating and complex such a childhood can be. As Ashley battles her body and her environment, she embarks on a powerful journey to find the threads between who she is and what she was born into, and the complicated familial love that often binds them.” (This book contains depictions of assault/trauma.)

Crossroads, Jonathan Franzen

Jonathan Franzen’s latest book is being heralded as his best: a “pleasure bomb of a novel… New prospects are what keep Crossroads so engrossing, each section expanding on and deepening the poignancy of what has come before… Few writers can take human contradiction and make it half as entertaining and intimate as Franzen does… A magnificent portrait of an American family on the brink of implosion… Crossroads is Act I of what’s bound to be an American classic.” ~Lauren Mechling, Vogue

Good Company, Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney

This character-driven story captures the vivid and mundane with respect to contemporary art, friendship, parenthood, and marriage. A book about what happens (and what doesn’t) when a secret comes to light, Good Company is a hopeful, warm, and meandering exploration of the highs and lows of middle age.

Lifespan: Why We Age — and Why We Don’t Have To, David Sinclair with Matthew LaPlante

A stunning book about the science of aging — and where it looks to be heading — Lifespan will change the way you look at… a lot. Covering topics ranging from cell biology to the mechanics of genetic degeneration and to how often to eat to supplements, this fun and provocative book is the perfect blend of anthropology, science, medicine, and self-help.

Matrix, Lauren Groff

OMG everyone is raving about this book — here’s how NPR describes it: “A radiant novel about the 12th-century poet and mystic Marie de France. . . Groff richly imagines Marie’s decades of exile in a royal convent, which she eventually leads. A charged novel about female ambition.”

Okay — I think that’s enough for the time being… aka enough to keep you busy for a while, LOL. Let us know what’s on your reading list in the comments section — we’ll be back with another round come the summer. 😎 📚