CRP's Blog

With this winter season gearing up to be one of the coldest yet, it’s best to bundle up in front of the fire and read away. Find out what books remind the CRP staff of winter and get some great recommendations below. On a side note: How did nobody suggest Game of Thrones? Winter is coming, anybody? #CRPreads

My daughter Olive is requesting Olive, the Other Reindeer at bedtime these days, so that’s been the winter read on repeat at our house. She loves reading about another Olive, and I love the fun storyline and adorable illustrations. Win-win! —Caitlin Eck, publicity manager

One of my favorite wintertime books has always been The Catcher in the Rye. Not only is the book set in the days before Christmas, but I’m pretty sure I also read it for the first time as a teenager in December. So I inevitably find myself thinking about Holden Caulfield whenever there’s that first dense, snowy chill in the air. I’ve never been to New York City for the holidays, but I have a feeling I’d be terribly disappointed if I showed up there and it wasn’t, somehow, the late 1940s when I got off the plane.  —Allison Felus, production manager

Last winter I read Nickolas Butler’s Shotgun Lovesongs. Now, a year later, when I think of this book the first thing that comes to mind is the descriptions of Wisconsin winters. And all the snow. (So much snow.) It makes me want to don a well-worn flannel shirt and stare out my window at an icy landscape while listening to Bon Iver. And apparently that’s not a coincidence. —Ellen Hornor, project editor

First, Harry Potter is the ultimate winter read because it’s the most magical book of all, perfect for the season. However, I also have fond memories of reading The Kingkiller Chronicles a few winters ago. I read it on a sunny winter day, sitting in front of huge windows, and pretended that I was on a beach somewhere. Hopefully that still counts as a winter read? —Emily Lewis, editorial and marketing assistant

It’s not a single book, but I always associate Jonathan Kellerman’s Alex Delaware series with winter. Alex and co. live in Southern California and rarely, if ever, do they have to wear something heavier than a sweater and jacket, but for a number of years there would be a new Delaware novel published in late fall. And that meant on Christmas morning I’d find a gift-wrapped hardcover waiting for me under the tree and I’d spend part of my winter holidays catching up with Alex, Robin, Spike, Blanche, Milo, Rick, and whatever crime they found themselves involved in. Footnote: The new pub months are now in February. I miss not having the newest Kellerman under the Christmas tree.  —Mary Kravenas, marketing manager

Not a traditional “winter read,” but when I go to my parents’ house for Christmas I always camp out in front of a hallway bookshelf, looking at the books from my childhood. I usually read through the short paperback picture book Two Pesos for Catalina. (I just googled it now and read the Kirkus review from 1961.) Catalina has two pesos to spend at the market, and as she’s looking at all of her options she sings “Two pesos for Catalina, two pesos for Catalina to spend.” I still sing that phrase (to myself) sometimes when I’m shopping. —Meaghan Miller, senior publicist

I don’t really have a go-to book that I always read in the wintertime, but a handful of much-loved novels set in cold northern places come to mind: The Shipping News (Annie Proulx), Snow Falling on Cedars (David Guterson), The Yiddish Policeman’s Union (Michael Chabon), The Bird Artist (Howard Norman), and The Lighthouse Road (Peter Geye). I’m sure I’ll soon add to this list the latest book, Wintering—kind of on the nose for a winter read—from Geye, who’s my college writing mentor and friend. He’s a wonderful writer, and I hope to finally start reading that over the holidays. During midwestern winters, I find it too depressing to read about warm places. Better to lean into the cold. —Lindsey Schauer, project editor

There’s no predicting the whims of a toddler, so I just rolled with it when my older son decided we needed to read Ezra Jack Keats’s The Snowy Day every day for about a week and a half this past August. Now that the Christmas lights have gone up in the neighborhood, I’m reaching for it again in anticipation of sharing a fun snowy day of our own soon. But I’ll offer to keep his snowball in the freezer if he wants, instead of his pocket. —Michelle Williams, managing editor

-compiled by Emily Lewis