10 Books on my Winter 2019 TBR

Hello bookworms!

There is something about reading during the winter time that is magical!  During the winter months, you can often find me sitting next to my fireplace with my snuggie & a good book. 

Today I thought I’d share 10 books that are on TBR this upcoming winter..

» Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield

A dark midwinter’s night in an ancient inn on the Thames. The regulars are entertaining themselves by telling stories when the door bursts open on an injured stranger. In his arms is the drowned corpse of a little child.

Hours later the dead girl stirs, takes a breath and returns to life.

Is it a miracle?

Is it magic?

Or can it be explained by science?

Replete with folklore, suspense and romance, as well as with the urgent scientific curiosity of the Darwinian age, Once Upon a River is as richly atmospheric as Setterfield’s bestseller The Thirteenth Tale.

Diane Setterfield’s The Thirteenth Tale is one of my favorite books of all times.  When I heard she was coming out with a new book, I squealed with glee.  Since Setterfield’s second book was a flop (from what I’ve heard as I decided not to read it), I really hope this new book lives up to the amazingness that was The Thirteenth Tale 

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» The Winter of the Witch (Winternight #3) by Katherine Arden

Release Date: January 9, 2018

In the stunning conclusion to the bestselling Winternight Trilogy, following The Bear and the Nightingale and The Girl in the Tower, Vasya returns to save Russia and the spirit realm, battling enemies both mortal and magic.

This book was set to release this past fall, but got pushed back until January.  While I was supper bummed, these books were meant to be read in the winter!  This is the final installment in what has become one of my favorite series ever.

You can read a few of my thoughts on the first book here ⇒ The Bear and the Nightingale

and the second book here ⇒ The Girl in the Tower

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» West (East #2) by Edith Pattou

I am beyond excited that Edith Pattou decided to do a sequel to her book East, which I read last year and adored!  The first book was published all the way back in 2005, so this has been a long time coming for fans that read it back when East was first published.

You can read my mini review for East here ⇒ East by Edith Pattou 

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» Bridge of Clay by Markus Zusak

The breathtaking story of five brothers who bring each other up in a world run by their own rules. As the Dunbar boys love and fight and learn to reckon with the adult world, they discover the moving secret behind their father’s disappearance.

At the center of the Dunbar family is Clay, a boy who will build a bridge—for his family, for his past, for greatness, for his sins, for a miracle.

The question is, how far is Clay willing to go? And how much can he overcome?

ANOTHER book by an author that has written another all time favorite, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.  This book has been highly anticipated for the past 11 years or so by everyone & their Mom.  I’ve been seeing mixed reviews for it, so we shall see which side of the fence I land on.

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» A Spark of Light by Jodi Picoult

The warm fall day starts like any other at the Center—a women’s reproductive health services clinic—its staff offering care to anyone who passes through its doors. Then, in late morning, a desperate and distraught gunman bursts in and opens fire, taking all inside hostage.

After rushing to the scene, Hugh McElroy, a police hostage negotiator, sets up a perimeter and begins making a plan to communicate with the gunman. As his phone vibrates with incoming text messages he glances at it and, to his horror, finds out that his fifteen-year-old daughter, Wren, is inside the clinic.

But Wren is not alone. She will share the next and tensest few hours of her young life with a cast of unforgettable characters: A nurse who calms her own panic in order save the life of a wounded woman. A doctor who does his work not in spite of his faith but because of it, and who will find that faith tested as never before. A pro-life protester disguised as a patient, who now stands in the cross hairs of the same rage she herself has felt. A young woman who has come to terminate her pregnancy. And the disturbed individual himself, vowing to be heard.

Told in a daring and enthralling narrative structure that counts backward through the hours of the standoff, this is a story that traces its way back to what brought each of these very different individuals to the same place on this fateful day.

Jodi Picoult—one of the most fearless writers of our time—tackles a complicated issue in this gripping and nuanced novel. How do we balance the rights of pregnant women with the rights of the unborn they carry? What does it mean to be a good parent? A Spark of Light will inspire debate, conversation . . . and, hopefully, understanding.

I’ve read a handful of Picoult’s books and have enjoyed every one I’ve read thus far.  I’d probably say I enjoyed My Sister’s Keeper, Plain Truth, and Small Great Things the most.  

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» The Clockmaker’s Daughter by Kate Morton

My real name, no one remembers. The truth about that summer, no one else knows.

In the summer of 1862, a group of young artists led by the passionate and talented Edward Radcliffe descends upon Birchwood Manor on the banks of the Upper Thames. Their plan: to spend a secluded summer month in a haze of inspiration and creativity. But by the time their stay is over, one woman has been shot dead while another has disappeared; a priceless heirloom is missing; and Edward Radcliffe’s life is in ruins.

Over one hundred and fifty years later, Elodie Winslow, a young archivist in London, uncovers a leather satchel containing two seemingly unrelated items: a sepia photograph of an arresting-looking woman in Victorian clothing, and an artist’s sketchbook containing the drawing of a twin-gabled house on the bend of a river.

Why does Birchwood Manor feel so familiar to Elodie? And who is the beautiful woman in the photograph? Will she ever give up her secrets?

I attended Morton’s book tour for The Clockmaker’s Daughter while she visited Cincinnati!  I cannot wait to read this one.  I’ve heard it is a slower paced book, which is just what I like to read during the winter months.

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» The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah

Alaska, 1974.
Unpredictable. Unforgiving. Untamed.
For a family in crisis, the ultimate test of survival.

Ernt Allbright, a former POW, comes home from the Vietnam war a changed and volatile man. When he loses yet another job, he makes an impulsive decision: he will move his family north, to Alaska, where they will live off the grid in America’s last true frontier.

Thirteen-year-old Leni, a girl coming of age in a tumultuous time, caught in the riptide of her parents’ passionate, stormy relationship, dares to hope that a new land will lead to a better future for her family. She is desperate for a place to belong. Her mother, Cora, will do anything and go anywhere for the man she loves, even if it means following him into the unknown

At first, Alaska seems to be the answer to their prayers. In a wild, remote corner of the state, they find a fiercely independent community of strong men and even stronger women. The long, sunlit days and the generosity of the locals make up for the Allbrights’ lack of preparation and dwindling resources.

But as winter approaches and darkness descends on Alaska, Ernt’s fragile mental state deteriorates and the family begins to fracture. Soon the perils outside pale in comparison to threats from within. In their small cabin, covered in snow, blanketed in eighteen hours of night, Leni and her mother learn the terrible truth: they are on their own. In the wild, there is no one to save them but themselves.

In this unforgettable portrait of human frailty and resilience, Kristin Hannah reveals the indomitable character of the modern American pioneer and the spirit of a vanishing Alaska―a place of incomparable beauty and danger. The Great Alone is a daring, beautiful, stay-up-all-night story about love and loss, the fight for survival, and the wildness that lives in both man and nature.

A book set in Alaska?  Sounds like the perfect winter read to me!  I was also happy to see this book won the Goodreads Choice Awards for best historical fiction of 2018!

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» The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

Alaska, 1920: a brutal place to homestead, and especially tough for recent arrivals Jack and Mabel. Childless, they are drifting apart–he breaking under the weight of the work of the farm; she crumbling from loneliness and despair. In a moment of levity during the season’s first snowfall, they build a child out of snow. The next morning the snow child is gone–but they glimpse a young, blonde-haired girl running through the trees. This little girl, who calls herself Faina, seems to be a child of the woods. She hunts with a red fox at her side, skims lightly across the snow, and somehow survives alone in the Alaskan wilderness. As Jack and Mabel struggle to understand this child who could have stepped from the pages of a fairy tale, they come to love her as their own daughter. But in this beautiful, violent place things are rarely as they appear, and what they eventually learn about Faina will transform all of them.

Have you ever read a book description and felt like you HAD to read it?  Like there was some type of gravitational pull?  I had never heard about this book until I was looking for a “winter book” to suggest for book club.  There is just something about this book description that is drawing me to this story.  I was super excited to find it at a discount on Book Outlet to boot!

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» Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again…

Working as a lady’s companion, the heroine of Rebecca learns her place. Her future looks bleak until, on a trip to the South of France, she meets Max de Winter, a handsome widower whose sudden proposal of marriage takes her by surprise. She accepts, but whisked from glamorous Monte Carlo to the ominous and brooding Manderley, the new Mrs de Winter finds Max a changed man. And the memory of his dead wife Rebecca is forever kept alive by the forbidding housekeeper, Mrs Danvers…

Not since Jane Eyre has a heroine faced such difficulty with the Other Woman. An international bestseller that has never gone out of print, Rebecca is the haunting story of a young girl consumed by love and the struggle to find her identity.

Since I’m a huge Jane Eyre fan (I think I own 5 copies of the book #SorryNotSorry), Rebecca has been recommended to me a few different times.  Winter time is the perfect time to pick up a more gothic style novel, so I am going to give it a crack this winter season.

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» The Stone Sky (The Broken Earth #3) by

THIS IS THE WAY THE WORLD ENDS… FOR THE LAST TIME.

The Moon will soon return. Whether this heralds the destruction of humankind or something worse will depend on two women.

Essun has inherited the power of Alabaster Tenring. With it, she hopes to find her daughter Nassun and forge a world in which every orogene child can grow up safe.

For Nassun, her mother’s mastery of the Obelisk Gate comes too late. She has seen the evil of the world, and accepted what her mother will not admit: that sometimes what is corrupt cannot be cleansed, only destroyed.

The remarkable conclusion to the post-apocalyptic and highly acclaimed trilogy that began with the multi-award-nominated The Fifth Season.

The Broken Earth series is AMAZING, and I cannot wait to read the 3rd and final book in the series. 

You can read a few of my thoughts on the first book here ⇒ The Fifth Season

and the second book here ⇒ The Obelisk Gate

What books are on your winter TBR?

Have you read any of the books on my list?  If so, what did you think?

Comment below & let me know!