Quickie Reviews: Cozy Winter Reads

If summer is the best time for light reads, winter is the best time for cozy ones. Here’s what’s keeping me curled up with endless cups of hot chocolate this month.

Meet the Austins

The first in Madeleine L’Engle’s Austin Family series. 12 year-old Vicky Austin lives happily in a big farmhouse with her parents, three siblings, and two dogs. But the family’s life is turned upside down when they take in an orphan named Maggy. This book reminded me so much of The Boxcar Children, with its great characters and their adventures. A touch paternalistic, but otherwise a charming read.

Bonita Faye

When her abusive husband is killed on a hunting trip, Bonita Faye seizes the opportunity (and Billy Roy’s insurance money) to leave rural Oklahoma for Paris, France. Can Bonita Faye outrun her past, or is she doomed to repeat it? Nothing like a good murder story to keep you warm on a chilly night. I’m not sure I like her as a character, but Bonita Faye definitely knows how to handle herself when the going gets tough.

Annual re-reading

I love the holidays, but they can be so crazy. I spend most of my brain power trying to finish up work projects, shop for presents, make travel plans, etc. that I just don’t have the ability to focus on new books. This is the time of year when I do a lot of re-reading.

Favorite yearly re-reads include Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House series, as well as Pride and Prejudice and Orczy’s The Scarlet Pimpernel.

Which books are keeping you warm this winter?