Cozy Winter Reads

When the weather outside is frightful, there's nothing more delightful than curling up with a great book. Jim's picked the coziest, most atmospheric reads for those long winter nights — grab a blanket and hot cocoa.

Published March 27, 2026

1

The House in the Cerulean Sea

by TJ Klune

4/5

Linus Baker is a by-the-book caseworker at the Department in Charge of Magical Youth. When he's sent to a mysterious orphanage on a remote island to evaluate six dangerous magical children and their enigmatic caretaker Arthur, Linus must decide whether to follow the rules or follow his heart.

2

The Night Circus

by Erin Morgenstern

4/5

The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped tents awaits an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. Behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway between two young magicians trained since childhood to duel.

3

A Man Called Ove

by Fredrik Backman

4/5

Meet Ove. He's a curmudgeon — the kind of man who points at people he dislikes as if they were burglars caught outside his window. He has staunch principles, strict routines, and a short fuse. But behind the cranky exterior there is a story and a sadness. When a boisterous young family moves in next door, Ove's well-ordered solitary world turns upside down.

4

The Hobbit

by J.R.R. Tolkien

5/5

Bilbo Baggins is a hobbit who enjoys a comfortable, unambitious life. But his contentment is disturbed when the wizard Gandalf and a company of thirteen dwarves arrive on his doorstep to whisk him away on an unexpected journey to raid the treasure hoard of Smaug the Magnificent.

5

Piranesi

by Susanna Clarke

5/5

Piranesi's house is no ordinary building. Its rooms are infinite, its corridors endless, its walls lined with thousands of statues. Within it are an ocean, clouds, and tides. Piranesi lives there, cataloguing its wonders. But when messages begin to appear, he must unravel the mystery of who he is and how he came to be there.

6

The Secret History

by Donna Tartt

4/5

A group of eccentric classics students at an elite Vermont college become so obsessed with Greek ideals of beauty and perfection that they cross a terrible moral boundary. A reverse murder mystery that reveals the killing on page one, then unravels the why.

7

Circe

by Madeline Miller

5/5

In the house of Helios, god of the sun, a daughter is born — but Circe is a strange child, not powerful like her father nor viciously alluring like her mother. Turning to the world of mortals for companionship, she discovers a power forbidden to the gods: witchcraft. Zeus banishes her to a deserted island, where she hones her craft and encounters legends of mythology.

8

The Midnight Library

by Matt Haig

4/5

Between life and death there is a library, and within that library, the shelves go on forever. Every book provides a chance to try another life you could have lived. Nora Seed finds herself in the Midnight Library, where she can live as many other lives as she wishes.