I have my lighthouse sweater on. I have a cozy candle lit. I am ready to tell you about five
books that you should read during the wintertime. Hello, everyone, my name is Olivia, and today I
wanted to recommend you five books that are perfect to read around the wintertime. They
all have this melancholic, very quiet atmosphere and some are actually set during winter, so these
are five books that I would highly recommend that you pick up during a snowy winter day and you curl
up under a blanket and read because they are just perfect reads for around this time of year. Here I
have one translated fiction, one trilogy that you can read because it is set during the wintertime.
I have two historical fictions and one horror slash thriller novel for you to read. So let's
start with the translated fiction. The first book that I have to show you is The Forest of Wool and
Steel by Natsu Miyashita. This was translated from Japanese by Phillip Gabriel. This follows
our main character Tomura, who lives in Japan, and he wants to become a piano tuner. So he embarks on
training in order to become one and this basically chronicles his experience tuning people's pianos
and learning the skill to work with pianos and make them sound as good as possible. It delves
deep into the power of music, and it's just a very quiet novel that doesn't necessarily have a plot.
We simply follow Tomura as he is learning more about the piano industry, as he is learning
more about piano tuning, in general, and the discussions that he has with different musicians
as he's working on their pianos and he's working alongside his trainer. It's just a very beautiful
novel. The writing is stunning, and I just think that it's such a wonderful, quick read
to pick up, and if you're looking for something atmospheric, if you're looking for something that
will transform you into another time and place, I would highly recommend this because it's just
a very soft type of story. It's simply about the love for pianos and the love and time it takes to
create one and care for one. The next book that I have to recommend deals a lot with the wintertime
and it is The Bear and the Nightingale trilogy or I think it's called The Winternight Trilogy,
actually. I only have the first two books in the trilogy because I don't have the third one yet,
but the first one is The Bear and the Nightingale. The next one is The Girl in the Tower, and I
believe the third one is called The Winter of the Witch. So The Bear and the Nightingale trilogy
is probably one of my favorite trilogies of all time. I listened to it entirely on
audiobook and I thought it was absolutely fantastic, very immersive, very atmospheric,
and I just thought it was so completely unique. So it follows our main character, Vasilisa,
who lives in the Russian wilderness with her father and her siblings. Her mother died when she
was very young and her father is now remarrying this woman who is trying to change the entire
atmosphere of their household. Vasilisa is a very spiritual person and she talks to the different
spirits in her house and in her village. but this new stepmother decides to forbid all of that
and that greatly affects the entire village as a whole. So it says, “As the village's defenses
weaken and evil from the forest creeps nearer, Vasilisa must call upon dangerous gifts she has
concealed to protect her family from a threat sprung to life from her nurse's most frightening
tales.” So this novel also deals with the Russian version of Jack Frost, who is called Morozko.
Morozko is such a wonderful character, along with Vasilisa. She's just a very warm-hearted,
open person who's also a big gruff on the outside, and Morozko is just a very cold type of villainous
character who has a very important part in this whole entire story. It's just a very magical
series that I'm sure draws a lot from Russian folk tales, and it is just so wonderful and
also addictive to read because they are generally short, so I feel like you can read them or listen
to them fairly quickly. This is a trilogy that I loved more and more as each book went on. It deals
with politics, religion, spirits, the belief in spirits, and protecting them. So if you're looking
for a wintry type of fantasy novel to dive into, I would highly recommend this trilogy because they
are very quick to read they are amazing and I just loved all the characters and I loved the character
development as well. I never recommend fantasy series because I'm really not a fantasy person,
and I'm pretty sure this was like the last fantasy trilogy that I actually completed.
So when I say this is good, I do mean it's good and it's very rare for me to recommend fantasy, so
just a heads up. Now let's move on to two historical fictions set during the wintertime and
their atmosphere definitely plays a role in the entire story, in general. So the first historical
fiction that I have to recommend deals a lot with the wintry atmosphere and it plays a very big role
in the story and it is Between Shades of Grey by Ruta Sepetys. This takes place in Lithuania during
1941. Our main character is 15 and her name is Lina. So Lina is living a fairly normal life when
the Soviet secret police invade her home take her mother take her brother and take her to
a camp in Siberia. So they are separated from Lina's father and she will do anything that she
can while in this camp in order to contact your father to let him know that they are okay. There
is a quote at the top of it that actually, like, sent shivers down my spine and it says, ‘Have you
ever wondered what a human life is worth? That morning my brother’s was worth a pocket watch.”
This book is probably one of the most devastating historical fictions that I have
ever read. It completely opened my eyes to the atrocities that Lithuanians faced along with
people who were sent to prisons in Siberia, which is a very harsh environment, and they
are not given protection and they just have to survive off of pure will in this very snowy,
freezing atmosphere. So Ruta Sepetys is Lithuanian, so she took stories
from different people that she interviewed and kind of created this historical fiction
centered around all those stories that she heard. This is a very underrated historical fiction. I do
know that Ruta Sepetys is a best-selling author, but when I hear about why historical fiction--
which I don't hear a lot about-- I never hear about Between Shades of Grey. I just want more
people to read Between Shades of Grey and Salt to the Sea because those two books completely opened
my eyes to different parts of history that I did not know about previously. I do want to reread it,
but I don't know if I'm emotionally strong enough to reread it because I've only read it once, and
I feel like that still lives in my heart. You have to read it. Another historical fiction
that takes place in an environment that plays a very big role in this story is Burial Rites
by Hannah Kent. I have heard about this book for so many years across BookTube, and I
have always wanted to read it and I finally read it, I think, last year, and it was
so devastating-- definitely not as devastating as Between Shades of Grey-- but this one
completely took my breath away when I finished it because I was just so tensed and I was just
holding in my breath and when I finished it, I just like exhaled and was like,
“Wow.” Burial Rites takes place in Iceland following our main character, Agnes, who is
charged for the murder of two men, and she is sent to an isolated farm in northern Iceland to await
execution, but before her execution, Agnes asks for the help of a priest in order to assist her
during this waiting period before she is executed. So we follow Agnes as she stays on this farm with
a family who she does not know and they are forced to take care of her before her death day, and then
we also follow the priest who was called upon to help Agnes when he doesn't actually know her, and
then we also follow Agnes as she is awaiting this death day and she is really in her thoughts and
it's very introspective and she is thinking about the murder that actually happened. She's thinking
about her mortality, and she's also dealing with his family that she's currently living with
who don't trust her and see her just as a criminal and they don't really see her as a person.
So this is just a very complex historical fiction in terms of different topics that it touches upon.
It touches upon mortality, religion, criminality, and the justice system in Iceland, and it was
such an eye-opening read because I have never read any story set in Iceland and the atmosphere that
Hannah Kent crafts is so vivid. You feel like you're there you feel like you're in this very
cold farm with these strangers amongst Agnes as she is waiting for the days to pass before she
dies. I just greatly love this story because we follow so many different perspectives and
we follow so many different opinions because the farmers have one opinion about Agnes, the priest
has another opinion about her and he's trying to understand her and see her as a person, and then
we follow Agnes as she is recounting what happened during this crime, and it was just wild. And the
last thing that I have to recommend is a horror slash thriller that I actually read last winter
and greatly enjoyed and I've spoken about a couple of times, in recent videos, but I want to mention
it here because it's too perfect not to include even though I'm always mentioning it everywhere,
and it is Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice. So we follow the Anishinaabe community in
the northern part of North America and their lives are completely changed, one day, when the power
goes out in the middle of winter. The Anishinaabe community lives in a very harsh environment in
North America, so when the power goes out, they are scrambling to figure out how they
are going to survive this winter without heat, without an ability to call someone for supplies,
and without having to help from outside the community. So we follow our main character who is
one of the leaders in the Anishinaabe community, and we follow him as he's trying to take care
of his family, he's trying to set regulations for this entire community, but it's very difficult to
do so because some people may want more and they may take more than they are allowed to, so when
all these rations are put in place, tension begins to rise when one day, during all of this chaos,
someone shows up at the community and it is an outsider. And when that outsider shows up,
everything has changed forever. It's just a very quick read and it also deals with the hierarchy in
society. It deals with colonialism. It deals with this community that is trying to stay close-knit
but is slowly falling apart at the seams once this outsider comes in. It is so well written.
I thought it was such an entertaining read, and it is perfect for the wintertime. If you're looking
for something a little bit more spooky, if you want something that's going to leave you on the
edge of your seat during a snowy winter night, I think this is such a good book for that. Those
are five books that I would highly recommend that you pick up during the wintertime. We have
a very cozy read. We have very serious reads. We have a fun trilogy that you can dive into,
and then we have a very spooky read at the end. So let me know if you have any books that are
set during the wintertime that you would highly recommend. Let me know about your winter TBR.
I would love to hear about that down below, and if you want to connect with me anywhere else, all
my social media links will be down below. If you want to follow me on TikTok, Instagram, Goodreads,
all of that will be down below in the description. If you have made it this far in the video, comment
down a snowflake emoji to see who stays for the longest in all my videos, and if you do thank you
so much. I really do appreciate you, and I will see you around in another video. Stay cozy. Bye~