7 Engrossing Books to Read When You're Snowed In

From 1979 to the early 2000s, Caroline B. Cooney was one of the most prolific authors of suspense novels for young adult readers, penning nearly a hundred books, including the bestselling The Face on the Milk Carton. 

For this, she has received numerous accolades, including awards from the American Library Association and a nomination for the Edgar Allan Poe Award. 

Snow is the second book in her celebrated “Fog, Snow, and Fire” trilogy, which follows Christina and her friends at the eerie Schooner Inne, where the caretakers may be up to something truly sinister. 

If only Christina could make anyone believe her in this book that combines “bullet-train pacing and entertaining prose” (Kirkus Reviews).

Hailed as the “Queen of Crime,” Agatha Christie remains one of the most celebrated mystery writers of all time, and Murder on the Orient Express is not only one of her most beloved works — it’s also one of her snowiest. 

As the Orient Express is caught in a snowdrift, one of its passengers is stabbed in his cabin. Who did the deed? 

Hercule Poirot will have to use his “little gray cells” to figure it out, as everyone on the train seems to have had a reason to want the victim dead in this “brilliantly ingenious” snowbound mystery (Daily Herald) that “makes an improbable tale very real, and keeps her readers enthralled and guessing to the end” (Times Literary Supplement).

“Cerebral, ethereal, and stylishly understated, this entrancing collection will appeal to fans of literary horror, dark fantasy, and supernatural mystery.” 

That’s what Publishers Weekly had to say about this cult classic collection of ghost stories featuring eccentric, socially awkward museum curator Kyle Murchison Booth. 

Winter is the season for ghost stories. There’s a reason, after all, why ghost stories were a standard feature of Christmas.

“Written in homage to Lovecraft and M.R. James” (Booklist), this collection of modern ghostly tales deserves a spot alongside many of the classics of the turn of the century, and is a perfect read for a snowy night.

Sure, the 2017 movie adapted from this international bestseller may not exactly have been an instant classic, but Jo Nesbo’s seventh novel starring Inspector Harry Hole has been hailed as “fiendishly complex and terrifically entertaining” (New York Times Book Review).

Not to mention “smart, stylish, beautifully paced and meticulously plotted” (Newsday), and “strung together with great care, playful in certain stretches, grisly in others, all of it highly readable” (Newsweek). 

As Harry Hole tracks a serial killer who leaves behind haunting snowmen as calling cards, readers who follow along will see why the Los Angeles Times hailed Jo Nesbø as “the writer most likely to take the ice-cold crown in the critically acclaimed—and now bestselling—category of Nordic noir.”

If any book on this list needs no introduction, it might be Louisa May Alcott’s perennial classic, which follows four very different sisters on the cusp between childhood and womanhood. 

Named one of the Nation’s Best-loved Novels by the BBC, and one of the best children’s novels of all time by both the National Education Association and the School Library Journal, Little Women has provided comfort reading for generations.

Not to mention being adapted into countless different formats, from movies and television shows to comic books and even anime. What could be better on a cold, snowy day?

“Blankets will take you straight back to your first kiss,” raves The Guardian about this award-winning graphic novel memoir from artist Craig Thompson. 

Set against the snowy backdrop of a Midwestern winter, Blankets tells a coming-of-age story of first love, heartbreak, small-town life, struggles with a fundamentalist Christian upbringing, and Thompson’s own attempts at artistic expression. 

The result is a one-of-a-kind graphic novel, conjured in pen and ink, that won two Eisner and three Harvey awards and has been hailed as a modern classic—not to mention one that’s perfect to read on a snowy winter day, under a pile of blankets of your own.

“Readers will want to grab an extra blanket when reading this well-researched and fascinating title” (Booklist) that’s “downright giddy with enthusiasm for its subject” (Boston Globe). 

From the bestselling author of Bridge of Spies comes this “wonderful, wide-ranging book” (The Times) that tackles everything about snow, from the way snowflakes are formed to why avalanches happen, and from the opening of the 1960 winter Olympics to the origins of the legends of the yeti. 

If it has to do with snow, you’ll find it in this book that “shares an engaging love of the white stuff” (Financial Times) with “the scientific precision that almost counts as poetry” (The Spectator).