OUR FAVORITE WINTER READ Cozy Up

Best Winter Reads

- MARION WINIK

PURE POETRY

Water, Water by Billy Collins

Every page of this delightfully readable collection of poems by a former U.S. poet laureate will remind you of the pleasures of the simple act of observation, putting ordinary moments and common sights into words. Collins’s humor, kindness and unassuming intelligence infuse every subject: a lost dog, a flash of memory, a bowl of cereal and berries, a wife in her yellow robe. A perfect topper for your bedside stack.

HOLIDAY HOOT

Love You a Latke by Amanda Elliot

When Vermont villagers decide to throw a Hanukkah festival, they delegate planning to their only known Jew, Abby Cohen. But while Abby may sell sweet drinks in her coffee bar, she is a curmudgeon through and through. Then her cheeriest customer asks her to pretend to be his girlfriend for his mother’s sake. Can Abby’s permanent bad mood withstand all this? A lip-smacking holiday treat.

EDGY SATIRE

Colored Television by Danzy Senna

If you loved Yellowface by R.F. Kuang, this sparkling, witty tale of a struggling writer in Southern California is for you. Jane, a biracial professor married to a Black visual artist, is on sabbatical, reveling in a super-fancy long-term housesitting gig and working on her epic novel (“the mulatto War and Peace”), when the temptations of a Hollywood TV deal stir up issues of race, class, ambition, art and love.

CRIME FICTION

The Treasure Hunters Club by Tom Ryan