What I Read This Month
It’s January, and the name of the game is coziness.
Winter Solstice by Rosamunde Pilcher | I don’t want to sound hyperbolic, but there’s really no way around it: this book is my new favorite book. I could live in this book—hell, I wish I was living in this book. It’s a truly beautiful telling of the quotidian ways in which we are all but helpless pawns in fate’s game. Except perhaps that sounds dramatic, and this, my friends, is not a dramatic book. It is Calm tucked into a feather-down duvet with a warm cup of tea and a good record on; it’s the art of being taken care of; it’s the end of a lovely party that hasn’t quite ended and there’s coffee and cognac being poured and everyone’s smiling; it’s light and warmth on the shortest day of the year. Every single one of the 500-something pages was exactly what I needed when I read it. And considering my past reading habits, it’s no surprise that I’ve already begun Pilcher’s more well-known novel—The Shell Seekers—and am loving it just as much as this one.
In keeping with the ultra-cozy vibes that Winter Solstice summoned, I’ve been spending my evenings reading transportive cookbooks. À Table by Rebekah Peppler; Alpine Cooking by Meredith Erickson; and Dessert Person by Claire Saffitz have been my favorites this month. The recipes and recipe headnotes read like little novels themselves—highly recommend.