winter reading: flight
an under-the-blanket, snow-falling-outside read
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I love seasonal reading year-round, but winter might be the very best time for it. On a cold, dark evening, there is not much to do besides curling up under a blanket with a good book. A winter booklist chock-full of cozy reads can change January from a slog into a time to be treasured.
I have slowly curated winter, spring, summer and fall booklist over the last few years. I started with lots of online searches, combing through long reading lists and parsing out the reads I was most interested. I use Libby faithfully, tracking books I’d like to read, my favorites that I have read, and making lots of niche booklists. I have a list of books set in Budapest to enjoy around a trip there, cookbooks I’d like to buy, a booklist for winter, spring, summer and fall, a holiday booklist and my non-fiction to-be-read list. I have loved building up these seasonal reading lists. Whenever I finish a great read set in winter or come across a recommendation for a winter-y novel, I save it to my winter reading list. This year, spring is coming too quickly as I race to get through all the wintry books I have been excited to read.
Of all the winter books on my list, Flight by Lynn Steger Strong is my very top recommendation. The story unfolds over the course of a few days as three adult siblings and their spouses gather in upstate New York for Christmas. The absence of their late mother hangs heavy over the celebrations. It’s a warm and cozy setting, but the drama that unfolds within Flight is painful at times and deeply poignant. Centered around sibling relationships, we’re taken inside the tensions of a family, how our siblings’ spouses can irritate us, how our families can disappoint us, and how powerful sharing our grief can be.
Winter as a season is ever-present in Flight. The story simply couldn’t take place at another time of year. Holiday traditions grate, building up pressure among the family. The deep snow and bitter cold lead to the central conflict of the book. Throughout the novel, Josh, one of the sibling’s spouses, is building an igloo. His obsession annoys nearly everyone as he shirks his other parental duties, but the igloo later brings relief as a warm refuge. On every page, you’re acutely aware of the season.
That said, it is really not the snow or the cold or the traditions that make Flight such a great winter read. Above all, it’s just a wonderful book. The sibling relationships and the relationships between spouses and siblings feel painfully real and so human. It contains shades of grief - for their late mother, for the failures of the welfare system, for infertility, and for siblings’ failure to live up to expectations. It is a beautiful book. This winter or next, I hope you’ll give it a read.
I will continue to share more winter (and year-round) reads right here on seasonal things. If you’re eager to dig into some wintry books, you can find my full winter reading list right here on Bookshop.
Thank you for reading! If you’d like more nudges to live seasonally, please subscribe to seasonal things.
Disclosure: I am an affiliate of Bookshop.org and I will earn a small commission if you click through and make a purchase of any of the books linked in this post at no additional cost to you.
I picked this book up last week based on your enthusiastic recommendation in a recent newsletter and I cannot thank you enough. I devoured it in one day and have a list of people to lend it to already. Thank you thank you thank you!