CHILLY SCENES OF WINTER
By Ann Beattie
Back in 1976, when this book was first published, men were men, winter was winter and you could actually go 10 minutes without hearing the phrase �global warming.� Or so we�ve read. On the other hand, people still listened to disco and wore bell-bottoms. Charles, the central character in Beattie�s debut novel�which launched her illustrious career�suffers more from the ambivalent ennui of the �70s than from its musical and fashion disasters, as he navigates heartbreak through the coldest months of the year.
THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE
By CS Lewis
Always winter and never Christmas. Sounds like January to us. And what better way to spend a cold night by the fire than reading this classic book (particularly if you�ve only seen the movie) and being swept away into the magical Narnia landscape of frozen rivers, animals turned to stone and Turkish delight?
TROUBLING A STAR
By Madeleine L�Engle
L�Engle�s death, last September, may have prompted fans worldwide to clutch their copies of her Newberry Medal-winner,
A Wrinkle in Time
, a little tighter. Now is a good time to re-read (or have a young friend read for the first time)
Troubling a Star
, in which one of L�Engle�s serial heroines, Vicky Austin, travels to Antarctica where, caught in the middle of an international conflict, she ends up abandoned on an iceberg. And you thought you were cold!
THE YIDDISH POLICEMEN�S UNION
By Michael Chabon
Where better to set a gritty fantasy noir story than a fictionalized version of Alaska? Chabon, who won the Pulitzer Prize for
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
, has done just that with this 2007 novel in which Jewish refugees have settled in Alaska and created a strange and new life. Chabon�s imaginative story may even distract you from the frozen pipes and wailing winds of our all-too-real winter.
Santa Fe Reporter