Well as some may know we got hit with quite the snow storm here in Portland, Oregon. Some people are over exaggerating, some people are bummed and frustrated, me personally; I LOVE IT!!! I adore the magic that is snow, and have been thoroughly enchanted with it.

So of course this weekend I’ll focus on Snowy day reading and winter fare!

Here is my list of 10 great Blizzard worthy books:
One of Shakespeare’s later romantic comedies, offers a striking and challenging mixture of tragic and violent events, lyrical love-speeches, farcical comedy, pastoral song and dance, and, eventually, dramatic revelations and reunions. Thematically, there is a rich orchestration of the contrasts between age and youth, corruption and innocence, decline and regeneration. Both Leontes’ murderous jealousy and Perdita’s love-relationship with Florizel are eloquently intense. In the theatre, The Winter’s Tale often proves to be diversely entertaining and deeply moving.

Ever since it was published in 1978, the picture-book presentation of Robert Frost’s poem “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” has been an enduring favorite. Susan Jeffers’ illustrations are full of detail and subtle color in her sweeping backgrounds of frosty New England scenes. The kindly figure with his “promises to keep” exudes warmth as he stops to appreciate the quiet delights of winter.

Take a journey to the icy winter-land of Russia in this historical fiction:

A novel in diary form in which the youngest daughter of Czar Nicholas II describes the privileged life her family led up until the time of World War I and the tragic events that befell them. 13 year old Anastasia is used to a life of luxury; her major concerns are how to get out of her detested schoolwork to play in the snow, go ice-skating, or have picnics. She wears diamonds and rubies, and every morning her mother tells her which matching outfit she and her three sisters shall wear that day. It’s a fairy tale life — until everything changes with the outbreak of war between Russia and Germany.

A great page turner  that takes a unique and thought provoking look at death, and the process of grief:

When we first meet 14-year-old Susie Salmon, she is already in heaven. This was before milk carton photos and public service announcements, she tells us; back in 1973, when Susie mysteriously disappeared, people still believed these things didn’t happen.
In the sweet, untroubled voice of a precocious teenage girl, Susie relates the awful events of her death and her own adjustment to the strange new place she finds herself. I could not put this book down, it was deep and troubling, and so brilliantly written.

If the snow fascinates and intrigues you the way it does me, this is a great book to have laying about for anyone to peruse and be enchanted by:
Before a snowflake melts on your tongue, it makes an epic journey. This is the beautiful, full-color story of that journey, step by step, from a single snowflake’s creation in the clouds, through its fall to earth, to its brief and sparkling appearance on a child’s mitten.

This is a good one to cuddle up to the fire with and read to a little one,
or read to your own kid at heart:

The adventures of Laura Ingalls and her family continue as Pa, Ma, Laura, Mary, Carrie, and little Grace bravely face the hard winter of 1880-81 in their little house in the Dakota Territory. Blizzards cover the little town with snow, cutting off all supplies from the outside. Soon there is almost no food left, so young Almanzo Wilder and a friend make a dangerous trip across the prairie to find some wheat.

For the more daring reader there is always this classic mountain chiller:

Jack Torrance’s new job at the Overlook Hotel is the perfect chance for a fresh start. As the off-season caretaker at the atmospheric old hotel, he’ll have plenty of time to spend reconnecting with his family and working on his writing. But as the harsh winter weather sets in, the idyllic location feels ever more remote . . . and more sinister. And the only one to notice the strange and terrible forces gathering around the Overlook is Danny Torrance, a uniquely gifted five-year-old.

This is always a good snowy day read, especially when you are starting to feel like the winter will never end.
Read this for a little warmth and hope that winter will not last forever:A picture book retelling of C. S. Lewis’s classic story, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, for the youngest fans! Introduce them to the magic of Narnia with this picture book featuring illustrations by Tudor Humphries.

In this novel Leo Tolstoy, the great master of Russian literature,
charts the course of the human heart.

The sweeping love story of two people who defy the conventions of their age to follow the dictates of their hearts. Trapped in a stifling marriage, Anna Karenina is swept off her feet by the dashing Count Vronsky. When the truth about their passionate liaison comes out, Anna’s husband is more concerned with keeping up appearances than anything else, but at last he seeks a reluctant divorce. Rejected by society, the two lovers flee to Italy, where Anna finds herself isolated from all except the man she loves, and who loves her. But can they live by love alone?

And last but not least, if you really need to warm up;
do it with Dante’s Inferno, that should do the trick 😉

The epic grandeur of Dante’s masterpiece has inspired readers for 700 years, and has entered the human imagination. But the further we move from the late medieval world of Dante, the more a rich understanding and enjoyment of the poem depends on knowledgeable guidance. Robert Hollander, a renowned scholar and master teacher of Dante, and Jean Hollander, an accomplished poet, have written a beautifully accurate and clear verse translation of the first volume of Dante’s epic poem, the Divine Comedy.

What’s your idea of a great snow day read?