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Engage with everyday expressions in a completely different (and fun!) way, with this entertaining and interactive book of common phrases that can turn a humdrum gathering into a raucous game night.
The days are increasingly shorter! The weather turns colder! This is not necessarily a negative, because any cozy lamp you have becomes even more useful during the dark hours and you can justify all the hot chocolate. With that in mind, let’s look at some cozy winter reads:
Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader by Anne Fadiman
Sometimes you just want to read a book about books. Or reading. Or how great reading about books is. There are chapters like “The Joy of Sesquipedalians,” “Never Do That to a Book,” and “My Catalogical Imperative.” Mmm, cozy.
All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot
The tales of a veterinarian from Yorkshire! For those unfamiliar with the TV adaptation, never fear, because a new one is coming to PBS in January. Nothing says something’s a cozy read like the adjectives “witty and heartwarming.”
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Botanist and member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation Kimmerer “shows how other living beings―asters and goldenrod, strawberries and squash, salamanders, algae, and sweetgrass ― offer us gifts and lessons.” This was a bestseller and made a lot of “best book” lists. What’s cozier than essays like “The Gift of Strawberries” and “Epiphany in the Beans”?
The Book of Tea: The Classic Work on the Japanese Tea Ceremony and the Value of Beauty by Kakuzō Okakura
This 1906 reflection on tea is not only a history of tea, but a reflection on the East and the West (again, grounded in the fact it was 1906) and the beauty of the present. Okakura writes: “The whole ideal of Teaism is a result of this Zen conception of greatness in the smallest incidents of life.”
For more nonfiction reads, check out the For Real podcast which I co-host with the excellent Kim here at Book Riot. If you have any questions/comments/book suggestions, you can find me on social media @itsalicetime. Until next time, enjoy those facts, fellow nerds.