After weeks of enjoying festive holiday traditions, I find myself dreading the dreary days of winter ahead. To combat the winter blues every year, I pull out a few tried-and-true strategies, like enjoying fresh air and exercise everyday. Getting outside for my daily walk lifts my mood, and it provides the perfect audiobook-listening time.
To make winter more enjoyable, I’m also leaning into seasonal reading experiences. A book doesn’t necessarily have to be set in Alaska to feel like winter to me. A cold and snowy setting puts me in a hygge frame of mind, but so do atmospheric and moody books, introspective literary fiction, and epic fantasy and fairytales.
Today, I’m sharing a list of audiobooks that capture a variety of winter reading moods. I’ve included nearly every genre on this list, from narrative nonfiction to fantasy.
No matter the season, I’m always looking for a compelling story with an excellent narrator for the best possible listening experience. You’ll see that reflected on this list. I hope you find a few titles that capture your reading mood this winter.
Audiobooks that feel like winter
Winter Solstice
The Snow Child
The Fifth Season (The Broken Earth Book 1)
The Bear and the Nightingale
The Hazel Wood
The Lost Queen
Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times
Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage
The Glass Hotel
Anna Karenina
Transcendent Kingdom
Still Life (Chief Inspector Gamache Mysteries, No. 1)
Before the Coffee Gets Cold
Outlander
Which audiobooks are on your winter TBR list? Are you listening to anything great right now? Tell us in the comments.
P.S. My favorite audiobook listening experience of 2020, 15 audiobooks with British narrators for chilly weather listening, and 20 books to cozy up with this winter.
P.P.S. New to audiobooks? Try this beginner’s guide to audiobooks, plus 7 ways to discover your audiobook style.
41 comments
The audio version of Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy!! Left me wrecked. Such a good story.
I love The Snow Child! I’ve recommended it to several friends. I also found Wintering to be a thought-provoking read.
And I’ve learned to respect winter as not just a barren, cold time of nothingness, but as a season which holds space and clears the way for the eventual new growth of spring!
I love to reread Gentleman in Moscow every January. It feels like a January book. It seems like it’s always January in Russia.
And I just read Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah. Also wintery. And Russian.
I listened to Anna Karenina last Jan read by Maggie Gyllenhall. Fantastic!!
I love this! Thanks for sharing! One of my reading intentions for 2021 is to pick up seasonal reads. Living in MN means being blessed with all four seasons (although winter dominates the year :P) and I love when my reading life immerses me more into my environment.
I LOVE Winter Solstice. Good note on Russian pronunciations for The Bear and the Nightingale – I have that one in print but am now thinking about reading in audio first or alongside to have those clear in my head.
I would also recommend The Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah – from her pre-Nightingale days, it’s a story about mother-daughter and sister relationships and immigration following WWII. It is my fav Kristin Hannah to date.
Oh my goodness! Just this morning, I downloaded Wintering:)!
Thank you – plenty of new books to add to my list! I’d read The Bear and the Nightingale and have her next one, The Girl in the Tower, on my TBR list, but everything else is new, which is just delicious!
Endurance sounds great for my husband! I have heard them mentioned several times, but I finally jotted down The Fifth Season and The Glass Hotel to try when my TBR shrinks a little.
The Great Alone. Set in Alaska. It’s not winter all the time but there’s sure a lot of it!
Discovering audio books has revolutionized my reading. Still love to curl up with a good book, but now I can do household tasks and crafting with a journey into another world. One lovely surprise was “Present Over Perfect” by Shauna Niequist which was a perfect read/listen over New Year’s! Looking forward to several of these wintery read suggestions, especially “Anna Karenina”
Beartown by Fredrik Backman left me chilled in more ways than one.
I’m listening to Anna Karenina for book club right this minute!
The Silvered Serpents by Roshani Chokshi is another wintery read. It is the second of a trilogy (the first is Gilded Wolves) and is read by two narrators (one male and one female) as the chapters change point of view mostly between four main characters. It takes place in 1889 in a slightly alternate world … one full of magic and mystery. So a historical fantasy and outstanding on audio (both books). The third book is slated to be released this year.
I just finished listening to Winter Solstice for the third consecutive December. Love it such much and audiobook format is my preferred way to enjoy it. Jilly Bond does a magnificent job.
Who is the author. Several books by this title.
Rosamunde Pilcher
Ditto Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah. It’s my favorite of all her books….
Giles Blunt is a Canadian mystery writer who set a series of books in a small city in northern Ontario and three of them are set during winter. He does a great job of evoking the winter landscape. And if you are into video his books have been made into a TV series called Cardinal which has some of the most beautiful introductory credits I have ever seen.
Just finished call the midwife. such a great listen. finished it in a day! it has everything in it: despair, heartache, sadness, joy, love, suspense, all good things to start out the new year.
That’s an all time favorite! I’d love reccs for more memoirs like that.
Maggie Gyllenhaal’s Anna Karenina was truly amazing! I second that!
For readers who enjoyed The Bear and the Nightengale, I would also recommend the standalone novel Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik. It is sooo atmospheric, and the narration is fantastic! It’s set in a fictional Eastern European country called Lithvas, during winter.
Yes, I was also going to recommend Spinning Silver as a winter read – beautifully written and a great story!
I just finished The Last Christmas in Paris on Audio and it was EXCELLENT — a full cast and very well done. A WWI story in letters. The narrators really brought it to life. I’m reading The Bear and the Nightingale right now and loving it.
I’m reading (listening to) David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell. While it’s not a winter book at all–I find winter is the appropriate time to read nonfiction. Although, I’m also reading Firefly Lane for a bit of levity.
I read Shackleton a few years ago, and during the winter. I had to wrap up in a blanket to read it. I would get cold reading about their cold struggles in the ice. Great book. Could hardly put it down.
Wintering is a wonderful book. I shared it with a friend who has lost her brother and she round solace in it too.
The Sun Is A Compass is a great winter memoir – even though it takes place in an Arctic summer! Love this list! Thank you!
I am currently reading ‘Code Name Helene’ on audio and it is terrific!
I’m not sure how the audiobook is, but I loved To the Bright Edge of the World. It is the same author as The Snow Child, Eowyn Ivey, and also set in Alaska but a totally different story. It is more adventurous but still has the dynamic of a husband and wife isolated, although this time they are stuck apart while the husband charts the unknown areas of Alaska.
I’m reading David Rosenfelt’s fun mystery, “Dachshund Through The Snow” right now, but my favorite listen last year was “The Thirteenth Day of Christmas” by Jason F. Wright. Exquisitely written with a joyful but heart-wrenching ending. A young girl and an elderly woman connect. Loved it!
Sounds great!
I have been enjoying an audiobook of one of James Herriot’s works, “Every Living Thing.” I read his books as a girl and forgot how fun they are. I recommended them to my oldest daughter. I truly appreciate your help in discovering some amazing books.
Louise Penny’s books lean into the weather in the story. They are great to read in the season during which the story takes place. I am reading them in order and in season, so it is taking me a while to get through the series, but that is fine with me.
Still Life is a fall book (but perhaps your winter is a little closer to Canadian fall). If you are really looking for a wintery Penny read get through Still Life and onto Dead Cold (aka A Fatal Grace) the second book in the series. That is a truly atmospheric winter read.
Just finished The Murmur of Bees by Sofia Segovia. It’s a mesmerizing and wonderful read/listen. I also enjoyed From Sand and Ash by Amy Harmon. Highly recommend.
I have to toss a recent audiobook trilogy into the winter mix. Full disclosure: I narrated it- but although I recorded it in August in Florida, I shivered through much of it! Especially the second book! ICE by Kevin Tinto is out on Audible and ICE: Genesis was just released yesterday. ICE: Revelation is coming soon. Please forgive the awful alliteration, but the series features the Anasazi, Ancients, and archaeology; aviation, adventure, Antarctica, and… aliens? It’s actually a globe-trotting thriller “in the style of Clive Cussler”… but with a female protagonist! And it just won the ABR Team Award for best collaboration between author and narrator!
Loving Still Life! The audiobook is fabulous and I’m already completely hooked on the series!
I love The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah, narrated by amazing Julie Whelan. I was blown away by the author’s description of beautiful Alaska. My favorite Hannah’s book.
I enjoyed reading Wintering so much last year that I am currently waiting for the audio version from my local library. I just finished Once Upon A Wardrobe on audio and it was fantastic. A great winter read. And I am currently listening to Beartown as my January reread for MMD Book Club.
I just finished Once Upon a Wardrobe by Patti Callahan. Excellent winter read with so much heart.
Love to re-read Winter Solstice almost every year in Winter. I also loved The Hunting Party for a winter read, and am currently listening to How the Light Gets in, Louise Penny, Inspector Gamache- also a wintry read.
I love Outlander (and series), The Snow Child, and the Bear and the Nightingale (and series.) I have added five more of these tiles to my TBR since it looks like someone found my sweet spot. Thank you!