Mastics-Moriches-Shirley Community Library Reader Advisory Blog: Cozy reads for the darkest day of the year

With only about 8 hours of daylight in the Mastics-Moriches-Shirley area, today marks the Winter Solstice, the darkest day of the year. What a perfect day for getting cozy indoors with a good book! Here are two suggestions for books inspired by the solstice:

Winter Solstice (2000) by Rosamund Pilcher

This book came out a decade ago, so even if you've already read it once, you've probably forgotten enough of it that it's worth rereading.

Publisher Summary: A moving tale of loss and transcendence follows the lives of five people, buffeted by life's difficulties, who come together on a rundown estate house in Northern Scotland during a revelatory Winter Solstice.

Solstice Wood (2007) by Patricia McKillip

Set in our home state of New York, this contemporary fairy story is perfect for anyone who's ever felt a mysterious thrill when surrounded by trees.

Publisher Summary: The death of her beloved grandfather forces bookstore owner Sylvia Lynn to return to her childhood home in upstate New York to confront the grandmother who had raised her, and the nearby woods that had both enticed and terrified her.

Being Mortal by Atul Gawande

Genre: Adult Non-Fiction
Rating: 5 out of 5

"Being Mortal is about the limitations of what modern medicine can provide for people as their lives draw to a close. Gawande argues that the objective of medicine should not merely be treatment and survival; medical care should also ensure dignity in death and having control over one's final moments. He argues that instead of aggressively fighting the inescapable realities of aging, we should ask the hard questions of ourselves and our loved ones -- What makes life worth living? When should we try to extend our lives, and when should we choose a better quality of our remaining days over extending their quantity?

This book is difficult to read. Not because of the way Gawande writes -- his style is highly engaging, and he never lapses into excessively scientific jargon or overly simplistic explanations -- but because of the tough subject matter. Gawande draws on his own experiences as a doctor and peppers his book with honest and humane stories of his patients, friends, and family; the stories he tells make the book more accessible, and also more heartbreaking. (And that's not a bad thing.)

No one likes to think about their loved ones', or their own, impending mortality. But it's important to have these hard conversations, because as Gawande says, "endings matter." - Amanda

Cozy reads for the darkest day of the year

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