7 highly-anticipated books to read this winter

At the turn of a new year, we sometimes need a bit of imaginative courage to get us through the rest of the winter season. It’s a slow, slow trek to spring, but I do believe in adventure through the eyes of incredible protagonists, creative prose and ingenious worldbuilding. These authors have written some of the most anticipated books of the season and there’s nothing better than curling up with one of their works by a cozy fire.

This is a short story collection focusing on mostly female protagonists from Jill McCorkle, a former faculty member of Bennington College Writing Seminar, a former writer-in-residence at Harvard and the winner of the New England Book Award. The stories in this latest collection are complicated and deal with the characters telling their truth (harder than it seems sometimes), but rich in tone and description. One story follows a woman whose still-married boyfriend of three years suddenly dies. Another story focuses on a young woman’s friendship with an older lady who is trying to raise her difficult son. McCorkle is well-versed in anthology — this is her fifth collection of short stories.

We’ve been needing a good spy novel to escape into. An unhappy, bored young woman in London meets an older gentleman who quickly sweeps her off her feet to Mallorca where they marry. Soon after the nuptials, her husband asks for a favor that sends her to a remote location where she must pretend to be an art advisor to a family on Cap Ferret. What is she doing here? And what did her new husband get her into? Carpenter, a Harvard Business School alum, writes a high-stakes novel made for the big screen. If you’re in the mood for “Carmen Sandiego” meets James Bond meets “Totally Spies!” meets “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” (Angelina and Brad edition), this may be your next adventure.

A mix of fantasy and magic, Vermont resident GennaRose Nethercott is back with an anthology of beautiful folkloric short stories. There’s a bevy of protagonists, including teen girls, a zombie rooster  and a goat woman that will keep readers intrigued throughout each tale. The best part is that these mystical characters are a reflection of us — there’s a monstrous, ravenous spirit within us all. The author will be in person at the Odyssey Bookshop in South Hadley to talk about her new collection on Thursday, Feb. 8.

Picture this: a scenic Massachusetts coastal town where three teen girls have recently died. In a twist of fate, their school’s music teacher is somehow able to task them with a series of challenges that will result in one of them being brought back to life. The main goal is to finally solve the mystery of their deaths without causing the community too much danger. This is a fun debut novel from Northampton resident Kelly Link. The Pulitzer Prize finalist also owns Easthampton bookstore Book Moon. Link will also head to Odyssey Bookshop in South Hadley for an author talk on Thursday, Feb. 15.

Harvard alum and celebrated writer Leslie Jamison makes her memoir debut with the highly-anticipated “Splinters.”  She explores some of her most intimate relationships, including the overbearing one with her child and the ruptured one with her marital partner. In her quest to find out what it means for her to be a woman, mother, lover and more, she discovers the magic in the mundane. Jamison will be in conversation with author Claire Messud at The Brattle Theatre on Wednesday, Feb. 21.

If you’re a fan of the television show “Superstore,” you’re going to get a kick out of this novel from Brown University alum Adelle Waldman. It’s a workplace comedy about a group of big-box store employees who get word their manager is leaving the company. That spurs some friendly competition between them as they race to become the next manager. Among those up for the job is a goofball who hasn’t matured past half his age, a young woman clinging to her high school glory days and a hopeful college football player trying to figure out his next steps.

At this point, everything Brown University alum Percival Everett writes turns to gold. There’s a movie in theaters right now based on his 2001 novel “Erasure” called “American Fiction.” (The film was one of WBUR film critic Erin Trahan’s favorites of 2023.) He returns with a reimagined “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” focused on Jim’s perspective, Huck Finn’s enslaved counterpart. Jim is trying to escape a situation that will result in him being separated from his wife and child, while Finn fakes his own death to escape his terrible father. Everett has written two dozen books and is still as sharp as ever in his writing.