Seasonal Reading
Recommendations
Take your seasonal reading to a new level and find a book for each of the twenty-four seasons of the year! New books are regularly added, so check back on occasion.
The Beginning of Spring (February 4 - 20)
The Fullness of Time: Marking the Day by Birdsong, Blooms, Shadows and Stars by Cathy Haynes helps you look at light and time differently as the days grow longer.
Snow Becomes Rain (February 21 - March 3)
Mud Season by Ellen Stimson reminds us with laughter of the watery beginnings of a new year.
Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree is a cozy fantasy perfect for bundling up with while hopefully awaiting warmer days.
Wintering Insects Awake (March 4 - 20)
The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnum helps you start your journey to the season ahead.
The Seed Keeper by Diane Wilson reminds us of the importance of family and the innate hope and history of a single seed.
Looking for the Lost: Journeys through a Vanishing Japan by Alan Booth will guide you through lost corners of the country, if you feel like looking for rainbows.
A Feast of Weeds: A Literary Guide to Foraging and Cooking Wild Edible Plants by Santis Ada De and Luigi Ballerini will satisfy your need for green.
Spring Equinox (March 21 - April 4)
The Banished Immortal: A Life of Li Bai by Ha Jin celebrates the oft-quoted ancient Chinese poet Li Bai in this new book, in honor of April as Poetry Month in the USA.
Cherry Ingram by Naoko Abe for all you cherry blossom lovers out there! Learn the story behind the man who helped to bring them to the world.
Clear and Bright (April 4 - 20)
Sweet Bean Paste by Durian Sukegawa reminds us of the sweetness of a life lived through listening and close looking.
An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro. Although not set in this season, this book feels decidedly like a hazy spring day spent looking back at the past with an eye towards the horizon and the dawn of a new day.
Grain Rain (April 21 - May 3)
Rain: Four Walks in English Weather by Melissa Harrison honors the spirit of this watery season.
Landmarks by Robert Macfarlane reminds us that like the myriad of droplets that fall from the sky, so is our capacity to create a myriad of words to describe our surroundings.
The Time of Planting Grains (June 5 - 20)
Second Nature by Michael Pollan will help put your gardening in perspective.
Rosa: The Story of the Rose by Peter E. Kukielski and Charles Phillips will inspire you with the history, lore, and legend of this beautiful flower so abloom at this time of year.
Things That Grow by Meredith Goldstein is a charming coming-of-age YA novel that all ages will enjoy, full of gardening, historical dramas, and a literary nod to the great writers of the past.
The Boy and The Dog by Seishu Hase spans all the seasons, but the final chapter, set amid the watery rice paddies of June in Japan, will stay with you long after the book is finished.
Summer Solstice(June 21 - July 4)
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith is a book you can read through spring and into summer. It deserves a spot on the summer solstice list in particular because of its mystical, poignant description of this special evening of the year.
Summer by Edith Wharton. A lesser-known work by this Gilded Age American author, this work chronicles the summertime passion of a strong, independent woman in New England. As summer first blushes in June and ripens into August, so too does the romance of our heroine.
Blackberry Wine by Joanne Harris is delicious and sweet, just like the season
Coastliners by Joanne Harris is set on a small island in France. Perfect beach reading for summer getaways.
The Summer Book by Tove Jansson complements her famous The Winter Book for reading, ideally suited for the hot season.
Sweltering Heat (July 21 - August 5)
Thundercake by Patricia Polacco
The Secret Lives of Bees by Sue Monk is set during one sweltering South Carolina summer. Runaway Lily discovers a world of bees and matriarchs, and from them learns of the joy and sweetness of life.
Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman. Although you may connote magic with October, this sweet book takes place during the heat of summer. Amid the fireflies and lilac bushes, something dark and passionate lurks in all of us.
At the Pond: Swimming at the Hampstead Ladies' Pond compiled by editor Margaret Drapple is a collection of essays about women’s experiences in the murky and refreshing waters of the Kenwood Ladies’ Pond, a freshwater swimming pond, in the Hampstead Heath, London. Spanning across the seasons, this freshwater reading is sure to cool you off.
Growing Heat (July 5 - 20)
Fine Weather (May 21 - June 4)
Old Herbaceous by Reginald Arkwell shares the humorous, sentimental story of an old gardener reflecting on his years in the garden.
What You Are Looking For Is In the Library by Michiko Aoyama. Delightful reading for a delightful time of year.
The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery is for fine weather that makes you want to seize the day!
The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst is a wholesome read with magic, berries, and a good dose of self-discovery set in late spring and early summer.
The Beginning of Summer (May 4 - 20)
Weeds: In Defense of Nature's Most Unloved Plant by Richard Mabey for the season when everything is growing, growing, growing!
Midnight at the Blackbird Cafe by Heather Webber is set in May and brings a sweet flavor and a bit of magic to the early summer season