Winter Reads

As the nights draw in and the cold winds blow, many of us feel the urge to hunker down and get lost in a book. Welcome to winter bliss!

If you’re looking for a good read, you’ve come to the right place. From Port Hope to Picton, we are blessed with a rich assortment of local writers, some internationally famous, some just bursting onto the scene, and some with a lifetime of amazing memories they’ve finally found time to share.

So readers, rub your hands with glee and dive into our suggestions for great winter reads. Eight authors from all over the Watershed area invite you to explore their books, fall into fantasy, thrill to wicked contemporary tales, marvel at the achievements of a lifetime, learn about life in the skies or at the ends of the earth or find out what Madonna said when someone showed up wearing her pants.

These award winners, glass-ceiling smashers, builders, birders and fabulous first-time authors are your neighbours, and they’ve got great stories to tell.

JANE URQUHART
In Winter I Get Up At Night
Published by Penguin Random House Canada

Jane Urquhart is one of Canada’s best-loved writers and author of eight internationally acclaimed novels. In Winter I Get Up At Night is her first book in nine years and was an instant bestseller. If you haven’t yet read her books but are ready to begin, you’re about to discover something wonderful.

The story begins with Emer McConnell, an itinerant music teacher, rising in the early dark of winter to drive Saskatchewan’s snowy roads to her first school. As she travels, her mind slips easily into memories that encompass her family history, her mother’s mysterious relationship, her own secret love and the long months she spent as a child in hospital recovering from a dreadful accident.

“I was born twice, you see, once gently and once in violence …” That line is a taste of the quiet intensity that draws you into Urquhart’s stories. In Winter I Get Up At Night is being called “a work of aching beauty, incandescent.” With a touch of magical realism, it tells the story of an ordinary girl living an extraordinary life.

“We have a family tale about my mother’s side of the family, whose farm was destroyed by a tornado. Because it was told to me by different aunts and uncles and grandparents, there was always a spin. In one version, someone was picked up in a rocking chair and transported five fields by the wind,” says Jane, who is clearly no stranger to magical realism. This story is a tapestry of wonderful characters seen through the eyes of a lost child, a tale of spirituality, trauma, love and hope.

“I wasn’t sure how it would be received after so long. It’s not a long book, but it took years to write because there were so many changes happening in my life. But I love it. I wrote the book I wanted to write.”

A week after publication, In Winter I Get Up At Night was long-listed for the Giller Prize.

JEANNE BEKER
Heart On My Sleeve – Stories from a Life Well Worn
Published by Simon & Schuster Canada

Jeanne Beker is a fashion and music industry icon, host of Fashion Television (FT), which aired for 27 years all over the world, recipient of the Order of Canada, editor, columnist and author of six books including two autobiographies. She is also a regular contributor to Watershed, where she tells the stories of local colourful characters she meets along the way. Her latest book is a quirky look at memorable moments through the lens of certain items of clothing. It’s a great concept and a delicious book to dip into.

“Heart On My Sleeve is a deliberately small book,” she says. “It’s short stories about just some of the adventures and interviews and ups and downs in my life, and I used something from my wardrobe to kick off each one. I had a lot of fun choosing which stories to tell. I have a ton of great stories, but I only chose the ones I really could associate with a particular item of clothing or an accessory. Actually it acted as a great editing device.”

It’s a breezy, uplifting read. The anecdotes, like the outfits, range from humble to grand. We’re talking Karl Lagerfeld and Oscar de la Renta here, Paul McCartney and Keith Richards, as well as Jeanne’s mother, who sewed a secret money pocket into her underwear. There is real affection in the collection.

“I believe one of the greatest gifts you can give is to share personal stories,” she says. The book touches on her family’s losses in the Holocaust and her own cancer journey, as well as sparkly, sometimes hilarious encounters with celebrities. The illustrations are little sketches, but some of the actual clothes will be exhibited in 2026 at Calgary’s Glenbow Museum, as part of a retrospective of Jeanne’s life and career.

JESSICA LEE SHEPPARD
Descending into Darkness – The Adventures of Izzy Adams
Published by the author

Jessica Lee Sheppard is a young mother of four, with a degree in psychology and a master’s in social work. Her debut novel Descending Into Darkness is the first of a six-book fantasy series featuring a plucky heroine, demonic creatures, spirit guides and helpful ghosts. It is a finalist for both Fantasy and Debut Author categories in the Feathered Quill Awards and for Coming of Age in the American Fiction Awards.

“I started researching during my first maternity leave from Queen’s University and finished writing the first book on my second mat leave,” she says. Asked how she does it while working and raising four kids under nine, she laughs: “I stay up late!”

“I wanted to write, and I thought, What hasn’t been done? There are stories about vampires and werewolves and young people, but they all take place in this world. So I decided to send my heroine to the spirit world, through astral projection, which is an absolutely fascinating thing. To do that, I had to build a whole other world, which was a huge challenge but also exciting and satisfying.

“Each book will be a separate story in one big overall adventure, aimed at young adults. Izzy’s personality, and that of another major character in the book, are inspired by my daughters.” Jessica Lee’s studies and her current work with Quinte District Rehab lend nuance and depth to her writing, and she weaves thought-provoking, real world conflicts into her stories.

She says marketing is harder than writing, but she has already won critical acclaim, awards nomination and readership through literary festivals, book shows and her newsletter. If you love being lost in another world, read Descending into Darkness, and watch out for Book Two, Bound by Darkness.

Available from Amazon.com and also through jessicaleesheppard.com

L. E. CARMICHAEL
Polar – Wildlife at the Ends of the Earth, illustrated by Byron Eggenschwiler
Published by Kids Can Press

Lindsey Carmichael lives in Trenton and is the author of more than 20 science books for children that make STEM topics burst into life for readers. Her own interest in science was sparked when she read about the first murder to be solved by DNA fingerprinting. She studied genetics and won a Governor General’s Medal for her PhD thesis on northern wolves and arctic foxes, but later grew restless spending days in the lab. She left academia to write books, and thousands of families are glad she did.

“Polar is aimed at ages 8 to 11, because kids that age are information sponges, they just love facts! I’m a fact addict, and those are the children I write for. Sometimes, kids think they don’t like reading, when actually what they don’t like is reading fiction. Give them a good non-fiction book and it can spark their curiosity, ignite their imagination and kick off an actual love of reading.”

With Polar, we learn how animals adapt to living at the ends of the earth. The Arctic and Antarctica are very different habitats, but they also have a lot in common: bitter cold, ferocious winds, long months of darkness and amazing animals, like those arctic foxes.

“I love them! They are adorable little survivors that can travel thousands of miles across the ice looking for food, stealing eggs from nests and following polar bears to scoop up scraps.

“The book is laid out in 13 spreads, one for each month, with animals from the Arctic on the left and Antarctica on the right, comparing their adaptations. Byron’s beautiful illustrations help explain how polar animals find food, stay warm and raise their babies in two of the harshest habitats on the planet, and, yes, it’s got a lot of facts!”

Available in bookstores and online at Amazon. Lindsey encourages you to ask your local independent bookstore to order it in.

LOLA REID ALLIN
Highway to the Sky – An Aviator’s Journey
Published by Simon & Schuster Canada

Lola Reid Allin is one of the first female commercial pilots in Canada, a flying instructor, photographer, master scuba diver and unstoppable world traveller. When she’s not half a world away, she lives in Belleville with her husband. After writing two previous books about aviation, she now tells the sometimes hair-raising story of her struggle to become a pilot. Highway to the Sky is a tale of triumph against the odds, in a world where women still make up just five percent of commercial pilots.

“I wasn’t sure about writing a memoir,” she confides. “Tina Fey calls them ME-moirs, and I thought who wants to read about me? At first I concentrated on the mechanics of flying, the skills, but my wonderful editor encouraged me to write the true story of what it took for me to become a pilot. She pointed out that if I do that, I’ll be writing not just about me but about women’s issues.” The resulting book is an exhilarating read with heartache, courage, danger and cheer-out-loud moments.

Highway to the Sky is heart-warming and inspirational, a motivational primer for girls and young women. Lola’s father told her straight out that “little girls don’t fly planes,” and it just got worse from there. She tells exactly how she navigated through a male-dominated industry, fighting sexism, discouragement, harassment and pain to become a commercial pilot and flying instructor. Lola writes bravely about her life and her journey; there’s no sugar coating but there’s plenty of humour. “Aviation started in 1903 and Raymonde de Laroche was the first woman to fly in 1910. Thank goodness it’s not so ridiculously hard for us these days, but my story helps explain why it took so long to get here.” Lola is in high demand as an inspirational speaker.

RICHARD POPE
Flight From Grace
Published by McGill-Queen’s University Press

Richard Pope is a retired professor of Russian literature and culture and a lifelong lover of birds, both common and rare. He lives with his wife in Cobourg.

Flight From Grace is his second book about birds and very different from his first, The Reluctant Twitcher, which is a humorous tale of his “Big Year” collecting as many birds as he could in one year. “That was a fun book … Flight From Grace is more serious.” Serious it may be, but it is also highly engaging and beautifully illustrated. Rather than one big year, it covers thousands of years of history with an eclectic mix of mythology, religion and science, with poetry, literature and music thrown in.

“Birds figure strongly in the cultures of Mesopotamia, Egypt and Peru, and in religions all over the world. I wanted to expose the underpinnings of the ancient and deep connection between humans and birds, to explore the effect they have had on us, and the effects we are having on them now through our attacks on nature.”

His lifelong fascination with birds, their beauty, lives and behaviours, shines through, and his approachable writing style and humour draw you in to what is a remarkable overview of a long period of time. He’s not afraid to challenge the experts, ask questions and invite readers to engage in debate.

“It’s the culmination of my whole life’s thinking about nature, climate change, and of course, birds.”

This year, Richard published a third book, Fluttering Things, a collection of his poems lavishly illustrated with original watercolours and photographs. All proceeds from that book will go to charities that support the study and nurture of nature. Mattholderfund.com mqup.ca

ZOE WHITTALL
Wild Failure – Short Stories
Published by Harper Collins

Zoe Whittall is the author of five novels, including The Fake, long-listed for the Toronto Book Award, and also a poet and writer on TV shows like Schitt’s Creek and Baroness Von Sketch. Wild Failure is her first collection of short stories. Born in the Eastern Townships in Quebec, she now lives in Prince Edward County.

Zoe “compresses entire worlds into the most alive of sentences,” says one reviewer and it’s true. She quickly draws you in to lives lived with hardship, sexual confusion, too much or not enough love, wit and fear, and tenderness. Be prepared, some are raunchy, but there are passages that stop you in your tracks and make you want to underline them.

“I wrote short stories in my 20s and then they started getting longer. The idea of writing a novel was intimidating, but I tricked myself into doing it.” Her debut novel won a Writers’ Trust of Canada award and she followed it up with four more, as well as collections of poetry, before returning to short stories.

“I’m a character-first writer. I care more about rhythm and language and the interesting parts of my characters than I do about plot, although I deliberately wanted The Fake to make you excited to find out what happens next.” She certainly achieved that. Many reviewers call it a page-turner.

“I like to explore someone’s life as they face their fears. I write about anxiety, fear and sometimes shame, because that is rich emotional territory. My characters are at interesting thresholds of their life.”

There’s a lot of warmth and humour in her stories, as well as angst and a clear-eyed telling of what she calls the “emotional chaos.” Wild Failure is dynamic and vibrant, contemporary and honest and very engaging. In fact, it’s a wild success.

photograph by Ali Eisner Photography

MEL SHAKESPEARE
A Dedication to Beauty – An antiquarian’s life with antiques and old houses.
Published by the author

Mel Shakespeare saves old houses – sometimes literally from the wrecking ball – repairing, restoring, even rebuilding early Ontario homes. He’s an incredibly creative person, art director, musician, poet and author of a nine-book detective/fantasy series, The Magician’s Nine Lives And How He Lost Them, but his great passion is architectural restoration. Mel Shakespeare lives in Cobourg.

After a lifetime restoring period homes, Mel pulled together stories and photos of his favourite projects for A Dedication to Beauty. He calls it his legacy book, and it highlights many architectural gems he saved and restored over 60 years. “I’m not getting any younger,” he says. “It was time to do a book.” And what a handsome book it is, with 300 pages of photographs and details of 26 beautiful early Ontario homes and their interiors, including the one that started it all.

“I began finding and rescuing old houses and materials, restoring them or moving and rebuilding them, and not just log houses.” Among the log, stone and vintage timber homes in the book is a post and beam building he found being used as a chicken coop. “It was full of chickens, but when I stepped inside I saw it also had original wainscoting, original paintwork, and the original fireplace. All it needed was a good cleaning,” he grins. And then there’s the stone house he built from salvaged materials that local authorities wanted to designate as a heritage property, thinking it was 200 years old. He’s that good.

This limited edition of A Dedication to Beauty is a must-have for lovers of early houses and antiques. It’s a celebration of early Ontario architecture and captures the whole spirit of preservation. dedicationtobeauty.com