At the edge of the Russian wilderness, winter lasts most of the year and the snowdrifts grow taller than houses. But Vasilisa doesn't mind—she spends the winter nights huddled around the embers of a fire with her beloved siblings, listening to her nurse's fairy tales. Above all, she loves the chilling story of Frost, the blue-eyed winter demon, who appears in the frigid night to claim unwary souls. Wise Russians fear him, her nurse says, and honor the spirits of house and yard and forest that protect their homes from evil.

After Vasilisa's mother dies, her father goes to Moscow and brings home a new wife. Fiercely devout, city-bred, Vasilisa's new stepmother forbids her family from honoring the household spirits. The family acquiesces, but Vasilisa is frightened, sensing that more hinges upon their rituals than anyone knows.

And indeed, crops begin to fail, evil creatures of the forest creep nearer, and misfortune stalks the village. All the while, Vasilisa's stepmother grows ever harsher in her determination to groom her rebellious stepdaughter for either marriage or confinement in a convent.

As danger circles, Vasilisa must defy even the people she loves and call on dangerous gifts she has long concealed—this, in order to protect her family from a threat that seems to have stepped from her nurse's most frightening tales.

The Bear and the Nightingale is a magical debut novel from a gifted and gorgeous voice. It spins an irresistible spell as it announces the arrival of a singular talent.

Light on Snow is a beautiful contemporary bestseller by Anita Shreve that explores themes of love and memory. The story is recounted from the perspective of 30-year-old Nicky as she reflects on a vivid December day 19 years ago. On that day, she and her father discovered an abandoned infant in the snow, an event that forever altered her understanding of the world.

The narrative captures the essence of family, as twelve-year-old Nicky Dillon and her widowed father navigate the emotional aftermath of their discovery. As they encounter a young woman haunted by her own choices, they are faced with a thicket of decisions, each carrying possibilities of heartbreak and redemption.

With tender and surprising storytelling, Anita Shreve unfolds a tale of courage and the ways in which the human heart seeks to heal itself. This novel is set against the backdrop of snow-filled woods near their New Hampshire home, adding a touch of winter wonder to the narrative.

On the empty winter prairie, gray clouds to the northwest meant only one thing: a blizzard was seconds away. The first blizzard came in October. It snowed almost without stopping until April. The temperature dropped to forty below. Snow reached the roof-tops. And no trains could get through with food and coal. The townspeople began to starve. The Ingalls family barely lived through that winter. And Almanzo Wilder knew he would have to risk his life to save the town.