It's True. Hell Freezes Over*

"It's cold and it's getting colder. It's gray and white and winter all around. And oh, I must be getting older and all this snow is trying to get me down..." Denver/Taylor/Kniss >1972


The four walls are closing in right about now. Call it what you want - a marshmallow world, a snow globe, or just winter in the upper Midwest. The wind chills are

View through a frosty front door

ridiculously perilous. 40 below - really? Schools, including universities, are closed. Mail and newspaper deliveries postponed. With weary gravitas, newscasters tell us to stay indoors and if we must venture outside to keep it brief, don't talk too much, don't take deep breaths, cover our eyes, and watch for signs of frostbite in less than 15 minutes.

Indoors, there are lists of things to do such as cleaning closets, organizing the basement, catching up on laundry, dusting and vacuuming. But the lists are forgotten as the landscape outside beckons a long look.

My own snow globe

Yes, it's snowing again. Sidewalks disappear under inches of fresh snow. Steam rises from the river. Cars slide. Cabin fever sets in. 

It's almost a relief to hear of one side effect of this snow globe life: we can become lethargic, or to put it bluntly, lazy. This is where hot tea (or cocoa) and books come in. And there's a name for needing warmth and comfort: hygge (HOO-gah). What is hygge? It's a Danish concept all about enjoying life regardless of (cold) weather. (See blog post April 2, 2017) A simple meal, a good book, the cheeriness of a candle are all hallmarks of hygge. And comfy pants, added Louisa Thomsen Brits, author of "The Book of Hygge." Are we really going to argue with Denmark? It's one of the happiest nations on Earth according to the World Happiness Report.

Put the kettle on to boil, choose a favorite blanket and chair, and curl up with a good book (or a map of the Caribbean Sea islands). 

                                 Nonfiction

Bibliophile: An Illustrated Miscellany - Jane Mount

We Are Displaced - Malala Yousfzai

Radium Girls - Kate Moore

Becoming - Michelle Obama

Hunger - Roxane Gay

Mary Queen of Scots - Antonia Fraser

Declutter at the Speed of Life - Dana White

H is for Hawk - Helen Macdonald

                                       Fiction

The Gilded Years - Karin Tanabe

Snow Child - Eowyn Ivey

Becoming Mrs. Lewis - Patti Callahan

Mansfield Park - Jane Austen

Little Fires Everywhere - Celeste Ng

Clock Dance - Anne Tyler

The Chilbury Ladies' Choir - Jennifer Ryan

When the Lights Go Out - Mary Kubica

Truly Madly Guilty - Liane Moriarty

Fates and Traitors - Jennifer Chiaverini

House on Tradd Street - Karen White

The River at Night - Erica Ferencik


*Hell, Michigan (15 miles northwest of Ann Arbor) has indeed frozen over, according to WILX news. On Thursday, the frigid weather was "warming up" with temperatures approaching 0 degrees and a wind chill of -14 degrees.  


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