Hey Winter, bring on a few more snow-days. Please.

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Fault line by Barry Eisler (2009 / thriller novel)

“Everyone had bedtime rituals. Some needed a bath; others, a cup of tea. Some liked to read in bed; others, to listen to music. Ben [Treven] preferred a room sweep with a Glock in a two-handed, chest-level grip.”

Speaking of bedtime rituals: This is one of those thrillers that’s so good that when you read it in bed you end up staying awake way later than you wanted to, and the whole time you’re lying there reading this book you’re thinking, I really should go to sleep now, but dammit, Barry Eisler won’t let you, and as you begin each new chapter (the chapters are manipulatively short) you think, okay, this’ll be my last chapter for tonight, but then you get to the end of that chapter and think, okay, just one more chapter, and then the next thing you are aware of is that your alarm clock is stabbing your unconsciousness with its annoying metronomically-precise sonic jabs—basically your consciousness is Janet Leigh and the alarm clock is Anthony Perkins—and as you reach over to turn off the godforsaken machine, the corner of this book stabs you in the side because you unwittingly slept with it, and because of that pain but also because you got nowhere near enough sleep and now your whole day is going to suck, you’re thinking, as soon as I get home from work I’m going to take a nice long nap and by the way why does that Barry Eisler have to be such an asshole?

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The financial lives of the poets by Jess Walter (2009 / satirical novel)

The American Dream becomes the American Nightmare in this consistently funny novel from the National Book Award-nominated author.

“Higher than expected orders and

A reversal of its earnings direction

Have led to an upward adjustment of

M-Tronic’s third quarter projection

And revived hopes for a sector move

Despite several analysts’ rejection.

I know it sounds stupid in hindsight, and perhaps in foresight too, but my idea was that someone needed to start a website that gave financial news and advice ... in verse.”

And the decisions of the protagonist, Matt Prior—a husband and a father of two—only get worse from there.

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The haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson (1959 / horror novel)

Maybe you read Shirley Jackson’s “The lottery” in high school and thought it was one of the coolest stories you’d ever read.

If you have not read The haunting of Hill House, do, and you might just feel the same way.

Here Jackson skillfully evokes horror largely through what is not seen rather than what is seen: “Whatever walks there, walks alone.”

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‘Salem’s Lot by Stephen King (1975 / horror novel)

Today, vampire novels are literary dandelions. But back in the ‘70’s, what was lacking in quantity was made up for in quality in this, Stephen King’s second novel and to this day, one of his best works.

Before you read ‘Salem’s Lot, read two earlier great horror novels—Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897) and Shirley Jackson’s The haunting of Hill House (1959), both of which strongly influenced this book.

While the vampires here are scary as hell, much of the horror here lives inside the psyches and private lives of the residents of Jerusalem’s Lot: “For the first time in his life [Ben Mears] felt the slow, terrible beat and swell of the ages and saw his life as a dim and glimmering spark in an edifice which, if seen clearly, might drive all men mad.”