Explore adult reading recommendations to help you complete the 2026 Winter Reading Challenge.

Click on a title to place a hold on it through our catalogue.

Books set in a super cold place

The Dark by Emma Haughton

The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah

Beartown by Fredrick Backman

The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden

Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy

The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley

The Fox Wife by Yangsze Choo

Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson

Books by Māori authors

The Mires by Tina Makareti

The Whale Rider by Witi Ihimaera

Potiki by Patricia Grace

The Last Living Cannibal by Airana Ngarewa

The Bone People by Keri Hulme

Auē by Becky Manawatu

Kāwai By Monty Soutar

Books that make you think about the past

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

The Space Between by Lauren Keenan (NZ Author)

1985 by Dominic Hoey (NZ Author)

All the Broken Places by John Boyne

Land by Maggie O’Farrell

The Women by Kristin Hannah

Burial Rites by Hannah Kent