8 Festive Books For Non-Fiction Readers: Memoirs, Food Writing & Wintery Histories

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“We have seasons when we flourish and seasons when the leaves fall from us, revealing our bare bones. Given time, they grow again.”

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When the nights turn long, and the world feels a little quieter, there’s few things better than curling up with festive non-fiction books that bring warmth, depth, and meaning to the season. Whether you’re looking for Christmas non-fiction books, cosy winter non-fiction reads, or thoughtful titles to gift the non-fiction lover in your life, we here at What We Reading have gathered the very finest seasonal picks. From heartfelt winter memoirs to comforting holiday food writing and atmospheric wintery histories, these books present the best blend of reflection and festive spirit. Read on for our most charming, inspiring, and truly cosy non-fiction books to sink into with a hot drink in hand and brighten your winter reading list. 

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Wintering – Katherine May

Kicking off our list of cosy festive non-fiction books is Katherine May’s memoir, Wintering. A moving personal narrative shot through with lessons from literature, mythology, and the natural world, May’s story offers instruction on the transformative power of rest and retreat. Illumination emerges from many sources: solstice celebrations and dormice hibernation, C.S. Lewis and Sylvia Plath, swimming in icy waters, and sailing arctic seas. 

Ultimately, Wintering invites us all to change how we relate to our fallow times. May models an active acceptance of sadness and finds nourishment in deep retreat, joy in the hushed beauty of winter, and encouragement in understanding life as cyclical, not linear. A secular mystic, May forms a guiding philosophy for transforming the hardships that arise before the ushering of a new season. 

The Little Library Cookbook – Kate Young

Have you ever wanted to taste Paddington Bear’s marmalade? Or a clam chowder from Moby Dick? Drawing from her own popular food blog, The Little Library Cafe, Kate Young has created than a hundred different recipes inspired by her beloved works of fiction – classics and contemporary bestsellers alike, including stories for all ages. 

The appealing cookbook offers delectable dishes to serve for breakfast, family dinners, holiday meals, midnight feasts, parties and celebrations. In this cute cookbook perfect for the festive season, you’ll discover how to prepare the afternoon tea served at Manderley and the decadent tarts the Queen of Hearts herself would love – all while reading food-related excerpts from your favourite stories. 

Yule: Rituals, Recipes & Lore For The Winter Solstice – Susan Pesznecker

Yule – also known as Midwinter – is when nighttime has reached its maximum length, but there is promise of brighter days to come as candles are lit and feasts are enjoyed. This guide to the history and modern celebration of Yule shows you how to perform rituals and magic to celebrate and work with the energy of the winter solstice. 

A well-rounded introduction to Yule, this attractive book comes brimming with rituals, recipes, lore, and correspondences. It includes hands-on information for modern celebrations, spells, and divination, recipes and crafts, invocations and prayers, and plenty more! 

The Shepherd’s Life – James Rebanks

Some people’s lives are entirely their own creations. James Rebanks’ isn’t. The first son of a shepherd, who was the first son of a shepherd himself, he and his family have lived and worked in and around the Lake District for generations. Their way of life is ordered by the seasons and the work they demand, and has been for hundreds of years. 

A Viking would understand the work they do: sending the sheep to the fells in the summer and making the hay; the autumn fairs where the flocks are replenished; the gruelling toil of winter when the sheep must be kept alive, and the light-headedness that comes with the spring, as the lambs are born and the sheep get ready to return to the fells. 

The Christmas Chronicles – Nigel Slater

The Christmas Chronicles is a festive food book and Nigel Slater’s ode to winter. With recipes, decorations, fables, and quick fireside suppers, Slater guides readers through the essential preparations for Christmas and the New Year, with everything you need to enjoy the wintery months. 

Taking us from November 1st all the way through to the end of January, The Christmas Chronicles features over one hundred recipes to see through the build-up, celebration, and aftermath. Packed with feasts, folktales, myths, and memoirs, all delivered with Nigel’s warm and intimate signature style, this festive non-fiction read promises to be one of your kitchen mainstays each time the colder months come calling. 

The Old Magic Of Christmas – Linda Raedisch

Not so very long ago, Yuletide was as much a chilling season of ghosts and witches as it was a festival of goodwill. In The Old Magic of Christmas, you’ll find a bestiary and a White Witch’s herbal, as well as tips for delving more deeply into your relationship with the unseen. 

Bring the festivities into your home with cookie recipes and ornament making while brushing elbows with veiled spirits and discovering the true perils of elves. Rife with the more frightful characters from folklore and the season’s most petulant ghosts, this festive book takes you on a spooky sleigh ride from the silvered firs of a winter forest to the mirrored halls of the Snow Queen. 

Arctic Dreams – Barry Lopez

The Arctic is a perilous place. Only a handful of wild animals can survive its harsh climate. In this modern classic, Barry Lopez explores the many-faceted wonders of the Far North: its strangely stunted forest, its mesmerising aurora borealis, its frozen seas. Musk oxen, polar bears, narwhals, and other exotic beasts of the region come alive through Lopez’s passionate and nuanced observations. 

And, as he examines the history and culture of the indigenous people, along with the parallel narratives of intrepid, often underprepared and subsequently doomed polar explorers, Lopez drives to the heart of why the austere and formidable Arctic is also a constant source of breathtaking beauty, beguilement, and wonder. Written in prose as memorably pure as the land it describes, Arctic Dreams is a timeless meditation on the ability of the landscape to shape our dreams and haunt our imaginations. 

An Everlasting Meal – Tamar Adler

Through the insightful essays in An Everlasting Meal, Tamar Adler issues a rallying cry to home cooks. In chapters about boiling water, cooking eggs and beans, and summoning respectable meals from empty cupboards, Adler weaves philosophy and instruction into approachable lessons on instinctive cooking. Adler shows how to make the most of everything you buy, demonstrating what the world’s best chefs rely on the bones and peels of their meals. 

She explains how to smarten up on simple food and lends advice for fixing dishes gone awry. By wrestling cooking from doctrine and doldrums, An Everlasting Meal is another great non-fiction book for the festive season that stands as a testimony to the value of cooking and an empowering, indispensable tool for eaters today.