Wintercake by Lynne Rae Perkins is a fine choice for the entire family this time of year.  Written for 4-8-year-old children this cozy picturebook has everything a good book needs. It is fun, has an exciting story in which something actually happens, and the writing is terrific. A missing basket of dried fruits returned by a stranger leads two friends to make a  Wintercake and embark on a journey to find the stranger and give him the cake.  The vocabulary is sophisticated, always a good sign.

Elizabeth Strout's latest novel Olive, Again, is a continuation of the previous novel Olive Kitteridge. Olive indeed is back in all her cranky, DownEast hard scrabble ways. Olive delivers a baby, gets married again after living alone as a widow, has a poem written about her and marches into old age as only Olive can do.