Just as summertime has beach reading, wintertime calls for a different type of literary escapism — armchair travel, romance and magic. Oh, wait, I guess escapism is the same no matter what season. Parnassus makes the case in mid-January that if you can’t go to the beach, what you really need are cozy magical mysteries and Amish romances. This week Parnassus will host Agatha Award winner Amanda Flower and romance novelist Kathleen Fuller. Flower won an Agatha for her young adult mystery Andi Unstoppable a few years back, and Thursday she’ll read from her latest work, Death and Daisies, the second installment in her magical bookshop mystery series. The series will appeal to fans of magic and BBC dramas set in Scotland — it features light entertainment, armchair travels and a murder mystery. On the opposite end of the winter-reading spectrum is the Amish romance novel. If there are heaving breasts and quivering thighs in this genre, they are fully clothed and not mentioned at all. Instead, chaste lovers signal desire with sideways glances and pounding hearts, and the book’s cover depicts a respectful distance between the romantic pair. Fuller is a bestselling writer of the genre, which apparently has quite a market in Pennsylvania Dutch country, and she’ll be in town to read from The Teacher’s Bride, the latest in her Amish of Birch Creek novel series. GALYN GLICK MARTIN
