Cold weather means cozying up with a good book. How can a book worm choose when there's so many options? Count on Vermont Edition's winter book show as a guide for some good reads.
Claire Benedict, co-owner of Bear Pond Books, along with Randal Smathers, director of the Rutland Free Library, and Megan Butterfield, youth library manager at the Fletcher Free Library in Burlington, give us their recommendations for the year and suggestions for readers of all ages.
Books recommended by our guests, listeners, and Vermont Public staff (in no order):
- Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar
- Normal People by Sally Rooney
- Dungeon Crawler Carl series by Matt Dinniman
- Intimacies by Katie Kitamura
- Filterworld by Kyle Chayaka
- The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut
- The Hike by Drew Magary
- Two Steps Forward, One Step Back: My Life in the Music Business by Miles Copeland III
- Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
- Circe by Madeline Miller
- Colored Television by Danzy Senna
- Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco
- Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky
- The History of Information by Chris Haughton
- CABIN: Off the Grid Adventures with a Clueless Craftsman by Patrick Hutchison
- Agony Hill and O'Artful Death by Sarah Stewart Taylor
- Joe Gunther detective series by Archer Mayor
- How to Love a Forest by Ethan Tapper
- We Need No Wings by Ann Davila Cardinal
- When the Sea Came Alive by Garrett Graff
- The Christmas Calf by George Woodard (picture book)
- Dogman: Big Jim Begins by Dav Pilkey
- We are Definitely Human by X. Fang
- The Women by Kristin Hannah
- The Road to Dalton by Shannon Bowring
- The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates
- To Shape a Dragon’s Breath by Moniquill Blackgoose
- The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
- The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak
- I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai
- The Game Changer by Lana Ferguson
- The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley
- Proto-Cycology II Chasing the Falcon by Angus Chaney, illustrated by Ethan Nelson
- Navola by Paolo Bacigalupi
- The Grey Wolf by Louise Penny
- Serviceberry by Robin Wall Kimmerer
- Mountain Spells by Toussaint St Negritude
- How to Love a Forest by Ethan Tapper
- Northwoods by Daniel Mason
- On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder
- Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
- Tom Lake by Ann Patchett
- Funny Story by Emily Henry
- Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
- All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker
- James by Percival Everett
- This Tender Land and Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger
- The Genius of Judy: How Judy Blume Rewrote Childhood for All of Us by Rachelle Bergstein
- Big Jim and the White Boy: An American Classic Reimagined by David F. Walker and Marcus Kwame Anderson
- Twenty-four Seconds from Now... by Jason Reynolds
- The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride
- Mrs. Nash's Ashes by Sarah Adler
- What Makes a Baby, Sex Is a Funny Word, and You Know, Sex by Cory Silverberg and Fiona Smyth
- Where Do They Go? by Julia Alvarez, illustrated by Sabra Field
- The History of Sound by Ben Shattuck
- Long Island Compromise by Taffy Brodesser Akner
- Table for Two by Amor Towles
- Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See
- Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family by Robert Kolker
- Sure, I'll Join Your Cult: A Memoir of Mental Illness and the Quest to Belong Anywhere by Maria Bamford
- The Angel Makers: Arsenic, a Midwife, and Modern History's Most Astonishing Murder Ring by Patti McCracken
- The Spiritual Child: The New Science on Parenting for Health and Lifelong Thriving by Lisa Miller
- Trust Kids! Stories on Youth Autonomy and Confronting Adult Supremacy by Carla Bergman
- Dark Matter by Blake Crouch
- The Trouble with Heroes by Kate Messner
- The Cartoonists Club by Raina Telgemeier and Scott McCloud
- Save Me a Seat!: A Life With Movies by Rick Winston
- The Small and the Mighty by Sharon McMahon
- Plastic Surgery: An Illustrated History by Catherine B. Foss and Riccardo F. Mazzola
- On Call by Anthony Fauci
- Premotion and The Fifth Dimension by Michael Lewis
- Vermont Almanac V
Broadcast live on Tuesday, December 10, 2024, at noon; rebroadcast at 7 p.m.
Have questions, comments, or tips? Send us a message or check us out on Instagram.