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VPR's coverage of arts and culture in the region.

Winter Book Show: What Are Your Reading Recommendations?

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Have you finished a good book lately? On this "Vermont Edition," we'll be hearing reading recommendations from both librarians and listeners.

In the midst of the cold weather and sometimes dreary days of winter, there is a certain appeal to curling up with a good book and getting lost in its pages for a little while.

Whether you find yourself seeking out brand-new titles or beloved old favorites, we'll spend this Vermont Edition talking about reading recommendations.

Vermont librarians also join us on the program to give their take on books to check out this winter. We hear from Springfield Town Library director Amy Howlett and from Starr LaTronica, library director at Brooks Memorial Library in Brattleboro.

Below is a list of titles that were mentioned during the show. Listen to the full show audio above to hear some more information about some of these titles, and also feel free to check out the comments section below and keep the conversation going there.

Titles mentioned by Amy Howlett:

Nutshell by Ian McEwan

The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy

Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J.D. Vance

Bones on Black Spruce Mountain by David Budbill

Titles mentioned by Starr LaTronica:

Fiction Ruined My Family by Jeanne Darst

Let's Pretend This Never Happened (A Mostly True Memoir) and Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things by Jenny Lawson

Home to Woefield by Susan Juby

The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett

The Dark Is Rising series by Susan Cooper

Suggestions from listeners:

Proposed Roads To Freedom by Bertrand Russell

The Sparrow and its sequel Children of God by Mary Doria Russell

A Student's Introduction to English Grammar by Rodney Huddleston and Geoffrey K. Pullum

Words on the Move: Why English Won't - and Can't - Sit Still (Like, Literally) and Talking Back, Talking Black: Truths About America's Lingua Franca by John McWhorter

The Binti series by Nnedi Okorafor

The Tower at Stony Wood by Patricia A. McKillip

The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson

It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis

Born A Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

The Inugami Mochi by Jessamyn Smyth

Beasts and Children by Amy Parker

The Event That Changed Everything: A Novel About Cooks, Chefs, Restaurant Life, Farming, Relationships and Environmental Consciousness by Paul Sorgule

Philippa Gregory's books

Margaret George's books

Jane Austen's novels

The Joe Gunther series by Archer Mayor

Garden picture books

American on Purpose: The Improbable Adventures of an Unlikely Patriot by Craig Ferguson

We Were The Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates

Hope in the Dark: Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities by Rebecca Solnit

Hand to Mouth: Living In Bootstrap America by Linda Tirado

The Boys In The Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics by Daniel James Brown

Before the Court of Heaven by Jack Mayer

Coyote America: A Natural and Supernatural History by Dan Flores

The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden

Skullsworn by Brian Staveley

Moriah by Daniel Mills

The Stars Are Legion by Kameron Hurley

The Fortress at the End of Time by Joe M. McDermott

Conclave by Robert Harris

Cartozia Tales by various cartoonists, edited by Isaac Cates

The Lorax by Dr. Seuss

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Double Down by Jeff Kinney

Correction 8:35 p.m. This list originally included Word on the Street, which is a different, earlier book by John McWhorter than the one described on the show. The above list has now been updated to reflect the recent works by McWhorter described and recommended during the program.

Broadcast live on Tuesday, Feb. 14 at noon; rebroadcast at 7 p.m.

Jane Lindholm is the host, executive producer and creator of But Why: A Podcast For Curious Kids. In addition to her work on our international kids show, she produces special projects for Vermont Public. Until March 2021, she was host and editor of the award-winning Vermont Public program Vermont Edition.
Meg Malone was a producer for Vermont Public Radio until January 2020. She joined VPR in May 2016 as digital producer for Vermont Edition.
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