Winter always seems like a great time to settle in with a book, and what better gift? Former Exchange host Laura Knoy will be returning for NHPR’s Holiday Book Show on Monday, November 29, at 12 noon and 9 p.m.
Laura Knoy will be chatting with local independent booksellers about their favorites over the past year, and which new books they expect to see flying off the shelves this gift-giving season. We’ll cover the best in novels, non-fiction, biographies, cookbooks, and more, for gifting or for yourself!
Our guests include Dan Chartrand of Water Street Bookstore in Exeter, Laura Cummings of White Birch Books in North Conway, and Michael Herrmann of Gibson's Bookstore in Concord. We'll be posting all the books recommended by booksellers, listeners (and some NHPR staff!) right here following the show.
*Books mentioned during the show are marked with asterisk*
White Birch Books
Fiction
*The Memoirs Of Stockholm Sven By Nathaniel Ian Miller
*The Lincoln Highway By Amor Towles
*Cloud Cuckoo Land By Anthony Doerr
Fight Night By Miriam Toews
A Thousand Ships By Natalie Haynes
Mary Jane By Jessica Anya Blau
Once There Were Wolves By Charlotte Mcconaghy
*The Blacktongue Thief By Christopher Buehlman
Under The Whispering Door By Tj Klune
The Cat Who Saved Books By Sosuke Natsukawa
Non-fiction
Joshua Weissman: An Unapologetic Cookbook By Joshua Weissman
*Let’s Eat Italy: Everything You Want To Know About Your Favorite Cuisine By Francois-Regis Gaudry
Carnival Of Snackery By David Sedaris
Where The Deer And The Antelope Play: The Pastoral Observations Of One Ignorant American Who Loves To Walk Outside By Nick Offerman
Best Wishes, Warmest Regards: The Story Of Schitt’s Creek By Eugene And Dan Levy
Leave The Gun, Take The Cannoli: The Epic Story Of The Making Of The Godfather By Mark Seal
The Double Life Of Bob Dylan: A Restless, Hungry Feeling, 1941-1966 By Clinton Heylin
Fuzz: When Nature Breaks The Law By Mary Roach
*NH Rocks That Rock By Dan Szczesny
The Third Pole By Mark Synnott
Bonus Picture Book List
Norman Didn’t Do It (Yes, He Did) By Ryan Higgins
*Chez Bob By Bob Shea
I Eat Poop: A Dung Beetle Story By Mark Pett
Water Street Books:
Top 10 Fiction
*Cloud Cuckoo Land: A Novel by Anthony Doerr
*The Sentence: A Novel by Louise Erdrich
A Line to Kill: A Novel by Anthony Horowitz
*Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
Five Tuesdays in Winter: Stories by Lily King
Apples Never Fall: A Novel by Liane Moriarty
Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney
Our Country Friends: A Novel by Gary Shteyngart
Fight Night: A Novel: A Novel by Miriam Toews
Harlem Shuffle: A Novel by Colson Whitehead
Top 10 Non-Fiction
Now Comes Good Sailing: Writers Reflect on Henry David Thoreau edited by Andrew Blauner
Our First Civil War: Patriots and Loyalists in the American Revolution by H. W. Brands
Powder Days: Ski Bums, Ski Towns and the Future of Chasing Snow by Heather Hansman
Powers and Thrones: A New History of the Middle Ages by Dan Jones
*The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story by Nikole Hannah-Jones
Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future by Elizabeth Kolbert
On Animals by Susan Orlean
*This Is Your Mind on Plants by Michael Pollan
*Beautiful Country: A Memoir by Qian Julie Wang
All of the Marvels: A Journey to the Ends of the Biggest Story Ever Told by Douglas Wolk
Great Books About Books at Water Street Bookstore
The New York Times Book Review: 125 Years of Literary History; Edited by Tina Jordan and Noor Qasim
The Library: A Fragile History by Andrew Pettegree and Arthur Der Weduwen
Great Cookbooks at Water Street Bookstore
*Black Food: Stories, Art & Recipes from Across the African Diaspora; Edited & Curated by Bryant Terry
*The Korean Vegan Cookbook: Reflections and Recipes from Omma’s Kitchen by Joanne Lee Molinaro
Great Local New Hampshire Authors at Water Street Bookstore
Exeter: Past and Present by Kathleen D. Bailey and Sheila R. Bailey
*Hiking the White Mountains: A Guide to New Hampshire’s Best Hiking Adventures by Lisa Densmore Ballard and James Buchanan
*Dead On Deadline: A Piper Greene Exeter Mystery by Lara Bricker
The Power of Energy Medicine: Your Natural Prescription for Resilient Health by Hilary Crowley
The Heirloom Gardener: Traditional Plants & Skills for the Modern World by John Forti
*Chasing Eden: A Book of Seekers by Howard Mansfield
*The Hummingbirds’ Gift: Wonder, Beauty, and Renewal on Wings by Sy Montgomery
The Unlikely Art of Parental Pressure: A Positive Approach to Pushing Your Child to Be Their Best Self by Dr. Chris Thurber and Dr. Hendrie Weisinger
Great Local New Hampshire Poets at Water Street Bookstore
We Hold on To What We Can: Poems by Sarah Alcott Anderson
Liminal: Poems by Bill Burtis
lesser case by Mark DeCarteret
Tender the River: Poems by Matt Miller
Surface Fugue: Poems by Ralph Sneeden
Loosen: Poems by Kyle Potvin
Great Sports Books at Water Street Bookstore
*The Baseball 100 by Joe Posnanski
Wish It Lasted Forever: Life with the Larry Bird Celtics by Dan Shaughnessy
It’s Better to Be Feared: The New England Patriots Dynasty and the Pursuit of Greatness by Seth Wickersham
Gibson’s Bookstore:
Fiction
*The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles
Bewilderment by Richard Powers
*The Sentence by Louise Erdrich
*Matrix by Lauren Groff
*Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr
Libertie by Kaitlyn Greenidge
*Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead
The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris
Debut
Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder
Animal by Lisa Taddeo
No One is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood
Local
*Donald Hall, Old Poets
* Limits of Limelight by Margaret Porter
Ernie Hebert’s Darby novels all republished by Wesleyan U. Press this year
Authors we have talked about on the show before: Sy Montgomery, Howard Mansfield, Virginia Macgregor, Dan Sczcesny
Memoir
The Storyteller by Dave Grohl
My Life Through Food by Stanley Tucci
Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner
The Lyrics by Paul McCartney
Debut memoir:
*Somebody’s Daughter by Ashley C. Ford
History
*The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber
*The 1619 Project by Nikole Hannah-Jones
Gift books
Renegades by Barack Obama and Bruce Springsteen
*Gastro Obscura by Cecily Wong & Dylan Thuras
Trees and nature
Finding the Mother Tree by Suzanne Simard
Toadstool Bookshops
The Lyrics - Paul McCartney
The Storyteller - Dave Grohl - there were a limited number of signed copies that were available - truly the hottest request while they lasted
*Deep Presence: 13000 Years Of Native American History in New England - lots of local sites - by Robert Goodby
The 1619 Project from the NYT and Nikole Hannah-Jones
Chasing Eden: A Book Of Seekers by Howard Mansfield of Hancock NH
Hummingbirds' Gift by Sy Montgomery also from Hancock
Cokie: A Life Well Lived by Steven Roberts
*New England Roadside Ecology by Thomas Wessels
two long awaited new novels from favorite authors:
*Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr
*Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles
*The Sentence by Louis Erdrich
*Memoirs Of Stockholm Sven by Nathaniel Ian Miller - a personal favorite!
*Call Us What We Carry by Amanda Gorman's still forthcoming collection of poems
*Baseball 100 by Joe Posnaski on the lives of baseballs 100 greatest players
graphic novels for kids are in great demand
The Nutcracker - retold and fully illustrated by Jan Brett
Also mentioned:
My Shadow is Pink by Scott Stuart
We Are Water Protectors by Carole Lindstrom
Anthony and the Gargoyle by Jo Ellen Bogart
New Hampshire's 52 with a View by Ken MacGray
The AMC White Mountain Guide
The Four thousand Footers of New Hampshire by Mike Dickerman
Listener Recommendations:
Sue Lamb: Welcome to Frost Heaves - it’s a great book
Cathleen Toomey: I got an early copy of a fantastic book that she recommends for anyone on the other side of 60 – From Strength to Strength – Finding Success, Happiness and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life by Arthur Brooks, a Harvard professor, columnist forThe Atlantic columnist, and podcaster. This is an eminently readable guidebook on how to start crafting a life of purpose and happiness right now. He incorporates St. Thomas Aquinas, Buddha, the Dali Lama, David Foster Wallace and the newest psychological research into his thinking to create a clear point of view from which to take stock of your life, and how to intentionally shift direction. It’s a great gift.
Bryce Morales: I'm excited to give my dad The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber and David Wengrow this holiday season. It just came out, and I haven't quite finished it, but I can already tell it will shake up many of our longstanding beliefs about early human history. I would be surprised if it didn't ultimately settle alongside (if not surpass) such recent hits as Sapiens and Guns, Germs, and Steel.
Lundy Smith: I highly recommend Gordo by Jaime Cortez. A brilliant collection of short stories that explore the lives of migrant workers living in the central coast of California. The stories are poignant, funny, and present the dark side of being a migrant/Mexicano/Chicano in America. The best work of fiction I read in 2021.
Vicki Brown: I will be giving all my friends two books this season! Finding the Mother Tree by Dr. Suzanne Simard and New England's Roadside Ecology by Thomas Wessels. I love both so much, and they are accessible to all, even if they aren't nature geeks!
Laurie Zwaan: Stop whatever you’re doing and read the Lincoln Highway. Amor Towles' writing is exquisite, as we know from his previous novels. The characters are beautifully developed. The story is so compelling you will not be able to stop reading. There's something for everyone: Greek mythology, adventure, travel, suspense, murder.... gah! If I were a bookseller I would insist that anyone who walked into my store buy this book immediately!
Sarah McCraw Crow says: I loved Lauren Groff’s latest novel The Matrix (12th-century young French woman is sent to run a floundering abbey—it’s so good, so unexpected and yet believable. And somehow a page turner.) And I’m looking forward to reading Elizabeth Strout’s new novel Oh, William!
Rachel Young: I recommend Trace by Melanie Figg who graduated from Hanover, NH, High School in 1986. It’s a full-length poetry collection, winner of the Many Voices Project.
Nancy Hammond: Point of Graves by J Dennis Robinson - a great “New England History Mystery”! Set in Portsmouth with a lot of factual historical detail. Highly recommended.
Cathy Joly: My absolute favorite one is Dara McAnulty’s Diary of a Young Naturalist, which I am giving to young adults and adults even though it is written by a 14-year-old. The writing carries my heart into Dara’s world, I feel the beauty, the pain, the passion. Dara’s exquisite attention to details and his crystal clear descriptions of his world make it impossible to put down, and I find myself reading it over and over.
Grace Dugan: There are a few books that I am really excited to get this holiday season: A Snake Falls to Earth by Darcie Little Badger who wrote Elatsoe, which is a favorite of mine. I also am excited for Jen Campbell’s creepy illustrated book of fairytale retellings: The Sister Who Ate Her Brothers.
Sarah Cleaver: I highly recommend Dan & Uma Szczesny's field guide, NH Rocks that Rock. It's a great guide to getting out and exploring new areas of our beautiful little state!
