Winter Reading List

Recommended books for winter

Books make the best gifts -- never the wrong size and relatively inexpensive. But how to choose from the infinite variety of options? Twice a year, The Kojo Nnamdi Show brings you book recommendations for you, the kids, your boss or anyone else in your life. We call on book editors and experts from small independent bookstores to help seek out the quality reads that are often overlooked by mainstream media.

Bridget Warren, Chief of Programming at Prince George's County Memorial Library System

Fiction & Poetry

The Complete Aubrey Maturin Novels Patrick O'Brian

McSweeney's Enchanted Chamber of Astonishing Stories edited by Michael Chabon

Passing Through Colin Channer

The Stone That The Builder Refused: A Novel Madison Smartt Bell

The Prodigal Derek Walcott

Damned If I Do: Stories Percival Everett

Mystery

Gargantuan Maggie Estep

The Pearl Diver Sujata Massey

Out Natsuo Kirinos

The Drowning Tree Carol Goodman

Non-fiction

Queen: The Life and Music of Dinah Washington Nadine Cohodas

Faithful Stewart O'Nan & Stephen King

Journey from the Land of No: A Girlhood Caught in Revolutionary Iran Roya Hakakian

Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson Geoffrey C. Ward

Who the Hell's in It Peter Bogdanovich

On the Wing: To the Edge of the Earth with the Peregrine Falcon Alan Tennant

Gift & Cofeetable Books

The Sweet Breath of Life Ntozake Shange

Vanishing Africa

The Golden Age of DC Comics-365 Days Les Daniels,Chip Kidd, Geoff Spear

Speak, So You Can Speak Again

We Shall Overcome Herb Boyd

Many Are Called Walker Evans with introduction by James Agee

Cookbooks

Pure Chocolate Fran Bigelow

A Year in a Vegetarian Kitchen Jack Bishop

Books for Smart Alecks (Humor)

The Brick Testament: The Story of Christmas Brendan Powell Smith

Molvania: A Land Untouched by Modern Dentistry a Jetlag Travel Guide

Children

O Holy Night: Christmas with the Boys Choir of Harlem Faith Ringgold

Hands: Growing Up to Be an Artist Lois Ehlert

Sure as Sunrise Alice McGill

Bucking the Sarge Christopher Paul Curtis

Shelia Egan, Manager of A Likely Story an independent children's bookstore in Alexandria Virginia

For Younger Readers

This is Thanksgiving Deborah Zimke

Room for A Little One Martin Waddell

Peekaboo Zoo and Peekaboo Farm Lamaze

Baby's Box of Fun Karen Katz

Ish Peter Reynolds

You're All My Favorites Sam McBratney

Bear Stays Up for Christmas Karma Wilson

Make Way for McCloskey: A Robert McCloskey Treasury

Unwitting Wisdom: An Anthology of Aesop's Fables Helen Ward

For Older Readers

Annie Between the States Laura Elliott

Mystery at Blackbeard's Cove Audrey Penn

Hear in Harlem: Poems in Many Voices Walter Dean Meyers

Millions Frank Boyce

Barbara Hoffert, Editor of Library Journal (a Reed Business Publication)

Fiction

The Courage Consort Michel Faber

Birds Without Wings Louis de Bernières

The Distance Between Us Masha Hamilton

Cheat and Charmer Elizabeth Frank

Seven Types of Ambiguity Eliot Perlman

A Black Englishman Carolyn Slaughter

Confessions of a Teen Sleuth: Nancy Drew Tells All! Chelsea Cain (text) & Lia Miternique (illus.)

Non-fiction

Kafka: A Biography Nicholas Murray

Toast: The Story of a Boy's Hunger Nigel Slater

They Made America: From the Steam Engine to the Search Engine; Two Centuries of Innovators Harold Evans with Gail Buckland and David Lefer

Unforgivable Blackness. The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson Geoffrey C. Ward

In Focus: National Geographic Greatest Portraits

Poetry

The Prodigal Derek Walcott

Door in the Mountain: New and Collected Poetry Jean Valentine

Ariel: The Restored Edition Sylvia Plath

Children

Scholastic's Royal Diary series.

The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes 150th Anniversary Edition