Episode 121: Books to Devour This Winter

A portrait of the main characters in R.F. Kuang’s Babel by artist Kimberly Jade McDonald, via Kuang’s website.

The winter holidays are coming up, and it's a great time to hide away with a stack of books. Good thing we've got you covered! Here's our roundup of our favorite recent books, including some you probably haven't heard much about yet. Plus we geek out about the themes and common ideas we've been seeing in the books we've read in 2022. Get ready to grow your TBR pile!

Notes, citations & etc.

If you need even more recommendations, Charlie Jane wrote a roundup of 2022’s best SFF books in the Washington Post.

Books we mentioned in this episode follow:

The Daughter of Dr. Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

All the Hometowns You Can't Stay Away From by Izzy Wasserstein

Siren Queen by Nghi Vo

Spear by Nicola Griffith

The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber and David Wengrow

Thinking Like an Economist: How Efficiency Replaced Equality in U.S. Public Policy by Elizabeth Popp Berman

The Women Could Fly by Megan Giddings

Sexed Up by Julia Serano

The Red Scholar's Wake by Aliette de Bodard

A Prayer for the Crown Shy by Becky Chambers

The Bruising of Qilwa by Naseem Jamnia

She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan

The Unbroken by C.L. Clark

Babel by R.F. Kuang

Bloodmarked by Tracy Deonn

Atlas Paradox by Olivie Blake

The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd

Dead Collections by Isaac Fellman

The Sunbearer Trials by Aiden Thomas

Wrath Goddess Sing by Maya Deane

The Story of the Hundred Promises by Neil Cochrane

An Immense World by Ed Yong

Fuzz by Mary Roach

Pests by Bethany Brookshire

Bitch: On the Female of the Species by Lucy Cook

On Animals by Susan Orlean

The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler

The Light Pirate by Lily Brooks-Dalton

The Unbalancing by R.B. Lemberg

Saturnalia by Stephanie Feldman

Meet Us by the Roaring Sea by Akil Kumaraswamy

Lark Ascending by Silas House

Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree

Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher

Just Like Home by Sarah Gailey

No Gods for Drowning by Hailey Piper

How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu

Fevered Star by Rebecca Roanhorse

The World We Make by N.K. Jemisin

Devil House by John Darnielle

Bindle Punk Bruja by Desideria Mesa

Uncanny Times by Laura Anne Gilman

An Arrow to the Moon by Emily X.R. Pan

Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan

Strike the Zither by Joan He

Foul Lady Fortune by Chloe Gong