Winter break provides the perfect opportunity to cozy up and find a good book to read. Here at Tahoma, our staff have some recommendations.

Librarian Gregg Collette recommends books across many different genres. One of the most innovative series he mentioned was the Dungeon Crawler Carl series, which currently has seven books. 

It falls under the genre of LitRPG, which mixes science fiction and fantasy writing with video game-style statistics and progression. LitRPG is “not a genre [he’s] very familiar with, but [he] was sucked into all the adventures.” According to Collette, the long series is “definitely a good read for those Winter Break days.”

Collette also suggests that the length of winter break makes it “good for tackling a classic”. He noted that Jane Austen’s 250th birthday is being celebrated this December, and he’s always been “a big fan” of her novel Pride and Prejudice. 

While he admits that “it takes a little effort to get used to the style of early 19th-century writing”, he says it’s worth it. 

For those who prefer science fiction stories, Collette recommends Red Rising by Pierce Brown. He describes the series as “a better Hunger Games”, and says that the author “does a great job with his world-building”. There are six books in the series (three in the first trilogy and three more as a continuation), which makes it “an epic tale to get lost in”.

English teacher Erin Davolt prefers historical fiction novels, and she recommends The Bookbinder by Pip Williams. Set at Oxford during the First World War, the back of the novel describes it as “a story about knowledge—who creates it, who can access it, and what truths get lost in the process”. In this description, Davolt says that she sees “so many parallels to the world today” when it comes to education, knowledge, and truth.

These books (and more) can be found at the THS library, or checked out through the King County Library System.