Books set in Vermont
Every state has its hallmark writers. Mississippi has William Faulkner and his incomparable (fictional) Yoknapatawpha County and Missouri can lay claim to Mark Twain. The state of Maine is gifted with Pulitzer winner Richard Russo and horror icon Stephen King. Rural Pennsylvania is the playground of the much-heralded (and occasionally maligned) John Updike, and when many bibliophiles think of New Jersey, they also think of Richard Ford's series of novels featuring recurring Everyman character Frank Bascombe. Illinois can lay claim to William Maxwell, Sandra Cisneros, and Adam Langer, among numerous others. And what reader can think of Washington State without contending with the sparkle-vampire yarns of Stephanie Meyer?
What makes authors like these inextricably associated with a particular state is not simply the matter of their having been born there or choosing to live there. The connection, from a writerly standpoint, is deeper than that—their work, nearly all of it, is set in "their" state.
Of course, there are certainly exceptions. Whether a writer sets a tale in the town where they went to college or spent part of their childhood—like Donna Tartt's "The Secret History" and its New England arts school setting and the almost-factual small town of Jo Ann Beard's "In Zanesville," respectively—or crafts a story that follows a social or political theme to a location they know little about but lay narrative claim to anyway, the world is rife with books known, loved, and respected that also capture the essence of place—books where setting itself is one of the strongest characters.
Stacker compiled a list of books set in Vermont from Goodreads. Whether you're looking for a good read set in the state you call home, or you're looking to expand your curiosity with a writer you're already familiar with, we've got you covered.
A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail
- Author: Bill Bryson
- Published: May 5, 1998
- Genres: Nonfiction, Travel, Memoir, Humor
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Robert Frost's Poems
- Author: Robert Frost
- Published: January 1, 1949
- Genres: Poetry, Classics, Literature, Fiction
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Midwives
- Author: Chris Bohjalian
- Published: April 1, 1997
- Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Adult Fiction, Book Club
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Houdini Heart
- Author: Ki Longfellow
- Published: April 25, 2011
- Genres: Horror, Fantasy, Fiction, Mystery
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Crossing to Safety
- Author: Wallace Stegner
- Published: January 1, 1987
- Genres: Fiction, Classics, Literary Fiction, Novels
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Pollyanna (Pollyanna, #1)
- Author: Eleanor H. Porter
- Published: January 1, 1913
- Genres: Classics, Fiction, Childrens, Young Adult
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Before Familiar Woods
- Author: Ian Pisarcik
- Published: March 10, 2020
- Genres: Fiction, Mystery, Mystery Thriller, Contemporary
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House Rules
- Author: Jodi Picoult
- Published: March 2, 2010
- Genres: Fiction, Mystery, Contemporary, Autistic Spectrum Disorder
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Open Season (Joe Gunther, #1)
- Author: Archer Mayor
- Published: September 9, 1988
- Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Crime, Thriller
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Understood Betsy
- Author: Dorothy Canfield Fisher
- Published: January 1, 1916
- Genres: Classics, Fiction, Childrens, Historical Fiction
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Justin Morgan Had a Horse
- Author: Marguerite Henry
- Published: January 1, 1945
- Genres: Horses, Historical Fiction, Childrens, Fiction
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For Your Eyes Only (James Bond, #8)
- Author: Ian Fleming
- Published: April 11, 1960
- Genres: Fiction, Thriller, Espionage, Short Stories
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Life Among the Savages
- Author: Shirley Jackson
- Published: January 1, 1953
- Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, Humor, Biography
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Snowflake Bentley
- Author: Jacqueline Briggs Martin
- Published: September 28, 1998
- Genres: Picture Books, Biography, Nonfiction, Childrens
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All the Best People
- Author: Sonja Yoerg
- Published: May 2, 2017
- Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Mental Health, Contemporary
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The Secret History
- Author: Donna Tartt
- Published: September 16, 1992
- Genres: Fiction, Mystery, Contemporary, Classics
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We Have Always Lived in the Castle
- Author: Shirley Jackson
- Published: September 21, 1962
- Genres: Horror, Classics, Fiction, Gothic
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Second Glance
- Author: Jodi Picoult
- Published: April 8, 2003
- Genres: Fiction, Mystery, Contemporary, Paranormal
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Water Witches
- Author: Chris Bohjalian
- Published: February 1, 1995
- Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Witches, Magical Realism
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The Buffalo Soldier
- Author: Chris Bohjalian
- Published: March 1, 2002
- Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Contemporary, Novels
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Where the Rivers Flow North
- Author: Howard Frank Mosher
- Published: January 1, 1978
- Genres: Fiction, Short Stories, Historical Fiction
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Northern Borders
- Author: Howard Frank Mosher
- Published: January 1, 1994
- Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction, Adult Fiction
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The Winter People
- Author: Jennifer McMahon
- Published: February 11, 2014
- Genres: Horror, Mystery, Fiction, Thriller
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Moonlighting In Vermont (A Bree MacGowan Mystery #1)
- Author: Kate George
- Published: July 15, 2009
- Genres: Mystery, Cozy Mystery, Fiction, Crime
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Wandering Home: A Long Walk Across America's Most Hopeful Landscape: Vermont's Champlain Valley and New York's Adirondacks
- Author: Bill McKibben
- Published: April 5, 2005
- Genres: Nonfiction, Travel, Nature, Environment
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Green Mountain Ghosts, Ghouls Unsolved Mysteries
- Author: Joseph A. Citro
- Published: January 1, 1994
- Genres: Folklore, Paranormal, Nonfiction, Ghosts
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Maus II: A Survivor's Tale: And Here My Troubles Began
- Author: Art Spiegelman
- Published: January 1, 1991
- Genres: Graphic Novels, Nonfiction, History, Comics
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Chirp
- Author: Kate Messner
- Published: February 4, 2020
- Genres: Middle Grade, Realistic Fiction, Mystery, Family
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Georgia Rules
- Author: Nanci Turner Steveson
- Published: May 2, 2017
- Genres: Middle Grade, Realistic Fiction, Fiction, Juvenile
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Out: The Vermont Secession Book
- Author: Frank Bryan
- Published: May 1, 1989
- Genres: History
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A Moose for Jessica
- Author: Larry Carrara
- Published: October 14, 1987
- Genres: Nonfiction, Animals, Childrens
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A Stranger in the Kingdom
- Author: Howard Frank Mosher
- Published: January 1, 1989
- Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Mystery, Race
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Soup (Soup, #1)
- Author: Robert Newton Peck
- Published: January 1, 1974
- Genres: Childrens, Historical Fiction, Fiction, Humor
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Faraway Summer
- Author: Johanna Hurwitz
- Published: January 1, 1998
- Genres: Historical Fiction, Historical, Middle Grade, Childrens
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A Day No Pigs Would Die
- Author: Robert Newton Peck
- Published: January 1, 1972
- Genres: Fiction, Young Adult, Classics, Historical Fiction
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Borderlines (Joe Gunther #2)
- Author: Archer Mayor
- Published: January 1, 1990
- Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Audiobook, Crime
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Bittersweet
- Author: Miranda Beverly-Whittemore
- Published: May 13, 2014
- Genres: Fiction, Mystery, Thriller, Contemporary
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Radio Free Vermont: A Fable of Resistance
- Author: Bill McKibben
- Published: November 7, 2017
- Genres: Fiction, Politics, Humor, Contemporary
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The Drowning Kind
- Author: Jennifer McMahon
- Published: April 6, 2021
- Genres: Horror, Mystery, Thriller, Fiction
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In One Person
- Author: John Irving
- Published: May 8, 2012
- Genres: Fiction, LGBT, Novels, Literary Fiction
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The Bench (Rocky Meadow Mysteries, #1)
- Author: Linda Rawlins
- Published: March 23, 2011
- Genres: Mystery, Christian Fiction, Fiction
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God's Kingdom
- Author: Howard Frank Mosher
- Published: October 6, 2015
- Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Coming Of Age, Novels
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We Are Unprepared
- Author: Meg Little Reilly
- Published: August 30, 2016
- Genres: Fiction, Science Fiction, Contemporary, Dystopia
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Raising Demons
- Author: Shirley Jackson
- Published: January 1, 1957
- Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, Humor, Biography
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Return to Sender
- Author: Julia Alvarez
- Published: January 7, 2009
- Genres: Young Adult, Realistic Fiction, Fiction, Middle Grade
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My Mixed-Up Berry Blue Summer
- Author: Jennifer Gennari
- Published: January 1, 2012
- Genres: Middle Grade, LGBT, Realistic Fiction, Fiction
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Northwest Passage
- Author: Kenneth Roberts
- Published: January 1, 1937
- Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Historical, Classics
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