Tom Bodett Books In Order

Publication Order of Tom Bodett Books

Tom Bodett is an American writer, radio host, and voice actor. He was born and spent his childhood in Sturgis, Michigan, before moving to Alaska in 1976 where he lived for the next two decades. Bodett made his national broadcasting debut in 1984 with All Things Considered. He’s authored over seven books and several audio publications, and his work has appeared in numerous newspapers and periodicals.

As a broadcaster, Tom hosted two radio programs; End of the Road and Bodett and Company. He’s also hosted a TV show, Travels on America’s Historic Trails. Bodett contributes regularly to The Bob Edwards Show aired on XMPR. Bodett now lives in Dummerston, VT, where he serves on the local Selectboard, spends time with kids, and makes things out of wood.

The End of the Road

The End of the Road is one of Tom Bodett’s humorous fiction stories. The title is derived from a small fictional town in Alaska with a population of people with oddball traits than you can shake a salmon at. Focusing on that sea creature, you might be in time to discover and watch the annual Salmon Throw, a foreign competition where those who participate throw dead fish back and forth till they can’t stand it anymore.

If you miss on that bizarre game, you can always bet on when the snow will cover the stop sign or when a junk car parked on the frozen lake with fall through the ice in the water. But if you think it’s all fun and games in this small town, you’re wrong. There are sad tales of a neighbor helping their neighbor when Storbock’s new house burns down to ashes, and the whispers of forbidden love as a conservative road grader operator sparks a forbidden affair with the new age vegetarian enthusiasts.

Overall, The End of the Road is a feel-good book, hard to put down. Some scenes make you laugh out loud- between the laughing antics of two conflicting old-timers, and the hilarious last chapter that involves a sauna session gone wrong, nudity, and the pastor’s wife. Additionally there’s also a delightful chapter about two adult men living every boy’s dream- driving a fire truck across the US.

The Last Decent Parking Spot in North America

In this edition, we get to learn about Clara, the mayor’s oldest sister, and her coffee shop business and how the regulars invest in her new coffee maker and fix her shop to celebrate her 20th anniversary in the business. Her regulars also want to have a decent cup of coffee since her old coffee maker was making some disgusting coffee. But there’s a problem, Clara is cranky, irritable and difficult and no one knows whether she will take it as it was meant or she will be upset.

The narrative continues as the small town of End of the Road searches for and finds a replacement for a new City Manager. Additionally, we are also introduced to Doug McDoogan, a liar and a get rich quick artist who never succeeds in his ventures and can’t seem to figure out why he’s always down and out. In the end, it turns out that he does have a skill. The tale moves on to Norman Tuttle, who experiences a near-death experience while on his father’s fishing boat and finds his purpose in this world again. The Last Decent Parking Spot in N.America is a major story is that of the destruction of the sauna featuring Storbocks and Flanigans, and how they ended up skiing down the road naked in the middle of the night. The story will make sense once you hear it.

Williwaw

13-year-old September Crane and her 12-year-old brother Ivan reside on Bag Bay in Alaska, in the middle of nowhere, and they love it. They enjoy their interaction with nature; they know every aspect of the bay and how to travel across it. They know how to get clams and how to put veggies away for the winter and just about how to do everything else for themselves. They know all this because their father is a fisherman and is often gone for a few weeks in most cases. Their mother was killed by a rare but powerful storm called Williwaw when they were much younger.

Their father trusts them to follow the rules set and take care of themselves as long as they keep in touch regularly with him on the radio. But when Ivan tries to splice into the charger for the radio so has to charge his handheld video, he unfortunately blows up the rig, and that marks the beginning of their troubles. While this is not the best of Tom Bodett’s books, it’s an enjoyable read. The characters are likable, and the relationship between the kids and their father is authentic.

Norman Tuttle on the Last Frontier

Norman Tuttle is a coming of age book about a 13-year-old boy residing in Alaska. As most boys growing up, there wasn’t much to do, and Norman understood that was true. He wasn’t popular among his age mates and was gangly youth- all arms and legs and quite accident-prone. His dad rebuked him regularly until the day Norman fell off his father’s boat, found a pole and waited until his father rescued him. The thing got much better, or did they?

Hormones soon started raging, and Norman fell madly in love with Laura Magruder. He could not think of anyone or anything else except for the beautiful young Laura. She became both his life and his problems- his school works deeply suffered, he got into trouble with her parents and to top it off, he got into trouble with his parents. He let them down all because of a girl. And what do you think his parents did? You’ll have to read the rest of the book to discover what happens next. Overall, Norman Tuttle on the Last Frontier is a beautiful read, full of interesting and likable characters.