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Books mentioned in this episode:
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• El Deafo, by Cece Bell (Amazon | Barnes and Noble | IndieBound)
• Love and First Sight, by Josh Sundquist (Amazon | Barnes and Noble | IndieBound)
• Ginny Moon, by Benjamin Ludwig (Amazon | Barnes and Noble | IndieBound)
• Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury (Amazon | Barnes and Noble | IndieBound)
• The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood (Amazon | Barnes and Noble | IndieBound)
• Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things, by Jenny Lawson (Amazon | Barnes and Noble | IndieBound)
• Let’s Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir, by Jenny Lawson (Amazon | Barnes and Noble | IndieBound)
• Be Frank With Me, by Julia Claiborne Johnson (Amazon | Barnes and Noble | IndieBound)
• Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West, by Cormac McCarthy (Amazon | Barnes and Noble | IndieBound)
• Dear Fahrenheit 451: Love and Heartbreak in the Stacks: A Librarian’s Love Letters and Breakup Notes to the Books in Her Life, by Annie Spence (Amazon | Barnes and Noble | IndieBound)
• Heating and Cooling, by Beth Ann Fennelly (Amazon | Barnes and Noble | IndieBound)
• Pride and Prejudice and Mistletoe, by Melissa de la Cruz (Amazon | Barnes and Noble | IndieBound)
• Something In Between, by Melissa de la Cruz (Amazon | Barnes and Noble | IndieBound)
• The Sun is Also A Star, by Nicola Yoon (Amazon | Barnes and Noble | IndieBound)
• The Improbability of Love, by Hannah Rothschild (Amazon | Barnes and Noble | IndieBound)
• Turtles All the Way Down, by John Green (Amazon | Barnes and Noble | IndieBound)
• Shades of Grey, by Jasper Fforde (Amazon | Barnes and Noble | IndieBound)
• Smoke, by Dan Vyleta (Amazon | Barnes and Noble | IndieBound)
Also mentioned:
• Diverse Book Club: Instagram | Goodreads
• WSIRN Ep 72: Embarrassing bookworm confessions (with Madeleine Riley)
What do YOU think Alexandra should read next? Tell us all about it in comments.
20 comments
I LOVED Shades of Grey! I don’t know how I found it but I’m so glad I did. The next in the series is supposed to be put next year. This was a great episode
Seriously ladies — when you form the “I read too many books at a time” support group, I will be a charter member (currently 10-70% through: 11 hard copy, 7 Kindle & 6 audiobooks). And I just got a new book I want to start… Save me!
hahaha!
I’m not really sure what a world where I only read one book at a time would look like. I love having so many different worlds going at once. Right now, I’m at various stages of 10 books which is becoming my norm. It used to be closer to 6 but there are just so many books that I want to read that it keeps inching up.
I loved how Alexandra describes books. I can tell she’s a good English teacher, because she made me want to read everything she loved (even the ones I’d already read, to notice the things she did that I didn’t).
What was the book you said dovetailed with The Sun is Also a Star? I don’t see it on the list–it’s not Price & Prejudice and Mistletoe, right? I loved The Sun is Also a Star very much and I’d love to read more books with the topic of immigration woven in.
Just rewound — it is Something In Between.
Alexandra and Anne, I loved today’s podcast. You both sound like my mother-in-law who reads about 200 books a year. I’m not that fast. I love to savor a book, and though I might read a fiction and non-fiction book at the same time, I can’t read two novels at the same time. Or maybe, it’s that I don’t want to because I’m not a good multi-tasker. I want to devote my time to the books I read not only for myself, but for the author. I think they deserve that.
Alexandra, since you are a leader of the Diverse Books Club, you might be interested in THE DRESSMAKER OF KHAIR KHANA by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, if you haven’t already read it. It was published in 2011 and is a biography of a brave woman and her sisters who live in a suburban section of Kabul, Afghanistan. It begins on the day the Taliban arrive and ends on the day they leave. These young women must find a way to make money and survive the occupation. I can’t stop taking about this book because, even though it’s a biography, it reads like a novel. I was drawn in from the first paragraph. I felt as if I was living with them, and I’m sure I would not have been as courageous as these women.
Thanks for the great list of books to add to my already too long book list.
Every few months I make a trip to our local used bookstore and pick out a selection for my Mom, who doesn’t get many chances to go book shopping or to the library. She sends the books back after she reads them with a post-it note in each one with her comments. I sent her “Dressmaker” last year and she sent it back with a note about how much she enjoyed it, so it’s in my TBR pile.
Adrienne, That’s so great. I hope you enjoy it.
Fahrenheit 451 is my teenage daughter’s favorite book – but she has been made fun of by fellow students in her English class for liking it. Luckily, she’s one tough nerd and doesn’t care 🙂
I love Jenny Lawson and wholeheartedly second Anne’s recommendation that you read David Sedaris. He’s brilliant. You might also like A Girl Called Zippy by Haven Kimmel.
I think you would also probably enjoy The Provence Cure for the Brokenhearted by Bridget Asher or Love Walked In by Marisa de los Santos.
I was came to the comments to suggest A Girl Named Zippy too. It’s a poignant, awkward, beautifully observed and deeply funny memoir of small-town Midwestern childhood. I think it fits right in with Alexandra’s favorites.
Just FYI – your Something in Between Amazon link goes to Pride and Prejudice and Mistletoe
Your website is showing up weird when I click on the episode show notes on my Mac, using web browser Google Chrome.
Hi Alexandra! I enjoyed your podcast episode. I was shocked to hear you have POTS. My stepmother was diagnosed with it and you are the only other person I have heard that has it. If you don’t mind, I would love to talk with you about what you are doing to manage it. My stepmother is basically bed ridden and tells us there is nothing to be done. Imagine my surprise at hearing you on the podcast talking about the things you are doing. I appreciate any info or insights you can give me. I’ll give you my email address if that would be better.
I enjoyed your conversation. Anne, I thought you description of Heating and Cooling sounded a bit like a book I’m reading now: Uncommon Type by Tom Hanks. Quirky emotional stories. Fiction, not memoir.
This episode just blew up my TBR list. #bookwormproblems
I’ll take that as a compliment. 🙂
Currently (catching up) and listening to this podcast and loving it, of course. However, I almost can’t concentrate because Alexandra sounds SO MUCH like Rachel McAdams!