Highly giftable picks for your favorite readers

[CHEERFUL INTRO MUSIC]

ANNE: Hey, readers, I'm Anne Bogel and this is What Should I Read Next?.

Welcome to the show that's dedicated to answering the question that plagues every reader: What Should I Read Next?

We don't get bossy on this show: What we WILL do here is give you the information you need to choose your next read.

This week we're back with our annual episode dedicated to holiday gifting recommendations for readers of all ages.

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Readers, we're talking about all kinds of highly giftable books today. But before we do, I'd love to tell you about one of my own books that makes a perfect gift.

I'd Rather Be Reading is my literary essay collection that explores so many of the ways that a love of reading makes life richer. I write about remembering the book that first hooked you, the place where you first fell in love with reading, and all the books and moments afterward that helped make you the reader you are today.

This book makes a wonderful gift for yourself or a favorite reader at this holiday season. Get your copy wherever new books are sold or order a signed copy from my local indie Carmichael's Bookstore.

If you enjoy the show, I think you will love this book. Plus your purchase of I'd Rather Be Reading and all my books help support what we do here at What Should I Read Next?. Thanks so much for your support, and happy reading.

Readers, I'm back today with our second gifting episode of the season where I'm joined by special guests to answer your questions and recommend books and bookish gifts for the people you love.

Today I'm joined by two talented booksellers, Adah Fitzgerald and Andrea Jasmine from Main Street Books in Davidson, North Carolina.

Since I first visited Main Street in 2017, it's become one of my favorite bookstores to visit. And if you're a What Should I Read Next?? patron, you've heard me talk about that in my recent trip in a bonus episode lately.

Adah and Andrea had become trusted sources for book recommendations in my own reading life, and I can't wait to share their recs and wisdom with all of you.

If you ever find yourself in the Charlotte area, make sure Main Street Books is on your agenda. I'm confident you'll find it to be a welcoming and completely delightful place to drop in.

Today, Andrea, Adah, and I are going to tackle a whole bunch of your requests and help you find the perfect presents for the readers in your lives. Rest assured that if we aren't able to answer your specific question today we'll likely still share a recommendation from a similar title or genre or a similar kind of reader.

So listen closely as we describe which books may be good picks for what kinds of readers. Plus I'm sure your fellow listeners will help you out as well.

Readers, if you have a great idea to share for any of the requests made today, be sure to let us all know in the comment section of our show notes. Settle in, get your shopping list ready, and let's get to it.

Adah and Andrea, welcome to the show.

ADAH: Thanks so much for having us.

ANDREA: Thanks for having me, Anne.

ANNE: Oh, it is my pleasure. I'm so excited to get to talk books with you one on one in a way we haven't since the last time I was at Main Street Books in Charlotte back in the spring. And I just said Charlotte. Is that offensive to people in Davidson?

ANDREA: They'll let it slide. [ANNE LAUGHS]

ANNE: Okay, tell our readers exactly where you are in the world.

[00:03:14]

ADAH: We are 20 miles north of Charlotte in the college town of Davidson, which definitely has a strong connection to Charlotte but is fiercely independent.

ANNE: I love it. Tell us what's so great about Davidson. I mean, you know I know because I've been there a bunch. I was just telling you how I have bent miles and miles out of my way solely for the purpose of dropping in to visit Main Street. But in your own words, you're the experts here, tell us about Davidson.

ADAH: Davidson is pretty quintessentially quaint with, you know, a knitting shop, great restaurants. We've got our college right across the street, so professors and students and all the supporting staff. There's lots of interesting things going on.

ANDREA: It's really charming. And what I find is that people from Charlotte feel like Davidson is miles away. People from Charlotte say they're from out of town when they come to visit. So it's a very unique, small town.

ANNE: So it's close to this major metro area and airport, but it still feels like its own place.

ANDREA: Definitely.

ANNE: I'm not sure if you will actually know how much impact you have on my reading life when I'm not there. But when I was there back in the spring, first of all, I don't want to warn readers away from your store. And I will say I was with my children that I wanted to give happy but we gave you all so much money.

We left with so many good books, but also like really fun gifty things. Like I don't even remember what my kids got. I know that I got some really great puzzles I hadn't seen anywhere else. So I bought a couple as gifts for friends. You have a lot of really fun merchandise as well.

ADAH: Thanks for saying that. We work really hard on that.

ANNE: Well, it's obvious. And I love that you use... I mean, you see what people are interested in getting a new stock of those things. And also I think you find those things that people don't know they're looking for. Like I didn't know I was looking for those special puzzles. Because they were weird friends. They weren't just like, "Here's 1,000 pieces in a box." I didn't know I was looking for that. But when I saw it, it was like. "Oh yes." You all knew that would be perfect for me.

And this is shopping season so you're looking to spend money and Main Street Books would be a great place to spend it. And you can order like everything we're talking about online. Correct

ANDREA: You can. Full shopping experience at Mainstreetbooksdavidson.com.

ANNE: Adah, I don't know if you even remember telling me about The Sign for Home by Blair Fell-

ADAH: Oh yeah, I do.

ANNE: ...that you had just read. You put This Here Flesh by Cole Arthur Riley, not just on my radar but like into my hands. And I left the store with it before... I mean, this book is blown up.

ADAH: Yes.

ANNE: I hadn't even heard of it at the moment I walked into the store and you were like, "There's just something about this book. It's not like anything I've read before." And that really captured my attention.

And then you asked me what I've been reading lately and I told you. And based on that, you recommended Fault Lines by Emily Itami, which I loved so much. And this book has really made its way through our universe here in Modern Mrs. Darcy and What Should I Read Next? because I read it and really enjoyed it.

I raved about it to our community manager Ginger Horton, who shared it with our book lovers as one of her best books of the summer. So all these people are now reading it in the domino effects coming from your recommendations to me and your Davidson, North Carolina bookstore is really something.

And y'all don't know this, but I still watch what you're reading on Instagram. I just love seeing what you're into.

ADAH: Thanks for affirming us. Wow.

ANDREA: Thank you.

ANNE: I'm really glad that book world brought us together.

ANDREA: Me too.

ADAH: Yes.

ANNE: Okay. Speaking of bringing people together and pressing books into readers' hands, we have a whole slew of recommendation requests from our readers who are looking for very specific books for the book lovers, and sometimes book likers in their lives. So today we're gonna dive in.

And as we do listeners, I really want to tell you that we're doing two things as we talk today. So, Adah, Andrea and I are making specific recommendations for specific readers. But we definitely know that a whole lot of you are listening in. So sometimes we'll be talking to the themes or subject matter in the recommendation requests.

So like somebody's looking for a book about home renovation. So we may recommend like a few books about home renovations, good for readers in general, and maybe not this specific reader. So we're getting very specific and very broad at the same time.

But this episode is certainly casting a wide net. We are talking about so many different kinds of books. I'm so excited about all the bookish gifts you are looking to give in these coming months. We can't wait to hear what you pick.

And Adah and Andrea, I can't wait to hear what you recommend. Are you ready to jump in?

ADAH: Ready.

ANDREA: We're ready.

[00:06:09]

ANNE: Let's do this. Michelle is looking for a unique book for her 20-year-old son. His favorite genres are sci-fi and fantasy. And Michelle would love to find a great recommendation in one of these categories or perhaps a literary fiction that blurs the boundaries between these genres.

Okay, I have to tell you when she said "perhaps a literary fiction that blurs the boundaries," I was thinking of a Modern Mrs. Darcy book club conversation we had with Peng Shepherd at the end of summer. She's the author of The Cartographers.

And she talks about how she thinks more and more writers are writing books that are literary AND in a way that was frowned on much more like 10 years ago. They wouldn't have gotten published as often. But literary and sci-fi; and literary and mystery.

I'm gonna recommend The Cartographers which is definitely a literary AND novel. This is a literary mystery that has such a super premise and a little bit of magic, plus family secrets, a found a family thread, second chances. And it's all about the world of maps. Cartography is huge in this book.

And it's set against the backdrop of the New York Public Library, which is nerdy, good fun for a whole lot of readers. What do you all think?

ADAH: I love that literary AND like concept. I have loved The Light Pirate by Lily Brooks-Dalton. It doesn't come out till December 6th. So I think that's just in time for gift-giving season. It is very literary but it's also very much cli-fi like climate sci-fi.

It imagines Florida closing because relentless onslaught of hurricanes floods the state and asks this question, who stays behind and why, and then explores like what actually happens. It's got a tinge of magic also, a little bit of surrealism, maybe Reminiscent of Alice Hoffman.

Also, Emily St John Mandel's Sea of Tranquility is a very literary and very speculative sci-fi novel. It's rooted in the story of an author who is on tour during the beginning of a pandemic. But we're in a world where humans have colonized moons and are pushing farther and farther out into the solar system.

There's an introduction of a character that is maybe in more periods of time than he might otherwise be. And so it asked this question of "What is reality? Does it even matter if we know the difference between reality and fiction?"

I found myself really writing in the margins of this book in every chapter. I loved it so much because of how much it made me think.

[00:10:13]

ANNE: That sounds fascinating. Andrea, what do you think?

ANDREA: Kindred by Octavia Butler came to mind. She is considered the first black woman of sci-fi. And this story has a unique play on introducing a slave narrative through time travel and sci-fi. It's a really fascinating, unique way of telling you about narrative. You can press just put out a new edition with a beautiful cover.

ANNE: Oh, okay, I'm going to resist googling that right now because I'm gonna shoot a new cover. Next we have Betsy who reads almost anything except fantasy. But she's hoping to find her 26-year-old fantasy-loving daughter-in-law a book that she will really enjoy. That daughter-in-law loves Sarah J. Moss and Bernard Cornwell. Betsy would love to introduce her to a new author or suggest a new series for her to explore.

The one that came to mind for me right off the bat was Babel by RF Kuang. I could tell you about it in my own words. I could share the publisher saying that it's a thematic response to the secret history and a tonal retort to Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, which makes it sound very academic.

But City of Brass author Shannon Chakraborty has an amazing blurb. And I'm just gonna read it to you. She says, "This is one of the most brilliant razor sharp books I've had the pleasure of reading that isn't just an alternative fantastical history, but an interrogative one when that grabs colonial history and the industrial revolution turns it over and shakes it out."

In this book translation is a tool of imperialism. It is such good, nerdy, thoughtful, serious, but definite fun. Andrea, what do you think?

ANDREA: So what came to mind for me is a new series, The Poison Heart by Kalynn Bayron. This young lady has magical touches where she's able to communicate and grow plants. and she inherits a haunted house from her grandmother, and she ends up having to fight against lethal botanicals. It's really cute. There are two books. The second book is This Wicked Fate.

ANNE: Next, we have Michelle. Michelle from Denver is looking for sci-fi or Fantasy titles that feature trans or gender non-binary characters for her 27-year-old nephew. Her nephew has always been a voracious reader and loves big, long books.

He's read the complete works of Austen, as well as lots of science fiction and fantasy, and graphic novels. Michelle would love to give him a sci-fi or Fantasy title, where he can see himself in this story. Adah, what do you think?

ADAH: I'm going to break the rule and suggest something that's actually quite short. Your readers I think are familiar with this one but I think it's a great recommendation. Psalm for the Wild Built by Becky Chambers. It's a great gift because it's just such a lovely story. I think it does match the gift-givers desires because its main character is a non-binary Tea Monk.

And he's on a journey. He meets up with an AI robot. And along the way they have, you know, something of a duel coming of age experience. I think that especially this time of year where I think we are looking for hopeful stories, this one, in particular, gives our main character the Tea Monk a really gentle, loving treatment.

It's funny too. And you know, don't tell my mother but I read this one out loud to my 10-year-old daughter. I did not eliminate all of the swear words. She loved it. We both loved it. It was just such a wonderful shared experience to have this story together.

ANNE: I love that. I'm also picturing what an amazing gift this would make if you gave a little box of tea. Readers if you read these on Kindle like I did, also the hardcovers are beautiful. They're so pretty. Andrea, what comes to mind for you?

ANDREA: I thought of Surrender Your Sons by Adam Sass. I am a little biased. He's a local author. So I know that he wrote this book to see himself in the pages.

It's an LGBTQIA book about children that are left in a conversion therapy camp on a desert island. They plan an uprising to escape. It's adventurous and it's fast-paced and intense, but it also has dark sides to it, touching on homophobia, transphobia, and violence, but then it kind of acts that with humor, good friends, and courage as well.

ANNE: Oh, that sounds amazing. I'll be interested to hear if Michelle finds that a great pick for her nephew. Holly on our team wanted to put in a plug for Tracy Deonn's Legendborn. It's described as a YA contemporary fantasy filled with mystery and an intriguingly rich magic system that has a dark allure like in the City of Bones and puts a modern-day twist on a classic legend and includes lots of southern black girl magic.

[00:14:52]

Next we have Suzanne. So many of you told us about your family's adoption of the Icelandic book tradition, Jolabokaflod. And Suzanne's family takes part in this each year. She is hoping for a good suggestion for their newest family member, her niece's new husband.

He is not an avid reader, but Suzanne wants to welcome him into the family with a book he might enjoy. He's a fan of craft beer, video games, travel, rock'n'roll music and Canadian hockey. She thinks an engaging nonfiction or memoir pick might be just the thing.

Reading this description of this reader's taste, I realized how many wine memoirs I've read, but I couldn't think of a single one about beer. So if anybody has one, please let us know.

But knowing this reader's interest, I had to put in a plug for the new Gabrielle Zevin book Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, which is literary fiction and video games, a combination I didn't see coming. Or J. Ryan Stradal's The Lager Queen of Minnesota, which is I want to say feel good. But of course, really hard things happen in it but they're overcome, and just has a wonderful heartwarming ending.

Based on his love of rock'n'roll, there are so many great music memoirs. But The Philosophy of Modern Song by Bob Dylan is new this fall conveniently and I suspect not coincidentally timed for holiday gift giving. And that may be a good pick. What sounds good to you all for this reader?

ADAH: I stumbled across this graphic memoir that is fascinating this fall. It just came out. It's called Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands. So it's memoir, which is what she was hoping for. It's got this Canadian setting. That's really where the algorithm sort of leaves us and I'm just going to just go with my gut here.

The author is a young woman who travels from eastern Canada out to Western Canada to work in the oil sands to save up money to go back to the east and buy a home. And apparently, this is a phenomenon for young people in Canada, but it's an incredibly edge of civilization, work life, and experience.

It was graphic. It's nonfiction. It takes place in Canada. I think it's a really unique, narrowly focused stories that also kind of broadens our horizons that could be a really good pull into reading.

ANNE: What do you think, Andrea?

[00:17:15]

ANDREA: I think that sometimes for a non-avid reader, a great way to tie them into books is with a book that's kind of like a coffee table book but also has things that you want to read so that you can pick it up here and there and not feel like you have to read it cover to cover.

Lonely Planet just put out new series of books with sketch covers that are really beautiful. One that came to mind was Epic Road Trips of the Americas. And I think that will tie into love of travel.

ANNE: I so appreciate what you said about giving something like a coffee table book. They just feel so approachable and friendly, especially if you're not an avid reader.

Next we have Sara. She is hunting for the perfect Hanukkah gifts for her mother-in-law. She often reads books that line up with her future travels but right now she's focused on a home renovation project. So Sara would love to gift her a read that's set closer to home in Cleveland or Hollywood, Florida.

Plus a book she really loved our Beautiful Country by Qian Julie Wang, The Weight of Ink by Rachel Kadish, and My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry by Fredrik Backman. Sara also said that her mother-in-law is currently in the middle of a home renovation in Florida. So maybe there's a light-hearted book about someone in the middle of a home renovation.

Okay, something I discovered, thanks to Sarah, is there are not many books set in Cleveland. There's a lot of nonfiction, some mystery series, but I was really surprised. If she did want to go Cleveland, Little Fires Everywhere is set in the real suburb of Shaker Heights. True Biz by Sara Novic takes place in a fictional Ohio School.

So let's go to home renovations. I don't know if this is right for Sarah's mother-in-law but listeners if your ears perked up at the home renovation concept, 99% Mine by Sally Thorne is a really fun romance novel. She's the author of The Hating Game about a fraternal twin who has had a huge crush on her twin brother's best friend since she was eight years old. Now they're all grown up, still crushing on him hard as ever. And he becomes the contractor on the house that she owns and needs to renovate.

Also, Katie Fforde's Practically Perfect is about home renovation. The one I liked the most for Sara's mother-in-law is Under the Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes. It combines that staying cozy at home renovation project with the travel that it sounds like Sara's mother-in-law enjoys.

This is Frances Mayes’ like bestselling story. It was on the New York Times bestseller list for like multiple years about moving to Italy and buying a tumbledown villa and renovating it. Like this book is just bathed in sunshine in my mind, it could be such an enjoyable read.

[00:19:51]

ADAH: I think that you're touching on something that during a home renovation someone might really want which is to escape. [ANNE LAUGHS] I'd also recommend House Lessons by Erica Bauermeister. She's a novelist but this is a memoir and essays kind of Mary Laura Philpott about renovating a trash-filled house in Port Townsend, Washington, which is this beautiful coast guard town that's between Seattle and Vancouver. Just like on the water, super quirky.

All the incredible life lessons that this house brings into her life I'm sure in the moment, you know, life lessons is what euphemistic for trials and tribulations. But it's really thoughtful.

She also looks at the psychology of architecture, talks about marriage and family and those sound like things that might be interesting to the gift recipient.

ANNE: Oh, that sounds fascinating.

ADAH: Also, I'll throw in Squeeze Me because she thought maybe a book about Florida. Carl Hiaasen is obviously the prince of Florida satire. [ANNE LAUGHS]

ANNE: What a title!

ADAH: He's extremely reverent but brilliantly humorous. But perhaps this is some absurdist escapism from her renovations as well. [CHUCKLES]

ANNE: Andrea, what do you think?

ANDREA: I am totally going to cosign Under the Tuscan Sun. It's what immediately popped in my mind when she talked about home renovations. And it's set in Italy and it's heartwarming. So it just felt like a perfect choice.

ANNE: Sara, tell us what you pick. Okay, next. This reader and her cousin bonded over a love of reading and writing letters to each other. So this year she's looking for a perfect book or bookish gift to share with her cousin.

A few of her cousins, past favorites or anything Jane Austen, Born a Crime by Trevor Noah, The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, and BEACH READ by Emily Henry. She likes books that aren't too dark, have some depth. And she also appreciates learning about other cultures. She loves tea, coffee, cats, and anything cozy. Adah and Andrea, what comes to mind?

ANDREA: Immediately I thought of Yerba Buena by Nina LaCour. This is one of my favorite books of the year so far. A love story of our time, two women have an intimate connection. They're shaped by their sibling relationships and their past loves.

And she nails creating a story of two-layered individuals that could be any couple. And that's what I loved about this. And also spotlights a Creole culture of Louisiana, which I never really find is in many fiction books. LaCour's father's family is Creole and she wanted to make sure to get that in with food and history and culture. So it's a really unique way to weave that into story.

ANNE: I have heard such good things about this book but nothing that made me want to read it as much as what you just said.

ANDREA: You'll love it. It's great.

ADAH: I'll jump in with Love & Saffron by Kim Fay because these two cousins bonded over writing letters to each other. And Love & Saffron begins with a fan letter from a reader to an author that sparks this lifelong friendship that centers around relationship and letters blossoming a relationship built on their love of food.

It is set in the 1960s so it's historical fiction. And one of the things I love about it is that it reminds us that it's not been that long since the food world was not as flat as it is these days. And so they introduce each other to a lot of new things, but ultimately also open each other's hearts to the people that are already in their lives. It's just a really lovely story. And I think that'll really reflect these cousins and the relationship they have built around letter writing.

[00:23:31]

ANNE: I love that pic for these readers. Next we have a book club request. This secret Santa but clever is looking for a great option for her book club's mystery gift exchange. Since she won't know who will receive it, she's hoping for a title that will be enjoyed by any member of her literary fiction bookers book club.

A few recent titles the book club enjoy together include Assembly by Natasha Brown, Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver, Normal People by Sally Rooney, and The Testaments by Margaret Atwood.

I was thinking a book about book clubs might be fun for this reader. And that is The Toni Morrison Book Club, which is nonfiction. It's memoir co-written by four members of a book club that forum to discuss Toni Morrison. I know I've talked about it on the podcast before.

All four of the book club members represent different races, different walks of life, different sexual orientations, different experiences, but they all come together to discuss Toni Morrison's work. It could feel a little meta is a book club gift, and I like that. What do you all think?

ANDREA: So I just finished a book that I thought would be perfect for a book club, a book that anyone could enjoy. Jollof Rice and Other Revolutions by Omolola Ijeoma Ogunyemi. It was released this month. It's a story by a Nigerian author. It's interlocking stories and it's multigenerational over a time period starting in the 19th century and it ends in the future in 2050.

And it's about four girls that meet at a boarding school and it goes back with the book starting with the grandmother of one of the girls. I think it would be a great book club pick because there's many controversial life choices. So I think it would make for like great debates and it will bring heavy opinions.

I enjoyed learning about the customs of Nigeria as well. So customs, food, religion, and the history of the country all played into why I think it'll be great discussion.

[00:25:24]

ANNE: Since this is a physical book you'll be gifting, the cover is just so gorgeous.

ANDREA: It is. It's like art.

ANNE: Adah, what do you think?

ADAH: I think The Whalebone Theater by Joanna Quinn is just going to be a stunner. And I think it's going to be a perfect one for book club. Even if they don't read it all together, I think that they're going to come back after reading it and get the whole club to read it. It's by Joanna Quinn.

Out this fall, a whale washes up on the beach in northern England and the law is that it belongs to the king but The children, this little gaggle of children who find it decide to keep it a secret and ultimately begin to turn the carcass of the whale into their own little playhouse like where they produce plays, their own little theater.

But this is such a huge story. Our protagonist is initially this imaginative but lonely only child who makes her home in the attic of this mansion on the cliffs of Northern England. Her mother has died. But when her father remarries and has a son with her stepmother, her world is opened up and she takes this little boy under her wing, and they just become the closest companions.

They build out their little group with other family members. And World War II is beginning, so there's lots of sort of drama and venture out into the world as well. And I just really think that Joanna Quinn has done an incredible job. This is going to be a book that everyone enjoys.

ANNE: That was not on my radar.

ADAH: I'll add to it Mercury Pictures Presents by Anthony Marra. I think he goes under the radar that Mercury Pictures Presents it's set in the same era, but it's actually Hollywood in Italy.

The company Mercury Pictures makes these terrible movies that are mostly like propaganda for the US government. But the very jaded and humorous CEO of the company and his assistant who was immigrated from Italy are trying to get a script through the censorship board is ticking a lot of craftiness and then ultimately has an explosive effect on Hollywood.

But it's got this backstory with her family in Italy and some of the impact of a decision that she made that's torn her family apart, but left her father living in this penal colony that's kind of like white collar criminals are not like in jail, but they can't leave the town.

Anthony Marra weaves together these two stories, the one in Hollywood and the one in Italy. It's just brilliant. And like literally almost every sentence of his is just like, "Oh my gosh." Just the way that he sees the world is just incredible.

ANNE: All right. Here's our next request. Former children's bookseller Nancy is looking for a special new series to gift her nearly 99-year-old mother. She's a devoted reader and in the past, she enjoyed Edgerton's Walking Across Egypt, Wingate's The Sea Keeper's Daughters, and books by Jan Karon.

Andrea, what sounds good to you for Nancy's mother?

ANDREA: I thought of Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman. It is a wildly popular pick for our readers that come into Main Street Books and also my colleague, Jim, whose recs I will take every time, loved it.

[00:28:38]

ANNE: It's so good to have colleagues like that.

ADAH: I'd recommend The Bookman’s Tale by Charlie Lovett because she clearly loves her North Carolina writers. This is charming, charming, cozy that takes us from North Carolina to the English countryside. And it's a bit of an armchair detective story set around a Victorian painting that shows up in some Shakespeare books that he's working with. We just adore Charlie so much. I think she'll enjoy him.

And then I'll also recommend The Switch by Beth O’Leary. A grandmother and her granddaughter switch homes for a couple of months for both of them to kind of have a reset. And the granddaughter makes some really unlikely friends. It's not as easy living in a quaint English village as we all might imagine. [ALL LAUGHS] But there's a little bit of love, but it's very much a closed-door romance situation. And it's about a lot more than that. So I think that she'll really like this gentle story as well.

ANNE: Our next guest is looking for a recommendation for her son, a passionate reader who works in academia. He's a lifelong reader with a preference for fantasy with great world-building, but he will read most anything. His all-time favorite is The Name of the Wind. But last year, he really enjoyed Nineteen Eighty-Four, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Shogun, and A Swim in a Pond in the Rain.

He's very familiar with fantasy, so she would love a non-fantasy recommendation with a strong sense of period and place.

Okay, I'm wondering if dark academia is exactly right or completely wrong for this reader. I'm thinking may be wrong. Adah, save me. What do you think?

ADAH: I am going to recommend Damnation Spring by Ash Davidson.

ANNE: Oh, yeah.

[00:30:12]

ADAH: This one is set in the 1970s in the redwood forests out on our Pacific Northwest coast. The redwood forests in this book are nearly a character in and of themselves. They grow so quickly. The landscape's really dynamic because of all the rain and the mudslides and all of that.

At the heart of it we've got a couple who are struggling to conceive. We've got climate activists that are coming in and making life really hard for the loggers that have done this job for generations.

This couple they are a logger and wife who is beginning to suspect their life can't go on like this much longer. All the tension than that brings among her family members with him the tension between what he wants which is pretty nostalgic and what she wants, which is a little bit bigger than the life that they've built for themselves.

I think it's a book that went under the radar a little bit but is lash literary. The sense of place is literally palpable. It's like almost like mud and water kind of dripping off the page. That's what I'd recommend.

ANNE: That definitely sounds like it has that strong sense of period and place this reader was looking for. Next we have a reader looking for a joint gift for her parents who love to read aloud to one another on car trips. Her mom is highly sensitive but okay with books that tackle difficult subjects. And her dad is a birdwatcher and a fan of presidential history.

Our guest thinks they'd really enjoy a mystery series to read aloud together. Her mom has enjoyed Louise Penny and Jacqueline Winspear in the past, but they're open to other suggestions.

Okay, so Holly on our team, she thinks these readers may enjoy the Shetland series by Ann Cleves. These are set in the most northern Lake community in the UK on a string of islands that are closer to Norway than to Edinburgh. The tone is quiet and intense. And something it really focuses on are the domestic and working lives of these Islanders.

Holly says to especially check out, given this couple of interests, the one that takes place in the bird sanctuary. It's called Blue Lightning. Adah, what do you think?

ADAH: So I'll recommend first How the Word is Passed by Clint Smith, which reexamines the stories told by and about eight American institutions, some well-known like Monticello, which I think speaks to his interest in presidential history. But others that are a little more obscure, like the Whitney plantation.

He's going to all of these places. So it's a little bit of travel memoir. He's a poet first. His writing is amazing. So I think that'd be a really great one, especially for reading aloud on a road trip. I found myself reading this one actually on a road trip coming close to some of the places that he talks about and just being kind of transported.

ANNE: I listened to the audio. So Clint Smith read this, but perhaps because He is a poet, it sounds like it was meant to be read aloud.

[00:33:05]

ADAH: And then they might like The Widows of Malabar Hill, which is part of a series which I think has three books so far. It's a 1920s in the mystery by Sujata Massey. Very much in this traditional mystery genre.

But we've got a feminist lawyer in Bombay. She's the first woman lawyer, fictional, of course, but presents us with all of the challenges of that career choice in that era. She tackles the politics of colonialism. You know, there's lots of good tension, but I don't think it's going to upset anyone who's sensitive.

ANNE: That sounds like a lovely pick. Next we have Keri. She gives her son books each Christmas, but this year, she'd like to get him something special as he prepares for college graduation and builds his own bookshelf in his new place. He loves history, historical fiction, and biographies, especially Native American Stories nonfiction set in the West, and books about little-known historical events.

This reader, it sounds like they're listening in on our conversation, he is not intimidated by a big brick of a book. He is well-traveled, speaks Chinese, has an interest in government and politics and is a huge football fan.

Andrea, what sounds good for this reader?

ANDREA: What came to mind was We Refuse to Forget by Caleb Gale. It's an untold American history story of the Creek Nation, the native tribe that two centuries ago, both own slaves and accepted black people as citizens. And this book was really fascinating to me. I found that it was a little academic but it was so wildly interesting that it worked for me.

It explores their history and also their present-day fight that they're still going through to gain Native American citizenship again.

ANNE: Oh, that sounds so interesting for this reader. Adah, what do you think?

ADAH: New this fall is Indigenous Continent: the epic contest for North America by Pekka Hämäläinen. A biography of power. It presents a pretty nuanced narrative of colonialism that uplifts the sophisticated and powerful leadership structures of the many and varied Native nations. So I think that really speaks to the sort of little-known histories.

[00:35:16]

ANNE: Okay, two quick hits, one old one new. The old is Lost Champions: Four Men, Two Teams, and the Breaking of Pro Football’s Color Line by sports journalist Gretchen Atwood. It pulls together sports history and culture. Of course, that sport is football. That could be good, nerdy, thoughtful fun for this reader.

And then a brand new book is Calling for a Blanket Dance by Oscar Hokeah. It is described as a novel, marketed as a novel, but it's definitely treading the line between short story collection and novel because it's a kaleidoscope.

So this story portrays five decades of a man named Ever's life, beginning with a tragedy that happens when he is just six years old, but from 12 different perspectives. All those viewpoints are from members of his family. They are Cuba, Cherokee, and Mexican, ranging from his adopted son on the young end to his grandmother on the older end just observing Ever's life and forming a kaleidoscopic portrait when taken together.

Next, we have Halle. She is a librarian who needs help cracking the book recommendation code for her pilot dad. He doesn't typically pick up books on his own, but when she's given him some in the past, he will sit and read them in a day and seems to really like them.

Some he's loved over the years are Lonesome Dove, the Jeff Sheeran novels and Presumed Innocent by Scott Turow. Note on Scott Turow, especially he is a former attorney. Okay, Adah, I'm gonna leave like the serious pick to you because I have kind of in a reference one. And that is Hell of a Book by Jason Mott. This won the National Book Award last year.

And what this book is about, and why I'm recommending it are two different things. I do find it to be a little bit hard to describe. I love it because it's both timely and timeless. It unfolds in two strands. It begins with something that almost feels like fun and funny and like almost hasty, because it's about a black author on a book tour for his bestselling novel Hell of a Book.

But there's something deeper going on that emerges as the story unfolds. The author story converges with that of a young black boy called The Kid who was invisible to everyone was the author. It's quite a book. So great to unpack with other readers.

The reason I think it's funny is because the author is always talking about meeting pilots on book tour, and he just gets in all these digs on pilots all the time. He's like, Oh, every time you meet a pilot, you know, they're a pilot, because they won't shut up about being a pilot. And the pilot is always sure that you know that they're a pilot. And it's important...

And you know, when you talk about seeing your profession and books that's not generally what you're thinking of, but it's just funny, and you all could like, share it, laugh about that. Okay, Adah, how about something more appropriate for this reader that doesn't mock this reader? [ALL LAUGHS] What do you think?

ADAH: I'm recommending Falling by TJ Newman. It's like the movie Speed set on a plane.

ANNE: That's such a good description. I can't believe I haven't heard that before.

ADAH: So in the novel, the pilot's family has been kidnapped, and the pilot must crash the plane for his family to live. So this might be a little too on the nose, but it might provoke some conversation, right? It's very, very entertaining. Very well written.

The tension is high and sustained throughout the whole book. And I think that if she can stand putting that moral dilemma in front of her dad, then it would be a perfect gift.

We also go straight to Michael Connelly and David Baldacci for incredibly smart page-turners.

[00:38:39]

ANNE: Okay, since we're talking about flying, I just have to put in a note for Flygirl by Ann Hood, which is her memoir of her days as a flight attendant for several major airplanes in the golden era of air travel.

I enjoyed this a lot myself, but I know that this is a book that lots of readers my age and younger are having great success with giving as a gift to their mothers and fathers from the generation that remembers those days instead of only hearing about them spoken wistfully as the days gone by.

Next we have Rachelle. She's looking for a fresh contemporary romance novel for her partner's mother who works in a bookstore. Some titles she's enjoyed in the past are Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston, The Charm Offensive by Alison Cochrun and Hook, Line, and Sinker by Tessa Bailey. Great banter is a must.

Andrea, what comes to mind for this reader?

ANDREA: You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezy came to mind. We all love this book in the store. Adah was the first to bring it to our attention and it was spectacular. So it has some open-door romance. It has healing, new love unexpected connections. And the writing was beautiful. I just think anyone would love this one.

ANNE: I love that. And love that it sounds like this book has made the rounds of your bookstore staff. Adah, what do you think?

ADAH: I really enjoyed Thank You for Listening by Julia Whalen. I'll be honest. I listened to this one on audio and I highly recommend that folks listen to it. And so there are gift-giving options for giving audiobooks.

Julia Whelan is an audiobook narrator of some of our favorite books in the last couple of years, and her protagonists are audiobook narrators and the banter is incredible, funny, touching. There's some nice little character twists that really add some steam and passion to the plot. So anyway, I found this one highly entertaining to listen to, but I'm sure it'll be fantastic to read. And it's a really pretty book too.

ANNE: Sounds good. To those I will add the novels of Abby Jimenez for banter galore. And also since Rachelle partner's mother works in a bookstore, Seven Days in June by Tia Williams features two torture protagonist who been apart for like 20 years after spending seven life-changing days together when they were high school seniors. These characters have grown up to be novelists who haven't seen each other in two decades but are still communicating through their books.

It's got that literary setting that might add an extra layer of fun for readers who spend time in really know that world or for readers who really want to.

Okay, Holly is on the hunt for a culinary read her brother will enjoy. He is well-read in this area and she'd like to surprise him with something that isn't on his radar yet. Great photography and recipes are important. A book about food, wine or cocktails that isn't only a cookbook might be a great way to surprise him.

Okay, what comes to mind for me is Girly Drinks by Mallory O’meara. It won the James Beard Award if you're interested in that kind of thing. I live in Kentucky. Okay, so I don't know what your North Carolina relationship is to Bourbon. But here we have friends who are mega into Bourbon, like the craft and the whatever and how it was... I don't know. Like, we talked about wine flights and bourbon flights and how they relate to literature. But my bourbon vocabulary is not great. But to all those bourbon nerds, I keep recommending Girly Drinks.

It is in a reverent whip-smart history about the female distillers, drinkers, and brewers who shaped alcohol consumption as we know it today, going all the way back to Cleopatra, and all the way present to the bar that is literally down the street from me because, again, Kentucky bourbon.

I think this would also be a good pick for readers who enjoy nonfiction books that deeply explore those super niche subjects. The kind of book where you read and go, "I didn't even know I wanted to know about that. That's so fascinating." This book will be really satisfying for lots of those readers.

And I can't resist throwing in a gift packaging suggestion. Pairing this with a bottle of something or like even a little bottle of bitters would be really like attractive and fun. Andrea, what do you think?

[00:42:59]

ANDREA: So Tiki: Modern Tropical Cocktails by Shannon Mustiphe came to mind. It's a gorgeous book that's perfect for display on a bar cart or a cocktail table. She's an award-winning drink innovator and she specializes in rum, which I think is something unique. That's a different type of liquor than we're used to seeing.

She shares really research recipes and interesting stories. And also she has written pieces on Phil Ward, who's the head mixologist at [inaudible 00:43:32], since I know that is a cocktail book that the reader has enjoyed in the past.

ANNE: That sounds like such a nice pick. All right, this request is obviously for you too. Erin is in North Carolina, and she is planning to buy books for everyone on her list this season. She'd like to get some ideas for her 24-year-old sister.

This sister is not a big reader but has a number of favorite poetry or inspirational books that are beautifully displayed in her bedroom. She enjoys personal and resonant poetry collections. Often they have illustrations or artwork like Ruby Carr or Morgan Harper Nichols.

She displays her book spacing out. So Aaron would love a recommendation for something both visually attractive and filled with encouragement or thoughtful words. Adah, what comes to mind for you?

ADAH: I'm gonna lead with Spine Poems: An Eclectic Collection of Found Verse by Annette Simon, who is a North Carolina author. So this is really cool, pretty. It's got gold foil for the title on the cover, and a lot of images inside because what spine poems are is when you stack books on top of each other, and then read the titles all the way down the stack, you get a poem.

And she's done that cleverly with like an incredible number of poems with an incredible number of books. Here's one. Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now. In conclusion, don't worry about it. You are not a gadget. Sign off. Thank you for coming to my TED Talk. Find me, friend me. So that is individual book titles put into a poem.

So I love that recommendation because of the North Carolina collection because of the like visual interest and the cleverness of found poems.

[00:45:20]

ANNE: That's an intriguing pick, Adah. Thank you. This next reader is looking for an engaging fantasy short story collection for her sister, a developmentally disabled adult. Disney princess and Marvel superhero stories have been a hit. And some of her favorite books are anthologies with lots of short stories. She loves an easy-to-hate villain and prefers books with pictures. Adah, what do you think for this reader?

ADAH: So I'm gonna recommend this book which is the first in a series called Pizazz by Sophy Henn. It is the trials and tribulations of a reluctant superhero named Pizazz who is a 9-year-old girl. Her family is full of superpowers. And it's got a really fun twist on that superhero narrative because she is so bored and over all of the super special things that she can do with her powers. So it's pretty humorous.

And then on the other end of the serious spectrum we have We Belong by Cookie Hiponia. It's a novel in reverse. So it's poetry and it weaves Filipino mythology, which I think will speak to her interest in the fantasy. It weaves that with the story of a strong-willed girl who's moving to a new country that is not particularly welcoming. And it is not highly illustrated, but it does have some lovely illustrations throughout.

I'll go back and say Pizazz by Sophie Henn is heavily illustrated. There's a lot of word art along with illustrations that are embedded in the story.

ANNE: This sounds great. What do you think, Andrea?

ANDREA: The Princess Black series is one that's wildly popular in the store. It's by Shannon Hale and Dean Hale. And it's a princess that transforms herself into her alter ego to fight monsters as the Princess Black. There's lots of really pretty illustrations and it flips the procession and does something empowering.

So throughout the story, they talk about how "you're princess, you should be able to do this." And then she transforms into Princess Black to be able to fight monsters.

ANNE: That sounds great. I love hearing what is wildly popular in the store. Natasha is up next seeking a thrilling book for her partner who works as both a fire chief and a professional opera singer. He's enjoyed Ken Follett Pillars books, loved Andy Weir's space books and enjoyed Dear Committee Members Julie Schumacher as well as Jonathan Tropper.

He'd love a fun and fast-paced book with spies, espionage and a quick-moving plot that he can pick up in between emergency calls and opera rehearsals. Okay, two series for this reader, Gabriel Allon series by Daniel Silva or Chris Pavone spy novels. Those are the ones that came to mind for me. What do you think, Adah?

ADAH: I think that Bullet Train by Kotaro Isaka would be a great pick. This is a locked room mystery that's set on a moving train, a bullet train moving very, very, very fast. And it's translated from Japanese by Sam, Melissa.

It's got so many assassins. We think we know one at the beginning and then our assassin thinks he knows his targets and all the bad guys and then it's just populated with so many more assassins after that.

It's philosophical, so I think it's really thought-provoking. Our fire chief/opera singer clearly is really connected with story and literature while also being willing to walk into a building that most people are running out of. And so I think that this one bridges both in a way that this reader might really enjoy.

ANNE: For Kaitlin, she found some great recommendations for extended family after listening to last year's gifting episode. So she's back this year to ask for help with gift ideas for her active-duty Air Force husband. He gravitates towards books with an adventure theme, elements of sci-fi, and or magic, and those were the components of historical fiction.

Okay, I almost threw this in for the pilot that we gave, Hell of a Book to in our dad joke way. I'm thinking of The Anomaly by Hervé Le Tellier. This is a French novel. It was a French lockdown publishing phenomenon. It's translated by Adriana Hunter if you've read it in English, and it is wild.

The author himself calls it experimental, bizarre, and a little crazy. But a pilot is at the like crux of the story as it unfolds. So at the beginning of this book, what happens is a pilot has flown his Air France flight through a storm so terrible. No one has experienced anything like it before.

But when he comes in range of I think it's New York City, it might be Boston, but when he comes in range of the East Coast, and he talks to air traffic control, and they find out who he is and what he's doing and what his credentials are, they're like, "Dude." So he knows something's wrong, but he doesn't know what.

And slowly what unfolds is a book that makes the reader and all the characters question like, "What is reality? What is fiction? What is this world we are even living in? Are we even living in this...?" It's wild. And I think it might be fun for this reader.

[00:50:23]

ANDREA: We're convinced. Adah and I are over here with our mouths open, like, that sounds amazing.

ANNE: Adah, do you want to add anything?

ADAH: Yeah, I'll add Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr. It has all of those elements that the reader loves. You know, big adventure story, it's got this like very historical element. It's got speculative sci-fi in your future fiction. It's like all of these things woven into one. It's long but I really enjoyed it.

And then I'll throw it back and say The Golden Compass trilogy by Philip Pullman and The Redwall Series by Brian Jacques which goes on and on and on. And you could probably read that for the rest of your life if you're into series.

ANNE: I love them. Next we have Lisa looking for a recommendation for her wife. In addition to reading, Lisa's wife enjoys Ultra running, hunting, fishing and beer. Her favorite book is Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath, and she has also really enjoyed The Vegetarian by Han Kang, and The Birds by Tarjei Vesaas.

She enjoys books that are realistic and well-written. And recently, she's begun to enjoy graphic novels. A book set in or about Chicago would be a nice touch since that's where they'll be living soon. What should we recommend Lisa's wife?

ADAH: I think The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros might be a great recommendation. It's a classic by now I think we could safely call it. Coming of age story of a 12-year-old Chicana growing up in Chicago. Sandra Cisneros, of course has written lots of things since then, including Martita, I Remember You and a collection of poetry Woman Without Shame. I think the Chicago connections there might be interesting.

ANNE: Love it. Okay, I'm thinking of two Chicago novels with very different tones. They're both fairly recent. The first is The Most Fun We Ever Had by Claire Lombardo, which is a... For those readers who aren't afraid of bricks, this one is just upwards of 500 pages.

But this is the story of one Chicago family that unfolds over a decades intergenerational. Really begins with I can't believe one sister would do that to another bang and goes on to dissect one very happy marriage, almost two happy marriage in the eyes of their children over decades. But of course, in the course of 500 pages, you get to see some of the hidden fault lines.

The other is Last Summer on State Street, a novel by Toya Wolfe. This is out this summer. I will confess that this is a book I picked up because of the cover. Readers, that is not as bad a strategy as we make it out to be sometimes. It was definitely serendipitous here. When you're giving a gift, I do think those great covers are the little icing on top.

But this is a coming-of-age debut set in the housing projects in 1990 Chicago. It unfolds over the course of one summer. It's a coming-of-age story portraying for young girls navigating the changing landscapes in their housing project itself and also amongst their little friend group that is threatened when a new girl is invited into the point of breaking.

The prose is gorgeous. It's beautifully told, utterly heartbreaking. This is a heartbreak I think that a lot of readers are going to be down for.

Next we have Nidhi who's looking for a book for her partner Nikhil. He is a cinematographer who loves reading Indian poetry and looking at photography books. She would love to give him a collection of lyrical poetry featuring poems from other parts of the world or to share a new book about food or photography collection that he may enjoy.

Andrea, I think you have the perfect pick for this reader. Tell us about it.

[00:53:53]

ANDREA: So I immediately thought about a book that would satisfy the food and photography that he enjoys. And it's Gastro Obscura: A Food Adventurer's Guide. And this is part of the Atlas Obscura collection. It is a world tour of global cuisine and it checks all the boxes of loving food, history, and culture and it has amazing photography throughout.

The photography is not like traditional cookbook photography. It's something that would speak to someone that appreciates traditional photography. There are lots of eye-opening and interesting photos. And it's perfect for someone that collects photography books.

ANNE: That sounds incredible. Also, that is going on my shopping list right next to that Epic Road Trips of the Americas book. I'm imagining it sitting on the coffee table in the same way.

ANDREA: I love it. They're both really beautiful for display.

ANNE: Perfect. Okay, we are closing with Kim. She is a devoted reader who's doubly motivated to put a good book in her husband's hands. If they don't each have a book on tap, they'll end up doing something else together like watching TV. His go-to genres or sci-fi and fantasy. He's enjoyed Robert Jordan and David Eddings, all the Harry Potter books as well as Game of Thrones.

More recently, he's read some Neil Stevenson and The Tombs of Atuan by Le Guin. He's analytical and can also enjoy thought-provoking nonfiction works, things about how people think and make decisions. For example, lately, he's really enjoyed outdoorsy books like Peter Heller's Celine. And Kim thinks he'd enjoy reading more in this genre too. Adah, what sounds good for Kim's husband?

ADAH: I was drawn to his recent enjoyment of outdoorsy books like Peter Heller's Celine, and so I'm going to recommend Raft of Stars by Andrew Graff. It's about two unlikely friends in 90s Wisconsin. They are 10 years old, and one night, something terrible happens and they decide they have to run away.

It's about the people that are searching for them. It's about the lessons they learned on this trip on the lam they make through the countryside. And it's just a really, really well-written.

I believe this is a debut for Andrew Graff. And I think that, again, like this one that may have gone under the radar for a lot of folks that I think he would really enjoy.

[00:56:12]

ANNE: I know so many readers are just delighted to pick up a book that is described as under the radar. Okay, I don't think the same can be said of what I'm about to recommend because it's the new Silas House novel. It just came out in September. It's called Lark Ascending.

But he's a literary writer who this time is writing literary and dystopian. I did not expect that from Silas House. And it has the outdoorsiness of Celine but really because there is a dog in this book, a trustworthy Beagle, whose name is Seamus, who has somehow managed to survive even after all dogs have been eradicated in the US and in Ireland where most of this story takes place. It gets compared to The Dark Stars for this reason. It also feels a little bit like The Road.

But this book is set in the not-too-distant future where fires have ravaged the globe and religious extremists have seized control of governments. So a teenage refugee named Lark makes his way from Maine to Ireland, which is the only place he has heard that is still accepting refugees, except things go poorly at the border, and then they get worse, and then he ends up wandering the countryside, searching for Glendalough alone because his mother told him that was the place of safety that maybe his home before she died.

This is a big departure for our House. And also I think it may be perfect for this. I don't mean to make this sound like a bad thing. I just want to know if you've picked this up thinking this is plays quilt. This is not that. But I think it may be the book for Kim's husband, and I hope he enjoys it.

That was a lot of book recommendations. Adah and Andrea, thank you so much for sharing your expertise and your time with our listeners. I so appreciate it. We will share all your links on social media, the shop, and the books we talked about today in the show notes so readers can find you and Main Street Books and all the books we talked about today.

I hope that it is a wonderful holiday season at Main Street Books. Thank you so much for coming on today.

[00:58:11]

ANDREA: Thanks for having us.

ADAH: Thanks for having us, Anne. It was so much fun.

[CHEERFUL OUTRO MUSIC]

ANNE: Hey readers! I hope you enjoyed my discussion with Adah and Andrea and I hope you got to jot down some great titles to share with all the readers you love the season.

Find Andrea and Adah at Main Street Books in Davidson, North Carolina. Their website is mainstreetbooksdavidson.com And they're on Instagram @MainStreetBooksDavidson.

Visit our show notes page to see the very long list of the titles we discussed today, plus Main Street links and merch. Find those things at whatshouldireadnextpodcast.com/355.

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Thanks to the people who make this show happen! What Should I Read Next? is produced by Brenna Frederick, with production assistance by Holly Wielkoszewski, and sound design by Kellen Pechacek.

Readers, that's it for this episode. Thanks so much for listening.

And as Rainer Maria Rilke said, "Ah, how good it is to be among people who are reading." Happy reading, everyone!