Today we are kicking off a summer series from the What Should I Read Next? archives: we’re sharing the first episodes and sometimes the very first conversations I had with readers that are now members of our team.
Many of you know our team members by name, and you have a good sense of their reading tastes, too. But we also know that many of you are new around here, or haven’t yet had the chance to listen to all 400-plus episodes, so you don’t know our team members as well. Whether you’ve heard these episodes before or you’re hearing them for the first time, we’re certain you’ll enjoy these introductions to some of the people who help make the book magic happen around here.
Let’s get to it.
Today I’m talking with my friend, fellow bookworm, and now Modern Mrs Darcy Editor and Social Media Manager Leigh Kramer.
When Leigh and I first connected, she was living in San Francisco, but these days she calls Chicagoland home. You may already know Leigh from her contributions to the Modern Mrs Darcy blog and her bonus episodes over in our Patreon community, but today we’re going back to the beginning with this bookish introduction.
In addition to being a full-time book nerd, Leigh is a fried pickle connoisseur and lifetime White Sox fan. She has strong opinions about her books, which makes for a delightful conversation.
In this episode Leigh and I discuss the “nearly perfect novel” that she adored and I hated, the book she read at just the right time, how she hates when some readers love a book she loathed, and a variety of very real bookworm problems.
This episode was originally aired as episode nine on March 1, 2016.
[00:00:00] ANNE BOGEL: 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.
Readers, as I say these words, it is the middle of summer. My own family is back from a recent almost week at the beach, which was wonderful. I wrote about it on my blog, Modern Mrs. Darcy, gave you the 2024 beach reading report about what I saw everyone reading on the beach and what I read on my trip during our time away.
We are just back from this vacation, and it puts me in mind of my book Don't Overthink It. Don't Overthink It opens with a story about me driving to Nashville, heading south on I-65. And every time I drive that stretch of highway, I think of that time in my life when I was writing this book.
[00:01:13] It's now been more than four years since it was published on March 3rd, 2020. And I'm so glad I have the tools I talk about in the book. I think about it and the things in these pages all the time. It really helped me during COVID and ever since.
It continues to help me with work, life stuff, even vacation because the worst part of vacation for me is all the new decisions you have to make because you were blessedly off-routine, but also definitely off-routine.
So, taking a moment to say, if you want to make easier decisions, stop second-guessing, and bring more joy to your life, pick up a copy of Don't Overthink It wherever you get your new book. Maybe for you that means the eBook or audiobook. That is also available. But picking up a copy would be a tangible way to support my work here and what we do on the podcast. So thank you very much.
Speaking of summer, we are kicking off a great series for you today that is a little bit something old, well, maybe a lot something old and a little bit something new.
[00:02:15] When one of our team members first suggested during an all-team meeting this spring, what if we ran a summer series that looked like this?" oh, I think we all immediately went, Yes, let's do that. That sounds like fun.
What we're doing is going back in the What Should I Read Next? archives to share the first episodes, sometimes the only episodes, sometimes the very first conversations I had with readers that I now know and love as our team members.
Many of you know our team members by name, and you have a good sense for how they read, who's your book twin, who you look to for recs in a certain genre. But we also know that many of you are new around here, or haven't yet had the chance to listen to all 400-something episodes, so you don't know our team members as well.
Some of these episodes, like today's, go way, way back. We are talking about eight-plus years. Friends, I was there for these initial conversations. I have heard these episodes before, and yet revisiting these conversations with people I know and love.
[00:03:22] But these conversations took time in a place where I didn't know them as well. I wasn't as familiar with their reading tastes. And even if I had been, well y'all, I hope all our reading tastes change and evolve in the period of as many years as we are talking about here.
So we thought it would be so much fun this month to share a series of episodes featuring four of our team members from way back when. Perhaps you haven't listened yet since they are older. Or if you're a What Should I Read Next? completist, it might have been two, three, even eight and a half years ago since you last heard these conversations.
I am betting that you will listen differently today than the first time around if these are re-listens for you. I know my re-listen is almost as different as my re-reading on many occasions. And I hope you'll hear something fresh, something to inspire you today.
I've so enjoyed revisiting these episodes because so much has changed. Most of these conversations happened before the guest actually joined our team, and it is... a delight to listen to our early book talk through the lens of my relationship with each team member now, today.
[00:04:31] Our team is integral to everything we create here, from their contributions to the Summer Reading Guide, to their occasional blog posts on Modern Mrs. Darcy, their behind-the-scenes work that you may not even know precisely what everyone individually is doing, their participation in our membership communities and live events.
As we revisit these conversations over the next few weeks, we will also be sharing links to other places you will find our team. Because so much has changed, these conversations were just begging for corresponding "where are they now?" versions. And we are doing that in Patreon.
I am really excited to hear the latest from our team members. And look, I talk to them all the time, and yet I never stop to ask them, hey, if you were on the show today, what would your books be, what are the three books you love, what is the book that you would say was not right for you and why?
We're going to get into all that, including what they do on the team, what they like to read, favorites lately, all that stuff. It's going to be happening in our Patreon community. That is at patreon.com/whatshouldireadnext. It's going to be so much fun.
[00:05:36] Now, today we are kicking off this mini summer series with a replay of Episode 9 from all the way back in 2016 as I talk with my friend, and now Modern Mrs. Darcy editor and social media manager, Leigh Kramer.
I gotta tell you, her original intro to the show made me laugh because it's definitely a "the more things change the more they stay the same" situation.
Way back then, I said, in addition to being a full-time book nerd, Leigh is a then-San Francisco, now Chicagoland resident, a fried pickle connoisseur, and lifetime White Sox fan. She has strong opinions about her books, which makes for a delightful conversation.
Yes, that is still totally true and makes our book conversations that we still have every week completely delightful, even now in 2024.
In this episode, Leigh and I discuss the nearly perfect novel that she adored and happened to be all wrong for me. You'll hear about it. You'll hear about the books she read at just the right time, how she strongly dislikes that some readers love a book she loathes, and a variety of very real bookworm problems.
[00:06:44] This episode was a really interesting time capsule because Leigh and I discuss some books that I know she would not choose today nor would I recommend them to her today for those reasons. And I'm really looking forward to getting into that over on Patreon.
But for right now, for our 2016 Leigh Kramer check-in edition, well, let's get to it.
Welcome to the show, Leigh.
LEIGH KRAMER: Thanks. Thanks for having me.
ANNE: Okay. So anyone who knows you at all knows that you don't hesitate to claim your uber book nerd status. Tell us a little bit about why you read and how you became a book nerd.
LEIGH: Oh man, I think I've always been drawn to good stories. My mom read to me and my brother when we were younger, like from a very young age. That's how I first experienced the Chronicles of Narnia and just all kinds of stories.
And so as soon as I could read on my own, it was a natural progression to just tear through as many books as I could. I learned how to speed read in third grade, and I think that unleashed a monster in me. A monster that consumes books.
[00:08:00] ANNE: Okay, here's how this works. You are going to tell me three books you love, one book you hate, and what you've been reading lately, and then we'll talk about what you should read next. And I get book recommendations from you all the time. Like, how many times did you text me last week and say, "I'm reading this now. Get it."? So it'll be fun for the... I'd like to think it goes both ways. So we'll put the shoe on the other foot now.
LEIGH: Yeah.
ANNE: Okay, let's start with your favorites.
LEIGH: Letting everyone eavesdrop on our normal conversation.
ANNE: Yeah, this is pretty normal. Exactly. Okay. Tell me three books you love. What's number one?
LEIGH: Well, I have to give the caveat that I am only talking about books that I read last year.
ANNE: Okay.
LEIGH: Because if I think about books that I love, that is just... I mean, I came up with, I think, 12 books, fiction, 12 novels that I loved last year alone. And then I think I had 15 nonfiction that I loved last year.
ANNE: Bookworm problems, man. They are real.
[00:08:58] LEIGH: So I can't even think about in the scope of my reading life what are the three that I love the most.
ANNE: Exactly.
LEIGH: But from last year, the first one is The Passage by Justin Cronin.
ANNE: Yes, I love that you chose this one. And I think you know why.
LEIGH: Yes, I do. This was not necessarily a normal pick for me. I was a little worried before I started reading it. I was worried that it would be too scary for me, because I'm kind of a wimp. I don't read horror. And I thought that there was maybe a whiff of horror when friends would first talk about this.
But I was at a retreat in Utah with some friends in October and three of them were just talking about this book and raving about it, and I was like, "Oh, okay, I'm going to give it a try." I'm so glad that I did. It completely paid off for me.
I thought that it was really rich and multilayered, really hard to put down, but it also had a ton of literary and religious references. It had this great commentary on a variety of social issues.
[00:10:09] It's really hard to describe because if I-
ANNE: I was just gonna ask you to do that.
LEIGH: ...people are gonna be like, Eeh, not me.
ANNE: Okay. So give it a shot. Tell us a little bit about it.
LEIGH: It starts out with some scientists that are trying to find a cure for mortality. It goes awry and the government gets involved. They are trying to basically harvest this drug that they have nefarious purposes for but in the meantime, the 6-year-old girl is treated with the drug and it turns everyone else into these vampire-like creatures, but does not do that for her.
So this plague ends up kind of wiping out most of society. So then it turns into like an apocalyptic literature. I honestly feel like the less you know about it, the better. Except if you're worried about if it's scary or not, then maybe you need to know that it has some vampiric elements.
[00:11:17] ANNE: Well, my mistake was I usually... Some books are better just not knowing anything. So I didn't know anything about this one. And then I read it when I was sick at your recommendation and I didn't know... If I'd seen the word vampire, I probably would have passed. That's a word that just says to me, "Move along. This isn't for you."
But also I was reading it while I was in bed with a real fever, and that was not a good combination. But I think I made it through like 400 or 600 pages before I decided, "I'm done. That's all." Which is why I love that you chose it.
LEIGH: I still [inaudible 00:11:48] get that far and then had to call it quits.
ANNE: That's unusual. Usually, it's way before the halfway point. But I keep hearing that. So many people say it's in their not just, oh, favorites for what should I read next, but favorites of all-time list.
LEIGH: It is a nearly perfect novel. And I don't say that lightly. Even as someone that has read a ton and has a lot of favorite books, like I could not stop thinking about it. Even as I was getting ready to talk about it today, I was thinking about all of the… not even just the elements of the plot, but the way that it made me think about humanity and the issues that we're facing today, and what does this have to say to my life.
ANNE: Oh, yeah. Oh, it's ambitious and sweeping. You know, it has that feel that it didn't feel self-important, but like he had big ambitions for that thing.
LEIGH: Oh, yeah.
ANNE: Okay, tell me your second favorite.
LEIGH: The second favorite is The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho.
ANNE: Didn't you just read that recently?
[00:12:49] LEIGH: I read it this past summer because it was a pick for the Red Couch Book Club that I'm the editor for, for She Loves Magazine. So that was one of our books. I had never read it before that even though it's been on the New York Times bestseller list for ages and ages.
ANNE: Yes. I just read it the very end of last year for the first time. I'd never read it either.
LEIGH: I don't know if I had read it at a different time in my life if I would have loved it as much as I did. But I had just moved from Nashville to San Francisco. So it was on this big transition, huge journey. And The Alchemist is all about a journey that this boy goes on in search of treasure and so it's all about intuition and looking for the signs. It just really resonated with me with where I was at.
ANNE: What's your third book?
LEIGH: Third book is... this is so book nerdy, but it's called The Word Exchange by Alena Graedon.
ANNE: Tell us more.
[00:13:54] LEIGH: It is kind of futuristic in that everyone is super reliant on these handheld devices called... I think they're called memes. It's kind of what happens to our cell phones but like to the next level.
So they can't anticipate when you're getting sick and they call the doctor for you and then your prescription arrives automatically. So you don't really have to do much because your meme is basically an extension of who you are. Which, you know, there could be some positives to that. But the negatives of that is that there are hardly any libraries left. No one really reads physical books, or books in general.
The main character's father is working on the last edition of the dictionary, and he disappears the night before it's going to be released. And so she and this other... a colleague of his try to figure out what happened to him. At the same time as they're trying to figure out what's happened to him or what's going to happen with the dictionary, this word "flu pandemic" begins and people start losing the ability to speak.
[00:15:11] I don't know, it completely captivated me. There were so many great puns and then things about language and literature and also just this social commentary about technology and social media and the way that it can be bad for us, which I think is something that we would be wise to consider, even as I sit with my cell phone a few feet away.
ANNE: What I noticed about that book... because I read it at the beach this summer after you and like two other people recommended it to me all at the same time. So I took heed. And I read it, I really enjoyed it. And then I noticed how low the average rating was on Goodreads. It's like the very low threes. And I thought-
LEIGH: Really?
ANNE: Yeah. And I think it's that kind... I mean, there's all kinds of different reasons for books to have lower high ratings. But I think for this one, I think the reason is that if that book is for you, that book is for you. And Leigh, that book is for you, and that book is for me.
LEIGH: Totally.
ANNE: But if you're like, I don't know, I'm getting on an airplane and I just need something, anything to read, that book is probably not for you, and you're going to give it two stars. Now tell me one you hate.
[00:16:22] LEIGH: Oh, man. So there were two books that came to mind.
ANNE: Let's hear them.
LEIGH: The first one is the one I read more recently, but One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez.
ANNE: Why?
LEIGH: It's just such a slog. It was painful to me. And I love magical realism. But I don't understand why people love it so much.
ANNE: I read eight pages of that last year. I intend to try again. But I stopped at eight pages.
LEIGH: I do have a friend that was familiar with a lot of the history of the country that it takes place in. And so she was able to tell me about specific scenes, like why he included certain references, like that it was actually a commentary on situations going on during that day. So that was interesting to me, but that didn't make it any more enjoyable.
[00:17:18] But the book that I really hated last year is The Rosie Effect.
ANNE: Now, what did you think of The Rosie Project?
LEIGH: I loved The Rosie Project. I was really excited to read the sequel to it.
ANNE: Okay. So The Rosie Project, man with Asperger's falls in love.
LEIGH: Yes.
ANNE: Okay. So then from there, tell us about The Rosie Effect.
LEIGH: So the Rosie effect, we find out that Rosie is pregnant and so it's a lot about how they're preparing to have this baby. Don is the main character and he... I don't know. It was so contrived. I couldn't believe any of the situations that he got himself into.
ANNE: Did you think the premise sounded good? When you found out that they were going to have a baby, were you like, Oh, that sounds like a good idea.
LEIGH: I think that I know a couple people that are married to men who they found out subsequently that these men had Asperger's. Don is different in that he is aware... he doesn't necessarily label himself as being on the autism spectrum, but he's aware that he has some differences.
[00:18:38] And so I feel like it would have been good for them to just figure out what is it like to actually be married and to be sharing the same space all the time. Because they weren't like living together that I can remember by the end of The Rosie Project.
ANNE: I don't think so. I think you're right.
LEIGH: And so I just feel like they could have been interesting just to see what that is like and what kind of stress does that cause him to have someone invading his personal space. And even though he's kind of branched out and he will cook different meals on different days, he doesn't have to have the exact same schedule that he had before. To add a baby into the mix just felt like too much, too soon.
And also I think it... maybe this was unintentional, but Rosie came across as very selfish and flighty to me in the sequel.
ANNE: What are you reading right now?
LEIGH: Well, as usual, I'm reading about six different books, like I do. So I'm reading Island Beneath the Sea by Isabel Allende. I'm reading for a book club. I'm not sure how I feel about it right now. I'm about halfway through and book club is on Thursday, so I've got to figure that out. Tomorrow. It's tomorrow.
[00:19:59] ANNE: It's tomorrow.
LEIGH: Yeah, I've got to finish it. And then I'm reading Hammerhead, which is a memoir about a woman who becomes a carpenter. My dad's a carpenter, so I'm just really intrigued by her whole story.
Then I'm reading The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander, which is about mass incarceration and racism. It's been on my to-read list for a long time, so I'm glad to finally be in the middle of that one. Phenomenal. I'm underlining almost all of it.
And then The Art of Memoir by Mary Karr, who I got to see. I got to see her speak right around the time that the book came out.
ANNE: I'm so jealous.
LEIGH: She's great. I'm getting a lot out of that one as well. And then let's see, Sacred Pauses by April Yamasaki, which is about spiritual practices, like everyday spiritual practices, which is pretty great.
[00:21:00] And then I think the last one would be a book on the Enneagram called The Complete Enneagram by Beatrice Chestnut. I was in this Enneagram group during the fall for 12 weeks and this was the book that they recommended. But I was reading a different Enneagram book at the time, so I'm finally making my way through it.
ANNE: Leigh, is there anything you want to be different in your reading life?
LEIGH: I have come up with a couple of different goals for this year. I would like to read more spiritual memoirs that are not about Christianity, and I would like to read more books by Latino and Latina authors. So that's another one.
And then there's a couple of different topics that I want to read more about. So I'm just kind of keeping it all in the back of my mind as I make my choices from month to month.
[00:22:01] ANNE: Okay, sounds good. I love your choices here. Let's see what I can do. So what I'm noticing about these is that there's a quest underlying all these stories. They are stories of pursuits. Is that coincidence or do you find yourself drawn to the journey tale right now?
LEIGH: I don't know. I hadn't thought about that. And I don't know that that particular thread is in all of my favorite novels from last year, but definitely in those three. So that's really interesting.
ANNE: Okay. So you're not a one-trick pony. Is that what you're saying?
LEIGH: I try not to be.
ANNE: I knew that. I knew that. Okay. So with that in mind, let's see what you think of these.
LEIGH: Okay.
ANNE: Book one is Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. Do you know anything about this one?
LEIGH: Well, I remember when I visited last summer… when I visited you, I think it was last summer, you were reading it and you were just raving about it.
ANNE: Then why haven't you read it, Leigh?
LEIGH: I don't know.
[00:23:01] ANNE: Okay. Honestly, I know why you haven't read it. And I'm hesitant to even describe it to you if you don't already know because while we're both total nerds, we're not Cline's brand of nerd. But we're going to go with it.
So it's about a kid, a teenager who's a gamer. He's in the dystopian future, which, you know, hey, you got something there with your dystopian novels. And he's on a quest of his own. He has lots of fellow travelers. I guess he's not on his own.
He's in a fierce competition to win a ton of money. It's a computerized scavenger hunt in which his success depends upon his video game skills and his knowledge of obscure 80s pop culture references. So we're talking his ability to recite every line of dialogue from the John Hughes movie War Games.
Will works at a software company that gets one of those like software geek box subscription things. Like Ready Player One came in the box because really that's the target market. So I didn't think it was for me. And if you saw it, you wouldn't think it was for you.
[00:24:04] But a friend recommended it, who was also well outside the target market of geeks and gamers, and I trusted her. And I started reading it, and I found that it totally didn't matter that I haven't played a video game since I was 10, and it was Super Mari, and it doesn't matter that I've never seen war games. Like it's just a really good story.
It's got that futuristic dystopian thing you like, it's got really great narrative drive, likable characters, and it's surprisingly insightful about things like social media. Because 30 years from now, when the world falls apart, Ernest Cline thinks, or for the sake of this story, he thinks that we're all going to be spending our time in an online alternate reality called the oasis which sounds a lot actually like the memes from The Word Exchange.
LEIGH: Oh, yeah.
ANNE: Does that sound like something you might try if somebody shoved it into your hands at the right moment?
LEIGH: I mean, I definitely trust your recommendations. So I figured when you raved about it that maybe at some point I would finally read it. But-
[00:25:07] ANNE: Maybe at some point. You're gonna get a box on your doorstep. Okay. Book two is more like what you are already reading. This is Still Life by Louise Penny. Have you ever read anything by her?
LEIGH: No.
ANNE: Okay. She's written a lot of novels by now. Number 12 comes out this August and I can't wait. They're all in the same series. And this-
LEIGH: Is it that Inspector whoever?
ANNE: Yes, this is Inspector Gamache. I heard about these books for forever and I have come to realize that if you tell me to read a series based on somebody's name, when I don't know that person, that I just don't... I'm not going to pick it up. But I should because eventually when I'm talked into it I'm glad.
So this journey is into the Canadian forest. and also into the human heart. Does that sound too lofty? She says that her murder mysteries are just really an excuse to probe the human condition and examine people's motives and feelings and why they do what they do. So the plots are set up for that.
[00:26:10] You are actually the one who talked me into finally reading the Robert Galbraith mysteries. And I'm so glad I finally read those. I love them. I don't know why I thought I wouldn't. But as I was reading, it never occurred to me to make comparisons to Harry Potter, but they reminded me so strongly of the Louise Penny novels here. So they weren't one of your favorites today, but it does make me think that they'll be in your wheelhouse.
The writing style is very similar. There are strong prose, they're very psychologically acute, and the series itself is structured along the same lines as that Cormoran Strike series. Like, there's a new mystery at the heart of every novel, but you follow the same detectives and their relationships through the series.
This is a little different from Galbraith series, but you also follow the same townspeople. So a lot of the characters never change. And so you see their story arcs over the series too.
Okay, book three. This is the one I'm most excited about for you. This is Tell Me Three Things by Julie Buxbaum. Have you heard of it or her?
[00:27:12] LEIGH: No, I have not.
ANNE: This is her first novel that is explicitly intended for a YA audience. I cannot wait for you to read this. It is so perfect for you. It does a lot with the journey plot. There is a journey through grief. It's a journey of place.
And Leigh, this is crazy. So I just realized that the plot is set in motion when this young girl named Jessie, her mom dies before the action starts. Then her dad meets somebody in an online grief support group, falls in love, and moves the family to California.
LEIGH: Oh, my gosh.
ANNE: She moves from Chicago to California, Leigh, just like you. It's also a quest to unravel a mystery. Okay, so here's what happens. So Jessie moves to California with her dad, and she moves in with her new stepmom and stepbrother. And nobody... she doesn't belong. She's totally out of place.
And she goes to this fancy pants school that her rich stepmother is paying for, and she's completely out of place. So then after her first week at that private school, it's awful, she gets an email from somebody nobody who claims to be a male student in the school and he offers to be her virtual spirit guide to help her navigate what's basically like mean girls. She's in the Lindsay Lohan movie.
[00:28:32] So she's like, "No. That's creepy and weird. Leave me alone." But then she has a really bad week at school.
LEIGH: I would have been like, Sure.
ANNE: That's right. Because you've read enough YA novels to know you always say yes.
LEIGH: Yes.
ANNE: Because they're not creeps.
LEIGH: Well, at least not the YA novels that I read.
ANNE: No, no, no, that's true. There's that whole other genre that I... I don't read those either. But they're probably your soulmate if you're reading this kind of book. So that sets the plot in notion.
Have you ever read anything by Jennifer Smith, the YA author?
LEIGH: Yes, I have.
ANNE: Okay. So this reminded me a lot of her tone and specifically her book This Is What Happy Looks Like, which is totally implausible like male teenage heartthrob film star falls in love with small-town girl because of a misdirected email.
[00:29:17] But it's still a really good book. Like Jennifer Smith makes it work. She's a good writer. And that's how I felt about Julie Buxbaum.
There's one little problem with this one, and that is that it doesn't come out till April 5th. But it's going to be worth your wait. It's going to be worth it. You can pre-order it now. You can get it on the library list. It's going to be worth the wait.
LEIGH: Or you could send me your advance copy, to say it.
ANNE: I won't reveal my sources. Okay, so Leigh, what do you think you will read next?
LEIGH: Well, since the YA novel is not available for a few more months, which is probably the one that I would just immediately go for, I will finally read some Louise Penny.
ANNE: May find a way to smuggle Ready Player One onto your desk. That feels like a stretch, but I think you're going to like it.
LEIGH: I think that I will too. I will say I have read more not complete sci-fi, but I have read more in that direction. And so I think I'm more open to it than I realize.
[00:30:25] ANNE: And sometimes I have the hardest time talking myself into reading books that I... No, this isn't about you. This isn't like passive-aggressive or anything. But sometimes I have the hardest time talking myself into reading books that I suspect I'll love, but just I don't like the cover, or I don't like the title, or, you know, the plot seems a little weird. And I know better by now, but that doesn't mean it changes what I do. And then I read it and I love it and I feel like an idiot, and then I do it again later, even though I should have learned.
LEIGH: Well, but the problem with being a book nerd is that you never run out of options to read. And so it's more about prioritizing. That's where I feel like I need to figure out how to prioritize what I want to read instead of just kind of letting my whims lead me. Because they're usually pretty on target.
But I think it also, as I've learned the last year, of being more intentional in what I read, of actually making a list, like using your reading challenge, and then come in with some other categories of my own, to get me to read some of the things that would linger on my to-read list that I know that I want to read, but maybe just aren't as in my face or as obvious as other choices are. Although, 100 Years of Solitude was on my list for last year, and that was not worth it.
[00:31:47] ANNE: But you are no longer wondering, and you're no longer wishing you were going to read it one day.
LEIGH: Yeah.
ANNE: You put a checkmark next to that thing.
LEIGH: Yes.
ANNE: Exactly. Well, I can't wait to hear what you think. Thanks so much for talking books with me.
Hey readers, I hope you enjoyed my conversation with Leigh today. Check out our show notes at whatshouldireadnextpodcast.com. That's where we have all the links referenced in the full list of titles we talked about today.
To hear more from Leigh, where she is now, the book she would choose today, and more, go to patreon.com/whatshouldireadnext if you're not already a member, so that you get those Friday episodes coming your way soon. We've got some exciting stuff planned for July. I think you're going to love it.
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Thanks to the people who make this show happen. What Should I Read Next? is created each week by Will Bogel, Holly Wielkoszewski, and Studio D Podcast Production. 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.
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Books mentioned in this episode:
• The Passage by Justin Cronin
• The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
• The Word Exchange by Alena Graedon
• One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Márquez
• The Rosie Effect by Graeme Simsion
• The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion
• Island Beneath the Sea by Isabel Allende
• Hammer Head: The Making of a Carpenter by Nina MacLaughlin
• The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
• The Art of Memoir by Mary Karr
• Sacred Pauses: Spiritual Practices for Personal Renewal by April Yamasaki
• Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
• The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith
• Still Life: A Chief Inspector Gamache Novel by Louise Penny
• Tell Me Three Things by Julie Buxbaum
• This Is What Happy Looks Like by Jennifer E. Smith
Also mentioned:
• The Red Couch Book Club
• Loot Crate
More from Leigh and our team:
• The joy (and nerdery) of a crossword puzzle routine
• All of Leigh’s posts on the Modern Mrs Darcy blog
• WSIRN Ep 137: Bibliotherapy for the toughest times
• Bonus Episode: Preferred reading formats with Leigh, Brigid, and Shannan
• Bonus Episode: Medical nonfiction recommendations with Leigh
• Bonus Episode: A guided tour of the romance genre
• WSIRN Episode 268: Our team’s best books of the year
• WSIRN Episode 316: Books we loved in 2021
• WSIRN Episode 344: Our team’s favorite summer reads
• WSIRN Episode 394: Our team’s best books of summer
This month we’ll be sharing “Where are they now?” bonus episodes over on Patreon: find those and other bonuses from Leigh and the rest of our team members in our Patreon community.
One comment
It made me smile to hear someone say they have not heard of Louise Penny! I’m up to #9 after first hearing about the series in the MMD book club. I also hadn’t considered that they ARE similar to the Cormoran Strike novels.
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