Happy weekend, readers! Words I never thought I’d say: I’m spending Friday shooting videos for Don’t Overthink It. (I’ll share more about that over on Instagram.) This weekend I’m hoping to knock out the rest of my Christmas shopping (hope being the key word here) and reading up a storm.
I hope you have a lovely weekend ahead of you. Here are some good reads to get you started.
My favorite finds from around the web:
- Don’t Hate Kevin Wilson, but He Wrote His Best Seller in 10 Days. Apparently, he and his writer wife take turns going on writing getaways.
- I’m currently, finally reading this much-lauded book.
- Millennials weren’t the only ones gutted by the recession. Gen X has never recovered. Fascinating piece from Austin Channing Brown.
- How to Make Time to Read. Great advice from Laura Vanderkam.
- We’re putting together a holiday books list to share next week, with your help. What titles should we include? Add them to this post or share them in comments below!
- My new favorite cozy cardigan is marked way down right now.
- We Paved Paradise. Parking is fascinating. (Seriously—and if you want a book to go with that article, check out The High Cost of Free Parking by the author. You have no idea how much you don’t know about parking.)
Favorite Instagram:
When Daisy actually holds still you just snap the picture as fast as you can, extension cords and all. Follow me on Instagram @annebogel.
I’d Rather Be Reading Audiobook Holiday Deal:
Libro.fm is offering an incredible holiday deal! When you gift a 3, 6, or 12 month Libro.fm audiobook membership this holiday season, you’ll get two free audiobooks as a bonus! You’ll receive my book I’d Rather Be Reading AND Circe by Madeline Miller. You can keep them for yourself or give to a friend. Take advantage of this deal here.
On the blog:
One year ago: Travel reading. You all loaded me up with recommendations for last year’s trip to Scotland.
Two years ago: Addictive spiced nuts. We devour this stuff.
Three years ago: Colson Whitehead’s post-election reading list.
Four years ago: 9 bestsellers actually worth the hype. I stand by this.
Five years ago: How to make a book page wreath, and more book art ideas. If you’re perfectly happy with repurposing old books, this post is for you.
On What Should I Read Next:
WSIRN alum Traci Thomas from The Stacks Podcast returned to help me recommend books for the people many WSIRN listeners consider the hardest to buy for — your nonfiction readers, true crime lovers, political thriller fanatics, and doorstop history book deep-divers. Be sure to check out the show notes for everything we mentioned!
On One Great Book
I’ve pressed The War That Saved My Life into the hands of scores of readers. Over and over, the response has been: “I never would have picked that for myself but I LOVED IT.” That thrill of discovery, coupled with that near-miss experience—well, it’s a highlight of the reading life and that’s why I had to talk about it on One Great Book.
Have a great weekend!
28 comments
I just wanted to let you know that thanks to you I have created a spreadsheet with all of your book recs. It was the most fun I’ve had in a long time! So thank you so much!
I hope you love “The Warmth of Other Suns,” I have recommended it a ton. I learned so much from it. I paired it with “The New Jim Crow,” and they were good companion reads.
I just finished My Oxford Year recommended I believe Sarah Bussey when Anne interviewed her a few weeks ago. Best ROMCom I have seen in quite a while! So for more pensive reading over this holiday time, I am doing a reread of John Ortberg’s Soul Keeping. Using up all my MMD book darts which I didn’t have when I first read it. Its a good thing!
Just ordered 2 of the cardigans! One for myself and one for my sister’s Christmas present! I love that it has pockets as I like to listen to audiobooks while doing chores and the pockets can hold the phone. Thank you so much for the tip. I really look forward to your emails every morning. Have a great holiday!
I just enjoyed Royal Holiday by Jasmine Guillory. I loved that the main character was a woman my age who finds love! This would make a great Hallmark Christmas movie! Add it to your holiday books list!
Last holiday I was introduced to The Christmas Hirelings by Mary Elizabeth Braddon. Written in the late 1800s it’s a beautiful Dicken-like story that’s heartwarming and entertaining. The story revolves around an older gentleman and his two younger companions during the holidays who decide to ‘hire’ children for the Christmas season. As with all good stories, nothing is exactly as it appears.
Winter books that are heavy on light and sweet-a freeware things we can all use…
Elin Hilderbrand’s Winter Street series
I just heard about this one-sounds good but I haven’t read it yet: Sarah Wendell’s novella Lighting the Flames (Jewish summer overnight camp opens for winter … Hanukkah-infused romance)
If the Fates Allow-short story series edited by Annie Harper (LGBTQ romance, 4 short stories)
Louise Miller’s The City Baker’s Guide to Country Living
During Advent and the Christmas season, I love to read W.H. Auden’s For the Time Being: A Christmas Oratorio. It is rich and challenging, and if you care for poetry, well worth reading. https://www.amazon.com/Time-Being-Christmas-Oratorio-Critical/dp/0691158274
A shorter poetry read that I also love is T.S. Eliot’s “The Cultivation of Christmas Trees.” You can Read it here. http://deefrank.tripod.com/tseliot.html
I’m going to keep my eyes open on Goodreads for your review of The Warmth of Other Suns, Anne. I haven’t read it, so I’d love to know what you think.
Great tips for finding time to read. I declared my lunchtime a work-free, social media-free period, so I get quite a bit of reading done then.
Are you reading or listening to Warmth of Other Suns? I listened to it and can’t imagine it any other way. The narrator’s voice was the perfect companion to this. I used to listen to it while walking on the track at my gym. Sometimes I had to take bathroom breaks just to cry. It’s so good, but so hard, and so sad. One of my favorite books ever!
Shepherds Abiding by Jan Karon is a great Christmas read.
Anne, I just wanted to tell you how much I look forward to this post every week. Always so many interesting articles and recs, and I love checking in on your past blog posts. I wanted to get my mom a Barefoot Dreams sweater for Christmas and would have had no idea this one was on sale without you! Thank you for putting this together for us!
Favorite Christmas reads of mine include Dickens’ A Christmas Carol (naturally) and the short stories The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry and The Other Wise Man by Henry Van Dyke. Two books I’ve read over Christmas the past couple of years and enjoyed include Jane and the Twelve Days of Christmas by Stephanie Barron (one of those terrific Jane Austen mysteries) and The Mischief of the Mistletoe by Lauren Willig. I also love reading anthologies of Christmas stories and readings for the season.
Our Book Group just finished The Warmth of Other Suns, and we loved it! And all of us finished reading it. I was surprised how quickly I read this wonderful book. Anne, it’s nice to hear you are finally beginning this one! I don’t know that I would have actually borrowed this from the library to read, but since my Book Club selected it, I was glad I did!
I’m in an American history book/discussion club and we’re just about to read The Warmth of Other Suns. Look forward to hearing what you think about it!
I love reading Richard Paul Evans during the Christmas Season. So many choices!
Thank you, Anne! I look forward to Friday’s post every week.
I want to recommend Winter Solstice by Rosamund Pilcher for the Christmas reads…I know it’s on Instagram, and I don’t have an account (yet-soon!) and now you must log in apparently. I read that one every year and cherish it.
Have a lovely weekend, all!
Highly recommend Alex Haley’s “A Different Kind of Christmas”. I had no idea that the author of “Roots” wrote a Christmas story until this year. But I sat down and read it in a few hours.
I love the Barefoot Dreams sweaters. A blogger, Sheaffer, of Sheaffer Told Me To, named the sweater a blardigan, a cross between a blanket and a sweater. Costco has one that’s the same material.
Barefoot dreams cardigans are the BEST!
I just finished a re-read of Anna Karenina at 4 a.m. This means I have promised myself to pick up Ducks, Newburyport. I left off this form of self-flagellation at 60% read.
Here in my late 70’s, I feel the pressure of reading and re-reading everything that’s out there.
So many books, so little time.
Skipping Christmas by John Grisham should be on the holiday reading list!
It may be a book that’s been around a long time but there’s a reason it’s considered a classic – Dicken’s A Christmas Carol. God bless us, every one.
Thanks for sharing my article!
Regarding Christmas books — Homer Hickam’s Rocket Boys is of course a great story about his high school experience shooting off rockets. Its sequel The Coalwood Way takes place during the same time period with the same characters, but is a delightful Christmas read. Look forward to seeing your list!
Oh, that Instagram snap – be still my beating heart! Daisy is a goddess, big pats and cuddles from me 😀
Sheree, you are now officially Daisy’s favorite person. ♥️
Hi Anne!
Do you have a book you would recommend that would give me a better way to be prepared for a discussion during my book club? It seems that I’m missing some key ways to better understand a book and then add thoughtful comments about it.
Also, I joined your Reading Challenge for 2020! Excited to expand into some new areas of reading.
Thanks!