Readers, we have a big milestone coming up soon: next Tuesday, we’re publishing our TWO HUNDREDTH episode for my podcast What Should I Read Next.
In the podcast world, 200 episodes is a big deal, and we have all kinds of fun plans to celebrate. In (almost) every episode, a guest tells me three books they love, one book they don’t, and what they’re reading now, and I recommend three titles they should read next. That means over three and a half years we’ve shared hundreds of book recommendations and countless hours of book talk with more than two hundred readers, all of whom have very different reading lives.
It’s been a pleasure and a privilege to discuss and recommend books in this format. And while I try not to recommend the same book twice, the same titles do come up from time to time—either because a certain book was too perfect not to recommend to my guest, or because multiple guests chose a specific title as a favorite. (The photo below shows a peek at my process, this time from episode 176, “Books in the freezer, & other horror stories.”)
Today I’m answering a frequently asked listener question and sharing 15 of the titles that have been repeatedly recommended on What Should I Read Next. (If you’d like to see the entire list of what I’ve recommended on the show—and an exhaustive list of my guests’ loved and unloved titles—we make our super secret spreadsheet vault available to all patrons over in our patreon community.)
If you’re a current listener, thanks for being a part of what we do. If you’re ready to give the show a try, click here to view it in Apple Podcasts. If you’ve never listened to a podcast, this is how you do it. (Or better yet, ask a friend. Just yesterday in the coffee shop I showed someone how to download and listen.)
The following 15 titles are in no particular order. (If you listen to the show, you may enjoy pausing a minute to guess what you think will be on this list before you scroll any further!)
15 of the most recommended book on What Should I Read Next?
Home Fire
Jayber Crow
The Lola Quartet
Love Walked In
Harry’s Trees
Garden Spells
What We Were Promised
Four Seasons in Rome
Lonesome Dove
The One-in-a-Million Boy
Tell Me Three Things
Before We Visit the Goddess
Miller’s Valley: A Novel
Stay with Me
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
What books did you expect to see on this list? What do you think of the book ACTUALLY on this list? Tell us in comments!
66 comments
Ah — so many good ones here!!
I expected Homegoing and Station Eleven
I expected to see The River (although I think you may have recommended it to people on other podcasts or other formats of your own), An American Marriage, and A Place for Us.
I’m surprised there isn’t a Maggie O’Farrell book on here!
i bet the river isn’t on there because it is brand new where some of these other books have had years and years to be recommended!
I thought a Gentleman in Moscow.
Yes. I definitely expected Amor Towles at least once!
Same !
We loved this book. We listened to audiobook on a long trip.
One of the best books ever!
Anne, You almost made me cry when you included “Harry’s Trees” and “The One In A Million Boy.” Both of these books are two of my favorite books of all-time and reading them was a joy. I felt for the longest time that Harry’s Trees in particular was not going to find an audience because it was not getting a ton of press. What a marvelous book. Both of these books are life changing and utterly compelling reads. I hope the ladies of MMD will pick these up and slowly ingest some magic. Thanks for this list. You amaze me.
IG: @bookbimbo
I love Harry’s Trees as well! One of my favorite books of all time!
This comment makes me so happy—I hope these books continue to find their way into the right readers’ hands.
I loved Harry’s Trees – One of my favorites EVER!!
Station Eleven would have been my guess. It would be interesting to see if their is a book trend among your guests on WSIRN.
Although I love many of these books-I have read almost every single one…I need more ideas!
I am excited that I have not read most of these. I have Harry’s Trees so I’m bumping that up my TBR.
I LOVED Garden Spells as well. Thank you for recommending the book. I don’t know that I would have seen the book without your recommendation.
I’m surprised Crossing to Safety isn’t here.
Me too!
Me too!
Me too! But it’s my favorite book…ever so I’m biased 😊 Henry’s Trees is a new favorite though so glad to see it on here!
Ahh…that should have read Harry’s Trees…not sure what happened there 🙂
So many great titles!!! I hope everyone reads Harry’s Trees! It is perfect, one if my favorite books ever! Another great recommendation Anne gave on WSIRN was Wednesday’s Wars. Delightful!
I would have guessed Station Eleven and Crossing to Safety.
Have to agree with everyone who is surprised Station Eleven wouldn’t be on here. While I’ve heard you mention the Lola Quartet, Station Eleven seems to pop up a lot more often!
Lonesome Dove is one of my all-time favorite books! I have The One-In-A-Million Boy on my TBR list already, and I just added Harry’s Trees. 🙂
Aha! The Lola Quartet! You just solved a major “what is the title of that BOOK?!” problem for me. Your description on the podcast a while back of the young woman with the thousands of dollars in her stroller basket has stayed with me, and I’ve been trying to figure out how in the world I would deduce the book title from just that description. Whew, problem solved. Thank you, Anne!
Oh, by the way, my guesses for what would be on the list were 11/22/63 or On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, by Stephen King, This is How it Always Is by Laurie Frankel, and Americanah or We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
What a stellar list! I was expecting This must be the place by Maggie O’Farrell and Station Eleven
Haven’t read any if these so excited about adding these to my huge tbr. I only started listening to the podcast a few months ago, but from that I expected to see a Place for Us. I read it and thought it was !
Thanks for the podcast and all your the other great insight! Looking forward to the next 200 episodes!
I was expecting to see Beartown. You haven’t recommended it buy many of your guests have.
I’m still on Cloud 9 from reading Four Seasons In Rome. Doerr is the most lyrical, poetic and vivid writer of our time. Thank you for this amazing recommendation!
As for what I was expecting from my own memories of the podcast: Crossing for Safety, A Place for Us, Station Eleven, something by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. (I love the way you say her name so effortlessly). But your data doesn’t lie! I’m glad to see this list.
I love Jayber Crow, but love Hannah Coulter even more. One of my all time favorites.
These books are new to me. I see that they are part of a series of several books. Should they be read in order?
I love all the comments! So many great books- I loved Four Seasons in Rome but don’t recall it being mentioned that often.
What a great list! I have read many of these based on Anne’s recommendation!
My TBR just grew…..glad I’ve read some of these titles!
What??? No Crossing to Safety?😂😂
No Louise Penny? I hear you mention her quite a lot (although I’ve never read any of her books – no tomatoes!)
I definitely thought that Rules of Civility, Crossing to Safety, and Station Eleven would be here! You’ve recommended them a ton, but maybe more on the blog than the podcast?
I think the reason is that with those books, I KNOW I’m inclined to talk about them all the time, and am careful to keep myself in check. 🙂
Haha, I feel your pain! When you love a book you just want EVERYBODY to read it! 🙂
My TBR list just got a lot longer!! I started listening at Episode 186 and have enjoyed your podcasts and read a lot more books in the past few months. Looking forward to Episode 200 and many more!
I was so excited to see One in a Million Boy on your list! Monica Wood is from my very small home town and it’s inspiring to see her on one of your book recommendation lists. We are all so proud but it’s so great to see how much she’s loved outside our world.
I’m so surprised not to see Tana French and Louise Penny on this list!
I honestly haven’t even read one of the books on the list. But especially “One in a Million Boy” sounds like a book I’ll be reading next. Thank you for all the great recommendations.
Love, Svenja
I absolutely LOVED the Lola Quartet and am looking for more literary mysteries like it. Does anyone know of other books like this one that they’d recommend?
Thank you for this post! I asked about Stay with Me at a bookstore once. I couldnt remember the name or the author or even what the cover looked like since i’d heard it on a podcast. But of course i couldn’t remember which one at the time. I took a screenshot this time!
Thank you for helping me grow as a reader. I have reached the last pages of books feeling as if I didn’t want to leave . I love these recommendations and listening to your podcasts. Thank You for being our reading guru. Reading in my opinion adds so much wonderful dimension to our lives.
Thanks so much, Louise, and thanks for listening!
I thought “A Place For Us” would be on this list. I just finished it and I cannot stop thinking about it.
I adored that book, and have to restrain myself from mentioning it ALL THE TIME!
Whenever I see The Lola Quartet, I always think straight away of WSIRN, purely because Anne has recommended it so highly and so often! Love it!
I am pretty sure The River has been recommended a number of times and I was very surprised not to see in on this list. Or maybe it was just part of the discussion and not an actual recommendation?
I think what happened is I recognized my propensity to gush about that one and restrained myself. It’s funny, some of my favorite books don’t appear on this list because I know how easy it would be to talk about them too much, so I hold back.
This was not on your list, but I just finished The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek because you recommended it recently. I really enjoyed it because it combined two of my faves: epistolary novels and bad-ass librarians. It occurred to me that this title would be a great pairing with The Library Book by Orleans (another book about some very colorful librarians!). What do you think?
I haven’t read The Library Book yet (gasp!) and I’m intrigued by this pairing.
I just started listening before Christmas this year and I am addicted! My TBR list just keeps getting longer. One of the first books I read was Harry’s Trees, and it is now one of my favourite books of all time!
Seven of the 15 made it to my list. 🤗.
I hope you find a new favorite!
The only criticism I have of “What We Were Promised” is that it ended. This is such a well-written and engaging novel that I wished there were ten more chapters. Yes I have enjoyed the Crazy Rich Asians books but this novel was a mesmerizing cross cultural study.
Where were Louise Penny, Kristen Hannah, Kate Morton? I feel like I hear about them a lot.
How about the list of the guests favorites. I’m guessing there is some overlap there!
I also expected a Gentleman in Moscow to be on there .
I loved Lonesome Dove. I think I may have to pick up Harry’s Trees from all of the recommendations here.!
West With Giraffes by Linda Rutledge is one of my new favorites!
I have been recommending it to everyone!
It’s a story about two giraffes on a ship that survive a hurricane and the trials and tribulations of of the drive across the country to get them to the San Diego zoo during the depression. These are the first giraffes in the U.S.