Our team’s best books of summer

[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. Every week we'll talk all things books and reading.

This week we're talking about our summer literary superlatives, and I can't wait for you to listen in. First, we're talking summer books, but today we have fall merch to announce. A new season is coming up soon, and we have been busy here at What Should I Read Next? HQ, cooking up good stuff for your reading life.

[00:00:57] We decided to go with a small collection that is super fun and also not terribly expensive. We have fun new buttons, new sticker designs, plus favorites like our To Be Read tote, which is perfect for adding a button to, and our Book Camp sweatshirts, which were so popular this spring, and we are restocked in lots of sizes for fall.

See all our merch at modernmrsdarcy.com/shop. Check it out. Place your orders. We can't wait to put good stuff for the reading life in your hands.

Readers, today's episode has become a summer tradition around here, and I'm so glad to bring back our 2024 installment.

Today I'm joined by many members of our What Should I Read Next? team to talk about our favorite summer reads, also, what our summer reading experiences have been like, and the titles we can't stop talking about.

Our team, as you can imagine, talks books and reading all year round, but I enjoy tuning into episodes like this to hear more about what each team member is enjoying. I usually end up adding a title or three or twelve to my own to-be-read list as a result.

[00:02:00] As you will hear, we read widely around here, so no matter what you love to read, I imagine you'll hear a title that catches your attention today.

We share a lot of titles in today's conversation, but you don't need to take notes. As always, we have the full list over on our show notes page at whatshouldireadnextpodcast.com. Let's get to it.

Donna, you and I have talked a little bit about how your summer reading has been going, and I am so eager for the details. But tell me, tell us all, how is your summer reading going?

DONNA HETCHLER: You know, it's been going really well, but it is definitely different than prior years. This summer, I have really started to get into audiobooks. Usually, I read, I don't know, maybe two or three a year, and I read five in July.

Now, part of that is, it is very hot here, and I'm walking around the house a lot, and I need something to do while I'm walking in circles, and I'm listening to audiobooks. And it's been delightful.

[00:03:01] ANNE: Oh, I gotta tell you, I just passed my 14-year-old in the hallway who was walking in circles with his headphones. Our dew point is 76 degrees right now, and it is so hot. And I gave him kind of a quizzical look, and he said, "Summer reading." He's listening to the Lord of the Flies on audio.

DONNA: That's me.

ANNE: Okay, but where you are in the world, it's hot a lot, and it hasn't tipped you into “five audiobooks a month” territory before. What else is going on?

DONNA: Well, that's a very good question. That is exactly what I have been asking myself, and I realized I found certain categories of audiobooks that are really working for me, and so I'm going to be sharing more about that when I tell you my best books of the summer.

ANNE: I am so intrigued. I can't wait to hear more.

DONNA: And how's your summer reading going?

ANNE: Oh, I mean, it's great. Although, you know what I think about all the time is this documentary about making magazines that I watched when I was a teenager that said, It's so weird. We're always wearing spring clothes in October.

[00:04:04] I kind of feel like that with my reading because it is summer, and I'm doing summer reading. But my summer reading is all fall reading. So it's great. Also, I don't want to tell you all about some of the best books I've read yet.

DONNA: Right?

ANNE: Right, right, right, right, right. But it's been really good. And you know what was so interesting that I didn't even realize is when I just off the top of my head first to see what rose to the top, and then went back through my reading journal to see what books I really read, like what really stood out, I noticed that late June, early July was a particularly good run of books. And I thought, well, isn't that interesting?

That's when we went to the beach where I got to read whatever I want and really get immersed in the story. And that's where I give myself permission to not read with a purpose necessarily, but just read whatever I want to without really evaluating, Does this make sense pragmatically in my reading life right now?

[00:05:06] I caught up on some books that I had been really excited about in the spring, or even from several years before that I hadn't had a reason to read right then when we were in heavy Summer Reading Guide prep. I'm just going to sit with that a little bit.

DONNA: Yeah, I like that. You're kind of giving yourself the freedom to read what you want to alongside all of the fall reading that you're doing.

ANNE: Yeah.

DONNA: Interesting.

ANNE: It was hard to choose what to pick though, because I've read a lot of really good books.

DONNA: Oh, okay. I can't wait to hear.

ANNE: You know, Donna, I'm just realizing that my audiobook listening is way up. Like objectively, I knew that. I think it might be for similar weather-related reasons. And because it's been so hot during the day, I've really made it a point to get out right when or before the sun comes up, and then late in the day. Sometimes I'm going with Will or meeting friends, but sometimes it's just me and my earbuds for 45 minutes.

[00:06:05] You can listen to a lot of audiobooks if you're doing a significant portion of that walking time every single day on audio. I hadn't really put together that was a weather thing though until you were talking about your audiobooks. I don't want to wait any longer.

What are you listening to? What have you loved this summer?

DONNA: Well, my first category of audiobooks that is really working for me is a memoir that's read by the author. Now, usually when I think of that, I think of a celebrity memoir, which I do love. But in this case, I'm going to recommend Memorial Drive by Natasha Trethewey.

This came out a few years ago. It was on many best-of-the-year lists. I just finally got around to it. And I'm so happy that I did it on audio.

She is a Pulitzer Prize winning poet. So obviously this is very beautifully written. It is a devastating listen, I will say, because it is about her mother's murder at the hands of Natasha's stepfather.

[00:07:10] But what she does is she gives a voice to her mother's words. There are parts where she is basically reading into evidence, the words of her own mother when she was having conversations with the stepfather, and evidence that had been in the police files. And she reads these into the book.

I was just blown away. It's incredibly powerful and moving. I don't think that I would have gotten the full weight of it unless I heard her voice actually speaking it. So that's my first recommendation. Memorial Drive by Natasha Trethewey. Have you read that one, Anne?

ANNE: I've only read part of it and in print. But I've been thinking a lot because of a blog post we just did about memoirs read, non-celebrity memoirs read by the author. I also really love that specific kind of book.

I've heard you speak about this before when we were talking books together and I'm thinking that I may need to go back and get the full experience in that format.

[00:08:15] DONNA: I think that would be great.

ANNE: And I hear you on prose by poets.

DONNA: Yes, incredible. Well, what's your first pick, Anne?

ANNE: I've read so much good stuff. I want to use my voice to add to something I shared in Quicklit back in July. It's Enter Ghost by Isabella Hammad. There's a What Should I Read Next? connection here.

When I was in Grand Rapids for the Festival of Faith & Writing back in April, I met in person with our What Should I Read Next? alum, Allison Matz. And that's something I get to do sometimes is meet these readers that I didn't know until the podcast brought us together and probably hadn't met in person before we talked for the show. But then sometimes I'll be in their town or they'll be in mine and we get to meet up and see each other in person, which was so fun.

But Allison took me to the well-known indie bookstore there, Books & Mortar. And we were just strolling through the store and she saw this book on a display and said, like, "Oh, that was the best book I read last year." Something similar to that. Something like this was a standout read.

[00:09:18] When you're traveling, it can be hard to buy books because you then have to bring them home. But I always like to buy a book or two from the indies I'm visiting. So I just snatched up a copy and took it home with me and decided, you know, I don't think I have time to read this right now because I do need to be diligent in finishing my Summer Reading Guide reading, but I'm going to save it for the beach.

That turned out to be such a good choice because it was beautifully written. And I feel like some readers think that's code for boring. What I mean is all the words fell in exactly the right order. It was smart and reflective. The level of craft just felt so high. Which is no surprise because it won... I first heard about it when it won the Aspen Words Literary Prize, I think. And I have had good luck with books that have ended up on that particular prizes shortlist.

[00:10:15] But there are so many elements that I've long loved or have especially been loving lately in this book. Plus it felt like an interesting moment to be reading this book because it's set in modern-day Palestine.

So this is a story about very complex, naughty family relationships because it begins when a Palestinian actress who's been living in London for almost all her adult life for reasons, she returns home to visit her Palestinian family where her sister has made a different choice. She has stayed there and she has been teaching in a university in Tel Aviv for many years at this point.

And the family splintered in the past, but you don't exactly know why. You're gonna find out why. I love finding out why those kinds of conflicts.

And while she is there, she is persuaded to join an Arabic production of Hamlet because a director with big aspirations has decided, again for reasons, that this is what is needed right now.

This was the kind of book that was satisfying on so many levels because it was a great story with the family dynamics.

[00:11:20] The setting was so interesting and there was so much I didn't even know I didn't know. I was pausing to Google names and places and the region's history because I wanted to make sure I understood all the plot.

But also the story raised these questions or these points of history that I didn't know hardly anything about and I wanted to know. So I was Googling to satisfy my own curiosity. It had so many elements I love.

I love also that I read it in a setting where I could just fully sink into the story and read like a hundred pages at a time, several times a day until I finished it in two days. It was a great reading experience.

DONNA: That sounds amazing. I always feel like when a book makes you Google, that's a good sign.

ANNE: Yes. We've talked about doing a book list like that from Modern Mrs. Darcy because that's exactly one of those things that an algorithm can't turn that up for you.

DONNA: That's right. Oh, I love that. Yes, please do. Please do.

[00:12:20] ANNE: But you gotta take good notes to be able to put together a list like that. Okay, Donna, tell me about another audiobook that you loved.

DONNA: All right. So this category of audiobooks is gonna be a little bit different. Very lovingly, I'm calling it Network TV. Here's what I mean by that. So it's a book that is frankly easy to follow, doesn't have too many characters. There's not a lot of world-building.

ANNE: Network TV. I love it.

DONNA: Like network TV. But it's also very compelling. So it keeps me wanting to read and virtually turning the pages, but it's something that I can easily follow, which as an audiobook, newer person to that type of reading is very helpful.

Anyways, my pick is Nothing Ventured by Jeffrey Archer.

ANNE: I don't know this at all.

DONNA: Oh, wow. I stumped Ann. I can't even remember where I came across it, but it's first in a series of... I think the seventh one comes out this year.

[00:13:30] Basically it is a British law and order. So if this does not fit Network TV category, I don't know what does. So the main character, William Warwick, he is a British police detective, but then his sister and his father are lawyers. So the book kind of has these different pieces. It has the police investigation and then it has the courtroom drama.

I just had so much fun reading this book. I immediately went into the second one, listened to that and I'm about to start the third. So I think it's, again, an easy entry point into audiobooks and I'm just having a lot of fun with it.

ANNE: Wait a second. Okay. Apologies to Jamie Freeman because I'm realizing I have this in my house. She was kind enough to send me a sample of this literary advent calendar thing they've done for the Ink Drinkers podcast for a few years that she does with her friend and sent me this series opener.

[00:14:28] Okay, it's on my "maybe I'll read this when the time is right" shelf. So your description is really enticing, Donna. The blessing and the curse of this episode is my TBR is so long and I'm gonna add 20 books to it listening to our team members share their recommendations.

DONNA: I believe the listeners are in the same boat with you, Ann. Well, what is your second pick then?

ANNE: Ooh, okay. I was really torn, but I'm gonna share another book from that period, Headshot by Rita Bullwinkel. I'm choosing this book for two reasons. One, it was so interesting. This is definitely one of those books that has a thimble full of weird, like Elizabeth Weed said when she came on the podcast to talk about trends and predictions.

The story takes place at... it's something like Bob's Boxing Warehouse. That's not what it's actually called. But it's like that in Reno. Elite junior female boxers from all over the country have come in for this weekend boxing tournament.

[00:15:34] And when you open page one, you see a bracket and then each subsequent chapter is a very close third-person narrative in the head of the two women boxers. Like what they're thinking and what is happening, literal blow-by-blow in the match. And I've never read a book like that.

I love that close internal narrative, what is happening, the way their backstories are woven into the play-by-play of the match. Plus what is happening then, what makes someone a good boxer, what makes them bad, their strategy, how they ended up there, what they're gonna do next, how much this particular match matters to them and why.

There's a little bit of family dynamics because there's a pair of cousins who are boxing in this thing and then everybody has family issues back at home that you hear about to some degree. And it was so delightfully different.

I know lots of readers are finding their way to this book because it was long-listed for The Booker, which... I don't know. I'm just gonna say that as fact because I don't know how I feel about that.

[00:16:37] But it was short. It was interesting. I downloaded the audiobook from my library thinking that I would try it in that format, but I didn't want to put it down. So I got through the print before I even got a chance to sample the audiobook.

DONNA: Wow.

ANNE: But one of the reasons that... It's short. I mean, the audio was less than six hours and I just loved it. But also I chose it because it illuminates one of those strange trends that you don't seek out but sometimes notice in your reading life and that is books about boxing.

Donna, this is the third book with strong boxing connections I have read this summer. Like what in the world? One of them is a complicated family story that I'm gonna talk about in the Fall Book Preview. Not today, but I loved it so much, it would definitely be a contender for my best books this summer that I'm not ready to talk about yet.

Another is State of Paradise by Laura van den Berg that I'm talking about in Patreon in another bonus episode this month where she doesn't talk about boxing except for like a moment in the text. But she's written extensively about her interest and participation in the sport and what it has meant to her. And I just thought, "Boxing? I did not see that coming. But I'm really enjoying it.

[00:17:54] DONNA: I mean, that's the beauty. That's what's so great. One of the many great things about reading is when something comes completely out of left field like that. I mean, even for me, I did not anticipate that I was gonna spend my summer listening to audiobooks. I love when things surprise you in your reading.

ANNE: Yes. I also love, and many of our podcast guests and listeners have said that they love when an author, often they're talking about nonfiction, but when any author can take this topic that they know nothing about and really didn't think they were interested in at all and say, Hey, let me show you how fascinating this can be in a good writer's hands.

DONNA: Right.

ANNE: Yeah, and I'm loving it. Donna, thanks for sharing your favorites.

DONNA: Well, thank you, Anne. I know I added yours to my list. I hope you got some ideas from mine.

ANNE: Oh, I sure did. Thank you.

LEIGH KRAMER: Hi, Holly.

HOLLY WIELKOSZEWSKI: Hey, Leigh. How are you today?

[00:18:53] LEIGH: I'm doing okay. I feel like this is going to be an interesting discussion of summer books with you.

HOLLY: I agree. I'm glad we had the chance to kind of chat a little bit on Slack beforehand so we know where we're coming from today.

LEIGH: Yeah. So just to clue the audience in, we both had a bit of trouble figuring out what our best book of the summer was going to be and ended up pushing the recording back a little bit so we could have some extra time to read.

HOLLY: We did. I know you were hopeful that you might have one coming in over the weekend strong. Did that hope pan out or not?

LEIGH: It actually did. So I'm very relieved. How about you?

HOLLY: You know, sort of, but not quite the way I was expecting. So that's okay. But I've got some good things to share today. It's going to be fun.

LEIGH: How do you feel like your summer of reading has been going overall?

HOLLY: I feel like this summer has been a totally anomalous summer of reading for me. But I don't know if that's actually true or not or if I just feel that way.

[00:19:57] So I feel like I have this expectation versus reality of summer reading. A lot of that's because in my childhood, I would just go to the library and check out stacks full of 30 books high and just tear through them all summer. So I feel like so many people, I think, have this summer reading memory sense.

And then I come to my actual real life where I'm working and we're working on getting our house built ready and I'm running errands all over the place. I just feel like I go to bed every night and I am wiped out. I'm just reading a lot less than I feel like I normally do.

LEIGH: That makes complete sense.

HOLLY: Yeah. But then I looked back in my story graph history and it is somewhat inconsistent. Some summers I have a big peak of reading but I tend to read more in the winter. So now I know that the expectation versus reality there is there's a little bit of a thing there. How about you?

LEIGH: It's been really up and down and I would say more average than anything else. I've read a few anticipated books that were just fine, which I feel like makes it even more disappointing when you're really looking forward to something and then it's like, Eh, that was okay.

[00:21:13] And... I don't know. I feel like I've just had a hard time figuring out what I'm in the mood for. Nothing really feels right. I feel like that's very unusual for me. So I'm not really sure what is going on except maybe it's just the string of highly anticipated books that were a little more lackluster.

But I also feel like I've just had way fewer five-star reads this year overall. That's true of the past couple of years where it's just diminishing returns. I am not a stingy five-star giver. So I don't know if it's just like, this is just a publishing issue or... I don't know.

But it's disappointing. I really want to find some books that sweeten me away and that I fully love without having any kind of nitpicky, why did they do that? I wish this hadn't happened.

[00:22:21] You know, I've read some really good four-star reads, but it's just not the same.

HOLLY: It's not the same, absolutely. No, I feel you there. Especially the sort of the nitpicky where it's almost a five-star read. That's actually one of the books I'm going to mention today is like a 4.5-star read. But that's okay. I'm still going with it.

But I think the other thing that's occurred to me about this summer is there are a few books that I have on my Kindle that I'm really excited about reading. I just feel like I don't have the attention span to... like I want to save them for when I have a little bit more ability to focus on them, if that makes sense.

LEIGH: Oh, totally.

HOLLY: For instance, Mirrored Heavens, which is the third book in Rebecca Roanhorse's trilogy, has been on my Kindle for a while, and I'm really excited about reading it. And every time I go to that page, I'm just like, I just don't think I have the focus to dive into what I know is probably going to be a really, really good read for me.

[00:23:16] LEIGH: It's going to be an intense one. I am also looking forward to that one, and I feel like I just have to kind of pace myself with that kind of book, like really intense fantasy that's grappling with big issues. It's pretty violent, at least the first two books were. And so I can't have a steady diet of that, but I do love to weave it in when I can.

HOLLY: For sure, absolutely. Well, why don't you tell us about one of the books that you do want to share today?

LEIGH: Okay, so I'm not really sure how this trilogy got on my radar, but it's called Marry Me, Juliet. It's a bachelor-inspired contemporary romance series set in Australia. It's by Jodi McAlister.

I've only read the first two books. I super enjoyed them. I feel like this is the kind of book that even though I don't really read seasonally, I'm just... you know, my life just is kind of the same from month to month. So I don't really change how I read in the summer but this does feel like a really great fit for summer.

[00:24:26] So in the first book, it's called Here for the Right Reasons. Cece agrees to be cast as a Juliet on this reality TV series. It's basically because she's in debt. COVID is going on, so I do want to be upfront that this really grapples with the pandemic in a lot of really different and interesting ways.

So she's just lost her job, and she needs a paycheck. She needs to be able to pay her rent. She doesn't want her roommates to be stuck with the difference. So she agrees to go and be a Juliet, even though she is terrified of being on camera.

So it's not a great situation for Cece, but she's like, You know, why not? Why not go on this show that she loves? She and her roommates host parties, like they're very, very into it.

Then she meets Dylan, who is an Olympic gold medalist, and he runs a nonprofit for men's mental health. He is actually the first person of color that has appeared on this reality show. So much like The Bachelor being very slow to diversify its main cohort, this is very similar with Marry Me, Juliet.

[00:25:42] He is mixed race. His mother is Sri Lankan, and his dad is White. So the first night, Cece completely freezes from the cameras and does not make a good impression, and gets eliminated. Normally that would be the end of the story. But because the pandemic is happening, stage four restrictions begin while they are filming and so no one can leave. They have to actually go to a separate house if they are eliminated from the show.

So Cece and Dylan actually get to spend some time together and get to know each other and become friends and he decides that she can film with him as his friend. But we all know they're not just gonna be just friends.

So it really looks at how does a relationship happen when he is dating these women on the show, but then actually developing a real friendship and relationship with Cece outside of all of that.

[00:26:51] There's really high stakes because there's contracts and he wants to raise awareness for his charity. He also doesn't want to let down his community as being the first person of color on the show. And so, you know, there's a lot that can go wrong.

And I just really love how it all kind of came together in the end. There's a really, really great grand gesture. This is closed door for people who are interested in that. Although I am mostly known for loving romances that make me cry, this did not make me cry. So if you're worried about that, don't need to worry about that.

Then the other interesting thing about the series is that they all happen concurrently. So the second book is called, Can I Steal You For A Second? It is about two of the contestants that fall for each other. It's so, so fun.

Then the third one, which I am about to start very shortly, and I will definitely have read by the time this episode airs, it's called Not Here To Make Friends. And it is between one of the villain, like the villain of the show, and a show producer. So I'm very, very excited to read that one and kind of figure out why Lily has behaved the way that she has.

[00:28:06] HOLLY: Nice. That sounds great. I don't read as much romance as you do, but I definitely prefer romances that don't make me cry. So I will put this on my list.

LEIGH: It's so weird, Holly.

HOLLY: I know. So strange. So strange. I read other books that tear on my heartstrings a bit. But this makes me think about a book that I saw on the shelf a lot when I was traveling in Australia. It's totally not related in many, many ways to what you just said, but it's called Life As We Knew It by Aisha Dow and Melissa Cunningham.

It's a nonfiction look at Australia's experience of the pandemic. And so I haven't read it yet. I don't think I've been quite ready to read it yet, but it's definitely one I look forward to reading at some point because I know that their experience of it was very different and unique than ours was.

LEIGH: That would be fascinating. I do really like how this kind of opened up my eyes to more in-depth about what Australia was going through and the different restrictions that they had and also how it impacts each person.

[00:29:08] Dylan, who is the Romeo of the show, he's wealthy. Also, he's getting a ton of money to film. But Cece, even though she's been eliminated, she still needs to be paid. Maybe she can't go home, but she still has rent.

Then in the second book, one of them is a nurse. And so her experience of caring for patients before she starts filming, the other one is a mechanic, and she had a lot fewer hours because people were driving less. And so it's just a really interesting look at how everything went down.

HOLLY: Totally. Well, that's a really interesting kind of transition point to talk about the book that I want to share today because traditionally I've really enjoyed reading dystopian or post-apocalyptic type books. And then I think as many people who maybe share that taste, there were a few years that I couldn't do that. It was just a little too quick.

[00:30:09] But this year, for whatever reason, I seem to be able to step back into those waters. But I've noticed that my interests of what I'm looking for and what I think to be a good story has changed and has shifted into more of this sort of utopian spin or solar punk response to a bad scenario.

LEIGH: Oh, that's fascinating.

HOLLY: Yeah. And finding books that fit into that category is a little bit tricky, but it's becoming less tricky, which I really enjoy.

So the book that I was gonna share, it was actually published in 2019 and this was shared with me by a friend, Tony, who recommended it to me. But it's called The Lightest Object in the Universe by Kimi Eisele. Have you heard about this one?

LEIGH: No, I don't think so.

HOLLY: Okay, I hadn't either until Tony put it on my radar. The story here is that there's a man and a woman who have sort of had this chance meeting and there's a spark, but it hasn't kind of converted over to a full-time relationship yet.

[00:31:10] Like they're seeing each other, they know they're interested, but they're not official. They're not married. They're not kind of at that point yet. But they are separated.

Beatrix, the woman, lives on the West Coast, and Carson, the guy, is on the East Coast. And then all of a sudden some event happens and the electrical grid goes down. So now there's no way for them to communicate. They're stranded on other sides of the country. They're both sort of now struggling with this idea, okay, well, what happens now? What is our life now? What do we do? How do we react to this scenario?

So the story kind of follows both of them in alternating perspectives, alternating chapters, as Carson is making his way across country on foot and what that experience is like. And what I really enjoyed about this is that a lot of people think of the road as sort of this archetypal post-apocalyptic story of this man and his son who are traveling across and there's all sorts of horrible, violent things.

[00:32:09] Carson, his scenario is different. There definitely are people who are violent and people who are trying to take advantage of the scenario, but there's also people who have banded together to travel in community, to try to emerge out of this bad scenario with something positive.

So he's making his way across country and at the same time, Beatrix has sort of faced this dilemma of does she leave or does she stay in her neighborhood? She ends up becoming linked up with some of the other members of the neighborhood.

They put together a bicycle brigade. They have this great relationship with the local dump manager in terms of being able to scavenge and mend and just basically create something positive and come together in this community cooperative association rather than devolving into just chaos and despair.

Again, there's people in both circumstances who are more in that negative space, but overwhelmingly, I just found it to be really hopeful. It was a story of community. I think first and foremost, an interesting thought experiment of how could something negative actually turn into something positive and how can we adapt in a way that feels sustainable?

[00:33:25] So I think that this would shelve really, really well next to the previous Summer Reading Guide pick, Another Life by Sarena Ulibarri, which I also read and loved. But that was a little bit earlier this year, so it's not a summer read for me.

If you haven't read that one, it's a novella, but it's also kind of talking about what are some different ways that we could react to climate change or bad events or civilization changing in ways that we might not want or expect rather than kind of going into this dystopian negative space.

I read it in May. So it's kind of early in the summer reading space, but I'm going to count it. And that's my top pick for this summer.

LEIGH: I feel like the Summer Reading Guide goes out in May, and so things that we read in May can totally count.

HOLLY: Yeah, it counts. Totally. Totally counts.

LEIGH: But I feel like the description of the first book that you were talking about, if I had just heard that in a vacuum, I would be like, "Oh, that's a Holly book. I have to tell Holly about this one."

[00:34:25] HOLLY: Yes, it's on [brand?]. Definitely. I have one more to share. It's kind of a rerun, if you will, because it was actually one of Donna's picks last summer. But I just want to give it a quick shout out because I read it this summer, and it was also on the top of my own list. It's actually one of the few books this summer that I have recommended to friends. So I figure that's enough to get it a mention here.

But that was Going Zero by Anthony McCarten. It's just a really fun thriller. It deals with identity and surveillance state. It's a really fun romp. I'm not going to spend too much time on it because I think listeners have already heard about it. Donna talked about it so beautifully in last summer's Episode 394. But I want to just give that a little bit of a boost because it's a great summer pick too.

LEIGH: And if people want more recommendations from me, I think I talked about at least a couple of books in that episode myself.

HOLLY: Yes, yes. I have noticed that I often will take a couple years to get around to some of the Summer Reading Guide or Teens Best Books recommendations, but they always come through eventually.

LEIGH: Totally.

[00:35:28] HOLLY: Well, it was fun talking books with you today, Leigh. I'm definitely going to put your pick on my TBR. And I'm excited to hear what the rest of the team is sharing today too.

LEIGH: Yeah. And then once we both read the new Rebecca Roanhorse, we'll have to chat about it. Once we're in the right headspace for it.

HOLLY: I would love that. Yes. Let's check back in on that.

GINGER HORTON: Well, hello there. I am Ginger Horton, Modern Mrs. Darcy Book Club community manager, summer lover, and aspiring classics evangelist on a quest to convince myself and fellow readers that classics does not need to mean boring.

In fact, my favorite that I'm bringing here today, Baylee, is a book older than myself, which is how I am loosely defining classics these days. I'm going to talk about another title in our Patreon bonus books episode that's a book in translation and it was written 75 years ago, but that was also loads of fun.

[00:36:25] So there are way better definitions for what makes a classic, but a book that is older than me is the one I'm going with as I'm trying to hit a balance this year that keeps modern books and old books in roughly 50-50 percentages for myself this year.

That is not what I aspire to every year, but it's a good stretch goal for me since I've noticed that I've been neglecting this practice the last year or two.

So without further ado, my best book of summer this year is what could firmly be described as a classic by almost anyone, I think, and that is Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck. Steinbeck is one of those writers of whom when I read them, I wonder why I haven't read every single other thing they've written before I bother reading anything else.

This has been sitting on my shelves for the longest time and picking it up over the Independence Day weekend was just the right choice for my summer. Though I kind of wish I'd read his laugh-out-loud bits about turkeys around Thanksgiving. I marked that place, so maybe I'll go back and reread those sections later this fall.

[00:37:26] My friend Kari, book club member and Bookstagrammer extraordinaire, Kari Ann Sweeney, has long since raved about this to me. She has read it multiple times herself, and I am so glad that that little extra push from my friend made me pick up this because it was rich and delightful, and poignant.

I am not often particularly patriotic, which is kind of ironic for a naval officer's wife, but this book made me nigh well close to see all the funny differences and then all the deep similarities between American regions and peoples through the eyes of John Steinbeck and his dog Charley, who does play a pivotal role in the story, and to see all the funny differences and also similarities between his day and ours more than 60 years later was just a treasure.

His true gift is writing about this narrow section of the world with such timelessness. I find that he has just this understanding of what makes each area's specific quirks, kind of what makes Americans American.

[00:38:30] This might be your best book of summer, like mine, if you love Bill Bryson and travelogs of any kind. If you are well-traveled across the states, you might appreciate this. And even if you are not, my advice is to read this if you already love Steinbeck's novels or read this if you've never read a word of Steinbeck. This would be a great place to start, a great introduction to him.

You could read this if you love cities. You could read this if you are a country lover, you love the countryside. You could read this if you have a fondness for a particular region of the United States. It's fun to read about, you know, how he describes my state or my area of the country.

Read this if you love to play it safe or if you love adventure, your home body, if you're a traveler. Read this for sure if you are addicted to the news these days. Read this if you love America. Read this if you've lost a good bit of hope in its greatness. You can read this if you are mad. You can read this if you are thankful. Can you just tell? I loved this book. I want to press it into everyone's hands, and I am so glad to share that Travels with Charley is my best book of summer.

[00:39:34] So Baylee, what have you got for us? What's your top favorite?

BAYLEE PENDLETON: I feel like after hearing you describe your book, I actually feel like ours might go maybe well together. I haven't read Travels with Charley, but it sounds like maybe they could be good companion pieces.

Hello, I am Baylee Pendleton, an executive assistant at Chief of Staff. And this is the first time actually that you're hearing my voice on a podcast. So hello, everyone.

I was in the middle of the book I'm going to share about when I got the heads up that Ginger and I would be chatting books for this summer episode. After reading the first half, I read the remainder of it kind of just like with fingers and toes crossed, hoping that the second half would continue to be just as wonderful as the first half was. And I am very glad that it was because I was really banking on this being my pick.

So the book that I want to share is Leif Enger's newest book called I Cheerfully Refuse, which came out earlier this year in the spring. I loved his first novel, Peace Like a River, which I'm sure many of you have heard of and really just devoured this one as well.

[00:40:36] I can't really describe much of the plot without spoiling it. So without giving anything away, this is the story of Rainy, who is our bereaved narrator. In the first third of this novel, he sets sail on Lake Superior seeking really refuge and peace from some heartbreaking tragedies that have just happened at home.

But instead of finding peace on the lake, he encounters this really diverse cast of characters who have encountered, like him, tragedy, and their lives are honestly filled with despair and many of them have succumbed to it.

This is set in a near future America. I have seen this described as a dystopic novel. And I feel like when I hear dystopia, this isn't really what my mind conjures. But I guess it could be described as dystopic.

People are kind of scrounging for fresh food and gasoline, but then there's very rich billionaires who are going to space. So that kind of dichotomy fills people's stories.

[00:41:40] Rainy is carrying grief with him into this kind of unknown future. And he's really just trying to make a new life for himself. But he keeps meeting these people who are succumbing to the despair that has filled this dystopian world.

At one point, Rainy says, As far as enemies go, despair has every ounce of my respect, which I just found to be quite profound and really the defining aspect of this novel. But really this is a story about how he chooses not to give into that despair, but instead, he cheerfully refuses, which is how we got the title.

I can be a harsh critic of literary fiction in particular. I find much of it to be a lot of flash and not a lot of substance, but I loved what Leif Enger did with this novel.

All flash and no substance absolutely is not true with this one. I think what this novel has to say about despair and hopelessness can ring true for all of us, regardless of where we find ourselves.

[00:42:42] This book will make you laugh and cry on the same page. It will make you appreciate the life that you actually have and not someone else's life or the life that you wish that you had, but the one that you actually have, your daily life with all its good parts and its bad parts. And it will make you, I think, think more deeply about your why. Like when you wake up in the morning, why am I here? What am I doing?

But also despite all of that, it's not stuffy or uppity, even though I feel like the words I'm using maybe make it seem that way. There are a lot of layers to dig into. This would be really great for book club.

The characters are richly drawn, but they also feel like someone that you could meet at the gas station or meet at work, or meet at church. The plot is interesting, but very unpredictable. There are these little nuggets in the story that I think bookish people and book lovers will really enjoy. There are a lot of literary allusions. There are bookish people as characters themselves.

[00:43:43] I found myself pausing multiple times in each chapter and sometimes multiple times on a page just to reread a sentence and just like sit back and think about it, which is very atypical for me. I typically am blazing through and want to find out what happens next. This book made me stop and think a lot and I really appreciated that.

This book is written in first person. I found it to be really well done here. Sometimes I can find first person a little bit distracting or sometimes annoying, but I loved Rainy's narration of his own story.

There's a moment where he's about to describe something very sad that happened to him and he says something like, "I'm going to look away now, but I'll keep telling you what happened."

There are so many profound moments like that, but it was profound and evocative without being overly mellow or melodramatic. And I just think that's a very hard balance to find and Leif Enger did a really great job here.

[00:44:40] So to borrow Ginger's format, read this if you like stories about community, about neighbors, about shared grief, read this if you like sailing or sailboats, read this if you like amateur musicians, read this if you like bookshops, read this if you like brave characters, and also read this if you're the person who used to devour the liner notes of CDs in 2004, because you will find a lot of nuggets just like we used to find a lot of little nuggets in the CD liner notes. So that is I Cheerfully Refuse by Leif Enger.

GINGER: Oh, that was so fun. This is sitting on my shelf, Baylee. I admit you asked me a week or two ago, "Hey, have you read this"? And I said, "No, I have not yet." And you left it at that. And so I had no idea that's what you were bringing today. And now I cannot wait to read this.

I of course bought it the minute he had a new book coming out and I haven't gotten to it yet. So this was a fun push for me to do so. And you're right. I think these went well in conversation together.

BAYLEE: Yay.

[00:45:40] SHANNAN MALONE: Hi, Will, Brigid. How are we? Glad to be here?

WILL BOGEL: Oh, man, so glad.

BRIGID MISSELHORN: So excited to talk summer books with y'all.

SHANNAN: So I'm Shannan. I'm Patreon Community Manager and Book Club co-host and my summer reading was a little sparse, guys. The Olympics, I plan to read less. So I don't have a lot of selections to choose from this summer. But I did read a couple of great books and I'm excited to share them.

My first book is You Are Here by David Nicholls. This was definitely the best book I read this summer. I didn't think I would enjoy the book when Anne talked about it initially in the Summer Reading Guide. But something intrigued me because I tend to like plot-driven books. And you guys know that from my inaugural episode.

This book is about two people who meet on a rather uneventful hike and they walk from one side of England to the other and they fall in love. That's the book. And shockingly, I was here for it.

[00:46:50] David Nicholls wrote One Day, which I hear had a terrible ending. I haven't read it. Brigid.

BRIGID: I'm making a face.

SHANNAN: Really?

BRIGID: I'm like, no, no, no.

WILL: I haven't read it either.

BRIGID: Yeah, I didn't love-

WILL: We watched half the series. I'm kind of going, like, what is going on here?

SHANNAN: But I will say I was very happy with the ending of You Are Here. I do tend to enjoy books with a strong sense of place during the summer as I was doing my summer reflections. And this had that. I googled some of the places that they were mentioning and some of the trails, walked on them via YouTube channels.

BRIGID: Oh, that's such a clever idea.

SHANNAN: It was a really great experience. So I fully immersed myself and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

My second book it released this summer, although I read it in March. Can I still count it as one of my summer books?

BRIGID: Yes, yes. 100%.

WILL: Reaching back.

[00:47:51] SHANNAN: This novel was intensely atmospheric. Intensely. It's a literary murder mystery. It takes place in the Pacific Northwest. Now, I will say that this book released in June. I think it would have been better released in August because it has these early fall, late summer vibes. And it has a very, very strong sense of place as well. And I tend to realize that I'm really enjoying those.

It's Middletide by Sarah Crouch. Sarah happens to be a local author for me, which I was pleased to discover.

WILL: Cool.

SHANNAN: The Snail on the Wall, my local indie, was honored to host her first-ever book launch. And she was absolutely lovely and very personable and almost made me like the book even more than I did.

The story is about a young man who left his small town to pursue a writing career and has returned home a failure. And then he gets embroiled in this murder that has happened in the town and he has to deal with those allegations and all of that.

[00:49:03] This is a slower burn than what I anticipated it would be. I started it and was like, "Hmm." But I kept going and I found that it was well worth it. And it has the most gorgeous cover that I've seen on a book in a very long time.

BRIGID: I was gonna ask you if it was a slow burn, slower mystery or more platter.

SHANNAN: Right, Brigid? I don't know what's up with me this summer. I've really gone against plot-driven stories and into these slower burning, strong sense of place type reads. Maybe the Olympics was enough excitement for me.

If you enjoyed Where the Crawdads Sing, which I really did, I enjoyed it, I think you will particularly enjoy this one. It's good.

WILL: Nice.

SHANNAN: Brigid, what about your books?

BRIGID: Oh my gosh. So I had some similar... you know, sometimes in the summer my reading can take a dip. I took a look before we jumped on and I saw that my reading had been a bit slower pace this whole year.

[00:50:11] Summer is usually a lull. I know that because my kiddos were off school and then there's travels, which I actually read less when I travel. I wish for the opposite. I wish I read more when I travel, but that rarely happens.

So seeing that I was reading a little bit less than usual, thanks to probably some really good TV shows that have been on lately, I thought that maybe what I would do is try to search out books that would give me that same feel as binge watching a great TV show.

So where you, Shannan, went the more slower and really dipped into these senses... My books have senses of place as well, but I was really going for entertaining, interesting plots.

The one thing I noticed with my best books of summer is I'm looking for short chapters. Short chapters work for me. If a book has short chapters, no matter what the genre or themes or plot, I'm turning the pages so much quicker.

[00:51:11] So the first one I'm going to talk about is It Had to Be You by Eliza Jane Brazier. Now, we had her Girls and Their Horses, which was a Summer Reading Guide pick in 2023. We had her for book club, for the Modern Mrs. Darcy book club in May. And I found that it was the kind of thriller that worked really well for me because it wasn't too gory, too dark, had those short chapters I liked, but had depth to it as well.

It was so fun to have her come and discuss the book with all of us in book club and get to chat with all the book club members about it. So when I saw that she had a new book coming out, It Had To Be You, I was excited. And then I was even more excited when Anne and I were discussing that the premise was very strong Mr. and Mrs. Smith vibes.

So going back to TV shows that I've binged, this is one that I really enjoyed. And I thought, okay, I'm going to pick this book up the minute it comes out. So I did. And I got not only the Mr. and Mrs. Smith vibes, but also Killing Eve. So anyone who is a fan of Killing Eve would probably really love this book as well.

WILL: Interesting.

[00:52:23] BRIGID: So It Had To Be You, it's about two contract killers who meet on a train and they have a romantic encounter. I'm going to say that the book starts off with a bang in many ways. And then months later, they are hired to kill each other.

So we get exotic locales, exciting adventures. I will mention it is a hard R. Now, you have to be on board for all sorts of swearing and steamy scenes, but I could not put it down.

I think part of it was the quick chapters. It also had the alternating points of view of Ava and Jonathan, the two contract killers. Also, I kept thinking, how is this ever going to work out? I would look at Chad as I was reading it and say, How could this ever work out? We've got two people who have been hired to kill each other.

[00:53:20] Now, recently, a couple of members on our team read The Blonde Identity by Ally Carter and enjoyed it. And I would say, I would recommend it. Well, I was thinking of you, Will. Yeah, because I think you would enjoy this book because it is... if you don't mind more intense scenes and more of a higher language rating, I would highly recommend it.

I couldn't put it down. I passed it immediately to my sister. We were on a beach vacation and I handed it to her and I said, "Read this," and she immediately started picking up. So perfect for summer. And all those exotic locales were so fun to visit from my beach chair.

SHANNAN: I'm waiting for the adaptation.

BRIGID: Yeah, it would make a great adaptation for sure. And you know what? I think you would like the fencing aspects too, Shannan, because there is some of that Olympic sport fencing in it as well. So yeah, very, very, very fun.

[00:54:20] Then sticking on that fun reading, entertaining, one night I had seen on our book club member site people talking about the television show, which was an adaptation, My Lady Jane. And this is adapted from the book by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows.

So I turned it on on Amazon Prime one night, I watched the first episode, I immediately turned it off and downloaded the book. I could not wait to read the rest. I wanted to read the book before I watched the rest of the series. And that rarely happens to me. If I'm watching an adaptation, I'm not going to go back and read the book. But this one was fabulous.

It's an alternate history. It's a YA, first in the series. I don't normally like historical fiction or YA. So this is really an outlier for me. But it's an alternate history of Lady Jane Grey and Gilbert Dudley. And when I say alternate, I mean like really, really alternate because she doesn't lose her head. Okay, that was my question.

[00:55:27] Spoiler alert, she does not lose her head. And people turn... like some people have the ability to turn into animals, which are called ethians at the time. So we get into some fantasy aspects of it as well.

SHANNAN: Interesting.

BRIGID: So I would say it's very akin to, obviously, its own television show. But like something really quirky and clever, like The Princess Bride, right? Where you've got some historical aspects, some fun aspects, and then, you know, these little bit of fantasy aspects as well.

And it's got a witty narrator, which to me is catnip. If something has witty narrators, sign me up. I'm in. Both the show and the book have it. It was just fun and exciting and easy to turn the short pages.

Now, like I said, it's the first in a series, but they are loosely connected, meaning that the next one is actually about Jane Eyre and it's called My Plain Jane. And then the third one's called Calamity Jane. And then these three authors have then started a merry version as well.

[00:56:32] I would say it feels a bit like a retelling, the way that they take stories that we know but kind of subvert them. Retellings usually work for me in the summer or any time of year when I want to get reading quickly because I already kind of have a feel of what I'm supposed to expect. So yeah, those are two really great reads I could not put down this summer.

SHANNAN: Did you finish the adaptation?

BRIGID: No. Now I get to because I finished the book. So I cannot wait to go back and finish the adaptation. I like lined up my television watching with my book reading.

WILL: Very nice.

SHANNAN: I'm wondering if they turn into animals then.

BRIGID: They definitely do. It happens in the first episode. So that was not a surprise as I started reading the book. So they keep those fantasy elements in the television show as well. And it causes a lot of rift in the time period. So it's an added level of conflict.

WILL: Wow.

SHANNAN: Will, you gotta follow that.

[00:57:30] WILL: I know you've got one for Shannan, one for me. Yeah, those are great recommendations. Shannan, I was laughing when you said that you were not real thrilled when Anne described the book, but then you picked it up anyway and got into it and really liked it or whatever.

I listened to the Summer Reading Guide. I'm mostly sort of on the computer doing customer service, like I'm kind of only halfway listening. But the second time through the evening event, I'm like jotting things down. I'm like, Oh, you stand up to me.

And all summer Anne kept looking at me going, "Why are you reading that?" I'm like, "it was in the Summer Reading Guide. You talked about it." Like I bombed on like four Summer Reading Guide books and I was just like, What? She's like, "I don't understand why you're reading these." And I'm like, "I thought they sounded good. You made them sound good." And she's like, "That's not for you. That's not for you." And I'm like, "I don't know. Somebody told me it was good."

I didn't have an amazing summer partly because... I think I actually quit several of those because I was like, "Yeah, you're right. That's not me." So not a great summer. But while we're at the beach, I did read a couple of really good books.

[00:58:36] The first one is Into the Drowning Deep, which I believe you all know, right?

SHANNAN: Mm-hmm.

WILL: I know.

BRIGID: But I have not read it.

WILL: You haven't read it? So Anne's talked about this on the podcast a number of times over the years, and she's talked about how it sort of swept through the team, right?

SHANNAN: It has not swept through me either.

WILL: You guys haven't read it? Oh, I'm so excited to tell you then. Okay. So it swept through our house as well. Last summer, our daughter read it. And so it came up again just earlier this year. Anne recommended it to Corinne Yan. So as the podcast producer, I listen to all the episodes several times and I'm like, Okay, you know what? This is probably the time." So we're heading heading off to the beach. I'm like, I'm going to read it. And I mean, I loved it.

It's very, very science fictiony, but it definitely had a horror element to it. But it reminded me a lot of Michael Crichton. This is like literally a story about scientists on a boat. So there's like lots of egos.

[00:59:31] This is a massive expedition that's brought a bunch of people together and lots of them are like competing universities and kind of doing their own thing. Or they all sort of think that lady's the crackpot with the one theory. The crackpot being the one lady that believes in mermaids.

So the story is about killer mermaids and most of the scientists are like, I can just go out into the ocean and do a bunch of research. And some of them actually think they're going to find mermaids. So I've read probably, I don't know, 25%, 30% before there are any mermaids.

And we're standing there, feet in the water, looking at this beautiful ocean. I was so excited to talk about this book. I told my daughter, I was like, "Yo, I got to the first mermaid." And she just looked at me and she's like, "Do not talk to me about that here." I was like, "Oh yeah, that makes sense. I get it. I haven't gotten that far, but like she knew kind of where this went. She's like, "I don't want to hear about mermaids while I'm standing in the ocean."

It was so well done. It was really fast-paced and like good scientific explanations for sort of like what is happening and taking sort of the mythological information and the science fiction information and sort of putting that all together. I just tore through it.

[01:00:40] And then Mira Grant has been with me all summer. I've gotten ads for Mira Grant books on my Kindle the rest of the summer.

SHANNAN: Oh, how funny is that?

WILL: I don't know what her budget is, but somebody's putting up money for her. I've not read any more, but like I keep seeing different books pop up. And I'm like, "Okay, maybe I should give more of those a chance."

SHANNAN: Have you read anything by Anthony Weir? Is that the right person that wrote-

WILL: The Martian?

SHANNAN: Oh, Andy Weir.

WILL: Andy Weir.

SHANNAN: Andy Weir. Sorry. Yeah. Like, is it like that? Because I think that he's a little bit more like an explanational... that's not a word, but you know what I mean. Like he explains-

BRIGID: The hard sci-fi.

SHANNAN: Yeah, the science and the whatever. Sometimes I got lost a little bit in that. So I'm wondering if I would get a little lost in the sciency part of the one you just described.

WILL: Actually, you know what's funny about Andy Weir is the thing I remember is less about the Martian and more about Artemis. Is that what it's called? His one about the space.

SHANNAN: Mm-hmm.

WILL: They're all space. But the moon and the like economics of that. And he explains like, why in the world is this? I think it was more like that. There is a scientific explanation for why are they out there? And then also basically science saves the day.

[01:01:52] So you do have to understand some of what they're getting at, but it's not... there's no like biology or whatever. You don't have to know anything. She explains it all.

SHANNAN: Okay, good.

WILL: It's all right there in the text.

BRIGID: I've heard of this book so many times and I've never heard anyone say how science fiction is and also equate it to Michael Crichton.

WILL: Really?

BRIGID: So this makes me very excited because I loved a Michael Crichton book.

WILL: Oh yeah.

BRIGID: Right?

WILL: Yeah.

BRIGID: Who did it?

WILL: I'm fascinated. I didn't realize you hadn't. So I can't wait to hear what you guys think. My other book, which, Brigid, this is perfect. I got more contract killers here. This is great. This was the perfect vacation read. I actually have it here with me. It's called Gone Bamboo by Anthony Bourdain.

I picked this up in a little free library and Anne looked at me and went, "I don't think you want to read that." So I've had it a long time. This is a novel by Anthony Bourdain, published in 1997.

SHANNAN: The Anthony Bourdain?

WILL: Yeah.

[01:02:51] BRIGID: And I have bought novels for Chad written by him, but I'd have never heard of Gone Bamboo.

WILL: Really? So there is another one. I know for sure. At least in this book He had already written one. I didn't even bother to look to see if there are more. I should because I really enjoyed this. Great vacation read. You know, was this on the Times 100 books of the centuries, you know? No. You know, that's fine, right?

It was an easy breezy beach bum book in the vein of Jimmy Buffett and like Kinky Friedman. So just this really out there. It doesn't have to be particularly believable, you know, kind of deal, you know, full of mobsters and spies and guns for hire with, you know, lots of beaches and boats and barbecues. He talks a lot about food. I think there is a chef in the book. So like there's lots of descriptions of food that goes along with that.

Also probably, probably R-rated. Fair amount of booze and sex, guns, sand, you know, that kind of thing. But it was for sitting on the beach, like a great just put me in the place. It takes place mostly on an island. So it had a lot of Casablanca vibes with this kind of questionable antihero.

[01:04:07] And you've got the exotic locale. And then there's this all-knowing French diplomat. He's super connected. And he kind of knows everything that's happening on the island and all. It was great. Gone Bamboo.

BRIGID: I'm going to have to pick that one up. I'm going to have to find that one for Chad now because he has pretty much every other book.

WILL: Oh, that's great.

BRIGID: That one sounds so fun.

WILL: Yeah. I've been thinking I need to read more.

ANNE: Hey, readers, I hope you enjoyed listening to our team members talk about their favorite reads and summer reading experiences today. Leave a comment to let us know about your favorite summer reads over on our show notes page, where you'll also find the full list of titles we talked about today.

And if you have a recommendation for our listeners or for specific or our collective team, let us know. We would love to hear. That's at whatshouldireadnextpodcast.com.

Continue the book conversation by following our show on Instagram @whatshouldireadnext. We would love to hear from you in post comments and story replies. I'm on Instagram too @AnneBogel.

As those who follow me may know, I have not been posting to Instagram terribly frequently, which is why I always recommend subscribing to our weekly email updates to stay in the loop. It is not algorithm dependent. It goes straight to your inbox and we will share all our book news and important updates. Like we have merch and all the details for Fall Book Preview coming up.

Sign up at whatshouldireadnextpodcast.com/newsletter. It's free. It's easy. You'll be glad you have it.

And be sure to follow us or subscribe on your favorite podcast player. We're on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Pocketcasts, wherever you get your podcasts.

Subscribing and downloading each episode when it comes out each week is such a big help to our show and our team. Thank you in advance.

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.