[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?
Today, we're kicking off a month of celebrations marking our 10th anniversary. Our very first episode aired on Tuesday, January 12, 2016. I cannot believe it's been 10 years and over 500 episodes, but here we are, and we are delighted to be here.
Today, we're celebrating the past 10 years talking all things books and reading, and we're doing that by sharing stories and moments that a whole bunch of you shared with us in response to our recent call for contributions. You've discovered and loved so many books and literary moments because of our show. This is something we are so proud of, and it brings huge smiles to our faces here at What Should I Read Next? HQ.
[00:01:03] Today, you will hear an assortment of these moments that shaped your reading lives, everything from literary matchmaking to author talks to reader comment sections and more, plus lots and lots of individual titles you are so happy you found through our show. Today's show features your voices, which feels fun and fitting as we mark 10 years together.
Before we get started, in earnest, I'd like to ask for your help again because we're working on another episode that features your input and ideas and is only possible through your contributions. A few weeks from now, we are airing a special episode of Ask Anne Anything here in your Tuesday feed, and we are inviting members of our Patreon community to submit their questions and join me live for this episode recording.
If you'd like to be there as it happens and or share your burning questions in advance, you can do that by joining us over on Patreon, where you will also unlock immediate access to our full archive of bonus episodes, past summer and seasonal guides, and special membership events like our team's best books of the year. We do great stuff in that community, and we have a really good time together. It is low commitment, high reward for you. For us, the financial support, and also for real, the emotional support and morale boosting that we get from our patrons makes this show possible on into our 11th year together. Find out more and join us at patreon.com/whatshouldireadnext.
[00:02:27] Now for today's listener favorites. Readers, at the end of last year, you heard us ask for your help to create this celebratory episode. We did this because when our team was talking about how to celebrate our 10th anniversary, one theme was super clear: we would not be here if it weren't for all of you. This podcast begins and ends with you.
The whole concept from the initial idea before that first episode even aired in 2016 was this. You tell me three books you love, one book you don't, and what you've been reading lately, and then we'll talk about what you may enjoy reading next. It's a simple and flexible little formula that has generated 10 years’ worth of wonderful conversations and counting.
Our literary matchmaking conversations have been fascinating, far-reaching, and thought-provoking. And in every one, it's you who sets the agenda — you inspire the discussion. Each conversation takes us in both expected, as in I read that submission and had a decent idea of where we were going to go, but also delightfully serendipitous directions.
[00:03:29] While many of you come to the show to, yes, hear my recommendations, I consider myself so fortunate to have discovered near-endless new-to-me books thanks to all of you. And I know I am not alone in that. For 10 years now, you've been telling me how this show has bolstered your reading life, and in some cases, completely transformed it.
And you've sent in your receipts, lots and lots of specific books you love, with detailed thoughts about why you love them. Some of my favorite emails are those where you data nerds send in graphs and charts clearly showing in black and white the difference in your number of books read, or overall star ratings for the books you're reading, or just some other way to capture your satisfaction in charts, both before and after you started listening to What Should I Read Next?
Your feedback makes it clear that you really get the heart of what we're trying to do here. I don't recommend books in a vacuum. I seek to make personalized recommendations tailored to one reader's specific taste. That's why we don't just talk book titles here. We love diving deep into conversations that explore why we love what we love, or why some books just don't work for us, sometimes not right now, or sometimes not ever. And importantly, what it all means in our reading lives.
[00:04:39] We've also tackled vexing topics that stand between you and a satisfying reading life, like if you can't understand why all your reading pals seem to love a specific author, but you don't. Or how to branch out into less familiar genres or formats. Or what to do when you want to keep reading but are struggling with burnout or illness or overwhelm, how to balance mood reading with a love of structure and planning. That's just a small sampling of the hundreds of reader requests we've addressed here.
I firmly believe that the reason this format works, week in and week out, is that we are constantly together, finding the universal in the specific. While each week I get granular with a reader about their highly unique and individual reading life, the conversation gives you a framework by which to think about your own reading life.
This show goes far beyond each individual Tuesday conversation. You listen to the episodes, use my conversations with other readers to think about your own reading life, and then sometimes you offer additional recommendations back to our guests. We couldn't count how many times we heard stories of reading discoveries thanks to our lively comment sections, both on our weekly episode show notes posts and over in our Patreon community.
[00:05:44] In fact, in the course of putting together this episode, I learned more about the great books our own team members have found through your comments. For example, I've known for a long time that our community manager Shannan loves Anthony Horowitz, but I didn't learn until we were listening to your voicemails together and those started pouring in that she found that author thanks to your comments on a specific What Should I Read Next? episode.
For today's show, we wanted to celebrate what What Should I Read Next? has done for your reading lives, and specifically, we wanted to hear what good books you found through the show. With that in mind, we asked you to call in and tell us about a title you discovered, or finally made time to read, because of the show. And wow, did you deliver!
Your messages poured in, and our team so enjoyed listening to and reading them. We were struck by all the unique titles mentioned, and also by how many books were mentioned by multiple readers. The truth is, we received so many wonderful messages from all of you that to play them all today would take many hours, and that's not including the words you're going to hear from me.
[00:06:45] We are so grateful for each and every message. If you don't hear your voicemail in today's episode, please know, we are so happy you sent it. Our team enjoyed reviewing each and every message. Today, you'll hear a collection of oft-repeated themes, a few surprises, and a whole bunch of delightful reading moments.
As always, we've collected all the titles, plus links to the episodes mentioned by our readers, you'll hear from today over on our show notes page. If you didn't have a chance to call in with your title, or you'd like to share your reading memory, it's never too late to talk about a book you love. We would love it if you'd leave a comment with your best, favorite, most memorable books and moments at whatshouldireadnextpodcast.com. Let's get to it.
[00:07:25] Readers, while I strive to recommend and highlight a wide variety of titles on the show, there are some titles that bubble up again and again. I love each of the titles these listeners share that you're about to hear. I've recommended them often, and I'm glad they landed for so many of our listeners. If you are a long-time listener, I doubt you'll be surprised by this collection of what we jokingly refer to as the usual suspects.
SUE: Hi, Anne and team. This is Sue calling from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and I have been a What Should I Read Next? podcast and Modern Mrs. Darcy super fan since discovering both in April of 2020, and listening to your podcast and joining the book club are one of the few joys that I had in a very tough time. I quickly discovered in actually Episode 28, quickly found one of my all-time favorite writers in Wendell Berry. Jayber Crow has become such a treasured book for me. Wendell Berry is a poet, and his poetry just sings through the beautiful prose of his novels, and I am a super fan. So that is my love story with What Should I Read Next?. Thank you so much, and keep on making all of these amazing shows and amazing book content.
[00:08:59] JANET: Hello, this is Janet. I'm a retired physician and lifelong voracious reader, and the book is Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry. I love that book. I heard about it, maybe it was a couple years ago, and since then, a line of his that you've probably heard has been very helpful to me, which is, be joyful even though you've considered all the facts.
KAREN: My name is Karen, and I'm from Niagara Falls, New York. I've been a listener of the podcast since about 2017, and I have read a lot of books that have been mentioned on the podcast, but here's three that are standouts for me. First one is Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry. I have found myself telling so many people about this beautifully written, heartfelt book since I heard about it on Episode 245. It's just such a beautiful book. It's like one long poem about beauty in the ordinary.
[00:10:09] The second standout is from Episode 233, and that is This Must Be the Place by Maggie O'Farrell. I feel like I connected very deeply with this story as a wife and a mother, and how we get to places is part of the beautiful ride of life. My last standout is The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai. This book was mentioned in Episode 237, and I have found myself thinking about the characters in this book again and again and again. Who holds our memories when we go?
ANNE: We heard from many readers that Louise Penny's books belong on your favorite shelves, so it was a special treat to invite the author herself onto the show. If you missed that conversation, you will find it in Episode 357, called Welcome to Three Pines with Louise Penny.
GINA: Hi, Anne and everyone else. This is Gina from New Jersey. I just wanted to leave a little message with my favorite book I found on What Should I Read Next?. It's a series. It's the Three Pines series, of course, with our lovely Mister Detective Armand Gamache. I'm sure I would have heard it somewhere else, but I did discover it on the podcast years and years ago, and what a blessing it's been to my life. This series is wonderful. Everyone loves Louise Penny. I first heard about it here, and I'm just so happy I did and continue to love the series. So thanks so much. I could list 20,000 books that I've written down from the podcast, but that one just sticks out because it's just led to many hours of happy reading.
[00:11:43] KATHY: Hi, this is Kathy. I'm calling from Massachusetts, and I wanted to let you know not who my favorite book was that you've mentioned, but my favorite author. And that was introducing me to Louise Penny. Her mysteries have been great. I love her cast of characters, but more importantly, more than anything, it was giving me a connection for reading between my mother and I. There were so many books to choose from, and we had hours of conversation discussing who our favorite characters were, who we thought done it, how it happened, and it's just been a very welcomed uniting factor for the two of us. So I thank you for that.
COLIN: Hi, I'm Colin. You requested in this week's podcast about books we wouldn't have read without Modern Mrs Darcy and the What Should I Read Next? podcast. I have to say Still Life by Louise Penny. That book was great, but it was also Anne's guidance that that book was good. It sets the foundation. The next two books are getting there, but by book four, Louise Penny has tried, and boy, am I glad I heard that. I have enjoyed every book to the point where now I'm having to pre-order them. So thank you so much for a gift that keeps on giving.
[00:13:07] WOMAN: Hi, Anne and the What Should I Read Next? team. Congratulations on a big milestone that is coming up. I decided to pick a book that I would not have found any other way except through your podcast. And that is Fresh Water for Flowers by Valerie Perrin. It's a nice, dysfunctional family mystery that I thoroughly enjoyed.
ANNE: I love complicated family dramas, and it was clear from the messages so many of you shared that a lot of you do too. Our next listener voicemails also highlight titles featuring complex relationships and unexpected plotlines.
STACY: Hi, my name is Stacy Levine. I'm calling in regards to a book that I found on What Should I Read Next?. And that would be Emily Habeck's Shark Heart, which I was really surprised I loved. It was sad but hopeful. I cried. It was a good cry. I believe it was first mentioned on a Summer Reading Guide, but I didn't pick it up until about a year later. Kind of not sure how the premise would go, but I fell in love with it. It was one of the best books I have ever read.
[00:14:17] WOMAN 2: Hi, I was just calling about one book that I found from listening to the podcast. I believe it was Episode 421. And the book was Shark Heart by Emily Habeck. Never heard of it before. Could not wrap my head around how a man can turn into a shark. I thought, "Okay, this sounds really strange, really weird." Put it on my holds list. About six months later, it popped up. I listened to it, and I loved it. I recommend it to everybody now. Love listening to the podcast. And if you haven't read Shark Heart by Emily, I definitely suggest you do. Thank you.
ANNE: Shark Heart was originally a selection from our 2023 Summer Reading Guide, and I'm so glad it hit home for so many of our listeners.
Next, we have a smattering of one-offs, books listeners called in to rave about that weren't repeated by other readers. I have to tell you, every time I listened to a reader talk about one of these books, I went, "Oh, I love that one." Listen in.
[00:15:18] CHRISTY: Hi, my name's Christy Hanks, and I am calling to tell you about a book that I am so happy I found through Modern Mrs. Darcy, period. I discovered The Murderbot Diaries through your site, and I am absolutely obsessed. Period. I can't remember exactly if it was a podcast or a blog or a Patreon where I heard it first, but it kept coming up. I read the first one around the holidays last year and then proceeded to devour them all in a very short period. It was one of the most fun reading experiences I've had in a while. I couldn't wait for the next book. And it made me want to again find that absolute joy and fun in reading. Thanks so much.
WOMAN 3: Hi. My favorite book that I found through What Should I Read Next? is Peter Miller's book, Shopkeeping, which was a recommendation from Episode 434, hospitable books with a strong sense of welcome. I happened to be listening to this episode while I was driving to the airport for a flight to Seattle, so my ears perked up when I heard about this title, which is all about a bookseller in Seattle. And so while I was there, I absolutely had to visit Peter Miller Books, and he was such a delight. The shop was lovely, and I truly treasure my signed copy of Shopkeeping, and the story of how it ended up on my shelf. It's a book I never would have found and an experience I never would have had without What Should I Read Next?. The work you do here is so special. Cheers to the next 10 years.
[00:16:55] WOMAN 4: Hello, What Should I Read Next? team. I actually wanted to share two books I found through your podcast. I have been listening every Tuesday while I've pulled laundry for the past two years. One book I found was Love & Saffron by Kim Fay, which was a perfect read for me and filled me with joy. I was able to share it with my book club and a bunch of other women got to enjoy that book as well. Another book I found through your podcast was Once There Were Wolves, written by Charlotte McConaghy, which was way outside of my comfort zone and ended up being a delight, and I have since become a Charlotte McConaghy completist. Thank you so much for your wonderful show.
SUZANNE: This is Suzanne Harley calling from Midlothian, Virginia. I wanted to share a book that I found through the What Should I Read Next? podcast that I would not have found otherwise. And that is Clint Smith's How the Word Is Passed. I love history and that book was full of history pulled through a different lens, at least different for me, and then using beautiful language. Since I live right here in Virginia, I've wanted to go back to Monticello a number of times with Clint Smith's words in my head so that I could maybe see Monticello through his view. But I learned so much from that book and I'm so appreciative that it was brought to my attention.
[00:18:43] I'll just also throw in that I loved A Ghost in the Throat. I'm not even going to try to pronounce the Irish name of the author. I also love the book about the National Parks by Conor Knighton, whose name I can't recall right now, but they were all so good and they're all books I never would have found but for this podcast and Modern Mrs. Darcy. So thank you so much.
ANNE: We love hearing from our past What Should I Read Next? guests. We call them our alums because not only do they get personalized recommendations from me on the show, many of them also walk away with reading ideas from all of you, as you'll hear from Meredith in this message. I love to hear what they think of my recommendations, of course, and what other titles they choose to read next as a direct result of our conversation.
[00:19:37] MEREDITH: Hi, my name is Meredith Amity. I am a What Should I Read Next? listener and alum. I am calling in support of the milestone episode, and I wanted to share a book that I found through What Should I Read Next?. And that book is The Sentence by Louise Erdrich. And that book is special to me because it's not a book that I probably would have picked up had I not heard about it and heard rave reviews and if I hadn't heard Anne describe it so wonderfully. That was the first book that my book club read in the beginning of 2022 when our book club started. It was the perfect book to discuss as a group, especially after the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. And I'll always have a special place in my heart for The Sentence by Louise Erdrich. So thanks to Modern Mrs Darcy and What Should I Read Next? for all of the bookish love and joy that you guys spread.
[00:20:39] ANNE: Most weeks on the podcast, we talk to readers who don't work in the book trade and will only ever be on one podcast in their life, and that is What Should I Read Next?. Over the years, our listeners have come to call these guests our regular readers, which we say with great affection. But from time to time, we do feature authors on the podcast. Sometimes these authors come to the show as readers, not so much as writers, but sometimes we do talk explicitly about their work and their writing process. We love hearing about books and authors you've discovered as a result of episodes like these.
BARB: Hello, this is an avid podcast listener. My name is Barb. I listened to Episode 392 about memoir, where the author R. Eric Thomas was interviewed, and I had never heard of him or his books, and I did read, based on that recommendation, his memoir, Congratulations, The Best Is Over!. I waited and waited for it to come on Libby, and it finally did, and I absolutely adored it. His voice is so fun, and his content is so real and deep and pure and joyful all the same time. So I loved that book, and now I will look at other books he's written, because I really enjoyed that memoir from him. and I would not have heard of him other than the podcast. So thank you for that, and thank you for all you do for this reading community. It's really special.
[00:22:13] ANNE: We conduct more author interviews over on our Book Club community, where we have them almost monthly. In fact, to give you a taste of what those Book Club author chats are like, we very occasionally air those conversations in full on What Should I Read Next?. Next, you'll hear Julie's voicemail that references one of those episodes.
JULIE: Good morning, Anne. I am Julie Farber. I live in Wichita, Kansas. I learned about The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb on your podcast, and it's wonderful. The things that won me over were his wonderful bass voice and his very humanness and sense of humor. I read it, I loved it. I took it to a book club at our neighborhood, they all loved it. It's a marvelous book. Thank you so much.
ANNE: You can hear that whole conversation with Brendan Slocumb in Episode 366. It's called "Great books spur great conversations". Next, we have a handful of voicemails from listeners sharing favorite titles they've gotten through the show. The common theme here is we've hosted all these authors in Book Club, and some of those conversations have also aired on the podcast. Authors like Julie Berry, Aja Gabel, Peter Heller, and Sara Novic.
[00:23:27] MARY: Hi, my name is Mary, and I'm from St. Louis. One of my favorite books that I read and I discovered through the podcast over the years was actually from Episode 205 with Addie Yoder. And it was Lovely War by Julie Berry. I also re-listened to Episode 489 recently with Julie herself, and I got to hear more about it from her perspective. I love this because of the Greek ties, the historical fiction notes, and also the romance. I just gobbled it up. And it has been one of my favorite books ever recommended by the podcast. I've been a very lifelong listener, so I really enjoyed this book, and I recommend it to almost anyone who is a big fan of Greek mythology and historical fiction. I'm a big fan of this podcast and always have been. Happy 10-year anniversary. Thank you.
[00:24:21] HOLLY: My name is Holly, and I'm calling from Boston. One of my favorite titles that I have gotten from the podcast is The Ensemble by Aja Gabel. This is a title that Anne recommended to Grace in Episode 405: Books that pair with pumpkin spice, and I really enjoyed listening to this episode as I am a classical cellist and went through music school and currently freelance as a professional musician. I also got my husband to read that book because he is also a musician, and we had a really great conversation. I really have so much gratitude, and I just thank Anne and the team so much for all of the wonderful books that I've gotten from this podcast and look forward to many more. Happy reading.
[00:25:20] JULIE: My name is Julie, and I live in Florida. I went through my tracker, and I had quite a few number of choices, but I'm going to go with Celine by Peter Heller, which was recommended March 31st, 2021. And here is what I wrote about it. "I absolutely love this book. The writing is so perfect. The characters and their relationships are all totally believable and fascinating. This is one of those books that you want to see where the story is going, but at the same time, you don't want it to end, and when it does end, you want to read it all over again. I have tons of Turn Down Pages for beautiful writing, story turns. I'm going to come back and read this again to really appreciate it.
LINDSAY: Hi, Anne. This is Lindsay from San Diego. The book that I'm happy I found through Modern Mrs Darcy is True Biz by Sara Novic. I think I first saw this on the blog, but it was also recently mentioned in Episode 501. There are two reasons why I love this book. The first is that I am blind, and it makes me really happy to see positive, accurate representation of disability appear in fiction. The other reason that I love it is I am a school-based speech-language pathologist. I do sometimes have students who are deaf or hard of hearing on my caseload, and I really enjoyed seeing the three different experiences of the deaf community represented in the book. Thanks, and happy 10th anniversary.
[00:27:00] ANNE: Thank you all for sharing about the great books you found. One of the main reasons we can make this show each week is because of the financial support of our What Should I Read Next? Patreon community. They make it possible for us to keep producing this podcast and keep having the bookish conversations you tune into every Tuesday, or, you know, whenever your listening suits you. We show our appreciation to our Patreon community members by creating bonus episodes that we share every Friday, and by inviting our patrons to join us for premiere events every year, like our Summer Reading Guide unboxing. And by the way, the 15th annual Summer Reading Guide is coming this May. Thank you so much to all our Patreon members. We appreciate you.
AUDREY: Hello, Modern Mrs Darcy. This is Audrey calling from McLean, Virginia. I am a long-time fantasy and sci-fi reader, and I dream daily about expanding my reading repertoire. And while I have read some books outside that sort of narrow genre focus, per the recommendations from your show, I have to say one of the most impactful episodes I listen to are the ones where you recommend to other people fantasy and sci-fi books, especially the ones, ironically, that I have already read.
[00:28:16] And, of course, the recent episode with the guide to sci-fi and fantasy for new readers I found particularly rewarding. It just felt so validating to hear you all talk about books that I have loved, books that mean so much to me, but that frequently don't necessarily get covered in sort of more broad-ranging book podcasts without getting into sort of the narrow focus of podcasts that cover just sci-fi and fantasy. So, thank you very much for that episode and for all the times that you recommend folks who have maybe... minority is the wrong word, but more narrowly focused genre preferences that still come up in your show. Thank you for seeing us. We're here. We feel seen. And we welcome any new readers that pick up those genre choices and really enjoy them. Thanks so much, guys. Love the podcast and everything you do for us readers.
ANNE: Audrey, we are glad you feel seen. We talked about so many good books in that episode from authors like Octavia Butler, Frank Herbert, Andy Weir, Mary Robinette Kowal, P. Djèlí Clark, Nnedi Okorafor, Blake Crouch, Seanan McGuire, and many, many more.
[00:29:28] Readers, that's it for our listener voicemails. I've already said this, but repeating for emphasis, we would love to play each and every one of your voicemails. But since we're not having a four-hour episode today, we wanted to at least mention some more of the titles you told me about. The Snow Child, A Gentleman in Moscow, The One-in-a-Million Boy, Plainsong, The Feather Thief, Maya & Natasha, James, Crow Lake. Okay, I'm really going to stop now. Once more, to all of you who wrote and called and told us about your What Should I Read Next? experience, a sincere thank you from me and our whole team.
Readers, I hope you enjoyed hearing from our listeners today as much as I did and our whole team did. We want to know about the titles you discovered through our show. Please let us know by leaving a comment on our show notes page. That's at WhatShouldIReadNextPodcast.com. That is also where we list each and every week all the titles we talk about in our episode for easy reference.
[00:30:29] Follow us on Instagram at @WhatShouldIReadNext. We love it when you tag us and share us and tell us your stories about the books you on through our show.
Sign up for our email list at whatshouldireadnextpodcast.com/newsletter so you can stay in the loop about what's happening around here: our weekly episodes, opportunities to share your voice and stories like today's listeners did, and upcoming special events.
Thanks to the people who make the show happen each week. What Should I Read Next? is created by Will Bogel, Holly Wielkoszewski, Leigh Kramer, Brigid Misselhorn, Shannan Malone, and our whole team at What Should I Read Next? and Modern Mrs Darcy HQ. Plus the audio whizzes at 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.
English (US) · 