Well-Read

It’s back…..our occasional episode where we pick books for each other from our massive “to be read” shelves! Listen to what we liked – and what we didn’t! – and find out what we’re reading this week.

Books and other media mentioned in this episode:

Ann’s picks:

• The Maid by Nita Prose (buy from Bookshop)
  – Good Morning America Book Club
  – The Maid (film)
  – Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman (buy from Bookshop)
  – Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus (buy from Bookshop)
  – Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin (buy from Bookshop)
  – Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt (buy from Bookshop)
  – Goodreads Choice Awards
  – Book of the Month Club
  – The Verifiers by Jane Pek (buy from Bookshop)
• The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden (buy from Bookshop)
  – The Winternight Trilogy by Katherine Arden
• Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid (buy from Bookshop)

Halle’s picks:

• The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy by Megan Bannen (buy from Bookshop)
  – You’ve Got Mail (film)
• The Last Chance Library by Freya Sampson (buy from Bookshop)
  – The Lost Ticket by Freya Sampson (buy from Bookshop)
• Yerba Buena by Nina LaCour (buy from Bookshop)

What We’re Reading This Week:

• Ann: Kiss Her Once for Me by Alison Cochrun (buy from Bookshop)
  – The Charm Offensive by Alison Cochrun (buy from Bookshop)
• Halle: The Museum of Ordinary People by Mike Gayle (buy from Bookshop)

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With Valentine’s Day around the corner, we have some ideas for romance novels, even if you’re not a romance reader. As always, we’ll end with what we’re reading this week.

Books and other media mentioned in this episode:

James Patterson books
Elin Hilderbrand books
Danielle Steel books
Colleen Hoover books
David Mitchell books

Ann’s picks:

• People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry (buy from Bookshop)
  – Emily Henry books
  – Book Lovers by Emily Henry (buy from Bookshop)
  – ALA RUSA CODES The Reading List – the committee we reference all the time
  – Beth O’Leary books
• The Bodyguard by Katherine Center (buy from Bookshop)
  – Victoria Christopher Murray books
  – Tracie Peterson books
  – Shelley Shephard Gray books
  – A Holly Jolly Diwali by Sonya Lalli (buy from Bookshop)
• Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake by Sarah MacLean (buy from Bookshop)
  – Love By Numbers series by Sarah MacLean

Halle’s picks:

• The Duchess Deal by Tessa Dare (buy from Bookshop)
  – Bridgerton (TV)
  – Bridgertons series by Julia Quinn
  – Beauty and the Beast
  – Eloisa James books
  – Pop Culture Happy Hour (podcast)
  – The Duke and I by Julia Quinn (buy from Bookshop)
  – Whitney, My Love by Judith McNaught (buy from Bookshop)
• Part of Your World by Abby Jimenez (buy from Bookshop)
  – Abby Jimenez books
  – The Friend Zone by Abby Jimenez (buy from Bookshop)
• Ayesha at Last by Uzma Jalaluddin (buy from Bookshop)
  – Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (buy from Bookshop)
  – Unmarriageable by Soniah Kamal (buy from Bookshop)

What We’re Reading This Week:

• Ann: The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley (buy from Bookshop)
  – The Guest List by Lucy Foley (buy from Bookshop)
  – Rear Window (film)
• Halle: Delilah Green Doesn’t Care by Ashley Herring Blake (buy from Bookshop)
  – Bright Falls series by Ashley Herring Blake

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Okay, this is actually our favorite episode of the year: our annual superlatives!

Books and other media mentioned in this episode:

RUSA Reading List
Halle’s Instagram
Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead
Women’s Prize for Fiction
Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett

Most Timely
Ann:  Babel, Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution by R.F. Kuang, Portrait of a Thief by Grace D. Li
Halle: Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng, pandemic books: Wish You Were Here by Jodi Picoult, Lucy by the Sea by Elizabeth Strout

Most Disappointing
Ann: The Hacienda by Isabel Cañas
Halle: Thank You for Listening by Julia Whelan, The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd
– My Oxford Year by Julia Whelan

Favorite Reread
Ann: Dumb Witness by Agatha Christie
– Poirot (TV)
Halle: Broken Harbor by Tana French
– Bridgerton (TV)
– In the Woods by Tana French

Biggest Surprise
Ann: Spear by Nicola Griffith, Two Storm Wood by Philip Gray
Halle: Hester by Laurie Lico Albanese, Marrying the Ketchups by Jennifer Close 
– The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Least Favorite
Ann: The Boys by Katie Hafner, You Made a Fool of Death With Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi
– Am I The Asshole on Reddit
Halle: Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka

Best Distraction
Ann: Love in the Time of Serial Killers by Alicia Thompson 
Halle: The Wedding Season by Katy Birchall

The Book That Ended a Mini Reading Slump
Ann: I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys
– Nicolae Ceaușescu’s Last Speech (YouTube)
Halle: Sophie Go’s Lonely Hearts Club by Roselle Lim

Most Unputdownable
Ann: WAKE by Shelley Burr; The It Girl by Ruth Ware
Halle: Carrie Soto Is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid; The Golden Couple by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen

Better Late Than Never
Ann: White Oleander by Janet Fitch, If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin
– If Beale Street Could Talk (film)
Halle: Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

Book That Has Stayed With Me
Ann: Love & Saffron by Kim Fay, Just Like Home by Sarah Gailey
Halle: The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan

Book That We Didn’t Think We’d Like, But Then We Did!
Ann: In the Shadow of Lightning by Brian McClellan, Stories to Tell by Richard Marx
– Richard Marx on YouTube
Halle: The Witch’s Heart by Genevieve Gornichec

Author(s) we discovered in 2022 that we’re most excited to read more from in 2023
Ann: Alex Jennings, R. F. Kuang, Gillian McAllister, Emiko Jean
– The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang
– Yellowface by R.F. Kuang
– Wrong Place, Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister
– Mika in Real Life by Emiko Jean
Halle: Annabel Monaghan, Roselle Lim, Sabaa Tahir

Book we wish more people knew about
Ann: The Good Wife of Bath by Karen Brooks, Leech by Hiron Ennes
– The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
Halle: This is Not a Book About Benedict Cumberbatch by Tabitha Carvan

Our best audiobook experience and/or the book that was BETTER as an audiobook
Ann: A Promised Land by Barack Obama, Spear by Nicola Griffith
– Audie Awards
Halle: Dinosaurs by Lydia Millet, The Unsinkable Greta James by Jennifer E. Smith, Funny You Should Ask by Elissa Sussman

Our Favorite Non-Book Media Property of the Year
Ann: Cobra Kai (TV); Dickinson (TV); The Jackie Daytona episode of What We Do In the Shadows (TV); Everything Everywhere All At Once (film); Barbarian (film); Greta Thunberg owning Andrew Tate on Twitter; phone games: Wordle, NYT Crossword, Redactle
Halle: The White Lotus: Season 2 (TV), Julia (TV), Junior Bake Off (TV), Midnights by Taylor Swift (album)

The Book We Recommended the Most This Year
Ann: The Ballad of Perilous Graves by Alex Jennings, The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill
Halle: Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus, Mary Jane by Jessica Anya Blau
– Taylor Jenkins Reid books

What We’re Reading This Week:

• Ann: The Boys from Biloxi by John Grisham
  – A Time to Kill by John Grisham
  – The Pelican Brief by John Grisham
• Halle: Dirt Creek by Hayley Scrivener
  – Jane Harper books

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Our favorite episode of the year, full of our favorite books of the year. Happy New Year from your friends at Well-Read!

Books and other media mentioned in this episode:

Ann’s picks:

• The Ballad of Perilous Graves by Alex Jennings (buy from Bookshop)
  - N.K. Jemisen books
  - Marlon James books
• Babel, Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution by R.F. Kuang (buy from Bookshop)
• Book Lovers by Emily Henry (buy from Bookshop)
• The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill (buy from Bookshop)
  - Anthony Horowitz books
• Mika in Real Life by Emiko Jean (buy from Bookshop)
• Love in the Time of Serial Killers by Alicia Thompson (buy from Bookshop)
• Small Angels by Lauren Owen (buy from Bookshop)
• The It Girl by Ruth Ware (buy from Bookshop)
  - Wrong Place Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister (buy from Bookshop)
• The Marlow Murder Club by Robert Thorogood (buy from Bookshop)
• Deep Water by Patricia Highsmith (buy from Bookshop)

Halle’s picks:

• Nora Goes Off Script by Annabel Monahan (buy from Bookshop)
• The Verifiers by Jane Pek (buy from Bookshop)
• Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin (buy from Bookshop)
  - Young Jane Young by Gabrielle Zevin (buy from Bookshop)
  - The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin (buy from Bookshop)
  - Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin (buy from Bookshop)
• We All Want Impossible Things by Catherine Newman (buy from Bookshop)
• Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi (buy from Bookshop)
  - Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi (buy from Bookshop)
• The Crane Wife: A Memoir in Essays by C.J. Hauser (buy from Bookshop)
  - "The Crane Wife" by C.J. Hauser (essay from The Paris Review)
• All My Rage by Sabaa Tahir (buy from Bookshop)
• Carrie Soto Is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid (buy from Bookshop)
• Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus (buy from Bookshop)
  - Julia (TV)
  - The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (TV)
• Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead (buy from Bookshop)
  - The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towels (buy from Bookshop)
  - The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert (buy from Bookshop)

What We’re Reading This Week:

• Ann: Look Closer by David Ellis (buy from Bookshop)
• Halle: Georgie, All Along by Kate Clayborn (buy from Bookshop)

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The holidays are here! We’ve got some books to get you in the festive spirit, and we’ll share what we’re reading this week.

Books and other media mentioned in this episode:

Halle’s Instagram

Ann’s picks:

• The Mistletoe Murder and Other Stories by P.D. James (buy from Bookshop)
  – Adam Dalgliesh series by P.D. James
  – Agatha Christie books
• Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris (buy from Bookshop)
  – “The SantaLand Diaries” by David Sedaris on NPR
• A Holly Jolly Diwali by Sonya Lalli (buy from Bookshop)

Halle’s picks:

• One Last Gift by Emily Stone (buy from Bookshop)
• Holiday Romance by Catherine Walsh (buy from Bookshop)
  – People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry (buy from Bookshop)
• The Holiday Swap by Maggie Knox (buy from Bookshop)
  – The Princess Switch (film)
  – The Holiday (film)
  – The Parent Trap (film)
  – All I Want for Christmas by Maggie Knox (buy from Bookshop)

What We’re Reading This Week:

• Ann: Babel by R.F. Kuang (buy from Bookshop)
  – The Secret History by Donna Tartt (buy from Bookshop)
  – Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke (buy from Bookshop)
  – Charles Dickens books
  – The Poppy War series by R.F. Kuang
• Halle: All the Dangerous Things by Stacy Willingham (buy from Bookshop)

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This week, we’re responding to a listener request to talk about books with characters who live with chronic illnesses. As always, we’ll end with what we’re reading this week.

Books and other media mentioned in this episode:

Ann’s picks:

• Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman (buy at Bookshop)
  – Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason (buy at Bookshop)
  – National Book Award
  – Neal Shusterman books
• The Devil in Silver by Victor LaValle (buy at Bookshop)
• Let’s Call It a Doomsday by Katie Henry (buy at Bookshop)

Halle’s picks:

• Luster by Raven Leilani (buy at Bookshop)
  – Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams (buy at Bookshop)
• Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert (buy at Bookshop)
  – Seven Days in June by Tia Williams (buy at Bookshop)
• Fortune Favors the Dead by Stephen Spotswood (buy at Bookshop)
  – Pentecost and Parker series by Stephen Spotswood

What We’re Reading This Week:

• Ann: Death by Bubble Tea by Jennifer J. Chow (buy at Bookshop)
  – Mimi Lee Gets a Clue by Jennifer J. Chow (buy at Bookshop)
• Halle: Battle Royal by Lucy Parker (buy at Bookshop)
  – The Great British Bake Off (TV)
  – Junior Bake Off (TV)
  – Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake by Alexis Hall (buy at Bookshop)

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Books and other media mentioned in this episode:

Ann’s picks:

•  The Witch and the Tsar by Olesya Salnikova Gilmore (releases September 20) (buy from Bookshop)
  – LibraryReads
•  Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson (releases September 27) (buy from Bookshop)
  – Kate Atkinson books
•  Jackal by Erin E. Adams (releases October 4) (buy from Bookshop)
•  Marmee by Sarah Miller (releases October 4) (buy from Bookshop)
  – Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (buy from Bookshop)
  – Caroline: Little House, Revisited by Sarah Miller (buy from Bookshop)
  – Little House series by Laura Ingalls Wilder
  – Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens (buy from Bookshop)
  – The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (buy from Bookshop)
• The Cloisters by Katy Hayes (releases November 1) (buy from Bookshop)
  – The Secret History by Donna Tartt (buy from Bookshop)
  – Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo (buy from Bookshop)
•  Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo (releases January 10) (buy from Bookshop)
•  Episode Thirteen by Craig DiLouie (releases January 24)
•  Black Candle Women by Diane Marie Brown (releases February 28) (buy from Bookshop)
  – Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman (buy from Bookshop)

Halle’s picks:

•  Hester by Laurie Lico Albanese (releases October 4) (buy from Bookshop)
  – The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne (buy from Bookshop)
•  Lavender House by Lev AC Rosen (releases October 18) (buy from Bookshop)
• The Rewind by Allison Winn Scotch (releases November 1) (buy from Bookshop)
• Gilded Mountain by Kate Manning (releases November 1) (buy from Bookshop)
  – Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead (buy from Bookshop)
• Better than Fiction by Alexa Martin (releases November 8) (buy from Bookshop)
  – Playbook series by Alexa Martin
  – Mom Jeans and Other Mistakes by Alexa Martin (buy from Bookshop)
•  Before I Let Go by Kennedy Ryan (releases November 15) (buy from Bookshop)
  – Seven Days in June by Tia Williams (buy from Bookshop)
• Maame by Jessica George (releases February 7)
  – Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason (buy from Bookshop)
•  I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai (releases February 21) (buy from Bookshop)
  – The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai (buy from Bookshop)
  – The It Girl by Ruth Ware (buy from Bookshop)
  – The Borrower by Rebecca Makkai (buy from Bookshop)

What We’re Reading This Week:

• Ann: This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub (buy from Bookshop)
  – Oona Out of Order by Margarita Montimore (buy from Bookshop)
  – Pomander Walk
• Halle: The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead (buy from Bookshop)
  – The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead (buy from Bookshop)

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