Anne's challenge today is to share recommendations for books with unique and artful structures. Today's guest is a Chicago-based mood reader with a contagious love of books. When Anna Morton isn't working or volunteering for the Art Institute of Chicago, she's reading “compulsively readable literary fiction,” a term Anne fondly coined for books with the perfect combination of page-turning plot and stunning prose. Reading is also a family affair for Anna, who proudly plays the role of “literary c...
Dec 22, 2020•44 min•Ep. 264
Today’s guest also loves giving recommendations—to her boss, to her mom, and to strangers standing in the book aisle at Target. For Jenica Salazar, nothing is more satisfying than recommending the right book to the right reader. But today, she’s here for a little bit of literary therapy for herself. Anne chats with Jenica about a common bookworm problem: the guilt of giving up on a book that’s just not keeping your attention. They're also working out reading routines and making Jenica's reading ...
Dec 15, 2020•46 min•Ep. 263
Today’s guest tells a familiar story: he loved reading as a kid, but as an adult without a Scholastic book fair to look forward to, he fell into the habit of rereading or staying in his “safe zone” of sci-fi and fantasy. Geologist Max Lemoine needed just the right book to pull him out of his reading rut. He’s eager to uncover more titles that are outside of his reading comfort zone, so today Anne is recommending books with depth that also offer distraction from everyday life and books with immer...
Dec 08, 2020•46 min•Ep. 262
Readers have asked us for “comfort reads” over and over again this year — and it's totally understandable. “Comfort read” means something different to every reader, but if you’re looking for books that slow your heart rate, soothe your soul, and make you want to travel to a quiet English village, this episode is for you. Today’s guest Gina House appreciates cozy, comforting reads that feel like a warm hug. She adores cozy mysteries like Agatha Christie novels, but she could do without the murder...
Dec 01, 2020•51 min•Ep. 261
Sara Jones takes her role as “neighborhood library curator” seriously. In addition to selecting books for her own reading life, Sara Jones carefully curates her Little Free Library collection to reflect the reading tastes and needs of her community. She likes to feature a healthy mix of books for kids and adults, and she’s always on the lookout for fiction that her neighbors will find irresistible as they’re walking by. Today, Anne helps Sara stock her Little Free Library with crowd-pleasing boo...
Nov 24, 2020•54 min•Ep. 260
The sci-fi genre feels like home, but Emily Van Ark also enjoys books in any genre that deliver on a fabulous premise. In her day job as a data scientist, Emily nalyzes data in order to find patterns and make recommendations for improving people’s lives... and Anne's job this week is to do some helpful data analysis for her reading life (with less math and more conversation). Emily also shared a bunch of sci-fi recommendations to expand Anne's reading horizons. Visit the podcast website at whats...
Nov 17, 2020•54 min•Ep. 259
Reading for pure escapism means something different for every reader. Some of us turn to puzzle-like mysteries, some of us immerse ourselves in fantastical worlds. Today’s guest stays away from doom scrolling by reading lots and lots and lots of romance. “Recovering English major” Jenna Lowenstein still enjoys the occasional literary fiction read, but these days she’s picking up the books she wants to read instead of forcing the books she feels like she should read. From spicy romance novels to ...
Nov 10, 2020•53 min•Ep. 258
Our annual holiday recommendations episode is here! A few weeks ago, you called us with your bookish gift buying questions and dilemmas, and today Anne is answering those questions alongside Beth Buss, the general bookstore manager at Bookmarks, a literary arts nonprofit in downtown Winston-Salem North Carolina. Beth and Anne will help you find just the right gifts for their loved ones of all ages and reading tastes, from classic kid lit to science fiction… and everything in between. Visit the p...
Nov 03, 2020•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 257
Reader Cliff Cullen was in the middle of his best reading year ever when...the pandemic hit. His one-time favorite reading habits, like listening to audiobooks during his commute, have had to change—but his voracious appetite for books remains the same. Today, Anne recommends books in a wide variety of genres to suit Cliff’s eclectic reading taste and push the boundaries of his typical book selections. Also discussed: “themed” reading based on seasons or settings, reading your cookbooks, and the...
Oct 27, 2020•51 min•Ep. 256
Valencia Taylor is self-proclaimed book-pusher looking for reads that fall on the line between just-spooky-enough and way-too-scary, compelling stories that teach her something new about the world, and a way to keep track of her reading life. Of course, as a fellow book-pusher, Anne has plenty of recommendations and practical tips to share... Visit the podcast website at whatshouldireadnextpodcast.com/255 to see the full list of titles we discussed, an episode transcript, and more. You can follo...
Oct 20, 2020•57 min•Ep. 255
Anne is joined by Sarah Stewart Holland & Beth Silvers of Pantsuit Politics podcast to discuss fiction and nonfiction recommendations that have shaped their understanding of politics, history, and what it means to be a human in this world. They're each sharing "political" books they personally love and often recommend, because they are fascinating, thought-provoking, and sometimes surprisingly page-turning. Visit the podcast website at whatshouldireadnextpodcast.com/254 to see the full list of t...
Oct 13, 2020•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 254
Hey readers! Get your TBRs ready, because today’s episode contains a TON of book titles for a wide array of reading tastes, from a few voices which might sound familiar if you’ve been a long-time WSIRN listener. A few weeks ago, we asked the Modern Mrs Darcy and What Should I Read Next team to share their own summer reading recaps for a special Patreon bonus episode. Today, as we honor the change of the seasons (or perhaps cling fiercely to our page-turning beach reads), we’re sharing the full a...
Sep 29, 2020•46 min•Ep. 253
Today's guest wants surprising books with unique story structures, new information, and plot twists that will make her say, “what did I just read?” Shelly Akins is a proud Arizonian who is always reading. And when she isn’t reading, she loves attending the Tuscon Festival of Books, a huge literary festival where both book talk and fangirling are welcomed. We eagerly await the day we can gather for book festivals again, but in the meantime, Shelly finds community in her Book Challenge Group, whic...
Sep 22, 2020•41 min•Ep. 252
Today’s guest is a self-proclaimed “book glutton” who reads in between everyday moments at home, at work, and even while she’s walking. Grettel Castro is a biostatistician living in Miami, Florida. She emigrated to the United States from Cuba at the age of 14, but her voracious appetite for reading started much earlier. Readers, I’m sure many of you will relate to Grettel’s story of falling in love with books as a young reader, as well as her current mixed feelings on big literary award-winning ...
Sep 15, 2020•49 min•Ep. 251
Today’s guest has a story that sounds like the beginning of a juicy historical fiction novel. As a teenager, Liz Maguire came across a batch of 1920s love letters at a flea market. This launched an obsession with collecting vintage letters and preserving people’s personal correspondence as a piece of history. Of course, this project has had a marked affect on her reading life, so Liz has come to Anne looking for books that measure up to the detailed, intimate depictions of the real stories found...
Sep 08, 2020•49 min•Ep. 250
An encounter with The Baby-Sitters Club #4 Mary Anne Saves the Day launched today's guest into a lifelong love of reading AND a special fondness for middle grade novels. Afoma Umesi is a freelance writer, editor, and children’s book blogger living in Nigeria. Anne has her work cut out for her to recommend middle grade books Afoma hasn’t read yet, plus selecting an adult title to suit her taste. Visit the podcast website at whatshouldireadnextpodcast.com/249 to see the full list of titles we disc...
Sep 01, 2020•55 min•Ep. 249
Today I’m talking with Jennifer Cordeiro, who lives in Bermuda, a small island with two bookstores and one library. Jennifer has encountered her fair share of #bookwormproblems, both in her own reading life and in her job at her small island bookstore where hurricanes, tourism, shipping dilemmas, and special orders mean you never know which books you’ll see on the shelves. Jennifer's personal bookshelves are currently overstuffed with more than ONE THOUSAND unread titles, and today my job is to ...
Aug 25, 2020•48 min•Ep. 248
Today's episode is all about the joy of reading in relationships. Our guests Emma Gorin and Dinah Fay have been friends since 9th grade—that’s over 20 years. They haven’t always kept in touch as much as they'd like to, but books have always given them an easy way to reconnect. Emma and Dinah put in their submission to be on WSIRN with the explicit goal of connecting over a great read that they’ll both enjoy—which is a bit of a challenge because while they both love to read, their reading tastes ...
Aug 18, 2020•1 hr•Ep. 247
On today's episode Anne helps Courtney Wallace, a Cincinnati reader, with a reading practice we hear surprisingly little about—her recent mid-year checkup on her reading goals. Lots of people talk about goals for the reading life—both numerical and content goals—at the start of every year. And we all see plenty of year-in-review summaries from readers. But when Courtney's guest submission mentioned her mid-year assessment we realized how rarely we stop to take stock of how our reading life has b...
Aug 11, 2020•59 min•Ep. 246
Over the years, Anne has been called many thing–podcaster, author, and now... Book Yoda, a name bestowed upon her by today's guest and Lazy Genius blogger Kendra Adachie. You remember Kendra from all the way back in Episode 27: Books good enough to make you turn off the tv (even if you love tv), over FOUR years ago. Her reading life has changed a lot since then, in no small part because of her first visit to WSIRN. That first visit did wonders for her reading life and gave her new insight into w...
Aug 04, 2020•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 245
Today's guest is looking for brain candy. That’s Elizabeth Cooper's delightful term for books that are FUN, with a killer premise, pages that practically turn themselves, and totally satisfying endings. Elizabeth’s past as a reader holds some surprising twists and turns itself — including a plot twist you're probably not expecting. Plus her method for choosing what to read next, is definitely a What Should I Read Next first. And of course Anne recommends three books that hopefully provide that b...
Jul 28, 2020•47 min•Ep. 244
Charlandra Jenkins is a Florida reader on the hunt for stories that reflect her life, love, grief, and humanity back to her. For Charlandra, new book releases and recent bestsellers by Black authors are a joy, but she’s also yearning for some history… backlist titles by women of color that say “hey! we’ve always been here, we’ve always existed”. Today, Anne recommend 3 backlist titles suited to Charlandra’s taste for complex, fully-realized female characters finding their way through life, and f...
Jul 21, 2020•50 min•Ep. 243
Anne is joined by Suzanne Skyvara, Goodreads VP of Marketing & Editorial, and Danny Feekes, Goodreads Managing Editor, to have an in-depth chat about how star ratings, reviews, and other nuggets of information we share online help connect our fellow readers to their next great read, support the authors we love, and change the way we see the world. Anne, Suzanne, and Danny went so overboard with book recommendations that we had to cut 5 or 6 books to keep this episode a manageable length! We’re r...
Jul 14, 2020•58 min•Ep. 242
Raelene Bradley has let books be her guide as she and her husband fulfill their longtime dream of living off the land with a family farm. Raelene’s stories of reading in the fields with her horse as a child, and audiobooks to accompany milking time are stuff of readerly dreams. Today, Anne and Raelene chat about the surprising disappointments from Raelene’s biggest reading year ever, and I’m helping her on her journey away from quantity and toward quality, by recommending she read a touching mem...
Jun 30, 2020•59 min•Ep. 241
Reader and author KJ Dell’Antonia picked up a lot of the wrong books during a difficult time in her life, and those experiences changed her perspective on a hotly debated literary topic: trigger warnings. She talks with Anne about that shift, moving beyond bedtime reading, covert audiobook operations, and how mystery novels could save your local bookstore... Content warning — in this episode, KJ and Anne talk about cancer, specifically breast cancer. It’s not the whole episode, and the conversat...
Jun 23, 2020•45 min•Ep. 240
Chris Abi Zeid is counting down the days before a big life event that will significantly alter his reading life. But for a few more weeks he still has precious reading hours. All he needs is his next read–and listeners, he has one huge requirement. He needs a book with a big, beefy, juicy plot. Complicated characters are great, but they need to go somewhere and do something for Chris to be satisfied. Anne's challenge today is finding the three perfect titles that will carry Chris toward his next...
Jun 16, 2020•35 min•Ep. 239
Today’s guest Lamar Giles credits his love of reading to his mom who was always willing to buy him a book. Today Anne and Lamar chat about children’s books, horror novelist Stephen King, great novels where the setting is a character in its own right, and the importance of mirrors on the bookshelf. This episode was recorded and aired last year as Episode 186: Finding the book that feels like it was written just for you. This is the perfect listen for early summer, when you might have young reader...
Jun 09, 2020•48 min•Ep. 238
Elyssa Gould is an academic librarian and “recovering English major”, whose goal is to get caught up on her own backlist while she’s separated from her natural habitat, the library. Today, Anne shuffles around Elyssa’s 100 or so unread books into a few smaller stacks, for a DIY literature "curriculum" that should keep her busy at home for as long as necessary. Click over to the podcast website for the transcript and full list of books mentioned in this episode: http://whatshouldireadnextpodcast....
Jun 02, 2020•47 min•Ep. 237
It’s a weird time to be in the market for a new book. When it’s safer to stay home, and many libraries and bookstores have temporarily shut their doors to the public, what’s a reader to do… but turn to their home bookshelves! Your TBR shelf's time has COME! Today Annd chats with Karla Osorno, a WSIRN listener whose 600+ precious unread books have been weighing her reading life down. Not only is Karla searching for her next read in these stacks, but she wants to lighten the mental load by elimina...
May 26, 2020•50 min•Ep. 236
Today we continue our celebration of Summer reading with Zibby Owens, host of the podcast Moms Don’t Have Time To Read Books. Anne and Zibby are chatting about what they’re excited to read this Summer, whether those books are brand new or quite old. Get ready for a slew of summer-ready non-fiction recommendations for your TBR. Click over to the podcast website for the transcript and full list of books mentioned in this episode: http://whatshouldireadnextpodcast.com/235 You can visit Zibby at Zib...
May 19, 2020•4 min•Ep. 235
