The Potpourri Edition

Some bookish gift suggestions and a bunch of links to dig into.

November is a month full of cozy reading vibes; it gets colder and darker, and I am getting ready for the holiday season. My pumpkins are put away and along with that the desire to read a ghost story. Now is the time to sink into some books with strong emotional resonance. What is your reading mood around this time of year?

This is a good time to take stock of your reading life and think about what titles you hope to fit in by the end of the year. Maybe you don’t have a multi-year spreadsheet like me where I keep all sorts of bookish statistics, but I bet you have some books on your nightstand or in your kindle you have been wanting to start or finish.

Books to Give This Year

My suggestions include both new releases and backlist titles that I have read and loved this year. Next month I will share my favorite books of the year, but I am pretty sure that the Covenant of Water will probably be on top.

• For your mom, grandma, aunt: The Golden Spoon, Secret Book of Flora Lee, Comfort of Crows

• For nonfiction nerds: The Wager, How to Win at Chess, Hidden Potential

• For guys that like a good story: The Man Who Died, Valley of the Shadows, Going Zero

• For a girlfriend or sister: You Could Make this Place Beautiful, Bright Young Women, Romantic Comedy

• For someone who is having a hard year: Say Yes, The Lives We Actually Have

• For anyone who loves a big beautifully written sweeping novel: The Covennant of Water

Public Service Announcement: Bookshop.org and Libro.fm are great ways to support independent booksellers. They both allocate a generous portion of your purchase to the bookstore you choose. Bookshop.org usually offers free shipping on black Friday weekend. Libro.fm is an audiobook subscription company similar to Audible and has great sales in additon to a montly program.

The St Pancras Christmas Tree 2023

I am pretty freaking excited to see this in a few weeks when I am in London. This year’s Christmas tree at the St Pancras train station pays homage to books. It is made up of a winding staircase and 270 shelves adorned with over 3,800 hand-painted books. Each booth is equipped with speakers that allow you to select a short excerpt from an audiobook. You can choose from a selection of sixteen different audios, featuring authors like Charles Dickens, Beatrix Potter, Zadie Smith, and more. Never have I been so excited to visit a train station in my life.

Bookish Links

• Last year my sister sent me this little booklight. I am surprised how useful it is. Even though I have a bedside lamp, this extra lighting makes reading physical books so much easier at night. It is also great for travel.

• I highly recommend these two podcast episodes:

  • This Planet Money episode, discussing economics in fiction, is amazing. I loved listening to the interviews with three of todays top authors and how they incorporate their interest in economics into their novels.

  • In this book-centered episode of The Sorta-Awesome podcast, the hosts discuss a ton of books related to midlife. We are talking hormones, menopause, restarting life after kids. So much good stuff here with fabulous nonfiction and fiction recommendations. Here are the Show Notes with book titles.

• Bibliolifestlye.com recently did a deep dive into good questions for your next book club discussion. I especially appreciate the 10 general questions that can apply to almost any book. They also have broken out some specific questions for questions for fiction, non-fiction, and classic literature.

Recent Reads (including two for Nonfiction November)

Hidden Potential is a fascinating look at motivation and achieving goals. Grant details what makes people succeed, especially when they don’t seem likely to. He profiles a variety of people, including musicians, athletes, chess players, teachers, and engineers in this book. People that, based on their background, don’t fit the expected model but who succeed and excel in their chosen field. Grant takes this information and weaves it into bite size actionable recommendations. A few takeaways I jotted down were 1) Potential is not about how gifted you are or where you start, it's about how far you travel, 2) We learn better when we're uncomfortable, 3) Children who have access to books and see their parents read perform better across all criteria. I love that Grant provides such a wide range of examples and includes so many interesting stories. This book will make a great gift for almost anyone in your life.

The Wager is a fascinating tale of mutiny, treachery, and survival. This true story chronicles the Royal Navy man-of-war ship (The Wager) that chases after a Spanish Galleon filled with treasure. Yes, it sounds made up, but this government sanctioned form of piracy was real. Set in the 1740’s, this book weaves stories of life on board these huge ships with the details of this specific story. Life as a sailor is miserable. There are rats, lice, rotten food, and scurvy. The ship did not find treasure, nor make it home, but ran aground on the Chilean coast. This section of the book reads like a grown up version of Lord of the Flies. Some of the sailors did return and they arrived with very different stories. Grann, author of Killers of the Flower Moon, again proves he is brilliant at writing a gripping true story that reads like a novel.

I picked up Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers because of its popularity in the bookshop this autumn. This book falls into the humorous mystery category that has become popular. Vera Wong is a widow living alone in San Francisco above her dusty, slightly rundown, usually empty tea shop. Everything changes when Vera comes downstairs one morning to find a dead body. She calls the police, but she also decides to set out to find the killer. She does this by attaching herself to anyone involved in the deceased’s life. This results in the introduction of all sorts of misfits and a possible found family if Vera’s nosiness doesn’t ruin everything. I loved Jesse Sutano’s Dial A for Aunties - a total madcap mystery and am glad to see Sutano is still creating books that are fun and clever. What sets Vera Wong apart is the heartfelt characters who really need each other but don’t really know it yet.

I always like to include at least one backlist novel I enjoyed recently. The City Baker’s Guide to Country Living is a gentle romance set in a cozy town in New England. There is a talented baker down on her luck and starting over. There is a stern inn keeper with a heart of gold. There is a supporting cast of friends and characters at the local watering hole, and of course a quiet yet handsome musician. This all centers around an apple pie contest at the county fair. Food plays a delicious role throughout the story and I found myself wanting to make a batch of scones or muffins when reading this. The PG romance is a cozy read that allows a bit of an escape from the crazy world. This is not my usual genre but I did enjoy it and it could be a great option for curling up next to a fire this winter. [November 2017, Pages 352]