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.

Readers, at this point of the year we know that we have also done a lot of helping you choose your next gifts. And if you are in need of a last-minute gift for a reader in your life, we would like to suggest a book club gift membership for our Modern Mrs. Darcy Book Club community. This gift works great at the last minute because it's digital. All you need to do is print something out and give it to the reader in your life. But it's also a really thoughtful gift. Both those things can be true.

With a 3, 6, or 12-month gift membership, you are giving a reader in your life the gift of books and thoughtful engagement with them for 3, 6, or 12 months. You're giving them the gift of reading for as long as you choose.

[00:01:11] And they get access to some really good stuff, like our upcoming Team Best Books events, Spring Book Preview, author talks, Summer Reading Guide is not that far away in May. There is lots of good stuff happening in book club all the time. Check out the options and get yours at modernmrsdarcy.com/shop. That's modernmrsdarcy.com/shop.

Readers, today is a special treat to invite Iowa-based reader, Kim Hewlett, onto the show. You may recognize Kim's last name because in September 2022, I spoke with Kim's daughter Noah in Episode 347. That's called A Reader's Guide to Tricky Transitions.

Today I'm chatting with Kim about her reading life and specifically about her 2024 reading project. Kim wants to bring more seasonality into her reading. Her family's relocation to Iowa a few years back has given her a new appreciation for how the right books help her embrace the cold Midwest winters.

She's discovered that if she's going to read a book set in the dead of winter, she wants to read it in the dead of winter. And if she's going to read a book that takes place during hot summer days by the lake, she'd like to read it during the hot summer days, and preferably as you'll hear, by the lake.

[00:02:21] Kim wants to explore what it could look like to spend a whole year really leaning into this particular idea of right book right time. Here at What Should I Read Next? HQ Kim's request for books suited to each season really resonated with us and echoed something we've heard repeatedly from our listeners lately.

We thought this could be really helpful for many of you. So instead of recommending three books to Kim's taste, we are loading her and you up with book racks that take place during specific seasons and key moments, milestones, and holidays throughout the year.

We hope today's roundup of a whole year's worth of reading recommendations will tide you over for an extra week. This is our last episode of 2023. We are taking the final week of the year off so our team can get some rest and do their own holiday reading. We'll be back on January 2nd. But for right now, let's get to it.

Kim, welcome to the show.

KIM HEWLETT: Hi, Anne, thanks for having me.

ANNE: Oh, it's my pleasure. Now, before we hit record, we are catching up a little bit about your family and your daughter, Noa, because she's been on in Episode 347: A Reader's Guide to Tricky Transitions. It was really fun to get your submission in our What Should I Read Next? inbox. So thanks for reaching out and for doing this.

[00:03:35] KIM: I have to admit that I was so jealous of Noa. I was like, "You don't understand the privilege you get. You get to talk to Anne for an hour." And she's like, "Mom, I don't even know who Anne is."

ANNE: Fair, Noa. That's fair.

KIM: So she did it for me, you know, as a gift to her mom, but she ended up having such a good time and really it got a lot of great book recommendations, as I knew she would. And was excited when I had a project that I knew you could help me with.

ANNE: Oh, I'm so excited. I can't wait to hear about that today. We thought that was a wonderful thing to highlight for our listeners as well as, of course, load up your TBR rolling into 2024 and I'm really excited to get into it.

Kim, your request seemed really timely because it's really interesting to see our submissions come in here and see what readers are looking for, and requests along the lines of your project have just really skyrocketed in recent years. So we thought it'd be really helpful to have an episode like this. So thank you. But first, tell our listeners a little bit about yourself. Where are you? What do you do when you're not reading?

[00:04:47] KIM: Let's see. I am a mom and a wife and a reader. I have credentials in all sorts of baby and birth-related things. So doula and lactation and sleep, and most recently have made a shift to going back to school. So I'm 38 years old and back in college classes with kids that were born after September 11th, 2001, which is just insane to me. Those are my peers now in school. So kind of a big transition.

But my hope is at the end of all of this to get my IBCLC certification as a lactation consultant that can work in the hospitals or private practice with new mothers. So that's kind of my vocational experience.

One big recent transition for my family is a big move. We lived in the Philadelphia region my whole life. That's where I grew up and stole my husband, too, when we got together after college. And then after 15 years together there, he really wanted to relocate back to his roots in Iowa, and I agreed. So that's been a pretty significant transition.

[00:06:09] We moved about two years ago. I kind of feel like the city mouse that's relocated to the country. I'm still in a little shell shock here and there, but I feel like I'm adjusting pretty well and so are all my kids.

I mentioned that I'm a mom. I've got four kids. Noa is my oldest, but then I also have three boys, ages 10 and 8, and 3. We bought a big fixer-upper built in 1902 when we moved. So we are always in a construction zone currently. We always say we're in the year two of our five-year plan because that's pretty much how long it's going to take to get even all of the basic essentials done in our home. I'm married to a pastor, a Lutheran pastor. Does that cover me pretty well?

ANNE: I think that sounds great, even though we didn't get the details on the favorite Philadelphia foods that you dearly miss. I'm just going to let our readers in that region fill in the blanks. They know. They know what you're yearning for.

KIM: No, it's something. It's a thing. It's a real thing. It's a real loss.

ANNE: Now, Kim, tell us a little bit about your reading life. How would you describe that?

[00:07:27] KIM: I've definitely ebbed and flowed as a reader. I was always a reader as a kid. One thing that has always kind of been a theme for me is not knowing what to choose, though. I feel like I never really read the books that most kids were reading growing up.

I read weird, little series books that to this day I've never found other readers of. The Friends Forever series, The Gymnast series, all of these strange little series books that I just ate up as a kid, always related to friendship groups and team sports and things like that.

I was a reader all the way through middle school, high school, college. But again, I just never really knew what to choose when I read. So I sort of relied on English teachers to place books in my hands, and I just kind of read those.

As I got older, became an adult and decided that I wanted to get back into reading, I actually Googled "what should I read next?" and that's how I found your podcasts, Anne.

ANNE: What? I didn't know that.

[00:08:41] KIM: So I became a fan from the beginning. I think the year you started your podcast, I started listening because I started from Episode 1 and was able to quickly work my way through. So I know it wasn't too long after you started the podcast.

At the risk of sounding like a total fangirl, your podcast changed my life in many ways because it truly gave me a little bit of a compass to figure out what I might want to try, what I could read. I found that you and I, Anne, actually have very similar reading styles. The things that you recommend as being really five-star reads for you are often the same for me. So that's been kind of helpful. And also giving me a little compass, like, if Anne says it's okay, it's probably going to be okay for me.

We have a little joke in our house that I call you my best friend, Anne, to my husband, and he knows ultimately that, you know, Anne and I have actually never met, but we would to be best friends if we had met, you know.

[00:09:43] ANNE: Well, I'm so glad we get to hang out for an hour today with my best friend Kim. It's been a long time coming.

KIM: Yeah, it's like music to my ears hearing you say that.

ANNE: Now, Kim, the reliability goes both ways. Because when you said in your submission that you would describe your reading life as in general being biting off more than you can chew, I really connected with that. So would you tell me a little bit about that aspect and how it might be framing up your more restrained project?

[00:10:13] KIM: Totally. Yeah. I think I add books to my list, my TBR list, way faster than I can actually read them. If I even hear a hint of something that sounds intriguing to me, it goes on the list. So I think because of that, I'm generally that kind of person as well. I love a menu that's got way too much on it because I just think that like all these choices it's so great. But in the end, similar to being at a restaurant... you know, I usually want what my husband ordered instead. You know what I mean?

ANNE: Yes. We call that order envy at my house.

KIM: Yes. And that's kind of what happens with my book sometimes, you know. I end up spending too much time on sort of mediocre books, and I want to get to the four and five-star reads and have the majority of my books be things that I want to recommend to everybody or that I can't stop thinking about.

[00:11:11] I feel like I've gotten into a pretty good reading rhythm the last few years, and I found that the best way for me to both kind of tackle my list, but also really enjoy reading is to have a few books going at once.

I typically have three books going at one time. In the morning before my kids get up, when the sun is rising I'm typically journaling and reading nonfiction. Sometimes that might be something faith-based or self-help, memoir. I love comedy memoirs and just general stories about interesting people, poetry, kind of whatever I'm feeling at that moment.

During the day if I get spare moments to read, then I'm usually working on a more serious toned fiction. And before bedtime, I tend to turn to kind of lighter or fluffier fiction. I don't call something fluffy in a derogatory way. I actually really enjoy things that are fluffier.

What I mean by that is something that can kind of give me a little escape, might have a little romance, might have a little comedy or humor in general. I do have a bit of anxiety, so sometimes a more serious tone fiction before I get to sleep it doesn't always work for me, right?

I feel like the world is so heavy as it is, and being able to fall asleep at night is kind of important to me. So fluffier fiction is like an anti-anxiety medication for me. So I tend to kind of have those three things going at once. That's kind of been the rhythm over the last few years.

ANNE: Okay. We will keep that in mind. Now, Kim, tell us about the project that you're planning for 2024.

[00:13:01] KIM: So I want to focus on, you know, getting to those bigger four and five-star reads, like I said. But really importantly, I really want to start picking up the right books at the right time. Seasonally appropriate reads generally just heighten the experience of the month I'm in or the season I'm in.

Living in Iowa now, winters are so cold and windy. The first year living here, I did not embrace this. I just complained a lot. But now I'm kind of embracing it a little more. I'm kind of finding that with the right cup of tea and some under layers, under my clothes. There's these things called cuddl duds that the Midwesterners know about that I was not privy to, but now I own all the cuddl duds. It's just like this thin layer that you can put under your jeans or under your sweatshirt, and they're just so warm and cozy.

Warm snacks, and then obviously the right books, they make me embrace winter a little bit more here. So I want to start kind of embracing that season along with the others. I even like this with read-alouds with my kids, focusing on the liturgical calendar or the seasonal calendar just really heightens their experience of a book as well.

So that's kind of the project I want to embrace. I'm reading a lot now. You know, I don't expect 50 book recommendations, but I would just love a couple for each season. That would really help me embrace the month or the weather, all of that, the holidays, all of those things that kind of come up in the calendar year.

[00:14:57] ANNE: Well, I think this project sounds so much fun and I'm really excited to get into it. I have to tell you... Kim, you and I have discussed this. Listeners, I really want you to know that this episode is going to be different from many that we do.

I didn't want to listen to your favorites, Kim, and then just recommend three because you're looking for a whole year's worth of books. And I also didn't want to prescribe you books for every season because this is your project. And planning is a lot of the fun in a project like this.

But instead, I worked with our team member, Holly, and we crowdsourced from the Modern Mrs. Darcy Book Club and said, Okay, we want to walk a reader and all our readers through a calendar year of reading. So I'm going to be giving a lot more book recommendations in this episode. We're going to go through the season.

Kim, you and I have talked about what you enjoy. So many of these will be, I think, really good fits for you. Not every one though. What we mostly want to offer is just a smorgasbord of options. And listeners, I really want you to know every week we gather all the books mentioned in the episode and we share them in our show notes for that episode.

[00:16:01] And you can find our whole archive of show notes as well as today's show notes at whatshouldireadnextpodcast.com. And I want you to know that every book we talk about today is listed by season in those show notes. So you don't have to pull over to the side of the road. You're not going to miss it. That would be a resource that is there for you on an ongoing basis.

Kim, you and I have discussed what you have, but would you tell everyone the kind of books that you typically love?

KIM: Yeah. I love character and setting-driven stories probably the most, family stories, love stories. I find myself really drawn to those lost and found love stories. I love sibling relationships, parent relationships, friendships. I love full-circle stories, but I don't feel like the endings need to be neat and tidy. It doesn't always have to have a happy ending.

[00:16:55] But I love a story that kind of catalogs a person's entire life or, you know, a really big transition that comes back to something that happened in childhood or something like that. I love getting lost in small town stories or feeling like I'm getting to know a family enough that I can picture myself at their dinner table. So those are kind of the stories I love the most.

Some friends have told me that these kinds of books are boring, which just breaks my heart. But it's been said to me enough times that I'm okay with saying like, maybe some of the books I like are kind of boring and I'm okay with that, I guess.

ANNE: You know, I happen to see that we got a guest submission this week with a request to perhaps talk about quiet novels and the appeal they hold and perhaps what kind of readers love them, because I know that I am one of those readers. And you know what? If you love these novels, they're not boring to you.

KIM: That's right. That's right. They're not boring to me.

[00:17:59] ANNE: Okay. I'm going to hold that in mind. Kim, we still get to hear about books you love today, but I've asked you to specifically describe books that you love that do convey this strong sense of season that you're looking for in your projects. Are you ready to talk about this?

KIM: Yes.

ANNE: Kim, you know how this works. You're going to tell me three books that you love with that strong setting, strong sense of season, and one that was not a good fit, the kind of book that would not be a good fit for this project either. And then we'll discuss maybe a year's worth of recommendations—you're going to fill in the blanks for your own project—but we're going to span the calendar year with books that you might enjoy reading for your project.

KIM: Sounds great.

ANNE: All right, let's do it. What's the first book you love?

KIM: So the first book... Well, I'm sneaking into here.

ANNE: You're allowed.

[00:18:53] KIM: The first books I loved... Well, I guess where I really did feel that sense of seasonal strength and it really kind of elevated the reading experience for me were two what I would consider to be summer books. Those were by Carley Fortune. She wrote two books, one last summer and one this summer. Every Summer After and Meet Me at the Lake were the names. I just so happened to bring them with me on my vacation to the lake.

ANNE: Well done.

KIM: Yeah. So last summer as we were leading up to our vacation up in kind of the Northwoods area of Wisconsin, I happened to see Every Summer After on a book list and saw that there was a nice, beautiful lake on the cover and just happened to snag it before we went on our trip.

And I have to say that just sitting by the lake reading about the lake sounds a little cliché, but it was kind of magical, you know? I felt like I could really picture the setting, which was in the Canadian wilderness.

[00:20:05] There's a part in Every Summer After where the main character, Percy, does a swim challenge where she swims all the way across the lake. And it actually inspired me to swim across the lake at Lake House.

ANNE: What?

KIM: Yeah. It's just one of those many experiences where reading about her swimming, I was like, "I could do that. I'm kind of looking across the lake." So I asked my brother... he and his family also joined us on this vacation, and he canoed alongside me while I swam across the lake. I'm not a swimmer per se, but I can swim. It just made me want to do something fun and exciting.

So I think, you know, both of those books kind of have everything that I look for in a book, really great settings and characters. There's some good love lost and found elements. Both of those books were really just great reads for me. And being at the lake reading them was even better.

[00:21:12] ANNE: That sounds amazing and gives me a strong sense of what it is they're looking for. Kim, what's the second book you love?

KIM: The second book I love, which I feel like encapsulates kind of a lot of the books that I find myself really loving, is A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith about Frannie and... it covers her whole life really. It's such a classic because it gives such a picture of what life was like in the early 1900s. As she ages and changes, you kind of see snippets both of her personal life but then also the world as a whole as it's changing. It's just really interesting and fascinating.

I was a history major in college. I've always been really interested in what life was like before I got here. I feel like A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is really just kind of reminiscent of books I've always enjoyed. And coming-of-age stories. There's nothing better than reading a coming-of-age story in the fall.

[00:22:20] I feel like the excitement of a new school year starting... I taught for a few years, so I still kind of have that teacher mentality in some ways where I feel like September is kind of a second New Year's and that's when my kids start school as well. So I've just always loved kind of that fresh perspective that comes with September.

I happened to read A Tree Grows in Brooklyn in September right after I had just had a baby. So I just felt like all of these new life, new transition, coming of age moments. It was just a really fitting and beautiful book.

Other books that I love like that, like Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry, The Dearly Beloved by Cara Wall. Those are just books that I love that really just cover large spans of time. And for some reason, those books I really associate with kind of the September month for me. So yeah, that's a really, really great book that I've loved and recommended to lots of people.

[00:23:23] ANNE: Okay. Kim, what is the third book you love?

KIM: The third book I loved was Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk by Kathleen Rooney. You know, I wouldn't say this is one of my all-time favorite books. I can't say that. But I will say that this is one of the books that made me note that a good read at the right time will be a memorable and heightened experience.

I happened to pick this book up in that weird liminal space between Christmas and New Year's Eve when nobody knows what day or time it is, and you know, everyone's sort of on vacation or at least, you know, in my family it's always been kind of that regard. I happened to pick it up and figured out that within the first few pages that the book takes place on New Year's Eve. And I was like, "Oh my gosh, I didn't even plan for this but how coincidental."

[00:24:20] Lillian basically just takes a walk all around New York City where she grew up and lived out her life. She's now an older woman and she's looking back on her experiences. So as she's taking a walk, she's sort of remembering all of these moments in her life and experiences.

It's very inspiring because it takes place on New Year's Eve, and sort of like this turning the page over in a new chapter, and she's telling about all of the chapters of her life. I just loved that experience. I remember journaling for four hours afterwards, like really taking a pause and looking back on the previous year and looking ahead to the next year. And I really loved it for those reasons for sure.

ANNE: Oh, I love when that happens. That sounds just perfectly serendipitous timing. But you didn't plan for it, but really were delighted to discover.

KIM: Yes.

ANNE: Kim Now, tell us about a book that was not right for you.

[00:25:23] KIM: I can't say this book was not right for me because of the plot or anything like that, because I actually didn't end up reading the book. What wasn't right for me was the timing and the season. I picked up Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan in the middle of a heat wave in August.

It was like 103 degrees, and I was sitting on a train in Chicago going to the airport to catch a flight, and I was just drenched with sweat. And I opened the book, and within the first three pages I realized that it takes place in the winter in Ireland. And all I could picture was myself sitting in my living room next to the fireplace under a blanket with a hot cup of tea, and I swear it made me sweat more. And I thought, "Nope, not happening." And I shut the books and picked up something else beachy I think.

[00:26:26] So it was really just the timing that didn't work. And I just kind of made a note to myself, okay, we're coming back to this in the winter.

I had the exact same experience just last week when a hold from the library finally came in, which was Tom Lake from Ann Patchett. It's such a spring book and I realized I'm going to have to wait and read that one in the spring. So these things happen, but I want to stop doing that. I want to stop picking out books in the wrong time.

ANNE: Kim, that's helpful to hear. And while there's nothing wrong with reading a book out of sync with the season it's set in, in fact, many readers love that. It's 103 degrees in Chicago, then let's read a book that feels cold to help us feel cold and remember that colder days will come again, and that can give us hope. But that's not what you want, and that is not the vibe of this project. So those are helpful examples.

Kim, I think you set the backdrop for us. Are you ready to walk through the calendar and see how we can set you up for 2024?

[00:27:33] KIM: Yes, super ready. I'm excited to see what you got. I should note that I already have a New Year's Eve book picked out for this year.

ANNE: Oh, that's amazing. Actually, Kim, I think that would be a really good place to start, on the last day of 2023 and then will roll right into the new year.

KIM: Yeah, absolutely.

ANNE: What's that book?

KIM: Yeah. Ever since I had that New Year's experience, I've been looking for another book like that to kind of usher me into the new year, and I found out that Rules of Civility by Amor Towles. At least the opening of the book takes place on New Year's Eve in Greenwich Village. So that was the book that I had in mind to kind of kick-off... well, I guess end, end this year again in that liminal week. It's one of my favorite weeks of the year to read because I can do so much reading in that weird Christmas to New Year's week.

[00:28:32] So my book this year I plan to do was Rules of Civility. Amor Towles is an author I haven't dove into just yet. So I thought that might be a good one to kind of end my 2023 and potentially carry over into the beginning of the new Year in January. So that's where I plan to kind of end the year here, and I just don't know where to go from there.

ANNE: Well, I do think you've chosen an amazing beginning for yourself. First of all, I think that you are really going to enjoy. Amor Towles Seems like a good fit for you, knowing what your taste is. And also, it is a book that starts on New Year's Eve, 1938, runs for the course of a calendar year, life-changing events for all involved.

The action in the storyline begins in 1938, but I had forgotten between my first read and my second that it actually starts with a character maybe in the 60s at an art exhibit who sees a photograph that prompted her to remember everything that happened in that definitive year of her life, the year that changed everything.

[00:29:38] KIM: That is also a favorite of mine. To go back and forth between perspectives in time, I love that. So that makes me even more excited about that one.

ANNE: I'm glad to hear it. Now for January, you know, we are segueing nicely from a New Year's Eve party to a New Year's day time loop. I don't know if you've read Oona Out of Order by Margarita Montimore?

KIM: No, I've never even heard of that one.

ANNE: Okay, well, the premise of this is really interesting. What if one woman doesn't live her life linearly, but like the title says, completely out of order, one year at a time, but out of sequence? So the book begins actually on the eve of Oona's 19th birthday. Her birthday is January 1st, New Year's Day.

So on her birthday eve and New Year's Eve, she's at a party with the man she loves, she's counting down to both the new year and the new Year in her life. But just as the clock strikes midnight, she passes out, and next thing she knows, she wakes up as a 51-year-old in a place she doesn't recognize, greeted by a stranger who is not surprised that this has just happened.

[00:30:52] And this person hands her a letter explaining the wild ride that's been going on for some time but she feels like she's only just beginning it. It's a really creative story. And like many stories like this do, it manages to say big and interesting things about life with a little bit of a back-to-the-future premise. For story feels, I think this one is akin to like an Eleanor Oliphant. I don't know how you felt about that book.

KIM: Yes, I did love Eleanor Oliphant. I'm actually thinking of the time travel books I've enjoyed as well when you're saying that. Like The Time Traveler's Wife I really loved, Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. I never expected to be a person who liked time travel. I'm not really a sci-fi fantasy kind of person, but I find myself kind of drawn to time travel books. So that actually sounds really interesting and wild for Oona.

ANNE: I think these books can say interesting things about one's perspective on life and relationships, and I think that's a big part of the appeal for me.

KIM: Okay. Yeah, I like that too.

[00:31:58] ANNE: Now, this one doesn't have a defined time, but you are living your best Iowa winter life. I thought maybe we needed a big blizzard book for you. And that could be The Half Moon by Mary Beth Keane.

This takes place over the course of one week, and a big blizzard is one of three crucial events that changes the course of everybody's life. This is a book about relationships - is a devastating, yet I will tell you ultimately hopeful portrait of a marriage that is in crisis.

We meet this couple at midlife, I think a little young for a midlife novel, but at midlife who have really come to a crossroads. He has been a longtime bartender at a local establishment in their small town outlying a bigger city. He's now the owner of a bar. He's in over his head, but he doesn't want to admit it to his wife, who is a really smart, savvy attorney who he knows would tell him he should have known better.

[00:32:57] She is weary from years of infertility treatments and the toll those have taken on their marriage. And in the course of this one week, there is this blizzard and you will feel cold and like you want to be inside reading about it.

There's a missing person and then this big revelation breaks in their town and their relationship that forces them to really reckon with their past and decide whether there's hope for the future. This is for sure a winter book. I think it could appeal to your specific reading tastes as well.

KIM: I love it. It actually does sound great. And I'm shaking my head over here. I just picked that up from the library.

ANNE: What? Really?

KIM: Once again, I've done it again. It's only fall and I picked it up. I'm going to have to return it and get it back out.

ANNE: Yeah, you might want to hold it for another 6 to 8 weeks, depending on how early it starts snowing in Iowa.

KIM: Yeah. But this is what I'm talking about, Anne. I tend to do this all the time. I just pick them up in the wrong seasons. But it's good to know that I'm on the right track because I remember hearing about this book and knowing that it was something that I wanted to read, but clearly I didn't identify the season I should read it in. So thanks for pointing that out for me.

[00:34:07] ANNE: Happy to do it. Now we're going to move on into February. And you know what I didn't say, Kim? So some of the books we're going to talk about are very specifically tied to a date or a month. And other books are just... you know, they feel like summer. They feel like winter. And we're going to talk about both.

We're moving on into February, and often we think of love stories when we think of that month. But we know that love can take a lot of different shapes, and these stories don't necessarily have to be for February. But to lean into the stereotype and a frequent reader request, we're going to go with The No-Show by Beth O'Leary. Is this one you've read now?

KIM: No. I don't know this one yet.

ANNE: So this book has an intriguing premise. On Valentine's Day, one man stands up three different women for breakfast, for lunch, and for dinner. And as the story unfolds, we get to know each woman, her relationship with the man, and we learn more about the man himself. And slowly we figure out what might have happened on what was actually a terrible Valentine's Day.

[00:35:13] I want you to know that I think this book may be slightly more than slightly misbranded. I think it was kind of positioned as a romcom. It is not that. The cover is adorable but makes it look kind of like a caper. It makes it look fluffy. I think this is an intriguing book. It's an easy-to-read book. I wouldn't call this a fluffy bedtime-read kind of book. I think maybe surprisingly touching story of love and forgiveness. And also, really, this is a second-chance love story.

KIM: Thank you for clarifying the bedtime read or not, because I just Googled it as you were talking and it definitely looks like a bedtime round.

ANNE: But it's adorable, right?

KIM: Yes, for sure. But it also sounds like something I would really like to read.

ANNE: I'm glad to hear that. Now, I also have to put in a plug for Elizabeth Strout's Olive, Again. This book takes place in Maine over the course of several seasons. But there is this one passage in the book where she describes the February lights and it is breathtaking. And you might want to read it. You might want to read it in February.

[00:36:26] KIM: Anne, I have that quote in my journal.

ANNE: Oh, do you? Okay. So you're tracking with me?

KIM: Yeah. I've actually loved both of the Olive Kitteridge books. I really, really enjoyed them. I read them both during, I believe, the pandemic time because I remember being kind of holed up in my house and reading them back to back because I really enjoyed them. So definitely on my wavelength for sure. And I have that quote in my journal. So that's funny that you brought that up.

ANNE: I'm glad to hear it. Now, as we move into March, I have a spring selection for you. Maybe March is a little early for this, but we're heading that direction. I'm thinking of Fault Lines by Emily Itami. Is this one you've read?

KIM: It is. Yes, I have read that one. It's a good one.

ANNE: This one is set in the spring in Tokyo and the action unfolds against the backdrop of the blooming cherry blossoms. And listeners, it's a story about an affluent Japanese singer turned housewife who loves her workaholic husband. She loves her two beautiful children, but she is lonely and she is bored.

[00:37:33] And when a handsome, wealthy restaurateur catches her eye and perhaps it's the other way around, she cannot resist. Doesn't really try. I have to tell you you know how the story ends right from the beginning. She tells you what happens. She tells you how it ends.

She is Mizuki who's narrating her own tale, which I hope makes it an easier read for some readers. But mm, this definitely has Springtime in Tokyo vibes, and the cover has those gorgeous cherry blossoms on it.

And then to give you a tale which honestly, I think we could talk about for September, because it is a strong... there's a strong sense of school in this next YA book but we're actually counting down to high school graduation. So even though the school setting can make it feel like fall, it is set in the spring and it's got those, ooh, senior year "get me out of here. How much longer" vibes.

[00:38:26] This is While I Ugly Cry by Joya Goffney. This features a type A, list making, high achieving high school senior whose parents have very high expectations of her. Quinn keeps a journal, she loses her journal, and she cannot handle her journal being loose in the world because her whole life is in it.

And she has things that aren't that embarrassing in this journal, like movies with intense rewatchability but she also has lists like things that I would never admit out loud to anyone, and you know, now somebody has that journal.

So she gets a message from her blackmailer who says, "Look, you can have it back and I won't show anybody, but you have to complete one of your own lists before I hand it over." And that list is called Things to Do Before I Graduate. And it's a big and bold list. And she's like, "Ah, what do I have to lose? It can't get any worse?" And so she goes for it.

She goes on adventures, she makes new friends. There's a little road trip in here. She tells them uncomfortable truths to her parents. I love this book. I thought this book was a good ride. Do you know that one, Kim?

[00:39:33] KIM: No, I've never heard of it and it sounds amazing. I'm also an avid journaler and list maker, so this is especially fun. I actually started journaling as a high schooler and have maintained it ever since. So when you started saying that it got lost and found by somebody, my heart started beating a little bit.

I don't even let my kids touch my journal. They know that this is a private space. And I always tell them, "You can have a journal and mommy promises never to pick it up and read it. But you also have to never pick up and read my journal." I also have a friend who has committed to getting rid of all of my journals if I were to die unexpectedly because I don't want anyone ever reading them. They are mine. So I'm feeling all the emotions of this one and I think it sounds perfect.

ANNE: I think that book may be for you. Now, we all know that depending on where you are, March and April can definitely still be winter, but maybe a bit of spring on the page can help knowing that transition is coming. So real quick I want to suggest two titles for that month.

[00:40:38] You may have read this classic in grade school, but if you haven't revisited Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt, it stands up to another read. The prose is really lovely and feels right for the season and another title that delivers on that sense of spring, especially if spring is unwelcomingly cold and wet where you are, is book number three and Louise Penny's Inspector Gamache Series. And that is the coolest month. And yes, that means April. Yes, it's from the T.S. Eliot poem. That's where the title comes from. And of course you can start with book one in this series, but this is just a fine place to jump in for listeners who haven't read much of that series.

And then obviously we have The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim. is this one you've read, Kim?

KIM: Yeah. So out of those three, I read Tuck Everlasting and Enchanted April. I have to admit I was not a big fan of Enchanted April. It didn't grab me until like the last 20 pages, so it took me a really long time to get through it. It wasn't my favorite for sure. But Louise Penny has been on my radar for a really long time.

I have to say I get a little nervous about murdery stories. Is Louise kind of known for murder mysteries or just mysteries in general?

[00:41:55] ANNE: Murder mysteries and in books two and three, the murders are weird.

KIM: Okay. I can handle it. There are occasional times where I'm all in on it, so maybe one in the year I can handle it, and I'll try to sneak it in. But she's been on my radar for a long time because I've really wanted to delve in. But I get nervous because I've just got a little anxiety. Murders give me a little anxiety.

ANNE: Well, you have plenty to choose from. You can see how your reading year shapes up.

KIM: Yes. Thanks.

ANNE: No obligations here. But let's move on to May. May is Summer Reading Guide season in these here part. So it's one of our favorite months, obviously. And there are a whole host of summary reads that also kick off over Memorial Day weekend. Books like A Hundred Summers by Beatriz Williams, Secrets in Summer by Nancy Thayer.

But the one I want to highlight is Chances Are... by Richard Russo, which is also about a significant Memorial Day weekend that a group of college friends experienced together. And then many years later they reunite in the same place on Memorial Day weekend and are catching up with each other and everything that's happened in the intervening decades in their lives but also circling back to really a mystery of what happened back then to one of their dear friends.

[00:43:16] This book is on the short side. You could read it really fast. And I have to tell you, I thought it was okay, but my husband, Will, loved this book. And I know we have a strong contingent of listeners who say, "Will is my book twin. Tell me what he loves."

This is a book about really male friendship and family tragedy and how the past is never really the past. Because in that long ago Memorial Day weekend, one of their friends—and it was a friend that all of them and they were at least a little bit in love with—disappeared and they've never gotten over it, and they've been thinking about her ever since.

And over the course of the weekend, everything, I would say, bubbles to the surface, but stronger than that, zooms to the surface, explodes to the surface. I think that could be a good one for that moment of the year.

KIM: Both A Hundred Summers and Chances Are... sound good. I'm trying to figure out why the name Richard Russo is familiar to me. Maybe I read something else by him, but I can't place it. But I've not read any of those.

[00:44:17] ANNE: He's written a lot of big books that have sold a lot of copies. If I had to guess, maybe Empire Falls is the one that you've crossed paths with.

KIM: I'm looking at his list right now. I haven't read any of them, but yeah, I think they've sounded familiar to me or I've come across them before but haven't read any. So that would be a good new author to check out for sure.

ANNE: It could be. Now, you already told us that you plan to read Amor Towles for December 31st, but he also has another book, The Lincoln Highway, that is very time-specific. This book starts on June 12th, 1954. It lasts for ten days. It's about three friends taking a road trip, a life-changing road trip from Nebraska to New York City.

I have to tell you, Kim, I despised the ending. Some readers thought it was absolutely perfect in every way. But if you like Amor Towles and you want to read more Amor Towles, this book has a strong sense of summer road trip in the 50s.

[00:45:18] And then a classic that I finally read this year that I'm so glad I finally made time for is The Summer Book by Tove Jansson. This is a 1972 novel by a Finnish author, though she originally wrote it in Swedish, that reads almost as a series of short stories.

It's about a grandmother and her 6-year-old granddaughter who spend the summer together on a tiny island in the Gulf of Finland. It has really gentle pacing, lush, and beautiful descriptions of the natural world. This book contains the heavy and the light, but it all feels very deftly and gently handled. For the vibe, think like Anne Morrow Lindbergh's Gift from the Sea or the works of Ellen Montgomery. That could be a good fit for your reading list, I think.

KIM: Yeah, that sounds really good. Haven't read that one. Never even heard of it.

ANNE: Oh, I'm happy to share it then. And then for a different kind of vibe, Warrior Girl Unearthed by Angeline Boulley, set in Michigan, not too far from you. This opens on Monday, June 9th. This is the sophomore novel from author Angeline Boulley, whose debut Firekeeper's Daughter was a big publishing event.

[00:46:32] This is another novel set in the same world. But you definitely do not need to read these books in order. They're not part of a series. But this is about an Anishinaabe teen, Perry Firekeeper-Birch, who signs up for a summer internship program that she doesn't want to do with her Ojibwe tribe. But she gets involved in a little fender bender, owed somebody a lot of money. She has no choice but to get to work.

Her job assignment for her internship centers on her tribe's struggle to reclaim the remains and sacred objects of her ancestors from profiteers who are in it for the money and could not care less about the meaning. And the more she learns about it, this teen wants to write the wrong and gets a little help from her friends to do so.

This is a little bit summer break book, a little bit of a heist novel, and I think Boulley can really write books that are really thoughtful and also really thrilling and page turnery. This is a protagonist, Perry, that you will want to see succeed, you'll want to root for.

KIM: Definitely it sounds not like anything I've read before, which I'm open to.

[00:47:40] ANNE: Well, if I do say so, summer could be a good time to explore a little bit.

KIM: Sure.

ANNE: And then I want to give a nod to a classic middle-grade novel that is definitely worth reading if you haven't. Maybe revisiting if you had. And that is One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia, which actually kicks off the Gaither Sisters trilogy.

It's set in the summer of 1968. It's about a young girl named Delphine and her sisters who embark on a journey in more ways than one as they leave their home in Brooklyn and set out to visit their estranged mother in California.

But when they get there, their mom's not like how they imagined she would be. She sends them off to summer camp to get them out of her hair. What we have here is young girls who have each other but are very much trying to make sense of the world and make sense of their family, who you can see are growing up too fast to cope with the difficult circumstances they find themselves in. And the backdrop of 1968, Oakland, and its civil and political unrest is so interesting and amazing to read in a middle-grade novel. Is this one you've read before?

[00:48:49] KIM: Yes, Noa and I actually read all three in the trilogy and they are some of my favorites.

ANNE: Oh, I'm so glad to hear it.

KIM: In my head, I went, hhh, because I remembered... I can't remember which of the three but we especially loved the one that had the backdrop of the moon launch. I believe it's in Alabama and they're watching it on TV. And yeah, both Noa and I loved these. I think I read them to her when she was around ten maybe.

It sparked a lot of great conversations about history, about race. And we just loved the relationship between the sisters. Some of the family members are hilarious in the book. So we really loved those. And I would definitely... you know what? I might even bring those up with my boys. That might be a good summer read with my ten and 8-year-old boys.

ANNE: I'm glad to hear it. Now, for July, we have two books that have very specific dates checked and the text where you were describing your experience reading Carley Fortune and picking up her book while you were at the lake reading about the lake, I thought of my experience by the pool on July 5th one summer, picking up The Lager Queen of Minnesota, turning to the opening page and seeing, "On July 5th this is what happened." The story doesn't take place all in July, but I loved that I coincidently started the book on July 5th.

KIM: Yes.

[00:50:16] ANNE: This is such a fun novel. It's about sound family and people, of course, correcting and finding their way and also grandmas brewing beer. And J. Ryan said that he wrote it to make his grandma happy. It's so much fun.

And then One Day by David Nicholls has a very different vibe. I feel like this is a British modern classic. Have you read this one?

KIM: No, I have not read that one.

ANNE: Because it always takes place on July 15th. The structure is that it starts in 1988. We follow Emma and Dexter for 20 years. They're best friends who you can see flirt with the idea of becoming something more. And we see what's happening in their lives on July 15th. And because that date is the height of summer in the U.K., we see them doing, you know, summery things. They're going on vacation. I mean, they're going to work too, and just living regular lives, but they're going to weddings.

And I think it's really interesting that David Nicholls, to my surprise, said, Oh, Thomas Hardy inspired this book because I think it's in Tess of the d'Urbervilles in a very different context.

[00:51:17] She talks about how, you know, there's her birthday and there's Christmas, and there are these big dates of the year we remember, but there's a date in her life. And I'm not going to tell you what it is because it may kind of spoil the vibe we're developing here, but you can Google. But there is a date that has such great significance in her life that that's the one she should keep in mind, that's the one she should remember to revisit and reconsider.

He went in a very different direction with the story, David Nicholls did, but that's where he got the idea to tell the book in this way. I really enjoyed this. Some readers think it's melodramatic. This is definitely a big feelings book. But July 15th all through.

KIM: Yeah, that sounds great. I also have a kid named Dexter, so I'm always attracted to stories that have Dexter in them because it's such a rare name. So I'm already in.

ANNE: I'm glad to hear it. Look, let me tell you, Dexter has some hard times in the story.

KIM: Okay, Good to know.

ANNE: You just have to believe in him and cheer him on as he tries to make it through.

[00:52:19] KIM: Sounds good. I also love that you brought up The Lager Queen of Minnesota because I think J. Ryan Stradal is such a good author for sort of this project I'm doing. I've already read Lager Queen and also I read Kitchens of the Great Midwest right before I moved to Iowa, and that was a nice kind of place-setting book as well. But I haven't read... I think it's the newest one by him. It's like Supper Club maybe.

ANNE: Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club.

KIM: Yes. Actually, I have that one on my list for a summer read for next year because that is something we do when we go on vacation. We go to like Friday night fish fries and things like that, which I feel like are just right for a summer read.

ANNE: It's got a great setting for that. Also, that book is sad, Kim.

KIM: Okay, Good to know.

ANNE: That book's really sad, more than his other two, I think.

KIM: Okay. Got it.

[00:53:15] ANNE: All right. We're rolling from July into August. I have to say, this is where I drop in Tom Lake on your reading calendar during the cherry harvest that goes for a few weeks, that time of year. And there is another historical novel, it's Go as a River by Shelley Read, that takes place over several different years, and then we jump ahead in the future to see an older protagonist looking back. But late August plays a big part in the plot.

This is a historical and coming-of-age story set in a small Colorado ranch town. You said that Coming of Age feels like fall, so maybe this is especially a good one for late August and early September.

It opens in 1948, and we meet a young woman named Victoria Nash, she's 17 years old. And because of circumstances, she has lost the women in her family. Her mother, her aunts and a cousin were all killed together in an accident when she was younger.

So she has been left to really... now her job. I didn't actually mean job, but it's like it's her job. She is caretaker for her father, who's a peach farmer and uncle who's disabled from war injuries, and her brother who is angry at the world and the family. But they look to her to care for them like the mother and cousin who are gone cannot do.

[00:54:42] But she's 17 and she sees a handsome man on the street and she falls in love and he is Native American. And that love is not sanctioned. He is looked down upon. They are in love, they want to make a life together but it gets real ugly and really hateful in hurtful ways. And we see what happens next.

I don't want to tell you too much about the plot, even though if you want to Google that's embedded in many, many reviews, but it feels a little spoilery to me. But this book has a wonderful Colorado ranch town setting, 40s vibe, and really sensitively, but also heartbreakingly. It examines young love and also terrible prejudice and what that does to this family and these relationships in the family and beyond the town and even the wider world. Is that on your radar?

KIM: No, never heard of it. But I'm listening intently.

ANNE: That one I think has really been a sleeper hit since its release. It's really resonated with a lot of readers, and maybe you'll be one of them.

[00:55:46] I'd also like to briefly recommend Disappearing Earth by Julia Phillips. It's a character-driven story set on Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula. It begins in August and then continues over the course of a single year. I don't know if that makes it a great book for your projects or not. It takes you through a whole calendar year, but a project in a nutshell. But that is when it begins in this month.

It starts when two young sisters go missing and their tight-knit community is deeply affected by their disappearance. And you watch and wonder as the community is either going to come together or fall apart in the midst of the resulting fear and crisis.

And then September, which I feel like is fall but we have Labor Day weekend right at the beginning of fall. So I think 28 Summers by Elin Hilderbrand kind of mirrors Richard Russo's Chances Are... that's a Memorial Day weekend story. 28 Summers is a Labor Day weekend story. And in this book, two friends reunite Labor Day weekend year after year. Do you know this book?

[00:56:56] KIM: I've seen it everywhere. I feel like it's in every bookshop, but I haven't picked it up yet. No.

ANNE: Okay. When this book opens, we find out that there has been this long-standing friendship. I mean, 28 summers worth of friendship between these two people, one of whom is, I think, actually married to the president, a presidential candidate. I just remembered there's a phone call, there's an email, there's a letter or something. And the family of the other person in this relationship is like, why is this really famous, powerful dude calling you? And you're like, Hmm, take us back in time and tell us. It's an interesting setup.

But if that lands for you, that's going to feel more like Carley Fortune. I think with your reading tastes, the book I really want to put in your hands is Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver, if you haven't read it yet.

KIM: I have read that one. That was my first Barbara Kingsolver. It's a good one for sure.

ANNE: It's just so verdant and lush and harvesty.

KIM: Agreed.

[00:58:04] ANNE: Okay, good. I'm glad that works for you. I feel like we need to mention Ali Smith's Seasonal Quartet that starts with book number one called Autumn and continues through the rest of the seasons. And I know you know this. You've already hinted at campus novels. Dark academia is something people also really love for this time of year. Google is your friend here. You can get lots of picks if you know what you're looking for there.

And then moving into October. When Ghosts Come Home by Wiley Cash takes place over the course of a week, beginning just before Halloween and ending in very early November. Is this one you've read?

KIM: Nope. Never heard of it.

ANNE: Okay. It's set

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