Next Level Meta Crazy

Jenn Northington Sep 15, 2016

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Amanda and Jenn talk novels about novels, “clean” romance, post-surgery reads, and more on this week’s episode of Get Booked!

This episode is sponsored by Spontaneous by Aaron Starmer and The Ones by Daniel Sweren-Becker.

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The show can also be found on Stitcher here.

Questions

1. Hi Amanda and Jenn!

I love the show. It’s done nothing but make my unwieldy to-read list even longer. I was curious if you had any recommendations for novels about, or containing, novels; or novels about reading novels. I read If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler and am in the middle of Pale Fire. Calvino blew me away. Any thoughts? Thanks much, and again, love the podcast!

Respectfully,
Kevin

2. Hi guys…

I am new to your podcast and am loving it! I have filled up my “To Be Read” list probably more than is possible to ever read based on the fantastic recommendations I am hearing J

I am a mom with 2 girls who are both readers but are 7 years apart in age. Recently my oldest, Amy, age 20, suggested we start a book club as a fun “bonding activity” between mom and daughters. Amy is a busy university student with limited time to read. In the past she has enjoyed Ellen Hopkins and just recently read “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime” and “The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto”.

Rachel, age 13, is an avid reader. She reads well above grade level and enjoys more fantasy/mythology fiction than either Amy or myself do. Although she is willing to expand her horizons. Recently she has flown through the Burying Water series by K.A Tucker, the Twilight series, the Percy Jackson series and loved Sea of Tranquility.

Was hoping you would be able to recommend something that we all can enjoy that meets in the middle somewhere. YA novels may be the best choice for Amy as she has the least amount of time to commit.

I can read anything and have been doing separate book club choices with each girl so far. I know there has to be something out there to fit all of us and you are just the folks to help us.

Thank you!
–Alison

3. Hello!
I need to get books for my very bookish friend for her birthday and book themed wedding.
She loves Neil Gaiman, Murakami, and some fave novels include A Little Life, The Enchanted, A Brief History of Seven Killings. She also loves psychological thrillers! She’s very much in tune with all that’s new and pretty much gets the books as soon as they hit the shelves, so maybe something older or under the radar would be more guaranteed not be a repeat.
.
(Her birthday is September 20th and I need to get the books before then. Sorry for the short notice and I totally understand if it’s not possible to make the date. I just thought I would give it a try. And thanks for all the help!)

–Roberta.

4. Hi, Amanda! This is time-sensitive, in that I am hoping to get suggestions for a birthday present for my mom, so if you could answer this by mid-September that would be amazing? Thank you <3

So, my mom. She retired last year and has begun reading for pleasure again, something she has not really done in decades. She picked up an Eva Ibbotson romance from our library and fell in LOVE, and quickly devoured the rest of Ibbotson’s romances since then. After some discussion I’ve pinpointed her favorite thing about the books besides the characters: Ibbotson writes romances that are relatively clean (so no explicit sex, which is not something she wants to read about) but also not full of Jesus talk (my mom is a Christian but she’s tried and bounced off of a lot of Christian romance). Do you have any recommendations for historical books, either in the romance genre or with a large romance subplot, that are in the same vein? For what it’s worth, she’s also read all of Austen and Heyer and liked them as well.

Thank you,
Jen

5. Hello Jenn and Amanda,

I hope that I’m not too late to get this time sensitive question in. I just found out that I’m going to need to have surgery in mid-September, and I’ll be laid up for about 3 or 4 weeks convalescing afterward. I’m looking for books that will be absorbing enough to help me through the boredom, but simple enough that I can keep track of the plot while on painkillers. I usually read mostly SF/F and mysteries/thrillers, but I’m pretty genre agnostic.

Thank you so much for this podcast. I’ve been listening since the first episode, and it’s been one of the best things to happen to my reading life. It’s also one of the worst things to happen to my bank account, but I’m willing to overlook that. =)

Thanks again,
Barbara

Books Discussed

The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco

An Unnecessary Woman by Rabih Alameddine

S. by JJ Abrams and Doug Dorst

The Children’s Book by AS Byatt

Outrun the Moon by Stacey Lee

The Leviathan series (Leviathan, #1) by Scott Westerfeld

Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon

The Last Dragonslayer by Jasper Fforde

Tram 83 by Fiston Mwanza Mujila (trans by Roland Glasser)

The Space Between Us by Thrity Umrigar