Drinking Tea and Saying Rude Things Nicely

Jenn Northington Jul 19, 2018

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Amanda and Jenn discuss fiction about the Azores, wine books, lighter reads, and more in this week’s episode of Get Booked.

This episode is sponsored by Recommended and Book Riot Insiders.

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The show can also be found on Stitcher here.

Questions

1. Hello! My husband and I will be traveling to the Azores in September 2018 and I would love to get my hands on a “page turner” that takes place on one of the islands. I love historical fiction, murder mysteries, contemporary fiction, and non fiction (as long as it reads like a novel). I’m good with 300-500 pages but I like to keep things moving so over 500 seems like homework to me. No issues with triggers. I love your podcast and can’t wait to hear what you come up with!
Thank you,
–Robin

2. I really want to get a book for a friend of mine before I leave town. I don’t know when I will see her next after I leave so I am anxious to get it right! I sneakily asked her about her favourite books and, after the usual “how could I ever choose”, this was her response:

Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, The Secret Garden, Authors: Jane Austen, Neil Gaiman, Patrick Rothfuss

I look forward to your response!!!!
–Kate

3. Hi there! Thank you for the show and all of your wonderful recommendations! I am hoping you can help me out with what might be a niche request – I would love to read something that includes an interracial, interfaith relationship or family. It does not need to be any specific race/ethnicity or faiths, but if it can include these two components, that would be great – either fiction or non-fiction is great. Thank you!

–Emma

4. Hi Ladies,
I’m looking for recs for my Mom. She’s a voracious mystery reader: she flies through books very quickly. I gave her Flavia de Luce after loving it (and hearing about it through you!) and she finished the series in about a week and asked me for more. I shared a recent episode with her where you recommended IQ, and she loved that as well: she read both of those, and we’re back at square one.
She’s read a lot of the huge names (full leather bound collection of Agatha Christies, loves Rex Stout and other classics, read all of the Costco-display level best sellers like Sue Grafton, JD Robb, Robert Galbraith, Janet Evanovich, Clive Cussler, etc)
Her other favorite series is the Dresden Files: I think she likes rogue type main characters who work alone and stories set in richly written worlds/cities. She likes more mystery than thriller, although she enjoys it when they intermix.
Thanks for all you do! I look forward to each Thursday (and now so does my Mom) 🙂

–Lauren

5. Hey Ladies! I love wine, but I’m much more of a connoisseur of quantity, not quality. A big fan of Cardbordeaux! I’d like to know more about wine and what makes wine “good.” Can you recommend any readable non-fiction (or fiction if it’s very informative) about wine that isn’t too pretentious?
–Bess

6. I was talking with my sister recently and she mentioned that I should read books that aren’t so dark and heavy. Having a bit of time to think about it, she is right and I need to lighten up my reading. Do you or your listeners have any ideas as to make my reading not so heavy? Some of the books that I have enjoyed are A Town Like Alice, Jane Eyre, Outlander, Burial Rites, Crime and Punishment, Alias Grace, To Kill A Mockingbird, All Quiet on the Western Front, A Tale of Two Cities, Station Eleven, A Discovery of Witches, the Harry Potter series, among others.

–Melissa

7. I recently read a book that totally blew my mind – I’m Thinking Of Ending Things by Iain Reid. It had such an effect on me that I immediately re read it .
I’m looking for similar books….unsettling, creepy and with an overwhelming sense of “something’s not right here” dread.
I already read Bird Box, Head Full Of Ghosts and House Of Leaves.
Please help this fellow book nerd. Thanks, and Stay awesome.

–Holly

Books Discussed

The Tethered Mage by Melissa Caruso

Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton

Chi’s Sweet Adventure by Konami Kanata

Yotsuba&! by Kiyohiko Azuma

The Winter Queen by Boris Akunin, translated Andrew Bromfield

Death at the Water’s Edge by Miriam Winthrop

The Stone Raft by Jose Saramago

Shades of Milk and Honey by Mary Robinette Kowal

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik (tw: scenes of domestic violence/physical child abuse)

Wrong to Need You by Alisha Rai