Vikings Chopped Down All Our Trees
Amanda and Jenn discuss books about trees, great middle-grade audiobooks, dystopias, and more in this week’s episode of Get Booked.
This episode is sponsored by Book Riot Insiders, the digital hangout spot for the Book Riot community, Literati, and Flatiron Books, publisher of The Paris Hours by Alex George.
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Feedback
The Casquette Girls by Alys Arden (rec’d by Summer)
Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert (rec’d by Summer)
Serpent & Dove by Shelby Mahurin (rec’d by Eric)
Goodbye Vitamin by Rachel Khong and In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado (rec’d by Elizabeth)
In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado (rec’d by Michelle)
Questions
1. Hi Amanda and Jenn! Absolutely love the show. It’s almost stressful how many amazing books there are to read!
I’m a straight single woman in my 30s who just recently left a good relationship headed towards marriage just because it didn’t feel right. I’d love to read fiction or non-fiction about women who did such a thing – left a good, decent man or relationship and still created happy lives, or women who found love a little later but were still able to have kids/a partner like they wanted.
In this vein I’ve loved Spinster by Kate Bolick, The Rules Do Not Apply, and am about to read No One Tells You This by Glynnis McNichol.
Thanks!
-Polly
2. This summer, we are moving from California to Virginia and I’m looking for audiobook selections for the drive. In the fall, I begin my MLIS specializing in Children and Youth Service/Public Librarianship. I also have two daughters who may or may not listen in — a 9 year old and a 12 year old.
What are some more current middle-grade or YA audiobooks that would keep us all entertained, and will help prep me for my future in the library?
I’ve already listened to Harry Potter, the Lunar Chronicles, and some Rick Riordan. We’ve also got a pretty solid book collection of popular titles including things like The Mysterious Benedict Society, Book Scavenger, Mr. Limoncello’s Library and Al Capone Does My Shirts. Last thing — please no narrator with a British accent. I know it’s weird, but it puts me to sleep so not good for driving!
I love listening to you — and because of that my TBR is out of control!
-Lisa
3. Hi!
I was so glad to hear you were reading the Outrun by Amy Liptrot, I live on the island of Westray which is 15minutes by boat from Papa Westray (our little sister island) which as you know is the location for a lot of the Outrun. I hoped you enjoyed reading about our islands and way of life as a part of the book. If you enjoyed the Outrun and reading about ‘living on the edge’ and nature, I think you will enjoy ‘Heida: A shepherd at the edge of the world’ by Steinunn Sigurdardottir & Heida Asgeirsdottir which is a diary of the year former icelandic model turned sheep-farmer Heida fought to save her land from becoming a development site for a power plant, all while managing her flock of 500 sheep at the base of Katla, one of Iceland’s most notorious volcanoes.
So for me! I’m looking for some fiction where the forest (in a non-creepy way) is key to the book. While being in lockdown on a small idyllic scottish island is certainly nothing to complain about, I miss trees, we have had no trees here since the Vikings chopped them all down way back when! And now it’s too windy so any miracle trees we can get to grow just grow stunted, spindly and sideways. So I’m looking to get my beautiful forest fix through my books until I can travel to the mainland again and hug some trees. Thanks!
-Isobel
4. Hi ladies! I’m in need of escapist reading – and that means Queer Fantasy Romance. We’re talking magick and mages, sexy humans falling for even sexier elves, turmoil + angst, and through it all – a happy ending. Books in a similar vein that I’ve loved are the Charm of Magpies Series by K.J. Charles, Salt Magic, Skin Magic by Lee Welch, and The Kingston Cycle Series by C.L. Polk. These are all Victorian-era ish historicals (my fave) but I would love to find something more high fantasy, to ramp up that escapist itch. Bonus for an audiobook – that’s my favorite way of getting sucked into a novel!
-Michelle
5. I’m looking for a dystopian/sci fi book. This isn’t something I read often, but I like to kind of pepper my usual historical fiction/graphic memoir/ YA reading with it every once in a while when I need to shake things up a bit. Station Eleven, Age of Miracles, and Severance have done this for me recently. I love how everything in my daily life starts to seem weird when I’m reading a book that makes me think about how everything could be changed. Can you help me find something, please? I love the show!
-Brooke
6. I need a good realistic fiction book to get me hooked back on reading.
-Christian
7. Two of my favorite books, Saga (Vaughan/Staples) and The Blind Assassin (Atwood), have pulp-y books as a main component of the story yet I have some how never read any myself. I would love a few suggestions for books or authors to check out. Almost anything goes, except I cannot stand when ancient or immortal beings start romantic relationships with teenagers/early 20-year-olds. Eww, just eww.
Thanks!!!
-Kristin
Books Discussed
Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
Untamed by Glennon Doyle (tw: alcoholism, bulimia), Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed
Orphan Island by Laurel Snyder
Dactyl Hill Squad by Daniel Jose Older
Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver (tw: loss of a spouse, bigotry)
The Overstory by Richard Powers (tw suicide, self-harm)
Of Fire and Stars by Audrey Coulthurst
The Tensorate series (The Black Tides of Heaven #1) by JY Yang
The Book of the Unnamed Midwife by Meg Elison
Bannerless by Carrie Vaughn
Braised Pork by An Yu
Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Everisto (tw: domestic violence, rape, racism, homophobia, self-harm, depression, child abuse)
I Am Justice by Diana Munoz Stewart (tw sexual abuse of children)
Chilling Effect by Valerie Valdes
