Culture Study Podcast - Dozens of New-To-You Books for Your TBR Pile

00:00:00.000 this is the culture study podcast and i'm ann helen peterson hi i'm maris kreisman and i'm the author

00:00:13.500 of the new essay collection i want to burn this place down but i'm also a really avid reader and

00:00:19.800 have worked in and around books for my entire professional career i feel like there's all

00:00:25.340 these old fashioned ways that people used to discover books. Maybe I'm just imagining this

00:00:30.420 like Maris has like books just at her door all the time. I do. I actually do. Like I think about

00:00:38.560 the BuzzFeed mailroom. Yes. I sat next to Ariana when she was head of the book section and she

00:00:46.460 would just have to devote an entire day to opening up books. I do that from home.

00:00:52.520 um but what is your favorite way to discover new to you books my favorite way to discover

00:00:59.900 is by going to indie bookstores and talking to people and looking around and touching things

00:01:07.540 yes no offense to digital reading but there's something about having the tactical experience

00:01:13.360 that i think really helps yes i love it like i love the bookseller recommendation part like

00:01:20.880 corners of the bookstores, which are always such a mix of old and new. I love all the like indie

00:01:27.540 what's next picks. I'm like, these are always really good. Yeah. I was just at Riff Raff in

00:01:33.360 Providence, Rhode Island on a book tour. And they have such a small but perfectly curated selection.

00:01:41.820 So I kind of just knew like whatever book I picked, I'd be happy with. That's how you know

00:01:47.900 it's a bookstore for you. Like there, I've been to a couple of bookstores like that, that I've

00:01:51.000 been like, I wish this could be my local. Because every time you go in, you're like, that's the

00:01:57.300 thing. My best friend's mom has a bookstore in her little neighborhood in Seattle where she just

00:02:02.900 knows like that the bookseller, there is always going to be a book front and center at the 0.93

00:02:08.000 bookstore that is like for Patty. Like it is Patty's book. That's so lovely. I know. Isn't

00:02:13.280 that great um so you mentioned you're on book tour your book is everywhere and I want to tell

00:02:20.120 readers like I I have my copy that I've been like it's it's essays so you can like work through it

00:02:24.980 because I think a lot of it is very very present like a lot of it is like I'm so mad about all of

00:02:33.340 these things and it gives such a great outlet for when you're feeling mad about something like

00:02:39.220 here's someone putting that anger or that frustration into words.

00:02:43.260 Thank you. And, you know, I didn't realize that my book would be publishing in 2025

00:02:47.800 when it would be 2025. So I was glad I was able to get it all on paper before then.

00:02:56.800 How have people responded to you?

00:02:59.360 Really well. I think that it's been nice to go to bookstores in other cities and meet a lot of

00:03:07.120 people who are feeling the same way, which is that we're constantly told that people get more

00:03:12.120 conservative as they age. And I am the exact opposite. And I have so many things that I want

00:03:20.640 to change that I hope will change. Yeah. Let's see. We have so many great questions. And I just

00:03:27.700 want to say that like we would, there are very few people who I would trust to have like fantastic

00:03:33.940 answers for all of these but you are one of the most like sometimes I think people say well-read

00:03:40.640 and they mean it as like I don't know it's like a snobby like you're like that person's so well-read

00:03:46.000 I don't know you don't want to be friends with that person you are a person who's well-read that

00:03:49.500 I want to be friends with thank you that's really lovely um you know I have not mastered the

00:03:54.980 classics all of them but I am pretty up on what's out right now and uh that's been fun

00:04:01.160 And also, we should have put some of your CV here. How did you become a person who talks about books?

00:04:08.200 I thought I was going to be a book editor. In my 20s, I worked at Simon & Schuster. That's the way I thought of myself. That's how I identified. And then I switched companies and was abruptly laid off.

00:04:22.540 and the rest of my career has been kind of like trying to be in and around books as much as I can

00:04:30.800 so I was the editorial director of book of the month for a while I was the publishing outreach

00:04:37.500 lead at kickstarter and I've just been I've been freelance writing about books for a long time now

00:04:43.060 I feel like there are so many problems in the world and so many problems specifically in book

00:04:48.680 publishing. And yet the books are still good and they're coming a mile a minute. And that's

00:04:55.080 weird and wonderful. Yeah, that's such a great way of thinking about it. You also have a really

00:05:00.740 wonderful newsletter that is always giving me ideas. So we will link that prominently in the

00:05:06.140 show notes. Thank you. What have you learned about people's reading habits or even about like

00:05:12.100 how to make effective recommendations for people? Yeah, I think challenging them a little bit.

00:05:18.680 is really, really great. I think people get stuck in their comfort zones. And I think that's lovely.

00:05:26.520 We should all have comfort zones that we can escape to when we need to. But I think that

00:05:33.020 the way that your world really widens is by trying something just a little bit new.

00:05:39.620 Yeah. Yeah, totally. And like also watching your discomfort too and being like, hmm,

00:05:45.620 Why am I reacting this way to this? Like, is it because of the style? Is it because of the content? Is it because like the emotions that it's inciting? Like, all of that, I think is really interesting. And sometimes if we react with repulsion instead of curiosity, or confusion, like, the curiosity, I think, keeps us in a book. And it's like, well, I'm going to see like how I feel about this moving forward.

00:06:08.760 And that's like a good life strategy, too, just to be, you know, totally, totally. What have you been reading lately?

00:06:16.360 Oh, OK. So I am reading right now. I'm reading Joe Piazza's new book.

00:06:22.940 Everyone is reading this. It is so fun and delightful. And she's a member of my writing group.

00:06:31.400 And so really glad she's having this moment.

00:06:34.580 I'm also halfway through The Parisian by Isabella Hamad, who I have I loved her last two books and I never read her debut.

00:06:43.780 And it's big. It's one of these like real epic kind of books.

00:06:48.020 And I'm really loving it.

00:06:50.680 OK, so today we're going to do something slightly different, but it's basically a concierge where people have written in with a couple of books that they love.

00:06:59.240 and the style of book that they're looking for.

00:07:02.100 And then we're going to give them recommendations and challenges.

00:07:05.380 I love it.

00:07:06.700 Also, and if someone who's listening is in this place that's like,

00:07:10.700 I can't read right now, like we have all been there.

00:07:13.880 Or in the place of like, I really want to be reading more

00:07:17.400 and I simply cannot manage to like make those routines,

00:07:21.680 make those like patterns in my life.

00:07:24.100 Or I used to read a lot and I feel like my brain doesn't work anymore.

00:07:26.880 we are going to have an Ask Anne Anything segment that Maris is going to join me for

00:07:31.860 to address that. So stay tuned. And by the way, you're about to hear like eight million book

00:07:38.500 titles, and we're going to list all of them in the Substack post for this episode. So you don't

00:07:44.540 have to worry about writing them down right now. Let's hear from our first listener, Lauren.

00:07:49.620 I've been in a reading rut for months, only able to plow through romance novels. I'm looking for

00:07:55.220 fiction that I won't be able to put down. Recent books that made me feel this way were Eleanor

00:08:00.040 Catton's Burnham Wood, Marie Helene Bertino's Beautyland, Rachel Kong's Real Americans,

00:08:06.160 and Rita Bullwinkle's Headshot. Okay. I didn't put a recommendation down for this one because

00:08:11.540 I was like, I'm going to come back to it because this is, I think this is at the heart of like

00:08:15.000 half of our recommendations was I want a literary book that I can't put down.

00:08:19.180 Yeah. And what I'm seeing as the commonality here, like Burnham Wood, very propulsive, real Americans, like the first, I would say, third of real Americans is like addictive.

00:08:34.880 You're like, I cannot stop.

00:08:37.600 Absolutely. And I think I think also all of these books are doing something like a little experimental.

00:08:43.460 Yeah. Which is great, which is why we read literary fiction.

00:08:47.800 Yeah. So what did you think of first here?

00:08:51.320 I first thought of Flashlight by Susan Choi, which I know is already in. We're going to talk about her later.

00:08:58.500 Yeah. But I loved that book. And then from a few years back, Enter Ghost by Isabella Hamad.

00:09:06.100 It's about a Palestinian theater company putting on a production of Hamlet. And it is loaded and wonderful.

00:09:14.900 Interesting.

00:09:15.620 Yeah.

00:09:15.840 No, I was going to say, like, you said we're going to talk about Susan Choi later, and

00:09:21.240 I am just starting Flashlight, but her previous book, Trust Exercise, also was very gripping.

00:09:29.240 I started reading it at a time when I was struggling to read, but I really was able

00:09:34.200 to stick with it.

00:09:35.400 And it does something really interesting as the book goes on.

00:09:40.180 This is all I'll say, because I don't want to spoil it.

00:09:41.900 Yeah. I really loved also just talking about the book, which is something that like some people are like, oh, I just like did not do it for me. And other people were addicted to it. And I think actually Burnham Wood is similar.

00:09:54.240 And I think the other book that's like that right now, which I loved, is Audition by Katie Kitamura.

00:10:00.720 Yep.

00:10:01.380 Katie's book really did remind me of Susan Choi's book in the best kind of way. So yes, if you're into that kind of thing.

00:10:09.000 And then another one that has been very discussed in Culture Study Comments the last, like, month is Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaughey.

00:10:18.480 And I got totally wrapped into that book.

00:10:22.600 Like, when Charlie read it, he was like, this is, like, the propulsiveness of reading, like, God of the Woods or something.

00:10:27.320 Like, it felt like a thriller.

00:10:29.260 And then the ending is very divisive.

00:10:32.920 I have not read it yet.

00:10:34.280 Oh, my gosh, Maris, I can't.

00:10:36.080 especially as an, so I, this isn't, it hasn't completely run along these lines, but I think

00:10:42.380 whether or not you have kids or your feelings about motherhood just generally

00:10:47.520 dictates some of your reactions. Okay. Well, if you liked it, I'll like it probably.

00:10:53.320 Well, I liked the book and then I hated the ending. So now you're going to have to decide

00:10:57.500 what you feel about it. Yeah. Okay. So we got those. And again, we'll put all of these

00:11:02.160 recommendations in the show notes. And then I should say that I have a couple of

00:11:05.960 all-time favorites that are a little further back but eat the document by dana spiota what's that

00:11:13.520 about it's about a former radical who's been in hiding but it's not even like it's uh it takes

00:11:21.320 place yeah in the 70s um and it's just that it's so quick and there's so much good dialogue and

00:11:27.880 the descriptions are so wonderful and it really grabs you right away yeah say um and then also

00:11:34.520 Boy Snowbird by Helen Oyemi. I think it's one of her, she does a lot of experimental stuff. And I

00:11:41.240 think this is one of her most accessible and it's really quick and breezy, but there's a lot there

00:11:47.740 to mull over. Yeah. The other one I might suggest is something that we're going to talk about a

00:11:53.400 little bit later, or at least someone referenced this as one of their favorites, which is The

00:11:57.200 trees by percival everett oh which like i mean that's my favorite book is it really it's one of

00:12:05.280 my favorites i like it a lot more than james i will really wow oh i like them both so much and

00:12:12.020 for different reasons like the trees the first time i read it i think i read it in two nights

00:12:16.340 like i read half because it reads almost like a play right it really does and it's so biting

00:12:23.000 Truly. And you just, you don't expect it to go where it goes.

00:12:27.740 Exactly. So, okay, that's our other recommendation then. Okay, next up, we have a question from Amy.

00:12:33.800 I grew up very evangelical, which is its own unique and huge publishing culture. Through those evangelical publishers, I fell in love with historical fiction and romance novels, especially those set in the American West.

00:12:47.660 But now that I'm no longer religious, I have no idea where to look for this kind of novel anymore that's not full of prayer and colonialism.

00:12:56.280 Prayer and colonialism is amazing.

00:12:59.920 I love it.

00:13:01.100 I have so many recommendations on this because I have gone through, like, I was very into Western lit, not like cowboy lit, but like literature set in the American West at various points of my life.

00:13:14.160 But the first one that came to mind is actually Debra Magpie Earlene's Permared, which is a classic in Montana.

00:13:21.640 Like every person has heard of this book, read this book.

00:13:25.420 And it's written by a woman who is a professor at University of Montana.

00:13:30.120 And it's about a native woman growing up on the Flathead Reservation.

00:13:34.020 And it's exquisite.

00:13:35.660 It's just so beautiful and incredible sense of place and beauty.

00:13:40.200 And I recommend that highly.

00:13:41.740 The other one that came to mind was Anna North's Outlawed.

00:13:44.320 That's what I was going to say.

00:13:46.540 You would talk about that one.

00:13:48.300 It's great. 1.00

00:13:49.000 It's a real classic Western, except that it's all about women. 0.84

00:13:56.620 And it's set in the late 1800s. 0.94

00:14:00.300 And it's about a girl gang and all of the stuff they pull off, which is it's so fun.

00:14:07.000 And, you know, it was optioned like it was part of the Reese Witherspoon book club,

00:14:10.480 because I think, like, when I was reading it,

00:14:12.300 I was like, this is so cinematic.

00:14:13.640 You could make such a great movie out of this.

00:14:16.020 And Anna, who I'm friendly with

00:14:19.000 because she's also a journalist,

00:14:20.240 like, she is such a beautiful writer.

00:14:23.140 You could really see, like,

00:14:24.580 a lot of skill going on there.

00:14:27.100 The other one that I was going to recommend was,

00:14:31.020 and I only remember, like,

00:14:32.520 you know how you're like,

00:14:34.020 I remember it was good.

00:14:36.160 Absolutely.

00:14:36.940 I get stuck there.

00:14:39.100 John Larrison's Whiskey When We're Dry, which I loved.

00:14:43.040 And I picked that up because it was a featured book at Powell's.

00:14:47.220 And they always have books that are kind of aimed towards people who want this sort of book there in Oregon.

00:14:54.700 And then Paulette Giles' News of the World.

00:14:56.980 Have you read any of her stuff?

00:14:58.280 Yes.

00:14:59.080 That's a good one.

00:15:00.360 And that's actually set in Texas.

00:15:01.800 But it's like, remember the character that's played by Haley, what's her name, in True Grit?

00:15:10.780 It's like, what if that girl, what if like, yeah, yeah, it's just, and it's also beautiful, like an incredible sense of voice and immersion, and just like a romp.

00:15:23.980 I really liked it.

00:15:25.320 I love that.

00:15:25.960 I would add The Best Bad Things by Katrina Carrasco.

00:15:33.220 It's similar to Anna's book in that it's set in the late 1800s and it's about all sorts of bad doings going on out West.

00:15:47.120 We're so specific.

00:15:49.000 Bad doings.

00:15:50.280 You don't get that? 1.00

00:15:51.380 um but but the main character is a woman who dresses like a man to go undercover

00:15:59.360 she's trying to bring down a smuggling ring perfect i love it these are all good like

00:16:05.960 they're either explicitly anti-colonial or i don't think there's very much prayer or like

00:16:11.040 maybe just like a little um making fun of prayer or like the people who pray are the bad guys kind

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00:21:09.280 Okay, another romance-related question, and this one comes from Monica.

00:21:13.120 I like contemporary romance because it's so fast to read,

00:21:15.960 and I like literary fiction sometimes because it can be so intriguing and interesting to think

00:21:21.280 about. I especially like it when these two areas intersect. Books I really like include Free Food

00:21:26.440 for Millionaires by Min Jin Lee, Nora Goes Off Script by Annabelle Moynihan, and De-Transition

00:21:32.040 Baby by Tori Peters. Generally, I found that Sally Rooney's books fall into this Venn diagram,

00:21:37.920 but I could not get into her most recent book. Okay, this is a struggle for me because I don't

00:21:44.080 read a lot of contemporary romance like all of the romances i love are all historical and i'm

00:21:49.680 not i'm talking about like romance romance and also like romance literary romance except for

00:21:56.680 sally rooney oh well i this is one of my favorite categories okay okay tell me one of my favorite

00:22:04.720 books of the year so far is liquid a love story by mariam rahmani and it's about a young persian

00:22:13.380 woman who is very smart. She's getting her PhD. Like she sounds like she's maybe you, Annie.

00:22:21.020 She knows so much about pop culture. And she's like really studying the romance genre,

00:22:27.420 the rom-com in particular, to figure out how to live her life. And then stuff goes wrong,

00:22:34.340 I'll say. And it gets a little bit more serious, but it's so smart and such a good deconstruction

00:22:44.120 of the rom-com that I think it's, I think it's so fun. Oh, you know, this actually, okay. There

00:22:50.020 are some contemporary romances I read. I thought the Rachel incident was both very funny. That was

00:22:55.500 also on my list. That's by Caroline O'Donohue, also a guest on this podcast. Very funny. And

00:23:04.120 it like the love story is so lived in and lovely I just it's and funny and good I don't know it's

00:23:11.420 juicy and real juicy and there's just that little element of of cringe always in the background

00:23:19.960 because it's set in 2008 2009 so it's very much like hearkening back to I don't know a period when

00:23:28.120 i was certainly embarrassing um the other one i thought of that is not like my favorite lily king

00:23:34.680 but other people love it so much is writers and lovers yes that's great it's great and that's

00:23:42.520 set in the late 90s in boston yeah and it's about like basically like figuring out your life and

00:23:52.360 there's a nice little love story in there yeah beautifully written one of my favorite books of

00:23:58.560 all time is the giant's house by elizabeth mccracken oh yes and that is just the ideal to

00:24:08.120 me it's about a librarian who falls in love with a so-called giant like a man who is is very large

00:24:15.980 due to gigantism, I think. And their love is so pure, and aspirational, and beautiful and

00:24:27.180 complicated. And it's great. I would also say, read Laurie Colwyn, if you like a romance that's

00:24:36.860 really well written, happy all the time is delightful. All of her books are really fun

00:24:43.020 and often contain romance.

00:24:46.620 Elizabeth McCracken came to speak 0.97

00:24:48.740 to my sophomore creative writing class

00:24:52.500 because my creative writing teacher

00:24:54.560 had been at Iowa with her.

00:24:58.600 So like we got all these like really great authors

00:25:01.560 because my teacher had been like classmates with them.

00:25:04.900 And I'm sure she was like, let me give you $5,000,

00:25:08.040 which to even a popular author like Elizabeth McCracken,

00:25:12.420 And they're like, okay, yes, I'll come to Walla Walla, Washington for $5,000.

00:25:17.520 That's incredible.

00:25:18.820 Were you inspired?

00:25:20.760 Yeah.

00:25:21.420 You know, I have vivid memories of her and Tim O'Brien came to speak again.

00:25:26.180 Oh, my gosh.

00:25:27.260 And Joanne Beard, who's working for me. 0.99

00:25:30.500 Another all-time favorite.

00:25:32.320 Boys of My Youth.

00:25:33.660 Boys of My Youth.

00:25:37.040 Oh, the other one that maybe, I don't know, maybe this is too old, but it's short stories.

00:25:42.220 but Cowboys Are My Weakness and this would be a recommendation this would be a recommendation

00:25:46.920 to the previous person as well. Cowboys Are My Weakness is a collection of short stories

00:25:50.680 by Pam Houston who I also love deeply fell in love with in 1992 and I got to meet her

00:25:57.900 when I was doing a profile of a different writer of Tommy Orange and Therese Mallett a couple years

00:26:05.000 ago and I like I like it took everything in me like I had to like very quietly be like

00:26:10.100 that ways of my weakness is a very important book to me like it was so embarrassing but all of my

00:26:16.080 friends too and like we all read this book it was one of those books in college where you like

00:26:20.960 it passed through every single person in the friend group yes and you can like remember vivid

00:26:26.280 things about it like there's a story about ice camping with a guy and like but I think really

00:26:32.840 lovely too to just kind of revisit that feeling of like falling deeply in love but then also

00:26:39.160 realizing that that that's not enough always right yeah yeah I think um a similar book for me

00:26:48.080 is the dot avocado by Elaine Dundee oh yeah which is an NYRB book so it's really beautiful but it's

00:26:55.220 about a an American girl I'm gonna call her a girl because she's 19 but she's girlish um who

00:27:03.480 goes to Paris and has adventures and falls in love many times. And it is delightful.

00:27:10.560 That's a very NYRB book. Can you describe for listeners what an NYRB book is, like these

00:27:16.400 reissues? Yeah, there's a publisher that makes, first of all, all their books are beautiful and

00:27:22.940 all of their spines line up together to make a beautiful little stack on your bookshelf.

00:27:29.200 very pleasing it's very pleasing and what they've done is they've taken lost classics from

00:27:36.660 mostly from the last century but some from before um and kind of reintroduce them as a little bit

00:27:44.740 more like i think that myrb is great curation oh yeah new york review of books yeah it's so good

00:27:55.440 at curation that you also know that if they're doing the reissue of that book it's worth a read

00:28:02.080 yeah and it doesn't mean like highfalutin necessarily yeah no it's stuff that like

00:28:09.120 i'm trying to like a version of like a book that was like very celebrated and everyone read it

00:28:15.420 in like 1932 right yeah and then like it just kind of got lost in that like you know the maze

00:28:22.880 of the decades right because it wasn't it didn't become like a classic for all time right but it

00:28:27.460 was like a classic of that moment um okay next question from cheney i love ann tyler she does 0.84

00:28:35.680 an amazing job at writing complex family dramas from dinner at the homesick restaurant to searching

00:28:40.840 for caleb to french braid her work is prolific and nuanced i've found two other authors who have

00:28:48.040 some similar talent for family dramas, Jamie Attenberg and Claire Lombardo. Now that I've

00:28:53.940 finished all of their works, I'm looking for another author with good family dramas. I asked

00:28:59.760 ChatGPT, but the author it suggested, Elizabeth Stroup, doesn't capture the nuanced and multifaceted

00:29:06.020 nature of families like the other three. Any suggestions? I love this question. I love like

00:29:12.940 chat gbt don't listen to chat no never go ask your bookseller what they would recommend so i have i

00:29:21.080 have an unexpected recommendation perhaps okay but he blurbed jamie attenberg's most famous book

00:29:31.160 the middle steens yes um and it's jonathan franzen i was just gonna say jonathan we're on the same

00:29:39.080 page another my note my note to myself here was unfortunately i'm going to have to suggest

00:29:45.160 yeah he's he's he's good at it multiple points of view all family members struggling like freedom

00:29:56.440 is so freaking good like i remember when i was reading it and i was like god damn it this is so

00:30:01.940 good like you really can't go wrong i mean the corrections so good exquisite like yeah i haven't

00:30:09.740 read crossroads but charlie read it and really liked it i enjoyed it a lot yeah it's and they're

00:30:15.080 also like very similar to what she's describing like they're enveloping you're like i am very

00:30:20.080 invested in this family and there is a lot of complication going on and a lot of understanding

00:30:25.700 of like the complexity of human relationships with like all of it i would also mention another man

00:30:31.800 we're really um you might know kevin wilson from now is not the time to panic and a couple of other

00:30:39.400 books but his first book is perfect and it's called the family fang and it's about the fang

00:30:45.660 family and how messed up they are and it is so funny and poignant uh i highly recommend 1.00

00:30:52.900 he is so funny he's just like i'm always surprised by how much i laugh when i when i read his books

00:30:59.160 And then the other person I was going to recommend is Louise Erdrich, because all of her books, they're all connected in some tenuous ways, like either by place, but oftentimes by actual family.

00:31:12.480 If you can deal with short stories, some people like they're just allergic to them.

00:31:17.120 I understand why, but maybe challenge yourself and read Love Medicine, which is like the classic of all of her many classics.

00:31:24.820 So underlineable.

00:31:26.480 Oh, my God.

00:31:27.280 So good.

00:31:28.000 But then, like, a lot of her recent ones, too, are really telling the story of various families and how, like, their weird relationship with one another.

00:31:38.880 Like, there's so many characters.

00:31:41.200 Yes.

00:31:41.940 I always sing the praises of the Master Butcher Singers Club.

00:31:46.940 I always get the, like, the apostrophes mixed up there.

00:31:50.340 But it's loosely based.

00:31:51.540 So Louise comes from, she's Ojibwe, and then she also has German ancestors.

00:31:59.060 And so this is kind of focused on some of the lineage of those German ancestors in North Dakota.

00:32:05.180 Oh, fascinating.

00:32:05.540 I haven't read that one.

00:32:06.860 And that's...

00:32:07.820 Yeah, I love it.

00:32:09.700 It's also a really beautiful love story.

00:32:12.760 And then also, like, I love The Night Watchman.

00:32:15.320 It's probably my favorite of her recent ones.

00:32:17.480 something like La Rose is just beautiful devastating yeah so check out like read some

00:32:24.860 of the descriptions for that and see if there's something that catches you I hope that this person

00:32:29.500 dives into all of these yeah like very different sorts of families and wonderful in their way

00:32:35.520 okay next request comes from Molly I am always looking for more of what I call grown-up Nancy

00:32:42.080 drew books, but I'm picky about the style and characters. I loved and read all of Sue Grafton's

00:32:48.920 novels. I love Sarah Grand's Claire DeWitt books and a lot of her other work. I enjoy old Mary

00:32:55.340 Stewart books like The Moonspinners, less for her heroine's 1960s notions of romance and more for

00:33:01.340 the adventurer and the settings. I've realized what I love in all these books is a very strong

00:33:06.600 and beautifully written sense of place. Until I read them, I always assumed that Sue Grafton's

00:33:12.000 books would be super cheesy, but I found the main character compelling and was enraptured by the way

00:33:17.340 Grafton weaves a history of buildings, cities, and geology into the novels. That world building

00:33:23.720 stuck with me long after plot details faded. Do you have more ideas for other mystery-ish

00:33:29.080 writers with female lead characters and a strong sense of place, with heroines who are connected

00:33:34.760 to or making connections in their worlds. There's psychedelic and spiritual elements that I love in

00:33:40.560 the Claire DeWitt books. I've read Laura Lipman, Tana French, Marsha Muller, so many others, but

00:33:46.580 they never quite hit the same spot. The closest fit I can think of is maybe some of William Gibson's

00:33:52.120 books, like Pattern Recognition. This is a genre that I don't have a ton of experience in, but the

00:33:57.920 one thing I noticed from this list, and maybe she just didn't say it, is that she didn't mention

00:34:01.860 Liz Moore, who is the author of God of the Woods is the most recent, but Long Bright River is an

00:34:07.960 incredible sense of place. Yeah. So that would be if if you haven't read that, I think that that

00:34:14.840 would be worthwhile. What do you have ideas here? I mean, this is a tough one, because usually people

00:34:21.680 ask me for like, I've read a ton of French, what else can I read? And I tell them Sarah Graham. So

00:34:27.280 you're at a disadvantage i i would say i remember reading sue grafton's novels a long time ago

00:34:35.880 in high school and the person i was reading at the same time who might have been a copycat

00:34:43.040 a little bit because she used numbers instead of letters uh for the titles of her books

00:34:48.840 was Janet Ivanovic and I remember really enjoying her characters and her dialogue and uh that might

00:34:59.120 be something to check out um and if you want to branch out a little bit I don't there aren't that

00:35:05.520 many women private eyes that that you haven't heard of I'm assuming but there are a lot of

00:35:12.600 great crime and mystery writers who um have one-offs that are are so fun like if you haven't

00:35:20.340 read megan abbott she is oh yes wonderful and she writes about place but also the relationships

00:35:29.540 between women for the most part um you could try dare me or the turnout uh one set in cheerleading

00:35:37.500 one set in ballet oh or what's the one the fever i think the fever so good and like hers it's a

00:35:45.180 sense of place but it's also like almost like a tactile like evocation of feeling of the place

00:35:51.500 too she's so heavily influenced by noir and you can feel that in her books like just a real feeling

00:36:00.280 of uncanniness and she is an exquisite writer so i would that's a really great recommendation as

00:36:07.260 well i actually have one too if that's okay oh yeah melody please um it is maybe a little bit

00:36:13.780 of a stretch but maybe not uh alan bradley's flavia deluce series she is an 11 year old

00:36:21.400 detective in her like quaint little english town in i want to say like the 1950s and she's also

00:36:29.620 obsessed she hates her sisters or stepsisters and she's obsessed with like making poisons but

00:36:35.620 the town and there are like 12 of these so if you just really want to like be in this little village

00:36:42.200 you have 12 books to go through but she's just very charming and they're kind of like darkly

00:36:48.320 funny and yeah girl detective love obsession with poisons it's great yeah okay this next one's from

00:36:57.240 auburn i have kind of a niche question which is why i would love your help but i would love to

00:37:02.480 read some more stories with non-binary lead characters or even a main character in an ensemble

00:37:08.180 and I'm hoping that you can recommend a contemporary workplace drama or a socially

00:37:14.440 conscious rom-com or romance. Most of the recommendations I've gotten from other people

00:37:20.160 are fantasy stories and I'm looking for something different. Some recent-ish books and authors that

00:37:26.380 I love include Back After This by Linda Holmes, Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle

00:37:32.040 Zevin, Detransition Baby by Tori Peters, Kim Ji-yong, born 1982 by Cho Nam Joo, The Other

00:37:39.700 Black Girl by Zakiya Dahlia Harris, The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa, or Beauty Queens by

00:37:45.620 Libba Bray.

00:37:46.540 So I would love to hear what you've got to recommend, and thank you for everything that

00:37:50.600 you do to put this together.

00:37:52.080 Yeah, so this one I might need some help on because I can tell you about novels with non-binary

00:38:01.340 characters yeah but i don't know a ton of non-binary characters in romances and i can see

00:38:09.440 that there are a lot out there but i just have not waited in to see what what quality they are

00:38:16.360 so if you haven't you should for sure read nevada by imogen binnie um and that's about

00:38:24.460 a trans woman in Brooklyn who takes a road trip to California and all of her adventures on the way.

00:38:33.660 And also, Paul takes the form of a mortal girl, which is really about shape-shifting.

00:38:39.720 That's by Andrea Lawler. I also didn't have recommendations for this, and I think that's

00:38:44.380 a testament to the fact that I haven't read broadly enough in contemporary romance.

00:38:49.200 um but melody do you have ideas yeah i had one um i've it's been a couple years since i've read it

00:38:55.680 but love and other disasters by anita kelly it takes place on a cooking competition show and

00:39:02.000 it's two contestants who fall in love and one of them is non-binary and sort of comes out on

00:39:09.980 national television and it's a very stressful experience but i remember it just being really

00:39:14.820 delightful. The other thing that this is a great opportunity for is for people to find suggestions

00:39:20.080 and put them in the comments because I know that that often works really well. So that's part of

00:39:24.520 why I wanted to include that question is because even if we don't have a ton of examples, I wanted

00:39:29.700 other people to be able to chime in. So our next request is from Lamar. Three novels I love are

00:39:35.860 The Group by Mary McCarthy, The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer, and Rules of Civility by Amar Tolles.

00:39:42.180 Common threads are friendship as a center of the story, as well as striving and identity

00:39:46.820 formation.

00:39:47.800 But mainly, I just find these novels both very smart and very fun to read.

00:39:51.980 I mean, the lines of dialogue in the group.

00:39:54.560 Every few pages, I was texting snippets to my college roommate for marveling purposes.

00:39:59.020 I also love these three books.

00:40:01.060 So, amazing question.

00:40:02.920 I appreciate it. 0.96

00:40:03.780 My first thought is actually, Mary McCarthy's The Company She Keeps. 0.98

00:40:07.360 Aha!

00:40:08.460 Have you read that?

00:40:09.320 No, I have not.

00:40:10.100 just just the group yeah so the group is so well known and so great and so big and like so elaborate

00:40:17.880 and then the company she keeps is short stories and they're like they're my understanding if i'm

00:40:24.140 remembering this correctly is that they're loosely based on some parts of her own life but they i

00:40:29.740 like all of that wit that you associate with mary mccarthy like reflected a little bit more back

00:40:34.420 onto herself i thought was very interesting and then the other one that i have been recently

00:40:39.700 talking about in various threads on culture study is olivia wolfgang smith's mutual interest

00:40:44.820 which i think has that same incredible snappiness so witty and fun um and there is a friendship

00:40:54.460 an unexpected friendship that really is at the root of it um and and various love stories too

00:41:01.480 but like we'll give you that same sort of like that dialogue that sharpness for lack of a better

00:41:08.800 much about smells oh yes totally and candles and like yeah really great really great do you have

00:41:17.740 other recommendations here i do um one of my favorite recent books i think it came out a few

00:41:24.380 years ago is we ride upon sticks by quam berry and it's about a field hockey team in the 80s

00:41:33.340 everyone has a distinctive character and the way they interact is just so fun and it's really all

00:41:41.820 about figuring out who you are um the other one i wanted to mention was help wanted by adele

00:41:47.660 waldman um yeah this is about a group of workers at basically what is meant to be assumed to be a

00:41:57.180 target and, um, how they all work together to, uh, get one of their enemies out of management,

00:42:08.900 but also just like, it's a little bit more mundane. It's not about rich people,

00:42:14.040 but it's really, really good and, um, really reflects, I think the country we live in.

00:42:22.020 And I also was thinking about not too on the nose that this person wants books that have friendship and striving at their heart. But this book called My Friends by Sean Mattar is about basically like, okay, what happens when you are essentially exiled from your country, from Libya in this case, starting when you are 18 and like have to figure out with other exiles, like who you are?

00:42:51.020 Are you Libyan? Are you British? What is your future? Can you ever return? What it's going to be like if and when some people in your group return. And it's not a big bombastic book. It is a book that is at its heart about friendship and identity formation.

00:43:08.040 And I learned so much about everything that happened over the course of the last 30 years in Libya and really loved it.

00:43:17.620 Really strong recommendation.

00:43:19.080 So, next up, the question comes from Nimi.

00:43:25.520 My recent favorite novels have been The Trees by Percival Everett, Flashlight by Susan Choi, and Our Share of Night by Mariana Enriquez.

00:43:33.960 And my favorite novel is Still the Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt.

00:43:37.420 Please recommend any books that are similar.

00:43:40.500 Okay, Maris, what do you see us connecting these four?

00:43:42.700 What I think is connecting these four is that they are quirky, experimental, and really well-written.

00:43:55.520 Yes.

00:43:56.360 And that's, I don't think there's much other connective tissue, and that's okay because these are all of my favorite books, too.

00:44:05.220 Yes.

00:44:05.620 have you read ursa daily wards the catch not yet no so i just finished it and it is quirky

00:44:13.660 extremely well written uh daily ward is a poet first and foremost and like i always think of um

00:44:20.460 there was a review of michael and doge's the english patient which was my favorite book for

00:44:26.040 all of like high school and early college but the review on the back said like michael and doge

00:44:30.920 writes with the heart of a poet and like that is absolutely at the heart of the catch but it's also

00:44:36.680 a thriller and about like what happens when you think that your adoptive mom maybe a time traveled

00:44:43.980 back to like kind of terrorize you at the same age that you were when she gave you a for adoption 0.97

00:44:51.440 oh and also you have a twin um yeah it's super fucked up and interesting and i texted melody 0.93

00:44:57.960 like I don't know about 30 pages before I was done and I was like I'm gonna I my the way I'm 0.81

00:45:04.360 gonna feel about it is going to be decided by how she pulls off this ending and she pulled it off

00:45:08.820 so I've been recommending that and it also will make you think and like talk about it for a long

00:45:13.020 time oh I love that what are your other recommendations there's a Danish book there

00:45:19.340 is a Danish series I should say that's been making in the rounds um I read the first one

00:45:25.800 absolutely loved it it's called on the calculation of volume and it's i'm gonna butcher the author's

00:45:34.000 name um so please just put in the notes but um it's it's a time loop novel yeah but it's a time

00:45:43.500 loop novel unlike any one i've ever read and it'll get you thinking about like who am i if if you

00:45:53.580 pulled back from the rest of the world. Interesting. So the volumes one and two are

00:46:00.580 out now. And I think volume three is coming this fall. But that is so fun and so different and so

00:46:08.240 beautifully written. I would also suggest as big favorites, The Old Drift by Namwali Serpil.

00:46:16.360 yes yes it's a big huge book and there is so much going on but it's set in i mean the last samurai

00:46:25.760 also a big huge book yes so yes perfect um and it like contains some sci-fi in there and there's

00:46:34.700 like magical realism it's got everything and it's set in rhodesia slash zambia and it spans

00:46:44.260 decades and places and it's wonderful the other one that immediately came to mind that maybe this

00:46:50.940 person is totally read as cloud atlas which like is i think it's like over recommended but also

00:46:55.760 like partly because it's so good fucking good and then the other one that i thought of was 0.65

00:47:01.660 yael van der woorden's the safe keep yeah which is fucking sick like what a good book um it's about 0.92

00:47:11.260 a woman in post-war uh netherlands who ends up like her mom dies and so it's just her in this 0.94

00:47:19.560 house and trying to figure out like like she's very prickly about anyone else being in her space 0.99

00:47:25.220 and then her brother's like i met this woman i have to leave for work this can this woman come 1.00

00:47:29.960 stay with you and the sister's like i hate you i hate everything the woman comes to stay and let's 0.56

00:47:38.080 just say revelations happen um it is just so good on so many levels and also doing something formally

00:47:45.660 I think that's really interesting um yeah and everyone that I've recommended that to and I've

00:47:52.020 recommended it very strongly in the newsletter has really liked it so yeah I love that I would

00:47:57.100 also say especially if you love the trees I would say try the sellout by Paul Beatty oh yes it is

00:48:04.780 also absurd and funny and yes uh incredibly upsetting too and um the language in that

00:48:17.380 it's where poetry meets rap i think and uh there are jokes within jokes jokes within lines

00:48:26.140 and i've just never experienced writing like that do you think that maybe this person would like

00:48:33.540 uh miriam toes too maybe fight night is very funny and very formally inventive in terms of like

00:48:42.620 stream of consciousness of a young girl and i loved it like it is just addictive so good and

00:48:49.780 and i would say one of my top favorite books of all time is miriam tevz's all my puny sorrows

00:48:58.940 yeah um and that's it is that how you say it is it tevs i only learned when i was profiling her

00:49:05.400 for buzzfeed you're like she writes about different versions of her characters are

00:49:14.620 different versions of her family members and um she comes from a very religious background she

00:49:21.840 is a Mennonite or was and it's about being in between these two two worlds also a warning that

00:49:31.800 if you jump into her catalog like you won't leave for several yeah like it's very you you're like

00:49:38.680 okay I read that I want to read a lot more by her and there is a lot more today's episode is brought

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00:53:25.840 All right, we've got a few more requests for recommendations, and then we'll do the AAA

00:53:34.100 segment. This next question comes from Anna Leah. I'm always looking for literary page turners,

00:53:39.720 ideally by a non-man. Some favorite fiction pieces include Bel Canto by Ann Patchett, 0.99

00:53:46.320 Gilead by Marilynne Robinson, I Know It's Slow, Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead,

00:53:51.260 The Mix-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsberg, and Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi.

00:53:58.820 I'm also a fan of Maggie Nelson, Eula Biss, Patrick Rating-Keefe, Randy Schultz, and John Krakauer,

00:54:04.740 who all write excellent creative nonfiction, especially sort of narrative or journalistic

00:54:09.560 styles. So I guess I want thought-provoking beautiful language, but not at the expense

00:54:14.760 of intrigue and suspense. A fairly early inciting incident can help. Looking forward,

00:54:21.260 to your recommendations. Thank you. The first thing that came to my mind was Robert Kolker's

00:54:26.440 Hidden Valley Road. Yep. I read a lot of nonfiction for the newsletter. It is not what

00:54:30.940 I read for my pleasure reading, but there are rare exceptions and they're almost always things

00:54:35.300 that people describe as like contemporary nonfiction page turners. And that is what

00:54:40.480 Hidden Valley Road is. It's about a family that has a very, there's I think eight siblings and

00:54:45.820 a very high incidence of schizophrenia and have been a way for people to understand. This is in

00:54:55.160 like the 1950s, 60s, 70s, a way for people to understand like the occurrence and development

00:54:59.940 of schizophrenia. And I know that that sounds like it's not a page turner, but it somehow is,

00:55:05.260 which is a testament to Kolker's skill. So yeah, I've been in a real nonfiction kick. So I love

00:55:11.100 this question um i just read a marriage at sea which came out a couple weeks ago by sophie

00:55:17.540 elmhurst and it's true story of a married couple in the uk who decide to travel around the world

00:55:27.320 together by boat and halfway through uh they get through the the pacific ocean their boat sinks

00:55:36.000 and they are stuck on a raft together and this is real you can google all the images of them

00:55:44.500 i mean spoiler alert they they lived which is good you know it gets harrowing there for a little

00:55:51.080 while but it's like really propulsive and short and and very sweet i also want to if you're looking

00:56:00.860 for fiction that's really fast-paced and fun there's two good ones that came out this year

00:56:05.680 that i want to talk about great black hope by rob franklin um which feels to me like a version of

00:56:15.120 bright lights big city by jay mcinerney but told the the narrator is black and queer and so the

00:56:24.060 the perspective completely changes and franklin is just so good at descriptions that kill um it's

00:56:34.080 great and then the dream hotel by leila lalami oh yeah which you know she is one of our best

00:56:40.900 literary writers and uh she's written a thriller about a woman who is arrested and held in prison

00:56:49.220 for a potentially murderous dream that she had charlie read that when we were on like a little

00:56:57.080 weekend getaway a little bit ago and he was like he had just written a story basically that was

00:57:01.620 dealing with some of these themes of like how surveillance is going to know everything that

00:57:05.120 like pre-surveillance and all that sort of thing and he's like this is too close it's really like

00:57:09.920 um and then i would also say because you mentioned lily king my favorite lily king is euphoria

00:57:15.340 oh my favorite lily king too everyone who likes writers and lovers more is wrong absolutely okay

00:57:21.140 we're on the good team yeah and that talk about propulsive that is a oh my god so good maris i

00:57:30.300 I mean, okay, how do we describe it?

00:57:31.620 I had to describe it for the newsletter earlier.

00:57:33.440 It's like a Margaret Mead-ish type of love story.

00:57:38.400 Three young gifted anthropologists.

00:57:40.880 Sorry, I'm reading the marketing copy for you now.

00:57:43.540 Yes, please.

00:57:45.700 In Papua New Guinea.

00:57:47.720 In Papua New Guinea.

00:57:49.560 In like the 1920s, 1930s.

00:57:52.400 1930s.

00:57:53.260 Yeah.

00:57:54.800 More recently, I loved Iowa and Ivy's Blackwood's Blue Sky.

00:58:00.300 I didn't think I was going to love it.

00:58:04.040 And then it like really pulled me in.

00:58:06.240 It's about a woman in, I would probably think like the 80s,

00:58:10.440 who is working at a little hotel and like lodge in the middle of nowhere in Alaska

00:58:16.480 and has a young daughter and is just trying to figure out a better life for herself.

00:58:20.840 And then this guy who has a tiny little cabin in the middle of the woods,

00:58:25.660 who's very quiet, is like, why don't you come live with me?

00:58:29.740 and it's menacing in a really interesting way. I'll just say that. And then other one for

00:58:37.020 inciting incident. Have you read Julia Phillips' Disappearing Earth? Oh, I have that first. I had

00:58:41.940 that as a recommendation for someone else, but I recommend it for everybody. It's got so many

00:58:47.160 things. Yes. And you'll learn about a part of the world that you almost certainly don't know

00:58:51.980 anything about, which is a very remote part of Russia where there are a lot of indigenous people.

00:58:58.480 And yeah, it's fantastic. It's about like a missing girl. Am I right, Maris?

00:59:04.400 Yes, a girl goes missing. And then it's almost like a Rashomon type of thing where we

00:59:09.780 get different perspectives on what might have happened. And every single character in that

00:59:15.900 book is fascinating. Beautifully written, too. Really liked it. Okay, we got one more before

00:59:21.400 the AAA segment. This is a hard one for me. This is from Rachel.

00:59:25.520 I'm a big fan of Ellen Hildebrand, and since I'm nearly finished with all of her books,

00:59:30.280 I'm looking for comfort reads with a similar vibe.

00:59:33.300 I've read a few books by Jennifer Weiner, they were pretty good,

00:59:36.520 and currently enjoying a book by Meg Mitchell-Moore.

00:59:39.260 I also loved God of the Woods.

00:59:41.080 I tend to enjoy more real housewives-type drama, maybe a touch of family drama and dynamics.

00:59:48.080 A romantic plotline is okay, but I don't like it when the entire book is romance-focused.

00:59:53.200 A contemporary setting in New England is great, but I'm open to other locations or time periods.

00:59:59.120 Also, please know Jane Austen. I'm not really a fan. Sorry. Looking forward to your suggestions.

01:00:05.160 All right. So my note to myself is to say, is it weird that Elizabeth Strout is a comfort read for me?

01:00:12.260 I get it. I get it.

01:00:15.040 It's just like cranky, waspy New Englanders. 0.99

01:00:18.800 those are real housewives a lot of them that's very funny yeah not like fancy real housewives 0.59

01:00:25.220 they're like solitary real housewives like embittered towards the world who like come

01:00:31.340 alive to like the the prospect of potential friendship or companionship um i have a great

01:00:38.820 one because i just finished reading it and it's perfect it's called these summer storms by sarah

01:00:45.060 McLean. Yes, yes. And this is her first contemporary novel. She's a master of historical

01:00:54.380 romance. And I think Ellen Hildebrand should watch her back is all I'm going to say.

01:01:00.540 So we had Sarah on the podcast when she was like early on promoting this and she described it. And

01:01:06.120 I was like, that sounds amazing. Melody, she also wrote in her note on this question,

01:01:12.000 these summer storms duh so you guys are very much i have the copy right next to me i i like that

01:01:19.020 should be next treat yourself um i would also say seating arrangements by maggie shipstead

01:01:24.380 is very it's it's waspy contemporary new england and it's about a family coming together

01:01:32.640 to celebrate a wedding and have a bunch of hijinks and i think that also led me to to think

01:01:39.780 about The Wedding People, which I think is a big bestseller now by Alison Esbach. So you might

01:01:46.140 have already read it or heard about it. But yeah. And then if you want to get into classic Real

01:01:54.060 Housewives. Yes. Olivia Goldsmith. She wrote The First Wives Club, which is delightfully bitchy.

01:02:02.940 But she has a whole list of books that she's written and they are all delightful. And if you

01:02:08.580 can find them uh that's fun that is that's such a great example i love that um and we should also

01:02:15.680 say that these summer storms is about a family right that comes together for like a weekend a

01:02:22.060 week it's about a billionaire who dies and leaves his family with a kind of with tasks to do before

01:02:32.960 they can find out what they've been left and there's a romance subplot and there's a romance

01:02:38.200 whole book yes so perfect it's great absolutely perfect um okay so our last question this is for

01:02:46.280 if you've listened to all of this and you're like this sounds great but i haven't been able to focus

01:02:50.300 on reading at all like thanks for all these names gonna put them down and then i'm not gonna read

01:02:54.980 any of them we have ideas so this is the ask in anything segment and it's just for paid subscribers

01:03:00.560 so if you want our tips for getting back into the reading habit or even to start a reading habit

01:03:05.620 from scratch, head to culturestudypod.substack.com and become a paid subscriber. Maris, where can

01:03:12.040 people find you on the internet if they want to hear more from you? They can find me at

01:03:15.720 themarisreview.com, which is my newsletter. I like a pun. And I'm also on Blue Sky at Maris.

01:03:26.820 I got in early, so I got at Maris. Thank you so much for joining me. This is such a pleasure.

01:03:33.400 This was so fun. Thank you so much.

01:03:35.620 Thanks for listening to the Culture Study Podcast.

01:03:42.000 Be sure to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts because we have so many great episodes

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01:04:20.140 The Culture Study Podcast is produced by me, Anne Helen Peterson, and Melody Rowell.

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01:04:26.480 You can find me on Instagram at Anne Helen Peterson, Melody at Melodious47, and the show

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01:04:34.860 Thank you.

Culture Study Podcast - August 27, 2025

Dozens of New-To-You Books for Your TBR Pile

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