Ep 515: I can't read all the books, and that's okay

Summary

---

What Should I Read Next?

Episode 515: I can’t read all the books, and that’s okay

Host: Anne Bogel
Guest: Holly Dyer
Date: February 24, 2026

---

Episode Overview

In this episode, Anne Bogel sits down with Holly Dyer, a mom, classical musician, and Modern Mrs. Darcy Book Club member from Massachusetts, to tackle bookshelf overwhelm and discover strategies for intentional reading. Holly shares her recent reading stresses, her journey back to books after a long hiatus, and her new mantra: “I can’t read all the books, and that’s okay.” The conversation offers empathetic, actionable advice for readers struggling to navigate the pressure to read “everything,” including tips on vetting books, pivoting reading approaches, and recommendations in the literary speculative fiction and short story genres.

---

Guest Introduction: Who is Holly Dyer?

[06:50] Holly Dyer:

• Lives in Mansfield, near Boston
• Mom to a three-year-old, wife, classical cellist, part-time freelance musician
• Works in admissions at a healthcare college
• Pursuing a certificate in nonprofit leadership
• Big into cooking, exercise, and is a self-confessed coffee snob
• Only truly came back to reading a few years ago, after her daughter was born

[08:39] Holly Dyer:

• Disconnected from reading in high school and college (“burnt out” by required texts and prescriptive teaching, made her feel like she “wasn’t a good reader”).
• Found her way back via reading Harvey Karp’s The Happiest Baby on the Block during motherhood.
• Reading became both a pleasure and a way to recharge during baby naps.

“From there, I really fell back in love with reading. And then I just have become such a voracious reader, and I'm just really glad that I have books back in my life.” (08:39)

---

Key Discussion Points & Insights

Holly’s Diverse Reading Life & Recent Challenges

[11:45] Holly Dyer:

• Enjoys a wide range (fiction, nonfiction, literary, classics, genre, investigative journalism)
• Reads about psychology, music, race, sociology
• Recently joined three book clubs, including Modern Mrs. Darcy Book Club

Reading Life Hurdles:
[13:57]/[14:12] Holly Dyer:

• Stress about “not reading enough”
• Trying to “fit in all the books,” stemming from a fear of missing out
• Inspired by Oliver Berkman’s 4000 Weeks and the finite nature of time.

“We are finite human beings. We only have more or less 4,000 weeks... I only have so much time. And with regards to my reading life, I've been feeling like I'm trying to fit in all the books.” (14:12)

[17:25] Anne Bogel:

• Draws parallel: “Do we need... an equivalent 4,000 books?”
• Acknowledges that even as a devoted reader, you can’t read it all, and that’s not only normal, but OK.

“It’s not all going to fit, but your reading life can accommodate a huge breadth of experience, but not all the potential experience.” (17:26)

---

The Mantra: "I Can't Read All the Books, and That's Okay"

[14:12]/[14:40] Holly Dyer:

• Developed this mantra with her therapist to combat reading overwhelm
• Finds it hard to truly internalize, but sees it as necessary first step
• Wants to shift reading decisions to reflect her genuine desires, not “shoulds” or peer pressure

“If I'm feeling some sort of... overwhelm with how am I going to read this and this and this and this? I can't read all the books. And that's okay. And it's taking a lot of work to like really believe that, but I think that's the first step for me.” (14:40)

---

The DNF (Did Not Finish) Dilemma & Decision Fatigue

[18:06] Holly Dyer:

• Embarrassed by how many books she’s started and dropped (six DNFed by late January)
• Describes recent reading as unsatisfying, “I made it pretty far in a few, one with just 30 pages left!”

[19:58] Holly Dyer:

• Now feels “bookish decision fatigue” – tired of the pressure to always pick the next right book
• Seeks ways to reduce exhaustion and find satisfaction in her choices

“I’m just having a hard time even just knowing what I want to read and also just getting a little exhausted of just constantly trying to figure out, well, what am I gonna read next?” (19:58)

Anne Bogel:

• Validates the experience: “When I feel like I’ve chosen poorly a few times in a row, I start to get nervous. I start to get really anxious about like, what am I even doing? Are there good books out there?” (20:32)

---

Book Matchmaking: Holly's Three Books She Loves

[24:39] Holly Dyer:

1. Maddie by Lisa Genova (fiction)

   • About a college student navigating bipolar disorder.
   • Loved the depiction of neurodivergence and Gen Z culture (“Maddie is just a huge Taylor Swift fan, so all of those tidbits were very entertaining.” (24:39))

2. Symphony of Secrets by Brendan Slocum (fiction)

   • Dual timeline, musicology mystery, representation in classical music
   • “The way that especially in the Frederick Delaney… storyline, like just the way that ambition and greed are portrayed is maybe just some of the best portrayals I've seen.” (27:40)

3. Invisible Child by Andrea Elliott (nonfiction)

   • Investigative journalism on a child and her family in poverty in NYC
   • “You can really tell how much care she put in reporting on this family and portraying their situation and also just really uplifting their humanity.” (30:43)

Book She Didn't Like

[33:28] Holly Dyer:

• Not Quite Dead by Holly Jackson
  • Premise intrigued her, but writing style felt simplistic and melodramatic
  • “I actually knew from page one that it was not going to work. But I still read the whole thing.” (33:28)
  • Dislike for adult books that read like YA with superficial maturity indicators

---

What Holly Is Reading Lately

[36:01] Holly Dyer:

• Every Day I Read by Hwang Bo Room (“group of 53 short essays about the reading life - loved it.”)
• This American Woman by Zarna Garg (“a lot more earnest than I was expecting, but I still really enjoyed it”)
• The Swimmers by Julie Otsuka (“Very unusual… but she got me to care about this group of swimmers and the crack in a pool”)

---

Holly’s Reading Needs & Goals

[37:27] Holly Dyer:

• Wants fresh ways to mix up her reading (speculative fiction, short stories)
• Desires recommendations a bit outside her usual orbit, leaning literary & sci-fi
• Open to advice on “vetting” books before investing significant time or effort (“I would love some ideas for how I could just be a better discerner of will this book work for me or not before I actually think I’m committing to the book only to just DNF 90% in.” (37:27))

---

Anne's Advice: How to Vet Books Before Reading

[41:03] Anne Bogel:

• Check out MMD Book Club’s ‘Book School’ series (especially vetting session)
• Practical tips:
  • Look at the cover—what message does it send?
  • Who’s blurbed the book, and what does that indicate?
  • Read the epigraph, first paragraph, first five pages, and a random page (to see if later prose style fits you).
  • Review the acknowledgements.
  • Critically evaluate marketing copy vs. real content.
  • Ask, “Is this an experience I want to have?”
  • Consider your relationship with the recommending source (“Do I tend to sync with their reviews?”)
  • Balance positive and negative reviews to calibrate expectations

“The first five pages of the book have been worked to death… flip to the middle of the book. That can be more indicative of what the experience of reading the entire book will be like.” (43:20)

“I'm assessing the book but I'm also thinking about... do I want to step into these pages and enter that world?” (43:40)

---

On DNFing & Mindset for Short Story Collections

[51:58] Holly Dyer:

• Considers skipping stories in collections, recognizing, “If I'm not liking the story, maybe I'll just skip and go to the next one.”
• Anne: “...Just a taste would be enough to discover if the audacious and fantastical is something that delights you or... find maybe isn't for your reading life right now.” (52:31)

---

Anne’s Book Recommendations (with Timestamps)

1. The Light Pirate by Lily Brooks-Dalton

[46:14] Anne Bogel:

• Speculative, climate change dystopian novel set in Florida
• Coming-of-age story about Wanda, named after the hurricane that destroyed her home
• Focus: survival, shifting landscapes, emotional resilience
• Why Anne recommends: Literary and speculative, good on audio

“I'm hoping what you'll find is I did that. I was rooting for her so hard as she fought for survival and sought love and emotional and physical safety…” (48:55)

2. Bliss Montage by Ling Ma

[49:26] Anne Bogel:

• Short stories, “weird and fun and clever and perhaps disorienting”
• Surreal setups: woman whose husband speaks in dollar signs, living with all her exes, others involving invisibility drugs and mourning festivals
• Explores grief, broken trust, otherness with playful tone

“The story that [is] most memorable for me is one of a woman who's living with her husband, but her husband only speaks in the text in dollar signs... But it doesn't feel silly to read it. It feels like, whoa, what are you telling me?” (49:35)

3. Stories from the Tenants Downstairs by Sidik Fofana

[53:02] Anne Bogel:

• Eight interconnected stories set in a Harlem apartment building
• Explores gentrification, neighborhood changes, everyday life
• Diverse character POVs; compassionate, nuanced storytelling
• Especially good on audio but also recommended in print (per Holly’s preference)

“Some of these stories are pretty difficult to read. Like, there's hard stuff happening in these pages, but the overall tone is just really compassionate.” (55:03)

---

Memorable Quotes & Moments

• [14:40] Holly Dyer:
  “I can't read all the books, and that's okay. And it's taking a lot of work to like really believe that, but I think that's the first step for me.”

• [18:39] Holly Dyer:
  “One book I DNF'd with 30 pages left. I had read like 300 pages, and I was just like, I Can't. I just can't read another page.”

• [20:32] Anne Bogel:
  “When I feel like I've chosen poorly a few times in a row, I start to get nervous. I start to get really anxious about like, what am I even doing? Are there good books out there?”

• [43:20] Anne Bogel:
  “The first five pages of the book have been worked to death by multiple people... Flip to a page well into the book and read it and see how the prose is there.”

---

Actionable Takeaways for Overwhelmed Readers

• Accept the reality that you can’t read everything—give yourself permission to DNF or skip
• When overwhelmed with choices, revisit favorites in a different format (audio vs print)
• Approach short stories as modular—read what resonates, skip what doesn’t, guilt-free
• Develop a vetting process: identify what you truly want from your reading EXPERIENCE, not what you “should” read

---

Book Recommendation Recap

Speculative/Literary:

• The Light Pirate by Lily Brooks-Dalton ([46:14])
• Bliss Montage by Ling Ma ([49:26])

Short Stories/Contemporary Life:

• Stories from the Tenants Downstairs by Sidik Fofana ([53:02])

---

Episode's Closing Thoughts

Holly leaves the episode enthusiastic about all three picks, planning to start with The Light Pirate on audio, and feeling empowered to embrace a mindful, less pressured approach to reading. Anne’s empathetic, practical coaching offers a blueprint for any reader facing similar overwhelm, demonstrating that it’s more than okay to be selective and intentional in seeking out your next great read.

---

Transcript

[Holly Dyer]

So within the past, I want to say, few months or so, I've been kind of feeling stressed out by books.

[Anne Bogel]

That's my whoa. I mean, books are amazing. And also, this is relatable. Hey readers, I'm Anne Bogle, 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. Every week we'll talk all things books and reading and do a little literary matchmaking with one guest. Readers, it's been a great season in the modern Mrs. Darcy Book Club, and today's guest is an active member. So before we jump into that conversation today, I thought it would be fun to tell you more about what it's like to be a book club member. Here's a quick peek behind the scenes. Lately we've been reading Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers, a title that's shown up here on the podcast both as a recommendation and a past guest favorite. And we've been reading that because Jesse Q. Sutanto is joining us for our February Author Talk. These are live events where we're joined by a selected author and get to enjoy all kinds of great conversation. We've shared a few examples of those before here on the podcast, like our chat with Kevin Wilson that you heard in episode 499. In book club, we host author chats like these nearly every month, and it's no exaggeration to say it is always a good time. But that's not the only reason to love Book Club. We host a variety of events to deepen your reading life and connect with your fellow readers, like our readers day on February 7th, for which we invited our book club members to devote the whole day or a few chosen hours to the reading life. We included a suggested schedule and hosted an informal spring book preview Library Chat live from my library. We had a blast. And I don't even know how to tell you about our Polar Party, but it was so much fun and our members lead the way in all sorts of other events and activities, like our Community Picks. These are selected by our members through the discussion forums within Book Club. They're not our formal monthly selection, but a title that a smaller group of book club members decides to read together. Right now, a group of readers is enjoying For My Lady's Heart by Laura Kinsale. We often describe Book Club as a buffet there's so much to offer and not everything is for every reader, but you're sure to find something that you will really love. Come on over and check it [e-mail] club. That's modernmrsdarcy.com club readers we are deep in sweater weather right now, which means that I'm wearing my favorite sweaters from Quint on repeat. Whether I'm reaching for One of Quince's 100% organic cotton sweaters or or their luxurious Mongolian cashmere, all Laquintis items are made from the highest quality materials and everything is made to stand up to steady wear season after season. I love Quince's sweaters and they have so much more to offer. In my recent roundup on the blog about the things that really worked for me in 2025, one of those things was fun sheets and Quince has options for you. If your bed could do with a winter refresh. Check out Quince's sheets that come in basic neutrals and also fun patterns like florals, ginghams and stripes. These their European linen striped sheet set feels like it would be right at home in a charming European B and B and could bring those vibes to your bedroom as well. If you can't get enough of your cashmere sweaters, you can bring that same soft luxury into your bedroom with their Mongolian cashmere cotton pillowcase set. And Quince has everything else you need for bedding, duvet covers, decorative pillows, throws and blankets and more. Refresh your wardrobe with Quint's. Go to quince.com readnext for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. Now available in Canada too. That's Q-U-I-N c e.com readnext to get free shipping and 365 day returns. Quints.com readnext readers one of the things we do here on our show is help readers look at their reading life with fresh eyes. We've all fallen prey to habit and sometimes that can be a real bummer for your overall experience. Like when you end up paying too much for wireless service just because you haven't bothered to make the change. Fortunately, you don't have to overpay for wireless just because that's how it's always been. Mint Mobile is here to fix that problem. You'll have the same coverage and same speed, just without the inflated price tag. Mint Mobile is sure you'll be happy with their premium service. They offer a seven day money back guarantee and their customer satisfaction ratings tell a great story with ratings in the mid-90s and for a limited time, take 50% off 3, 6 or 12 month plans of unlimited Premium Wireless. I'm always happy to find a great price on a service I rely on like wireless, so I'll be checking out Mint Mobile's deals the next time I'm in the market for a new wireless plan. Ready to stop paying more than you have to? New customers can make the switch today and for a limited time, get Unlimited Premium wireless for just $15 a month. Switch [e-mail] ReadNext that's mintmobile.com ReadNext upfront payment of $45 for 3 months, $90 for 6 months or $180 for 12 month plan required. That's $15 a taxes and fees extra initial plan term only over 50 gig may slow when network is busy. Capable device required. Availability, speed and coverage varies. Additional terms apply. See MintMobile.com readers when today's guest wrote in to share her new mantra of I can't read all the books and that's okay, I couldn't wait to talk about it, and I thought many of you would relate to this sentiment. Holly Dyer's name might be familiar if you're a member of our book club or Patreon communities because Holly is an active member of both. She's a mom and classical musician from Massachusetts, and she's no stranger to a good book. But lately, Holly has been feeling stressed out about all the books she could be reading. This year, she'd like to refocus her reading time in order to read fewer books, spend more time with those titles and both explore longer books and devote time to rereading books she's loved before. Holly is excited about her 2026 goals, and I'm excited to hear more and help in any way I can. I already know that Holly would love to get my ideas on how to better vet the title she's interested in reading before actually deciding to read them, and that she'd also appreciate talking through how she might pare down all her ideas for her reading goals and projects. Bookshelf overwhelm is a common concern around here, so I know Holly's experience will resonate with many readers. Let's get to it. Holly, welcome to the show.

[Holly Dyer]

Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to be here.

[Anne Bogel]

Oh, I'm delighted to talk today. Thank you for sending in your submission and I can't wait to get into it. Holly, the first thing we want to do is give our readers a glimpse of who you are. Would you tell us a little about yourself?

[Holly Dyer]

Sure. So I live in the Boston area. I technically live in a town called Mansfield, which is halfway between Boston and Providence, Rhode Island. I am a mom to a little girl who just turned three a couple weeks ago. So we live here with my husband. I am by training and education, a classical musician. I'm a cellist, and I've done performing and educating. And I currently freelance part time in the New England area. During the day, I work in admissions at a small healthcare college. And I'm actually also going back to school. I am doing an online certificate program in what's called nonprofit leadership. And those are really the big things that keep my days busy. I'm, of course, a big reader, but I also love cooking. I love exercising, running. I really love a good pour over coffee. My husband and I identify as coffee snobs. So it's. It's a whole thing. It's a whole process with coffee in the morning. And we basically never do like Starbucks or anything. Only if we're desperate. Like, if it's. We're at the airport and it's five in the morning and we just need something.

[Anne Bogel]

Something I know about you, because Bridget talked to you about book clubs and our Patreon space last summer, is that you have not always identified as a reader. Would you tell us a little bit about your journey, your journey back to books?

[Holly Dyer]

I think, sure. So I only came into reading as an adult about a few years ago, and it actually coincides with when I had my daughter. I wasn't really reading at all for, I want to say, maybe like eight to ten years before that. I loved reading as a kid, and going through my high school and college English classes really burnt me out to reading. It was kind of a couple of things. I think it was being required to read books that I didn't really want to read. And actually, like, to this day, I can only tell you maybe three books that I remember having read in high school and college combined. And also the way that my teachers would talk about interpretations in the books, they would just be saying things that I. I was like, I have no idea how you got this at all. Like, I was like, I didn't get that at all in how you interpreted the book. And it made me feel like I wasn't a good reader. It made me feel not very smart. And then I think also something that I want to give credit to myself is that I was also just very busy. I was very busy during school and then even after school, you know, working full time. I think when I wanted to do a leisure activity, reading just wasn't something that came to mind. And then it wasn't until I had my daughter, I went through the newborn phase where she was just crying and crying, and we were exhausted, and we didn't know how to soothe her. So a friend of ours who actually works as a postpartum doula, she gave us this book called the Happiest Baby on the Block by Harvey Karp. As I was reading the book, the act of just reading it was very enjoyable to me. And I was kind of like, oh, reading is actually kind of fun. I was also at that point, I was looking for an activity that I could do while my baby was napping. So I was kind of thinking, what is an activity that I can do that is very relaxing, that can kind of help me recharge without actually trying to get myself to sleep? And reading became that answer for me. So from there, I really fell back in love with reading. And then I just have become such a voracious reader, and I'm just really glad that I have books back in my life.

[Anne Bogel]

I am, too. I'm so sad for young Holly in those years where you felt like you just didn't get it. But I'm glad that you're in a different place now. How would you describe your reading life the past three years or even right now?

[Holly Dyer]

I mean, overall, my reading life has been great. I read a lot of books. I also read very widely, and I do think having a variety in what I'm reading is a really important thing for me. I like to read a mix of fiction and nonfiction, and I've been recently reading more literary fiction, some classics. I'm trying to kind of, as part, partly of feeling maybe like, a little behind with not reading for, you know, close to a decade. I feel like now I'm trying to kind of come back to some of the classics. And actually I've done a couple of rereads of books that I did read in high school. I also enjoy some genre fiction. I really enjoy romance. I enjoy mystery and thriller and trying to branch out more in some other genres that I haven't always read in, like, fantasy, sci fi. And then I really enjoy having nonfiction in my reading life as well. So narrative nonfiction, investigative journalism, I find really interesting. I read a lot about, like, race sociology and psychology. In addition to being a music performance major, I also got a degree in psychology in my undergrad. So I'm really Fascinated with the presence of psychology in my books, both fiction and nonfiction. And so I went onto the Patreon feed with Bridget and Shannon and they gave me some advice on essentially how to join a book club. I've kind of gone through quite a journey in finding my place in book clubs. But I would say as of now, I am a part of three book clubs that I really enjoy. So that's been feeling really good to me. And one of them is the modern Mrs. Darcy Book Club. I just joined that recently.

[Anne Bogel]

All right, I'm glad to hear it's feeling good. Holly, what brings you to what should I read next? Right now? What's top of mind for what you're looking for in your reading life?

[Holly Dyer]

So within the past, I want to say few months or so, I've been kind of feeling stressed out by books.

[Anne Bogel]

That's my whoa. I mean, books are amazing. And also this is relatable.

[Holly Dyer]

I've been actually going through just quite a pretty significant shift in even just how I'm thinking about what I want to read. I am currently rereading the book 4000 Weeks by Oliver Berkman. It is one of my favorite books of all time. I would say it is unlike any self help book that I have ever read. Essentially the thesis that he goes off of is that our time is finite. We are finite human beings. We only have more or less 4,000 weeks and we tend to constantly feel like we don't have enough time. We are not prioritizing the things that matter most to us. And that book has just been like a really great wake up call in recognizing that I only have so much time. And with regards to my reading life, I've been feeling like I'm trying to fit in all the books. I think I've been operating from the sense of I am going to read all the books. And it sounds silly, but I think I have subconsciously been trying to read as many books as I can. And I'm just starting to realize like, I can't do that. There's just no way. And kind of with my therapist, the two of us have created this mantra of I can't read all the books, and that's okay. And that has just been like my guiding focus of if I'm feeling some sort of like overwhelm with how am I going to read this and this and this and this? I can't read all the books. And that's okay. And it's taking a lot of work to like really believe that, but I think that's the first step for me is just having to accept that and then also from there, recognizing that. Because I can't read all of the books, how can I make choices about what I'm choosing to read and what I'm not choosing to read and to be okay with that. And if there's this, like, buzzy new release, but perhaps it's not going to hit with me the same way it's hitting with a lot of other readers, how can I choose to just not read that? Because I want to read something else. And I'd like to use the time that I have to spend on the books that I actively, genuinely want to read and not on the books that I'm feeling like I should read or I must read or I'm feeling pressured to read. I hope that helps.

[Anne Bogel]

It does help. So it sounds like Oliver Berkman's concept of 4,000 weeks has really resonated with you. Do we need, like, an equivalent 4,000 books? 3,000 books? 5,000, whatever it is.

[Holly Dyer]

I guess so.

[Anne Bogel]

It's not all going to fit, but your reading life can accommodate a huge breadth of experience, but not all the potential experience.

[Holly Dyer]

Right, right.

[Anne Bogel]

So, Holly, today I think we're going to be talking with the idea in mind that since you can't read everything, how do you want to spend your reading time?

[Holly Dyer]

Yeah, definitely.

[Anne Bogel]

You said a few different things brought you to the show today. What else do we want to put on the table before we get into the specifics of your books?

[Holly Dyer]

To be honest, I feel even a little embarrassed to talk about this, but

[Anne Bogel]

this is where everybody turns at the volume on their podcast.

[Holly Dyer]

And I think this is related to my epiphany about I can't read all the books. I have had a rough start to my year in terms of my reading. I have just been feeling not very satisfied. Again, I'll say. Within the last few weeks, I have been DNFing quite a lot. I think when I had submitted my form, I think I said I was up to four books that I've DNF'd. Now I'm up to six. Six books so far.

[Anne Bogel]

And we're talking on January 21st. So that's feeling like a pretty brisk clip for you.

[Holly Dyer]

Yes, definitely. And a few of them, I made it pretty far. Some of them I maybe got like 10% in. I was like, I don't think that's for me. So one book I DNF'd with 30 pages left. I had read like 300 pages, and I was just like, I Can't. I just can't read another page.

[Anne Bogel]

If you don't care, you don't care. Yeah, but this is new to you. It sounds like this is new to you.

[Holly Dyer]

I would say at this frequency it is for sure.

[Anne Bogel]

Holly, I find this very relatable and I know many of our listeners will as well, in that there's so much to know and there's so much that's interesting and so much that is important. And yet again, when we're looking at the obstacle of limited time, of a limited number of books you actually will be able to read, even though we don't know exactly what that number is, we want to think about how to make some choices. Holly, this is so helpful to hear. And I definitely want you to be satisfied with your reading life for the rest of 2026, insofar as you are able. Anything else you want me to know? Just before we really get into the specifics of your books, so kind of

[Holly Dyer]

related to the DNF piece, what is starting to happen now is I'm getting some like, bookish decision fatigue and I'm just having a hard time even just knowing what I want to read and also just getting like a little exhausted of just constantly trying to figure out, well, what am I gonna read next? What am I gonna read next? Am I gonna like what I'm gonna pick up reading next? And I'm just feeling a little tired with that, Holly.

[Anne Bogel]

I wish I didn't feel like I had so much personal experience with what you're talking about. That sense of when I feel like I've chosen poorly a few times in a row, I start to get nervous. I start to get really anxious about like, what am I even doing? Are there good books out there? And like, of course there are. And I do know a fair amount about my options and my own reading life, my own tastes and interests. And I imagine you do too. So I believe we can find our way to your metaphor choice. Sunnier skies, greener pastures, more abundant bookshelves. I'd love to get into the specifics of what has worked for you, maybe is working for you. Can we talk about your books next?

[Holly Dyer]

Yes, that sounds great.

[Anne Bogel]

Readers here in the gloomy days of winter, I've been looking around my house and realizing that a few places were in need of a little tlc. It's one thing for it to be gloomy outside. I don't want that to be the feel inside. Fortunately, Wayfair is a one stop shop with so many options to choose from when it's time to elevate your space. This time of year, lighting plays an especially big role in how comfortable our spaces feel. I've recently noticed places in my home where I haven't loved the lighting, like our bedroom where the overhead lights were just too bright for a cozy end of day routine. Once I realized this was a fixable problem, I scoped out Wayfair's great range of solutions. Whether you're looking for just the right lights or something else to refresh your space, Wayfair makes it easy to find what's exactly right for your house and your budget. For our new bedroom lighting, I was excited to have many options to choose from like table and floor lamps in every possible shape and size, including a small, pleasantly ambient table lamp I ended up picking up for the nightstand. In addition to great table and floor lamps, Wayfair offers an incredible range of choices for overhead lighting like chandeliers and flush mounts and even specialized lighting for cabinets and bookshelves. As for my house, my new table lamp is already making our space feel much more comfortable for evening reading and wind down routines in this season. Get organized, refreshed and back on track this new year. For way less, head to Wayfair.com right now to shop all things home. That's W A Y f a I r.com Wayfair Every style Every Home Readers we are dog people and we want to take the absolute best care we can of our yellow lap daisy. With so many options out there for dog food these days, it can be hard to know what to choose. The Pets Table is personalized dog food from the team behind HelloFresh. They offer both human grade fresh and gently air dried options and it's convenient. The air dried plan is shelf stable and is minimally processed to preserve actual nutrients like protein, vitamins and the antioxidants your dog needs to support their health. With the Pets Table, customize your plan for your dog's specific needs and choose from nine recipes all formulated with a board certified vet nutritionist. They even have allergen friendly and seafood options. We want to give our pets long happy lives, so finding easy ways to take the best care of them just makes sense. I'm excited about what the Pets Table offers, bringing nutrition and convenience together in one simple package. Help your dog live their best life with high quality food from the Pet's table. Take advantage of this limited time offer. Get 55% off your first box plus 10% off your next two at ThePetStable.com and use code READNEXT55. That's ThePetStable.com code READNEXT55. You know how this works? You're going to tell me three books you love, one you don't, and what you've been reading lately. And we're gonna see what we can do to get you out of your beginning of the year funk. How did you choose these books you brought to the show today?

[Holly Dyer]

These are really just when I'm considering some of my all time favorite books, I feel like these three books pretty easily came up to the surface. So the first two that I chose were fiction. The third one is a nonfiction and I wanted to have that be representative. I generally read like a two to one fiction nonfiction split. So like reading each of those books reminded me like this is why I love to read and this is what I love to get out of my reading.

[Anne Bogel]

Okay, that sounds great. What's the first book you love, more or less?

[Holly Dyer]

Maddie by Lisa Genova. Lisa Genova is a neuroscientist who also writes novels. And her novels focus on some sort of a neurological ailment or condition, but through a really engaging story. And this was her most recent book, came out about a year ago. The main condition that she's focusing on is bipolar disorder. So this book tells the story of Maddie, who is a college freshman sophomore at nyu. She goes through her freshman year kind of with some of the, I would say like typical, more relatable challenges of going to college, being away from home for the first time. And she gets into a little bit of a funk, a little bit of depression. She comes back home for the summer, she's feeling better, and then when she goes back for her sophomore year, she comes back into that depressive state. And that basically is the starting point of what spirals her into a series of depressive and manic episodes. She eventually gets diagnosed with bipolar disorder and is managing medications and also like how her family is taking the news of her diagnosis. She is also interested in becoming a stand up comedian. So there's some of that that's explored in the book. This was a real Paige Turner for me when I read it. So the way that Lisa Genova was able to make the reader really feel and understand and experience what it would be like to be in the brain of someone with bipolar disorder was just so compelling. It really blew away like any concepts that I've had of bipolar disorder, like through pop culture. And I also say that Lisa Genova did this from a third person narrative, which I thought was really impressive. I'll also Say the Gen Z components were just very funny and actually I thought were like much needed brevity to some of the more heavier sections in the book. Like Maddie is just a huge Taylor Swift fan, so all of those tidbits were very entertaining.

[Anne Bogel]

And it's only been out about a year, so I'm glad you have this great reading experience in the not too distant past. Holly, what's the second book you love?

[Holly Dyer]

Symphony of Secrets by Brendan Slocum. So probably no surprise that as a classical musician I love Brendan Slocum's books. So it centers on a black musicologist in present day New York City. He is invited by this foundation of a very prestigious composer to do some research on a piece that was recently discovered as being composed by this composer. And they wanted this musicologists to do research and to like transpose or just to kind of understand more of the composition. And then there's another timeline that happens in the past in 1920s jazz era New York, where we actually are seeing the life of that composer. And the composer is basically inspired by real life American composer George Gershwin. So that was. Those are fun tidbits for me to catch. And this composer develops this like working relationship with a black woman who is also neurodivergent. I just couldn't get enough of it. The way that especially in the. The Frederick Delaney that's the composer storyline, like just the way that ambition and greed are portrayed is maybe just some of the best portrayals I've seen in what I've read. And then it's very interesting to see how themes in the Frederick Delaney Josephine Reed storyline reflect what's happening in the present storyline with and navigating the foundation. And I'll also just say, as a classical musician, a big topic that Brendan Slocum raises is this matter of representation in classical music, particularly in composers and in the classical music industry. So many of the composers that we recognize and still play to this day are old dead white men. And there have been many of contributions by people of color, by women, by even composers that are currently alive that are just always overshadowed by like Beethoven or Mozart or Brahms. So to see that represented in a novel was just a really special element for me.

[Anne Bogel]

I'm so glad that worked for you. I love his work and readers. We have a podcast episode with Brendan Slocum which is so good. He's so much fun to listen to. We'll link that in our show notes. Holly, what is the third and final book you love?

[Holly Dyer]

This is my nonfiction. This one is called Invisible Poverty Survival and Hope in an American City by Andrea Elliott. And this is a investigative journalism about a family that lives in New York City. I want to say the reporting starts around the late aughts and kind of goes into the 2010s. The focus is on the oldest child, Dasani, who is living in poverty. And she is of a large family. She has two parents that are pretty chronically homeless, and she is one of eight siblings. And basically the reporter spent almost a decade with this family and reporting on their conditions in the shelters, navigating the welfare system, the foster care system. Some of the things that I really enjoyed with this book is like, you can really tell how much care she put in reporting on this family and portraying their situation and also just really uplifting their humanity. Like, yes, they're dealing with difficult situations, but, you know, they're also just like, being kids, and they're just like, goofing off and dancing in the train station and like, having birthday parties and still, like being normal kids, but just dealing with a situation that has been fueled by systemic racism. Something that Andrea Elia does is actually will, like, kind of draw back the family's lineage to times of enslavement, which I just remember being so impressed by. And, you know, I'll also say that this is one of those nonfiction books that reads like a novel. Like, again, I kind of come back to it was a page turner. It's a pretty unique nonfiction read, in my opinion. I would say this was a book that really made an impression on me on what nonfiction and narrative nonfiction can do.

[Anne Bogel]

I'm glad to hear that worked for you and worked well enough that you wanted to reread it.

[Holly Dyer]

Yeah, it did.

[Anne Bogel]

Holly, now can you tell me about a book that did not work for you? And I'd love to hear why. Not a good fit, not the right timing, not what you expected. What do you choose?

[Holly Dyer]

I chose Not Quite Dead yet by Holly Jackson. And the essential premise is that a young woman is attacked. Kind of out of nowhere. She's attacked by being hit. Hit in the back of the head with a pretty fatal brain injury and is given a essentially, like, she only has maybe seven days to live, and she is determined to figure out who was it that tried to kill her. Essentially, like, that sounds like a really great premise, and I was very excited to read it. This just did not really live up to what I was hoping for it to be. And I'll also preface by saying this was my first Holly Jackson. I never read A Good Girl's Guide to Murder. I know that's a very beloved series. And if I were to say my biggest complaint, I think it was the writing. The writing was very. It felt very simple. It had this feeling of like still being a YA novel, but because now there's a bunch of swear words in it, we have to technically say it's an adult novel. It was one of those that even when I kind of look back on my reading of it, I actually knew from page one that it was not going to work. But I still read the whole thing. Yeah. And I think just kind of as I kept going, I was starting to feel like I really needed to suspend my disbelief that, okay, how is someone who's been given this like fatal brain injury supposed to like have the functioning to solve her own murder? And then there were some big twists that were so melodramatic. I don't normally roll my eyes, but I did some big eye rolls in a couple of spots. So yeah, this just kind of fell apart for me. But I know that it's really well loved and I know that people really love this author and I wouldn't necessarily be against like trying A Good Girl's Guide to Murder, but this just kind of felt like she was trying to break out of the YA space and it didn't really completely work for me.

[Anne Bogel]

Holly, what have you been reading lately?

[Holly Dyer]

I recently read Everyday I Read. The subtitle is 53 Ways to Get Closer to Books by Hwang Bo Room and I really loved this. It's essentially a group of 53 short essays about the reading life. And it's kind of everything from how to read difficult books to how to write book reviews. What does it mean to be a parent who reads? Dealing with the bookish Internet. And I loved it.

[Anne Bogel]

Well, that one's been on my stack for quite a while, but I haven't popped it open yet. So thank you for the nudge.

[Holly Dyer]

Oh, of course. I've also been reading this American Woman, that's the memoir by Zarna Garg, and I really enjoyed that. That was really fun. You know, she's an Indian comedian, but also with kind of a crazy story. So it was a lot more earnest than I was expecting, but I still really enjoyed it. And then I just finished the Swimmers by Julie Otsuka and I loved that. Very unusual, but I don't know how she got me to care about this group of swimmers and the crack in a pool, but she did.

[Anne Bogel]

All right. I'm delighted to hear it. Holly, what are you looking for in your reading life right now I think

[Holly Dyer]

I'm just looking for some ways to just kind of change up what I'm reading. I think some examples are I have recently been loving speculative fiction and I would love some ideas because I actually don't have that many ideas for some good speculative novels that I would say lean a little more literary but still with a good sci fi bent. I just have started trying some short stories because I've been feeling a little burnt out by novels. So I'm currently reading Kazuo Ishiguro's short stories Nocturnes, which are also about music. So I'm loving that. If you had any ideas for how I could just be a better discerner of will this book work for me or not Before I actually think I'm committing to the book only to just DNF 90% in. I would love that.

[Anne Bogel]

Okay, this is gonna be fun Rolling up my sleeves. Let's dig in.

[Mark Chrysler]

From taco night in Tulum to sushi in Tokyo, every bite is rewarding and Pulse worthy with MX Gold's 4X Membership Rewards points at restaurants worldwide. Wherever you dine, points are piling up. So bring your friends along for your next course. Because it's not all about the posts, it's about the company and the memories. How can Gold from Amex sweeten your next food moment? Learn [e-mail] Explore Gold terms and Points Cap Apply When Johann Rall received the letter On Christmas Day 1776, he put it away to read later. Maybe he thought it was a season's greeting and wanted to save it for the fireside. But what it actually was was a warning delivered to the Hessian colonel letting him know that General George Washington was crossing the Delaware and would soon attack his forces. The next day, when Rawl lost the Battle of Trenton and died from two colonial Boxing Day musket balls, the letter was found unopened in his vest pocket. As someone with 15,000 unread emails in his inbox, I feel like there's a lesson in there. Oh well, this is the Constant A History of Getting Things Wrong I'm Mark Chrysler. Every episode we look at the bad ideas, mistakes and accidents that misshaped our world. Find [e-mail] or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Anne Bogel]

First. Holly to recap, you loved More or Less Maddie by Lisa Genova, Symphony of Secrets by Brendan Slocum and Invisible Child by Andrea Elliott. Not for your Was Not Quite Dead by Holly Jackson, and lately you've been reading every day. I Read by Wang Bo Ram, this American Woman by Zarna Garb and the Swimmers by Julie Otsuka. And you are looking to mix things up. Also, you're tired of choosing. So sometimes I want to give readers lots of options and lots of spaces. But I'm hearing you when you're saying you. You're intrigued by speculative and sci fi. It's working for you lately. You like books that lean a little more literary, and short stories are. Did you say they're working for you or you want to try and see if they do?

[Holly Dyer]

I would like to try short stories more. I mean, there's something about short stories. Like as I'm going through this casual Ishiguro collection, that may be what I need right now. So I would love some more ideas.

[Anne Bogel]

Okay, we'll get you some ideas. Is that going to be plural? I think that's going to be plural also. You are tired of choosing. I will keep that in mind. But let's start with how to vet books. I have good news for you about this. You mentioned that you're a modern Mrs. Darcy Book Club member. We did a book school series a few years back that is Evergreen, and it's six sessions in which I answer questions readers ask all the time, and they're short and punchy. My initial goal was 20 minutes a session. They ended up being more like 30 plus Q&A. But we talk about things like how and why to track your reading, strategies to review anything, how to talk books in a way that you feel good about that sounds interesting to other readers. How to plan what you're going to read and why and how. But also the final session is on how I vet books, where I'm just saying this is what works for me. And maybe some of these ideas will work for you as well. So we will put a link to that session in the show notes and you could go watch it this afternoon. But some of the things that I do just to give you a taste of it, definitely not the 30 minutes. I mean, what I do is I like kind of walk everybody into the bookstore with me or browsing the Internet to say, like, these are the things I'm paying attention to, including the COVID Like we always say, don't judge a book by a cover, but it has to be said, like, what kind of message is the COVID sending? Are there blurbs on the book? And we're paying attention to those too, though probably not for the reason you think. I look at the epigraph, the first paragraph, the first five pages, if I have time, I Flip to a page well into the book and read it and see how the prose is there. The purpose of flipping to a page later in the book is the first five pages of the book have been worked to death. They have been edited by multiple people and carefully crafted to make the best first impression possible on you, the reader. But before that it was on the editor, on the agent. So you flip to the middle of the the book. That can be more indicative of what the experience of reading the entire book will be like. I really like to look at the acknowledgments before I pick up the story. Something else we talk about a lot is how to review the marketing copy and think about parsing out what the marketing is saying and how it might be different from what's inside the book. And also how both those things connect to what you are looking for or what you're willing to try in your reading life right now. How's that sounding?

[Holly Dyer]

That sounds great.

[Anne Bogel]

Now some things that I do when I'm not standing in the middle of the bookstore when I am on the Internet is I think really carefully about why do I want to read this book? Where is my recommendation coming from? Now sometimes I just saw it on the shelf or I just stumbled across it in Publishers Weekly say. But that would be something like what's my relationship with Publishers Weekly? Do I tend to sync with their reviews? Now Publishers Weekly contains multitudes, but thinking about how this get on my radar and is there meaning there that could be useful? I think about that. You can read reviews when you're online. You can't necessarily do that in the middle of the bookstore or the library. I like to look at a few positive and a few negative if I'm letting reviews inform my choices. Because sometimes I do, but sometimes I don't. And that balances out the more like salesy markety stuff. I really like to imagine what my reading experience might be like. Like based on what I'm knowing about this book, how is it going to feel to enter the I'm imagining I will find and then I ask myself is that an experience I want to have? So those are some of the things I'm thinking about. Like I'm assessing the book but I'm also thinking about right now, like today, this week, soon, do I want to step into these pages and enter that world? Okay, I'll put a link and I hope there's more there to think about and and help you ponder how maybe we can lower. I mean there's nothing necessarily bad about D DNFing 6 books unless you're unhappy with it. And it sounds like that's not really a streak you wish to continue.

[Holly Dyer]

I'm certainly glad that I decided to not finish those books, but I do feel like the constant stopping and restarting is kind of getting a little wary. Like I'm having a hard time getting into a flow of the book if I'm just deciding to kind of jump ship all the time. And you had said something about asking, is this an experience I want to have? And I think that's something I could ask myself a little bit more because kind of going back to this, like, feeling like I'm reading these books that I should read, it's like people are telling me what I should be reading. But is this an experience that I want to have while I'm reading? I think it's just a mindset shift that I'd like to make.

[Anne Bogel]

Holly, how about some book recommendations?

[Holly Dyer]

Sounds great.

[Anne Bogel]

All right. So thinking about the speculative sphere, you've read a little, but you would like to explore the genre further. I'm thinking about books we haven't talked about. On what should I read next? To give you and other listeners titles that are maybe new or new here, I'm thinking about Lily Brooks Dalton and particularly her book from a few years back called the Light Pirates. Is this one you've read or familiar with?

[Holly Dyer]

No, I've never heard of it.

[Anne Bogel]

Okay. This is a follow up to her debut, Good Morning Midnight. And just for context, I do not remember the reasons, but I remember when Station 11 was so possible. Many, many readers said, if you love that, read Good Morning Midnight next. But we're going to talk about the Light Pirate, because I enjoyed it a little more myself. It is the second novel from Lily Brooks Dalton, and it's speculative, dystopian. This is in the realm of climate change fiction, and it's about a young girl named Wanda. At least she's young when this story opens. And she was named for a powerful hurricane that swept across her home of southeastern Florida on the day she was born. So when her neighbors, when Floridians hear that her name is Wanda, what they hear is death and destruction and chaos. They associate her name with the storm. And as she grows up, Florida's landscape, and this is where we really go into the speculative realm, it grows ever more precarious with the climate, but also what that increasing difficulty of even surviving does to the people and the cultural, not just physical, landscape. So Wanda has to learn what it means to survive as one it seems whole epoch of human history comes to an end and another is being ushered in. Now, she always has the help as she's growing up with the help of her older survivalist neighbor, Phyllis. But difficult circumstances, difficult relationships, hard stuff comes into Wanda's life. But I'm hoping what you'll find is I did that. I was rooting for her so hard as she fought for survival and sought love and emotional and physical safety and found these improbable ways forward and just really struggled to come to terms with her world as what she once knew was gone. And just like learning to cope with what it's like now. If anybody cares, this is also really good on audio. And if you are a fan of this book and have read Lily Brooks Dalton before, I know she has a new one coming this spring. I believe it's called Ruins. I don't know the details, but I know some of you are going to want to Google it right now. Holly, how does that one sound?

[Holly Dyer]

This sounds great.

[Anne Bogel]

Okay, I am wondering about a book that's pretty weird that combines that speculative fiction and short stories. It's by Ling Ma. She's perhaps best known for her collection Severance, but this one is called Bliss Montage. It came out a few years ago. Gorgeous cover with oranges on it. Under plastic wrap, actually readers, if that sounds familiar. And is this one you're familiar with, Holly?

[Holly Dyer]

No, I've read Severance, but I haven't heard of this one.

[Anne Bogel]

I'm. No, I already used this word. But this is weird and fun and clever and perhaps disorienting. But the collection itself is only 200 pages and there are only, I think, under 10 stories in it. But this is so unexpected. This is the kind of book where when I was reading, I go, how did. How did she come up with this? Like, the story that most memorable for me is one of a woman who's living with her husband, but her husband only speaks in the text in dollar signs.

[Holly Dyer]

What?

[Anne Bogel]

But she's also living under the same roof with her dollar sign speaking husband, with all of her ex boyfriends, and they're living together in this giant Los Angeles house. It's silly, right? But it doesn't feel silly to read it. It feels like, whoa, what are you telling me? There's another story about a woman who takes a drug with her childhood best friend and it lets them be invisible.

[Holly Dyer]

Oh my gosh.

[Anne Bogel]

There's a story where a woman goes to a mourning festival where they find out, ooh, this isn't a metaphor. That's happening here is we're reenacting ancient rituals. Like there's actually going to be some stuff happening that we didn't expect. So these stories are very strange and unexpected and playful. But also she's talking about really serious topics like grief, rebirth, broken trust, immigration, otherness. It's just really fantastical and strange and maybe different from. Definitely different from all your favorites, but we're looking for different. How does that sound?

[Holly Dyer]

I wonder if the weirdness works. If the story is short.

[Anne Bogel]

It's a bite sized weirdness.

[Holly Dyer]

Yeah, that reminds me of how. What was it? Was it last year? How the thing was a thimbleful of weird.

[Anne Bogel]

Yes, I love that phrase.

[Holly Dyer]

Yeah, I think that's kind of what's making me think of that. Sounds interesting. I would check it out.

[Anne Bogel]

Maybe worth a try. Maybe reading a handful of stories wouldn't feel like such a failure on your part. Correct me if that's the wrong word compared to stopping a book with 30 pages left to go.

[Holly Dyer]

Yeah, and I was actually kind of on that line. I was even just considering with short story collections of like, you know, if I'm not liking the story, maybe I'll just skip and go to the next one. Which I feel like is so against our. Our concepts of. You have to read like the entire thing from beginning to end. But I feel like, yeah, with a short story collection it can be like, I can try this one. Oh, if I'm not feeling it, let's just go to the next one and not feel bad about doing that.

[Anne Bogel]

Yeah. And that would be enough. Just a taste would be enough to discover if the audacious and fantastical is something that delights you or something that you want to keep in small dose or find maybe isn't for your reading life right now. Okay, now I do realize this happens very often in bookish conversations generally, but I heard you talk about New York a lot and there was a story collection I love from a few years back that was set in New York. I'm wondering if you've read Stories from the Tenants Downstairs by Sadiq Fofana.

[Holly Dyer]

I've never heard of it.

[Anne Bogel]

Okay, well, I first picked it up because I kept hearing it get compared to Gloria Naylor's the Women of Rooster Place, which is another fun collection to pick up that's several decades older than this one. But this is a debut collection. There's just eight interconnected short stories in it. Not a novel, but each one does not rely on the others. But he does build a world over the course of the novel. And the link is, as you can probably guess, everyone lives in the same building that is identified geographically as being at the corner of 129th and Frederick Douglass Boulevard in New York. And I think the author says very early on that, like, this place houses a little bit of everybody. So in the world of this story, gentrification is on everyone's minds. Rents are on the rise and quickly. And we hear eight different perspectives from eight different tenants who are each dealing with their own struggles. My favorite story in this collection is Ms. Dallas, and I love that he identifies where everybody lives. So she's in 3C, and she's a para educator who is just increasingly frustrated with her job because the school she works in does is not doing well and she doesn't like what is and really isn't being done about it. I also really enjoyed Mr. Murray's story. He's elderly, he lives in 2E. That one's called Federation for the like minded. And all Mr. Murray wants to do is play sidewalk chess in peace. But the neighborhood police are not really on board with his plan. And he does not appreciate how the building's busy bodies want to help him find better air quote uses for his time. Some of these stories are pretty difficult to read. Like, there's hard stuff happening in these pages, but the overall tone is just really compassionate. It's really good on audio readers, if you're into that. Some of my favorites like Bonnie Turpin and Dominic Hoffman voice some of these stories. How does that sound to you?

[Holly Dyer]

Well, that sounds great. Bonnie Terman and Dominic Hoffman. I'm like, oh, well, I definitely have to check out the audio. Although maybe it's worth saying this, I think for short stories, I kind of want to start with trying them out in print first because I did have an experience with reading the Secret Lives of Church Ladies. And I started that one on audio. And I don't know, I think it was because, I mean, the narrator was great, but I felt like because the stories are short, if I'm not fully paying attention for the like 20 minutes that the story is occurring, then I just felt like I got to like 75% in and I was like, I have no idea what's happening. So I. So I stopped. I did have a print copy of it and then I went to print and that worked a lot better for me just because I was able to like slow down a little bit more and really try to get the details. Cause when the stories are short, there isn't that much wiggle room to like, let your mind wander for, like, a couple minutes, because then it's like you've missed half the story.

[Anne Bogel]

I hear that. And that sense of, like, whoa, where am I? And what is happening? It's funny in hindsight, it's not funny at the time.

[Holly Dyer]

Yeah. I mean, I think what I would do with the stories from the tenant downstairs, I would probably start with it in print, and then maybe at some point later down the line, consider, like, a reread on audio. I've been liking doing that recently.

[Anne Bogel]

You know, if you're tired of choosing, that could be maybe a way to regain some momentum to think about what you've really enjoyed in print this past year. Or you could even go back quite a bit if you wanted to.

[Holly Dyer]

Yeah.

[Anne Bogel]

And then, yeah. Experience a story you know you've enjoyed in a different format. That's worked for you.

[Holly Dyer]

I was literally just thinking about doing that with, like, an Abby Jimenez because it's been a couple of years since I read yours truly, and I was kind of like, maybe I. Maybe I just need some Abby in my life.

[Anne Bogel]

You know, I'm smiling so big just thinking about that possibility for you. That sounds fun.

[Holly Dyer]

Yeah. But I read it in print the first time. I was like, well, maybe if I try it on audio. And I've been feeling also just a little kind of weird with my audio pics. So maybe that can be a way I can go, at least for the time being, do some audio rereads.

[Anne Bogel]

That sounds great. Okay, Holly, of the books we talked about, they were the Light Pirate by Lily Brooks Dalton, Bliss Montage by Ling Matthew, and Stories from the Tenants Downstairs by Sadiq Fofana. Of those books, what do you think you may pick up next?

[Holly Dyer]

I definitely want to read them all. I mean, honestly, because I feel like I could use an idea for an audiobook. I may start with the Light pirate on audio and then check out the short stories. I think I would then go next with the stories from the tenants downstairs.

[Anne Bogel]

Well, I can't wait to hear what you think. Holly, thank you so much for talking books with me today.

[Holly Dyer]

Thank you so much for having me. This was great.

[Anne Bogel]

Hey, readers. I hope you enjoyed my conversation with Holly, and I'd love to hear what you think she should read next. Find Holly on Goodreads and Storygraph. Those links are on our show notes pages along with the full list of titles we talked about. That's it. What should I read next? Podcast.com. join our email list to stay in the loop on all things. What should I read? Next Sign up at what Should I read next podcast.com newsletter. Please make sure you're following wherever you like to get your podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket, Cast, Overcast, and more. Following or subscribing to our show and especially downloading each new episode means you always know when there's a new one. It will be ready and waiting for you. And your download helps inform our statistics and how the show interacts with the podcast networks and advertisers, which makes it easier for new listeners to find us. That's also no small part of how we get paid. We are grateful for anything you can do, especially this free, easy stuff. To help us keep putting this podcast out every Tuesday, follow us on Instagram at what Should I Read Next? If you so desire, thank you to the people who make make the show happen. What Should I Read Next Is created each week by Executive Producer Will Bogle, Media Production Specialist Holly Wilkachevsky, Social Media Manager and Editor Lee Kramer, Community Coordinator Bridget Mistlehorn, Community Manager Shannon Malone, and our whole team at what Should I Read Next? And Modern Mrs. Darcy HQ, plus the audio whizzes at Studio D Podcast Production readers, that's it for this episode. Thanks so much for listen listening. And as Reiner Maria Rilke said, ah, how good it is to be among people who are reading. Happy reading everyone.