Four Books a Fortnight

This week, we're in the thick of it, busy with all the things the holiday season brings to little retail shops like ours. It's a stressful time. So, Sam's been reading the Magicians, along with the Magician King and the Magician's Land, as a bit of comfort reading. He's discovered he's not being mocked by them. But don't worry! Hannah's been reading more substantive fare, including "We Must Not Think of Ourselves," which left her "really seriously crying, in a way that I love." Author Lauren Grodstein is her former writing teacher from Brooklyn, too. Then we get into a little segue on buying poetry — Sam's been reading Betsy Sholl and Phil Kaye and enjoying them immensely. In her audiobook listening this week, Hannah was a bit underwhelmed by "The Other Half," a mystery that has what feels like a betrayal at the end, but "The Frozen River," by Ariel Lawhon, a book set in Hallowell, Maine (though it wasn't Maine yet), is a lot more enjoyable, with a midwife, and a murder trial, and so much more. Just give it some time to get past the archaic dialogue.

• Your teenaged niece or nephew (Sam really did tear up during this read; but he misremembered and someone does, in fact, die).
• Your voraciously reading mom/teacher/hostess (Clarie Keegan!).
• The sports-loving dude in your life.
• The chef in your life who's already got all the basics (get loose in the kitchen with Erin French!).
• Your music-loving uncle (Sam does, in fact, know that Neil Peart was the drummer for Rush).
• Anyone who has a coffee table (Dolly! Willie!).
• Anyone looking for something trashy (who isn't?).
• Someone how loves Christmas mysteries (who doesn't?), or mysteries of any kind.
• Someone who already has "The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse" (or anyone going off to college or otherwise needing life advice).
• Your grumpy grandfather, who still cares deeply about WW2.
• Your aging parents. No, really.
• The children in your life (very young, young, and middle readers — lots of ideas!).

Really, we've got ideas for everyone on your list this giving season. Listen up!

This week, Hannah and Sam are just back from the New England Crime Bake, where crime-fiction authors gather, along with murder consultants and the like — don't miss people like Elly Griffiths, Deborah Crombie (the new one was "A Killing of Innocents"), and Chris Fabricant, who calls into question the way prosecutors use evidence in "Junk Science." Then we move into Hannah's love for "The Unmaking of June Farrow," by Adrienne Young, which has strong "Time Traveler's Wife" vibes, with time travel, romance, and mystery. Don't worry: It's not like "The Girl on the Train." Sam isn't quite as enamored with the new Paul Auster book, "Baumgartner," and is mildly troubled by the fact he's read three books this year, now, that feature 70-year-old men having sex. Sam says it's like "Wonder Boys" without any weed (Auster's book about a man whose sons and wife have died is "Book of Illusions," FYI). On the other hand, Hannah also loves "Down Here We Come Up," Sara Johnson Allen's debut novel, and not just because Sara lives in Ipswich. You can tell, in a good way, that Sara worked on the book for 15 years, a story of con artists and heart. Unfortunately, Sam follows with a couple books he just couldn't finish. Meh. Lessons learned. Not for him. Luckily, Hannah rescues the vibe with "Hotel Nantucket," her Elin Hilderbrand dive in preparation for our big event (it's not much like "Hotel New Hampshire," though), and Sam does like the new John Prine book (don't know who John Prine is? Ho boy, you're in luck). We're all over the map this week, folks, but next week we're doing a "gift-giving" thing, so stay tuned.

For the first time recording in the ... afternoon ... Hannah and Sam are perhaps more lucid than normal and have a lot of books to chat about after a brief sidebar on Reddit posting (Sam's getting tooled on). First up is "The Future," from Naomi Alderman, which is an important novel that people really need to read, a commentary on where we are and where we're going that Sam highly recommends. Why are we still using social media, again? Next up is "Starling House," by Alix Harrow, a piece of "horror-light" that took Hannah a bit to warm up to. Then we hear about Sam's new project taking out new books from the library, which he has already violated by going back in time to read the first book in Christopher Paolini's "Fractalverse" series, "To Sleep in a Sea of Stars," which is VERY long and has lots of scenes with people eating in space, but Sam generally liked as impressive new science fiction. Hannah's reading a different kind of book with stars in the title, Tommy Orange's new "Wandering Stars," which is a highly anticipated follow up to "There There" (a novel, not short stories, as Sam believed). It's another must-read, if not an easy read, a multi-generational look at the Native American experience in the United States that makes a nice pair with Jesmyn Ward's new "Let Us Descend." This is how you grapple with the horrors of our history. Then we transition into "Lazy City," which Sam says is like a Gen Z "Bright Lights Big City," a look at the culture of people in Belfast, Ireland, in their 20s, with all the dating and partying you might imagine. It's bleak, but a great read for understanding "what's going on with the kids these days." Watch out, though, there are no quotation marks. But, wait, there's more! Hannah listened to Britney's memoir — read by Michelle Williams! It's amazing. But the people around Britney are despicable. And, finally, Sam sings the praises of "Of Boys and Men," an examination by Richard Reeves of why men are struggling in today's society, and why policymakers aren't doing anything about it.

After embarrassing himself by trying and failing to give Mark Zuckerberg money, Sam describes his first experience with reading Kristin Hannah, in particular her upcoming "The Women," which is about nurses in Vietnam, and shares some qualities with "A Little Life," for good and ill. If you don't have a great feel for post-Vietnam U.S. culture, this is a solid read. And guess what? Hannah's reading the new Alice McDermott book, "Absolution," which is ALSO set in Vietnam. And is maybe a little more literary. Are there truly any selfless acts? Maybe see what Kurt Vonnegut thinks; the graphic-novel adaptation of "Slaughterhouse Five" is a triumph. It's hard not to think it was written yesterday, sometimes, particularly in the context of what's happening now in Israel-Palestine. For lighter fare, Hannah has read "West Heart Kill," a murder mystery set at a hunt club, with some fourth-wall interludes that's a bit mansplainy. Finally, Sam reads an actual romance for the first time, a first adult romance from the young-adult National Book Award-winning Kacen Callender, who has written what is very much not a YA book. Sam is largely charmed, even if he's outside his comfort zone.

Big things are afoot in the Book Shop — new shelving! With that highly engaging development discussed, we move on to chat about the newest from Melissa Broder ("Death Valley" is very meta, a treatise on grief, but we've had similar journeys) and Keigo Higashino ("A Death in Tokyo"; if you like procedurals, this is the Japanese master of the form). Plus, Hannah has picked up last year's "The Twyford Code," which doesn't involve magicians, but does involve the death of a children's author during WW2 and lots of transcribed audio recordings. And it's "mind tingling." The book Sam is reminded of is, indeed, called "The Puzzle Master." Finally, Hannah discovers she actually worked with some of the folks featured in Kristi Coulter's new memoir, "Exit Interview," about rising and falling at Amazon, which is just as bonkers and evil as you think it is. This leads to a pretty wonky discussion about the history of Amazon as a publisher and deals with the devil publishers had to make. But Amazon sorta failed and that was awesome. Oh, and RIP Tim Wakefield — his death at 57 is a very unfair thing. (And prepare yourself for the "pause," which is proof we actually have customers come in sometimes.)

Indeed, it's our 50th episode, which is a wicked big deal, and Sam and Hannah are high on the successful Andre Dubus III event they have just completed, and so you get a recaap of that and some behind-the-scenes stuff (he is very charming; throws out Ezra Pound quotes off the top of his head), but no worries, we quickly move into talk of similar dude-lit writer Richard Ford's "Be Mine," the third Frank Bascombe book. It touches off a discussion of the "shitty dad" trope and the relative rarity of father-son stories in contemporary lit. Just because you're privileged doesn't mean bad things don't happen to you and you don't deserve empathy (but not Jann Wenner; that guy deserves ridicule). But it's not all quite that serious — Hannah just read "Business or Pleasure," which is about just what you think it is (a ghostwriter hooks up with her boss and teaches him how to have sex; that's what you thought, right?). Just make sure you keep the windows rolled up for the audiobook. And "North Woods," by Daniel Mason, is seriously good, but way too weird to be "serious." Sam praises it as "like a David Mitchel novel." Finally, we wrap with the new "Square of Sevens," the plot of which reminds Sam of Zadie Smith's new novel (but with a lot of fortune telling), and a BIG ANNOUNCEMENT.

Okay, so we don't actually, like, have Governor Janet Mills on the pod, but Sam's reading the book that just came out with her letters and journal from the first year of the pandemic, "In Other Words, Leadership," and she hangs out near us in the summer, so that's close enough. Is she the biggest hippy of any governor in the U.S.? Also, we've got our hands on the new Zadie Smith and it's ... something. Meanwhile, Hannah's a little grumpy about the coffee situation (black tea is not cutting it), but has been reading the new story of women in the Civil War, "Night Watch," which she loves (despite its voicey voice; not the Terry Pratchett novel). Plus, she's all about the new "Dayswork," which is written by a couple about a couple researching literary couples. Very meta. Perhaps the most cohesive episode we've ever done, though we didn't plan it that way.

With car issues in the rearview mirror, it's JUG After Dark and Hannah and Sam are feeling frisky even though it's Bad Car Summer, even providing a little primer on not paying Jeff Bezos money. After that, Sam loves "The Impossible Fortress," an ode to 1980s nerd culture (and Vanna White), and it turns out it's actually been released by a U.S. publisher. Then Hannah really likes "The House of Doors," recently long-listed for the Booker Prize, and out on October 17, which features Somerset Maugham in Malaysia. Sam is less than thrilled with the Martha McPhee memoir, though, possibly because he is not the target audience. Hannah thought it might be good, but she was wrong. Luckily, Josh Cook's new "Art of Libromancy" is a killer new collection of essays about the selling of books and how readers work. If you know Porter Square Books, you need to read this. We're giving it to our booksellers. And Sam loved local Rebekah Bergman's "The Museum of Human History," which he describes as a mashup of Emily St. John Mandel and Murakami. Don't miss this one. Hannah tempers his excitement by noting it's getting late, she needs to ride a bike in the morning.

This week, after a rumination on whether there's a bookstore-owner Barbie, Sam and Hannah go in on some big brands in literature: Dennis Lehane (Sam finds the many racial slurs a little much and the "strong female lead" a cartoon), Ann Patchett (Hannah is charmed, but perhaps influenced by audiobook narrator Meryl Streep), Dave Eggers (his new middle-readers book is a delight), Helen Macdonald (she does sci-fi now!), and Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah ("Friday Black" is way more nuanced than the coverage it got, we think). Finally, things wrap up with some brand-new literary horror ("Looking Glass Sound," which is set in Maine, home to the "Speak All Evil" podcast) and some further thoughts on "House in the Cerulean Sea," just because.