JAM Podcasts & Audiobooks

Sara was on instagram looking for modern Native American fiction.  And the booksellers were brimming with books to recommend. These included anything, anything, anything – fiction for adults, fiction for children, short stories – by Louise Erdrich, A Snake Falls to Earth by Darcie Little Badger, and for kids both Rez Dogs by Joseph Bruchac and Sea in Winter by Christine Day. Listen to the entire episode for more recommendations and to hear the palatable excitement these booksellers felt in discussing this question.

Welcome to Shelf Help, a podcast where booksellers help you answer one of life’s trickier – and we’d argue extremely important – questions: What should you read next?  Shelf Help is a collaboration between the Book Jam, a nonprofit designed to inspire readers; JAM – Junction Arts & Media; three Upper Valley bookstores: Yankee Bookshop in Woodstock, VT; the Norwich Bookstore in Norwich, VT; and Still North Books & Bar in Hanover, NH.

A listener asked via instagram for “new cozy mysteries.” The booksellers admitted they’re not big cozy mystery readers themselves, yet they had good tips for books in the genre including Shady Hollow Series, by Juneau Black; Death in Door Country, by Annelise Ryan, and Killers of a Certain Age, by Deanna Raybourn.

Welcome to Shelf Help, a podcast where booksellers help you answer one of life’s trickier – and we’d argue extremely important – questions: What should you read next?  Shelf Help is a collaboration between the Book Jam, a nonprofit designed to inspire readers; JAM – Junction Arts & Media; three Upper Valley bookstores: Yankee Bookshop in Woodstock, VT; the Norwich Bookstore in Norwich, VT; and Still North Books & Bar in Hanover, NH.

The question: “Not necessarily a dilemma, but I would like books to be paired with your astrological sign!” – came via Instagram from Nicole; and it had the booksellers so excited we delayed discussing it for a month so that Allie, Emma, and Kari could all be present to discuss. This query also resulted in our longest episode yet.

To start, we discussed personal charts and learned that Allie is a Libra sun sign, Sagittarius moon sign, with Scorpio as her rising sign. Emma is a Taurus sun sign, a Cancer moon sign, and has Virgo rising. Kari is a Sagittarius sun sign, like Emma has a Cancer moon sign, but has Aquarius rising. Lisa, like Allie, is a Libra, with a Leo moon, and Capricorn rising. (She needs to research what this all means.) Emma then provided a brief tutorial and suggested thinking of one’s sun sign as one’s ego, a moon sign as one’s id, and the rising sign as one’s super ego.  Allie was shocked no one had ever explained this to her in this way. We then launched into book recommendations. Reviewed books included, and were definitely not limited to Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff, Wilder Girls by Rory Power, Shadow Tag by Louise Erdrich, and we spent quite a bit of time on the fact that The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande epitomizes a Virgo vibe. Listen for more pairings.

“I’ve read all of Shirley Jackson’s work. I loved it! What should I read that’s similar?” – from mrsmorganbakestoomuch via IG. Once again our booksellers began their recommendations with the query, “Are you sure you have read everything Shirley Jackson has written? There is a lot.”  Assuming mrsmorganbakestoomuch had, they jumped in. The discussion highlighted Shirley Jackson’s connections to Bennington, Vermont, the frequency with which her work is mentioned in Shelf Help, and that perhaps her estate should be Shelf Help‘s first underwriter. Jack highlighted Jazz by Toni Morrison and Secret History by Donna Tartt, leading to a short seminar on Ms. Morrison and her works. Kari mentioned Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia and We Ride Upon Sticks by Quan Barry. Emma had a long long list including Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life by Ruth Franklin, White is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi and Her Body and Other Parties: Stories by Carmen Maria Machado (seconded by Jack).  All mentioned authors whose work resembles Ms. Jackson’s — Angela Carter, Kelly Link.  Emma also pointed out that winners of the annual Shirley Jackson Award would be a great list to tackle. We hope this helps all you Shirley Jackson fans out there; and based upon our episodes there seem to be quite a few.

Welcome to Shelf Help, a podcast where booksellers help you answer one of life’s trickier – and we’d argue extremely important – questions: What should you read next?  Shelf Help is a collaboration between the Book Jam, a nonprofit designed to inspire readers; JAM – Junction Arts & Media; three Upper Valley bookstores: Yankee Bookshop in Woodstock, VT; the Norwich Bookstore in Norwich, VT; and Still North Books & Bar in Hanover, NH.

Anya via IG was looking for “Historical Fiction with an engaging story and characters (I’ve enjoyed Kristin Hannah)”  Our three booksellers, Kari, Jack and Emma, started with the query: Are you sure you have read everything Kristin Hannah has written? They then took off, recommending books such as Lessons in Chemistry, by Bonnie Garmus, Sharks in the Time of Saviors: A Novel, by Kawai Strong Washburn, Wide Sargasso Sea, by Jean Rhys and The Grand Sophy, by Georgette Heyer among many others.

Welcome to Shelf Help, a podcast where booksellers help you answer one of life’s trickier – and we’d argue extremely important – questions: What should you read next?  Shelf Help is a collaboration between the Book Jam, a nonprofit designed to inspire readers; JAM – Junction Arts & Media; three Upper Valley bookstores: Yankee Bookshop in Woodstock, VT; the Norwich Bookstore in Norwich, VT; and Still North Books & Bar in Hanover, NH.

Children’s books for young readers who have high reading levels and have difficulty finding just right books in terms of content (being sensitive enough with an engaging enough reading level) from Rowan via IG

Realizing Shelf Help rarely gets questions dealing with books for children, the three booksellers – Emma, Jack and Kari – had a ton of fun discussing their answers to this very common question for indie booksellers. They created significant consensus when all three agreed that The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making and The Winternight Trilogy would be great books to hand any child with a high reading level who is not quite ready for teen and adult topics. They also offered unique picks such as Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata. We hope they help those of you who have children in your life who pose this dilemma.

Welcome to Shelf Help, a podcast where booksellers help you answer one of life’s trickier – and we’d argue extremely important – questions: What should you read next?  Shelf Help is a collaboration between the Book Jam, a nonprofit designed to inspire readers; JAM – Junction Arts & Media; three Upper Valley bookstores: Yankee Bookshop in Woodstock, VT; the Norwich Bookstore in Norwich, VT; and Still North Books & Bar in Hanover, NH.

How to sit down and finish a book rather than just starting a new one? from Andrew via IG. For the first time in the history of Shelf Help, one of our bookstore owners, Allie sent another bookseller, Jack, in her place. And Sam relied on Emma to represent the Norwich Bookstore alone, as someone had to actually stay in the store and work. Very quickly the three booksellers, Kari, Emma, and Jack, bonded over their adamant and united response to Andrew’s Insta question: How to sit down and finish a book rather than just starting a new one? Their intense agreement that you should not finish a book you don’t want to read makes this one of the shortest episodes we’ve ever recorded.  Enjoy!

Welcome to Shelf Help, a podcast where booksellers help you answer one of life’s trickier – and we’d argue extremely important – questions: What should you read next?  Shelf Help is a collaboration between the Book Jam, a nonprofit designed to inspire readers; JAM – Junction Arts & Media; three Upper Valley bookstores: Yankee Bookshop in Woodstock, VT; the Norwich Bookstore in Norwich, VT; and Still North Books & Bar in Hanover, NH.

A very specific request from Emma’s mom – “I am always looking for books to read. They can be romantic (but not mushy), suspenseful (but not scary), historical (but not boring), and preferably available on audio. My last “must have” in a book is that it must end happily. I do not want to cry at the end of a book. I can get that watching the news!” – had the bookstore owners searching their vast knowledge of literature and creating a fabulous list of books, meeting this vast array of criteria, for us all to enjoy.

Welcome to Shelf Help, a podcast where booksellers help you answer one of life’s trickier – and we’d argue extremely important – questions: What should you read next?  Shelf Help is a collaboration between the Book Jam, a nonprofit designed to inspire readers; JAM – Junction Arts & Media; three Upper Valley bookstores: Yankee Bookshop in Woodstock, VT; the Norwich Bookstore in Norwich, VT; and Still North Books & Bar in Hanover, NH.

This request, via Instagram from a special group of Dartmouth alums, to find books about “magical cosmic beings like toads and fairies and butterflies with special superpowers!!!” had Sam perplexed but able to rise to the occasion and Allie thrilled to respond. Enjoy a bit of magic with this episode.

Welcome to Shelf Help, a podcast where booksellers help you answer one of life’s trickier – and we’d argue extremely important – questions: What should you read next?  Shelf Help is a collaboration between the Book Jam, a nonprofit designed to inspire readers; JAM – Junction Arts & Media; three Upper Valley bookstores: Yankee Bookshop in Woodstock, VT; the Norwich Bookstore in Norwich, VT; and Still North Books & Bar in Hanover, NH.

This episode is for all those readers who love Lauren Groff. You will not be disappointed as Kari, Allie, Emma, and Sam tackle an anonymous question from Instagram, “what/who to read once you’ve read all of Lauren Groff”.

Welcome to Shelf Help, a podcast where booksellers help you answer one of life’s trickier – and we’d argue extremely important – questions: What should you read next?  Shelf Help is a collaboration between the Book Jam, a nonprofit designed to inspire readers; JAM – Junction Arts & Media; three Upper Valley bookstores: Yankee Bookshop in Woodstock, VT; the Norwich Bookstore in Norwich, VT; and Still North Books & Bar in Hanover, NH.