Bonus Episode – Book Recommendations with the Professional Book Nerds!

Posted by Reading Glasses on 8th May 2020

It’s a crossover episode! Brea and Mallory teamed up with Jill and Adam at the Professional Book Nerds.

We took requests for book suggestions live and here they are below! This is bonus episode for Maximum Fun Members only! A good reason to subscribe! But you can also listen for free over at the Professional Book Nerds podcast.

1. “I just finished the first book in The Witcher series and I’d love more fantasy short story recommendations.”

Jill
Rogues (Anthology)
Dangerous Women
(Overdrive or
Bookshop)

Adam
Toil and Trouble (Anthology)

2. “Looking for a read-a-like for Little Women and Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine.”

Mallory
Where’d You Go Bernadette by Maria Semple
(Bookshop or Overdrive)
When We Were Magic by Sarah Gailey
(Bookshop or Overdrive)
The Girl Who Slept With God by Val Brelinki
(Bookshop or Overdrive)

3. “Looking for recommendations for books about small towns with quirky characters, with a sense of a small community where the characters get all up in each other’s business”

Adam
Cedar Valley by Holly Throsby
Nathan Coulter by Wendell Berry
(Overdrive or Bookshop)

Mallory
The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend
(Bookshop or Overdrive)

4. “Looking for a read-a-like for Bunny by Mona Awad, something weird and creepy but with no violence and or horror.”

Mallory
The Return by Rachel Harrison
(Bookshop or Overdrive)
Sarah Waters
(Bookshop or Overdrive)
Sarah Perry
(Bookshop or Overdrive)
Dare Me by Megan Abbott
(Bookshop or Overdrive)

Adam
Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero
(Bookshop or Overdrive)

Jill
The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix
(Bookshop or Overdrive)

5. “Looking for queer sci-fi.”

Adam
The Disasters by M.K. England
(Bookshop or Overdrive)
Once and Future by Amy Rose Capetta and Cori McCarthy
(Bookshop or Overdrive)

Mallory
The Stars Are Legion by Kameron Hurley
(Bookshop or Overdrive)

6. “Looking for a book recommendation to get me out of a slump. I love sci fi and fantasy and need something that will really get its claws in me and get me excited and invested right away.”

Adam
The Kingdom of Back by Marie Lu
(Bookshop or Overdrive)

Brea
The Future of Another Timeline by Annalee Newitz
(Bookshop or Overdrive)
Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel
(Bookshop or Overdrive)
The Test by Sylvain Neuvel
(Overdrive)

7. “Can you recommend any novellas? Big books are intimidating and hard to focus on.”

Mallory
The Haunting of Tram Car 015 by P. Djeli Clark
(Bookshop or Overdrive)
Split Tooth by Tanya Tagaq
(Bookshop or Overdrive)
Phantom Twin by Lisa Brown
(Bookshop or Overdrive)

Brea
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk, translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones
(Bookshop or Overdrive)

8. “Looking for recommendations along the lines of Ghost Maps, nonfiction about diseases.”

Brea
The Great Influenza by John M. Barry
(Bookshop or Overdrive)
New Guinea Tapeworms and Jewish Grandmothers: Tales of Parasites and People by Robert S. Desowitz
(Bookshop)

9. “Looking for a good stand alone middle grade novel.”

Adam
Sunnyside Plaza by Scott Simon
(Bookshop or Overdrive)
Doll Bones by Holly Black
(Bookshop or Overdrive)

Mallory
Small Spaces by Katherine Arden
(Bookshop or Overdrive)

10. “I really love a teenage girl/young adult detective story. Any recommendations in that realm?

Mallory
Goldie Vance
(Bookshop or Overdrive)

Jill
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley
(Bookshop or Overdrive)

Adam & Brea
A Study in Charlotte by Brittany Cavallaro
(Bookshop or Overdrive)

11. “Looking for a read-a-like for Seanin McGuire/Mira Grant, historical or modern fantasy, maybe combined with a fairytale.”

Mallory
The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert
(Bookshop or Overdrive)

Adam
Gingerbread by Helen Oyeyemi
(Bookshop or Overdrive)

Brea
A Blade So Black by L.L. McKinney
(Bookshop or Overdrive)
The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter by Theodora Goss
(Bookshop or Overdrive)

12. “Looking for diverse mystery recommendations.”

Jill
The 7 ½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton
(Bookshop or Overdrive)
Ruth Ware
(Bookshop or Overdrive)
Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz
(Bookshop or Overdrive)

Mallory
Sarah Waters
(Bookshop or Overdrive)

13. “I’ve been into nonfiction comics lately … looking for more.”

Adam – The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui

https://bookshop.org/a/4926/9781419718786

https://www.overdrive.com/media/3135209/the-best-we-could-do

Brea – My Favorite Thing is Monsters by Emil Ferris

14. “Looking for a read-a-like for the Wayward Children series, reverse portal fantasy.”

Mallory
Ten Thousands Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow
(Bookshop or Overdrive)

Brea
The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern
(Bookshop or Overdrive)

15. “Looking for nihilistic YA…  desperately want more reads with nihilistic young adults as they go through a crisis of self and get closer to university. ”

Mallory
A.S. King
Glory O’Brien’s History of the Future
(Overdrive)
Dig
(Bookshop)

Adam
The Rest of Us Just Live by Patrick Ness
(Bookshop or Overdrive)

16. “Read-a-like for an adult version of Yoon Ha Lee’s books, looking for a Star Trek vibe.”

Brea
Space Opera by Catherynne Valente
(Bookshop or Overdrive)

Dark Orbit by Carolyn Ives Gilman
(Bookshop or Overdrive)

Jill
The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
(Bookshop or Overdrive)

17. “Looking for lush historical horror a la Alma Katsu.”

Mallory
The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters
(Bookshop or Overdrive)
The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell
(Bookshop or Overdrive)