Your Shelf or Mine

Books of the 2020s

Becky, Holly, Jakob, and Austin talk about books of the 2020s, trends in reading and publishing, our hopes for the future, and a couple of predictions for the next big thing.

This reading data: https://www.arts.gov/stories/blog/2024/federal-data-reading-pleasure-all-signs-show-slump

Books mentioned include:

Spillover by David Quammen, The Great Influenza by John M. Barry, The Plague by Albert Camus, The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio, Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez,  These Precious Days and Tom Lake by Ann Patchett, The Vulnerables by Sigrid Nunez, The Sentence by Louise Erdrich, There is a Door in This Darkness by Kristin Cash ore, All Fours by Miranda July, Book Lovers by Emily Henry, Caste by Isabel Wilkerson, What Were We Thinking by Carlos Lozada, Surviving Autocracy by Masha Gessen, Just Us by Claudia Rankine, The Trees by Percival Everett, Agatha of Little Neon by Claire Luchette, Intimacies and A Separation by Katie Kitamura, Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe, Ducks by Kate Beaton, The Rabbit Hutch by Tess Gunty, The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson, Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver, The Most by Jessica Anthony, The God of the Woods by Liz Moore, Autocracy Inc by Anne Applebaum, Eastbound by Maylis de Kerangal, Doppleganger by Naomi Klein, Detransition, Baby by Torry Peters, Woodworking by Emily St. James, Disappoint Me by Nicola Dinan, Diary of a Misfit by Casey Parks, Jesus Wept by Philip Shenon, Romney by McKay Coppins, Motherland by Julia Ioffe, The Gales of November by John U. Bacon, Murderland by Caroline Fraser, King of Kings by Scott Anderson, All the Way to the River by Elizabeth Gilberty, Challenger by Adam Higginbotham, More Everything Forever by Adam Becker, Red White and Whole by Rajani LaRocca, The Midnight Children by Dan Gemeinhart, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab, Wanderhome by Jay Dragon, Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin, Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros, The House in the Cerulean sea by TJ Klune, Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt, The Women by Kristin Hannah, Dog Man series by Dav Pilkey,  The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins, Alchemised by SenLinYu, Convent Wisdom by Ana Garriga and Carment Urbita, The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo, We Are Water Protectors by Carole Lindstrom, Berry Song by Michaela Goade, Legendary Frybread Drive-In edited by Cynthia Leitich Smith, Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley, The Tragedy of True Crime by John J. Lennon, The Friday Afternoon Club by Griffin Dunne,  We Tell Ourselves Stories by Alissa Wilkinson, Didion and Babitz by Lili Anolik, Enshittification by Cory Doctorow, The Correspondent by Virginia Evans, Back After This by Linda Holmes, The Caretaker by Ron Rash

And authors Patricia Lockwood,  Claire Keegan, Rachel Kushner, Timothy Snyder, Helen Garner, Casey Plett, Mr Beast/James Patterson, Stephen Graham Jones, Silvia Moreno Garcia, and more!

Books of the 2010s

Becky and Jakob talk about "the crawdad book," a.k.a. Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens, The Fault in Our Stars by John Green, I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson, and more!

Books of the 2000s

Becky and Heather talk about the 2000s and books of the 2000s including Twilight (of course!) by Stephenie Meyer, Touch the Dark (the Cassie Palmer series) by Karen Chance, The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, and Mister Monday (The Keys to the Kingdom series) by Garth Nix. 

Books of the 1990s

Becky and Jenny wax nostalgic about the 90s. Jakob is also there. We talk about:
Prozac Nation by Elizabeth Wurtzel; 
The Perfume by Caroline Cooney; 
Silent Scream by Diane Hoh; 
The Cuckoo Clock of Doom by R.L. Stine; 
Frindle by Andrew Clements; 
Catherine Called Birdy by Karen Cushman; 
and more!

context for Jakob's Mitt Romney joke: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/4I-SG8dK1AU 

Books of the 1980s

Becky and Jo talk about books of the 1980s including:

Alanna: The First Adventure (1983) by Tamora Pierce (and the rest of the Song of the Lioness Quartet), The Handmaid's Tale (1985) by Margaret Atwood, The Color Purple (1982) by Alice Walker, and picture books by Robert Munsch (Love You Forever, 1986; The Paper Bag Princess, 1980; Thomas's Snowsuit, 1985), Chris Van Allsburg (The Polar Express, 1985), David Wiesner (The Loathsome Dragon, 1987), Jan Brett (The Mitten, 1989), and Don and Audrey Wood (The Napping House, 1984; The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear, 1984; King Bidgood's In the Bathtub, 1985). 

Cujo!

Becky, Jennifer, Heather, and Jakob talk about Stephen King's classic novel "Cujo." Remember - don't have regrets, vaccinate your pets!

Apologies for any poor sound quality in this one.

Books of the 1970s

Becky, Austin, and Heather talk about books of the 1970s including:

You Don't Have to Say You Love Me by Norma Klein, Mom, the Wolf Man, and Me by Norma Klein, Taking Sides by Norma Klein, Anastasia Krupnik by Lois Lowry, Sophie's Choice by William Styron, The Flame and the Flower by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss, Sweet Savage Love by Rosemary Rogers, The Japanese Screen by Anne Mather, The Pride of the Peacock by Victoria Holt, Love Story by Erich Segal, M.C. Higgins the Great by Virginia Hamilton, Dispatches by Michael Herr

PLUS:

1974: A Personal History by Francine Prose, King of Kings by Scott Anderson, Most Dangerous by Steve Sheinkin, Death in the Jungle by Candace Fleming, Joan Dideon, Rick Perlstein, and this article: https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/childrens-literature-in-united-states 

 

Books of the 1960s

Becky, Jo, and Holly talk about books of the 1960s including:

To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger, From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg, The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle, Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak, Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin, The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton, The Young Unicorns by Madeline L'Engle, Miami and the Siege of Chicago by Norman Mailer and much more!

Holly recommends:

The Acid Queen by Susannah Cahalan, The Life You Save May Be Your Own by Paul Elie, The Fire Is Upon Us by Nicholas Buccola, The Moviegoer by Walker Percy

Books of the 1950s

Becky and Jakob talk about:

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare

Charlotte's Web by E.B. White

Eloise by Kay Thompson

and more!

Books of the 1940s

Becky and Austin talk about books of the 1940s, including: 

Dear Genius: The Letters of Ursula Nordstro m 

The Important Thing About Margaret Wise Brown by Mac Barnett 

Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown 

The Runaway Bunny by Margaret Wise Brown 

In the Great Green Room by Amy Gary 

“Looking At Picture Books” substack by Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen: https://lookingatpicturebooks.substack.com/ 

Especially: https://lookingatpicturebooks.substack.com/p/goodnight-moon 

The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton 

The Little Fur Family by Margaret Wise Brown 

The Little Island by Golden MacDonald (Margaret Wise Brown) and Leonard Weisgard 

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith 

Lit Hub list: https://lithub.com/a-century-of-reading-the-10-books-that-defined-the-1940s/ 

Hiroshima by John Hersey 

https://www.newyorker.com/books/double-take/a-rare-discovery-on-the-seventy-fifth-anniversary-of-john-herseys-hiroshima 

Fallout by Lesley M.M. Blume 

Gwendolyn Brooks