Riot Headline Book Riot’s 2024 Read Harder Challenge

Grief, Translations, and Wacky British Fantasy

Welcome to Episode 10! Jenn Northington is back as my permanent co-host as we take the show weekly! *confetti cannon* This week we're talking books to read after losing someone to suicide, modern works in translation, and more. This episode is sponsored by The Lady's Command by Stephanie Laurens and The Rogue Not Taken by Sarah MacLean.   ____________________ Listen to past episodes of Get Booked here! And you can subscribe to the podcast via RSS here, or via iTunes here. The show can also be found on Stitcher here. Need a book recommendation? Fill out the form at the bottom of the post, or email getbooked@bookriot.com and we’ll help! Questions! Hi, I have a friend who claims he doesn’t like reading fiction which was taken as a personal challenge by this librarian. He’s currently working on his PhD in math/number theory—a subject I know nothing about. I recently recommended The Martian by Andy Weir, but was wondering if there were any other works of fiction that math geeks might enjoy. Thanks! Rebecca   Hey there, Book Riot! I'm a huge fan of the late, great, Terry Pratchett. As you can imagine, I was devastated by his death, although I'm glad his family has decided not to continue writing and publishing Discworld novels. However, I need new wacky British-esque fantasy. What do you recommend for the Pratchett fan who already owns all thirty-odd Discworld books? --Sammi   Hi Amanda! So glad you got your own podcast! My husband is in the US Air Force and just started a 6 month deployment to the middle east. He has an e-reader with him and is running out of ideas of what to read next. He likes authors such as David Baldacci, Dean Koontz & Steig Larsson and has read all their books. Any recommendations for him to make the time apart go faster would be great! Thanks for the great work you and the whole Book Riot crew do!   --Lauren   Get Booked Gurus, I am wanting to make 2016 a year of international literature, hoping to read mostly translated books. While I have read numerous translated classics, I want to catch up on more modern literature from across the globe. Though I discovered writers Elena Ferrante and Carlos Ruiz Zafon ( I read and loved both), my current list of books for next year is woefully thin. I also found Ann Morgan’s project where she read a book from every country in the world, but I don’t see any mention of the quality of the translations or if she enjoyed the books. If you have any books in translation that you loved and enjoyed, please let me know. Thanks! Kendra   Hello awesome peeps! The first episode was amazing! We got so many new books! I was so excited! This time though I need a recommendation for overcoming grief. My friend recently lost a dear friend to suicide and now that it's been a month, she came to me for some book Recs to get back to reading and get back on her feet basically. And I had NO idea what to suggest.... help! Thanks a million. Roberta.   Hello Amanda, One of my all time favorite authors is Thomas Hardy and when I stumbled upon The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles (which has many Hardy allusions) I was blown away - a postmodern Victorian novel!!!! Many other novels which I've tried (The Crimson Petal and The White  as well as Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell) just didn't do it for me. Any other suggestions? Sincerely, Kaisha   ____________________ Books Discussed on the Show! The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa Catalyst by Laurie Halse Anderson A Guide for the Perplexed by Dara Horn Arcadia by Tom Stoppard Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman Nick Harkaway (The Gone-Away World, Angelmaker, Tigerman) How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu anything Christopher Moore (Dirty Job is my personal favorite) The Unquiet Dead by Ausma Zehanat Khan Wolf Winter by Cecilia Ekback The Keeper of Lost Causes by Jussi Adler-Olsen Sacred Games by Vikram Chandra The Merman by Carl-Johan Vallgren The Mersault Investigation by Kamel Daoud The Complete Stories by Clarice Lispector (and anything else from New Directions) anything Natsuo Kirino and Cixin Liu Kalpa Imperial by Angélica Gorodische When Women Were Birds by Terry Tempest Williams Traveling Mercies by Anne Lamott Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell Get in Trouble by Kelly Link The Fair Fight by Anna Freeman Sarah Waters--Tipping the Velvet, Fingersmith Drood by Dan Simmons Possession by A.S. Byatt Mrs. Engels by Gavin McCrea The Strangler Vine by MJ Carter