book concierge part 1

Last month, I asked for submissions from my readers who wanted personalized book recommendations. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be sending those out. Initially, I thought I’d send them out in two installments, but I’ve decided to break them into four instead because I, unsurprisingly, have a lot to say. If you’d like recommendations of your own, I’ll do this again in a a few months for paid subscribers, but the posts for anyone who has filled out the survey up to this point will not be behind a paywall.

My first reader loves lighthearted, pleasant stories. She enjoys family sagas, cozy mysteries, short stories, and memoirs. Favorites include The Great Gatsby, Little Women, the Inspector Gamache books by Louise Penny, and Iona Iverson’s Rules for Commuting by Claire Pooley. She didn’t enjoy All Adults Here by Emma Straub, and she prefers books without heavy themes—but also finds romcoms a little stressful because of all the angst.

Two different books that I didn’t realize were by the same author immediately popped into my mind.

The first, The Music Shop by Rachel Joyce, appeals to me firstly because I know this reader is a music lover. It takes place in a record shop in the 80s and is populated by a warm, tight-knit cast of characters. There is a romance in the book that propels some of the conflict, but the main focus is the community surrounding the shop.

Miss Benson’s Beetle is also by Rachel Joyce (and it my favorite of the two, if I had to pick). Two women embark on a cross-continental adventure in search of a beetle that may or may not exist. There are some dangers on their adventure, but the mood is overall jovial and full of comic moments. I remember finishing this book with a deep sense of satisfaction at how everything resolved.

I love these sweet, sleepy books, and I read one every year during advent. The series starts with Father Tim, a single Episcopal priest whose ordinary, quiet life is suddenly thrown into upheaval (but like, cozy upheaval) by multiple factors in his life. The entire North Carolina town is filled with quirky, likable characters, and if you enjoy it, you have several more in the series to read. It feels like the town of Three Pines in the Inspector Gamache books except with fewer murders and more sweet tea.

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My next reader enjoys historical fiction and biographies. Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano is a favorite of hers (and, spoiler alert, it’s what we’ll be reading for our March book club here at finding the story). She loves books where characters learn after a struggle, as well as self-help books. She steers clear of science fiction and fantasy.

Confession: I haven’t read Hello Beautiful yet, but I do know it’s loosely inspired by Little Women. March by Geraldine Brooks is also inspired by Little Women, and it follows the girls’ father through his military service. This book isn’t for the faint of heart—it doesn’t shy away from the grittiness of war, and it also adds a little color to Mr. March’s previously spotless morality. Personally, I enjoyed the way the character’s added complexity made me think, and I thought the war scenes were powerful.

When I read that this reader wanted books where people overcome struggle for a good outcome, A Thousand Splendid Suns popped into my mind immediately. This book contains heartbreak and suffering—but it also has characters who transcend the worst of circumstances and find joyful lives.

I grew up loving the Laura Ingalls Wilder books, and this imagining of her mother’s experiences on the prairie were moving. It’s definitely grittier than the children’s books which inspired it, but I found the details of Caroline’s daily life in the wagon and on the prairie fascinating, and I was drawn in by her relationships with her husband and children.

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Our final reader for today enjoys books about parenting, education, classics, and fairytales. Some of her favorites include The Secret Garden, For the Children’s Sake, the Narnia books, the Lord of the Rings books, and Hannah Coulter. She doesn’t love contemporary literature and craves good writing.

Gilead by Marilynne Robinson has some of the loveliest, most satisfying writing I’ve ever read. The narrator is an older father to a young boy. This man has a heart condition and records letters for his son to read after he is gone. As he writes these letters, he winds up encountering the son of one of his lifelong friends, a man who has caused heartache for the family and who forces the narrator to confront some of his preconceived prejudices and personal struggles. It’s such a powerful book and examines parenthood, faith, friendship, and forgiveness.

I’ve been meaning to read Hannah Coulter, but I have read Jayber Crow, a companion book, and Crossing to Safety has a similar writing style—character-driven with vivid descriptions of place. Crossing to Safety follows two couples through their university careers and into middle age, examining their friendships and marriages. It’s a thoughtful, moving book, and just writing about it makes me want to read it again.

To scratch that fairytale itch, I love recommending Inkheart by Cornelia Funke. (Her book The Thief Lord, is another favorite.) I first heard this book as a preteen, eavesdropping on my mother reading it to my little brother. I was so entranced by the story and have since read it to my own children. The main character’s father has the gift of bringing characters to life when he reads aloud, and I was smitten with each of them in Inkheart.

Thanks for playing, everyone! I’ll send the next batch of recommendations out soon. Have you read any of these? Do you have any recommendations for our readers? Leave them in the comments!