Sorry this is so late! I somehow completely blanked on running final filters on our podcast last night, even though it was completely edited and ready to go, so it had to wait until this evening. HAPPY HOLIDAYS ANYWAY, and I hope that those of you who wrote to use via our Holiday Gift Guide can get a few ideas from amongst our many recommendations. You can listen to the podcast using the embedded player below, or download the file directly to take with you on the go!
Our Own Personal Gift Guides
Gin Jenny: Eyeglasses chain from Leslie’s Lanyards on Etsy
Whiskey Jenny: Litographs temporary tattoos
Gin Jenny: Black Sails on DVD (greatest show of our time)
Whiskey Jenny: P. much anything from Out of Print
Gin Jenny: Milk Makeup Ubame mascara
Whiskey Jenny: some kind of local CSA!
Gin Jenny: About: Blanks notebooks
Whiskey Jenny: Adorable salt and pepper shakers like these boat ones
Gin Jenny: Emily Wilson’s translation of The Odyssey
Whiskey Jenny: Tombow markers
Holiday Gift Guide Recs
Claire’s dad
In the Woods (first in Dublin Murder Squad series), by Tana French
Fearless Jones series by Walter Mosley
The Bat (first in Harry Hole series), by Jo Nesbo
Sea of Poppies (first in Ibis Trilogy), by Amitav Ghosh
Homegoing, Yaa Gyasi
Ellen’s older daughter
The Daughter of Time, Josephine Tey
The Three Musketeers, Alexandre Dumas
Ray Bradbury short stories
The Moonstone, Wilkie Collins
Ellen’s younger daughter
Mars Evacuees, Sophia MacDougall
Dealing with Dragons, Patricia C. Wrede
Greenglass House, Kate Milford
Danny the Champion of the World, Roald Dahl
Cinder, Marissa Meyer
Ellen herself!
Station Eleven, Emily St. John Mandel
Six Wakes, Mur Lafferty
The Passage, Justin Cronin
Sorcery and Cecelia, Caroline Stevermer and Patricia Wrede
Glynis’s husband
A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet, Becky Chambers
“Fandom for Robots,” A GIFT BUT NOT THE KIND YOU CAN WRAP by Vina Jie-Min Prasad
The Art of Fielding, Chad Harbach
Station Eleven, Emily St. John Mandel
The Goldfinch, Donna Tartt
Chelsea!
Karen Memory, Elizabeth Bear
You’re Welcome, Universe, Whitney Gardner
The Inexplicable Logic of My Life, Benjamin Alire Sáenz
Sunbolt and Memories of Ash Intisar Khanani
A Hundred Thousand Worlds by Bob Proehl
Caroline’s mum
The Beekeeper’s Apprentice (first of the Mary Russell mysteries), Laurie King
Lost Among the Living, Simone St. James
Crocodile on the Sandbank (first of the Amelia Peabody series), Elizabeth Peters
The Strangler Vine, M.J. Carter
The Shape of Water, Andrea Camilleri
The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, John le Carré
Erica’s partner’s mother
Fingersmith, Sarah Waters
Life After Life, Kate Atkinson
The Time Traveler’s Wife, Audrey Niffenegger
Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand, Helen Simonson
Vanessa and Her Sister, Priya Parmar
Our transcript for this episode is under the jump!
THEME SONG: You don’t judge a book by its cover. Page one’s not a much better view. And shortly you’re gonna discover the middle won’t mollify you. So whether whiskey’s your go-to, or you’re like my gin-drinking friend, no matter what you are imbibing, you’ll be better off in the end reading the end.
WHISKEY JENNY: Hello, and welcome to the very special holiday edition of the Reading the End bookcast with the demographically similar Jennys. I’m Whiskey Jenny.
GIN JENNY: And I’m Gin Jenny.
WHISKEY JENNY: And we’re really excited to have a special book recommendation and gift guide episode today.
GIN JENNY: The most exciting of all the episodes.
WHISKEY JENNY: Yes, it’s our third annual?
GIN JENNY: Yeah. That sounds right, yeah.
WHISKEY JENNY: Probably the third annual.
[LAUGHTER]GIN JENNY: Do not fact check.
WHISKEY JENNY: But before we get into gift guide and then recommendations, I just want to point out, I hope everyone enjoyed the special holiday theme song that we have this year.
GIN JENNY: This is not our idea, although I would love it if it had been. Jessie Barbour contacted us out of the blue and asked if she could do a holiday themed version of our theme song. And we were so excited, as you can imagine.
WHISKEY JENNY: Obviously we said yes immediately. And now we have this beautiful piece of music for everyone to enjoy. So thank you very much, Jessie!
GIN JENNY: As always, for being a brilliant musician and person.
WHISKEY JENNY: Indeed. Well, before we get started, what are you reading right now, Gin Jenny?
GIN JENNY: I actually am reading nothing right now. Right before this podcast, I finished this book called Charlotte Sometimes, by Penelope Farmer, which is a time slip novel from 1969, that has been sitting beside my bed pretty much since I moved into my new place. And it was a book. I really had nothing to say about it. It was fine. I don’t know how it came to be by my bedside, but I do know that it was very medium, as a book goes. It was not worth the months that it’s been sitting there.
WHISKEY JENNY: That’s always disappointing.
GIN JENNY: It was, but that’s how life goes sometimes. I have a bunch of really great books awaiting me, so I’m excited about those. What are you reading?
WHISKEY JENNY: I just started The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, by Alan Bradley.
GIN JENNY: Oh, yeah!
WHISKEY JENNY: Which I’ve heard a lot of good things about. People really seem to enjoy it. It’s the Flavia De Luche series? Or DeLuce? I don’t know how you say it. Sorry, Flavia. But she’s a wee slip of a lass, and she really likes science. I really just started it.
And I thought it was going to be super fluffy and a comfort read. But she is a wee thing, and she has a 13-year-old sister and a 16-year-old sister, I want to say, and they’re super mean to her! And she’s like concocting her revenge right now back against them. And they’re really mean to each other. I don’t like these sibling fights.
GIN JENNY: I prefer nice siblings.
WHISKEY JENNY: Me too. And it was totally unexpected.
GIN JENNY: Aw.
WHISKEY JENNY: So, I don’t know. We’ll see.
OK, well, we’re now really excited to share with you our little gift round up of things that we are perhaps excited to give or receive ourselves, or that we think people would enjoy. And I will just preface this by saying, Gin Jenny is always much better than me at making these literary themed. I have the best of intentions to begin with, and then I totally go off the rails.
GIN JENNY: That’s great, because mine is much less literary themed this year than in the past.
WHISKEY JENNY: Oh, great!
GIN JENNY: Well, because yours were often not, and I was like, you know what? Who cares? We don’t need everything to be literary themed. It could just be– honestly, my gift guide is just stuff I super enjoyed in 2017.
WHISKEY JENNY: So is mine.
GIN JENNY: Great.
WHISKEY JENNY: OK, terrific. What’s your first thing?
GIN JENNY: OK, so my first thing. One thing that I bought this year that has been absolutely terrific, y’all are going to laugh at me, is a chain for my reading glasses. I have glasses that I’m supposed to use when I’m using the computer, with blue blocker lenses, which you guys should all get, because computers are really bad for your eyes.
But I love this glasses chain. It has shifted my aesthetic in the curmudgeonly old lady direction, which is exactly what I want. I got a very cute chain for my glasses from Leslie’s Lanyards on Etsy, and she was super nice, and I’m very satisfied.
So if you know someone who wants to look 75% more likely to say shush in a stern voice, I recommend this as an aesthetic choice.
WHISKEY JENNY: I can confirm that they’re very attractive glasses chains.
GIN JENNY: Right? They’re pretty.
WHISKEY JENNY: Yeah, they’re interesting.
GIN JENNY: Yeah. What’s your first one, Whiskey Jenny?
WHISKEY JENNY: So my first one is sort of actually literary related.
GIN JENNY: Oh, nice. Well done.
WHISKEY JENNY: Thank you. It is– well, temporary tattoos.
GIN JENNY: Oh, nice.
WHISKEY JENNY: I would just like everyone to know, if you haven’t done a temporary tattoo since you were a child, and you’re not a child now, the technology has really advanced. They’re really cool looking now. They can go really detailed, and they stay on for a long time, and they look pretty good when they’re on.
So I love Rifle Paper Co. temporary tattoos, obviously, because I love Rifle Paper Co. everything. But specifically for literary ones, I found this company called Litographs. And they make some with quotes from different books. So I got Friend of the Podcast Ashley some Sherlock Holmes ones.
GIN JENNY: Oh, nice.
WHISKEY JENNY: I also got some Pride and Prejudice ones for me.
GIN JENNY: Nice, nice.
WHISKEY JENNY: And I’m just pretty excited about them. They’re lovely designs, and temporary tattoos in general– a fun stocking stuffer.
GIN JENNY: They are a fun stocking stuffer. My little sister really likes temporary tattoos, so any time I’m somewhere with a temporary tattoo vending machine and I happen to have change, I’ll get her a couple.
WHISKEY JENNY: They’re just fun. What’s your next thing?
GIN JENNY: OK, so my next thing– sort of predictable– is Black Sails on DVD!
WHISKEY JENNY: Woo!
GIN JENNY: Yay! Black Sails is a show I watched this year. You may have heard me talk about it. It gave me so much joy, I cannot describe my joy to you. It’s a good gift to get someone who likes television and doesn’t mind it being somewhat grim. So maybe Game of Thrones fans.
WHISKEY JENNY: Aw, come on.
GIN JENNY: No?
WHISKEY JENNY: I would say more than somewhat.
[LAUGHTER]GIN JENNY: Whiskey Jenny watched one episode and was so dismayed that when I was watching another episode, she walked away and turned her back so she couldn’t even see the TV. That’s how grim it is. That’s the level of grimness.
WHISKEY JENNY: It’s pretty grim. I just want people to be aware.
GIN JENNY: Yeah, prepared. No, you’re right. It’s quite grim. Whiskey Jenny was seeing bits of the third season, which is quite grim, and then the fourth season is even grimmer than that.
WHISKEY JENNY: Oh, goodness.
GIN JENNY: The third season kind of ends on a high note, and then the fourth season is pretty nonstop dark. So here’s the thing. The first three seasons of Black Sails are available on Hulu, but be kind to the person you’re telling Black Sails about and get them the fourth season on DVD, because it is– I mean, if you understood my suffering waiting to watch season 4 of Black Sails. It was a long week that I had to wait.
It’s a really excellent show. It’s about pirates in the historical Caribbean, starring Toby Stephens, who’s just tremendous in it. And if you have someone you’re buying for who doesn’t mind a very dark television show, this one’s a really, really, really good one.
WHISKEY JENNY: I would also like to point out that this show gave Gin Jenny, and thus me, another way to say how much you love someone, which is that you would go to war with the British Empire for them.
GIN JENNY: Yes, definitely. And it’s useful. It’s a useful metric.
WHISKEY JENNY: It really is, yeah.
GIN JENNY: What’s your next one?
WHISKEY JENNY: My next one is also kind of literary.
GIN JENNY: Man, Whiskey Jenny, you are crushing it.
WHISKEY JENNY: OK. This is the last one, though.
GIN JENNY: My last two are literary. I reversed it, so I think that works out really well.
WHISKEY JENNY: Balance. Yeah. OK, so this year for the first time I got a shirt from Out of Print. I got the Watership Down shirt, obviously.
GIN JENNY: Aw!
WHISKEY JENNY: It’s a really cool design. It’s super soft. The shirt is a nice cut. I love it. I’ve worn it a whole bunch already.
They also have some very interesting designs with regards to library cards and library check out, old-timey systems, where you would stamp the date. And they have some really cute scarves and little pouches that, if you’re not sure specifically what kind of book someone would like, but you know that they like books, would be a cute gift.
GIN JENNY: I love Out of Print.
WHISKEY JENNY: I don’t know if they do this often, but they previously had days where they donated proceeds to charity.
GIN JENNY: Yes, sign up for their email list. Because they’ll often have fun deals, and they’ll let when they have new books that show up. I’m on their email list and I don’t regret it.
WHISKEY JENNY: Cool.
GIN JENNY: OK, my next one is not at all literary. But if you’re shopping for someone who wears mascara, I have acquired a really nice mascara this year. I am so satisfied with it. I subscribe to Birchbox, which is one of those makeup sample subscription services.
WHISKEY JENNY: So great.
GIN JENNY: So great. I’ve really enjoyed it this year. I’m not doing it next year, because I don’t want too much of a good thing. So I’m going to take a year off and then come back in 2019. But of the many excellent samples they sent me this year, there was a mascara from Milk Makeup that I just can’t recommend enough. The brush is a little weird, but the mascara goes on very smoothly. It doesn’t clump at all. It’s been just perfect.
Also, 2017 has been a rough year, and I have on several occasions been at events that have made me cry heavily, not in a fun way. And Milk mascara has totally held up through all of that.
WHISKEY JENNY: Wow. It is 2017 tested. That’s huge.
GIN JENNY: I mean, it’s a big deal. So Milk Makeup mascara. What’s your next one?
WHISKEY JENNY: So my next one was, I was trying to think about what were the things that I just couldn’t shut up about this year.
GIN JENNY: Me too!
WHISKEY JENNY: That’s how I was trying to find things. So this year I became that annoying person who talked about her CSA all the time. [LAUGHTER] But I loved it.
GIN JENNY: It was not annoying. It was very charming. Also, I have to say– I’m sorry to interrupt you, Whiskey Jenny– but I’ve been so impressed with your ability to use the items from your CSA.
WHISKEY JENNY: Thank you so much! It was sometimes a race against time, because I am but one woman. But I think I always wound up doing a pretty good job. And I really enjoyed– I get stressed out when it’s like, what am I going to cook tonight? I could make literally anything in the world! But if I have a CSA, I have a framework that I have to work within, and I found that incredibly helpful.
So I know in New York there’s a lot of different ones that do deliveries, or you can do like monthly subscription packs. So I think if you know someone who likes delicious fresh food and enjoys cooking it, they might be interested in something CSA related.
GIN JENNY: Nice. That’s a really good one.
WHISKEY JENNY: Thanks. I got my first winter CSA box recently.
GIN JENNY: Oh, what’s in it?
WHISKEY JENNY: Squash. It had one butternut squash, which I’d never made before. And I roasted it whole in the oven and then made a soup from it, and it was really good. And it had a thing of apple cider from upstate New York, and some potatoes and onions, and two giant bags of greens. It was great. It was just great.
GIN JENNY: Apple cider is awesome. That’s a really exciting thing to find in your CSA.
WHISKEY JENNY: Yeah, it was delicious.
GIN JENNY: Cool.
WHISKEY JENNY: CSA!
GIN JENNY: OK, my next one– this is for people who live in Europe.
WHISKEY JENNY: Great.
GIN JENNY: About: Blanks notebooks are absolutely aces. My mother and I went to London this year for a vacation, and she bought me an About: Blanks notebook. I love it so much. They’re these blank or lined notebooks– the blank ones are better– whose covers used to be actual real books. And it’s so charming! So you write in them and it looks like you’re making margin notes inside your shabby copy of Proust.
WHISKEY JENNY: Aw!
GIN JENNY: I know. They’re not available in the US, which is so sad. I really regret that I didn’t buy 12. I didn’t even buy one! My mom bought it for me, because I was like, oh, I don’t need any more notebooks. But it’s such a good notebook, I just couldn’t be happier with it. And they sell them at a bunch of locations in Europe. And presumably I could order one and have it shipped to me, but it’s hard to justify the expense. I own a lot of notebooks.
WHISKEY JENNY: Well, that sounds great.
GIN JENNY: So if you have someone who uses notebooks ever and/or likes books, these are terrific ones. I went one for my next commonplace book.
WHISKEY JENNY: So, on theme. OK, so my next one is cute salt shakers.
GIN JENNY: Oh nice, nice.
WHISKEY JENNY: I feel like this is a kitcheny thing that everyone needs, so it’s also a good housewarming thing.
GIN JENNY: Oh, great point. Yeah.
WHISKEY JENNY: But I don’t often think about it when I’m brainstorming housewarming gifts. I’ve gotten my parents several cute sets of salt shakers. If you go looking, there’s some out there. I’ve gotten my parents some that were sort of painted ceramic circles. And then there were some that they looked like old timey faucets on the top. I am giving someone some cute salt shakers this year, so if you’re my brother, skip ahead 10 seconds. But I’m getting them some that look like a little sailboat! They’re so cute.
GIN JENNY: Aw, that’s adorable. That is a good housewarming gift. I like that.
WHISKEY JENNY: So yeah, cute salt shakers.
GIN JENNY: Great one.
WHISKEY JENNY: Thanks. Salt and pepper. Salt and pepper set. I don’t know what we’re calling that.
GIN JENNY: Yeah, salt and pepper. Yeah.
WHISKEY JENNY: Right, cool. Great. Not just salt. And pepper.
[LAUGHTER]GIN JENNY: OK, my last one is an actual book.
WHISKEY JENNY: Woo!
GIN JENNY: It’s The Odyssey, translated by Emily Wilson. This is a brand new translation of The Odyssey. It is the first ever translation of The Odyssey to be published by a woman, in the year of our Lord 2017, if you can believe that. It’s a really nice translation. I haven’t read the whole thing yet, but I really like it so far. It’s kind of elegant and simple. And the book itself is also very physically beautiful. The paper is really soft, and the cover is really nice. So that’s my last gift idea.
WHISKEY JENNY: Yay!
GIN JENNY: What’s your last gift idea, Whiskey Jenny?
WHISKEY JENNY: My last one is Tombow markers. They are– I don’t know what kind of markers they are, but they’re cool markers. And they do cool things with blending with each other. And you can kind of use them with watercolor brushes and water. So puts some marker on a paper, and then play around feeding it out with water.
GIN JENNY: Yeah.
WHISKEY JENNY: And I did this cool thing where you kind of scribble over a baggie with a color or different colors, and put a light wash of water over your watercolor paper, like all over it. And then you kind of print the baggie onto the watercolor paper, and maybe give it a little wiggle. And it makes this really cool print, that you don’t really know what it’s going to look like when it comes out.
GIN JENNY: Oh yeah, that’s amazing.
WHISKEY JENNY: Yeah. So Tombow markers. They’re really fun.
GIN JENNY: That sounds really fun, especially the blending thing. If you know people who do adult coloring books, that sounds like a great thing to have.
WHISKEY JENNY: Yeah. I like it. Yay, holidays!
GIN JENNY: Hopefully y’all are finding all good gifts for your people. And hopefully I am, too. I did all my Christmas shopping early.
WHISKEY JENNY: You’re totally done?
GIN JENNY: Yeah, pretty much yes.
WHISKEY JENNY: I am so impressed. Way to go, you.
GIN JENNY: Well, Whiskey Jenny, you shouldn’t be impressed. This is the opposite of my goal for this year. Because what always happens is, I do all my Christmas shopping early, and then the month of December is quite long. And as the month wears on, I get more and more ideas. So I just buy them, and then I have spent too much money, and I have too many gifts.
WHISKEY JENNY: Well, I don’t know how to fix that.
GIN JENNY: Me neither, except to wait to buy my presents. And I was going to do it this year, but instead of doing it, I didn’t do it.
WHISKEY JENNY: Well, have you had ideas so far? Like, are you itching to buy more things?
GIN JENNY: I’ve had some ideas, but I’ve been able to pawn them off on other people.
WHISKEY JENNY: Oh, good.
GIN JENNY: But there’s still, what, 15 days left to Christmas as we record this. So there’s a lot of time for me to screw things up still.
WHISKEY JENNY: Well, I like this idea of pawning them onto someone else, because then they still get the thing.
GIN JENNY: Yeah, exactly.
WHISKEY JENNY: And then, worst case scenario, you can save them for next Christmas.
GIN JENNY: But will I?
Well, shall we get on to telling people what to buy for their specific humans?
WHISKEY JENNY: Yes!
GIN JENNY: I am so excited. I loved doing this last year. And we got terrific feedback last year, which was so awesome. It was so nice of people who wrote in and told us that our gifts were successful. It was much appreciated.
WHISKEY JENNY: Yeah, it’s really lovely to hear.
GIN JENNY: So our first one is from Claire. Claire says, “I’d love some book recommendations for my dad. He’s a voracious reader, but reads mostly crime fiction, as well as historical and literary fiction. Those are not really my genres, so it makes it difficult to shop for him. The trickiest aspect is, he doesn’t read English, which rules out newly released books or titles from small houses, because they’re less likely to have a French translation.” She does note that she doesn’t expect us to go looking for French translations. She just wants ideas so that she can look for French translations.
“My dad especially loves historical or foreign settings, anything that can make him learn about something new. His hobbies include making things– he’s into DIY and makes food preserves– and keeping up with current events. He also enjoys nature, mostly gardening and hiking, and being thrifty– so, flea markets.” All right, Whiskey Jenny, what did you come up with for Claire?
WHISKEY JENNY: OK. And I did double check that all of these were available in French, so that’s exciting.
GIN JENNY: You’re great. You’re better about it than me. I didn’t do that.
WHISKEY JENNY: I have several mystery recommendations. I leaned into the crime fiction side of it.
GIN JENNY: Oh, nice.
WHISKEY JENNY: So I super enjoyed recently the Robert Galbraith mysteries, which are JK Rowling’s pen name. Though they’re not historical. They’re set in present day UK. But they were just good mysteries.
I enjoy a Walter Mosley mystery, which I think are set in the ’50s in Los Angeles. And Fearless Jones is black, and navigating the 1950s in Los Angeles as a black man, which is tricky.
GIN JENNY: Sounds good.
WHISKEY JENNY: So I know a lot of people enjoyed the Tana French mysteries. I’ve only read the first one, and I found the ending a little dissatisfying. That first one is In the Woods. But I know a ton of people who love them, and I think it’s a cool idea for a series. The detective changes every time. The Dublin Murder Squad is the name of the series, so it’s different people in that squad. So the first one, I think it’s our main dude’s partner, then, is the main person in the next one.
And then lastly, Jo Nesbo. His detective is Harry Hole. He wrote The Snowman, that the recent movie was based on. I heard the movie got terrible reviews, so don’t blame him for the movie. But I enjoyed those mysteries. They’re set in Norway, and sort of in that genre of dark Scandinavian mysteries. So not on the delightful spectrum of mysteries, I would say.
GIN JENNY: So for Claire’s dad, I went in the historical fiction direction. I think our answers are complementary.
WHISKEY JENNY: Great.
GIN JENNY: I thought of Amitav Ghosh’s Ibis trilogy, which is a set of three books that center on the 19th century opium trade between China and India. They’re really terrific books. They’re a lot of fun, and I learned a lot about that period, and also discovered a bunch of things that I wanted to learn more about separately by myself, which maybe your dad would enjoy, as well.
The second thing I’m recommending is Yaa Gyasi’s book Homegoing.
WHISKEY JENNY: Oh, good call.
GIN JENNY: Which is a wonderful historical novel that offers lots of space to learn more about African and American history. And it’s just a really, really good book.
WHISKEY JENNY: Yeah, totally.
GIN JENNY: What’s up next, Whiskey Jenny?
WHISKEY JENNY: Next– I have Ellen next, who actually has three requests. So should we just go through them in order?
GIN JENNY: Yes!
WHISKEY JENNY: All right. So Ellen asked for something for her 16-year-old daughter, who likes animation, Team Fortress 2– which I had to Google. It’s a video game.
GIN JENNY: Same.
WHISKEY JENNY: –and old timey mysteries. Asexual, aromantic, and really doesn’t like romance. When she chooses to read, often chooses classics. She’s working her way through– wait for it– [LAUGHTER] Goethe’s Faust.
GIN JENNY: Way to go, Ellen’s daughter. Way to be.
WHISKEY JENNY: I saw that, and I was like, wow. I don’t know that I could offer this person anything, because she’s already–
GIN JENNY: So far ahead.
WHISKEY JENNY: So far ahead of me. I’ve never read that.
GIN JENNY: No, me neither.
WHISKEY JENNY: But the couple I thought of were The Daughter of Time, by Josephine Tey. We read a Josephine Tey book for this podcast and didn’t super love it, but we both did really enjoy this book. And it’s about present day historical research into Richard III, so it’s got classic mystery vibes to it.
GIN JENNY: It does.
WHISKEY JENNY: And then The Three Musketeers is one of my favorite classics.
GIN JENNY: Oh that’s such a good one! That’s such a good one.
WHISKEY JENNY: I think there is some romance in there, and there’s this mesmerizing woman that people get entranced by, I would say. But it’s not a super huge part of the book. I mean, I barely even remember it. That’s not why I love the book. I don’t think it’s intrinsic to the story or anything. So I think it would still be enjoyable.
GIN JENNY: Oh, those are good.
WHISKEY JENNY: What do you have for Ellen’s daughter?
GIN JENNY: OK, so my first instinct– and she has probably already read some Ray Bradbury. But if you got her some collections of Ray Bradbury stories, I think that would be great. He’s a classic– I’m sure you know– he’s a classic science fiction author. And his short stories are just really, really good I always really love them. And I do not tend to like classic science fiction. I tend to find it way too sexist for me to enjoy. But I like Ray Bradbury. I like his short stories.
WHISKEY JENNY: Cool.
GIN JENNY: And then, for something that’s a little more classicsy and mysterysy, tell her for me that the internet says Wilkie Collins rules and Dickens drools. And she should check out the classic mystery novel The Moonstone, by Wilkie Collins. It is slow to start, but it turned out to be awesome and funny, and less racist than you might fear. And I really loved it when I was your daughter’s age, so hopefully she’ll like it too.
WHISKEY JENNY: That’s a good one. I really love that one, too. I couldn’t remember if it was super romancey or not, so I shied away from it.
GIN JENNY: I think not.
WHISKEY JENNY: I totally cosign it. I loved it as well.
GIN JENNY: As with The Three Musketeers, there’s a romance in it, but I don’t know. It’s not very romantic, is what I would say. [LAUGHTER] The object of the guy’s affections is suspected of doing a crime. And he’s not really convinced she didn’t do it.
WHISKEY JENNY: Fun!
GIN JENNY: It’s not the most romantic. Our next one from Ellen is for her 10-year-old daughter. “My 10-year-old daughter likes to read, and I would like to encourage her to read more. She loves Wings of Fire, Ursula Vernon, and Harry Potter. We’ve already preordered Sarah Cannon’s Oddity. She likes writing fanfic–” Good for her! What a cool kid.
WHISKEY JENNY: Yeah!
GIN JENNY: She sounds great. “She likes writing fanfic, climbing trees, adventure stories, cute animals, and YouTube videos. She not like things that appear to represent a moral or educational message from her mother.”
WHISKEY JENNY: Listen, I feel you.
GIN JENNY: Ellen, your kids sound great.
WHISKEY JENNY: They both sound super great.
GIN JENNY: All right, Whiskey Jenny, what did you choose for Ellen’s younger girl?
WHISKEY JENNY: I want you to go first, because I have one on here that’s in case Gin Jenny doesn’t say it, but I’m pretty sure you’re going to say it. So you go first.
GIN JENNY: OK. I will recommend the book that I’m giving to my 11-year-old cousin, which is Mars Evacuees by Sophia McDougall.
WHISKEY JENNY: Nailed it!
[LAUGHTER]GIN JENNY: To be fair, I’m giving this book to several people for Christmas this year. It’s an adventure story about kids solving problems in space. It’s so delightful. It’s one of my favorite books that I have read this year at all.
Beyond that, I always recommend Diana Wynne Jones. Diana Wynne Jones, I think, would be perfect for a kid of your daughter’s age. And also, has she read Patricia C. Wrede’s book Dealing with Dragons?
WHISKEY JENNY: Oh, great call.
GIN JENNY: So good. It’s about a princess who goes live with a dragon because she doesn’t want to live that princess life. And it’s great, and I think your daughter’s just the right age for it.
WHISKEY JENNY: Both great recs. And I think– so Ellen also asked for something for herself, and I think she would really enjoy Mars Evacuees as well, based on what she said she wanted, which we’ll hear from shortly. But it might be a fun thing that you could read together.
GIN JENNY: Yeah. You can buy it for your daughter, read it yourself real quick. So what did you pick out for Ellen’s younger girl?
WHISKEY JENNY: OK, so first of all I think she would like Danny the Champion of the World, by Roald Dahl.
GIN JENNY: Oh, nice. Nice.
WHISKEY JENNY: I think Kate Milford would be a good author to look into. I like the Greenglass House by her, which is two kids snowed in in an inn, and they are investigating all the different people staying at the inn, and finding old stuff in the attic, and stuff. It’s a very cozy adventure story, I would say.
And then, this might be a little old. I wasn’t sure. I was going to check with Gin Jenny. But what do you think about Cinder?
GIN JENNY: I think Cinder would be good. Cinder‘s got adventures.
WHISKEY JENNY: Yeah, so Cinder. Then I would say Cinder, by Marissa Meyer. It’s a series, but you could also definitely just stop at the first one. It is about– it’s sort of a Cinderella story retelling involving science fiction and androids, and people having to revolt against evil governments, and evil stepmothers. Cinder’s a cyborg. She has the most delightful robot sidekick ever. And, yeah, it’s very adventurey.
GIN JENNY: Excellent choices. Do you want to read Ellen’s request for herself?
WHISKEY JENNY: Yes! So for Ellen– and of course we’re going to do it, Ellen. She said she’s “two years into a three year blog project rereading a massive space opera. The thing will be 150 to 200,000 words long by the time she’s done.” So phew. Good luck, Ellen.
GIN JENNY: Really.
WHISKEY JENNY: “It’s a thrilling project, but also exhausting. So she needs something to read on the side that’s light, fun, and hopeful. Probably not another epic space opera.” Understandable! “I would love to be able to say I’m keeping up with some current science fiction/fantasy, although not with anything that might make me annoyed or depressed. I will read anything. Not poetry, and serious nonfiction would be a hard sell unless it had a cool disease outbreak. But almost anything else.” She loved All Systems Red, bounced off of Moxie, “because it bothered me that the protagonist was so into ’70s rock.” She says “I’m loving the Temeraire series. My mom sent me an article about anthrax risks associated with artisanal shaving accoutrements last year and it was amazing. I once met Seanan McGuire, and we geeked out about the MMWR for like 20 minutes, which is a long time at a con when you don’t know someone. I have already read all her Mira Grant stuff. I get books for Christmas. Which ones should I get?” So, which books do you have Ellen receiving?
GIN JENNY: OK, so I have two. One is very predictable. I’m sure you’ve already read it, Ellen, but if not, I think you should read Station Eleven, by Emily St. John Mandel. It includes a disease outbreak, and it’s very hopeful for a book about the apocalypse.
And then my second choice is a really super fun SF book that I read this year– so it’s current, came out this year– which is Mur Lafferty’s Six Wakes. It’s a locked door mystery in space with lots of fun stuff about clones and ethics, but it’s basically just a mystery novel. And it’s a delight. I really liked it.
WHISKEY JENNY: Cool.
GIN JENNY: All right, what about you?
WHISKEY JENNY: I said The Passage, by Justin Cronin. It’s technically a vampire story, but it feels very disease outbreaky. And it’s a super engrossing, quick read. So I wouldn’t call it on the fluffy, light side. But you just fly through it, because you have to know what happens. I had a blast reading it, although I got a little scared and had to read it not at night time.
GIN JENNY: Aw!
WHISKEY JENNY: And the other one– and this might be too fluffy. But you did say, Ellen– she said accusingly– light and fun and hopeful. And I think Sorcery and Cecelia is all of those things.
GIN JENNY: Oh, yeah.
WHISKEY JENNY: And it has some magic in it. And Ashley’s alternate title for this Magic and Scones, which is extremely accurate. It’s an epistolary novel about two girls of coming out age in regency England. And they both have magical adventures that they tell each other about that are very fun.
GIN JENNY: Good one.
WHISKEY JENNY: All right. Who’s next?
GIN JENNY: OK, so now next we have Glynis. And Glynis says, “Hi, Jennys! My husband–” Your husband sounds great. “My husband likes books where he can identify with characters who are essentially redeemable and goodhearted. I’m not always the best at finding books he’ll like, as I’ve been known to say things like, ‘oh, this is my favorite movie. It’s about people ruining each other’s lives.’ I’d like to find him a book he can enjoy, as he is currently partway through East of Eden, and almost everyone being awful in it kind of makes him sad. We’ve started reading Watership Down together, and I think he’ll love Bigwig, if it gives you an idea of what kind of character he likes. He didn’t super love The Sisters Brothers, mostly because of all the remorseless killing. He usually reads science fiction and likes sciencey things in general.”
Whiskey Jenny, what did you pick out for Glynis’s husband?
WHISKEY JENNY: First of all, love the Bigwig shout out.
GIN JENNY: Yeah, sounds like Whiskey Jenny and your husband are really on a similar wavelength in a lot of ways.
WHISKEY JENNY: Yeah, so I was really excited to do this one, because I also love things where everyone is nice, I guess.
GIN JENNY: Yeah, yeah.
WHISKEY JENNY: But as we talked also before, I don’t read a ton of science fiction, so I was not able to hit both of those things at once very often. But– and Gin Jenny just recommended this earlier– but I think Station Eleven, if he hasn’t read it, would also be good for him. Because it’s very– as you said, it’s sort of outbreak, and feels science fictiony, because it’s sort of future dystopia. But ultimately– not even ultimately, even during– is very hopeful about the human condition, I would say, and humanity in general.
I feel like someone could have played bingo on my picks and gotten three in a row on this one. But The Art of Fielding is just full of characters that I just really enjoyed spending time with, and seeing how they try to be good people in the world. Because I think most everyone in that book is just trying to do the right thing, even though they all have some stumbles along the way. So The Art of Fielding is great.
And then lastly, The Goldfinch. Might be a little too stressful, because not everyone is always doing the right thing in this book. But it does have one amazing goodhearted character, who’s so goodhearted that– honestly, when you said someone redeemable and goodhearted, I was like, oh, Hobie from The Goldfinch. Because he is so great. Spoilers for The Goldfinch, but things do work out in the end, if that helps sway you about The Goldfinch. And Hobie, while not one of the main characters, is just such a glorious, shining example of a person.
GIN JENNY: And it sounds like your husband does read epic literary stuff, given that he’s reading East of Eden. So I think it’s a good pick.
WHISKEY JENNY: What did you pick for Glynis’s husband?
GIN JENNY: This may be kind of an obvious recommendation, but has he read Becky Chambers’s SF novel The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet? It’s sort of like Firefly, except for nicer, and everyone in it is fundamentally good-hearted. It was maybe a little too conflict-free for my tastes, but maybe your husband wouldn’t care. So that’s my main recommendation.
I also recommend– I guess not as a gift, but just as something he should read– the short story “Fandom for Robots,” which I will link in the show notes. It is the most delightful short story imaginable. And Whiskey Jenny and I both want more people to read it, so I’m just advancing that agenda.
WHISKEY JENNY: It’s so great. Please read it, everyone.
GIN JENNY: Onward. Chelsea.
WHISKEY JENNY: Chelsea says, “It’s for me!” Also OK. That’s totally fine, Chelsea. “2017 has been complete trash for me.” so sorry, Chelsea. “So I’d love to have some feel-better books, preferably with queer, nonwhite characters. I love fandom, books set in academia, and I’ve been lovingly called an angst monster, so I’m here for a good dose of drama, as long as there is a happy ending place. There are very few things I dislike, but please, no white guy literary novels and no violence against kids.” So what you have for Chelsea?
GIN JENNY: Jonathan Franzen’s The Corrections. [LAUGHTER] Just kidding. OK, so my first recommendation is anything by Intisar Khanani. She’s a fantasy writer who I just love. Her books can be a little angsty, but the main thing about them is that they’re always about people who are trying their best. Sunbolt and its sequel, Memories of Ash, are just terrific. And Memories of Ash is set partly in a place that’s kind of a university, so sort of academia-ish.
And then my other recommendation, it’s A Hundred Thousand Worlds, by Bob Proehl. It’s about an X-Files like show where the two leads have a child together, but are broken up. And the Gillian Anderson person is taking her kid across the country on the con circuit. It’s not perfect, but it’s very fannish and very sweet, so that’s my second one. What about you, Whiskey Jenny?
WHISKEY JENNY: Nice. Well OK, again, I couldn’t edit this down. I had a hard time, because I have a ton. Sorry.
I really enjoyed Karen Memory, by Elizabeth Bear, this year. It was on the scifi starter pack that we got from Renay, and it includes both nonwhite and queer characters. And I found it to be just a total delight. It’s set in, I guess sort of steampunky the Old West.
GIN JENNY: Nice.
WHISKEY JENNY: There are some not great people running the town, and our heroes think that they shouldn’t be running the town anymore, so they work on that. You’re Welcome, Universe, is something that I read also this year, by Whitney Gardner. The main character gets kicked out of her deaf school for graffiti-ing and goes to a mainstream school, and has to adjust to that, and still try and sneak around and do her graffiti art. And I would say it’s pretty feelings-heavy, which sounds like something that Chelsea would enjoy.
GIN JENNY: And also plenty of female friendship.
WHISKEY JENNY: Yeah, it’s ultimately really about female friendship.
GIN JENNY: It is.
WHISKEY JENNY: So yeah, that was fun. And then also this year, I read The Inexplicable Logic of My Life, by Benjamin Alire Sáenz. So the main character’s a dude in high school. He’s really just trying to navigate his way in the world. It’s a lot of regular life problems. And his family is Mexican, and his dad is gay, and so it’s layering that with him trying to find his way in the world. And I love this writer and think he’s a beautiful writer.
GIN JENNY: Well, those are great choices. So next up is Caroline. Caroline says, “The recipient is my mother, and she loves historical mystery books– Iain Pears, Andrea Japp, Peter Ellis.” Caroline, thank you for emailing. I had to do a consult on this one, because I don’t read mysteries very often. So I cheated and consulted Friend of the Podcast Ashley. And her recs for you are as follows.
Laurie King writes a series about a woman called Mary Russell who teams up with Sherlock Holmes. And Lost Among the Living, by Simone St. James, is a book about a widow who works as a paid companion for her late husband’s jerk of an aunt. And she begins to discover dark secrets about her husband.
WHISKEY JENNY: [GASP] Bum bum bum!
GIN JENNY: I know. It sounds so fun! So those are my two recommendations from Ashley. And if they don’t work out, blame me, not Ashley. It’s my fault for not knowing historical mysteries.
WHISKEY JENNY: So my first one for this is Elizabeth Peters, in particular the Amelia Peabody series. They’re totally delightful. They jump between Egypt and England in– I don’t know what year, but olden times.
GIN JENNY: Turn of the century, I would say.
WHISKEY JENNY: There you go. And super delightful.
GIN JENNY: They’re are about archaeologists.
WHISKEY JENNY: Yeah. Also, this isn’t historical, but I think this series sort of scratches the same itch for me, even though it’s not historical. It’s the Inspector Montalbano series, by Andrea Camilleri. The first one is The Shape of Water. Wait, isn’t that a movie right now?
GIN JENNY: Yeah, but I think a different one.
WHISKEY JENNY: Different one? Is it? OK, I don’t know what it’s about.
GIN JENNY: It’s about a lady who falls in love with a fish man.
WHISKEY JENNY: Oh, that’s different.
GIN JENNY: Yeah.
WHISKEY JENNY: Cool. All right, well. So the first one is The Shape of Water, not the current movie. And it’s really set in Italy, and you get a lot of information about Italian life, and where he goes for lunch, and what he orders for lunch. And the translations often will leave the idioms in Italian and then have translation notes in the back about what it means, and why that became a saying in Sicily, and it’s fascinating to me. And I the same sort of seeing a whole other side of the world, not from a different time but from a different place.
And then we also read for podcast, The Strangler Vine.
GIN JENNY: Oh, right, right.
WHISKEY JENNY: By MJ Carter. And it’s set in Calcutta in 1837. And I think we both had some notes on it, but ultimately enjoyed it.
GIN JENNY: And it’s the first in a series. So if your mom enjoys it, there’s several more for her to read.
WHISKEY JENNY: There you go. Oh, you know what, she’s probably already read this. But the beginning John le Carré ones feel historical because they–
GIN JENNY: Are old.
WHISKEY JENNY: –came out a while ago. So she might enjoy those if she hasn’t given them a try already.
GIN JENNY: Cool.
WHISKEY JENNY: Last but not least, we have Erica looking for recommendations for her partner’s mother. Erica says, “She is a lovely Minnesotan for whom I requested help last year.” And Erica mentions that our help last year was successful.
GIN JENNY: Yay!
WHISKEY JENNY: Very exciting, and we’ll try and do good also this year. “She really enjoys the following authors– Thrity Umrigar, Sue Monk Kidd, Joanne Harris, Alexander McCall Smith–” oh, me too– “Fredrik Backman, and John Steinbeck. She doesn’t shy away from long reads like The Goldfinch–” woo!– “which she loved, and a little magical realism works for her, but high fantasy is a no go. She does not like graphic violence, incest, or abortion, as far as content notes go.” What did you have for Erica?
GIN JENNY: I also had to say, Erica said a bunch of nice things in her request.
WHISKEY JENNY: They were really lovely.
GIN JENNY: And they were so nice. And Erika, I just want you to know, you’re a treasure. When people tell me that they feel like we’re their real life friends, it makes me want to come find you and be your real life friend.
WHISKEY JENNY: Totally. It was very sweet. Thank you so much.
GIN JENNY: It was really sweet. OK so, this is probably too obvious, but if your mother-in-law has not read Sarah Waters yet, she really should. You mentioning The Goldfinch and Joanne Harris made me think of it. She probably has, because Sarah Waters is tremendous. But in case not, Fingersmith is a twisty, turny, plotty story about a con girl in Victorian London, and I would recommend it so much.
My second recommendation is Kate Atkinson’s book Life After Life, which is about a girl who keeps being reborn every time she dies. And she has a go at assassinating Hitler.
WHISKEY JENNY: Yeah, I wrote that one down as well, so double rec on that one.
GIN JENNY: Nice! I’m sorry I stole yours.
WHISKEY JENNY: No, you didn’t steal it. That means I will not sound as insane for all these.
[LAUGHTER]GIN JENNY: But the writing is terrific and the book is really enjoyable. I liked it a lot. All right, Whiskey Jenny. What is your totally normal number of recommendations for Erica?
WHISKEY JENNY: So in keeping with Alexander McCall Smith, I love Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand, by Helen Simonson. It’s just really sweet. It’s about a widow and a widower falling in love late in life and how that goes. And they’re in England, and it’s just really sweet.
I think that The Time Traveler’s Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger, is about a woman falls in love with someone who can time travel, but it’s really sad time travel? He doesn’t want to time travel. He just keeps having to time travel. It’s just a really cool idea, and I think that it’s got that one bit of magic in it that would appeal to your mother-in-law. It’s just a really beautiful book. I love the writing, and the how that story plays out and is handled, and the structure of it. And I just really like it.
GIN JENNY: Like you said, I like it that he doesn’t choose to time travel. He has it as a condition that he has to figure out how to live with. And she gets really into the details of how that works, which is always fun.
WHISKEY JENNY: Yeah, it’s very well done. And then lastly, we read Vanessa and her Sister on podcast, by Priya Parmar. And that is set in London turn of the century. And Vanessa is the sister of Virginia Woolf, so it’s about their relationship with each other and the rest of the artistic world in London at that time, and the salon that they have, and their relationships. And I think we both overall enjoyed it.
GIN JENNY: Mhm, we did.
WHISKEY JENNY: And it was really interesting. It’s a good historical one.
GIN JENNY: It is.
WHISKEY JENNY: So I think that’s it.
GIN JENNY: Those are all great. Thank you so much to everyone who wrote in.
WHISKEY JENNY: Yeah, thank you.
GIN JENNY: We loved getting your submissions and we love– I always love picking out books. Obviously, we both do. That’s kind of the point of us.
[LAUGHTER]WHISKEY JENNY: We should get temporary tattoos of, “Ask me about book recs.”
[LAUGHTER]GIN JENNY: That would be amazing. We also want to mention, we got the nicest listener email. All listener mail we get is incredible, and this one particularly touched our hearts. Niamh wrote in to say that her father, who is not a fan of podcasts or radio listening, will get in the car with her and immediately be like, “Can we have the Jennys on now?” That’s us! We are the Jennys!
And Niamh also says that her father is a Franciscan monk who spends his days tending his garden and doing experiments from science kids advertised for children. We’re just– this is just delightful. Hi, Niamh! Hi, Niamh’s dad! We’re so glad you’re listeners of the podcast. We hope you’re having a good December.
WHISKEY JENNY: You sound great.
GIN JENNY: You sound terrific. And I hope your gardening is going well in this cold season. I don’t really understand gardening. Maybe you don’t do any of that? I don’t really know how it works during the winter.
WHISKEY JENNY: I think you still have to maintain stuff, right?
GIN JENNY: You have to put sheets over things?
WHISKEY JENNY: Like, I don’t know. There’s some–
[LAUGHTER]GIN JENNY: Niamh’s dad is like, I withdraw my fandom of these girls.
WHISKEY JENNY: Never mind. They don’t know anything about gardening.
GIN JENNY: But anyway, we’re delighted that you’re fans of the podcast. We are fans of you.
WHISKEY JENNY: Totally.
GIN JENNY: Well, this has been the Reading the End bookcast with the demographically similar Jennys. You can visit the blog at readingtheend.com. The You can follow me on Twitter @readingtheend. We are both on Goodreads as Whiskey Jenny and Gin Jenny. And you can email us– please do! We love listener mail so much– at readingtheend@gmail.com. If you’re listening to us on iTunes, please leave us a review. It helps other people find the podcast. And until next time, very happy holidays to all of you.
WHISKEY JENNY: Happy holidays!
THEME SONG: You don’t judge a book by its cover. Page one’s not a much better view. And shortly you’re gonna discover the middle won’t mollify you. So whether whiskey’s your go-to, or you’re like my gin-drinking friend, no matter what you are imbibing, you’ll be better off in the end reading the end.
Get at me on Twitter, email the podcast, and friend me (Gin Jenny) and Whiskey Jenny on Goodreads. Or if you wish, you can find us on iTunes (and if you enjoy the podcast, give us a good rating! We appreciate it very very much).
Credits
Producer: Captain Hammer
Photo credit: The Illustrious Annalee
Theme song by: Jessie Barbour