Today’s guest is recently retired and is excited to have more time to read in this chapter of life. She wants to find good books and, in particular, long books that she can really sink into, but her library holds keep wreaking havoc with her well-laid plans. When Amy Czuba wrote into our submissions page with this plea for help, we could not say no.
After wrapping up her career as a global HR leader, Amy said goodbye to Massachusetts after living there for nearly 40 years and moved to Charleston, South Carolina, where she’s now enjoying soaking up the history of her new hometown.
Amy is here today seeking ideas for those long books that she’s craving. She would especially enjoy a book that teaches her about a topic she might not otherwise learn about. Amy also has a goal to read more books from her as-yet-unread pile of titles that she already owns, but she cannot resist a shiny new library book that’s available for checkout at her local branch, and this is keeping her from reading through her owned titles. I have ideas to share.
We’d love to hear your library holds list strategies: please share those with Amy and all of us by leaving a comment below.
Our Fall Book Preview is happening soon
Our eighth annual Fall Book Preview releases on Thursday, September 17th to members of Modern Mrs Darcy Book Club and our Patreon All-Inclusive and Bonuses & Events tiers, plus our a la carte ticket holders. The Fall Book Preview experience includes our 12-page digital PDF lookbook and an invitation to our live Unboxing event happening at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time on September 17th. This year we are also offering a printed, delivered by snail mail lookbook that is available as an add-on to your Fall Book Preview experience order or as a standalone purchase. This year’s lookbook is different from past editions in several ways, including its format: it’s 6 by 9 inches, 12 pages, and designed as a professionally printed, genuinely useful, delightful little zine kind of lookbook that will ship straight to your mailbox for around 10 bucks, including shipping. We hope the lower cost makes it easy to say yes to our lookbook this year. Mark your calendars, get your a la carte ticket, or just get more information at modernmrsdarcy.com/fbp.
Books mentioned in this episode:
• Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir (Audio edition)
❤ Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space by Adam Higginbotham
• Midnight in Chernobyl by Adam Higginbotham
❤ The Bee Sting by Paul Murray
❤ The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne
▵ Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry
• Theo of Golden by Allen Levi
• Whistler by Ann Patchett
• The Calamity Club by Kathryn Stockett
• John of John by Douglas Stuart
• The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown
• Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe
• Everything Is Tuberculosis by John Green
• Caste by Isabel Wilkerson
• The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson
• Kin by Tayari Jones
• These Heathens by Mia McKenzie
• Middlemarch by George Eliot
• 13 Ways of Looking at the Novel by Jane Smiley
• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (Audio edition)
• Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann
• The Lost City of Z by David Grann
• Trash! by Simon Pare-Poupart
• The High Cost of Free Parking by Donald Shoup
• The Invention of Nature by Andrea Wulf
❤: Guest favorite book
▵: A book they didn’t love
Also mentioned:
• An Unlikely Story (Plainville MA)
• Parnassus First Editions Club
• Please support our sponsors.
