Podcast Review: Books on the Nightstand - recommendations

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In last week's first podcast review of Books on the Nightstand, I mentioned that I have a special notebook to keep track of the books I got recommended by Ann and Michael. Basically, it's a small, black Moleskine notebook with 76 pages and as I have two such notebooks the one for the recommendations has a sticker of Jenny's Cupcakes, a cupcake bakery here in Frankfurt on it (if you're in Frankfurt, check it out, I can give you directions). It's basically a white sticker with a pink cupcake and "Jenny's Cupcakes" written on it. For each podcast I start a new page, writing down the number and title of the podcast and then I write down the books I want to check out. After each book I leave a lign empty for my own mini-comment on how I liked it.

Now on to the recommendations - at least a few of them.

It all started in the very first podcast Ann and Michael did. There they mentioned The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon, a book I had already read, but deemed note-worthy. It is such a great book!

In the second podcast they first mentioned a book by Valerie Martin, Trespass (as well as in podcast #14), and in one of the last podcasts (#60), Mary Reilly by the same author was mentioned. I believe it was Ann who recommended both books, but I really have to see who recommended which book in my notebook! (Maybe I'll do that this weekend, when I try to relax from the take-home exam I have to hand in tomorrow, before I tackle the paper I have to write.)

In the 20th podcast, it was all about sci-fi for the non-sci-fi-reader. With that one, they really got me, as I found Firmin by Sam Savage in a local book shop soon after the show. Let me just say I fell hard for that book and have since given the book as a present to two friends of mine and am now offering it in my giveaway. I guess that shows how much I love this book.

Then, I believe I really should mention The Road by Cormac McCarthy (podcast #30, #42 and #50). Around the time Ann and Michael recommended it, it was also on my reading schedule for a class. Unfortunately, it was the book that was dropped from the schedule as we were a bit too slow, but with a few other students and our lecturer, we set up a special class to discuss it for those interested. It is such a thought-provoking book, and I'm really glad Dr. V agreed to do the extra class!

Right in the next podcast, #31 (and #50 and #58, as it happens), they spoke about Beowulf at the Beach by Jack Murnighan. In this book, Murnighan talks about all those classics out there, the ones you should really know! And gives a short summary, tells you which parts of the book you can skip and adds other useful information! Can you believe it? I absolutely have to get this book.

Now, to give you even more of an impression of the variety of recommendations, here's a short list of books I noted from the podcasts #60 through #62:

• David Grann: The Lost City of Z
  
• Eric Larson: The Devil in the White City
  
• Valerie Martin: Mary Reilly
  
• Thomas Mullen: The Many Deaths of the Firefly Brothers
  
• Jaron Lanier You Are Not A Gadget
  
• Chip Heath & Dan Heath: Made to Stick
  
• Chip Heath & Dan Heath: Switch
  
• Georges Perec: A Void
  
• Georges Perec: Life - A User's Manual
  
• Rebecca Skloot: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Of course, even Ann and Michael's recommendations aren't always fool-proof. I have found one book they recommended that I didn't enjoy so far - Nancy Horan's Loving Frank. But if you take into account the many, many books I wrote down and the number of books I already read, this is really not that note-worthy.

Oh yes, and the books I have on Mt. TBR from their recommendations? They are:

• Stieg Larsson: The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (actually on Mom's shelves, but so what)
  
• Suzanne Collins: The Hunger Games
  
• Yu Hua: Brothers
  
• Alan Bradley: The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie
  
• Ninni Holmqvist: The Unit
  
• Stieg Larsson: The Girl Who Played With Fire (also on Mom's shelves)
  
• Lev Grossman: The Magician
  
• Carrie Ryan: The Forest of Hands and Teeth
  
• Arthut Conan Doyle: The Complee Adventures and Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

Podcast Review: Books on the Nightstand

As a few of you already know I'm in the lucky position to be able to listen to podcasts or audio books while I'm at work. This has lead me to discover a number of wonderful podcasts I would love to share with you. For this, I created the podcast review here at the Dreamworld, which I will do monthly. I will not necessarily review them as I would a book, but for the time being, I have no better word for it.
If you know a podcast I absolutely have to listen to, please let me know either by e-mail or in a comment. I'm always looking for more literary podcasts to enjoy and dwell in!



So let me start with Books on the Nightstand. This is the first literary podcast I ever subscribed to and it is simply awesome! Ann Kingman and Michael Kindness are sales reps for Randomhouse, so they get to read lots of great books before they’re out and we hear about them. It must be really hard for them to not let it slip and talk about all those wonderful books. In fact, all they might tell is that they are reading a great book they can’t wait to talk about, but that's as much as you get until the pub date is here.
Despite them working for Randomhouse, though, the podcast is strictly personal, so you get their opinion and their opinion only. They give the podcast a very personal note and when I listen to Books on the Nightstand it is as if I was sitting there with them having them recommend books to me.

As it is such a pleasure to hear them talk, I usually wait a bit to gather two to four podcasts so I can indulge at a later moment instead of having to stick to “only” about half an hour of book-ish talk. Ann and Michael have recommended a ton of books since their first podcast and I actually have a special notebook where I write down all recommendations sorted by the edition I heard them mention the book. (For a very small excerpt of books I wrote down, see below!)

At the beginning, they taped a podcast about twice a month, but a poll showed that we listeners would very much appreciate a weekly show – and that is what Ann and Michael are doing now, and sucessful at that! Now at # 65 (as you read this the 65th podcast should be available for download), they have gathered a huge number of friends and you can even find Books on the Nightstand on Facebook, Goodreads and Twitter.

Their podcast is usually made up of three sections. First, they talk about the theme of the show with book recommendations along the way. Then they recommend a few books that will be out the week after the podcast, before they go on the the last part of the show with one book each they can’t wait for us to read.

But that is not all. For the holidays, they went great lengths to create gift guides - in 2009 even a regular one and one for kids to download and / or print. And at the end of each gift guide, there's a checklist to print off and mark the books you intend to buy for your loved ones.

Now here are a few select books Ann & Michael recommended over the past two years:

• Jeff Lindsey: Darkly Dreaming Dextre
  
• Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
  
• Stieg Larson: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
  
• Suzanne Collins: The Hunger Games
  
• Cormac McCarthy: The Road
  
• Sam Savage: Firmin
  
• Ninni Holmqvist: The Unit

You can see they read and enjoy a broad variety of books, and I only selected a few random ones. If you haven't listened to Books on the Nightstand yet, you certainly should try it!