Books with Betsy

Episode 33 - I'll Crack it Open with Stephanie Majercik

On this episode, Stephanie Majercik, a reader who reads widely, and I discuss our shared tricks for Book of the Month, why passing around books is great, and how her reading chair revolutionized her reading life. We also discuss her book club and the bookish names she has for her collection of house plants. 
 
Read & Run Chicago - The Great Believers  
Stephanie’s Reading Chair
 
Books mentioned in this episode: 
 
What Betsy’s reading: 
Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner 
Good Material by Dolly Alderton
 
Books Highlighted by Stephanie:
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen 
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr 
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
Kitchens of the Great Midwest by J. Ryan Stradal 
Shark Heart: A Love Story by Emily Habcek
The Book of Doors by Gareth Brown
Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig 
People Like Her by Ellery Lloyd
Group: How One Therapist and a Circle of Strangers Saved My Life by Christie Tate 
Bittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole by Susan Cain 
 
All books available on my Bookshop.org episode page.  
Other books mentioned in this episode:
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie 
Sleeping Murder: Miss Marple’s Last Case by Agatha Christie 
Half Broke Horses: A True-Life Novel by Jeannette Walls 
Hang the Moon by Jeannette Walls 
BFF: A Memoir of Friendship Lost and Found by Christie Tate 
Lock Every Door by Riley Sager 
The Last Time I Lied by Riley Sager 
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Behind Her Eyes by Sarah Pinborough 
The House in the Pines by Ana Reyes 
The Wishing Game by Meg Shaffer 
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain

Episode 32 - Where Literature is at this Moment with Bernie Lombardi

On this episode, Bernie Lombardi, a professor and researcher, discusses how his popular bookstagram and award lists are intertwined, along with his experiences reading the lists and even getting to go to the final ceremonies of a few awards! We also hear about his new author obsession and a very cool way that he tracks his reading each year. 
 
Bernie’s Instagram
The Read & Run Chicago Gift Guide 
 
Books mentioned in this episode: 
 
What Betsy’s reading: 
How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix
Held by Anne Michaels 
Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner 
 
Books Highlighted by Bernie:
Milkman by Anna Burns 
Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luiselli 
The Road by Cormac McCarthy 
We the Animals by Justin Torres 
The Promise by Damon Galgut 
Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellman 
Beautiful World, Where are You by Sally Rooney
 
All books available on my Bookshop.org episode page.  
Other books mentioned in this episode:
On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan 
Atonement by Ian McEwan 
An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro 
The Safekeep by Yael Van Der Wouden 
Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell 
The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell
Intermezzo by Sally Rooney 
Prophet Song by Paul Lynch 
The Bee Sting by Paul Murray 
Study for Obedience by Sarah Bernstein 
Orbital by Samantha Harvey 
James by Percival Everett 
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain 
Martyr! By Kaveh Akbar
Blackouts by Justin Torres

Episode 31 - These are my Trophies with Jenn Moland-Kovash

On this episode, Jenn Moland-Kovash and I discuss our shared interest in thrift-store book sections, the joy of walking around a bookstore and pointing out the books we have read, and her theories about why romantasy is popular. Jenn also gets me on a roll about the difference between book collecting and reading and why sprayed edges mean nothing to me. 
 
The Mail-a-Book program is still alive and well!
The Read & Run Chicago Gift Guide 
 
Books mentioned in this episode: 
 
What Betsy’s reading: 
The City and It’s Uncertain Walls by Haruki Murakami 
How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix 
Yr Dead by Sam Sax 
Not my Father’s Son by Alan Cumming 
Still Life by Louise Penny 
 
Books Highlighted by Jenn:
Beartown by Fredrik Backman
Us Against You by Fredrik Backman 
The Winners by Fredrik Backman 
The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese 
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee 
First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston 
The God of Endings by Jacqueline Holland 
World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments by Aimee Nezhukumatathil & Fumi Nakamura 
Take What You Need by Idra Novey
The Art of Losing: Poems of Grief and Healing by Kevin Young
Everything Happens for a Reason: And Other Lies that I’ve Loved by Kate Bowler 
 
All books available on my Bookshop.org episode page.  
Other books mentioned in this episode:
Nora Goes off Script by Annabel Monaghan 
Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder 
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor 
The Color Purple by Alice Walker 
Iron Lake by William Kent Krueger 
The Widows of Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey 
The Abominable by Dan Simmons 
A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas 
Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros 
Shark Heart: A Love Story by Emily Habeck 
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver 
Margo’s Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe 
This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar 
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins 
Divergent by Veronica Roth 
Memphis by Tara M. Stringfellow
Martyr! By Kaveh Akbar 
How to Say Babylon: A Memoir by Safiya Sinclair 
The Swifts: A Dictionary of Scoundrels by Beth Lincoln & Claire Powell 
The Wren in the Holly Library by K.A. Linde

Episode 30 - On the Edge of Heartbreak with Cynthia Okechukwu

On this episode, Cynthia Okechukwu, the founder of Black Girls Read Chicago, and I discuss books that make you cry, her love of hardcover books, and what kinds of audiobooks work for both of us. She also gets to share an incredible story of getting a critical book put into her hands at a young age. 
 
Black Girls Read Chicago Instagram 
The Read & Run Chicago Gift Guide 
 
Books mentioned in this episode: 
 
What Betsy’s reading: 
The City and It’s Uncertain Walls by Haruki Murakami 
How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix 
Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman
 
Books Highlighted by Cynthia:
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou 
The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai 
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn 
The Coldest Winter Ever by Sister Souljah
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison 
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson
Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origins and Spread of Nationalism by Benedict Anderson
Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine 
 
All books available on my Bookshop.org episode page.  
Other books mentioned in this episode:
Little House Box Set by Laura Ingalls Wilder 
Matilda by Roald Dahl 
Last Summer on State Street by Toya Wolfe 
Original Sins: The (Mis)Education of Black and Native Children and the Construction of American Racism by Eve L. Ewing 
Ghosts in the Schoolyard: Racism and School Closings on Chicago’s South Side by Eve L. Ewing
Another Brooklyn by Jacqueline Woodson 
Running While Black: Finding Freedom in a Sport that Wasn't Built for Us by Alison Mariella Désir
Will by Will Smith & Mark Manson
The Meaning of Mariah Carey by Mariah Carey 
Caucasia by Danzy Senna 
It by Stephen King
The Help by Kathryn Stockett 

Episode 29 - Never Earned a Personal Pan Pizza with Susanna Chapman

On this episode, Susanna Chapman, an illustrator who loves picture books, discusses her career in books, her love for an audiobook mausoleum, and why she loves the beginning of a book. We also destigmatize her concern around her main reading format and she tricks me into answering one of my own questions. 
 
The Fastest Drummer: Clap Your Hands for Viola Smith 
Pre-Order Dragonflies of Glass: the True Story of Clara Driscoll and the Tiffany Girls 
 
Books mentioned in this episode: 
 
What Betsy’s reading: 
The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley 
The City and It’s Uncertain Walls by Haruki Murakami 
How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix 
 
Books Highlighted by Susanna:
Dim Sum Palace by X. Fang
Twenty Questions by Mac Barnett & Christian Robinson
This One Summer by Mariko Tamaki & Jillian Tamaki 
Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White
Priestdaddy by Patricia Lockwood
Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst & Ray Cruz
The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz
The Bear & The Moon by Matthew Burgess & Catia Chien
I Talk Like a River by Jordan Scott & Sydney Smith
Fish is Fish by Leo Lionni
Daughters & Rebels by Jessica Mitford
Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown
Where Butterflies Fill the Sky: A Story of Immigration, Family, and Finding Home by Zahra Marwan
It Came From the Trees by Ally Russel
This Book is Anti-Racist: 20 Lessons on How to Wake Up, Take Action, and Do the Work by Tiffany Jewel & Aurelia Durand
Life’s Too Short to Pretend You’re Not Religious by David Dark
Exvangelical & Beyond: How American Christianity Went Radical and the Movement That’s Fighting Back by Blake Chastain 
How to Be An Anti-Racist by Ibram X. Kendi 
The People’s Plaza: Sixty-Two Days of Nonviolent Resistance by Justin Jones 
Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams & William Nicholson 
After the Fall by Dan Santat 
Roaming by Jillian Tamaki & Mariko Tamaki 
 
All books available on my Bookshop.org episode page.  
Other books mentioned in this episode:
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Snail and Worm: Three Stories about Two Friends by Tina Kügler 
The Crossover by Kwame Alexander & Dawud Anyabwile 
Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney 
Winnie-The-Pooh by A.A. Milne 
The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats 
Seeing, Saying, Doing, Playing by Taro Gomi 
Somebody’s Daughter by Ashley C. Ford 
Spinning by Tillie Walden 
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong 
The Napping House by Audrey Wood & Don Wood 
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
East of Eden by John Steinbeck 
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck 
Big Friendship: How We Keep Each Other Close by Aminatou Sow & Ann Friedman 
The Woman in Me by Britney Spears 
I Was Their American Dream: A Graphic Memoir by Malaka Gharib
It Won’t Always Be Like This: A Graphic Memoir by Malaka Gharib
My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshefgh 
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin 
The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year by Margaret Renkl 
Late Migrations: A Natural History of Love and Loss by Margaret Renkl 
Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Peña & Christian Robinson 
Milo Imagines the World by Matt de la Peña & Christian Robinson 
The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein 
Ulysses by James Joyce 
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster & Jules Feiffer

Episode 28 - Intellectually Affectionate with Annette LaPlaca

On this episode, Annette LaPlaca, a self-proclaimed church lady who loves mysteries and thrillers, discusses her career in editing, how she developed a love of reading in her children, and why it’s ok to have a lot of books. We also discuss the moral and empathetic benefits of a murder book and why people shouldn’t shy away from them. 
 
Books mentioned in this episode: 
 
What Betsy’s reading: 
Dearest by Jacqui Walters 
Ghostroots by ‘Pemi Aguda 
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro 
How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix 
 
Books Highlighted by Annette:
Cry the Beloved Country by Alan Paton 
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith 
Gaudy Night by Dorothy L. Sayers 
Okay for Now by Gary D. Schmidt 
The Franchise Affair by Josephine Tey
The Schwa Was Here by Neal Shusterman 
The Storied Life A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin
The Unconsoled by Kazuo Ishiguro
 
All books available on my Bookshop.org episode page.  
Other books mentioned in this episode:
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis 
Matilda by Roald Dahl
1984 by George Orwell 
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 
Leap Over a Wall by Eugene H. Peterson 
The Kingdom, the Power and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism by Tim Alberta 
Puritan Pleasures of the Detective Story by Erik Routley
Nancy Drew: The Secret of the Old Clock by Carolyn Keene
Eight Cousins by Louisa May Alcott 
Peace Like a River by Leif Enger 
I Cheerfully Refuse by Leif Enger 
Case Histories by Kate Atkinson 
The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare by G.K. Chesterton 
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott 
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster 
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle 
Many Waters by Madeleine L’Engle 
Freaky Deaky by Elmore Leonard 
The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness by Jonathan Haidt 
Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne 
The Cat Who Could Read Backwards by Lilian Jackson Braun 
Moby-Dick by Herman Mellville 
Trust by Hernan Diaz 
The Chosen by Chaim Potok 
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson 
The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt 
Life of Pi by Yann Martel 
Brat Farrar by Josephine Tey 
Miss Pym Disposes by Josephine Tey 
The Schwa Was Here by Neal Shusterman 
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin 
Silas Marner by George Eliot 
Middlemarch by George Eliot 
Emma by Jane Austen 
The Keeper of Lost Causes: The First Department Q Novel by Jussi Adler-Olsen 
The Troubled Man by Henning Mankell 
Father Brown: The Essential Tales by G.K. Chesterton 
Mindhunter: Inside the FBI’s Elite Serial Crime Unit by John E. Douglas & Mark Olshaker 
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro 
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro 
An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro

Episode 27 - Nobel Prize in Reading with Amie Medley

On this episode, Amie Medley, who loves a long book, discusses her big reading project, which is reading every author who has won a Nobel Prize in Literature, and what she has discovered through that endeavor. We also discuss the ups and downs of book clubs, the benefits she finds from ereaders, and her love for a book that I can’t help but roll my eyes at. 
 
Books mentioned in this episode: 
 
What Betsy’s reading: 
Ghostroots by ‘Pemi Aguda
Nora Goes off Script by Annabel Monaghan 
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro 
 
Books Highlighted by Amie:
Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace 
The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein 
The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich 
Tom Lake by Ann Patchett
Faith, Hope, and Carnage by Nick Cave and Seán O’Hagan 
Satantango by László Krasznahorkai
Beloved by Toni Morrison 
Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison 
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel 
North Woods by Daniel Mason 
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin 
2666 by Roberto Bolaño 
Books of Jacob by Olga Tokarczuk
The Art of Happiness by the Dalai Lama 
 
All books available on my Bookshop.org episode page.  
Other books mentioned in this episode:
The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet by Eleanor Cameron
Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White 
The Trumpet of the Swan by E.B. White 
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle 
Animal Farm by George Orwell 
The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson 
Jack by Marilynne Robinson
Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson 
Crossroads by Jonathan Franzen 
The Empusium: A Health Resort Horror Story by Olga Tokarczuk 
The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann 
My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante 
Erasure by Percival Everett 
Exit West by Mohsin Hamid 
Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesamyn Ward 
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk 
Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson 
The Mighty Red by Louise Erdrich 
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
Margo’s Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe 
Verity by Colleen Hoover 
The Melancholy of Resistance by László Krasznahorkai 
The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolaño 
M Train: A Memoir by Patti Smith 
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami

Episode 26 - Challenging for Some, Liberating for Me With Cat Shieh

On this episode, Cat Shieh, a Caliornian transplant to Chicago and former ethnic studies professor, discusses her hesitancy when people ask for recommendations and recommend books to her. She’s not afraid to drink the haterade, give a hot take, and make me guess what her answer is going to be to my questions. We talk about sad books (about reality) and some of our shared pet peeves about the reading world. 
 
Here is the Claudia Rankine excerpt that Cat read on the episode. 
 
Books mentioned in this episode: 
 
What Betsy’s reading: 
Ædnan by Linnea Axelsson, trans. Saskia Vogel 
Catalina by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio 
 
Books Highlighted by Cat:
High on the Hog: A Culinary Journey from Africa to America by Jessica B. Harris
NYC Basic Tips and Etiquette by Nathan Pyle
A Problem From Hell: America and the Age of Genocide by Samantha Power
Hold These Truths by Jeanne Sakata
Red State Revolt: The Teacher’s Strike Wave and Working-Class Politics by Eric Blanc
Pruitt-Igoe by Bob Hansman
Transgender 101: A Simple Guide to a Complex Issue by Nicholas Teich
White Kids: Growing Up with Privilege in a Racially Divided America by Margaret Hagerman 
The Wind Done Gone by Alice Randall  
The Picture of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde 
 
All books available on my Bookshop.org episode page.  
Other books mentioned in this episode:
Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant: A Memoir by Curtis Chan 
Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine 
I Was Their American Dream: A Graphic Memoir by Malaka Gharib 
Authentic Mexican: Regional Cooking from the Heart of Mexico by Rick Bayless 
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer 
Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer 
The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen 
White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk about Racism by Robin Diangelo 
Ghosts in the Schoolyard: Racism and School Closings on Chicago’s South Side by Eve L. Ewing 
Strange Planet by Nathan W. Pyle 
How to Be An Anti-Racist by Ibram X. Kendi 
We Want to Do More Than Survive: Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom by Bettina Love 
Serve the People; Making Asian America in the Long Sixties by Karen L. Ishizuka & Jeff Chang 
Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen by Jose Antonio Vargas 
The Latinos of Asia: How Filipino Americans Break the Rules of Race by Anthony Christian Ocampo

Episode 25 - Be a Dear, Unflip Your Dogears with Jennifer Moe

On this episode, Jennifer Moe, a professor and former bookseller, discusses her love for books that fully envelop the reader in a setting. We reminisce about our adventures with Twilight, our shared love for library magazines, and when it might be ok to leave a note or two in a library book. She also gives some 
 
Preorder Nobody’s Perfect, the book in which Jennifer has a chapter. 
 
Books mentioned in this episode: 
 
What Betsy’s reading: 
My Friends by Hisham Matar 
Shred Sisters by Betsy Lerner 
Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo 
 
Books Highlighted by Jennifer:
The Man Who Ate the 747 by Ben Sherwood
The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen 
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn 
The Giant’s House by Elizabeth McCracken
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
Open Book by Jessica Simpson
Educated by Tara Westover 
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov 
Cosmic Connections: Poetry in the Age of Disenchantment by Charles Taylor 
 
All books available on my Bookshop.org episode page.  
Other books mentioned in this episode:
Twilight by Stephenie Meyer 
Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling 
Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder 
Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen 
Still Life: A Chief Inspector Gamache Novel by Louise Penny 
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens 
Becoming by Michelle Obama 
Girl, Wash Your Face by Rachel Hollis
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

Episode 24 - Always Been a Fan of a List with Ian Gillham

On this episode, Ian Gillham, @criticalgayze on Instagram, and I discuss our shared love of book lists, book awards, and reading these lists. We also discuss Ian’s Substack project focusing on the Pulitzer Prize and how it has morphed throughout the years. Also, stick around for some hot takes about super popular books!
 
Here is the link to Ian’s Substack so you can follow along with his prize project. 
 
Books mentioned in this episode: 
 
What Betsy’s reading: 
My Friends by Hisham Matar 
Colored Television by Danzy Senna 
Summerdale by David Jay Collins 
 
Books Highlighted by Ian:
Say Hello to My Little Friend by Jennine Capó Crucet
Any Person is the Only Self by Elisa Gabbert
Wolfsong by T.J. Klune
A Psalm for the Wild Built by Becky Chambers
Biography of X by Catherine Lacey
Devil House by John Darnielle 
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon
Confessions of the Fox by Jordy Rosenberg 
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson 
Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza by Gloria Anzalúda
 
All books available on my Bookshop.org episode page.  
Other books mentioned in this episode:
All Fours by Miranda July 
The Charm Offensive by Alison Cochrun 
The Hardy Boys: The Tower Treasure by Franklin W. Dixon 
How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell & Emily Arnold McCully 
A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket & Brett Helquist 
The Giver by Lois Lowry 
Among the Hidden by Margaret Peterson Haddix & Cliff Nielsen 
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury 
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley 
Sag Harbor by Colson Whitehead 
A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman 
This Strange Eventful History by Claire Messud 
Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange 
Night Watch by Jayne Anne Phillips 
Same Bed Different Dreams by Ed Park 
Wednesday’s Child: Stories by Yiyun Li 
Trust by Hernan Diaz 
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver 
Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations by Mira Jacob 
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers 
James by Percival Everett 
Pudd’nhead Wilson by Mark Twain 
Blake; Or the Huts of America by Martin R. Delany, Sandra M. Grayson, & Patty Nicole Johnson 
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Martyr! By Kaveh Akbar 
Telephone by Percival Everett 
Orbital by Samantha Harvey 
11/22/63 by Stephen King 
The Long Walk by Stephen King 
The Institute by Stephen King 
The Shining by Stephen King 
Matrix by Lauren Groff 
Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff 
The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff 
Chain Gang All Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah 
The Running Man by Stephen King 
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara