Last week, WFIU’s Noon Edition took place at Morgenstern Books & Café in Bloomington with a panel of experts to discuss their favorite books, popular titles this year, book trends and gift ideas. Hosts Bob Zaltsberg and Laurie McRobbie were joined by New York Times best-selling author Michael Koryta, Morgenstern Books general manager Jenna Bowman, and Sam Ott, the Teen Services Manager at the Monroe County Public Library.
Listen: Noon Edition: Books can make for the perfect gift this holiday season
Here are the panelists’ book recommendations.
Quotes have been edited for length and clarity.
What was your favorite book of this year?
The Gales of November by John U. Bacon
“Come to your local independent bookstore and take their recommendations. When I did that this year, I was introduced by Jenna Bowman here at Morgenstern’s to a book called The Gales of November by John U. Bacon. It is the story of the wreck of Edmund Fitzgerald, which I thought I knew plenty about. Turns out I knew very little about it. The story, the science of Lake Superior and of the shipping industry in that era is just incredible. It’s a really well done narrative.” – Michael Koryta
Everything is Tuberculosis by John Green
“We are grateful that John had participated in the Bloomington Book Festival this year. This book was eye-opening for me for many reasons, but a lot of that stems from the fact that we don’t even know how present tuberculosis is in our world still today…his heart is all over that book.” – Jenna Bowman
A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett
“It’s the sequel to The Tainted Cup. It’s a really fun, Sherlock Holmes style murder mystery series in a really depth full fantasy world. And the reason I really like it is that each book wraps up the mystery and you follow the characters to the next one. But it’s not like you have to read three or four books to get that pay off.”
North Woods by Daniel Mason
“It’s a multi-generation, multi-centennial story about a house in Northwestern Massachusetts. You don’t know where the book is going, you don’t know how it’s going to come together, but it does, and it was fantastic.” – Laurie McRobbie
Departure 37 by Scott Carson*
“This is set partially in Bloomington and partially in Maine, and it was just a fascinating book about nuclear proliferation, about AI, it just had all sorts of levels to it.” – Bob Zaltsberg
*Scott Carson is a penname for author Michael Koryta!
Other Recommendations
Non-fiction
The Devil Reached Toward the Sky by Garrett Graff
“It is an oral history of the nuclear age. It’s absolutely fascinating, and it leads us up to our current moment with some disturbing parallels.” - Michael
The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins
“It's a self-help book that doesn't make you feel bad and you're not doing things right. It's a self-help book that more so is like somebody said this to you, let them say it to you. It shouldn't change who you are and what you do.” - Jenna
Dragon Hoops by Gene Luen Yang
“He wrote the first graphic novel that has ever won a Prince award, American Born Chinese. But this is his experience coaching a middle school basketball team, which is really nice, but it’s also a great book just to have on hand for a reluctant reader or somebody into sports.” - Sam
Joy Goddess: A’Lelia Walker and the Harlem Renaissance by A’lelia Bundles
“It's a biography of her great grandmother, who was an absolute central figure in the Harlem Renaissance. In fact, the name Joy Goddess was given to her by Langston Hughes. And it's extremely well written. A’lelia wrote the biography of her great-great-grandmother, Madam CJ Walker, on her own ground that was made into the Netflix movie.” – Laurie
1971: How We Won by Charlotte Zietlow
“She really tells the history of Bloomington's political scene and how it turned from a Republican town to a Democratic community.” – Bob
For young adults
Authors John Green, Marie Liu, Jonathan Auxier
Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan or the Riordan presents series
Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor
Scythe by Neal Shusterman
Dry by Jarrod Shusterman and Neal Shusterman
For children
Kitty-Corn series by Shannon Hale and Leuyen Pham
Randy the Badly Drawn Reindeer by T.L. McBeth* - a local author!
Books by Author Robert Beatty
Choose Your Own Adventure books
“It's close to my heart. That's where I started. My love of reading was those books, because I think you have a little bit of control of what to do.” - Jenna
Impossible Creatures by Katherine Rundell
The Wednesday Wars by Gary Schmidt
“It is absolutely hilarious, very smart. If you have a 9-,10-year-old kid who loves books, I don’t think they will be disappointed.” - Sam
Story Thieves series by James Riley
For mystery-seekers
Authors Michael Connelly, Robert Crais, Dennis Lehane - Michael
Winter’s Bone by Daniel Woodrell
“This novel is one of the best books you will ever read. It’s this incredible story set in the Ozarks of a girl trying to prove that her father is dead.” – Michael
For historical fiction
Authors Kristin Hannah, Kate Quinn
Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris
Cilka’s Journey by Heather Morris
For the coffee table
Indiana University Bloomington: America’s Legacy Campus by J. Terry Clapacs
America’s Test Kitchen 25th Anniversary Cookbook
Still not sure what to read or gift?
“Come to your local independent bookstore and take their recommendations,” Michael said.
“(At MCPL), we’ll ask, okay, what do they like to read? And if they say, well, they aren't really into reading right now, we'll ask, okay, what are their extracurricular hobbies? Are they into sports, art, theater, what do they like to watch? What are their favorite video games? Anything like that, because then you can draw parallels to something that they might be interested in,” Sam said.
