Welcome to Top Shelf Reads, on today’s episode we review Zama, Giovanni’s Room, The Deep, Ace of Spades, and The Forest of Stolen Girls. And we discuss reading fiction for the self.

3:47 -- Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin (teaser impressions)
6:00 -- Ace of Spades  by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé
11:06 -- Zama by Antonio di Benedetto
28:45 -- Nick teases current reads

• The Morning Star by Karl Ove Knausgaard
• The Books of Jacob by Olga Tokarczuk
• My Struggle series by Karl Ove Knausgaard

34:15 -- The Deep by Rivers Solomon
40:55 -- The Forests of Stolen Girls by June Hur
46:25 -- Discussion: reading fiction for the self

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Welcome to Top Shelf Reads, on today’s episode we look back on our 2021 reading year and set our reading resolutions for 2022.

02:48 -- Chatting about our holidays

• Youtube Channels:
  • KDbooks
  • Rachel is Reading
  • Paper Knot Books
• Books mentioned:
  • Persuasion
  • Giovanni's Room
  • Makioka Sisters 
  • The Morning Star
  • Chess Story
  • Independent People
  • Sleepless Nights
  • Louise Gluck Poems 1962-2012
  • A Novel by Steven More Volume 1
  • Breakfast of Champions
  • Bats of the Republic
  • The Trial
  • Zama
  • Kin by Jergovic
  • Chronicle of a Death Foretold

32:36 -- 2021 in Review

• Some books mentioned:
  • Piranesi
  • Song of Achilles
  • Circe
  • Song for the Unraveling of the World
  • Firekeeper's Daughter
  • The Employees: A 22nd Century Workplace Novel
  • A Fine Balance
  • The Rifles (Vollmann)
  • If on a Winter's Night a Traveler
  • Moby Dick
  • The Metamorphosis (Kafka)
  • The Yellow Wallpaper
  • A Christmas Carol
  • Hyperion
  • Boy's Life (McCammon)
  • Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell
  • The Satanic Verses
  • The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea
  • The Wizard of Earth Sea
  • Moby-Dick

01:09:41 -- 2022 Reading Resolutions

• Some more books mentioned:
  • The Conformist (Moravia)
  • Zama
  • The Door (Szabo)
  • Kokoro
  • Cat's Cradle
  • The Age of Huts
  • The Unbearable Lightness of Being
  • Cannonball (McElroy)
  • The Peregrine
  • Parakeet
  • The Dying Grass
  • Infinite Jest
  • In Search of Lost Time
  • The Brothers Karamazov
  • The Luminaries
  • The Anatomy of Melancholy
  • XX (Rian Hughes)
  • Middlemarch
  • Lonesome Dove
  • Moon Witch Spider King
  • The Count of Monte Cristo

I'm sure I missed a few books...

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Welcome to Top Shelf Reads. On today’s episode, we chat about Chicago bookstores and an online book club. Nick reviews If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino and we share book gifting ideas for the holiday season. Enjoy the show!

00:55 -- Chicago Bookstore Adventures

• Afterwords
• Newberry (in library)
• Exile in Bookville (in Roosevelt University)
• Book Haul:
  • The Conformist  by Alberto Moravia
  • Butcher's Crossing by John Williams
  • The Bear by Andrew Krivak
  • Parakeet by Mari-Helene Bertino
  • This Thing Between Us by Gus Moreno

07:04 -- The Bear by Andrew Krivak (mini review)
10:05 -- Online book club for Books of Jacob by Olga Tokarczuk

• Blackwell's link to buy BoJ
• Book club

17:20 -- If on a Winter's Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino (a review)
27:01 -- Holiday Reading Gift Guide (a discussion)

Books Discussed:

• Circe by Madeline Miller
• Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
• An Unapologetic Cookbook by Joshua Weissman
• Books of Jacob by Olga Tokarczuk
• The Door by Magda Szabo
• The Sailor who Fell From Grace with the Sea by Yukio Mishima
• The Employees by Olga Ravn
• NYRB
• Wizard of Earth Sea by Ursula K. Le Guin
• Lord of the Rings by Tolkein
• The Hainish Cycle by Ursula K. Le Guin
• The Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay
• Puffin in Bloom
• Puffin Hardcover Classics
• Juniper Gothic Horror Collection
• Blind Date with a Book

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