Holiday Gift Ideas 2024

Fellow book nerd and special projects manager for Book Warehouse, Mary-Ann Yazedijan, joins the podcast to talk about her top reads for the holiday season. We discuss books new and old for holiday gift giving or your own TBR list.

Books discussed:

Revenge of the Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
The Grey Wolf by Louise Penny
Intermezzo by Sally Rooney
The Life Impossible by Matt Haig
The Serviceberry by Robin Wall Kimmerer
The God of the Woods by Liz Moore
The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife: A Novel  by Anna Johnston

Follow Book Warehouse:

Instagram: @bookwarehousevancouver
Website: https://blackbondbooks.com/

Follow Red Fern Book Review:

Website and to leave a voicemail: https://www.redfernbookreview.com
Instagram: @redfernbookreview
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/redfernbookreview/
Newsletter: https://www.redfernbookreview.com/newsletter

Transcript

Amy Tyler: 0:35

Amy, hello, welcome back to the Red Fern Book Review. I am your host, Amy Tyler, and I'm recording this episode on December 5, and I'm actually going to be releasing the podcast this very episode tonight, so I'm kind of under the gun here, but to set the scene, I'm in my apartment, and I've just finished decorating my apartment for Christmas, and I have my Christmas tree up. I have an artificial tree this year because I'm not allowed to have a live tree. So my compromise is I have my tree up. It's about a five foot tall tree, and I have lit a candle. It's a Fraser fir candle, which I just love. I love that scent. And I'm trying to get into the holiday, holiday mode. And currently I am listening to books because I'm on a deadline. I'm knitting some stockings. I'm knitting three stockings for the holidays, and in order to get those done in time, I'm multitasking and listening to books which it's definitely not the same. It's, I would say it's of equal value, but it's not the same experience as reading a book. Obviously, there's so many benefits to reading a physical book, but this one, I I'm enjoying it right now so and I'll get back to you in the future with some of the books that I'm that I've been listening to over the holidays. But today, what we're going to do is talk about holiday gift giving, book giving specifically. And I have on the podcast today a special guest, and that is Mary Ann Yaz did John with book warehouse, and Mary on Marianne, I apologize if I've mispronounced your last name, because in the several years that I've known you, we've I've not actually never said your name out loud. So I googled it, and I hope I have it correct, but if not, I apologize. And Mary Ann is the Special Projects Manager for book warehouse, which is a wonderful independent bookstore chain located in the lower mainland of Vancouver, and she's on today, or I should back up, the way we got to know each other is that the very beginning of this podcast, when I started, I did a book box with them, where I would select books, do A little mini review, and then book warehouse would package the books and then add in some gifts in store, and you could do a gift subscription. So for different times of the year, it came out like three or four times, four times a year. So I'm not doing that anymore, but I've remained friends of Marianne, and she's going to be talking about her on today to talk about holiday gift giving. But also, you know what was interesting, and you'll find this out when we get to talking. My original thought for this episode was to put all the books into categories, you know, for your grandmother, books for your husband, books for your best friend. And right off the bat, she said that she prefers not to gender books, and she believes that anyone can kind of get into a book. It just sort of depends on exposure and where your interests are. But I found find that interesting. So that was not sort of my my initial, my initial thought was to categorize on the selections. And after talking with her, I've decided not to do that. So today, Mary Ann's going to talk about seven different books, some of them old, a lot of them new, and hopefully you'll get some ideas for the people on your holiday gift list and, if not for your own to be read list. So with that, let's move over and talk with Mary Ann. Hello, Mary Ann, welcome to the podcast.

Unknown: 4:58

Hi Amy. Thank you so much.

Amy Tyler: 5:01

Yes, we just ran into each other a few weeks ago. I was lucky enough to go see Malcolm Gladwell talk as part of the Writers Festival, and you were there selling books. So yes, did you get a chance? Did you get a chance to listen to him? Or were you not really?

Unknown: 5:22

No, the great thing about the Orpheum is they actually have video and audio that pipes into the lobby, so you can, I can listen in a little bit. So I wasn't in the talk itself, but I could watch the screen and listen in a little

Amy Tyler: 5:36

bit. Okay, yeah, I thought it was, you know what I I really liked about that talk, and I'm, I'm going to be reviewing the book in a few weeks on the podcast. I thought the the announcer or the interviewer was excellent. Ian hanomansing, who works for CBC, and for those of you who don't know him, or you're not in Canada, he's, he is like a six o'clock Evening News kind of guy, but he was hilarious, and they sort of riffed off each other. And I thought that was great. That's

Unknown: 6:12

what I heard. So many people afterwards told me how funny it was, and I got a sense of that. I could hear the laughter, but I was not expecting Malcolm Gladwell to be a funny man.

Amy Tyler: 6:21

No, they were funny to and they were funny together, like they were it was good. So anyway, so we're here to talk about holiday reads for yourself, or specifically gifts that you might want to give, or books as gifts. And before we start, I just wanted to ask you, Mary Ann, just in the store and just in your personal opinion, what kind of qualities do you think a holiday read embodies, or what what do you see in the store that kind of is popular? I have some thoughts because I looked at the list you provided so but I want to hear what you have to say.

Unknown: 7:00

Well, I mean, the great thing about books is that there's a gazillion out there, so you can find something for anyone. One of our favorite things to do in the stores is when somebody comes in and asks for a recommendation, even if it's super obscure, like people will come in and ask for a book for somebody who hasn't read, but they want to start to read, and they're interested in, you know, X, Y and Z subject and but you need something that's not super popular, and something by a particular kind of person, and that's my favorite thing to do, is try to find that unique book for that person. And to do you always manage to find something so people, yeah, people are, are great with with things like that. When they're looking for a book for someone, they're really they're open to suggestion, they're open to recommendations. And that's one of the things that we really love doing, is picking up a book that we've read and loved and being able to say, Okay, I think you or your person is going to love this book. So it's all over the place. It can be a brand new hardcover bestseller for $45 or it can be a super obscure book that's been out for 15 years that, you know, we've got one copy tucked in the back of the store. We always find something for everybody,

Amy Tyler: 8:17

sort of like a treasure hunt. It sounds like it

Unknown: 8:20

really is. It really is because we also have a lot of people who come in and say, Okay, well, they've the person I'm buying for has already read this, this, this, this, this, all these books you've got here. So what can you show me? And go, oh, okay, okay, I'm gonna have to dig deep here and find, like, a really good treasure for them.

Amy Tyler: 8:36

Um, okay, so let's, let's get to the list what I've asked you to put together, sort of several books, or a number of books that you think would be good for holiday gift giving. And I also want if you could explain who you think the target might be for this, if people are kind of thinking if they want to get something for their mother in law, or obviously children's books different, but Okay, so why don't we start

Unknown: 9:04

Yeah, so again, like, it really depends who you're reading. People are. I mean, I I never like to recommend things like I know a lot of people like to say, Oh, this book is good for a man, or this book is good for a woman. I don't like to say things like that. I don't like to gender books. I think anybody can read anything, no matter what it is. So you mentioned Malcolm Gladwell, so I wanted to mention his new book, Revenge of the tipping point. So it's a follow up to the tipping point, which came out, I want to say, 25 years ago. Now, he's written quite a few books. He's sort of a social economist. What I really like about him is that he makes his books accessible for people like me to read. I'm not an economist. I don't know anything about economic trends or anything like that, but he makes his books really interesting for I'm going to call myself a lay person. So in this one Revenge of the tipping point, he's looking at what makes things go viral and how does social epi. Academics come to be, but he's looking at more of the dark side of these contagious phenomena. He looks at things like racial and economic biases embedded in Ivy League athletic programs, the opioid epidemic, but his anecdotal and narrative writing style, rather than being scientific, makes these kinds of subjects accessible. I would recommend this book for anybody who wants to read non fiction and anybody who wants something that's, you know, it's smart, it's scientific, but it's not, it's not super dense, like anybody could read this book.

Amy Tyler: 10:36

Yeah, I so I'm almost done with it, and I would say, I know you don't like to gender books. I would say this would be good for a lot of male readers, but I would say anybody but everybody has such a short attention span, and I'm guilty I always have my phone by my side. Thing I like about this book is it's in many ways, there's standalone, there's there's a through way, a through line, but the stories stand alone and and he writes. He did this in person when I listened to him speak. He just has such a way of telling a story. He could tell you something that you don't even agree with, but it's the arc, and he's it's non fiction, but it he tells it like a novel. So yeah,

Unknown: 11:23

yeah, he's, he's a very engrossing speaker and and author as well. And that's what I remember from reading the tipping point 1 million years ago, because I'm not a big non fiction reader, and so like, you i and i like, yeah, I don't have a long extension span, so I liked picking it up, reading one chapter, thinking about that, digesting that, and then going back to the next chapter later.

Amy Tyler: 11:45

Yeah, yeah, I agree. Okay, what's the next book you have on the list? Oh,

Unknown: 11:51

should we mix it up and talk about a mystery novel? Yes, yes. So Louise Penny, oh, I'm sure everybody's at least heard of her, if not read her. She has a new book out called the gray wolf. So this is the 19th inspector Gamache book. She is insanely popular. So the first book was called still life, that came out ages ago. We're on book 19 now with inspector Gamache. There was a TV show made of the books as well. I don't know how many seasons have come out so far, but I've heard that that's really well done. She is. It's not not quite cozy mysteries, but not super graphic mysteries either. She's a great for beginner mystery readers. So if you're not a big mystery reader, but you want to try something, but you don't want to get into something where, you know there's blood and got some Gore all over the place, which a lot of mysteries do now. She's great to start with. They take place in a small town Quebec called Three Pines, so there's a cozy aspect to them. But there are, there are murders that happen. And Louise Penny is one of those authors that if you start reading her, you can't stop. You get addicted, and you have to keep reading. Now

Amy Tyler: 13:08

I have a question, um, I the one thing I would say about her books, I would jump I read still life, and then I can't remember if I read another one, but then I just kind of jumped in quite later, and I felt like I missed out. I think you kind of need to read them in order. And I and that's not always the case with but what were your What are your thoughts around that?

Unknown: 13:33

I think you do need to read them in order. Yes, yeah, you you could. I mean, it's the same with any series. You could pick up a later book and read it, but like you said, you're missing out on all sorts of character development. You're missing out on, you know, relationships that the character has had, and just any sort of advancement in their lives. In this series, I think you definitely want to pick the first one up first,

Amy Tyler: 13:56

yes, and it's, it is. It's very good. She has a really interesting back story too. I mean, she started writing later in life, and I don't think she thought this would happen for her, and she has such a and she's had tragedy. I think she lost her husband, but she's but it's just people love her. In fact, I will admit, a few years ago, we were in Quebec, and I made my family, I've two boys and my husband at the time, and we, I made them go to the town that she lives in. So fascinated, yeah, that it's, I think her town is loosely based, like she lives in the, do you know what that area is called outside Quebec. It's the, oh, I can't remember, don't know. Anyway, I'll think of it. But it's these little towns. It's like being in Vermont, kind of with like a little church and a little bakery. And so I went to the town where she lives, and I think a lot of people from. Do that. Oh,

Unknown: 15:01

that's so great. I love it. I love the idea of taking a pilgrimage to, yeah, even if it's not, you know, it doesn't have the same name, but you know that the books are based there, and that the author lives there. It just, it gives you such a sense of the book as well, like you see this actual place, yeah,

Amy Tyler: 15:18

yeah, that's pretty cool.

Unknown: 15:19

Oh, I love that.

Amy Tyler: 15:21

Okay, so what's, what's your next book?

Unknown: 15:23

Oh, where should we go now? Okay, let's do another fiction, one that's recently out, that is these ones that have been one and two on our best seller list for the last two months. So the other one is Sally Rooney's new book, intermezzo. Okay, if you haven't read her before, she's written conversation with friends, normal people, beautiful world. Where are you and normal people? Was made into a TV series last year or the year before, that has been insanely popular.

Amy Tyler: 15:55

It's excellent. It's excellent. I've seen that.

Unknown: 15:58

Yeah, I've read the book, but I haven't watched the show yet, just because I don't know. I'm always worried that a show is going to ruin how I feel about a book. So I like to wait quite a while

Amy Tyler: 16:11

this one. I know. I know exactly what you mean. I think every reader feels that way. This one is, Will I think you'll be okay with it. It's okay. Well, it's really well done.

Unknown: 16:23

Okay, that's what I've heard. I just, I need to, need to be prepared. You finish a book and you've got such a sense of like, this is what I think the character looks like. This is what I think happens. This is what I you know, it's, it's a lot about the reader. When you finish a book, and then when you see somebody else's depiction of it, and they put, like, actual people, kind of place of the characters you've imagined, it can be a little a little weird. Did

Amy Tyler: 16:47

you read, um, you must have read gone. Girl, yeah. So did you see the movie? I did. Yes. I was very upset with the movie. The movie was really good, but it was very stylized and not. It wasn't like the book, in my opinion. So anyway, no, it bothered. No,

Unknown: 17:07

you're right, yeah, it's been quite a few years since I read the book and saw the movie. Um, it's cases like that where you just think, like it's, it's almost separate from the book. Like It, it did follow the same storyline, but like you say, stylistically, it was so different that it's not, it's not what I envisioned at all.

Amy Tyler: 17:28

What's this? What's the this book about?

Unknown: 17:30

So this one, it's about grief and love and family. So there's two brothers that have very little in common. One's a successful lawyer, very competent, you know, winning at life, basically. But their father has passed away, and he starts medicating himself to sleep and can't manage his relationships. Basically, can't handle the father's death. The other brother, younger. He's 22 year old. He's a competitive chess player. He's always been socially awkward, a loner, just complete opposite from his older brother, and now, after the passing of their father, in his bereavement, he meets this older woman who has also had a very turbulent past, and their lives become intertwined, and it just shows the difference between how two people experiencing the same situation, how they experience their grief completely differently.

Amy Tyler: 18:25

So Sally's known for her she's young. I don't know how old she's now. I'm guessing 30s, but she is known for kind of a totally different type of writing style, and it appeals to a younger audience, and then if you're also not super young, it's just different and it's refreshing or weird or but she kind of speaks like she texts a little bit. Or how would you describe that?

Unknown: 18:57

I think, refreshing and weird, exactly how you said it. That's the perfect description. She's She's smart. You can tell she's smart, and her writing, it skews to the quite intellectual side, like I found reading her books, I really have to pay attention when I'm reading, but yeah, it's definitely a younger writing style. It's so unique, it's very hard to describe. When I started reading normal people, I had to, like, like, really take my time and read because her writing style is so unique. I had never read anything like her before. She would definitely appeal to, you know, somebody in their 20s who isn't a big reader. Like, maybe we get a lot of people coming in and saying, Okay, I've just finished university, so I haven't read anything like for enjoyment for a long time. I've only been reading textbooks for, you know, the past four or five years. What can you recommend to me that I can, you know, start getting into fiction with I think she would be a great recommendation for that.

Amy Tyler: 19:57

Okay, so what's your next book?

Unknown: 19:59

Um. Wow. What should we talk about next? Oh, how about Matt Haig. He's got a new book out called the life impossible, and this is probably gonna go in about, you know, number three of our best sellers. So you know, these last three books have been some of our most popular over the last little while. So he wrote the midnight library that came up quite a few years ago. He's written a lot of books. Midnight library tends to be his most popular one. This new one is called the life impossible, and this one is about a retired math teacher. She inherits this rundown house on the Mediterranean island of Ibiza from a long lost friend, and she arrives there with a one way ticket, no guidebook, no plan. She just goes to just search for answers about the life of the friend who left her this house, and everything that she discovers is just stranger than she possibly could have imagined. And so his books are really they're quite inspirational. They're very much about like the character has to learn things about themselves in order to move forward. They're not, they're not super light. They're definitely on the lighter side. But you can, you, I don't know, you get, you learn from his books. You get a message from his books.

Amy Tyler: 21:15

I remember I put off reading the midnight library because it was so popular and and the cover just seemed like it was just going to be kind of, it was kind of a cartoonish cover. And I was incredibly moved by that book. A lot of people be familiar with it, but basically it's this. It's a bit fantastical, and you get it the down and out, protagonist has a chance to go back and change key moments in her life, but every time it brings up other problems, and I just was, I still think about that book. I thought it was incredibly I think it's a beautiful book, and it seems very simple, because it is, some ways, it reminded me of the Phantom Toll Booth or another children's book. It's kind of like a children's book, but it's incredibly moving.

Unknown: 22:05

It's so true. He does this thing with his books. Like you said, they seem simple, but as you're reading them, you realize like, how complex they actually are, but not in an inaccessible way, just in they really make you think sort of way. And like you, I still think about the midnight library, and I love that when a book stays with me for years. Mm hmm,

Amy Tyler: 22:26

and he's had, I think he had suffered from deep depression, or he's had overcome some major life circumstances. I think that's because the first that, in that first book, that character had serious depression as well.

Unknown: 22:43

I can see that, yeah, and his books are, you do find it to be quite inspirational? Yeah, that's

Amy Tyler: 22:48

a good I think that's a really good pick.

Unknown: 22:50

Yeah, again, this is one. But absolutely anybody could read like a beginner reader who wants, you know, to jump into fiction and try something new, or, you know, seasoned readers like us.

Amy Tyler: 23:03

Okay, what's next?

Unknown: 23:06

Let's see. Well, let's jump back into non fiction for a second. The service berry by Robin wall Kimmerer, so people will be familiar with her name. She wrote breeding sweet grass, which has been out for almost 10 years and remained in like the top 50 best sellers, like for us and probably for every bookstore out there, you just, you can't, you can't keep can't keep it on the shelf operating sweetgrass. And that one is indigenous teachings that consider plants and animals to be our oldest teachers. She is just an absolutely beautiful writer, and she is very, very embedded in nature and indigenous teachings, and she she doesn't beat you over the head with a message she just like gently teaches. And her writing is wonderful.

Amy Tyler: 23:58

I have to admit, I have not read this book, and I was wondering just listening to you it, I know it's super popular, but the subject seems so specific, and it wouldn't appeal to everybody. Do you think it's the quality of the writing or the message? What's going on here?

Unknown: 24:15

I think it's both. I think the thing is, when people first look at it, they think, Oh, I don't what is this book? It's, you know, the first time I heard about it when somebody came in and asked, you know, 10 years ago, or whatever, when it first came out. And I thought, I've never heard of this breeding sweetgrass. What does that mean? Who is this person? But since then, wow. Like her message. It's one of those ones where you almost have to say, You know what? Just start reading it, and you'll understand what I mean.

Amy Tyler: 24:43

Yeah. Okay, so tell me about the service Berry.

Unknown: 24:47

So this new one, the service Berry. So I was doing all my research on this one and looking into it. And then I stopped and thought, What is a service Berry? Hang on a second. So I was looking into service berries. They're also called, like Saskatoon berries, or June. Berries. And it's a essentially a berry that has a relationship with the natural world, because it embodies reciprocity, interconnectedness and gratitude. So service berry trees, so like Saskatoon berries, that's what I'm familiar with here. They basically, you know, distribute their berries. They're eaten by birds, animals, people, everybody. And it, you know, starts this sort of reciprocity in nature, and the berries are delicious. I don't know if you've ever had a Saskatoon Berry, or I need these kinds of service berries.

Amy Tyler: 25:35

I have not. So is service berry a specific Berry, or is it a class of berries? It's

Unknown: 25:40

a class of berries. And now, again, I started to research this. Then I went down a rabbit hole of like, learning about plant types, and then I had to stop. So there's a whole bunch of different kinds of berries that are called service berries. Yeah, they're across the northern hemisphere. So like I said here, I'm familiar with Saskatoon berries, but apparently in other parts of the country, they're called juneberries, and then there were other scientific names that I just didn't get into.

Amy Tyler: 26:06

It's funny because I spoke with my mom yesterday, and she's a big reader, and she wanted to show me the cover of this book. She actually just ordered this for herself. And as you know, covers can have a big impact. And she just loves the cover, because she loves birds and she loves flowers and all that kind of stuff. And it's a very pretty cover. It's actually a different cover because she's in the United States, and I've seen here, it's light blue, and then there's these berries that are almost like holes in the page and and she said it was also not a dust jacket, but the cover was actually what do you call that the cover is on this part of the book.

Unknown: 26:55

I know exactly what you know for the life of me right now, I cannot think of what that's called, so that that is how it looks here as well. If I'm not mistaken, it isn't a dust jacket on it, but the image is is different. But this image is absolutely beautiful. I love the cover of this book.

Amy Tyler: 27:12

Looks kind of holiday ish as I've ever recalled. It almost does,

Unknown: 27:16

because it almost the service berries on the cover almost look like Holly, right? Because of the the green and red and and blue. But, yeah, it's a beautiful book. So it's a lovely little like, you can consider this a gift book. Again, this one could be for absolutely anybody. And so she's using the idea of the service Berry and how it reciprocates in in nature to talk about, like, how what we can learn about from the plant world, about about reciprocity, and about, you know, how we use resources and how we compete for things, and what our values are like in in an economic system where we're all about Take, take, take, rather than giving and taking to create A sort of gift economy. And again, she uses indigenous teachings, teachings from nature. And again, I think I said this earlier, but she doesn't beat you over the head with the message. She just gently brings you into it and teaches you about it. Absolutely anybody could read this book.

Amy Tyler: 28:17

Okay, great. That sounds like a great gift idea. And what do you have next?

Unknown: 28:23

Oh, so next we've got some of my favorite fiction books that I've read over the last year. Okay, so let's start with the God of the Woods by Liz Moore.

Amy Tyler: 28:33

Oh, I

Unknown: 28:33

want to know about this. I want to read this. It's so good. So a whole bunch of my colleagues read it first and said, You have to read this. You have to read this. And I am, I kind of go, Oh my god. Okay, just chill. Give me a minute. And I took a few more weeks. And then I picked it up and read it. And I thought, oh my gosh, I wish I'd read this, like the second it came out. I want everybody to read this book. It's, it looks big. It's a, it looks like a big, hard cover, but I promise you, once you get into it, you will be into it. So we're in the 1970s there's 13 year old girl who has disappeared from a summer camp owned by her family, and what you learn is that her older brother vanished from the same area 14 years ago and was never found. So the secrets the family who owns this summer camp, it's in the Adirondacks in New York. They're quite wealthy. Their secrets start to unfold alongside all of the blue collar working people who have kept the camp running all these years. They're brought into the drama. You start to see the connections between the different families who have been living there. The thing, couple of things that I love about this one is that it's an excellent character study of every single one of the characters. So you have the you know, the girl who's gone missing in her backstory, the camp counselor who discovers the girl is missing, the girl's mother and her backstory with you know, she's lost her son 14 years before, and now she's lost her daughter, and all the people who. Worked at the camp over the years, and how they're all interconnected. Every single character was so well written and so unique. Each given such a great voice, it was fantastic. Wow.

Amy Tyler: 30:13

Okay, that's a ringing endorsement. So I have another friend who's a big reader who said I've got to read this book. So, yeah,

Unknown: 30:21

yeah. And there is, I know some people are calling it a mystery, and there is an element of mystery to it because of the, you know, missing children. But it doesn't read like a mystery. You're not, you're not flipping the pages thinking, Oh, who done it? Who done it? You're you're flipping the pages thinking like, oh, I can't wait to see more. Each of these characters lives, and it goes back and forth in time from the from the disappearance of this girl, back to the disappearance of her brother, and then the mother's earlier life and what she went through, and it's just so well done. And the other thing I loved about it was the setting, like taking place in the Adirondacks. I've never been there. I don't really know what it looks like, but her description makes you feel like you're there. You get such a sense of place, which I love when I'm reading, because I really need to feel like I know where the characters could be.

Amy Tyler: 31:10

Yes, totally. What's her? I looked her up. She looks like a bit of a younger writer. I'm not familiar with her so well, younger, I don't, not sure i But do you have you read anything else by her? I haven't, no neither, she's written several other books. But anyway, okay, oh, god, she's

Unknown: 31:32

so young, isn't she? Yeah, yeah. I know there was another book of hers that my colleagues said is really good. Oh, long, bright river that came out a few years ago. Now I haven't read that one, but I have heard that that one is also excellent.

Amy Tyler: 31:49

I see you have Valerie Perrin on your list. I just love her. And I read, what's the one that's the really big what one that she wrote fresh water for flowers, read that one? Yeah. So very, very good. Yeah.

Unknown: 32:06

So she's Valerie. She's a French author, and she has three books translated into English. Now, fresh water for flowers was the first one, which, if you haven't read, oh my gosh, everybody immediately go pick up that book that was absolutely beautiful. Her second novel that was translated to English is called Three, also excellent, very different from fresh water for flowers, but also very good. And then her latest one, called forgotten on Sunday. I just, I don't know how this author writes such beautiful characters in in beautiful settings. And I mean, I don't know if the same translator has translated all of her books, but she has done, whoever the translator is has done an amazing job. And I just adore all of Valerie Perez books. They seem, though

Amy Tyler: 32:53

I've just read the first one, it seems like it's translated, but I mean that in a good way, like it's, it just, it's almost like you're, I don't know, it's just you. It's a different culture. You're, I can't explain how to put it into words, but I don't know. I just thought it was excellent, different way of thinking.

Unknown: 33:17

Yeah, very much. So you get a very you get a very French sense. Of course, if they're French, they take place in France, but I know what you mean. In this one, there's a young woman, Justine. She's working in as a care aide in a care home, and she's had tragedy in her life. Both her parents were killed in a car accident. She lives with her grandparents and her cousin, and she bonds with Helene, who is this almost 100 year old resident in the care home, and they begin to share their stories with each other. So again, going back and forth in time. And Helene was a seamstress and Bistro owner in France before and during World War Two, the German occupation of France happened. People she loved were deported to concentration camps. A case of amnesia occurred. People were separated, and it's just so you've got this wonderful bit of like historical fiction, learning about Helene's past, and then in the present times, you have Justine trying to come to terms with her parents death and what happened to them. And you just you see this friendship across the generations and this understanding of each other's stories that is just, I don't know how to describe it. Such beautiful writing. If you're a fan of historical fiction, you have to pick this up. Okay, what's the last book? So the last one is the borrowed Life of Frederick Fife by Anna Johnston. And again, this is one that one of my colleagues who I trust immensely. Her name is also Marianne. She handed this to me and said, You have to read this book. And so, of course, I read it right away. It's, it's one of the sweetest, most lovely stories I've read in a long time. It's about an elderly man, Frederick Fife. He his wife. Passed away. He can't afford to keep his apartment because of having had to pay medical bills. He doesn't know what to do. He's going to be homeless. There's a case of mistaken identity that ends him up in a care home where they believe he is someone else, an Alzheimer's patient who who has gone missing. Don't worry, you get the whole story. I'm just trying not to give spoilers. Nobody believes Frederick when he says, I'm not this other person. My name is Frederick because they believe he is this Alzheimer's patient. They just look uncannily similar. They're both in their 80s, old white men with mustaches and similar hair. So their mistake. He's mistaken for this other man. He feels terrible about this whole thing, but all of a sudden, he's got a room and regular food and is safe and isn't going to end up living in his car in his 80s, and he's making new friends. So he's torn about what to do. He feels guilty, but he starts making connections with other people in the care home, and it turns out that the other guy, the one that they think he is, was not such a great guy, but Frederick is a great guy. And so everybody starts to wonder, like, why is he, all of a sudden, such a nice person? But nobody makes the connection. And he starts making these wonderful friendships and connections with people, including the daughter of the other man who hadn't seen her father in dozens of years. And it's just, it's so beautiful and heartwarming, and you just fall in love with every single character.

Amy Tyler: 36:32

Okay, well, that that's a good that's a good recommendation, because I don't think I would pick up that book without someone endorsing it for me, you know, like, just the topic, but I like the idea of that, like the sounds like a good book for the holidays, exactly.

Unknown: 36:49

It's good and it's gentle and it's quite sweet. And, you know, I know I a lot of people don't like to read stories that take place in care homes. I've, you know, got my own personal family stuff with that. But I picked this one up, and it was just, it was so well done and just so lovely and sweet and wonderful. And like I said, every single character is just so endearing. It's, it's a heartwarming one for the holidays, for sure.

Amy Tyler: 37:14

That's great. I think a lot of there's, you've given us a lot of books to choose from, and

Unknown: 37:22

I really there's a million more, a million more more.

Amy Tyler: 37:26

Thank you so much for coming on the podcast, and

Unknown: 37:28

thank you so much. Like I said, that was really fun. I just glanced down at the clock and I thought, oh my gosh, how did 40 minutes just pass? Like you said, it's so it's so great to talk to somebody else who's such a big reader and loves talking books. Oh,

Amy Tyler: 37:40

thanks so much. Okay,

Unknown: 37:42

I'll talk to you later. Okay, thanks, Amy, bye, bye.

Amy Tyler: 37:46

So thanks so much to Marian for coming on the podcast. I'm really excited now. I have seven new ideas, and hopefully you do too for people on your gift giving list and or just for yourself. And I think I'm going to be giving the life impossible out as a gift. I think that's a good kind of holiday selection. And for my own personal reading, I think I'm going to start with the service Berry. I'm kind of intrigued to learn more about Robin wall kimur And I've, like I said, I've never read brain sweet grass. So with that, thanks so much for tuning in. Please feel free to share this podcast with your friends and family or anyone you think might be interested. And I'll be back in a few more weeks with one more episode in December, and I'm going to be talking about Malcolm Gladwell latest book, revenge at the tipping point. So Happy reading, and I'll talk with you later. You