What Should I Read Next?

Holland Saltsman from the Novel Neighbor in St Louis joins Anne to talk about their favorite books of the year, supporting local bookstores, and the bookish gifts they can’t wait to give and receive this year. Whether you’re shopping for a book lover, making your own wish list, or want to indulge in a whole bunch of readerly enthusiasm, this episode will be a treat. Click over to the podcast websi...

Shannon Navin is a Columbus mom and technology professional who came to Anne with a specific request: to recommend great books that Shannon and her ten-year-old son can enjoy TOGETHER. Anne and Shannon discuss the magic of bonding over books with children, what you need to have a great reading experience at any age, and what it looks like to establish your own reading life. Click over to the podca...

Today Anne chats with Rider Strong, a director & screenwriter (you might know him from Boy Meets World) who spends free time reuniting with readerly college friends on his books and reading podcast Literary Disco. As a busy dad, Rider says his reading life “needs work”, and the books he wants to read have multiplied from a single shelf to an entire room. Today Rider and Anne discuss being baffled...

Alexandra Rodriguez is an English teacher and grad student in the Indianapolis area whose reading life underwent a big change a few years ago. Today, Anne explores how reading 150 books in a year represented a silver lining for Alexandra during a really difficult time, and how a nudge from an old boss pointed her to take her literary life in a new direction.  Also discussed: Diverse Books Club, bo...

Today Anne chats with Katherine Riling, a mom, math teacher, and new Alaska resident whose go-to genre is historical fiction — but she doesn’t want to read it ALL the time. Katherine's three favorites are seasonally appropriate, and have something strangely specific in common… Also discussed: libraries vs. used bookstores, copycat books that miss the mark, the perfect climate for curling up with a...

Anne is joined by a familiar voice -- Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project and, most recently, The Four Tendencies, a new personality framework in which she investigates how different people—or in today’s case, fictional characters—respond to internal and external expectations. Gretchen visited the show last Fall in Episode 52 for KidWeek, as a VORACIOUS reader of children’s literature....

Anne and WSIRN's producer Brenna Frederick take a look back at memorable moments from the first 100 episodes of What Should I Read Next. From behind-the-scenes moments to reading-saved-my-life emails, memorable two-star reviews, bloopers, frequently asked questions, and what Anne wishes she handled differently in the first one hundred episodes. PLUS they give a sneak peek at what lies in WSIRN's f...

This week Anne chatts with Keith Watts, a Seattle resident who credits Star Wars with making him a reader, and Top Gun for making him a history major. Keith and Anne discuss what it’s like to grow up in a house full of books as a kid, and how he later had to assume responsibility for shaping his own reading life as an adult. Today we get into how and why Keith's preferred reading format has change...

Today's guest, Caroline Weaver, is known as The Pencil Lady, because by day she owns and operates CW Pencil Enterprise, a shop dedicated exclusively to pencils and pencil-related goods in Manhattan’s lower east side.  Caroline loves contemporary literary fiction, books that pack an emotional punch, and that special moment when a book can make her feel something she can’t describe. She and Anne dis...

This week Anne chats with Rikki and Michaela, two Seattle area friends and serious book lovers who knew each other for YEARS before they discovered they shared a love of reading. In today’s episode Anne, Rikki, and Michaela discuss what it means to live a literary lifestyle, why they believe in reading with the seasons, and how scary it can be to recommend your favorite book to your best friend. T...

Today Anne takes you behind the scenes of how her book Reading People came into being. Guided by questions from newsletter subscribers, we're delving into the intricacies of how the book was made, from working with agents and editors, to how the book got matched up with a publisher, to how the cover was designed. Anne also gets personal with an exploration of her writing habits, what she learned a...

We’re in serious countdown mode: Anne's book Reading People: How Seeing the World Through the Lens of Personality Changes Everything comes out on Tuesday, September 19. This is the story of how Anne's long journey digging into 7 popular personality frameworks changed her life for the better, and how you can put those frameworks to work for yourself to make real, lasting change in your life, in you...

In today's episode, Anne and guest Nicholas Siegel cover a lot of ground. MFA fiction is a phrase that has been thrown around on the podcast before; today they dive into what exactly that means. Nicholas also pitches a book in a way that TOTALLY changes Anne's perception of it. Also discussed: literary magazines, when to finish a book that you're not enjoying, and stories that are perhaps best des...

In today's episode, Anne looks for small business owner Esther Dairiam's origin story. Like so many great plots, Esther’s turns on an epiphany she had on a trip to Paris five years ago. She left convinced that what her adopted city of Chicago needed was its own destination for culinary books and events, and not finding anything like it already in business, she sought to open that business herself....

Today’s guest, Kristin Economos, has an incredible story to tell, one many people will resonate with. After experiencing a season of severe anxiety, Kristin says her return from a decade-long reading sabbatical brought her back to life. She got professional help, and she ALSO soothed her anxiety with books. Fictional stories that transported her to other times and places, and nonfiction reads abou...

Today’s guest pointed out that we haven’t talked to an abundance of East Coast readers, and today we’re making amends. Karen Weiss is a nurse practitioner in Maine who gets many of her best book recommendations from her teenage patients, and she returns the favor — it's rare for a patient of any age to leave her office without a book recommendation. Karen loves chatting books so much she talked he...

Today’s guest is Bethany Armstrong, a lifelong reader who describes herself as the kind of kid who always had a book in her hand. After studying literature in college, Bethany suffered through a period of bookish burnout. But a surprising thing re-invigorated Bethany’s reading experience... you'll have to listen to find out what it was.  Today Bethany’s reading life is thriving, and in this episod...

Today, Anne chats with Mary Gaertner, a listener of the show she met at the Popcast Live pre-party. Mary drove to the Louisville show from Cincinnati, and spent the car ride choosing her What Should I Read Next books - 3 books she loved, 1 book she hated, and what she's reading now. When Mary told Anne her books - especially the book she HATED - Anne knew need to come on the show! So … we made it...

Today is a What Should I Read Next milestone - our very first mailbag episode! We invited our newsletter subscribers and Instagram followers for their burning questions, and Anne did her best to answer. If you've ever been curious about the inner workings of the WSIRN team, what Anne's typical day looks like, what book changed her life, or how to get on the show yourself, today's episode holds the...

Today's guest is Amena Brown, a spoken-word poet who writes all her poems to jazz music. When she was a little girl, Amena dreamed of becoming a stand-up comedian, and that doesn’t seem like a stretch! Amena brought a lot of big laughs to the show today, as she and Anne discussed their favorite comedic memoirs by fabulously funny women, pushing the limits of a book’s form, and FEELINGS in books th...

Today Anne chats with Aaron White, a runner, content developer, INTJ, and married father of two who lives in Minnesota. Aaron's lifetime favorite book will make some of you jump up and cheer, and maybe make some of you yell back at your podcast player (and not in a happy way). Anne and Aaron discuss that AWFUL FEELING when you’ve read what feels like a bunch of underwhelming books in a row, nostal...

Promoting literacy is a both a paycheck and a free-time passion for today's guest. Emily Kinard comes from a family where it’s completely normal for her grandmother and mom to give her book recommendations, and for her to return the favor. And if she sees you a reading a book she loves on the plane, she won’t hesitate to strike up a conversation about it—because there’s nothing like a good book fo...

WSIRN goes international once more! Today's guest is Charity Dušíková, an art teacher and mother residing in a small town in the Czech Republic*. Anne and Charity talk about the impact of big life changes on their reading lives, what to do when you HATE your best friend’s favorite book, what it takes for a book that collects dust on your shelves to finally get picked up and read, and more.  Click...

Anne first met today's guest Shawn Smucker and his wife Maile while they were on an epic cross-country road trip with the whole family, in a big blue bus named Willie. If that sounds like interesting reading, Shawn wrote a book about the experience! It’s called How to Use a Runaway Truck Ramp, and the title is NOT just a metaphor.  Today Anne delves into the special significance certain books and...

If you’re a longtime listener, you’ve heard from today's guest Donna Hetchler before—she hopped on episode 64 and chatted with Anne about the unconventional way she tracks what she reads, in our special episode devoted to how 15 WSIRN listeners track their books. In today's one-of-a-kind episode, Anne investigates Donna's plans for a very special road trip. They also discuss stories with whit and...