Reading Envy Readers discussion

I was happy to sit down and talk to Claire, a reader from the upcoming generation. She likes dark and gloomy books! Jenny also took the opportunity to read a few YA books she had not yet gotten to, and went dark and gloomy too.

Link to episode:
http://tinyurl.com/ReadingEnvy242

A tiny note that only the Reading Envy Readers will know - Claire is the only child of my college roommate Melody! Melody is super shy and would never be on the podcast but in college I was able to talk her into being the silent co-host of my campus radio show, ha! I'm not sure I'm great at getting a lot of content out of teenagers but she did a good job.

What books are your teens into?

Hi Jenny—I haven’t been listening to the podcast for that long so I missed Claire the first time around. I just wanted to comment on how delightful it was to hear a young person in this space. I just really enjoyed the podcast this week. (And Jenny, you did a great job of drawing her out.) Claire, if you’re reading this, thank you for sharing your picks with us . . . I’m going to go look for Mary Downing Hahn on my library shelves, later today!

Thanks Alice! This was Claire's first time but I'm sure she'll be back. :)

My daughter, Siani, is seventeen. She just read The Secret History because she LOVES the movie Dead Poets Society. I recommended The Catcher in the Rye because of her obsession with prep school drama.

She also likes fantasy and dystopian books. Maggie Stiefvater is one of her favorite authors right now.

My youngest, Azaria, will be eleven soon. She likes non-fiction that focuses on different people in history or events. I Survived is a favorite series. She also discovered a similar series that focuses on girls (I can’t recall the series title). She recently got a book written in verse about a female German scientist, but I’m not sure she likes the format.

She has her own podcast called Never Too Young. You can find it on google podcasts and Anchor.

Elizabeth☮ wrote: "My daughter, Siani, is seventeen. She just read The Secret History because she LOVES the movie Dead Poets Society. I recommended The Catcher in the Rye because of her obses..."

Oh Elizabeth, the come down after The Secret History is serious. It's one of my perfect books. I've found that people who are super into it have booklists and music playlists called "Dark Academia." I tend to call it a campus novel. Anyway, if she hasn't read the Maureen Johnson novels I talked about on this episode, I bet they're right up her alley. Not nearly as complex or good as the Tartt, but few books could be.

I love that Azaria has her own podcast, she's so great.

Dark Academia! I forgot what she calls it. 😂. I’ll let her know about the Johnson novels.

I thought for sure that I had heard she came on the podcast before, back when she was eight! Wow—that’s so weird. Maybe there’s a problem with my ears:)

Alice wrote: "I thought for sure that I had heard she came on the podcast before, back when she was eight! Wow—that’s so weird. Maybe there’s a problem with my ears:)"

Oh that was just one of the previous times I'd seen her - I went out to lunch with her mother and she was there, reading the entire time, even while walking. SO CUTE.

Oh, I see. Yes that is cute!

The series Azaria reads is called Lucy Fights the Flames (that’s one of the titles). They are all historical fiction for different events in history. She loves them and recommended them to all of her friends. She’s in fifth grade if anyone has kids in that age range.