What Should I Read Next?
What Should I Read Next? is the show for every reader who has ever finished a book and faced the problem of not knowing what to read next. Each week, Anne Bogel, of the blog Modern Mrs Darcy, interviews a reader about the books they love, the books they hate, and the books they're reading now. Then, she makes recommendations about what to read next. The real purpose of the show is to help YOU find your next read. To learn more or apply to be on the show visit whatshouldireadnextpodcast.com.
Episodes
September 10, 2024 • 76 mins
If you love a good campus novel for fall, you'll love today's conversation between Anne and academic dean Karen Gold.
Karen works at the oldest independent boarding school in the country, where she teaches a course on campus novels. That's not all Karen reads, though: she's especially fond of novels that span generations and highlight both the mundanity and the messiness of the human experience.
But Karen's real dilemma today isn't...
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September 3, 2024 • 73 mins
Get your to-be-read lists ready because today's episode is packed full of recommended titles. In today's show, Anne is hosting Hunter, a fan of literary fiction who lives in Philadelphia with his husband and their dog.
Anne and Hunter talk about his years-long project to read National Book Award longlisted titles, which also leads into conversation about both that award and some of other big book awards. Plus, Hunter shares his fre...
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August 27, 2024 • 72 mins
Today we're back with the 2024 installment of our popular summer reading roundup, where members of our team pair up to talk about their favorite summer reads.
You'll hear our team in conversation today, exploring our summer reading experiences and the titles we can't stop talking about. Around here we talk books all year round, but episodes like these are especially fun, and always mean we're adding a bunch of new titles to our own...
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August 20, 2024 • 60 mins
A limited reading selection often leads to delightful serendipity, and today Anne's chatting with a guest who has had just that experience.
Rachel Elaine Martens and her family recently lived in Budapest for a year. During this time, Rachel Elaine had access to her U.S. library's virtual collection, but she also made use of a small shelf of left-behind books in the house she was staying in. Now that she's back home in Missouri with...
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August 13, 2024 • 54 mins
Readers, we have celebrated birthday milestones here on the podcast before, and today Anne is talking with a guest who designed the ultimate book party for her recent 50th birthday.
Kelly Davis lives in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, where she works for her alma mater and enjoys caring for her garden and listening to audiobooks.
For Kelly's recent 50th birthday, she planned a big celebration at her local beignet company, and in li...
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August 6, 2024 • 55 mins
Today we're excited to share Anne's recent conversation with author Lucy Foley, from a live event hosted by Carmichael's Bookstore in Louisville, Kentucky.
In today's show, Anne and Lucy kick things off by discussing Lucy's new revenge thriller The Midnight Feast and the real-life places and trips that inspired its atmospheric setting. Lucy also shares about her evolving career as an author, her love of writing unlikable characters...
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July 30, 2024 • 54 mins
With the year just over half way through, Anne is stepping back to see how her reading year is going. Today, she and Shannan Malone are doing a little midyear check-in to see how this year has been going so far reading-wise, and what they are most excited about in the coming months.
They consider whether they're actually reading what they want to be reading this year, whether they have any intentions to pivot for fall and winter mo...
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July 23, 2024 • 57 mins
In today's episode from the WSIRN vault, Anne is sharing her very first podcast conversation with Brigid Misselhorn. Like so many of our guests, Brigid came to the show through our WSIRN guest submission form. But these days she works on our team as our MMD Book Club Community Administrator.
This is fitting, because as you’ll hear in today’s episode, Brigid is totally addicted to book clubs. At the time of this episode, she was an...
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July 16, 2024 • 50 mins
Today we're excited to continue our mid-summer series featuring our team members! Learning more about our team members and who shares your tastes may help you identify some good books in a way that might not land on your radar otherwise. We hope you love this conversation.
Anne is revisiting her very first conversation with Alabama reader Shannan Malone in today's conversation. Since this episode originally aired, Shannan has joine...
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July 9, 2024 • 52 mins
Welcome back to our July series brought to you by the What Should I Read Next? time machine.
This month, we're going back in our archives to share episodes with four of our team members. When these episodes were originally recorded, no one involved had any idea that these readers would be on our team eventually, so it's especially fun to re-listen knowing everything that happened after Anne and these guests first spoke on the podca...
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July 2, 2024 • 36 mins
Today we are kicking off a summer series from the What Should I Read Next? archives: we're sharing the first episodes and sometimes the very first conversations Anne had with readers that are now members of our team.
Many of you know our team members by name, and you have a good sense of their reading tastes, too. But we also know that many of you are new around here, or haven't yet had the chance to listen to all 400-plus episodes...
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June 18, 2024 • 59 mins
Today's guest is a native Parisian who is planning a road trip this summer to the northern Alps of Italy to escape the Summer Olympics. Corinne Yan is here today to get Anne's help in discovering great audiobooks to pair with this long drive.
But before diving into recommendations, Anne and Corinne chat about Corinne's dreamy book job: she works as a book restorer at the oldest French public library, the Bibliothèque Mazarine. Cor...
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June 11, 2024 • 48 mins
Reading offers a wide range of vicarious experiences, and today's guest is looking for books that make her feel warmly welcome.
Adrianne Carnes is a bookseller and marketing director for a local independent bookstore in Texas, where she loves to create an inviting space for the readers who frequent her shop. Adrianne's interest in hospitality started in her youth, when she traveled often with her parents and was charmed by her expe...
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June 4, 2024 • 53 mins
Audiobook lovers, today's conversation will help you make the most of your audiobook credits, whether you love short or long listens.
Stephanie Van Parys is a devoted gardener in Decatur, Georgia, where she loves to pair audiobooks with working in the dirt. Since she discovered this way of merging her two passions back in 2020, she's never looked back: these days almost all her reading is done in audio format.
Today, Anne and Ste...
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Joining Anne today in a live conversation from the recent Word of South festival is listener favorite Lauren Groff!
This conversation happened in the midst of a big moment for Lauren: she was recently recognized on the Time 100 list, and her new bookstore, The Lynx, just opened in Gainesville, Florida.
Lauren and Anne talk about what led Lauren to open The Lynx and her goals for this new independent bookstore. Their discussion expl...
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May 21, 2024 • 33 mins
Join us today for the second in a series of three live events! While Anne was on the road recently, she had the opportunity to stop by fantastic independent bookstore The Bookshelf, in Thomasville, Georgia, for the first time since 2018.
During this live event, Anne spoke with host and owner Annie B. Jones about summer reading alongside a crowd of friendly and enthusiastic readers. Annie and Anne discussed perennial summer favorit...
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May 14, 2024 • 66 mins
This week is all about summer reading, because our 2024 Summer Reading Guide is out this Thursday! Our Summer Reading Guide is one of the highlights of our year. Anne spends months reading and vetting both anticipated new releases and under-the-radar gems, resulting in the guide's list of 42 titles with something for every reader.
Joining Anne today in sharing our excitement for the Summer Reading Guide Unboxing is our Modern Mrs ...
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May 7, 2024 • 50 mins
Anne recently attended Tallahassee’s recent Word of South Festival of Literature and Music, and today we're sharing her live conversation about all things reading with Festival Director Sara Marchessault and Kati Schardl.
Book festivals offer so much potential for discovery, by connecting readers with writers they already love, new authors to experience, and often, books that capture the spirit of the region. Today, Sara, Kati and ...
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April 30, 2024 • 58 mins
Today's guest enjoys tackling heavy topics in her reading, but today she's here for Anne's help to bring more levity to her reading rotation.
As a South African of Indian descent, Natasha Govender appreciates reading real life stories from authors across the globe. These stories help her connect with the human experiences behind the pages, but she'd love to balance these emotional stories with titles that are just plain fun.
Natash...
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April 23, 2024 • 63 mins
Connecting with authors is always a treat, and today we're bringing you a recent conversation between Anne and author Thao Thai. Thao joined us in the Modern Mrs Darcy Book Club last year to discuss her debut novel Banyan Moon, a juicy family drama that explores what makes a home, the secrets we keep, inheritance and immigrant stories, and so much more.
In today's episode, Thao and Anne talk about how this unique story came to be a...
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