You’re Watching ‘Only Murders in the Building’

Are trying to figure out the whole Elon Musk thing or need to fill the short story Bingo box

Hi friends,

I hope you had a good weekend. It was absolutely perfect here in D.C., so I spent as much time outside as possible.

I also made a trip to East City Bookshop, where I talked with the staff about our sadness and shock at the attack on Salman Rushdie. I hope he recovers and I applaud his bravery.

For something completely different, Bingo cards are due in less than a month (Friday, September 9). I have lots of great prizes for subscribers to win in a huge end-of-summer raffle. Five-in-a-row Bingo gets you a single entry, and blackout Bingo gets you two. Not every box requires reading a book, so there’s still plenty of time to complete a card before the deadline.

If you’re looking to fill in the recommend a book box, leave a comment here.

And now what to read if …

You’re Waiting to Find out Who the Murderer in the Building Is

The Maid by Nita Prose

Hulu’s “Only Murders in the Building,” a mystery starring Selena Gomez, Steve Martin and Martin Short as neighbors-turned-true-crime-podcasters in the midst of its second season. As I noted in my review of the early episodes for Best Evidence, “The joy of the first season of Only Murders wasn’t the mystery — I figured out the culprit pretty early on — but the chemistry among the three main leads, the stellar casting, the jokes and the meta commentary on the true-crime genre. The first two episodes of Season 2, particularly the premiere, deliver each of those.”

If you’re looking for a book with “Only Murders” vibes, consider Nita Prose’s The Maid, a mystery featuring a quirky found family attempting to solve a murder in an upscale hotel. The book’s hero, twenty-five-year-old Molly Gray, loves her job as a maid at a high-end hotel in New York City. She’s always found cleaning soothing, especially since her beloved gran died. Molly has long struggled with social situations and reading other people’s emotions, and when she finds herself implicated in the murder of a prominent guest, she struggles to navigate the situation. The hotel’s longtime doorman, his daughter and one of the hotel’s dishwashers come together to clear Molly’s name and send the real culprit to jail.

The joy of this book — like the show — is more hanging out with the characters than it is figuring out whodunnit. The combination of oddball sleuths and high-end real estate will help you scratch your “Only Murders” itch.

Reminder Rec: I previously suggested that fans of the show read The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman.

Bingo boxes this book checks: New-to-you author

You’re Trying to Figure out How Elon Musk Became Elon Musk

The Founders by Jimmy Soni

Every day brings a new Elon Musk headline: He wants to buy Twitter. He sold Tesla shares. He lied to the SEC. He decided agains’t buying Twitter. He bought back Tesla shares. He gave an interview to a magazine run by one of China’s censorship agencies. He secretly had twins just weeks before welcoming a baby with musician Grimes. With all of this, I decided I should learn more about the SpaceX and Tesla founder, so I borrowed Jimmy Soni’s The Founders from the library.

Soni became interested in PayPal because of the sheer number of its early employees — Musk, Peter Thiel and Reid Hoffman, to name just three — who went on to help launch companies Facebook, Yelp and YouTube (in addition to Musk’s SpaceX and Tesla). Soni tracks the two startups, one led by Musk and a second led by Thiel, that went from competitors to a single merged company ultimately acquired by eBay.

 As someone who relies on PayPal for all sorts of transactions, I found the behind-the-scenes look fascinating. These teams had to convince people — before the iPhone even existed — that they could and should send money to each other online. (One of my favorite details: Thiel’s business originally wanted a laser-type system that would beam money from Blackberry to Blackberry.)

Soni excels at bringing the techies to life, describing their all-night coding squabbles, petty email exchanges and more. It’s written empathetically towards the tech leaders — I could have used a little more criticism — but it’s a great intro to Musk, Thiel and more.

Bingo boxes this book checks: Book that teaches you something new

If you hit the little heart at the top or bottom of this email each week, it makes it easier for people to find What To Read If.

You Need to Fill the Short Story/Essay Collection Bingo Box

Five Tuesdays in Winter by Lily King*

There is something for everyone in Five Tuesdays in Winter, a short story collection from Lily King. A hopeful tale of a bookseller seeking a second chance at love. A coming-of-age story about a teen boy left in the care of two college students after his father has a mental health crisis. And, the last story, my favorite, is a work of magical realism featuring a mom trying to find just a few minutes to write when a strange man arrives and begins to criticize her work. It’s a masterful dissection of misogyny in the publishing and writing industries, a theme readers of my beloved Writers & Lovers will find familiar.

There are common threads — addiction, grief, growth and, most critically, love — running through these stories. King writes with grace and compassion towards her characters, and the collection is imbued with same sense of warmth and humor as her previous work. Five Tuesdays in Winter is King’s first short story collection and it’s clear she’s just as brilliant writing tight tales as she is writing full novels. She has a canny ability to break your heart and then put it back together again in just a few pages.

Don’t let the title — with its mention of “winter” — fool you. This is a book that will bring you joy all year round.

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That’s it for me today. I’ll be back in your inboxes Thursday with a Q&A featuring Lexie Neeley, a program coordinator at the Little Free Library.

*I received a free audiobook of Five Tuesdays in Winter from Libro.fm in exchange for an honest review.

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What to Read If is a free weekly book recommendation newsletter. Need a rec? Want to gush about a book? Reply to this email, leave a comment or find me on Twitter @elizabethheld.

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