You're Planning Your Annual Viewing of Groundhog Day, Part 3

Want a laugh or love teen sleuths

Hi book lovers,

Hope you’re hanging in there. I know the state of the world is a lot right now. Take care of yourselves, friends.

If you’re looking for a pick-me-up, I’m happy to announce the second annual What To Read If paperback swap. Here’s how it works:

• Sign up here to send and receive a book by February 10th.

• Receive info on your giftee the week of February 13th.

• Choose a beloved book from your shelf you’re ready to part with, grab one from a free lending library or purchase a book. Then, send it to your giftee during February (don’t forget to use the media mail rate!). 

•  Receive a book in the mail from your gifter.

This was a lot of fun last year — I hope you’ll join us again.

And, now, what to read if…

You Celebrate Groundhog Day with a Viewing of the Bill Murray Classic

This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub

I’m embracing the true spirit of the movie “Groundhog Day” by doing the same thing I’ve done every year before to mark the holiday: recommending a time loop book. If you somehow haven’t seen the 1993 classic, it stars Bill Murray as a weatherman reliving the Groundhog Day celebration in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, again and again and again.

Beloved author — and bookstore owner — Emma Straub’s latest book, This Time Tomorrow, features a heroine, Alice Stern, capable of traveling back in time to relive her 16th birthday. As the book opens, Alice’s much-adored father is ill in the hospital, and likely won’t recover. His sickness and her 40th birthday cause her to reassess her own stagnant life. After a few too many birthday cocktails, Alice passes out and wakes up in her teenage bedroom. She embraces the chance to spend time with her young and healthy dad and wonders if by changing that one day she can change their future. Alice returns to the day of sweet 16 countless times, attempting to craft a perfect future.

This Time Tomorrow is a warm, tender book that will make you want to hug the people you love. It’s made all the more poignant knowing that Straub wrote it while her father, the novelist Peter Straub who recently died, was in the hospital. I cried at the ending but also felt oddly hopeful about the ability we all have to build a life for ourselves.

Bonus rec: Emma Straub’s newsletter is a great behind-the-scenes look at the life of an author and bookstore owner.

Reminder recs: My previous “Groundhog Day” picks were The 7 ½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton and In a Holidaze by Christina Lauren.

You’re Looking for a Laugh

We Are Never Meeting in Real Life by Samantha Irby 

Whenever I take my dog to the vet, like I did last week to get her flu vaccine (thing I learned this year: canine flu exists), I immediately think of two authors: James Herriot — and Samantha Irby. 

In her essay collection We Are Never Meeting in Real Life, Irby, a hilarious writer, recounts her time working as a receptionist at a vet’s office. Alternatively heartfelt and humorous, the book includes Irby’s thoughts on junk food and junk TV, a description of a trip with her then-girlfriend, now-wife to scatter her estranged father’s ashes and a discussion of how friendships change as we age. My favorites, though, are the essays that focus on Irby’s cat, Helen Keller. I’m an avowed dog person, but I’m a sucker for anything that captures the relationships we have with our pets. 

Irby never wanted a pet, but her colleagues at the vet’s office bullied her into adopting a cranky cat she named Helen Keller due to her vision and hearing problems (a move that should give you an idea of her sense of humor). Irby complains about Helen — she eats her owner’s food, pees on her stuff and leaves messes everywhere — yet she adores the feline in the way only a pet lover can.

Come for the laughs, and stay for the surprisingly sincere moments.

Bonus rec: Apparently, it’s newsletter week around here. Samantha Irby also writes a fabulous newsletter.

You Share My Love of a Teen Detective

Girl Sleuth by Melanie Rehak

If you’ve been reading this newsletter for a while, you might have noticed I love books starring teen sleuths. As I wrote for CrimeReads last week, these books “showcase the heightened emotions that drive teen detective stories. Those over-the-top emotions with an intellectual puzzle keep readers — of all ages — coming back for more.” 

Melanie Rehak’s Girl Sleuth is a history of the ultimate teen detective — Nancy Drew — and the women behind her. The book corrects a historical record by identifying the writer, Mildred Wirt Benson, behind the Carolyn Keene pen name. Benson wrote many of the original Nancy Drew books, but the Stratemeyer Syndicate, which invented the character, kept her hidden from view and even made up a personality for the non-existent Carolyn Keene.

Rehak also documents Nancy’s legacy and why generations of women adore her. She concludes, “The stories themselves are secondary. What we remember is Nancy: her bravery, her style, her generosity, and her relentless desire to succeed linger long after the last page has been turned, the villain sent to jail, the trusty car put into the garage.” I couldn’t agree more.

That’s it for me today. You can catch up on last week’s recs here (thanks to everyone who commented on where you’re reading from!) and my Q&A with Courtney Maum here.

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