You Binged “Only Murders in the Building”

Are excited for the new Colson Whitehead book or are getting ready to start a new job

Hi friends,

I hope you had a great weekend. My dog, Ellie, and I are back in D.C. after an extended stay in upstate New York with my parents. Ellie seems to be settling in well and is happy to be a District dog.

I want to share this Kickstarter for an author clock that shows the time using literary quotes. At 11 AM, for example, the clock would read, “Big Ben was striking as she stepped out into the street. It was eleven o’clock and the unused hour was fresh as if issued to children on a beach,” a quote from Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway. I’m seriously considering buying one. If you love the idea, but don’t want to purchase one, check out this web-based version. I find myself checking it all the time (pun intended).

In other news, I wrote a piece on some of my favorite creepy boarding school books for Strong Sense of Place. Check it out if you’re on the hunt for a Halloween week read. 

And, now, what to read if …

You Loved “Only Murders in the Building” 

The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman

The first season of Hulu’s comedy “Only Murders in the Building,” starring Selena Gomez, Steve Martin and Martin Short as neighbors taping a podcast about their attempt to solve a murder in their apartment complex, wrapped this week. If you haven’t watched the show, I highly recommend it (you can read all the reasons I loved it here).

Richard Osman’s The Thursday Murder Club features a similarly oddball cast of characters working together to solve a murder. Each week, four residents of an upscale retirement village in the U.K. — a former nurse, a retired intelligence officer, an erstwhile psychiatrist and a former labor organizer — meet in the Jigsaw Room to discuss unsolved crimes. When a local developer is found dead under mysterious circumstances, they set out to aid the rookie detective assigned to the case, whether she wants their help or not. 

Much like “Only Murders in the Building,” the joy of The Thursday Murder Club is less about solving the crime and more about spending time with a group of quirky, fun characters. Sarah Weinman, a mystery reviewer and true crime author, recently wrote in The New York Times, “In tough times of the past, many mystery buffs sought comfort more than darkness — Agatha Christie’s greatest sales, for example, began during World War II. It’s an understandable urge: As readers, sometimes we want our escapism to be a little gentler, a little less violent, unmarred by quite so much blood and gore.” If that’s you right now, check out The Thursday Murder Club (or “Only Murders in the Building”).

Reminder recommendations: Longtime readers may have noticed I have a bit of an obsession with fictional depictions of true crime properties. If that part of “Only Murders in the Building” appealed to you, check out Maureen Johnson’s Truly Devious, Every Last Fear by Alex Finlay or L.R. Dorn’s The Anatomy of Desire. 

You’re On the Library Hold List for Harlem Shuffle 

Deacon King Kong by James McBride

I’m eagerly waiting for my library request of Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead to come in. The reviews I’ve read describe it as an entertaining, funny story about heists and crime in 1960s New York. That’s the exact vibe of James McBride’s Deacon King Kong.

Deacon King Kong is McBride’s seventh book — and it’s a rollicking read. In the book’s opening pages, Sportcoat, an aging alcoholic resident of the Cause Houses housing project in south Brooklyn shoots the neighborhood drug dealer. The dealer survives and vows to get his revenge on the man who shot him. A white police officer attempts to find and save Sportcoat, with a beguiling Sister’s help at Sportcoat’s church. Meanwhile, after receiving a visit from his dad’s prison cellmate, a mobster embarks on a quest to find a priceless war artifact that was once his father’s. The three plotlines intersect in an entertaining and charming way.

I loved so much about Deacon King Kong. There is a giant cast of characters who are a joy to spend time with and it’s the type of story where small asides — such as the killer ants in the apartment — come back in a big way later on. McBride, a National Book Award winner, is a brilliant writer capable of crafting sentences that jump of the page. I devoured this book last year and have returned to it a few times since.

You’re Starting a New Job

Radical Candor by Kim Scott

A record 4.3 million Americans — about 2.9% of the workforce — quit their jobs in August, a phenomenon economists have dubbed the “great resignation.” With a hot job market, workers are finding new opportunities with more flexibility, higher pay or better benefits. If you’re one of the many people starting a new job or preparing for one, pick up Kim Scott’s Radical Candor.

Scott, a Silicon Valley HR expert, dismantles the idea that if you don’t have anything nice to say, you shouldn’t say anything at all. Instead, she argues that managers need to provide constructive criticism and correct mistakes. Not doing so in an effort to be nice holds workers back. She gives examples of how managers can avoid being both “obnoxiously aggressive” and “ruinously empathetic,” putting employees on a path for success.

I read Radical Candor before starting my current job almost four years ago. It made such a mark on me that I regularly find myself thinking “be kind, not nice.” On the surface, they’re the same thing, but Scott argues being “kind” requires honesty, candor and a willingness to have tough conversations, while being “nice” involves pretending everything is fine. The book is technically aimed at managers, but I think anyone — entry-level employee or retired worker — could get a lot out of it.

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That’s it for me today. I’ll be back in your inboxes on Thursday with a Q&A featuring author Vanessa King — and a special giveaway. 

If you missed last week’s recs, you can catch up here.

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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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