Episode 802: #BookTok Recommendations

RWL Episode 802 logo

Welcome to Reading With Libraries!

Thank you for joining us on the 8th season of our book group and Reader’s advisory podcast! 

Our organization is the Central Minnesota Libraries Exchange, and we work with all types of libraries. Schools, public, academic, history centers, and more! We are here to support you and to bring you new knowledge to inform your library work. 

This season we continue to explore a wide variety of book genres and topics so you can expand your reading horizons and share more information with your library community.
And we’re adding an additional element this season: many of our topics are coming from the 2022 Pop Sugar Reading Challenge. We link to their challenge on our shownotes page. 

Pop Sugar says the goal of the challenge is to “is just to have fun, diversify your reading, and accomplish whatever goals you have set for yourself. There are no “rules”!”
So we’re incorporating some of their prompts into this season’s podcast topics. If you are participating in their challenge – great! And if you just want to get some fresh book ideas to share with your patrons/students/community, fantastic! You are in the right place! 

Beverages:

Each week we like to connect the theme of our books with our beverages! So naturally, our inspiration for our drinks this week came from the article “The 5 Most Popular TikTok Cocktail Recipes.” We link to the article and the recipes for each beverage on our shownotes page! 

Apple Cider Mimosa (with non-alcoholic option)

  • Apple Cider. Apple cider goes well with alcohol and especially champagne and brandy (and bourbon in this Apple Cider Cocktail). Its signature flavor makes this the perfect easy fall cocktail.
  • Champagne. The kind of champagne you use for mimosas is up to you. I recommend choosing something dry (look for “Brut” which is actually drier than even “dry” or “extra dry”) that you enjoy but save the top-shelf choices for drinking by themselves. Prosecco, cava, or another sparkling wine would also be great here.
  • Brandy. In addition to apple cider and champagne, I added a bit of brandy to the recipe. It balances the apple cider’s light, juicy flavor and gives the cocktail the heft it needs to transition from mid-morning spritzer to evening cocktail sipper.
  • Rim the glasses with sugar and cinnamon.
  • Pour brandy, apple cider, then champagne into each glass. Garnish as desired and ENJOY!

RECIPE NOTE – If you need to make this an apple cider mimosa non-alcoholic, omit the brandy and use non-alcoholic sparkling wine.

  • Apple Slices. My favorite garnish option.
  • Cinnamon + Sugar. A delicious, fun, and festive way to rim your glasses!
  • Caramel. A caramel apple cider mimosa would be sweet and delicious for a dessert drink. Use caramel vodka in place of the brandy. For something extra sweet, drizzle in inside of the glasses with a little caramel.
  • Cinnamon Sticks. Place a cinnamon stick in each glass for a flavorful garnish.

Cotton Candy Cosmo

  • 1 or 2 handfuls of cotton candy
  • 1 oz lime
  • 3 oz vodka
  • 1 oz cointreau
  • 4 oz cranberry
  • Place the cotton candy in two glasses.
  • Pour the rest of the ingredients into a martini shaker with some ice. Shake well and pour over top the cotton candy when ready.

Rainbow Cocktail

Ingredients: 

1 oz. (30ml) Grenadine

1 1/2 oz. (45ml) Pineapple Juice

1/2 oz. (15ml) Blue Curaçao

1/2 oz. (15ml) Peach Schnapps

1 oz. (30ml) Vodka

Garnish: Orange Slice, Cherry

  1. Pour some Grenadine into the base of a glass and slowly spoon in some ice cubes. Set aside.
  2. In a shaking glass with ice, combine peach schnapps and pineapple juice. Shake well.
  3. Slowly pour over grenadine, filling almost to the top.
  4. In a separate shaking glass with ice, combine vodka and blue curaçao. Shake well and carefully layer on top.
  5. Garnish with an orange slice and a cherry.

Genre Discussion:

Perhaps you’re wondering: what on earth is BookTok? According to this article from Wikipedia:  

“BookTok is a subcommunity on the app TikTok, focused on books and literature. Creators make videos reviewing, discussing, and joking about the books they read. These books range in genre, but many creators tend to focus on young adult fiction, young adult fantasy, and romance novels. 

Several books found their way onto The New York Times Bestseller list due to BookTok videos.[2] In some cases, the books that received this boost in sales were nearly a decade old, while other books gained popularity ahead of their release.[13] Books can become popular on the app due to either a genuine love for them by the readers, or due to shock and jokes about the subject matter.”

This article from Distractify says: “If you search the #BookTok hashtag on TikTok, there are currently over 29.1 billion views for videos about reading, recommending, and reviewing books. Even booksellers have started to notice this trend, and “Trending on Booktok” has become an overnight staple display in Barnes & Noble stores everywhere.”

Examples Angie likes: 

  • YA authors Aiden Thomas and Ayana Gray
  • The account the.ace.of.books shares new book recs every week and they are unique reads I’ve usually never heard of (and often borrowed from the library, woohoo!)
  • The ones that act like the plot is their life story (usually you figure this out quickly – other times, you worry about this person and their very dramatic life!)
  • Search the hashtag #library or #LibraryTikTok – funny and surprising videos by librarians/library workers that often include recommendations 

“BookTok Books” are the books discussed most frequently on the platform, and often have had a large increase in sales due to it. These books include:

Suggested Reading Resources:

Our Book Discussion

We have our beverages, we are familiar with this week’s genre, let’s get to the book discussion! We will give you a list of all the books we share today. You can click on any of these links to go to Amazon.com for more information. If you buy anything while you are there, Amazon will give us a small percent of their profits from your purchase. Thanks in advance for helping to support the mission of CMLE – we appreciate it! 

A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder (A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder #1), by Holly Jackson

Everyone in Fairview knows the story.

Pretty and popular high school senior Andie Bell was murdered by her boyfriend, Sal Singh, who then killed himself. It was all anyone could talk about. And five years later, Pip sees how the tragedy still haunts her town.

But she can’t shake the feeling that there was more to what happened that day. She knew Sal when she was a child, and he was always so kind to her. How could he possibly have been a killer?

Now a senior herself, Pip decides to reexamine the closed case for her final project, at first just to cast doubt on the original investigation. But soon she discovers a trail of dark secrets that might actually prove Sal innocent . . . and the line between past and present begins to blur. Someone in Fairview doesn’t want Pip digging around for answers, and now her own life might be in danger.

A Dowry of Blood, by ST Gibson

A lyrical and dreamy reimagining of Dracula’s brides, A Dowry of Blood is a story of desire, obsession, and emancipation.

Saved from the brink of death by a mysterious stranger, Constanta is transformed from a medieval peasant into a bride fit for an undying king. But when Dracula draws a cunning aristocrat and a starving artist into his web of passion and deceit, Constanta realizes that her beloved is capable of terrible things. Finding comfort in the arms of her rival consorts, she begins to unravel their husband’s dark secrets.

With the lives of everyone she loves on the line, Constanta will have to choose between her own freedom and her love for her husband. But bonds forged by blood can only be broken by death.

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Aging and reclusive Hollywood movie icon Evelyn Hugo is finally ready to tell the truth about her glamorous and scandalous life. But when she chooses unknown magazine reporter Monique Grant for the job, no one is more astounded than Monique herself. Why her? Why now?

Monique is not exactly on top of the world. Her husband has left her, and her professional life is going nowhere. Regardless of why Evelyn has selected her to write her biography, Monique is determined to use this opportunity to jumpstart her career.

Summoned to Evelyn’s luxurious apartment, Monique listens in fascination as the actress tells her story. From making her way to Los Angeles in the 1950s to her decision to leave show business in the ‘80s, and, of course, the seven husbands along the way, Evelyn unspools a tale of ruthless ambition, unexpected friendship, and a great forbidden love. Monique begins to feel a very real connection to the legendary star, but as Evelyn’s story near its conclusion, it becomes clear that her life intersects with Monique’s own in tragic and irreversible ways.

The Love Hypothesis, by Ali Hazelwood 

As a third-year Ph.D. candidate, Olive Smith doesn’t believe in lasting romantic relationships–but her best friend does, and that’s what got her into this situation. Convincing Anh that Olive is dating and well on her way to a happily ever after was always going to take more than hand-wavy Jedi mind tricks: Scientists require proof. So, like any self-respecting biologist, Olive panics and kisses the first man she sees.

That man is none other than Adam Carlsen, a young hotshot professor–and well-known ass. Which is why Olive is positively floored when Stanford’s reigning lab tyrant agrees to keep her charade a secret and be her fake boyfriend. But when a big science conference goes haywire, putting Olive’s career on the Bunsen burner, Adam surprises her again with his unyielding support and even more unyielding…six-pack abs.

Suddenly their little experiment feels dangerously close to combustion. And Olive discovers that the only thing more complicated than a hypothesis on love is putting her own heart under the microscope.

Truly Devious, by Maureen Johnson

Ellingham Academy is a famous private school in Vermont for the brightest thinkers, inventors, and artists. It was founded by Albert Ellingham, an early twentieth century tycoon, who wanted to make a wonderful place full of riddles, twisting pathways, and gardens. “A place,” he said, “where learning is a game.”

Shortly after the school opened, his wife and daughter were kidnapped. The only real clue was a mocking riddle listing methods of murder, signed with the frightening pseudonym “Truly, Devious.” It became one of the great unsolved crimes of American history.

True-crime aficionado Stevie Bell is set to begin her first year at Ellingham Academy, and she has an ambitious plan: She will solve this cold case. That is, she will solve the case when she gets a grip on her demanding new school life and her housemates: the inventor, the novelist, the actor, the artist, and the jokester.

But something strange is happening. Truly Devious makes a surprise return, and death revisits Ellingham Academy. The past has crawled out of its grave. Someone has gotten away with murder.

If We Were Villains, by M. L. Rio

On the day Oliver Marks is released from jail, the man who put him there is waiting at the door. Detective Colborne wants to know the truth, and after ten years, Oliver is finally ready to tell it.

A decade ago: Oliver is one of seven young Shakespearean actors at Dellecher Classical Conservatory, a place of keen ambition and fierce competition. In this secluded world of firelight and leather-bound books, Oliver and his friends play the same roles onstage and off: hero, villain, tyrant, temptress, ingénue, extras.

But in their fourth and final year, good-natured rivalries turn ugly, and on opening night real violence invades the students’ world of make-believe. In the morning, the fourth-years find themselves facing their very own tragedy, and their greatest acting challenge yet: convincing the police, each other, and themselves that they are innocent. 

The Midnight Library, by Matt Haig

Somewhere out beyond the edge of the universe there is a library that contains an infinite number of books, each one the story of another reality. One tells the story of your life as it is, along with another book for the other life you could have lived if you had made a different choice at any point in your life. While we all wonder how our lives might have been, what if you had the chance to go to the library and see for yourself? Would any of these other lives truly be better?

In The Midnight Library, Matt Haig’s enchanting blockbuster novel, Nora Seed finds herself faced with this decision. Faced with the possibility of changing her life for a new one, following a different career, undoing old breakups, realizing her dreams of becoming a glaciologist; she must search within herself as she travels through the Midnight Library to decide what is truly fulfilling in life, and what makes it worth living in the first place.

Conclusion:

Thank you so much for joining us on Reading With Libraries! 

Join us next Thursday with another topic or genre and many more books to share and discuss. Be sure to subscribe to our podcast so you don’t miss a single episode! And if you want to hear more about the work we do in libraries or expand your library skills, check out our podcast Linking Our Libraries!

Bring your book ideas, bring your beverages, and join us back here on Thursday!