Tuesday Tea: What's an automatic 'yes' for you in a book description?
What are the settings, vibes, character quirks, writing styles, etc. that make you grab a new book fast?
Hello, readerly pals!
Let’s talk about bookish green flags: the elements of a book that will make you want to read it immediately.
What’s a characteristic in a book’s description that makes you super-excited to try it? Maybe it’s location, a style of writing, a particular type of character — whatever it is, it’s the thing that makes you want to snatch a book off the shelf and start reading.
My list (today) includes:
a non-human narrator — like Flames by Robbie Arnott or When I Sing, Mountains Dance by Irene Solà
a very voice-y narrator that breaks the fourth wall — like Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth or The Bookseller of Venice by Giovanni Montanaro
footnotes in fiction — like Caramelo by Sandra Cisneros or A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki
a manor house setting — like all of this. (I know! Too obvious.)
an unusual object that kicks off an adventure to a far-flung destination — like The Shadow Land by Elizabeth Kostova (lost urn of ashes) or The Salt Road by Jane Johnson (mysterious amulet) or The Last Watchman of Old Cairo by Michael David Lukas (portentous letter) or The Trick by Emanuel Bergmann (vintage vinyl LP)
Anything having to do with books, libraries or bookstores.
A map is involved. Any map.
Messages in bottles, tree nooks, delivered by animals, falls from the sky, blows in on the wind, hidden in crossword clues, found in the want ads.
Lol. Hmm. Sounds like I must be looking for something that I think I will find through story.