Today we are very happy to welcome Kelly Jensen from Stacked, one of our favorite blogs, for a guest post. Kelly is a librarian in Wisconsin and is seriously in the know about both the book and blogging worlds. As it turns out, she also knows a lot about recommending random books, so get ready for a wonderful edition of our feature, If You Like This, You Might Like That, where we (or guest posters!) give you book recommendations based on random interests. We gave her free rein and she totally delivered. Take it away, Kelly!
When the ladies at The Readventurer asked if I’d be willing to write a post for their “If You Like This, You Might Like That” feature, I read and reread the previous entries and debated for a long time what exactly I could add to the conversation. My tastes are a bit all over the place. Or maybe they’re not at all (insert a little bit of a laugh right here). Please. Take this adventure with me.
 | I love reading about what other people do all day. How do they make ends meet? Are they happy doing it? How did they end up choosing the jobs they do? If you like reading about other people’s working lives, I suggest checking out Gig: Americans Talk About Their Jobs, edited by Marisa Bowe, John Bowe, and Sabin Streeter. The book is made up of short interviews with Americans who work jobs that include the Walmart greeter, the UPS driver, a drug dealer, a heavy metal roadie, a porn star, a tofu manufacturer, a casino surveillance operator, a second-grade teacher, a doula, and more. It’s a tiny bit dated, but the stories are fascinating. |
| If you like reading about people’s jobs and you like the idea of traveling across the country, you might like Pete Jordan’s Dishwasher. Pete made it his mission to travel the USA and get a job washing dishes in every state. It’s interesting to see how his travels and his work meld. More interesting to me, though, was just how much of an asshole he was about the whole thing. I’ll leave it at that. |  |
I have one long-standing rule in my life, and that is this: never end up on Hoarders (either variation of it!) I love the show without shame, and I find the show fascinating because of how painful it is to watch. It’s way less about the “stuff” and much more about the things that led the hoarder to find keeping material possessions comforting in the first place. If you like Hoarders, you might like CJ Omololu’s Dirty Little Secrets, which tells the story of the daughter of a hoarder. If you prefer your hoarding stories more of the non-fictional variety, then you might like Jessie Sholl’s Dirty Secret: A Daughter Comes Clean About Her Mother’s Compulsive Hoarding. Want your hoarding a little more scientific? You might like Randy Frost and Gail Steketee’s Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things.
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 | My favorite movies have two big things in common: they feature teens as main characters and they serve up a hefty dose of dark comedy. Think Juno or Election. If that’s your cup of tea, you might like Pretty Persuasion, one of my favorite underrated films. Here’s a girl who wants to go all out to make a name for herself. And I mean all out. Bonus points for featuring Ron Livingston. | |
| Now that I’ve eased you into dark comedy, how about we just go straight up dark and twisted films featuring teen main characters? You might want to check out Hard Candy or Teeth. Neither of those are for the faint of heart. I am not allowed to mention Hard Candy in the house when my husband is around. If you likeTeeth, you might like Ginger Snaps and vice versa. G Snaps bonus: werewolves (and if you like Ginger Snaps you might like Kathleen Peacock’s Hemlock which is also a werewolf story but more important, references the film). |   |   |
So if either of those categories of film sound up your alley, then you should check out Joey Comeau’s books. Bible Camp Bloodbath should quench your thirst for a story about a kid who really loses his cool while at a sleepaway camp. It’s twisted and dark and bloody and horrible and also uncomfortably funny. Then feast on his The Girl Who Couldn’t Come. This is a collection of short stories about sex. Some are sad and some are funny. “Edith” is my favorite. You can read Bible Camp Bloodbath here and The Girl Who Couldn’t Come here.
I don’t feel qualified to offer good music recommendations because my taste is a little all over the place, but I have two bands to mention. If you like male-lead bands like Guster, Carbon Leaf, or Dispatch, or you like Pete Yorn, you might like Jump, Little Children. I know. They’re not new. In fact, they aren’t even playing together anymore. But their music is perfect. Their songs break my heart (this version is devastating),break it even more (this song is so, so gorgeous), and then they sing about super sexy times (no really).This song is one I perform regularly while driving, and this one just makes me happy. Like their sound? You might like the band Hey Marseilles, too. This is my favorite song of theirs (“all I want is love eternally / with your heart facing me”) but the video for Rio is pretty fantastic. Let me slip this one in, too (it makes my heart swell when it gets to the middle....I’ll leave it at that).
I don’t feel qualified to offer good music recommendations because my taste is a little all over the place, but I have two bands to mention. If you like male-lead bands like Guster, Carbon Leaf, or Dispatch, or you like Pete Yorn, you might like Jump, Little Children. I know. They’re not new. In fact, they aren’t even playing together anymore. But their music is perfect. Their songs break my heart (this version is devastating),break it even more (this song is so, so gorgeous), and then they sing about super sexy times (no really).This song is one I perform regularly while driving, and this one just makes me happy. Like their sound? You might like the band Hey Marseilles, too. This is my favorite song of theirs (“all I want is love eternally / with your heart facing me”) but the video for Rio is pretty fantastic. Let me slip this one in, too (it makes my heart swell when it gets to the middle....I’ll leave it at that).
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Like this kind of music? Well you probably like books that deal with relationships -- the good, the bad, and the ugly of them. May I suggest trying something like CK Kelly Martin’s I Know It’s Over or Trish Doller’s Something Like Normal? Both tackle tough things and good things in relationships from the male perspective. Oh, also, let me throw in CK Kelly Martin’s My Beating Teenage Heart, too. Especially the sexy parts. And the teary parts. And the parts where your heart gets so big you think it might burst.
If you prefer your music of the female vocal persuasion and you are over Tori Amos, you might like Marina and the Diamonds -- my favorite song is this one (“Better to be hated than loved for what you’re not”) but I also really like this one and this one. Another female singer worth checking out is Erin Ivey.
I’d be making a huge mistake if I didn’t recommend a woman named Courtney Summers in this space as the kind of author you’d like if you are a fan of the strong-voiced female. The characters in each of her books have a hell of a voice, and they’re each coming from places of pain and honesty and maybe even a little place of hope (some more than others). I put her books in camp Marina and the Diamonds. I’ll then go ahead and suggest if you’re more of the Erin Ivey sort -- who also sings of the highs and lows but maybe in a different kind of key with a bit of a different vibe (just as powerful though) -- check out Siobhan Vivian’s books.
If you prefer your music of the female vocal persuasion and you are over Tori Amos, you might like Marina and the Diamonds -- my favorite song is this one (“Better to be hated than loved for what you’re not”) but I also really like this one and this one. Another female singer worth checking out is Erin Ivey.
I’d be making a huge mistake if I didn’t recommend a woman named Courtney Summers in this space as the kind of author you’d like if you are a fan of the strong-voiced female. The characters in each of her books have a hell of a voice, and they’re each coming from places of pain and honesty and maybe even a little place of hope (some more than others). I put her books in camp Marina and the Diamonds. I’ll then go ahead and suggest if you’re more of the Erin Ivey sort -- who also sings of the highs and lows but maybe in a different kind of key with a bit of a different vibe (just as powerful though) -- check out Siobhan Vivian’s books.
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Still with me? Good. Here is where I will probably lose you.
| My favorite candy in the world is black jelly beans. I love and adore the bitter, burning taste of anise. If you like black jelly beans, you may also like Good and Plenty and black Twizzlers. You may also like Katjes Kinder, which I found in a little shop in small town Wisconsin not too long ago. Black licorice cats from Germany. They are amazing. |  |
If anise is your thing and you’re of a certain age, you likely already know about Jaegermeister. If you like Jaeger, you might also like Black 100, which is an herbal liquor out of Minnesota (I don’t live there and found it out of state, so it’s not just a local brand). It’s a higher proof than Jaeger, so watch yourself with it.
If you like anise flavor and you want to go the opposite route, have you tried bok choy? You might like it. I love vegetables, and bok choy is one of my favorites because it tastes like licorice. It’s a little less bitter, but it’s got a crisp taste to it and it’s such a better flavor profile than celery.
So now that you’re sufficiently under the influence of the most amazing candy out there and some, uh, mind altering liquor (and enjoying your bok choy), you are prepared to delve into the weirder world of magical realism with your reading. You can absolutely enjoy these books without any of the above-mentioned aids, but I think you get even more fun out of them when you can really enter those worlds. Who better encompasses the genre than Haruki Murakami? You have talking cats, sleep walkers, and a world that is all at once familiar and totally foreign. I recommend After Dark to warm you up, then head on over to Hardboiled Wonderland and The End of the World. Don’t want to go that wild? Just going to enjoy some Good and Plenty without the alcohol? Dive into Nova Ren Suma’s Imaginary Girls. Want to ONLY have the booze without the candy? Perhaps you’re looking for Hello, Jell-O. Fair warning, though, is some of the recipes in that book will require you to have enjoyed a few shots before they sound half way appealing.
If you like anise flavor and you want to go the opposite route, have you tried bok choy? You might like it. I love vegetables, and bok choy is one of my favorites because it tastes like licorice. It’s a little less bitter, but it’s got a crisp taste to it and it’s such a better flavor profile than celery.
So now that you’re sufficiently under the influence of the most amazing candy out there and some, uh, mind altering liquor (and enjoying your bok choy), you are prepared to delve into the weirder world of magical realism with your reading. You can absolutely enjoy these books without any of the above-mentioned aids, but I think you get even more fun out of them when you can really enter those worlds. Who better encompasses the genre than Haruki Murakami? You have talking cats, sleep walkers, and a world that is all at once familiar and totally foreign. I recommend After Dark to warm you up, then head on over to Hardboiled Wonderland and The End of the World. Don’t want to go that wild? Just going to enjoy some Good and Plenty without the alcohol? Dive into Nova Ren Suma’s Imaginary Girls. Want to ONLY have the booze without the candy? Perhaps you’re looking for Hello, Jell-O. Fair warning, though, is some of the recipes in that book will require you to have enjoyed a few shots before they sound half way appealing.
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I wanted to lead you here gently, fair readers. If you’re still with me, I wanted to share with you a secret. As much as I am a book blogger and love reading book blogs, my secret passion is reading food blogs. Especially those with a heavy vegetarian sway to them. If you like to cook or read food blogs, you might like Becca’s amazing Amuse Your Bouche (I have made so many of these recipes and every single one has been a winner). And if you like food blogs with a side of sarcasm, snark, and professional styling, you might like my good friend Jess’s blog, Jonesing For. . .. The banana bread is to die for, by the way.
You now know way more about me than you ever wanted to know. It starts with going to the darkest places, enjoying the bitter humor, listening to good tunes, and eating really satisfying food along the way. I haven't even started in on The Jersey Shore yet, either . . .
You now know way more about me than you ever wanted to know. It starts with going to the darkest places, enjoying the bitter humor, listening to good tunes, and eating really satisfying food along the way. I haven't even started in on The Jersey Shore yet, either . . .
Oh my, that was a post full of awesome. I know that I, for one, have added a bunch of books to my to be read list. Thanks, Kelly, for your recommendations across the board. Music, film, food, books...just so many amazing things going on here!
Don't forget to visit Kelly in her natural blogging habitat, Stacked. Today, in honor of her anniversary, she's done a wonderful post over there about books that remind her of significant points in her relationship with her husband.
What do YOU think of Kelly's recommendations? Anything you plan on reading,watching, listening to, or trying in the future?
Don't forget to visit Kelly in her natural blogging habitat, Stacked. Today, in honor of her anniversary, she's done a wonderful post over there about books that remind her of significant points in her relationship with her husband.
What do YOU think of Kelly's recommendations? Anything you plan on reading,watching, listening to, or trying in the future?
