What Will You Read Next? How Do You Decide?

You’ve finished reading your book. How do you decide what to read next?

Here is how I decide what to read next:

  • I look to my blogging friends.
  • I watch what pops up on the “New Releases” shelf at the library.
  • I get book titles from podcast interviews (including Modern Mrs. Darcy, of course).
  • I take suggestions from in-person friends.
  • I write down recommended books listed within a book.
  • I notice nudges about specific topics I want to learn more about.

But in November? I add to my to-be-read list from #Nonficnov posts. It’s an overload of the best of the best nonfiction books from bloggers who read. 

Below are the titles I’ve collected this November from the blogging challenge. I’ll first get samples sent to my Kindle from Amazon. If I like them, I’ll check my library and digital library for a free copy, or see if Net Galley has a free copy for review. If I can’t find a free copy and I really, really think it’ll be a great book, I’ll buy a copy.

Have you read any of these books? Would you recommend that I read them?

1. In Other Words
A Language Lover’s Guide to the Most Intriguing Words Around the World 

by Christopher J. Moore

Recommended by Deb Nance at Readerbuzz

2. The Power of Small
Making Tiny Changes When Everything Feels Too Much
by Aisling Leonard-Curtin & Dr. Trish Leonard-Curtin

Recommended by Leann at Shelf Aware

3. Lies My Teacher Told Me
Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong
by James W. Loewen

Recommended by Jen at Introverted Reader

4. The Warmth of Other Suns
The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration
by Isabel Wilkerson

Recommended by Claire at Claire Has a Life

5. The Body
A Guide for Occupants
by Bill Bryson

Recommended by Happiest When Reading

6. Bad Blood
Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup
by John Carreyrou

Recommended by Katie at Doing Dewey

7. The Clutter Connection
How Your Personality Type Determines Why You Organize the Way You Do
by Cassandra Aarssen

Recommended by Laura at Library of Clean Reads

8. The Space Barons
Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and the Quest to Colonize the Cosmos
by Christian Davenport

Recommended by Jen at Introverted Reader

9. Why We’re Polarized
by Ezra Klein

Recommended by Happiest When Reading

10. The Choice
Embrace the Possible
by Dr. Edith Eva Eger

Recommended by Carol at Reading Ladies


Do you have a favorite book you would add? Share in the comments.

20 thoughts on “What Will You Read Next? How Do You Decide?

  1. bill (cycleguy)

    Hi Lisa! I often gravitate to books which are subjects I am currently studying or even an author I particularly like. I highly recommend Lisa Childers’ book “Another Gospel?” It is a fantastic book. I have also just finished “The Carpenter” and “The Garden” by Jon Gordon and “Lead…For God’s Sake” (title misleading). Carpenter and Lead are both on leadership. The Garden is about overcoming fear, anxiety and stress. All three are written as fables. I’m almost done with “Doubt-less…because faith is Hard.” by Shelby Abbot. Although written more for teens and college students struggling with their faith, it has been a good one for me to read. One I will tackle next is “Cultural Intelligence” by Darrell Bock. Although not a long one, it may take me awhile to digest it so I suspect I will read that one slowly. have fun reading! I love it.

  2. Teresa

    Well one of my favorite books of all time is The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom. If you haven’t read it, stop what you are doing right now and get a copy. The inspiring true story of Corrie and her family during WW11 . Their faith and strength during tough times is beyond amazing.

    I’d love for you to read my book, The Faith-Filled Grandmother. If you are so inclined I would send you a signed copy to review.

  3. Martha Jane Orlando

    I haven’t read any of the books you’ve mentioned here, Lisa, but I do appreciate knowing how you decide about the next book you plan to read. I often go after books that friends and fellow bloggers have recommended, and most of the time, I’m not disappointed.
    Blessings!

  4. Barbara Harper

    I get my recommendations from similar places, minus the library and podcasts. I keep a running list of to-read books–some on a draft on my computer, some on Amazon’s wish list. Amazon is handy to add because I usually clicked on someone’s link to get there–but then when/if I get to the book, I forget who recommended it. On my draft I usually put the link to wherever I saw the book.

    I have not heard of any of these. The first two look especially interesting to me.

    I go through nonfiction much more slowly than fiction. I just finished two great ones by Jen Wilkin on the attributes of God–None Like Him (on the attributes only He has) and In His Image on the attributes we’re supposed to emulate. I’m also reading Andrew T. Le Peau’s Write Better and Trillia Newbell’s Fear and Faith. I’m about to start Alex Trebek’s autobiography and Influence: Building a Platform that Elevates Jesus (Not Me) by Kate Motaung and Shannon Popkin.

  5. Linda Stoll

    Yep, I get alot of my book to-reads from blogging friends … most especially you and over at Modern Mrs Darcy. I find some from wandering around online. Our library is just opening a few hours a week. How I’ve missed it this year. It’s been the leanest reading year in a long long time.

    Thanksgiving blessings to you, friend …

  6. Lynn D. Morrissey

    I’m working my way through the classic, Moby Dick (such powerful language and insights), almost done re-reading Michelle DeRusha’s True You (excellent, soul-searching book), and have begun poet Malcolm Guite’s Advent volume early: Waiting on the Word, including exquisite poetry (his and others’) and his devotional, interpretive writing. Excellent! I will reread a secular book I like by Anne D. LeClaire called Listening Below the Noise: The Transformative Power of Silence, because I’m considering turning off screens for Advent. It’s a beautiful read.

    Happy Thanksgiving, dear Lisa. I’m thankful for YOU!
    xo
    Lynn

  7. Nancy Ruegg

    I too get most of my recommendations from other bloggers. May have mentioned this before, but I recently finished These Strange Ashes by Elisabeth Elliot about her first year as a missionary to the Colorado Indians in the jungles of Ecuador. Fascinating, inspiring, and challenging. I enjoy fiction too–am working my way through the twelve-book Mitford series by Jan Karon. Her writing style is a delight, her characters and plot-line are engaging, and she artfully weaves wisdom into her stories. I read these books years ago, but am enjoying them a second time just as much!

  8. Jeanne Takenaka

    Lisa, I love your methodical way of selecting your next read. I have a couple hundred hard copy books on my TBR shelves. I have placed them in the order I want to read them. Although, admittedly, that order changes from time to time. 😉 I also take note of what blogging friends have recommended, and if the book is on a topic that resonates with me or that I have been pondering, I’ll pick up that gook and put it at the front of the pile. 🙂

    I hope you and yours have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

  9. Laurie

    I have not read any of those books, but this is the third (or fourth?) time in a week that someone has mentioned “The Warmth of Other Suns”. Talk about God giving me a nudge… Happy Thanksgiving, Lisa!

  10. Jean Wise

    wow intriguing titles. The one about the body and its occupants fascinates me. I am still rereading the Interior Castle and slowly digesting its wisdom but will move on to something else soon. Just picked up Domestic Monastery by Ron Rolheiser and am in a book club that will be reading together Howard Thurman’s Jesus and the Disinherited.

  11. Bookertalk

    Oh what a great idea to use the Kindle sample option. I do that sometimes for fiction but never thought about it for non fiction (hangs head in shame). Actually it makes more sense for non fiction to sample the book first because I’m always concerned a book could be too “academic” and dry.

    Thanks for the inside tip!!!

  12. Katie @ Doing Dewey

    I’m excited to see Bad Blood on your list, because I really enjoyed that one. I’m also interested in getting to Space Barons and possibly The Body. I didn’t love Bryson’s A Short History of Nearly Everything, but I’ve heard good things about The Body, even from people who don’t always love his books.

  13. Lory

    I have not read any of these, but they all sound good! I always collect so many recommendations from Nonfiction November too. This year I recommended The Body Keeps the Score: Mind, Brain, and Body in the Transformation of Trauma most highly. I also loved An Anthropologist on Mars by Oliver Sacks. And I read Maya Angelou’s entire sequence of memoirs, starting with I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, which was amazing. Enjoy reading your way through this list!

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