24 JUN 2022 · Episode 4 of weekly book recommendations by an indie bookstore! This week's recommendation is Julian Sancton's Madhouse at the End of the Earth. In August 1897, the young Belgian commandant Adrien de Gerlache set sail for a three-year expedition aboard the good ship Belgica with dreams of glory. His destination was the uncharted end of the earth: the icy continent of Antarctica. But de Gerlache’s plans to be first to the magnetic South Pole would swiftly go awry. After a series of costly setbacks, the commandant faced two bad options: turn back in defeat and spare his men the devastating Antarctic winter, or recklessly chase fame by sailing deeper into the freezing waters. De Gerlache sailed on, and soon the Belgica was stuck fast in the icy hold of the Bellingshausen Sea. When the sun set on the magnificent polar landscape one last time, the ship’s occupants were condemned to months of endless night. In the darkness, plagued by a mysterious illness and besieged by monotony, they descended into madness. Buy a copy here: https://bookshop.org/a/82300/9781984824332 Follow us on Instagram @shelfstoriespod Email us at thistleandpinebooks@gmail.com

24 JUN 2022 · Episode 3 of weekly book recommendations from an independent bookstore, Thistle and Pine Books! From the co-creator of How I Met Your Mother, a hilarious and thought-provoking debut novel set in New York City, following a sprawling cast of characters as they navigate life, love, loss, ambition, and spirituality--without ever looking up from their phones. It's the summer of 2015, and Alice Quick needs to get to work. She's twenty-eight years old, grieving her mother, barely scraping by as a nanny, and freshly kicked out of her apartment. If she can just get her act together and sign up for the MCAT, she can start chasing her dream of becoming a doctor . . . but in the Age of Distraction, the distractions are so distracting. There's her tech millionaire brother's religious awakening. His picture-perfect wife's emotional breakdown. Her chaotic new roommate's thirst for adventure. And, of course, there's the biggest distraction of all: Love. From within the story of one summer in one woman's life, an epic tale is unearthed, spanning continents and featuring a tapestry of characters tied to one another by threads both seen and unseen. Filled with all the warmth, humor, and heart that gained How I Met Your Mother its cult following, The Mutual Friend captures in sparkling detail the chaos of contemporary life, a life lived simultaneously in two different worlds--the physical one and the one behind our screens--and reveals how connected we all truly are. Buy a copy here: https://bookshop.org/a/82300/9780593186763 Follow us on Instagram @shelfstoriespod Email us at thistleandpinebooks.com

20 JUN 2022 · Episode 2 of weekly book recommendations from an independent bookstore, Thistle and Pine Books! Isabel is a single, twentysomething thrift-store shopper and collector of remnants, things cast off or left behind by others. Glaciers follows Isabel through a day in her life in which work with damaged books in the basement of a library, unrequited love for the former soldier who fixes her computer, and dreams of the perfect vintage dress move over a backdrop of deteriorating urban architecture and the imminent loss of the glaciers she knew as a young girl in Alaska. Glaciers unfolds internally, the action shaped by Isabel’s sense of history, memory, and place, recalling the work of writers such as Jean Rhys, Marguerite Duras, and Virginia Woolf. For Isabel, the fleeting moments of one day can reveal an entire life. While she contemplates loss and the intricate fissures it creates in our lives, she accumulates the stories—the remnants—of those around her and she begins to tell her own story. Buy a copy here: https://bookshop.org/a/82300/9781935639206 Follow us on Instagram @shelfstoriespod Email us at thistleandpinebooks.com

20 JUN 2022 · Episode 1 of weekly book recommendations from an independent bookstore, Thistle and Pine Books! This week's recommendation is Jon Krakauer's telling of his fateful Mt. Everest expedition, Into Thin Air. Into Thin Air is the definitive account of the deadliest season in the history of Everest by the acclaimed journalist and author of the bestseller Into the Wild. On assignment for Outside Magazine to report on the growing commercialization of the mountain, Krakauer, an accomplished climber, went to the Himalayas as a client of Rob Hall, the most respected high-altitude guide in the world. A rangy, thirty-five-year-old New Zealander, Hall had summited Everest four times between 1990 and 1995 and had led thirty-nine climbers to the top. Ascending the mountain in close proximity to Hall's team was a guided expedition led by Scott Fischer, a forty-year-old American with legendary strength and drive who had climbed the peak without supplemental oxygen in 1994. But neither Hall nor Fischer survived the rogue storm that struck in May 1996. Krakauer examines what it is about Everest that has compelled so many people -- including himself -- to throw caution to the wind, ignore the concerns of loved ones, and willingly subject themselves to such risk, hardship, and expense. Written with emotional clarity and supported by his unimpeachable reporting, Krakauer's eyewitness account of what happened on the roof of the world is a singular achievement. Buy a copy here: https://bookshop.org/a/82300/9780385494786 Under the Banner of Heaven Book Discussions: https://open.spotify.com/episode/7w6ClsvpLBtbIVvVXGwILy https://open.spotify.com/episode/37Rg5iyzQ3Il3ZDbFQjQta Follow us on Instagram @shelfstoriespod Email at thistleandpinebooks@gmail.com thistleandpinebooks.com