Stumped!

I don’t often get stumped by questions in the bookshop. This is not bragging, it’s that I  have some standard book recommendations that I rely on for books that I love. I seem to have these recommendations for most of the categories that I get asked about every day.

–“I need a book for my aunt who lives in Michigan and reads a lot. I don’t know what she’s already read”.
Easy….The Widow’s War by Sally Gunning. Great book but local enough that it’s likely she hasn’t read it.

–“I need a book for my father-in-law for Father’s Day. I don’t know what he likes.”
I would try The Finest Hours by Casey Sherman and Michael Tougias. It’s new, it’s about a very exciting sea rescue by the Coast Guard off Cape Cod,  and it’s just the right length (204 pages).

–“I need a gift for my college roommate’s 11 year old son, who is coming with her when she visits me next week.”
Since I happen to have an 11 year old son, I always have an answer for this one!  Some ideas that come to mind immediately are Scholastic Book of Lists 1 or 2 or the Time Almanac For Kids.  Both are chock full of facts and figures that kids (particularly boys) can read for hours. He will have something to do for the whole visit!

–“I am going to a baby shower and the mother-to-be has requested books.”
I usually recommend board books. They are durable and are usually the type of books that can be read to a very young child. Don’t get me wrong, I love Mike Mulligan as much as the next person, but a child is usually 3 or 4 before they appreciate it. So…I head for Sandra Boynton! Barnyard Dance, But Not The Hippopotamus or Moo, Baa, La La La usually work. Or…the beautiful simplicity of Gossie by Olivier Dunrea. (If only real geese were as nice and peaceful as the ones in his board books!)

See? I keep a mental list!  Well…today I was stumped.  The question was “What do I read now?   I just flew through all 4 of the Twilight series by Stephanie Meyers.”  I have gotten this question before and had some ready answers. What threw me this time was that the question came from an adult!  If the question had come from a teenager, I would have suggested the P.C. and Kristin Cast vampire series or The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.

The question coming from an adult was more of a stumper. To try to recommend a book to someone you really don’t know, you need to figure out what they like and why they liked it.  Why would an adult like the Twilight series? Was it the romance? Was it melancholy from her own high school experience? Was it a long standing crush on teen-age rebels like James Dean or Matt Dillon? Do we all secretly have a thing for vampires?  I really don’t know.  Even she seemed surprised that she enjoyed the series so much!

My best idea was Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte (which I was really kind of proud of!). Unfortunately she had read it in the past couple of years.  Sigh…..