Reading goals that are just lofty enough
Description

Readers, today’s guest is looking for novels featuring an ensemble cast of characters and multiple points of view, and she’s found herself stymied when it comes to novels that deliver on what she’s seeking.
Olivia Haber Greenwood is joining me today from Barcelona, where she’s lived for the past seven years working as a copywriter and freelance journalist. Overall, Olivia is a happy reader with an abundant reading life. When she’s reading a novel, she loves characters with voices so strong and distinctive that those voices carry their personalities. Yet often she’ll find novels with multiple points of view leave her feeling a bit underwhelmed.
What Olivia dreams up is a story told from multiple points of view where every character’s distinctive, unmistakable voice elicits a big wow. It’s a tall order. Can we do it? We’ll certainly have fun trying!
Please let us know if you have ideas for Olivia by leaving a comment below.
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large">
</figure>Connect with Olivia at her website.
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[00:00:00 ] OLIVIA HABER GREENWOOD: I'm just never going to really like them as much as other books. Maybe not, you know? Maybe I'd be closing myself off to something.
ANNE BOGEL: And that doesn't feel good to you because there's a lot of great books out there and you don't want to miss a bunch because you're not looking.
OLIVIA: Exactly, exactly.
ANNE: Okay.
OLIVIA: That's why I've come to you, Anne.
ANNE: Hey readers, I'm Anne Bogel and this is What Should I Read Next?. Welcome to the show that's dedicated to answering the question that plagues every reader, what should I read next? We don't get bossy on this show. What we will do here is give you the information you need to choose your next read. Every week we'll talk all things books and reading and do a little literary matchmaking with one guest.
[00:00:47 ] Readers, today's guest is looking for novels featuring an ensemble cast of characters and multiple points of view, but she has a specific sticking point where she would love my help.
Olivia Haber Greenwood is joining me today from Barcelona, where she's lived for the past seven years working as a copywriter and freelance journalist. Olivia is a happy reader with an abundant reading life, but she's found herself stymied when it comes to novels featuring multiple points of view. And this is something she is really seeking a breakthrough on.
Olivia loves the concept of these books, and she's seen, with envy, so many other readers enjoying them. But since voice is such a strong component of what she loves in a book, sometimes, well, most of the time, she is finding these multiple point of view novels fall a bit flat.
[00:01:36 ] That's because she wants to read characters with voices so strong, so distinctive that those voices carry their personalities and even the whole story for a time. And what she dreams up is a story told from multiple points of view where every character's distinctive, unmistakable voice elicits a big wow. It's a tall order. Can we do it?
Well, I will tell you what I told Olivia. I don't know, but we are going to have fun trying today. But I will say, I think by the end of our conversation, we arrive at some excellent options for what Olivia may enjoy reading next.
Quick note about what you're about to hear. In the recommendations portion, you'll hear Olivia ask if she should mention a certain tidbit about a Lauren Groff novel because she fears it may be spoilery. You'll hear she and I go back and forth about it and we left it in because what Olivia is referencing is what the book is about. Just really what it's about, and in fact, the entire heart of author Lauren Groff's elevator pitch for the book.




