I must have missed this in years past, but Penguin books has a yearly holiday hotline. Since I’ve been reading and recommending books for over eight years, I was curious to see what someone else would recommend to me! Here’s what happened when I tried the Penguin Holiday Hotline.
To use the hotline, you fill out a form listing your name and age, plus favorite books, magazines, shows, hobbies and interests.
Then you wait for recommendations to turn up in your inbox. For me it took about 3-4 days.
I wish I’d saved my exact submission, but I said I was a *cough* aged person who liked contemporary books about families, read a lot of thrillers and mysteries, and liked listening to podcasts. (I didn’t mention YA or romance because I feel like I can find my own stuff in those realms.)
Here’s what the Penguin Hotline recommended (some links are affiliate links and I may receive a percentage of qualifying purchases.)
An American Marriage by Tayari Jones – I haven’t read this but have heard good things.
Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones – this is an older book by Jones and appeals to me even more than the one above as it’s about a man with two families who don’t know about each other. (Call me weird, I know.) I’m definitely going to try it.
Blue Moon by Lee Child – I used to love his stuff, but it got repetitive. My Hotline recommender said it’s his best yet. My husband loves his books, so I asked him what he thought of this one. “Typical Lee Child,” he said, so there you go. He loved it.
The Crow Trap by Ann Cleeves – now this is a Jen book for sure, about a British policewoman stalking the moors and solving crime. Yes, please!
The Silent Oligarch by Christopher Morgan Jones – mmmm…. not for me.
But all in all, I got a couple of recommendations for books I hadn’t heard of and will definitely try.
Have you tried the Penguin Hotline? Tell me in comments!
Want to know what books I recommend? Check out my Master List of Book Lists here!
I have never tried the hotline but it sounds like a cool way to get recommendations that you might not have already known about. I’ll have to give it a go and see what people recommend.
Let me know what happens!
I have not tried it, but I am glad the hotline was able to turn you onto some new books.
I had never tried it either. It did work for me!
I was so curious about this and I was happy to know you did it so I could read about your experience! All of these are new to me except for An American Marriage which I have on my shelf and am looking forward to reading.