It's getting cold, the election season has been busy, and we're reading books all over the map. Sam's on a philosophical bent and just saw "The Wild Robot"; Hannah's mildly unprepared, but rallies. All told, we tackle:
- "The Other Valley," by Scott Alexander Howard, which explores regret, but has some weird world-building.
- "Blood Test," by Charles Baxter, who you should know, and has penned a story about a blood test for propensity for murder.
- "Interview with the Vampire," by Anne Rice, which holds up great and is not an easy book and engages with serious philosophical questions.
- "Colored Television," by Danzy Senna, about middled-aged artists who get to pretend to be rich and make bad choices.
- "The Wild Robot," by Peter Brown, which we talk about mostly because Sam saw the movie. It's not as good as the book. Shocker!

And then we finish up with some Christmas stuff because Matt Tavares is coming to the Farms on Dec. 7, which will be great.

High on the success of the Boozy Book Fair (it was, according to Sam, "really banging"), a great in-shop reading and signing, and a couple days off for Indigenous Peoples Day, Sam and Hannah are in a mood, with nothing to complain about. Also, no dudes allowed, this week, with a shout out to the guy who really likes Rachel Kushner.

- "The Time Keepers," by Alyson Richman, which, sorry, is rather maudlin and bad. It's not a time travel book.
- "The Plot," by Jean Hanff Korelitz, which Hannah read mostly because "The Sequel" just came out. The second half was entertaining, anyway.
- "The Road to Dalton" and "Where the River Meets the Sea," by Shannon Bowring, a librarian who grew up in the County in Maine. You really should have come to see her speak a couple weeks ago.
- "Deep Cuts," by Holly Brickley, which comes out in, like, February, but it was the bottom of the TBR pile and about a fictional music writer, so Sam read it anyway. It's a major nostalgia trip if you ... like music.
- "From Here to the Great Unknown" (not, actually, "From Here to Eternity"), by Lisa Marie Presley and Riley Keough. Hannah actually listened to it, mostly because Julia Roberts is the narrator, but also really enjoyed it.

The road in front of the Book Shop is freshly paved and Sam and Hannah are all sorts of amped up about it. No, you didn't screw up and set it to 1.5x. We're just talking really fast about:

- "Factory Summers," by Guy Delisle. Sam's daughter gave him this graphic novel and it is properly obscure and entertaining. It doesn't smell bad, even though it's about papermaking.
- "Full Speed to a Crash Landing," by Beth Revis. It's sorta like the Murderbot series, but without the body count, and the first in a trilogy.
- "The Lodge," by Kayla Olson. Sam's reading cosy romances about skiing. There isn't even any sex. It's "set" at Stowe, but it's unclear whether the author has ever been to Vermont (but Sam is wrong that there is, indeed, a gondola at Stowe. Sorry).
- "Death at the Sign of the Rook," by Kate Atkinson. The new Jackson Brodie book! He's in his 70s now, but doesn't play pickleball.
- "The River," by Peter Heller. Hannah's been talking about how amazing Peter is. Sam had to investigate. It's really, really good. The hype is true.