Each month we ask our staff to share their latest reading recommendations and give us a sneak peek into their reading habits by answering your favorite bookish questions. In April, we hear from Brian Jones Ridder, Associate Marketing Director, Timber Press. Read ahead for Brian’s trusted Earth Day recommendations, the murder mystery at the top of his TBR and more.

Brian Jones Ridder, Associate Marketing Director, Timber Press

Bestselling author Doug Tallamy’s manifesto on how homeowners can create a national park that is truly national. The idea is pretty simple, actually: If homeowners use more native plants to attract native wildlife (such as pollinators), their yards can then be linked together to establish conservation corridors that provide much-needed habitat. I love this idea and Tallamy gives me some much-needed hope. 

 

In an effort to better understand and help save the monarch butterfly, Sara Dykman followed their 10,000-plus mile migration on bike. Like, for real. This is not fiction. And it’s stories like hers that remind me of the wonder still left in this world and the remarkable people who work to preserve it.

 

I love a good road trip. Also, a good book. In Andrew Sean Greer’s follow up to his Pulitzer Prize-winning Less, I got both. And like any good road trip, this book is full of laughs, memorable characters, and tender moments that leave you a bit lonely, but strangely satisfied. 

 

This book made me do something I hadn’t done in a long time: As soon as I finished, I read it again. Equal parts history lesson, scandalous memoir, and love story, Gay Bar has so many great lines in it that I read it the second time with highlighter in hand.

 

Cooking for one is about as difficult as finding a cookbook good for cooking for one. Leanne Brown’s Good and Cheap not only offers up yummy recipes but also organizing and time-saving tips. But wait, there’s more! For every copy sold, Workman Publishing will donate a copy to a family in need.

What’s the weirdest thing you have used as a bookmark?

The business card of a dead man that I found in the brim of his hat which I bought at an estate sale.

 

Do you have a go-to comfort read?

I still have all the books from my childhood and re-reading these always brightens my mood. The books of Maurice Sendak, in particular.

 

If you owned a bookstore, what would you call it?

The Greedy Reader. I think that pretty much says it all.

 

What book is at the top of your TBR pile right now?

As someone who works for a garden publisher and who enjoys a good murder mystery, I can’t wait to see what beloved author Marta McDowell reveals about the connection between a love for growing things and the most dastardly of dastardly deeds.

 

What is your favorite book cover from the past year?

A great example of simplicity. The designer uses only color, line, and choice of typeface to perfectly match the provocative title as well as the era which gave us Roe v. Wade and the contraception debate which this book aims to upend.