Listen to Lanora and Lisa from Next Chapter and Books and Company on Wisconsin Public Radio

Listen to Lanora of Next Chapter and Lisa of Oconomowoc's Books and Company talk about their picks of 2009 with Stephanie Lecci.

In this interview, you will learn that Lanora is the true source for my rec for Beautiful Creatures. Yes, she told me to sell it to anyone who likes Twilight and the other Stephenie Meyer books.

Oh, and Lanora also convinced me to read The Most Beautiful Book in the World, another Europa discovery that, while a collection of stories, has enough of the vibe of The Elegance of the Hedgehog to be a great suggestion for folks who devoured Muriel Barbery's novel--the titles, while written by different authors, share a translator. (Alas, Gourmet Rhapsody has been disappointing to just about every reader.)

Lisa confirms that Jonathan Tropper's This is Where I Leave You is the book I should have read but still have not. And she's really got me interested in W. Eugene Smith's The Jazz Loft Project, a collection of photos from an ex-Life Magazine photographer who holed up in Chelsea in the early 1960's, and became perhaps the premiere jazz photographer from that era.