Looking for a book to get you through winter or at least Thanksgiving? Author C.J. Farley stopped by TODAY's 3rd Hour on November 7 to share the books he's been loving lately.
Farley's next novel, Who Knows You By Heart, out November 11, is a hyper-relevant dystopian novel set in the world of big tech. Octavia Crenshaw is a programmer and one of the few black employees at the entertainment technology company she just joined. Then she learns about the secret her company is hiding.
Walter Isaacson, who has written biographies of Steve Jobs and Elon Musk, said it is “the first great artificial intelligence novel of our time, and is unlikely to be surpassed any time soon.”
Keep reading for his book recommendations.
Best Thriller
Farley calls “Everything We See or Seem” “a sci-fi flavor of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.”
It's about a female hacker detective searching for a missing performance artist who specializes in creating artificial intelligence-enhanced dreams.
“The book is a page-turner and there are layers to the main character, Julia Z., that are interesting to watch. But it's the ideas at the center of the book that make it truly special,” he says.
Best Romance
In this novel, two academics fake a marriage in order to agree to a joint appointment at the university.
“My wife Sharon reads one or more romance books a week, and it’s my job as her husband to provide her with the best books. Finding great romance books for her inspired me to make the love scenes in my new novel even better,” he says.
The film stands out, he says, “because it's about literary scholars who are aware of all the tropes of love stories, even when they have to struggle with them.”
“The book also has a great message: no one should think they're too smart or too busy to fall in love.”
Best book for the screen
With the film adaptation of Hamnet coming out in late November, Farley recommends the novel, which follows William Shakespeare and his wife Anne Hathaway as they grieve the loss of their son Hamnet. Scientists believe that it was this grief that led to the creation of Hamlet.
“It takes a writer to really fill in the gaps in the historical record and tell us how a guy who lived through turbulent times in his early family life channeled it all into writing works like Hamlet,” he says.
Best Thanksgiving Reading
“Wicked” star Cynthia Erivo tells “impactful, simplified stories about her life and family to inspire readers,” Farley said.
Wicked: For Good hits theaters on November 21st, so meet the woman behind it.
What is CJ reading?
Medusa is misunderstood in this fantasy novel, which tells how a young woman became cursed after playing with the gods of the Olympic Games.
“I love stories that find the humanity in monsters and make us question our assumptions about who is good and who is bad. The gods in this book, like Poseidon and Athena, are vain and merciless and use people,” he says.
