Your Custom Book Rec (Week #004)

Theres no way blue readers know this one...

Hey friends,

At this point in the year, most of us have quietly admitted we won’t read everything we planned to. That’s fine. This newsletter is now operating on a simple principle: one book per color, no more, no less. It’s manageable, it’s honest, and it might actually help you finish something.

Here are this week’s picks. Six colors, six books. All worth your time.

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🔴 Red Reader Pick: The Perfect Nanny – Leïla Slimani

You know from the first page that something has gone terribly wrong. A nanny murders two children, and then we go back to the beginning to understand how this all unfolded. It’s cold, calculated, and disturbingly intimate. Red readers will be hooked by the slow burn dread and forensic emotional unraveling.

➡️ Buy the book

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🔵 Blue Reader Pick: The Summer Book – Tove Jansson

A young girl and her grandmother spend a quiet summer on a remote Finnish island, doing almost nothing. But somehow, it means everything. This is a gentle, wistful meditation on grief, childhood, nature, and the beauty of ordinary days. Blue readers will adore its stillness, softness, and unspoken emotional depth.

➡️ Buy the book

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🟢 Green Reader Pick: The Mysterious Case of Rudolf Diesel – Douglas Brunt

You know him as the engine guy, but Rudolf Diesel was also an inventor, idealist, and... possible murder victim? This investigative history peels back the layers on his life, death, and the powerful forces that may have wanted him gone. Green readers will love the combo of biography, conspiracy, and history done right.

➡️ Buy the book

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🟠 Orange Reader Pick: The Color of Magic – Terry Pratchett

The first book in the Discworld series, this chaotic romp features a failed wizard, a clueless tourist, and a sentient piece of luggage. It’s irreverent, imaginative, and delightfully absurd. Orange readers, if you’ve ever wanted to live inside the world’s weirdest fantasy map, this is your portal.

➡️ Buy the book

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🟡 Yellow Reader Pick: The Sunshine Girls – Molly Fader

When a dying mother’s past secrets resurface, her two estranged daughters must uncover a truth rooted in a decades-old friendship and a life she never told them about. It’s heartfelt, layered, and packed with emotional payoff. Yellow readers will be all-in on the sister drama, flashbacks, and healing.

➡️ Buy the book

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🟣 Purple Reader Pick: The Brief History of the Dead – Kevin Brockmeier

There’s a city where the dead live on—as long as someone alive still remembers them. When a global plague wipes out most of humanity, the city begins to empty.
It’s strange, elegiac, and deeply philosophical in the best way. Purple readers, this one’s a haunting gem of speculative brilliance.

➡️ Buy the book

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Same time next week. Same color-coded magic.
Until then, happy reading.

—Steven Reese, Book Guy