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Looking for a read to carry you through winter, or at least to Thanksgiving? Author C.J. Farley stopped by the 3rd Hour of TODAY on Nov. 7 to share the books that he's loving lately. Farley's next novel, "Who Knows You by Heart," out Nov. 11, is a blisteringly relevant dystopia set in the world of Big Tech. Octavia Crenshaw is a coder and one of the few Black employees at the entertainment tech firm she just joined. Then she learns about the secret her company is hiding. Walter Isaacson, who wrote biographies of Steve Jobs and Elon Musk, said it was "the first great AI novel of our time, and it is unlikely to be surpassed anytime soon.” Read on for his book recommendations. Best thriller Farley calls "All That We See or Seem" a "sci-fi spin on “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo." It's about a female hacker-detective searching for a missing performance artist who specializes in creating AI-enhanced dreams. "The book is a page-turner, and the main character, Julia Z, has layers that are fascinating to see pulled back. But the ideas at the center of the book are what make it truly special," he says. Best romance In this romance, two academics fake a marriage so they can accept a joint appointment at a university. "My wife Sharon reads one or more romance books a week, and my job as her husband is to keep her supplied with the best ones. Searching out great romance books for her inspired me to make the love scenes in my new novel even better," he says. This one stands out, he says, “because it’s about literary academics who are aware of all the tropes in romance stories even as they struggle through them." "The book also has a great message: nobody should think they are too smart or too busy to fall in love." Best book to screen With the movie adaptation of "Hamnet" out at the end of November, Farley is recommending the novel, which is about William Shakespeare and his wife, Anne Hathaway, grieving the loss of their son Hamnet. It's this grief that scholars believe led to the creation of "Hamlet." "It takes a novelist to really fill in the blank spaces in the historical record and tell us how a guy who went through tumultuous times in his early married life channeled all that to create works like 'Hamlet,'" he says. Best Thanksgiving read "Wicked" star Cynthia Erivo tells "impactful, stripped-down stories about her life and family to inspire readers" in this book, per Farley. "Wicked: For Good" hits theaters on Nov. 21, so get to know the woman behind the voice. What CJ's reading Medusa is misunderstood in this fantasy novel, which follows how a young woman became a cursed after a dalliance with the gods of Olympics. "I love stories that find humanity in monsters and cause us to question our assumptions about who’s good and who’s bad. The Gods in this book, like Poseidon and Athena, are vain and merciless and take advantage of people," he says.
