Bagels are truly a superior food choice. Breakfast? Toasted bagel. Feeling snacky? Toasted bagel maybe with a topping. Midnight snack? Bagel! You can’t go wrong here and now, once again, I get to pair books with your favorite things– And this time it’s bagels!
Bagel choices say a lot about a person. You can go sweet and fruity with a blueberry bagel or you can get savory in the realm of jalapeño and cheese bagels. Whichever bagel is your favorite in the morning is fine with us! The topping is a different story, but that’s for another time. Here is what you should read next based on your morning bagel order.
Cinnamon Raisin & The London Séance Society by Sarah Penner
May mercy be upon the man who finds himself the enemy of a vengeful medium…
— Sarah Penner
Is it fair for me to pair a book I want to read with my favorite bagel? Yes, it is. Also, there is something about cinnamon raisin bagels that say “magical” to me? I can’t put my finger on it though…
You may recognize Sarah Penner from the sensational bestseller The Lost Apothecary. Set in 1873, this captivating novel explores truth, illusion, and and the lengths women will go to to avenge the one they love. In an abandoned chateau on the outskirts of Paris, a séance is set to happen. Known across the world for her talents in conjuring, Vaudeline D’Allaire plans to raise the spirits of murder victims to reveal the identities of the ones who killed them.
Paths begin to cross as Lenna Wickers comes to Paris to seek answers concerning the death of her sister. She accompanies Vaudeline to England acting as her understudy. They both realize they may not just be solving crime but entangled in a crime themselves.
Blueberry & The World and All That It Holds by Aleksandar Hemon
The World and All That It Holds—in all its hilarious, heartbreaking, erotic, philosophical glory—showcases Aleksandar Hemon’s celebrated talent at its pinnacle. It is a grand, tender, sweeping story that spans decades and continents. It cements Hemon as one of the boldest voices in fiction.
— Barnes & Noble
There is nothing quite like pairing a blueberry bagel with historical fiction. Don’t these two just look like they belong together in a cozy cafe while it rains outside?
It is a June day in 1914 and the Archduke Franz Ferdinand just arrived in Sarajevo. As Rafael Pinto is busy crushing herbs behind the counter of his pharmacy, he can’t help but think it isn’t quite the life he expected, but it isn’t awful. His student days were filled with poetry in Vienna and now they are filled with laudanum from the top shelf, summer strolls, and some idle fantasies.
Things seem content until the world explodes. Fantasies cease to exist in the trenches of Galicia as heroism gets a man killed quickly. War quickly devours all they know. Pinto’s path quickly changes when the only thing he now has to live for is the attention of Osman— a fellow soldier who compliments Pinto’s poetic soul; a charismatic storyteller; his protector and lover. Together they will escape the trenches and come very close to death.
Everything Bagel & Road of Bones by Christopher Golden
“This is the PERFECT winter read combining suspense and horror for the novel you didn’t know has been waiting for you. It’s waiting for you.”
— Barnes & Noble
This pairing gives you a little bit of everything– Literally!! Road of Bones is filled with twists and turns much like the flavors of an Everything bagel.
It isn’t a surprise they call the Siberia Kolyma Highway the Road of Bones. This 1,200 mile long road surrounded by barren trees in the snow-covered wilderness is every bit of challenging. Many drivers have fallen victim to the limited visibility and icy surfaces in fatal crashes.
But it isn’t the crashes that give this highway its name— It is a massive graveyard for the former Soviet Union’s gulag prisoners. The place where hundreds of thousands of people worked to death in the harsh conditions where their bodies were left consumed by the elements. Documentary producer Felix “Teig” Teigland travels to Russia to drive the highway as he envisions a new series.
It isn’t until him and his team reach their destination that they stumble across an abandoned town with a nine-year-old-girl and a pack of wolves.
Plain & Madly, Deeply: the diaries of Alan Rickman by Alan Rickman
“Madly, Deeply is a rare invitation into the mind of Alan Rickman—one of the most magnetic, beloved performers of our time.”
— Barnes & Noble
Do plain bagels feel like memoirs to anyone else? Let me explain myself. You’re going straight to the source– Both with a memoir and a plain bagel. All bagels are plain at one point, right?
A name that is very familiar to us book lovers— Alan Rickman gives us this 25 year long project. Truly beloved and dearly missed, the actor gives readers a look into his most personal aspects of acting, politics, and life in this diary.
From his breakout role in Die Hard to conquering the Harry Potter films, Alan Rickman quickly rose to fame and created his legacy. This ability to breathe life into his performances stretched even further to his life and other aspects within. Take journey on trips with friends across the globe, peek into the sets of filming, and have a look at the final film he directed, A Little Chaos.
The diary provides insight into Rickman’s public and private life from 1993 to his death in 2016.
Jalapeño and Cheese & Court of the Vampire Queen by Katee Robert
“That feeling when you can’t take your eyes off someone. That feeling transferred to reading a romance that features vampires. Need we say more? Look deeply as you turn the pages, and turn the pages, and turn the pages.”
— Barnes & Noble
Did someone say spice? I couldn’t resist pairing a jalapeño and cheese bagel with an extra spicy novel. If you’re going to heat things up in the morning, you might as well go all out.
Mina is half vampire, half human and all she’s ever wanted is to escape her father’s control. Forever torn between her two worlds, pleasure is extremely hard to come by. It isn’t until her father chooses her in his latest political move that she is gifted to the darkly powerful and dangerously seductive Malachi Zion.
Malachi opens Mina up to a world she never knew existed. He may rule with an iron fist and is definitely not to be messed with, but the more Mina grows to know him, the more she can see there is something more.
Surrounded by Malachi and his two closest friends, Mina may just have what it takes to finally take down her father.
Poppy Seed & The Stardust Thief by Chelsea Abdullah
“Inspired by stories from One Thousand and One Nights, this book weaves together the gripping tale of a legendary smuggler, a cowardly prince, and a dangerous quest across the desert to find a legendary, magical lamp.”
— Barnes & Noble
Not only do these two just look like a good pair, there is something magical about a poppy seed bagel. I can’t quite describe it, but the flavor is out of this world much like Abdullah’s novel.
Known as the Midnight Merchant, Loulie al-Nazari is a criminal who hunts and sells illegal magic with her jinn bodyguard. After she saves the life of a cowardly prince, his father’s attention is immediately on her. The princes father, the sultan, blackmails her into finding an ancient lamp that can revive their barren lands— but she must sacrifice all jinn.
Story ringing a bell yet? I hope so! Definitely a twist on our favorite Middle Eastern folk tales. Loulie has no choice but to obey. She journeys with the sultan’s oldest son to find the lamp as they try to survive ghoul attacks, outwit an extremely vengeful queen, and confront a malicious killer from Loulie’s past.
Onion Bagel & The It Girl by Ruth Ware
“The #1 New York Times bestselling author of the “claustrophobic spine-tingler” (People) One by One returns with an unputdownable mystery following a woman on the search for answers a decade after her friend’s murder.”
— Barnes & Noble
What is one thing a murder mystery and onions have in common? The layers of course!
The first person Hannah Jones met at Oxford was April Clarke-Cliveden. April quickly pulled Hannah into her dazzling orbit. They brought a group of devoted and inseparable friends together— Will, Hugh, Ryan, and Emily. This was during the first term and by the end of the second, April was dead.
Almost a decade later, Hannah and Will are expecting their first child and the man convicted of April’s death died in prison. Hannah thinks the past is behind her, but when a journalist comes knocking, she begins to think otherwise. The journalist reveals that the man convicted may have been innocent. As she reconnects with her old friends, she begins to see they may not be the people she thought they were.
Didn’t see your favorite bagel on this list? I’m sorry! I searched everywhere for as many bagels as I could! You can’t go wrong with cinnamon raisin though. Trust me.
Want me to pair more things with your next read? You’re in luck– I do this all the time! Click here to pair your favorite fall time beer with your next spooky read!