It’s that time of year again, where Neil and I give each other 30 minutes inside of Half Price Books to find a book the other person is required to read in full. Neil and I successfully read last year’s picks, though it took longer than we both expected. This year, we worked extra hard to find books that we’d *actually* enjoy.

The week after Thanksgiving, we spent way more than 30 minutes in HPB, due to extreme stress and having too many options. Then, we drove to lunch at Cafe Melange and ate crepes while we introduced each other to our book findings. Neil chose a punk-ish, award-winning science fiction thriller for my reading pleasure and I found a plane-crash-government-conspiracy combo to keep him on the edge of his seat. Technically, we have until 2018 to finish these, but let’s be real. They’ll be our first books of the new year.