Hey, it's NPR's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbaugh. I just want to take a second before we get to the show today to say that every day we bring you conversations from across the NPR network. We've got a whole squad of hosts and producers with their own tastes and interests, helping us bring you your next read. And NPR's journalism

relies on your support to keep it free for everybody. So please consider a donation to help,

not just us at the Book of the Day podcast, but the NPR network as a whole at donate.npr.npr.org

slash books. You know, books are such an integral part of our lives.

From that first book, our parents read to us to that one book we read when we were

13 that really warped our mind, to the book that, okay, you know, maybe we read the spark

notes for in high school, but came back to as an adult and realized it was pretty good.

Come on, that's not just me, right? Anyway, we do this podcast every day to get you thinking about an interview or a topic

or maybe get your own creative juices stewing by hearing from a wide swath of writers. Help us keep

doing it for another year at npr.org slash books. Thank you so much. Okay, let's get to today's podcast.

Jeanette McCurdy's memoir, I'm glad my mom died, was one of the biggest books of the year. There were

reports of it selling you out at indie bookstores and big box stores across the country. And it's no big

secret as to why it is both deeply vulnerable in how McCurdy

opens up about the abuse she faced from her mom as a kid and how dangerous being a child

actor in Hollywood is. But it's also very, very funny. We've got a special conversation taped

live for you coming up, but something a little different first. Every year, NPR Books puts together

a recommendation platform called Books We Love for you to find your next read or a gift for the

pick you reader in your life. McCurdy's book is actually one of the 400 plus books on the platform.

And I set down with NPR's Juana Summers to talk about how it's a little different from other year-end

book lists.

Books, what is not to love? Well, to help us figure out which 2022 books they'd love to recommend,

NPR's books team brings us books we love. Andrew Limbong, who's the host of NPR's Book of the Day podcast,

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