When we decided to start a podcast about books and wine, we wanted to have our own rating scale for everything. For example, when rating movies, Rotten Tomatoes uses a percentage scale, but they also use their Tomatometer® to indicate whether the movie is Rotten, Fresh or Certified Fresh. So how do we rate books on a podcast that’s just as much about wine? We assign the book a type of wine!
Honestly, Tannins and Tomes was a pretty immediate idea – it was defining it that took time. But we think we’ve finally figured it out, so if you get confused while listening, here’s your exhaustive guide to Tannins and Tomes (aka here are the descriptions that worked for our brains):
- Black Bubbles: Some seriously sparkly messed up shit. Dystopian universes. Think George Orwell’s 1984 or Pig Farm, or Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World.
- Dry Reds: Classic crime novels. Murder mysteries. Whodunnits. Think anything by James Patterson, Agatha Christie, Alex Cross, or Robert Galbraith.
- Fruity Reds: Fantasy, sci-fi and magical tales of fairies and wizards and Oz! Think JK Rowling’s Harry Potter, Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson or MR Carey’s The Girl With All the Gifts.
- Acidic Whites: Coming-of-age novels. The stuff that teaches you lessons, easy or hard. Those “and then she became a woman” kind of books. Think Sue Monk Kidd’s The Secret Life of Bees, Donna Everhart’s The Education of Dixie Dupree, anything in the Chicken Soup for the Soul series, and any kind of self-help book.
- Crisp Whites: Non-fiction or realistic fiction. The kind of book that points out issues with society, discrepancies in our culture, etc. Think Hillary Clinton’s What Happened, Kathryn Stockett’s The Help or Angie Thomas’s The Hate U Give.
- Sweet Whites: Young adult novels, usually about summer love. First romance type of books. Think Jenny Han’s To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, Stephanie Perkins’s Anna and the French Kiss or CJ Duggan’s The Boys of Summer.
- Rosés: Beach novels. Brunch reads. Knock-it-out-in-one-day kind of books. Think literally anything by Nicholas Sparks.
- Desserts: Historical fiction – the kind with lots of twists and turns, dark secrets and hidden passageways in long-forgotten castles. Missing jewelry! Spurned lovers! All! Of! The! Tea! Think Anthony Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See or anything by Kate Morton.
(Read) Between the Vines 