The Story Behind The Fourth Room

The Fourth Room began with a simple idea: books deserve more than a recommendation. They deserve a conversation.

I created The Fourth Room because I wanted a book club where no shelf was off-limits. Fiction, nonfiction, fantasy, romance, thrillers, cookbooks, memoirs, history, and everything in between can have a place here. I never wanted to choose books because they fit into a particular category. I wanted to choose them because there was something about them worth discovering, discussing, and sharing with other readers.

Every month, I select four books to enter The Fourth Room. But reading the book is only part of the experience. I also wanted to bring readers closer to the people who created them. For each selection, The Fourth Room invites the author into a conversation about their book, their ideas, their creative process, and the story behind the pages.

The name The Fourth Room comes from those four monthly selections. I like to imagine each book opening another door into a completely different room. One might lead to a fantasy world. Another might lead into someone’s real life. The next could take us into a kitchen, a mystery, a love story, or a piece of history we have never explored before.

There are no required genres here. There is no single kind of Fourth Room book.

Just four books, four authors, and four new doors to open every month.

Welcome to The Fourth Room. 🗝️

— Vanesa Gjolaj