The Perks Of Being A Book Lover Podcast

Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com. Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpod Facebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover. To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button.   This week we have Sam Miller, manager at Carmichael's Bookstore in Louisville, with us to chat about books readers might want to consider for their summer reading. It is always fun to hear what is new and notable from Sam.    This is our last episode of the season.  We will be back in July after our summer hiatus with all new episodes. Happy Reading!   Books Mentioned in this Episode:   1- The Sweet Life in Paris by David Lebowitz   2- Northern Spy by Flynn Berry   3- Big Girl Small Town by Michelle Gallen   4- Factory Girls by Michelle Gallen   5- Cat's People by Tanya Guerrero   6- The View from Lake Como by Adriana Trigiani   7- Big Stone Gap by Adriana Trigiani   8- Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid   9- Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter   10- So Far Gone by Jess Walter   11- A Language of Limbs by Dylin Hardcastle   12- A Lesser Light by Peter Geye   13- Murder Takes a Vacation by Laura Lippmann   14- El Dorado Drive by Megan Abbott   15- Big Bad Wool by Leonie Swann   16- Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann   17- First Gentleman by Bill Clinton and James Patterson   18- King of Ashes by SA Cosby   19- Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by VE Schwab   20- Katabasis by RF Kuang   21- Country Under Heaven by Frederic Durbin   22- A Witch's Guide to Magical Innkeeping by Sangu Mandanna   23- Isabella Nag and the Pot of Basil by Oliver Darkshire   24- The Magician of Tiger Castle by Louis Sachar   25- Baldwin: A Love Story by Nicholas Boggs   26- Plato and the Tyrant by James Romm   27- Turning to Birds by Lili Taylor   28- Is A River Alive? by Robert McFarlane   29- Mark Twain by Ron Chernow   30- Charlottesville by Deborah Baker   31- Prairie Fires by Caroline Fraser   32- Murderland: Crime and Bloodlust in the Time of Serial Killers by Caroline Fraser   33- Fulfillment by Lee Cole   34- If You Love It, Let it Kill You by Hannah Pittard   35- The Fire Concerto by Sarah Landenwich   36- Black Cohosh by Eagle Valiant Brosi   37- Big Swiss by Jen Beagin   38- I Am the Arrow: The Life and Art of Sylvia Plath in Six Poems by Sarah Ruden   39- Red Comet by Heather Clark   40- Bad Badger : A Love Story by Maryrose Wood   Media mentioned--   1- Derry Girls (Netflix, 2018-2022)   2- Christoph Waltz on Jimmy Fallon --https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0jr-HQeT74   3- Floyd Collins Broadway show--https://floydcollinsbroadway.com  

Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com. Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpod Facebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover. To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button.   You can find Nickolas Butler at https://nickolasbutler.com/ or on IG @wiscobutler   Amy discovered Nickolas Butler earlier this year when she attended the author event for his newest novel A Forty Year Kiss at Carmichael's Bookstore. Nick has six novels and a collection of short stories under his belt, but A Forty Year Kiss may be his first love story.  His mind was set to wondering after he overheard a passionate conversation in his favorite local bar between two older people, a conversation that made him blush just a little. He began playing with the idea of what this couple's back story was. Nick's book asks readers to consider the difference between first love and love between mature adults, how life's baggage affects personal relationships, and whether people can really change.    Nick also talks to us about his rural Wisconsin roots, why he read Babysitter Club books in his childhood, and the debate on whether he should wear a cape.     For our book recommendation section of this episode, we decided to find some of our favorite books we've read as a result of being in a book club together for two decades. For the most part, our book club chooses novels, but there is one memoir in the lot, as well as contemporary fiction, historical fiction, sci-fi, and a classic.    Books Discussed in this Episode:   1- A Forty Year Kiss by Nickolas Butler   2- Shotgun Lovesongs by Nickolas Butler   3- A Paris Year by Janice MacLeod   4- Godspeed by Nickolas Butler    5- Love, Hope & Carnage by Nick Cave and Sean O'Hagan   6- The Fertile Earth and the Ordered Cosmos edited by M. Elizabeth Weiser   7- Marlena by Julie Buntin   8- A Lesser Light by Peter Geye   9- Down & Out in Paradise: The Life of Anthony Bourdain by Charles Leerhsen   10- Floreana by Midge Raymond   11- Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Anne Fowler   12- Super Zelda: The Graphic Life of Zelda Fitzgerald by Tiziana Lo Porto   13- A Five Star Read Recommended by Fellow Book Lover Cindy B. - Strange Pictures by Uketsu, translated by Jim Rion   14- The Velvet Hours by Alyson Richman   15- The Girl With All the Gifts by MR Carey   16- Molokai by Alan Brennert   17- Burial Rites by Hannah Kent   18- Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood by Alexa Fuller   19- This is How it Always Is by Laurie Frankel   20- A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith   Media mentioned—   1- http://www.astoriedstyle.com/a-look-into-the-past-an-untouched-1942-paris-apartment/   2- Ancient mounds in OH - www.hopeweklearthworks.org       ReplyForward      

Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com. Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpod Facebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover. To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button.   You can find Holly Gramazio at her website https://www.hollygramazio.net/ or on IG at holly_gramazio   When we first heard the premise of Holly Gramazio's novel The Husbands, we were intrigued. A woman's husband goes up to the attic to retrieve something and down comes…a different husband. Wouldn't we all sometimes like to exchange the husband we have for a better, newer, or just different model? Holly turned this idea into a novel that is both funny and thoughtfully considered. It may not, in fact, be such a great thing to have an endless supply of potential husbands so easy to exchange.  Her book has been optioned by Apple Plus for a limited series and I just saw that Juno Temple, the actress who played Keeley in the Ted Lasso series, is slated to play the starring role.   And because it is April, and April is National Poetry Month, we're discussing books related to poets. Not everyone loves poetry, but these books aren't actually poetry–so you can still partake of poetry month. They are historical fiction, memoirs, essays, and children's books written by or inspired by poets.    Books Mentioned in This Episode:   1- The Husbands by Holly Gramazio   2- Lakewood by Megan Giddings   3- I Used to Live Here Once: The Haunted Life of Jean Rhys by Miranda Seymour   4- Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys     5- Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte     6- The Animals in That Country by Laura Jean McKay     7- Thank You for Calling the Lesbian Line by Elizabeth Lovett     8- Saint X by Alexis Schaitkin     9-  A Five Star Read Recommended by Fellow Book Lover  Chelsea @2_girls_bookin_it - The Endless Fall by Emmerson Hoyt     10- The Swan's Nest by Laura Mcneal     11- You Could Make This Place Beautiful by Maggie Smith     12- Memorial Drive by Natasha Trethaway     13- Emily's House by Amy Belding Brown     14- Finding Langston by Lesa Cline-Ransome     15- Bite by Bite: Nourishments and Jamborees by Aimee Nezhukumatathil     16- World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments by Aimee Nezhukumatathil     17- The Poet's Dog by Patricia McLachlan     Media mentioned-- 1- Severance (Apple+, 2022 - Present)   2- Reduced Shakespeare Company--https://www.reducedshakespeare.com   3- Saint X (Hulu, 2023)      

Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com. Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpod Facebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover. To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button.   You can find Ben Shattuck at his website https://www.benshattuck.com/ or on IG @Benshattuck_   This week we chat with Ben Shattuck, author of Six Walks: In the Footsteps of Henry David Thoreau published by Tin House Books in 2022.  Amy knew this book would appeal to Carrie because she is nothing if not a literary weirdo, and she has been since high school when she quoted from Thoreau in her senior yearbook. Despite her hopes that Ben would, like her, have a high school infatuation with Thoreau, he explains that his interest began much later. Even if you don't know anything about Thoreau, if you're a walker or a hiker, you have experienced the unique meditative impact of this activity and can appreciate Ben's insights on it. Ben also has a book of fiction out titled The History of Sound that is a finalist for the Pen/Faulkner prize so we are just really thrilled to have him with us today.  And this week, for our recommendations section, we didn't just pick a random topic like asparagus or comas to share books about—we actually continue with the theme of walking. We each share at least 3 books that feature walking, hiking, or being in nature in some meditative way. We have literary fiction, memoirs, essays, and even a romance.   Books mentioned-- 1- Six Walks: In the Footsteps of Henry David Thoreau by Ben Shattuck   2- The History of Sound by Ben Shattuck   3- Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World by Christian Cooper   4- A Paris Year: My Day to Day Adventures in the Most Romantic City in the World by Janice Macleod   5- Dear Paris by Janice Macleod   6- The French Ingredient: A Memoir by Jane Bertch (La Cuisine French Cooking School)   7- Teaching a Stone to Talk by Annie Dillard   8- Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard   9- The Journals of Henry David Thoreau by Henry David Thoreau    10 - Matrix by Lauren Groff   11- Year of Wonder by Geraldine Brooks   12- Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt   13- Dancing Woman by Elaine Neil Orr   14- A 5 Star Read Recommended by Fellow Book Lover Simone Praylow @fullof_lit - Twenty Years Later by Charlie Donlea   15- Summit Lake by Charlie Donlea   16- Don't Believe It by Charlie Donlea   17- In My Boots: A Memoir of 5 Million Steps Along the Appalachian Trail by Amanda K. Jaros 18- Going to Maine: All the Ways to Fall on the Appalachian Trail by Sally Chaffin Brooks 19- The Unforeseen Wilderness: Kentucky's Red River Gorge by Wendell Berry 20- Windswept: Walking the Paths of Trailblazing Women by Annabelle Abbs 21- Ulysses by James Joyce  22- The Paris Bookseller by Kerri Maher 23- The Guide to James Joyce's Ulysses by Patrick Hastings 24- The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce 25- You Are Here by David Nichols   Media mentioned-- The Residence (Netflix, 2024)  

Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com. Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpod Facebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover. To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button. You can find Rebecca Schinsky on IG @rebeccaschinsky and Book Riot at www.bookriot.com   In this week's episode, we chat with Rebecca Schinsky, who is chief of staff for Riot New Media Group and co-host of The Book Riot podcast. Book Riot is the largest independent editorial book site in North America and book lovers can find all kinds of interesting stuff there, such as numerous podcasts, newsletters, and articles about different genres.   I have long been a listener of this podcast and love it because ….I am a book nerd through and through and this podcast gives me the inside look at the world of publishing.  If you enjoy learning about trends and want the inside scoop about how and why certain books make it to your eyeballs or just want to have your pulse on bookish news, this podcast is for you.  Rebecca talks to us about what book trends have had the biggest impact on the industry over the last 15 years, what other goodies you can find at Book Riot.com, and why social media flattens the book options we see in our feeds.   And this week for our book recommendations section, we put on our 10 gallon hats and our chaps because we're talking about westerns. Westerns became popular in the late 1800s and derived from the dime novels of the mid-19th century. Many of these stories were later turned into movies in the 1940s and 1950s, which is probably the way most people had exposure to them. Films like High Noon and Shane were based on western stories. There was a second resurgence of western films based on novels between the 1970s-90s such as The Unforgiven and The Outlaw Josey Wales. We offer westerns that are in the graphic novel genre, the horror genre, literary fiction, and middle grade.   Books Mentioned in this Episode:   1- The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray   2- The Other Einstein by Marie Benedict   3- Harlem Rhapsody by Victoria Christopher Murray   4- Life in Three Dimensions by Shigehiro Oishi    5- Back After This by Linda Holmes   6- Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte   7- Glass Town: The Imaginary World of the Brontes by Isabel Greenberg   8- The Helsinki Affair by Anna Pitoniak   9- Red Widow by Alma Katsu   10- A Five Star Read Recommended by Fellow Book Lover Beth @a_vet_nurse_and_her_books - The Game by Danny Dagan   11- Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry   12- True Grit by Charles Portis   13- The Searchers by Alan LeMay   14- The Searchers: The Making of an American Legend by Glenn Frankel   15- Lone Women by Victor LaValle   16- Coyote Doggirl by Lisa Hanawalter   17- Four Treasures of the Sky by Jenny Tinghui Zhang   18- Whiskey When We're Dry by John Larison   19- The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt   20- Pony by RJ Palacio   Media mentioned--   1- Heretic (Max, 2024)   2- Longlegs (Hulu, 2024)   3- True Grit (2010)   4- Deadwood (Max, 2004-2006)   5- The Searchers (1956)   6- The Sisters Brothers (2018)   Bella Da Costa Greene Exhibit in NYC -  https://www.themorgan.org/exhibitions/belle-da-costa-greene    

Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com. Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpod Facebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover. To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button.   You can find Katherine Marsh at her website www.katherinemarsh.com or on IG at @katherinemarshauthor.   This week we chat with Katherine Marsh, author of The Lost Year, a finalist for the 2023 National Book Award for Young People's Literature. I recently discovered this book after one of our book club members selected another Katherine Marsh book, Nowhere Boy, for our August read. The Lost Year is middle-grade historical fiction and it is super timely because part of it is set in Ukraine in the 1930s. The story introduced me to a topic in Ukraine history I knew nothing about called the Holodomor. Katherine tells us all about her novel which was inspired by her relationship with her grandmother who was from Ukraine. It is a perfect book selection if you are curious about Ukrainian history that influences current events; reading this book would also allow you to check off having read something for Middle Grade March.    For our book recommendations in this episode, we're talking about books in which cats are a central part of the story. We have some nonfiction selections, as well as literary fiction and graphic novels that will definitely appeal to your inner cat. If you don't love cats, you can check out these books anyway for their compelling stories OR you can wait around for Amy to muscle Carrie into a future dog episode.    Books Mentioned in this Episode:   1- The Lost Year by Katherine Marsh   2- Nowhere Boy by Katherine Marsh   3- Medusa (The Myth of Monsters #1) by Katherine Marsh   4- The God's Revenge (The Myth of Monsters #2) by Katherine Marsh   5- The Fountain Overflows by Rebecca West   6- Leslie F***ing Jones by Leslie Jones   7- Bog Myrtle by Sid Sharp   8- The Wolf Suit by Sid Sharp   9- A 5 star Read recommended by fellow book lover Elaine Hoystead @bookmadlibrarian - Hall of Smoke by Hannah M. Long   10- Pineville Trace by Wes Blake   11- Cat's People by Tanya Guerrero   12- The Cat Who Saved Books by Sosuka Natsukawa   13- Cat Tale: The Wild, Weird Battle to Save the Florida Panther by Craig Pittman   14- The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean   15- The Cat's Meow: How Cats Evolved from the Savanna to Your Sofa by Jonathan B. Losos   16- Katie the Catsitter by Colleen AF Venable, illustrated by Stephanie Yue   17- The First Cat in Space Ate Pizza by Mac Barnett, illustrated by Shawn Harris   Media mentioned--   1- Kaos (Netflix, 2024)   2- Are Cats Actually Liquid -  https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/are-cats-actually-liquid/   3- Jeff Bezos and the Washington Post https://apnews.com/article/washington-post-bezos-opinion-trump-market-liberty-97a7d8113d670ec6e643525fdf9f06de   Reply    

Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com. Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpod Facebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover. To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button. You can find Sariah Wilson at her website www.sariahwilson.com or on IG - @sariahwilsonauthor   We chat this week with Sariah Wilson, the author of many, many rom-coms, who recently published her first romantasy titled A Tribute of Fire. A Tribute of Fire is inspired by the myth of Cassandra who, if you remember, is the Trojan princess who was cursed with the ability to see the future but no one believes her. Sariah's story focuses on Cassandra's assault in Athena's temple by Greek hero Ajax and the resulting punishment which is that two maidens from Ajax's home, Locris, will be sacrified. How exactly, this punishes Ajax, I'm not sure, but such is Greek myth.    Sariah talks to us about her favorite romance trope (which she hardly ever writes herself), the whirlwind backstory to the publishing of this book, and how the popularity of The Fourth Wing series really cracked open a whole new world for romance writers.   And for our book recommendations, we're going to share some children's picture books that have stories and illustrations we love. Earlier this month was National Picture Book Authors & Illustrators Week, but we don't think you need a special week as an excuse to read a delightful picture book.    Books Mentioned in this Episode:   1- A Tribute of Fire by Sariah Wilson 2- The Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks   3- A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes   4- The Schwa was Here by Neal Shusterman   5- Greek and Roman Warfare: Battles, Tactics, and Trickery by John Drogo Mortagu   6- A Monsoon Rising by Thea Gaunzon   7- Roland Rogers Isn't Dead Yet by Samantha Leigh Allen   8- A Book Recommended by Fellow Book Lover Corinne @she.loves.bookshelves - A Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J. Maas   9- Little Golden Book, The Christmas Story  10-  Little Golden Book, Colors Are Nice  11- Little Golden Book Riddles, Riddles From A to Z 12- Little Golden Book,  Mickey Mouse Picnic 13- Disney's World of Wonders The Magic Grinder 14- The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats 15- Ferdinand the Bull by Munro Leaf 16- The Mitten by Jan Brett 17- Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett 18- The Monster at the End of This Book by Jon Stone   19- The Water Hole by Graeme Base   20- Uno's Garden by Graeme Base   21- Animalia by Graeme Base   22- The Verts: A Story of Introverts and Extroverts by Anne Patchett, illustrated by Robin Preiss Glaser   23- Quiet by Susan Cain   24- Mimi's Dada Catifesto by Shelley Jackson 25- Oh, Bear by Melissa Nelson Greenberg. illustrated by Ruth Hengeveld 26- Boobies by Nancy Vo 27- The Cafe at the Edge of the Woods by Mickey Please 28- The Cave Downwind of the Cafe by Mickey Please 29- Shakespeare The Tempest by Georghia Ellinas, illustrated by Jane Ray   Media mentioned--   1- Stephen King/Maurice Sendak upcoming children's book - https://apnews.com/article/stephen-king-maurice-sendak-hansel-gretel-c9f8c7e18254d1e406b59e0ebe3cd20b 2- Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey - coming in 2026 -  https://variety.com/2025/film/news/the-odyssey-matt-damon-odysseus-christopher-nolan-1236311018/   3- The Return (2024)  

Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com. Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpod Facebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover. To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button.   You can find if there is a chapter of Silent Book Club near you or look into starting your own by going to their website; https://silentbook.club/   For show notes for any episode, go to our website at perksofbeingabooklover.com.  We are also on Instagram @perksofbeingabookloverpod and on FB Perks of Being a BookLover. To send us a message, go to our website and click the Contact button.   Have you ever wanted to try a book club but they just seem too peopley?  Or maybe you don't want to be told what book you have to read. OR maybe you are looking for a place away from kids and responsibilities where nothing else but the words in front of you are vying for your attention.  If any of these apply, then a Silent Book Club might be for you.  Silent Book Club began in 2012 and is, according to their mission statement, a “global community of readers, with more than 1500 chapters in 54 countries around the world led by local volunteers. SBC members gather in public at bars, cafes, bookstores, libraries, and online to read together in quiet camaraderie.”     This week we chat with Brittany Brar, the leader of a local chapter of the Silent Book Club in Louisville, Kentucky.  Brittany started the local chapter here in 2019, right before the pandemic with 5 people.  She was new in town and didn't know where to find a booklcub to join.  Now the group has over 2000 members of their FB group and as many as 60 people have shown up to their monthly meetings. Brittany talks to us about how people have developed a new sense of community, when a powerpoint presentation can be regarded as fun, and her go-to  genres   After our chat with Brittany, we will give you our recommendations for big honking books that meet not only your reading but also strength training goals.    Books Mentioned In This Episode: 1- Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe   2- The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman   3- Monsters: A Fan's Dilemma by Claire Dederer   4- Rakesfall by Vajra Chandrasekera   5- The Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson   6- Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson   7- That's Not My Name by Megan Lally   8- Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry   9- It by Stephen King   10- Leviathan Wakes by SA Corey (592 pages)    11-The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova (704 pages)    12- Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin (944 pages) 13- Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett  (976 pages)    14- Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver (546 pages)    15- When the World Tips Over by Jandy Nelson (528 pages)   16- East of Eden by John Steinbeck (601 pages)   17- A Five Star Read Recommended By Fellow Book Lover Kim Wells @the_salty_islander - A Home for Friendless Women by Kelly E. Hill     Media mentioned--   1- Say Nothing (Hulu, 2024)   2- The Dark Secrets Behind the Neil Gaiman Abuse Accusations --https://www.vulture.com/article/neil-gaiman-allegations-controversy-amanda-palmer-sandman-madoc.html   3- The Expanse (Prime, 2015)          

Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com. Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpod Facebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover. To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button. You can find Wes Browne at www.wesbrowneauthor.com or on IG at @browne_all_over This week we chat with Wes Browne, a Michigan transplant who has been a Kentucky attorney for over 20 years. When he's not lawyering, he writes crime fiction, and his most recent novel is called They All Fall the Same. In this novel, he picks up with a character who readers met in his first novel, Hillbilly Hustle. While Wes's new book is not a sequel, readers were so intrigued by the character, Burl Spoon, that Wes felt like he could make an entire book around him. Burl is a character you love to hate, but readers also feel his humanity, which always makes for a more interesting bad guy.  We chat with Wes about how his job as a defense attorney has prepared him to write books that make you root for a bad guy, his passion for soft serve ice cream, and why a timeshare ended up giving him a book idea.   And in the second half of the show, we each give you 3 book recommendations on the theme of books about the art world.   Books Mentioned in This Episode: 1- If You Lived Here, You'd Be Here by Now: Why We Traded the Commuting Life for a Little House on the Prairie by Christopher Ingraham 2- The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde 3- They All Fall the Same by Wes Browne   4- Hillbilly Hustle by Wes Browne   5- Asides: Occasional Essays on Dogs, Food, Restaurants, Bars, Hangovers, Jobs, Music, Family Trees, Robbery, Relationships, Being Bought Up Questionably, Et Cetera by George Singleton   6- Blizzard by Marie Vingtras   7- A Five Star Read Recommended by a Fellow Book Lover Amy Borchadt @rn_bookworm - The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal   8- Carrington: A Life by Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina   9- The Last Painting of Sara de Vos by Dominic Smith   10- Blood Water Paint by Joy McCullough   11- The Museum of Modern Love by Heather Rose   12- Claude & Camille: A Novel of Monet by Stephanie Cowell   13- Get the Picture: A Mind-Bending Jourey Among the Inspired Artists and Obsessive Art Fiends Who Taught Me How To See by Bianca Bosker   14- All the Beauty in the World: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Me by Patrick Bringley     Media mentioned— 1- Come From Away — https://comefromaway.com/   2- Zoltan Kaszas https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vSGbslfLQM   3- Justified ( 2010-2015 HULU)   4- Carrington (1995)          

Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com. Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpod Facebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover. To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button. You can find Meg Shaffer at www.megshaffer.com or on IG at meg_shaffer.   This week we officially begin Season 12 so we have both a guest and book recommendations on a particular theme. Our guest this week is Meg Shaffer, NYT best-selling author of The Wishing Game and The Lost Story. She talks to us about shifting gears to write books for adults that read a lot like the cool fantasy books we read as kids (think The Chronicles of Narnia in The Lost Story). And for our book recs, we will each be sharing 3 books related to libraries.    Books mentioned— 1- The Wishing Game by Meg Shaffer   2- The Lost Story by Meg Shaffer   3- Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl   4- The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis   5- Lord of the Flies by William Golding   6- Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero   7- Night of the Hunter by Davis Grubb   8- The Genius Under the Table: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain by Eugene Yelchin   9- The Hollow Places T. Kingfisher   10- The Twisted Ones by T. Kingfisher   11- The Willows by Algernon Blackwood   12- Carter and Lovecraft by Jonathan L. Howard   13- A House with Good Bones by T. Kingfisher   14- We are Experiencing a Slight Delay by Gary Janneti   15- Running With Scissors by Augusten Burroughs   16-Magical Thinking: True Stories by Augusten Burroughs   17- A Five Star Read Recommended by Fellow Book Lover Marisa Zane @Marisa_reads_books - The Reformatory by Tananarive Due   18- The Strange Library by Haruki Murakami   19- Nightbooks by JA White   20- The Library of Borrowed Hearts by Lucy Gilmore   21- The Nightmare Man by JH Markert 22- The Borrower by Rebecca Makkai 23- The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai 24- I Have Some Questions For You by Rebecca Makkai 25- Here Lies the Librarian by Richard Peck 26- A Year Down Yonder by Richard Peck 27- A Long Way From Chicago by Richard Peck 28- Reading Behind Bars: A True Story of Literature, Law, and Life as a Prison Librarian by Jill Grunenwald 29- Lonely Planet Hidden Libraries: The World's Most Unusual Book Depositories by DC Helmuth 30- The Godwick series by Tiffany Reisz Media mentioned— Perks episode with Lily Raiti https://www.perksofbeingabooklover.com/episodes/cxkpp8gtbmn5gf7-8mb73-52ylr-gs3nl-82m49-xr9s4-z4hhh-pm7gw-skgey-bjmtw-4dl76-hn7yl-we4y4-cfzjz-5f9x8-y93dj-7l4je-8667a   Pacific Palisades Fire—Will Rogers ranch — https://www.parks.ca.gov/NewsRelease/1346   Squid Games (Netflix, 2021 - present) Cunk on Life (Netflix, 2024) Black Doves (Netflix, 2024) Night of the Hunter (Tubi, 1955)    

Website- www.perksofbeingabooklover.com. Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpod FaceBook - Perks of Being a BookLover. To send us a message, go to our website and click the Contact button.   This week we are doing our 2024 recap, covering the books that earned 5 stars. We've also got some audio interspersed in the episode from 2024 guests to The Perks who also share their favorite books of the year. This is always one of our most popular episodes of the year.   And don't forget, this new season is a whole new bag.  We are going to every other week episodes and each one will include an interview with a bookish guest plus some book recommendations by us on a particular topic.     Books mentioned--   1- The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester 2- Woodworm by Layla Martinez 3- North Woods by Daniel Mason 4- Six Truths and a Lie by Ream Shukairy 5- Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders 6- Greenwood by Michael Christie 7- Prophet Song by Paul Lynch 8- A Heart That Works by Rob Delaney  9- Tortilla Curtain by TC Boyle 10- The Library Book by Susan Orlean  11- The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride 12- The Geography of Bliss: One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World by Eric Weiner 13- One of Us is Lying by Karen McManus  14- Intimacies by Katie Kitamura 15- I Have Some Questions For You by Rebecca Makkai 16- The Wedding People by Alison Espach 17- The Huntress by Kate Quinn 18- Finding Langston by Lesa Cline-Ransom 19- The Mostly True Story of Tanner and Louise by Colleen Oakley 20- All the Sinners Bleed by SA Cosby 21- Being Henry by Henry Winkler 22- The Weather Woman by Sally Gardner 23- Un Lun Dun by China Mieville 24- Border Crossings: A Journey on the Trans-Siberian Railway by Emma Fick 25- The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin 26- All the Ugly and Wonderful Things by Brynn Greenwood 27- That Time I Got Drunk and Saved a Demon by Kimberly Lemming 28- The Husbands by Holly Gramazio 29- Sipsworth by Simon Van Booy 30- Arroyo Circle by JoeAnn Hart 31- Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our World , Change Our Minds, & Shape Our Futures by Merlin Sheldrake   Media mentioned--   1- Dune: Prophecy (HBO Max, 2024) 2- Shrinking (Apple+, 2024) 3- What We Do in the Shadows (Hulu) 4- The Professor and the Madman (Tubi, 2019) 5- Your Friend by Nate Bargatze (Netflix, 2024) 6- The Skinny by Jim Gaffigan (Hulu, 2024) 7- Catastrophe (Prime, 2015) 8- Three Body Problem (Netflix, 2024)

You can find Tracy Clark on social media on Instagram @tpclark2000 and on her website www.tracyclarkbooks.com/ For show notes for any episode, go to our website at www.perksofbeingabooklover.com. We are also on Instagram @perksofbeingabookloverpod and on FB Perks of Being a Book Lover This week we have a Remix episode and catch up with Tracy Clark, who we interviewed in Season 8 (episode 161) about her first Harriet Foster novel titled Hide. Her most recent title, number 3 in the series, is called Echo, and it came out Dec 3. We chat with her about this book, as well as the Harriet Foster book she is currently writing. We caught her on a writing day in which Harriet Foster was not cooperating. Then you will hear some of our conversation with Tracy back in 2023 when Harriet Foster first arrived on the scene. Books Mentioned In This Episode 1- Hide by Tracy Clark 2- Echo by Tracy Clark 3- Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys 4- Her Name is Knight series by Yasmin Angoe 5- Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus 6-The Ninja's Oath (Lily Wong series) by Tori Eldridge 7- A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens 8- Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens 9- David Copperfield by Charles Dickens 10- American Fever by Dur e Aziz Almna Authors mentioned: 1- Sarah Paretsky 2- Sue Grafton 3- Agatha Christie 4- Valerie Wilson Wesley 5- Barbara Neely

Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com. Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpod Facebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover. To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button. You can find Sharon Short at her website, www.sharonshort.com and on Instagram at @sharongshortauthor. This week we have a Remix episode and catch up with Sharon Short, who we initially interviewed about her historical mystery novels which she wrote under the pen name Jess Montgomery. She has a new stand alone mystery suspense out titled Trouble Island that was inspired by a very interesting family story. You will first hear our most recent chat with her just a few weeks ago and then we will replay our original conversation with her back in the Spring of 2022 talking about her Kinship series. Just a note that next week we will have another REMIX episode, this time with award winning mystery writer Tracy Clark whose most recent in the Detective Harriet Foster series came out Dec 3 titled Echo. The Washington Post has just named it one of their top mysteries of 2024. Books Mentioned In this Episode: 1- Trouble Island by Jess Montgomery 2- The Widows by Jess Montgomery (Kinship series) 3- The Echoes by Jess Montgomery (Kinship series) 4- Shit Cassandra Saw by Gwen Kirby 5- Deer Season by Erin Flanagan 6- How the Word is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America by Clint Smith

This is a REPLAY episode from our Holiday gift buying guide from 2023. We will be back next week with a REMIX episode with former guest Tracy Clark who has a new mystery you won't want to miss.   This week we chat with our favorite bookseller, Sam Miller, from Carmichael's Bookstore. Each November we let her do the heavy lifting and share books that have come out and might be good choices for your holiday shopping. If you would like to check out Carmichael's Bookstore Holiday Book Gift Guide, you can find it online at www.carmichaelsbookstore.com/ Website- www.perksofbeingabooklover.com. Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpod FaceBook - Perks of Being a BookLover. To send us a message, go to our website and click the Contact button. Books Mentioned in this Episode: 1- Wrong Place Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister 2- Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan 3- Foster by Claire Keegan 4- So Late in the Day by Claire Keegan 5- Let us Descend by Jesmyn Ward 6- Fraud by Zadie Smith 7- Armor of Light by Ken Follett 8- Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett 9- Julia by Sandra Newman 10- 1984 by George Orwell 11- Reformatory by Tananarive Due 12- Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead 13- A Haunting on the Hill by Elizabeth Hand 14- The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson 15- West Heart Kill by Dann Mcdorman 16- The Twyford Code by Janice Hallett 17- The Appeal by Janice Hallett 18- The Christmas Appeal by Janice Hallett 19- Stalking Shakespeare by Lee Durkee 20- They Flew by Carlos Eire 21- Waiting for Snow in Havana by Carlos Eire 22- Wild Girls by Tiya Miles 23- The Comfort of Crows by Margaret Renkl 24- Late Migrations by Margaret Renkl 25- Watership Down (graphic novel) by James Sturm and Joe Sutphin 26- Watership Down by Richard Adams 27- Energy Follows Thought by Willie Nelson 28- World Within a Song by Jeff Tweedy 29- Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros 30- Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros 31- Starling House by Alix E. Harrow 32- Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree 33- Legend & Lattes by Travis Baldree 34- World Central Kitchen Cookbook by Jose Andres 35- Every Cook, Every Kitchen by Feed Louisville 36- Oldest Louisville by Kevin Gibson 37- Always Moving Forward by David Jones and Bob Hill 38- Back Page by Byron Crawford 39- Fathers by Richard Taylor 40- From the Heads of the Hollers by Shelby Lee Adams 41- Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts by Crystal Wilkinson 42- Lewis Sinclair and the Gentlemen Cowboys by DMS Fick 43- Rabbit Heart by Kristine S. Ervin 44- My Dark Places by James Ellroy 45- Shot in the Heart by Mikal Gilmore 46- Tom Lake by Ann Patchett 47- The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride 48- The Man who Invented Christmas: How Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol Rescued his Career and Revived our Holiday Spirits by Les Standiford 49- Mr. Dickens and His Carol by Samantha Silva 5 Star Read Recommended by Fellow Book Lover Casey @Caseys_reads 12 Months To Live by James Patterson and Mike Lupica Movie and Series Mentioned: - CODA (2021) - Apple + - Bodies (2023) - Netflix

f you would like to check out Carmichael's Bookstore Holiday Book Gift Guide, you can find it online at www.carmichaelsbookstore.com/ Website- www.perksofbeingabooklover.com. Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpod FaceBook - Perks of Being a BookLover. To send us a message, go to our website and click the Contact button. The delightful Sam Miller, store manager at Carmichael's Book Store, comes to save the day. She has, as usual, tons of great new reads that are already on shelves and would make perfect gifts this holiday for the book lovers in your life. Books Mentioned in this Episode: 1- The Lost Daughter by Elena Ferrante 2- The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride 3- Sky Full of Elephants by Cebo Campbell 4- Women's Hotel by Daniel M. Lavery 5- The Hypocrite by Jo Hamya 6- This is Happiness by Niall Williams 7- Time of the Child by Niall Williams 8- Jim the Boy by Tony Early 9- The Storied Life of AJ Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin 10- The Fortnight in September by RC Sherriff 11- The Movement: How Women's Liberation Transformed America, 1963-1973 by Clara Bingham 12- Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time by Dava Sobel 13- The Elements of Madame Curie: How the Glow of Radium Lit a Path for Women in Science by Dava Sobel 14- The Universe in Verse edited by Maria Popov 15- Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer 16- The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World by Robin Wall Kimmerer 17- Heartbreak is the National Anthem: How Taylor Swift Revived Pop Music by Rob Sheffield 18- The Hitchcock Hotel by Stephanie Wrobel 19- We Solve Murders by Richard Osman 20- Karla's Choice by Nick Harkaway 21- William by Mason Coile 23- Dangerous Visions by Harlan Ellison 24- Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman 25- House of Frank by Kay Synclaire 26- Pride and Prejudice in Space by Alexis Lampley 27- Be Ready When the Luck Happens by Ina Garten 28- From Here to the Great Unknown: A Memoir by Lisa Marie Presley and Riley Keough 29- Cher: The Memoir (Part One) by Cher 30- The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates 31- Hot Mess by Jeff Kinney 32- The Millicent Quibb School of Etiquette for Young Ladies of Mad Science by Kate McKinnon 33-Baking in the American South: 200 Recipes and Their Untold Stories by Ann Byrn 34- Kentucky Ya'll: A Celebration of the People and Culture of the Bluegrass by Blair Thomas Hess and Cameron Ludwick 35- The Stackpole Legend by Wendell Berry 36- In Praise of Mystery by Ada Limon, illustrated by Peter Sis 37- Lady Macbeth by Ava Reid 38- A Five Star Read recommended by fellow Book Lover Perin @mjreadsmagic - Sir Callie and the Dragon's Roost by Esme Symes-Smith 39- Gather by Kenneth Cadow 40- The Horse by Willy Vlautin 41- Committed: On Meaning and Madwomen by Suzanne Scanlon 42- How to Be a Good Creature: A Memoir in Thirteen Animals by Sy Montgomery 43- The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness by Sy Montgomery Media mentioned-- 1- A Real Pain (2024) 2- Wicked Little Letters (Netflix, 2023) 3- The Lost Daughter (Netflix, 2021) 4- The Return (2024)

Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com. Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpod Facebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover. To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button. November is Native American Heritage month so in this episode, we're sharing some books written by Native American authors. There are so many great texts to choose from if you're interested in broadening your reading. We bring your memoirs, poetry, Pulitzer Prize winners, and more. When we do these thematic episodes, we enjoy hearing from listeners who have their own recommendations within that theme so be sure to shoot us a message or comment on any of our socials. Books Mentioned In this Episode: 1- A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes 2- Stone Blind by Natalie Haynes 3- Sharks Don't Sink: Adventures of a Rogue Shark Scientist by Jasmin Graham 4- A Quantum Life: My Unlikely Journey from the Streets to the Stars by Hakeem Oluseyi 5- A Book Recommended by Fellow Booklover Vero Garcia @booksandcoffeemx - All This and More by Peng Shepherd 6- The Blessing Way and all books in the Leaphorn & Chee series by Tony Hillerman 7- Bad Indians: A Memoir by Deborah Miranda 8- Two Old Women: An Alaskan Legend of Betrayal, Courage and Survival by Velma Wallis 9- House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday 10-Buffalo Dreamer by Violet Duncan 11- An American Sunrise by Joy Harjo 12- Code Talker: The First and Only Memoir by One of the Original Navajo Code Talkers of WWII by Chester Nez 13- Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand 14- The Fertile Earth and the Ordered Cosmos: Reflections on the Newark Earthworks and World Heritage edited by M. Elizabeth Weiser, Timothy RW Jordan, and Richard D. Shiels 15- Man Made Monsters by Andrea L. Rogers 16- The Game of Silence by Louise Erdrich (Birchbark House series #2) 17- The Birchbark House by Louise Erdrich 18- Shutter by Ramona Emerson 19- Exposure by Ramona Emerson 20- Even As We Breathe by Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle 21- The Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley 22- There, There by Tommy Orange 23- The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline 24- The Invocations by Krystal Sutherland Media mentioned-- 1- Reservation Dogs (Hulu, 2021-2023) 2- Dark Winds (AMC and Neflix, 2022 - present)    

Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com. Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpod Facebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover. To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button. You can find Alice Kaltman at www.alicekaltman.com or on IG @alicekaltman This week we chat with Alice Kaltman about her latest book, Alice's Big Book of Mistakes. She has written books of linked short stories, novels for various ages, and more, but she decided to try her hand at a graphic memoir all about silly and not-so-silly mistakes she has made throughout the course of her life. Her book aims to make both young and old embrace their missteps in life as building blocks for a life well lived. Books Mentioned In This Episode: 1- Alice's Big Book of Mistakes by Alice Kaltman 2- Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan 3- Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson 4- Salem's Lot by Stephen King 5- The Keeper by Kelsey Ervick 6- Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy 7- To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf 8- Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf 9- Middlemarch by George Eliot 10- Drinking at the Movies by Julia Wertz 11- Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi 12- A 5 Star Read Recommended by Fellow Book Lover Emily Craddick - Hotel Splendide by Ludwig Bemelmans 13- Winterset Hollow by Jonathan Edward Durham 14- Great Expectations by Charles Dickens 15- Look in the Mirror by Catherine Steadman 16- Sociopath by Patric Gagne Media mentioned— Small Things Like These (2024) Harold and the Purple Crayon (2024) Salem's Lot (Max, 2024) Will & Harper (Netflix, 2024)

Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com. Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpod Facebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover. To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button. This week our topic is philosophical. No, we're not discussing those dull philosophy textbooks, but rather novels or nonfiction that ask big questions, such as “Who am I?” and “What is happiness?” and “Do we have free will?”. We will give you 10 books that will get you thinking with your big brains. Books Mentioned In This Episode: 1- Carrie by Stephen King 2- A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes 3- Faith, Hope, and Carnage by Nick Cave and Sean O'Hagan 4- Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea by Guy Delisle 5- A Book Recommended by Fellow Book Lover Larissa @laralucretia - The Shadow of the Gods by John Gwynne 6- Bartleby the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street by Herman Melville 7- Geography of Bliss: One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World by Eric Weiner 8- Nasty, Brutish, and Short: Adventures in Philosophy with Kids by Scott Hershovitz 9- Lotería by Karla Arenas Valenti 10- The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde 11- How to be Perfect: The Correct Answer to Any Moral Question by Michael Schur 12- The Naked Neanderthal by Ludovic Slimak 13- If Cats Disappeared From the World by Genki Kawamura 14- The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry 15- If Nietzsche Were a Narwhal: What Animal Intelligence Reveals About Human Stupidity by Justin Gregg 16- Walking Shadows by Faye Kellerman Media mentioned— 1- Trap (2024, Max) 2- Carrie (2013, Tubi) 3- Carrie (1976) 4- Penny Dreadful (2014-2016 Pluto) 5- The Little Prince (2015, Pluto)

Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com. Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpod Facebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover. To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button. You can find Alisa Alering at www.alering.com or on Insta @alisa.alering. This week we wrap up what has been a month of seasonally spooky books with guest Alisa Alering, the author of Smothermoss, a book that is set in 1980s Pennsylvania Appalachia. It is the story of two sisters who witness a murder on the Appalachian Trail. It is a book that Amy discovered while attending the Columbus Book Festival this past summer. If you like magical realism or gothic fiction, you will definitely want to check this novel out since there is a sentient mountain. Nature truly is a character in the story. Books Mentioned In This Episode: 1- Smothermoss by Alisa Alering 2- Ritual by David Pinner 3- Winterset Hollow by Jonathan Edward Durham 4- Watership Down by Richard Adams 5- Every Bone a Prayer by Ashley Blooms 6- Where I Can't Follow by Ashley Blooms 7- A Five Star Read Recommended by Fellow Book Lover Dina @ddemaiosmith - Starling House by Alix E. Harrow 8- The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow 9- Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow 10- Assembly by Natasha Brown 11- White Teeth by Zadie Smith 12- The Bog Wife by Kay Chronister 13- My Dear Henry: A Jekyll and Hyde Remix (Remixed Classics) by Kalynn Bayron Media mentioned— 1- What We Do in the Shadows (Hulu 2019) 2- What We Do in the Shadows movie (2014) 3- Wellington Paranormal (Max 2018) 4- Psycho (Netflix 1960) 5- The Wicker Man (Tubi 1973)

Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com. Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpod Facebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover. To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button. This week we're bringing you a Creature Feature in which we suggest books that tell the story of creatures. Those may be mythological creatures, cryptids, or beings from your favorite horror film. Some are scary, some are mysterious, some don't seem that different from humans. All of them make for good October reads. Books Mentioned In This Episode: 1- Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree 2- Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree 3- Treasury of Greek Mythology: Classic Stories of Gods, Goddesses, Heroes & Monsters by Donna Jo Napoli 4- A Five Star Read Recommended by Fellow Book Lover Katherine @katshomeig - Beautiful Prey by Lora Darc 5- The Book of Eels: Our Enduring Fascination with the Most Mysterious Creature in the Natural World by Patrick Svenson 6- Silver in the Wood/Drowned Country by Emily Tesh 7- The Lady from the Black Lagoon: Hollywood Monsters and the Lost Legacy of Millicent Patrick by Mallory O'Meara 8- Grendel by John Gardner 9- Bea Wolf by Zach Weinersmith 10- Dear Mothman by Robin Gow 11- The Thing About Jellyfish by Ali Benjamin 12- Mothman's Merry Cryptid Christmas by Andrew Shaffer 13- The Frandidate (Franny K Stein series) by Jim Benton 14- The Mermaid of Black Conch by Monique Roffey 15- Nothing But Blackened Teeth by Cassandra Khaw 16- The Monstrumologist by Rick Yancey 17- It Came From the Trees by Ally Russell 18- The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker Media mentioned--- 1- What We Do in the Shadows (Hulu, 2019- present) 2- The Thing (1982) 3- The Fly (1986) 4- Santa Clarita Diet (Netflix, 2017-2019) 5- The Mummy (1999) 6- Harry & the Hendersons (1987) 7- The Shape of Water (2017) 8- The Goonies (1985) 9- Kaos (Netflix, 2024) 10- The Mothman Prophecies (1992) 11- Illustration of an Anthropophagi - themonstrumologistoverview.weebly.com/confli…t.html

Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com. Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpod Facebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover. To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button. You can find Daniel at his website www.danielolivas.com This week we speak with Daniel Olivas, a lawyer with the California Department of Justice, who is also a novelist, poet, and playwright. His novel, Chicano Frankenstein, which published in March of this year, was an obvious book pick for Carrie because she loves Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. The novel has been optioned by Universal Television, so fingers crossed on that. Olivas' reimagining of Shelley's 1818 novel has an unnamed man as the narrator. He is a paralegal who has been reanimated from the corpse of a Mexican-American man, one of many such reanimated people (derogatively called “stitchers”) who are part of an effort to deal with the US' labor crisis, but he struggles with his identity. How can a person have an identity if all knowledge of their family, their interests, their feelings, their thoughts have been stripped away? In addition to the idea of selfhood, the novel also explores the cruelty of politicians who pander to fear and racism, harming the people of their communities that one would expect them to protect. Books Mentioned in this Episode: 1- Chicano Frankenstein by Daniel Olivas 2- Frankenstein by Mary Shelley 3- The Distance Between Us by Reyna Grande 4- Artificial Life After Frankenstein by Eileen M. Hunt 5- A 5 Star Read Recommended by Fellow Book Lover The Biblioholic @thebiblioholic_ - Dorothy Must Die series by Danielle Page 6- Leech by Hiron Ennes 7- Unwieldy Creatures by Addie Brook Tsai 8- Dread Nation by Justina Ireland 9- Deathless Divide (Dread Nation #2) by Justina Ireland Movies mentioned in this episode: 1- Frankenstien (1931) 2- The Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com. Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpod Facebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover. To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button. Books Mentioned in this Episode: 1- A Good Girls Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson 2- Horribly Haunted in Hillbilly Hollow by Blythe Baker 3- Black River Orchard by Chuck Wendig 4- A 5 Star Read Recommended by Fellow Book Lover Lan Nguyen-Colgate - A Magic Steeped in Poison by Judy I Lin 5- The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin 6- "The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin (Short Story) 7- The Seven 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton 8- House of Cotton by Monica Brashears 9- Smoke Gets in Your Eyes & Other Lessons from the Crematory by Caitlin Doughty 10- Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs and Other Questions About Dead Bodies by Caitlin Doughty 11- The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman 12- The Friend by Sigrid Nunez 13- The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion 14- Wave by Sonali Deraniyagala 15- The Undertaking of Lily Chen by Danica Novgorodoff 16- The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo 17- The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold 18- The Thing about Jellyfish by Ali Benjamin 19- Heavenly Bodies by Amani Erriu 20- Fallen Stars by Amani Erriu Media mentioned-- 1- A Good Girl's Guide to Murder (Netflix, 2024) 2- The Lovely Bones (Max, 2009)

Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com. Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpod Facebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover. To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button. You can find Lyndsay at her website www.lyndsayrush.com/ and on IG at @maryoliversdrunkcousin Books Mentioned In This Episode: 1- A Bit Much by Lyndsay Rush 2- Instructions for Traveling West by Joy Sullivan 3- A Five Start Read Recommended by Fellow Book Lover Meg Longley @ohlongley - Meet Me at the Museum by Ann Youngson 4- Weyward by Emilia Hart 5- I Miss You When I Blink: Essays by Mary Laura Philpott 6- I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai 7- The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai 8- Pets in the City: True Tales of a Manhattan House Call Vet by Dr. Amy Attas 9- The Wild Robot by Peter Brown Media mentioned— 1- The Wild Robot (2024) 2- Saltburn (Prime Video, 2023) 3- Wuthering Heights: Hollywood's worst case casting decisions - www.bbc.com/culture/article/202…t-casting-decisions 4- A Room With a View (1985) 5- Downton Abbey (2010-2015)      

Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com. Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpod Facebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover. To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button. You can find info about Midge and John at their website midgeandjohn.com/ or at ashlandcreekpress.com/. They are on IG @midge_and_john and @ashlandcreekpress. Ashland Creek Press, an eco-fiction publisher, first came on our radar in the pre-COVID era when we interviewed Katy Yocom, author of Three Ways to Disappear, a novel set partly in India that focuses on animal conservation and a relationship between two sisters. But one of our other former guests, Jennifer Caloyeras, host of the Books Are My People podcast, also had a book published by Ashland Creek: her 2015 novel Strays. We're always interested in small presses, so we were excited to talk to Midge Raymond and John Yunker about their work running one. But Midge and John are also writers who have collaborated on a recently published novel titled Devils Island, which is set in Tasmania amongst the endangered and much-maligned Tasmanian devil. While this is a conservation-leaning novel, it is also a suspense story about a naturalist tour that goes very wrong, involving a disappearance and a death. Books Mentioned In This Episode: 1- Three Ways to Disappear by Katy Yocom 2- Strays by Jennifer Caloyeras 3- Devils Island by Midge Raymond and John Yunker 4- My Last Continent by Midge Raymond 5- The Tourist Trail by John Yunker 6- A Five Star Read Recommended by a Fellow Book Lover Susan Cook @bookbookbagawk - Another Country by James Baldwin 7- The Funeral Cryer by Wenyan Lu 8- The Spare Room by Helen Garner 9- We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler 10- Pines by Blake Crouch 11- Dark Matter by Blake Crouch Media mentioned— 1- Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024) 2- True Detective—Night Country (Max) 3- The Bear (Hulu) 4- Eco-lit books —ecolitbooks.com/ 5- Maria Island Walk - www.mariaislandwalk.com/ 6- What do Tasmanian devils sound like? - www.youtube.com/watch?v=pW27vpK4ALQ

Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com. Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpod Facebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover. To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button. JD Vance first made news when he published his book Hillbilly Elegy in 2016, but he has since become a senator in Ohio and a vice presidential candidate. When his memoir came out, there were many people who had strong negative feelings about his book, namely other people from Appalachia who felt that he misrepresented them and their struggles. When JD Vance was selected as Donald Trump's VP, we thought it might be a good time to look at some other Appalachia-related books that perhaps provide a fuller picture of the region, which spans 206,000 square miles, 423 counties, and six states. A region this large cannot be summed up by one person in one book. So our goal this week is to give you some diverse Appalachian voices to add to your TBR for a broader view of this region. Books Mentioned In This Episode: 1- Hillbilly Elegy by JD Vance 2- Storyteller by Dave Grohl 3- Monsters: A Fan's Dilemma by Clare Dederer 4- Womb: The Inside Story of Where We All Began by Leah Hazard 5- Phallacy: Life Lessons from the Animal Penis by Emily Willingham 6- The Sirens of Soleil City by Sarah C. Johns 7- A Five Star Recommended by Fellow Book Lover Nikki Lee @nikkileethrillseeker - The Mechanics of Memory by Audrey Lee 8- "A Ribbon for Baldy" by Jesse Stuart (short story) 9- The Beatinest Boy by Jesse Stuart 10- Andy Finds a Way by Jesse Stuart 11- Many-Storied House: Poems by George Ella Lyon 12 - Gay Poems for Red States by Willie Carver Jr. ThePerksofBeingaBookLover.podbean.com/e/s9-e…-9623/ 13- "Where I'm From" by George Ella Lyon (poem) 14- Prodigals: A Sister's Memoir of Appalachia and Loss by Sarah Beth Childers 15- Township by Jamie Lyn Smith 16- Water Street by Crystal Wilkinson 17- Affrilachia by Frank X Walker 18- "Burying Albatross" by Frank X. Walker (poem)- poetrysociety.org/poems-essays/ars…a/frank-x-walker 19- "Neoteric Kama no Sutra" by Frank X. Walker (poem)- poets.org/poem/neoteric-kama-no-sutra 20- Where I Can't Follow by Ashley Blooms ThePerksofBeingaBookLover.podbean.com/e/ep-6…30-20/ 21- Smothermoss by Alisa Alering 22- Belle Prater's Boy by Ruth White 23- Clay's Quilt by Silas House 24- The Coal Tattoo by Silas House 25- Parchment of Leaves by Silas House 26- Fair & Tender Ladies by Lee Smith 27 - Hill Women: Finding Family and a Way Forward in the Appalachian Mountains by Cassie Chambers ThePerksofBeingaBookLover.podbean.com/e/ep-3…25-20/ 28- Another Appalachia: Coming Up Queer and Indian in a Mountain Place by Neema Avashia ThePerksofBeingaBookLover.podbean.com/e/s-6-…-6-22/ 29- A Good Girl's Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson Media mentioned-- 1- The To Read List Podcast 2- Slow Horses (Apple +) 3- The Bear (Hulu) 4- Ripley (Netflix) 5- True Detective: Night Country (HBO MAX, 2024) 6- Steve! (documentary) (Apple +, 2024) 7- Kaos (Netflix, 2024) 8- The Princess Bride (1987) 9- The Tourist (Netflix) 10- The Good Girl's Guide to Murder - (Netflix, 2024) News articles 1- Dave Grohl Announcement - www.usatoday.com/story/life/healt…ock/75176681007/ 2- Neil Gaiman controversy - www.theguardian.com/books/2024/sep/…xual-misconduct      

Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com. Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpod Facebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover. To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button. You can find Kelly Hill on IG @kellyehill_author . This week we chat with Kelly Hill who published her debut novel, A Home for Friendless Women, this year in March. It is the story of three Victorian-era women who experience a home for “fallen” women in very different ways. What makes this novel especially unique is that Kelly got the idea for it from her time interning at The Filson Historical Society while she was completing her dissertation at the University of Louisville. She came across historic documents about a home for pregnant women here in Louisville and fictionalized them to create a powerful story. While the story is about a tough time for women over a century ago. Books Mentioned In this Episode: 1- A Home for Friendless Women by Kelly Hill 2- The Age of Grievance by Frank Bruni 3- A Five Star Read Recommended by fellow Book Lover Tracey Myers-Quesada @cubadianmom3 - Finding Freedom: A Cook's Story; Remaking a Life from Scratch by Erin French 4- Prophet Song by Paul Lynch 5- When the Clock Broke: Con Men, Conspiracists, and How America Cracked Up in the Early 1990s by Jon Ganz 6- Washington's Gay General: The Legends and Loves of Baron von Steuben by Josh Trujillo and Levi Hastings            

Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com. Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpod Facebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover. To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button. For a lot of people, Labor Day, which this year fell on September 2, marks the end of summer, although astronomical summer doesn't end until September 22 (and meteorological fall actually begins on September 1). And according to Carrie, summer ends on the first day of school, which was Aug 8 here in Louisville KY. And what was a common assignment when you returned back to schook? That's right. Write about what you did this summer. So this episode is a recap of what the two of us did from June through August told in the form of books! Books mentioned-- 1- Bad Monkey by Carl Hiassen 2- Hoot by Carl Hiassen 3- Flush by Carl Hiassen 4- Border Crossings: A Journey on the Trans-Siberian Railway by Emma Fick 5- Summer of the Mariposas by Guadalupe Garcia McCall 6- A Five Star Read Recommended by Fellow Book Lover Amanda Pavlov @pavlovsbooks - A Novel Obsession by Caitlin Barasch 7- The Kindred Spirits Supper Club by Amy E. Reichert 8- Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club by J. Ryan Stradal 9- Hum If You Don't Know the Words by Bianca Marais 10- Cry the Beloved Country by Alan Paton 11- Death's Door: True Tales of Tragedy, Mystery, and Bravery from the Great Lakes' Most Dangerous Waters by Barbara M. Joosse 12- The Elephants of Thula Thula by Francois Malby-Anthony 13- A Death in Door County (Monster Hunter Mystery) by Annelise Ryan 14- The Woman Next Door by Yewande Omotoso 15- I Cheerfully Refuse by Leif Enger 16- The Deepest Lake by Andromeda Romano-Lax 17- Dragon Rider by Cornelia Funke, audiobook narrated by Brendan Fraser 18- Death Stalks Door County (Dave Cubiak #1) by Patricia Skalka Media mentioned-- 1- Jack Whitehall: Travels with My Father (Netflix, 2017) 2- Jack Whitehall: Fatherhood with my Father (2024) 3- The Tourist (Netflix, 2022) 4- Bad Monkey (Apple+, 2024) 5- Strong Sense of Place Podcast - https://strongsenseofplace.com/podcasts/ 6-Lawsuit Against Florida Book Bans - people.com/publishers-authors-…a-book-bans-8704020      

Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com. Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpod Facebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover. To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button. You can find Britton online at her website www.booksbybritton.com/ IG @booksbybritton On Etsy - Books By Britton This week we chat with Britton Perelman, a unique artist and craftsperson who creates miniature bookshelves. We saw her at the Columbus OH Book Festival in 2023, which was the first festival she attended selling her amazing creations, and we were delighted when she agreed to be a guest. We chat with her about how she sort of fell into designing and crafting miniature bookshelves during COVID and how the business has been booming, which leaves Britton, who has a BA in journalism and an MFA in screenwriting, with little time to compose written work. Britton has had to get all hands on deck, including her mom and sister, which means Books by Britton is a female-owned, family business. Books Mentioned In this Episode: 1- The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio 2- The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer 3- Tiny Treasures: Amazing Miniatures You Can Make by Nancy Holyoke 4- The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern 5- The Guest List by Lucy Foley 6- Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney 7- Truly, Devious series by Maureen Johnson 8- A Five-Star Read Recommended by Fellow Book Lover Steve Elliot @stevereadthatbook - All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker 9- Those We Thought We Knew by David Joy 10- The Measure by Nikki Erlick 11- A Novel Love Story by Ashley Poston 12- The Hundred Loves of Juliet by Evelyn Skye 13- One of Us is Lying by Karen McManus Shows mentioned-- The Decameron (Netflix, 2024) Links: 1- Pandora Productions - Little Shop of Horrors - www.pandoraprods.org/ 2- Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest-- www.bulwer-lytton.com 3- Louisville Book Festival - www.louisvillebookfestival.com/

Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com. Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpod Facebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover. To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button. It's that time of year where kids and teachers are back at school or almost back at school so we thought we would offer recommendations for books related to education—novels or memoirs set in schools or colleges; books with teachers, deans, students, or staff as characters; literature in which education or learning plays an important if not essential role. Books mentioned in this episode: 1- The Whale Rider by Witi Ihimaera 2- Shanghailanders by Juli Min 3- A Five-Star Read Recommended by Fellow Book Lover Dawn Nacker @dawndevoursbooks - How To Read a Book by Monica Wood 4- Truly, Devious by Maureen Johnson 5- Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo 6- The Faculty Lounge by Jennifer Matthieu 7- Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution by RF Kuang 7- New Kid by Jerry Craft 8- The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead 9- The Reformatory by Tananarive Due 10- The Gilded Years by Karin Tanabe 11- The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart 12- True Biz by Sara Nović 13- Girl at War by Sara Nović 14- "All Summer in a Day" (short story) by Ray Bradbury 15- Love at First Book by Jenn McKinlay 16- The Rom-commers by Katherine Center Bookish events— 1- Poe: A Dream Within a Dream fareharbor.com/embeds/book/belle…ow=1089772&g4=yes 2- Untimely Ripp'd kyshakespeare.com/season/untimely/ 3- Cincy Bookstore Crawl cincybookstorecrawl.my.canva.site/ 4- Books by the Banks booksbythebanks.org/ 5- Cynthiana KY Skeletons wkdq.com/small-kentucky-city-halloween/ 6- Rail Explorers www.railexplorers.net/ 7- Fenrir Viking Festival www.kyrenfaire.com/viking-fest 8- New Kid by Jerry Craft Book Banning https://www.npr.org/2022/12/28/1144458555/banned-books-author-jerry-craft-new-kid Media mentioned— 1- The Whale Rider — 2002 www.imdb.com/title/tt0298228/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk 2- Happiness for Beginners (Netflix, 2023)

Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com. Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpod Facebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover. To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button. You can find the Bookery Cincy at www.bookerycincy.com/ or on IG @bookerycincy. To find info about the Bookstore Crawl visit FB at Cincy Bookstore Crawl. This week we chat with Sierra Hollabaugh, one of the co-owners and founders of Bookery Cincy, an independent bookstore located in Cincinnati, OH. When Amy went to Cincinnati recently, she met Sierra so we thought it would be nice if everyone got to know a little more about the bookstore as well as a cool October event, the Cincy Bookstore Crawl, which includes 16 small bookstores in the area. Cincinnati is a great place for a weekend visit, and the bookstore crawl just makes it an even more appealing location. We talk about the resurgence of the independent brick and mortar bookstore, what it's like running a small business when you have young kids, and what visitors can expect if they come to Cincy for the Bookstore Crawl which is the weekend of Oct 4-6. Books Mentioned in this Episode: 1- Orbital by Samantha Harvey 2- American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis 3- Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis 4- Sociopath by Patric Gagne 5- A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness 6- Bel Canto by Ann Patchett 7- Tom Lake by Ann Patchett 8- The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin 9- A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle 10- Black Beauty by Anna Sewell 11- Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan 12- Trust by Hernan Diaz 13- In the Distance by Hernan Diaz 14- The English Understand Wool by Helen DeWitt 15- A Five Star Read Recommended by Fellow Book Lover Elias Eells @eliaseells - The West Passage by Jared Pechaček 16- Cocktails and Consoles by Elias Eells 17- All the Sinners Bleed by SA Cosby 18- Blacktop Wasteland by SA Cosby 19- Sandwich by Catherine Newman 20- We All Want Impossible Things by Catherine Newman 21- Waiting for Birdy: A Year of Frantic Tedium, Neurotic Angst, and the Wild Magic of Growing a Family by Catherine Newman 22- A Heart That Works by Rob Delaney Media mentioned-- 1- American Psycho (2000, Netflix) 2- Catastrophe (2015-2019, Prime Video) 3- Art is Not a Luxury with Ethan Hawke - www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeCuqtFKLHI 4- Utah Book Ban -Utah recently banned 13 books by 7 authors from all public schools in the state. apnews.com/article/utah-school…a6cd2cb5ddd25fca700

Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com. Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpod Facebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover. To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button. This week we're going “boldly where no man has gone before.” Yes–that's right into space. Books Mentioned in This Episode: 1- The Most Precious of Cargoes by Jean-Claude Grumberg 2- The Paris Affair by Maureen Marshall 3- A Five Start Read Recommended by Fellow Book Lover Stephanie Affinito @affinitolit - The Book That Matters Most by Ann Hood 4- Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card 5- Leviathan Wakes by James SA Corey 6- The Calculating Stars (Lady Astronaut Universe series) by Mary Robinette Kowal 7- Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus 8- Spaceman of Bohemia by Jaroslav Kalfar 9- Orbital by Samantha Harvey 10- The Lion of Mars by Jennifer L. Holm 11- A Rovers Story by Jasmine Warga 12- Old Man's War by John Scalzi 13- Bright Objects by Ruby Todd 14- Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir 15- A Quantum Life: My Unlikely Journey from the Street to the Stars by Hakeem Oluseyi and Joshua Horwitz Media mentioned-- 1- Constellation (Apple+, 2024) 2- Zone of Interest (HBOMax, 2023) 3- Cat Video Fest--www.catvideofest.com 4- For All Mankind (Apple+, 2019) 5- The Expanse (Prime Video, 2015) 6- Spaceman of Bohemia (Netflix, 2024) 7- Literature as an Olympic Sport - lithub.com/did-you-know-that-p…tual-olympic-sport/

Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com. Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpod Facebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover. To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button. You can find Jean Duffy at her website www.jeanduffy.com or on IG @soccergranniesbook. Sarahlyn Bruck can be found at her website www.sarahlynbruck.com or on IG @saralynbruck. If you can't get enough of sports and global camaraderie watching the Paris Summer Olympics on your TV screens, we have an interview for you today to scratch that itch even more; books that include women's soccer. In Season 10, we did a dual-interview with two authors who wrote Jane Austen-inspired books: AH Kim and Melodie Edwards. It was so much fun, we thought we would do it again. This time, though, we're pairing two women who wrote books related to soccer. Sarahlyn Bruck is the author of several novels; her most recent is titled Light of the Fire, which is about two adult women who were connected by soccer in high school. Jean Duffy's debut nonfiction book is titled Soccer Grannies: The South African Women Who Inspire the World, about older women who play recreational soccer. These two writers, who both have an abiding love of the game, were down with joining each other and us to chat about their respective books. While these books on the surface deal with soccer, they ultimately address friendship and teamwork, the elements of the game that change lives for the better. Books Mentioned in this Episode: 1- Light of the Fire by Sarahlyn Bruck 2- Soccer Grannies: The South African Women Who Inspire the World by Jean Duffy 3- The Keeper: Soccer, Me, and the Law That Changed Women's Lives by Kelcey Ervick 4- A Five Star Read Recommended by Fellow Book Lover, Patricia @patriciapluggedin - Funny Story by Emily Henry 5- I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusak 6- Anna Bright is Hiding Something by Susie Orman Schnall 7- Invisible Women: Exploring Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado-Perez 8- Magonia Wu Unfolds It All by Chanel Miller 9- Know My Name by Chanel Miller 10- Starter Villain by John Scalzi 11- Old Man's War by John Scalzi Media mentioned— 1- Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019) 2- Trying (2024, Apple+) 3- Catastrophe (2015, Amazon Prime) 4- The Dropout (2022, Hulu) Our Episode with Kelcey Ervick about her graphic memoir, The Keeper -ThePerksofBeingaBookLover.podbean.com/e/s9ep…21323/

Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com. Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpod Facebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover. To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button. You can find Carter Wilson at his website www.carterwilson.com or on IG @carterwilsonauthor. You can also find his podcast Making It Up on all podcast platforms. This week we chat with Carter Wilson, a thriller writer and podcast host who lives in Colorado and who is the author of nine novels. His most recent is titled The Father She Went to Find, a story of Penny, a girl who suffered a brain injury at an early age that left her a savant with curious abilities. It was at this time that her father disappeared, but he has remained in contact via a birthday card every year. Until she turns 21. And that is the impetus she needs to go find him. This is a road trip/ scavenger hunt thrill ride that even has a few Stranger Things vibes. It's set in the 1980s after all. Carter talks to us about why this book is different from all his others and his favorite TV thriller series he has watched this year. And we laugh when he tells us one of the reasons why someone might start writing a book. Books mentioned-- 1- The Father She Went to Find by Carter Wilson 2- Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, illustrated by Yayoi Kusama (Penguin Classics) 2012 3- Deception at Diamond D Ranch by GR Stahl 4- Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner 5- Pines by Blake Crouch 6- Where'd You Go Bernadette by Maria Semple 7- Greenwood by Michael Christie 8- My Mama, Cass: A Memoir by Owen Elliot-Kugell 9- The Mysterious Case of Rudolph Diesel by Douglas Brunt 10- The Last Murder at the End of the World by Stuart Turton 11- The Seven and a Half Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton 12- The Language of Love and Loss by Bart Yates 13- The Five Star Read Recommended by a Fellow Book Lover Iresha Jayasinghe @resh_bookstagram - Cinder Luna by Marie Soleil   Movies and Limited Series-- 1- Where'd You Go Bernadette (2019) 2- Shogun (Hulu, 2024) 3- Ripley (Netflix, 2024) Links-- 1- Salted Brown Butter Krispie Treats recipe - smittenkitchen.com/2009/11/salted-…-crispy-treats/ 2-Yayoi Kusama Exhiition - www.speedmuseum.org/yayoi-kusama-in…urvive-forever/ 3- Rediscovered Books in Boise, ID - www.rdbooks.org/ 4- Free Little Art Galleries (FLAGS) - freelittleartgalleries.art/

Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com. Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpod Facebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover. To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button. So back during Season 10 we flew to Los Angeles, California for the LA Times Festival of Books, which was held on the campus of USC. We were able to meet our bookish friend, Jennifer Caloyeras from the Books Are My People podcast; hear cool authors and audiobook narrators speak; and visit some awesome places in LA. Amy is usually the one who reads around the places she is visiting, although she is apparently rubbing off on me because I'm finding myself doing it too. We decided to make an episode centered around Los Angeles/Hollywood reads. Books Discussed in This Episode: 1- Everything I Learned, I Learned In a Chinese Restaurant by Curtis Chin 2- The Copenhagen Trilogy by Tove Ditlevsen 3- The Library Book by Susan Orlean 4- A 5 Star Read Recommended by a Fellow Book Lover Lauren Becker @laurenashleybecker- Elephant and Castle by Hannah Ledford 5- Devil in a Blue Dress (Easy Rawlins series) by Walter Mosley 6- The Monstrous Misses Mai by Van Hoang 7- Love & Saffron by Kim Fay 8- Daytime Drama by Sarahlyn Bruck 9- Code Name Edelweiss by Stephanie Landsem 10- California Dreamin: The True Story of the Mamas and Papas by Michelle Phillips 12- Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis 13- Black Dahlia by James Ellroy 14- The People of Paper by Salvador Plascencia 15- Tortilla Curtain by TC Boyle 16- Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor 17- Muse of Nightmares by Laini Taylor 18- Icebreaker by Hannah Grace 19- Wildfire by Hannah Grace Movies mentioned-- Feast of Death (documentary about James Ellroy) - 2001 Articles mentioned-- 100 Best Books of the 21st Century - www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/…21st-century.html Episodes mentioned-- 1- www.perksofbeingabooklover.com/episodes/…m-vidrine 2- www.perksofbeingabooklover.com/episodes/…akespeare      

Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com. Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpod Facebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover. To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button. You can find Mai Corland on IG @maicorland as well as at her website at meredithireland.wordpress.com This episode begins Season 11 for us–we've got over 200 episodes under our belts and are back to bring you more. Unless you've been living under a rock, you probably know that fantasy is big right now, and we discovered a fun fantasy that feels like an Ocean's 11 type romp with multiple characters trying to take down a king. The book is titled Five Broken Blades and it is written by Mai Corland. We were delighted to speak with her a couple weeks back, especially since she is now an international bestselling author. And in fact, while recording this episode you will hear Mai receiving some good news. While some people might let this success go to their heads, Mai is down-to-earth and gets entirely too much pleasure poking fun at her new status. We chat about the fantasy series she can't stop recommending, why writing middle grade and YA novels was such good prep for pacing in her new romantic fantasy, and how riding the subway opened up her world as a teen. Books Discussed In This Episode: 1- Five Broken Blades by Mai Corland 2- Four Ruined Realms by Mai Corland 3- You Are Here: Connected Flights edited by Ellen Oh 4- Emma and the Love Spell by Meredith Ireland 5- The Jasmine Project by Meredith Ireland 6- Mirrored Heavens by Rebecca Roanhorse 7- Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse 8- The Jane City trilogy by Fonda Lee 9- The Serpent and the Wings of Night by Carissa Broadbent 10- 5 Star Read Recommended by a Fellow Book Lover Marné Deranger @readerbythewater - Sandwich by Catherine Newman 11- Curbing Traffic: The Human Case for Fewer Cars in Our Lives by Melissa Bruntlett and Chris Bruntlett 12- Such Charming Liars by Karen McManus 13- One of Us is Lying by Karen McManus 14- The Cousins by Karen McManus 15- Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts by Crystal Wilkinson

***We are on summer hiatus but will be back with an all new episode next week! Happy Reading! This week we are talking all about journeys. Whether they be physical or mental, we whisk you away in a good book. Choose from 10 book recommendations from Carrie and Amy for when you're ready to be on the move. For show notes for any episode, go to our website at www.perksofbeingabooklover.com. We are also on Instagram @perksofbeingabookloverpod and FB Perks of Being a Book Lover. Books Mentioned in this Episode 1- How to Read Novels Like a Professor by Thomas Foster 2- American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang 3- Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer 4- The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot 5- The Lion of Lark-Hayes Manor by Aubrey Hartman 6- The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester (The Surgeon of Crowthorne) 7- The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce 8- Walking a Sacred Path: Rediscovering the Labyrinth as a Spiritual Tool by Lauren Artress 9- Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende 10- Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie 11- The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster 12- Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer 13- What the Ermine Saw: The Extraordinary Journey of Leonardo Da Vinci's Most Mysterious Portrait by Eden Collinsworth 14- News of the World by Paulette Jilles 15- Enemy Women by Paulette Jilles 16- Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier 17- The Road Towards Home by Corinne Demas 18- A Pearl in a Storm: How I Found my Heart in the Middle of the Atlantic Ocean by Tori Murden McClure 19- The Gran Tour: Travels with My Elders by Ben Aitken 20- Cutting Teeth by Chandler Baker 21- Cosmic Cats and Fantastic Furballs by Mary Turzillo 22- Your Cat and Other Space Aliens by Mary Turzillo 23- Mars is No Place for Children by Mary Turzillo 5 Star Book Recommendation by a Book Lover 1- Empire Of A Vampire by Jay Christoff recommended by Tiffany K., Omaha, NE. Instagram @chaiteaandbooksareallineed Shows/Movies watched— 1- American Born Chinese (Disney+, 2023) 2- Annihilation (Netflix, 2018) 3- The Professor and the Madman (2019) Labirynth Locator www.labyrinthlocator.com Bookish News Article about Henrietta Lacks apnews.com/article/henrietta-l…efa34c9b79a544f0729

We are on summer hiatus until July 10, 2024. Until then, please check out this episode about humor and books that made us laugh. It originally aired April 2023. Did you know it is National Humor Month? Neither did we but now we do and so do you. Which means this week we are talking about books that make us laugh. For show notes for any episode, go to our website at www.perksofbeingabooklover.com. We are also on Instagram @perksofbeingabookloverpod and on FB Perks of Being a Book Lover. Books We Mentioned: 1- The Peripheral by William Gibson 2- Foundation by Isaac Asimnov 3- Nothing But Blackened Teeth by Cassandra Khaw 4- The Martian by Andy Weir 5- The Alaskan Laundry by Brendan Jones 6- Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson 7- The One and Only Bob by Katherine Applegate 8- The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate 9- Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari 10- Yearbook by Seth Rogen 11- This is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper 12- The Guncle by Steven Rowley 13- Why Don't You Write My Eulogy Now So I Can Correct It? A Mother's Suggestions by Patricia Marx; illustrated by Roz Chast 14- Calypso by David Sedaris 15- A Walk In The Woods by Bill Bryson 16- Bad Tourist: Misadventures in Love and Travel by Suzanne Roberts 17- Dirtbag, Massachusetts by Isaac Fitzgerald 18- She Is A Haunting by Trang Thanh Tran 19- Sacred Geometry by Robert Lawlor 20- Bones & All by Camille DeAngelis 21- What Happened To You?: Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing by Bruce D. Perry 22- Hestia Strikes A Match by Christine Grillo 23- My Father's Brain: Life in the Shadow of Alzheimers by Sandeep Jauhar 24- Elf Dog and Owl Head by M.T. Anderson TV Series mentioned: 1- The Peripheral (Amazon Prime 2023) 2- Foundation (Apple+ 2021) Bookish News www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/…olastic.html

****We are still on hiatus but will be back with all new episodes in a few weeks. Until then, enjoy our Summer Reading episode from last year with our favorite bookseller, Sam Miller, from Carmichaels Books. Her suggestions may not be hot off the press but still make for great reads. Happy Reading! At the start of summer, we like to chat with Sam Miller, bookseller and manager at Carmichael's Bookstore here in Louisville (We actually like to chat with Sam anytime, but she has especially useful information about new books twice a year.) Sam does the heavy lifting this week by telling us what is coming out and might be good for your TBR list. For show notes for any episode, go to our website at perksofbeingabooklover.com. We are also on Instagram @perksofbeingabookloverpod and on FB Perks of Being a Book Lover. Books mentioned in this episode: 1- The Wishing Game by Meg Shaffer 2- Tom Lake by Ann Patchett 3- Be Mine by Richard Ford 4- The Invisible Hour by Alice Hoffman 5- The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese 6- The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride 7- Color of Water by James McBride 8- Deacon King Kong by James McBride 9- The Tusk that Did the Damage by Tania James 10- Loot by Tania James 11- Happy Place by Emily Henry 12- I Didn't Do It by Jamie Lynn Hendricks 13- Only One Left by Riley Sager 14- Gorky Park by Martin Cruz Smith 15- Independence Square by Martin Cruz Smith 16- Small Mercies by Dennis LeHane 17- Titanium Noir by Nick Harkaway 18- Immortal Longings by Chloe Gong 19- Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros 20 The Other Renaissance by Paul Strathern 21- Ice by Amy Brady 22- The Soldier's Truth: Ernie Pyle and the Story of World War II by David Chrisinger 23- Monsters: A Fan's Dilemma by Claire Dederer 24- A Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie 25- Pageboy by Elliot Page 26- Don't Tell Anybody the Secrets I Told You by Lucinda Williams 27- Meet Me Tonight in Atlantic City by Jane Wong 28- King: A Life by Jonathan Eig 29- Quietly Hostile by Samantha Irby 30- Sweet Enough: A Dessert Cookbook by Alison Roman 31- Franklin Smoke by Aaron Franklin 32- Love is a Pink Cake by Claire Ptak 33- Back to the Dirt by Frank Bill 34- Code of the Hills by Chris Offutt 35- If You Write Me a Letter, Send it Here by Louisville Story Program 36- Gay Poems for Red States by Willie Edward Taylor Carver Jr. 37- Tar Hollow Trans by Stacy Jane Grover 38- The Eyes and the Impossible by Dave Eggers 39- A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers 40- Zeitoun by Dave Eggers 41- Weather Together by Jessie Sima 42- The Celebrants by Steven Rowley 43- Big Gay Wedding by Byron Lane 44- Woman, Eating by Claire Kohda 45- Beware the Woman by Megan Abbott 46- Lady in the Lake by Laura Lippman 47- Prom Mom by Laura Lippman 48- The Disinvited Guest by Carol Goodman

We are on hiatus for the month of June.  This replay episode originally aired June 2023.     This week we celebrate all the special days of June! Want a book rec for Pride month? We have one. What about Juneteenth or Father's Day? We have you covered. And did you know it's National Audiobook Month? It's new to us as well but we love audiobooks so we give you some recommendations for that too. And we throw in one wildcard category - one of those random National Days or Months that always makes you wonder why there needs to be a month for that:) This is the last episode for Season 8. We are taking a month off for summer family travel and some rest and relaxation. We will be back the late July/ early August with all new episodes. Until then, we will air some of our favorite past episodes in case you missed them the first time around. Happy Reading! For show notes for any episode or to contact us, go to our website at perksofbeingabooklover.com. We are also on Instagram @perksofbeingabookloverpod and on FB Perks of Being a Book Lover. Books Mentioned in this Episode: 1- Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy 2- The Road by Cormac McCarthy 3- No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy 4- Changes: A Love Story by Ama Ata Aidoo 5- Our Sister Killjoy by Ama Ata Aidoo 6- The Scent of a Garden by Namrata Patel 7- The Candid Life of Meena Dave by Namrata Patel 8- The Scent of Burnt Flowers by Blitz Bazawule 9- Fun Home: A Famliy Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel 10- Dykes to Watch Out For by Alison Bechdel 11- And Then the Grey Heaven by RE Katz 12- Lone Women by Victor Lavalle 13- The Changeling by Victor Lavalle 14- Invasion of the Body Snatchers by Jack Finney 15- The Door of No Return by Kwame Alexander 16- The Sweetness of Water by Nathan Harris 17- The Chosen by Chaim Potok 18- Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love by Dani Shapiro 19- The Thing About Jellyfish by Ali Benjamin 20- The Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery 21- Phallacy: Life Lessons from the Animal Penis by Emily Willingham 22- The Good One by Polly Stewart 23- On Earth as it is on Television by Emily Jane Shows/movies mentioned-- 1- No Country For Old Men ( 2007) 2- My Octopus Teacher (Netflix, 2020) Articles Mentioned: 1- Ama Ata Aidoo, Ghanaian writer who was voice of African women, dies at 81 2- The convoluted world of best-seller lists, explained

We are on hiatus for the month of June.  This is a replay episode from 2023.   For show notes for any episode, go to our website at perksofbeingabooklover.com. We are also on Instagram @perksofbeingabookloverpod and on FB Perks of Being a Book Lover. This week are celebrating AAPI Heritage Month (Asian American Pacific Islander) and we give you a list of 10 (plus maybe a few more) of our favorite books to add to your TBR written by authors with family heritage from this part of the world. We give you books in a variety of genres; literary fiction, historical fiction, memoir, food writing, graphic novels, horror, poetry, and middle grade. So join us this week as we explore the big wide world of Asia and the Pacific Islands heritage in literature. Plus, we talk about the most recent Jane Austen film adaptation we've watched, a new environmentally friendly product we've tried, and why sometimes it might be nice to be a disembodied head. Books mentioned-- 1- Persuasion by Jane Austen 2- Emma by Jane Austen 3- Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen 4- Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen 5- Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen 6- The Girls of Fall by Jessica Minyard 7- You Should Have Known by Rebecca Keller 8- An Elderly Lady is Up to No Good by Helen Tursten 9- Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner 10- Another Appalachia by Neema Avashia 11- The Candid Life of Meena Dave by Namrata Patel 12- When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi 13- The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka 14- The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui 15- Buttermilk Graffiti: A Chef's Journey to Discover America's New Melting-Pot Cuisine by Edward Lee 16- American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang 17- The Fervor by Alma Katsu 18- A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki 19- Two Brown Dots by Danni Quintos 20- World of Wonders by Aimee Nezhukumatathil 21- A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park 22- The Milk Lady of Bangalore by Shoba Narayan 23- Sea People: The Puzzle of Polynesia by Christina Thompson 24- Moloka'i by Alan Brennert 25- Wild Seed by Octavia Butler 26- The Cheating Cell: How Evolution Helps Us Understand and Treat Cancer by Athena Aktipis 27- A Place to Hang the Moon by Kate Albus 28- The War That Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley 29- Walking with Sam: A Father, a Son, and 500 Miles Across Spain by Andrew McCarthy Movies mentioned-- 1- Persuasion (Netflix 2022) 2- Ted Lasso - Season 3 (Apple TV 2023) 3- Jury Duty (Amazon 2023) 4- Enchanted (2007) 5- The Terror (Hulu 2018)

Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com. Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpod Facebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover. To send us a message go to our website and click the contact button. We will be on a much needed hiatus for the entire month of June and a smidge into July. You will get replays of some of our book recommendation episodes from last year, but toward the end of June, we may have a remix episode where we catch up with a former guest. This last episode of Season 10 is about a very important topic. Although May is almost over, it isn't too late to recognize books for Mental Health Awareness month. Carrie and I both know and appreciate that mental health is part of total health. Your brain is a really big, extremely powerful, exceedingly important part of your body. If it ain't happy, no other part of you is happy either. It's no different than your kidneys or heart not performing their best. This week we give you some book recommendations, both fiction and nonfiction, that highlight mental health or bring some exposure to mental health issues. Books Mentioned in This Episode: 1- Being Henry: The Fonz…and Beyond by Henry Winkler 2- Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley 3- Warrior Girl Unearthed by Angeline Boulley 4- And Then, Boom! by Lisa Fipps - A 5 star read recommended by fellow book lover Cassie Sanders @allroadsleadtoausten 5- Starfish by Lisa Fipps 6- Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb 7- The Professor and the Madman: a Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester 8- The Sleeping Beauties by Suzanne O' Sullivan 9- Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson 10- Wesley Yorstad Goes Outside by Stephanie Hunter 11- All Fall Down by Jennifer Weiner 12- Homer and Langley by EL Doctorow 13- The Trauma Cleaner by Sarah Krasnostein 14- The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman 15- The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon 16- Sylvia Plath: A Biography by Linda Wagner-Martin 17- Anne Sexton: A Biography by Diane Wood Middlebrook 18- The Act of Disappearing by Nathan Gower 19- The Year of the Horses by Courtney Maum 20- Baggage: Confessions of a Globe-Trotting Hypochondriac by Jeremy Hance 21- The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett 22- Jingo by Terry Pratchett 23- Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett 24- Mort by Terry Pratchett 25- Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman Shows/podcasts mentioned— 1- Barry (HBO, 2018 - 2023) 2- Reservation Dogs (Hulu, 2021 - 2023) 3- Good Omens (Amazon Prime, 2019 - present) 4- Dear Therapists with Lori Gottlieb and Guy Winch - podcast      

Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com. Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpod Facebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover. To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button. You can find Nathan Gower at his website www.nathangower.com or on IG @nathan_gower_ Our guest this week is Nathan Gower, a writer with roots in Kentucky, having earned degrees from Spalding University and the University of Louisville. He now serves as a professor of English at Campbellsville University. His debut novel, The Act of Disappearing, publishes on May 28 with Mira Books, an imprint of HarperCollins. The novel is about a woman named Julia, who her friends call Jules. Julia has been trying to make a name for herself as a fiction writer, but she works at a bar to make ends meet. It is there that she meets a famous older man named Jonathan Aster who gives her a photograph and offers to pay her to tell the story of the woman in the picture: the woman in the photo is jumping off a bridge holding a baby. Julia begins a quest to discover who this woman is and learns about herself in the process. He also talks to us about how terrifying it was to write a book from a female point of view, how the women in his family inspired this story, and the sci-fi book he just read and thoroughly enjoyed even though he doesn't like sci-fi. Books Mentioned in This Episode: 1- The Act of Disappearing by Nathan Gower 2- Dark Matter by Blake Crouch 3- Dead Boy Detectives by Neil Gaiman 4- Out of the Easy by Ruta Sepetys 5- Gumbo Tales: Finding My Place at the New Orleans Table by Sara Roahen 6- The Moviegoer by Walker Percy 7- The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty - A 5 Star Read Recommended by Fellow Book Lover Claire Boswell @clairesbookobsession 8- The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas 9- The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas 10- The Man In The Iron Mask by Alexandre Dumas 11- Made for You by Jenna Satterthwaite 12- Johanna Porter is Not Sorry by Sara Read Entertainment mentioned— 1- Beetlejuice (1988) 2- Beetlejuice (Broadway Across America) 3- Seinfeld (1989- 1998, Netflix) 4- Dark Matter (2024, Apple+) 5- The Dead Boys Detective (2024, Netflix) 6- Locke & Key (2020, Netflix) 7- The Man in the Iron Mask (1998) Photograph mentioned— time.com/3456028/the-most-bea…h-an-immortal-photo/

Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com. Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpod Facebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover. To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button. This week we have our annual summer reading episode with our favorite bookseller, Sam Miller, store manager at Carmichaels Bookstore in Louisville, KY. By this point in our spring season, we are tired, so having Sam on and letting her do the heavy lifting on book suggestions is what we're about. Sam clues us in to some new fiction, nonfiction, traditional summer reading, mysteries, sci-fi/fantasy, and children's books you may want to scoop up. Books Mentioned in This Episode: 1- James by Percival Everett 2- Hamilton by Ron Chernow 3- We All Want Impossible Things by Catherine Newman 4- Sandwich by Catherine Newman 5- Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult 6- By Any Other Name by Jodi Picoult 7- Long Island by Colm Tóibín 8- Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín 9- Peace Like a River by Leif Enger 10- I Cheerfully Refuse by Leif Enger 11- The Summer Pact by Emily Giffen 12- Soldier Sailor by Claire Kilroy 13- Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder 14- Knife by Salman Rushdie 15- The Demon of Unrest by Erik Larsen 16- 1974 by Francine Prose 17- The Backyard Bird Chronicles by Amy Tan 18- Sociopath by Patric Gagne 19- An Unfinished Love Story by Doris Kearns Goodwin 20- The Searcher by Tana French 21- The Hunter by Tana French 22- One Perfect Couple by Ruth Ware 23- Midnight Feast by Lucy Foley 24- Highway 13 by Fiona McFarland 25- This Bright River by Liz Moore 26- God of the Woods by Liz Moore 27- The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley 28- Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride 29- The Book of Elsewhere by Keanu Reeves and China Miéville 30- Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky 31- House on the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune 32- Somewhere Beyond the Sea by TJ Klune 33- The Deading by Nicholas Belardes 34- Unicorn Woman by Gayl Jones 35- Eva's Man by Gayl Jones 36- You Are Here edited by Ada Límon 37- Black Gold by Marguerite Henry 38- The Kentucky Oaks by Avalyn Hunter 39- Bourbonland by Edward Lee 40- Smoke and Pickles by Edward Lee 41- Buttermilk Graffiti by Edward Lee 42- The Gaga Mistake by Emma Straub 43- Julian is a Mermaid by Jessica Love 44- The Squish by Brianna Carzoo 45- The Berlin Letters by Katherine Reay 46- Horrorstor by Grady Hendrix 47- Finna by Nino Cipri 48- The Divorcees by Rowan Beaird 49- I'm Afraid You Have Dragons by Peter S. Beagle 50- The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle Apps mentioned— Merlin app (birds)

Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com. Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpod Facebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover. To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button. May is Audiobook Appreciation Month so this week we suggest to you 10 plus books that give an added dimension when you listen to the audiobook version. And we aren't even entertaining the notion that listening to audiobooks isn't reading. Listening counts! Books mentioned-- 1- The Jinn Daughter by Rania Hanna 2- The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller 3- Rules for Second Chances by Maggie North (A 5 star read recommended by fellow book lover Shannon Loar @shopcoffeekids 4- Invasion of the Body Snatchers by Jack Finney, narrated by Kristoffer Tabori 5- Taste: My Life Through Food by Stanley Tucci, narrated by Stanley Tucci 6- Nothing is Wrong and Here is Why by Alexandra Petri, narrated by Rebecca Gibel 7- Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson, narrated by Marin Ireland 8- The Assasination of Brangwain Spurge by MT Anderson and Eugene Yelchin narrated by Gildart Jackson 9- Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid, narrated by an ensemble cast 10- A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess, narrated by Tom Hollander 11- Heartbreak: A Personal and Scientific Journey by Florence Williams, narrated by author 12- Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam, narrated by Marin Ireland 13- Ava's Man by Rick Bragg 14-The Speckled Beauty: A Dog and his People by Rick Bragg 15- My Southern Journey: True Journeys from the Heart of the South by Rick Bragg 16- It's All Over But the Shoutin' by Rick Bragg 17- Calypso by David Sedaris 18- Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris 19- Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith, narrated by Bronson Pinchot 20- The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith 21- The Husbands by Holly Gramazio 22- The People of Paper by Salvador Plascencia Movies and Shows mentioned-- 1- Big Night (1996) 2- Stanley Tucci Searching for Italy (CNN) 3- Leave the World Behind (Netflix, 2023) 4- Ripley (Netflix, 2024)

Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com. Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpod Facebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover. To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button. We interact with book publicists pretty often, but a few months ago, one of them, Sami Lien, emailed and asked for recommendations about things to do in Kentucky around Derby. She explained that she is in a travel book club; they read books over the course of 12 months about a particular US location and then take a trip to visit. The novel Horse by Geraldine Brooks was the book that inspired this particular trip for their club. Well, we love books and travel so we had to invite Sami and her book club friend, Marilyn, to be guests on the show. We had a great time learning about the ins and outs of their travel book club and are excited to get to meet them this Friday at a restaurant about an hour outside of Louisville. If you would like to see the full list of books they read this year preparing to travel to Kentucky and the Derby, you can find the list in the show notes. Books Mentioned in the Episode: 1- Horse by Geraldine Brooks 2- Relative Strangers by A.H. Kim 3- Once Persuaded, Twice Shy by Melodie Edwards 4- 1984 by George Orwell 5- The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck 6- Cannery Row by John Steinbeck 7- East of Eden by John Steinbeck 8- Black Beauty by Anna Sewell 9- Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand 10- South of Broad by Pat Conroy 11- My Reading Life by Pat Conroy 12- Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy 13- Lexington: The Extraordinary Life and Turbulent Times of America's Legendary Racehorse by Kim Wickens 14- Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War by Tony Horwitz 15- Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon - A five star read recommended by fellow book lover Caitríona Shannon @these_thats_and_prose 16- Friday Harbor by DC Alexander 17- Blood in the Bluegrass by DC Alexander 18- Mary by Janis Cooke Newman 19- Not My Father's Son by Alan Cumming 20- Norah Goes Off Script by Annabel Monaghan Shows mentioned-- 1- Ripley (Netflix, 2024)   The Divine Destinations Reading List for Kentcuky and the KY Derby 1- Horse: A Novel by Geraldine Brooks 2- The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson 3- Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver 4- Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand 5- Groundskeeping by Lee Cole 6- Icy Sparks by Gwyn Hyman Rubio 7- Lincoln by Russell Freedman 8- Water Street by Crystal Wilkinson 9- The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes 10- The Perfect Horse: The Daring U.S. Mission to Rescue the Priceless Stallions Kidnapped by the Nazis by Elizabeth Letts 11- First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston 12- The Patron Saint of Liars by Ann Patchett 13- Horse Crazy: The Story of a Woman and a World in Love with an Animal by Sarah Maslin Nir 14- Lexington by Kim Wickens

Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com. Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpod Facebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover. To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button. This week we have a remix episode because we are attending the LA Festival of Books. We catch up with author Ellen Birkett Morris. We first spoke to her in 2020 about her short story collection, Lost Girls, and now she has recently published a novel Beware the Tall Grass. So we will hear a little something old and a little something new from her in that episode. Books Mentioned in this Episode: 1- Beware the Tall Grass by Ellen Birkett Morris 2- Lost Girls by Ellen Birkett Morris 3- Harriet The Spy by Louise Fitzhugh 4- James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl 5- Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl 5- Arabel's Raven by Joan Aiken 6- Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout 7- Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal by Mary Roach 8- Stiff: The Curious Lives of Cadavers by Mary Roach 9- Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex by Mary Roach 10- Lake Life by David James Poissant 11- Tell The Wolves I'm Home by Carol Rifka Brunt 12- The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate 13- The One and Only Bob by Katherine Applegate 14- Door to Door Bookstore by Carsten Henn translated by Melody Shaw - 5 Star Read recommended by Sarah Phillips @cosymidlifebooknook Article mentioned in this episode: lawnlove.com/blog/best-cities-for-book-lovers/

Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com. Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpod Facebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover. To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button. This week we are playing the nostalgia card. All of the books we mention are backlist in a big way; the majority are at least 15 years old. Our episode is about books that take up space in our heads. They may be books that, when we see them on a shelf, stir up all kinds of feelings or memories from years past. Or they are books that simply left a huge impression on us and we think about them from time to time. Even though they aren't new and shiny, these books deserve a place on your TBR. Books mentioned: 1- The Dead Boy Detectives comic series based on characters developed by Neil Gaiman 2- The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith 3- Catherine Called Birdy by Karen Cushman 4- The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin 5- Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant by Curtis Chin 6- When the Moon Hatched by Sarah A. Parker - A 5 star read recommended by fellow book lover - Kasey @kayree_reads 7-It by Stephen King (1986) 8- Jack Gance by Ward Just (1997) 9- Burglars Can't Be Choosers (the Bernie Rhodenbarr series) by Lawrence Block (1977) 10- The Good Men by Charmaine Craig (2003) 11- The Six Wives of Henry VIII by Alison Weir (1991) 12- Eleanor of Aquitaine: A Biography by Marion Meade (1991) 13- Nora: A Biography of Nora Joyce by Brenda Maddox (1998) 14- House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III (1999) 15- Eva's Man by Gayl Jones (1987) 16- Fair and Tender Ladies by Lee Smith (1988) 17- Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy (1895) 18- Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy 19- Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Torzs 20- Children of Earth and Sky by Guy Gavriel Kay Shows mentioned— 1- Dead Boy Detectives (Netflix, 2024) 2- Catherine, Called Birdy (Amazon Prime, 2022) 3- Ripley (Netflix, 2024) 4- Sandman (Netflix, 2022) 5- Good Omens (Amazon Prime, 2019) 6- Sherlock (Hulu, 2010) 7- The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) 8- Emma ( Amazon Prime, 2020) 9- 3 Body Problem (Netflix, 2024) 10- Burglar (1987) 11- House of Sand and Fog (Max, 2003) 12- Lion in Winter (1968) 13- Jude (1996) 14- Far from the Madding Crowd (Max, 2015) Theatre mentioned— Broadway across America production of “Six” Articles mentioned— 8 Bookish Podcasts for Booklovers - www.badasswomensbookclub.com/blog/2024/…booklovers          

Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com. Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpod Facebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover. To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button. You can find Judith Lindbergh at judithlindbergh.com/ and on IG @judithlindbergh. This week's episode is one that big history nerds may find fascinating. In fact, big nerd Carrie could have gone even further down a rabbit hole of Herodotus than she did with our guest Judith Lindbergh. If you feel like playing a drinking game with this episode, between the three of us, we say the word ‘fascinating” at least nine times. Judith's second novel, titled Akmaral, will be published on May 7 and is a sweeping story of a nomadic woman warrior in Central Asia during the 5th century. Judith tells us about her inspiration for the novel (and you can find more about the Ice Maiden she mentions in our interview on her website) and how the matriarchal community in which Akmaral lives has connections to the mythological Amazons. Judith relates the challenges of women during the Iron Age to those that modern women have through her story. A perfect saga story for fans of Madeline Miller. Books Mentioned In This Episode: 1- Akmaral by Judith Lindbergh 2- Tulip Fever by Deborah Moggach 3- The Last Painting of Sara de Vos by Dominic Smith 4- The Thrall's Tale by Judith Lindbergh 5- Histories by Herodotus 6- Rough Magic by Lara Prior-Palmer 7- The Fair Botanists by Sara Sheridan - A 5 star read recommended by fellow book lover Linda Lefler @lindalefler 8- This is How Your Marriage Ends: A Hopeful Approach to Saving Relationships by Matthew Fray 9- The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave 10- The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year by Margaret Renkl 11- Late Migrations by Margaret Renkl 12- I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai Movies mentioned-- 1- White Noise (2023) Documentary mentioned: 1- Secrets of the Dead: Amazon Warrior Women, www.pbs.org/wnet/secrets/amazon…women-episode/1464/. 2- NOVA: “Ice Mummies: Siberian Ice Maiden. www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrYitmlS1YU. Article mentioned-- 1- The Marriage Lesson That I Learned Too Late --www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/…-dishes/629526/ 2- Tuvan Throat Singing - www.songlines.co.uk/features/essent…-singing-albums.

Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com. Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpod Facebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover. To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button. Earth Day is upon us in a few weeks, April 22, and what better time to explore literature that comments on the health of Mother Earth. This week we are talking eco-literature. Eco-literature engages readers on environmental concerns through the interactions between humans and the environment. And it encourages thought about our impact on the planet. Books Mentioned in this Episode: 1- Wishtree by Katherine Applegate 2- That Time I Got Drunk and Saved a Demon by Kimberly Lemming 3- That Time I Got Drunk and Yeeted a Love Potion at a Werewolf by Kimberly Lemming 4- Ramayana: Divine Loophole by Sanjay Patel 5- Kaikeyi by Vaishnavi Patel 6- Did You Hear About Kitty Karr by Crystal Smith Paul - A 5 Star Read Recommended by a Fellow Book Lover Kristin M. @paws.read.repeat 7- Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver 8- Bicycling with Butterflies by Sara Dykman 9- Dune by Frank Herbert 10- Don't Call Me a Hurricane by Ellen Hagan 11- Beaverland: How One Weird Rodent Made America by Leila Philips 12- The Last Animal by Ramona Ausubel 13- Three Ways to Disappear by Katy Yocom 14- State of Wonder by Ann Patchet 15- What Blooms From Dust by James Markert 16- The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck 17- Days of Sand by Aimee de Jongh 18- The Fifth Season by NK Jemisin 19- Death in the Air: The True Story of a Serial Killer, the Great London Smog, and the Strangling of a City by Kate Winkler Dawson 20- Hoot by Carl Hiassen Links to articles we reference: Library Book Returned After 102 Years people.com/family-returns-pair…ranch%20on%20Monday. Wishtree censorship— www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/…ishtree.html Sting Ray article— www.npr.org/2024/03/07/12366785…tery-north-carolina Bringing Back the Wooly Mammoth www.npr.org/sections/health-sho…-mammoth-extinction        

Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com. Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpod Facebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover. To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button. You can find this week's Austen authors at their websites: AH Kim - www.ahkim.net/ and @ahkim.writer Melodie Edwards - www.melodieedwards.com/ and @melodiewritesedwards  Jane Austen was born in 1775 and died in 1817 but she remains a writer who has captured the minds and hearts of many readers. The themes she addressed in her time remain ones that are relevant today: the need to be an individual despite the binds of society's rules, the complications of marriage, and the power and powerlessness that comes with changes in social class. Our guests this week, AH Kim, and Melodie Edwards, both love Jane Austen and with such gusto that they wrote their own reimaginings of her novels. They talk about the potential pitfalls of their endeavors given how exacting many Austen fans are, as well as the things they wanted to ensure they kept from Austen versus the creative license they took to make their stories unique to their own experiences and modern times. Books Mentioned in this Episode: 1- Relative Strangers by A.H. Kim 2- Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen 3- Once Persuaded, Twice Shy by Melodie Edwards 4- Persuasion by Jane Austen 5- Death Comes to Pemberley by PD James 6- Jane and Edward by Melodie Edwards 7- Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte  8- A Good Family by A.H. Kim 9- Long Live by V. B. Lacey - A Book recommended by a fellow book lover Brianna Wright @bwrightsbookreviews 10- Deacon King Kong by James McBride 11- Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano 12- Every Time We Say Goodbye by Natalie Jenner 13- The Fetishist by Katherine Min 14- Murder Your Employer: The McMasters Guide to Homicide by Rupert Holmes 15- The Mostly True Story of Tanner and Louise by Colleen Oakley TV series mentioned: 1- Northern Exposure ( Amazon, 1990-1995) 2- The Reluctant Traveler (Apple +, 2023-present) Movies mentioned- 1- Pride and Prejudice (1995) with Colin Firth 2- Sense and Sensibility (1995) with Emma Thompson 3- Persuasion (Netflix, 2022) with Dakota Johnson 4- Persuasion (2007, iTV) with Sally Hawkins 5- Persuasion (1995) with Ciarin Hinds 6- Emma (1996) with Gwyneth Paltrow 7- American Fiction (2023)      

Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com. Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpod Facebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover. To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button. This week we're talking about linked short story collections. What are linked short stories, though? These are stories that are collected and somehow linked to each other. That link can be very explicit or very subtle. They can be linked by one character who threads her/his way throughout every one or who is only mentioned marginally. They can be linked by several characters. They can be linked by the setting–if they are set in a certain town or state or country. But they can also be linked by theme or symbol or a common experience of characters. They could all be about a shared experience, like parenthood or death or love. Or a combination of these things. Books Mentioned in This Episode: 1- Spaceman of Bohemia by Jaroslav Kalfar 2- We Are Never Meeting in Real Life by Samantha Irby 3- Good Taste by Caroline Scott 4- Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte - a 5 star read recommended by fellow book lover Anastacia @ms_a_m_c 5- The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer 6- The Decameron by Giovanni Boccacio 7- Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout 8- The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien 9- Dubliners by James Joyce 10- Dear Chrysanthemums: A Novel in Stories by Fiona Sze-Lorrain 11- The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros 12- Birth Canal by Dias Novita Wuri 13- There, There by Tommy Orange 14- Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange 15- What Makes You Think You're Supposed to Feel Better by Jody Hobbs Hessler 16- The Secret Lives of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw 17- A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan 18- Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi 19- Music of the Swamp by Lewis Nordan 20- To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee 21- Crooked Hallelujah by Kelly Jo Ford 22- Frying Plantain by Zalika Reid-Benta 23- Gwen and Art are Not in Love by Lex Croucher 24- Throne of Glass (series) by Sarah J. Maas 25- The Bone People by Keri Hulme 26- The Extinction of Irina Rey by Jennifer Croft Podcasts mentioned-- Ologies with Alie Ward - www.alieward.com/ologies/oikologyencore NPR's Book of the Day - www.npr.org/2024/03/14/11969793…-rey-jennifer-croft Movies mentioned-- 1- Oppenheimer (2023) 2- Spaceman (2024, Netflix)