Podcasts about things you save

This week we are joined by Katherine Center! Katherine Center is the New York Times bestselling author of twelve novels, including The Bodyguard, Hello Stranger, Things You Save in a Fire, and The Rom-Commers. Katherine writes deep, nuanced, laugh-and-cry rom-coms that brim with hope and healing. The movie adaptation of her novel Happiness for Beginners became a Netflix movie in 2023 and hit the Global Top Ten in 81 countries, and the movie of her novel The Lost Husband hit #1 on Netflix in 2020. Her May 2025 book is The Love Haters. Katherine has two almost-grown kids and lives in her hometown of Houston, Texas, with her husband and their fluffy-but-fierce dog. Join her mailing list at KatherineCenter.com!This week, Katherine Center shares her experiences as an author, her love for public speaking, and the joy of connecting with readers. She discusses her unique blend of introversion and extroversion, her humorous family dynamics, and the importance of uplifting stories in literature. Katherine emphasizes the value of rom-coms and the permission to enjoy predictable narratives, highlighting how her books resonate with readers during challenging times. She reflects on her own experiences with reading and writing, particularly during her middle school years, and how those experiences shaped her as a writer. Katherine shares insights on the anticipation that drives narratives, the challenges and joys of adapting her books into films, and the importance of thorough research in her writing process. Give this episode a listen!Recommendations From this Episode: To All The Boys I've Loved BeforeLoud: Accept Nothing Less Than the Life You DeserveCrash Landing On YouFollow Katherine Center: @katherinecenterFollow Carly: @carlyjmontagFollow Emily: @thefunnywalshFollow the podcast: @aloneatlunchpodPlease rate and review the podcast! Spread the word! Tell your friends! Email us: aloneatlunch@gmail.comSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

On this episode of Currently Reading, Roxanna and Mary are discussing: Bookish Moments: teaching littles to read and a book press Current Reads: all the great, interesting, and/or terrible stuff we've been reading lately Deep Dive: tropes Roxanna and Mary want to see MORE of in their reading The Fountain: we visit our perfect fountain to make wishes about our reading lives Show notes are time-stamped below for your convenience. Read the transcript of the episode (this link only works on the main site) .  .  .  .  .  2:09 - Our Bookish Moments of the Week 2:25 - Teach Your Child To Read In 100 Easy Lessons by Siegfried Engelmann 4:02 - The Unspeakable Acts of Zina Pavlou by Eleni Kyriacou (Blackwell's hardcover link, releases in paperback in the US October 8, 2024. If you want to wait for the paperback you can pre-order HERE) 5:51 - Our Current Reads 5:56 - Impossible Creatures by Katherine Rundell (Mary) 6:08 - Waterstone's 10:14 - The Undertaking of Heart and Mercy by Megan Bannen (Roxanna) 11:02 - Under The Whispering Door by T.J. Klune 14:12 - A Woman in the Polar Night by Christiane Ritter (Mary) 17:46 - Hello Stranger by Katherine Center (Roxanna) 17:54 - Happiness for Beginners by Katherine Center 21:20 - Things You Save in a Fire by Katherine Center 21:30 - How To Walk Away by Katherine Center 23:16 - The Bodyguard by Katherine Center 24:30 - @katherinecenter on Instagram 24:36 - The Six Deaths of the Saint by Alix E. Harrow (Mary, Amazon link) 27:46 - It's Easier Than You Think by Sylvia Boorstein (Roxanna) 27:57 - Mary and Roxanna's Top Ten Reads of 2023 episode 33:52 - Deep Dive: Bookish Tropes We Want More Of 36:30 - Small Change by Roan Parrish 36:41 - Again, Rachel by Marian Keyes 38:03 - Holiday Romance by Catherine Walsh 38:16 - Mary's Instagram (Holiday Romance is under her “Books Vol. 6” highlight) 39:54 - The Bromance Book Club by Lyssa Kay Adams 40:25 - Nora Goes Off Script by Annabel Monaghan 42:58 - Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett 43:05 - Hench by Natalize Zina Walschots 43:13 - Things You Save in a Fire by Katherine Center 44:17 - The Change by Kirsten Miller 46:01 - The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty 47:01 - The Wretched Waterpark by Kiersten White (Sinister Summer #1) 47:07 - The Night Gardener by Jonathan Auxier 49:31 - Happily Ever Ninja by Penny Reid 50:54 - Sisters of the Vast Black by Lina Rather 51:35 - Search by Michelle Huneven 51:43 - In This House of Brede by Rumer Godden 52:36 - Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson 52:38 - Everyone On This Train Is A Suspect by Benjamin Stevenson 54:54 - The Woman Next Door by Yewande Omotoso 55:30 - Fellowship Point by Alice Elliott Dark 57:07 - Meet Us At The Fountain 57:12 - I wish to motivate listeners to spend time with their physical TBR and plan reads or cull books. (Mary) 59:35 - I wish to press Burnout by Emily and Amelia Nagoski. (Roxanna) 59:46 - Burnout by Emily and Amelia Nagoski 1:02:18 - Come As You Are by Emily Nagoski Support Us: Become a Bookish Friend | Grab Some Merch Shop Bookshop dot org | Shop Amazon Bookish Friends Receive: The Indie Press List with a curated list of five books hand sold by the indie of the month. March's IPL comes to us from our Anchor store An Unlikely Story! Trope Thursday with Kaytee and Bunmi - a behind the scenes peek into the publishing industry All Things Murderful with Meredith and Elizabeth - special content for the scary-lovers, brought to you with the special insights of an independent bookseller The Bookish Friends Facebook Group - where you can build community with bookish friends from around the globe as well as our hosts Connect With Us: The Show: Instagram | Website | Email | Threads The Hosts and Regulars: Meredith | Kaytee | Mary | Roxanna Affiliate Disclosure: All affiliate links go to Bookshop unless otherwise noted. Shopping here helps keep the lights on and benefits indie bookstores. Thanks for your support!

Thank you for tuning in to Episode 270 of the Down Cellar Studio Podcast. Full show notes with photos can be found on my website.    This week's segments included:   On the Needles, Hook or Bobbins Brainstorming From the Armchair KAL News Events Contest, News & Notes Life in Focus Ask Me Anything On a Happy Note Quote of the Week   On the Needles, Hook or Bobbins   Calendula Christmas Quilt Pattern: Calendula Quilt by Elena Fedotova available on Ravelry for $7.50 US. Yarn: Big Twist Value Solids in Ivory, Deep Red, Varsity Green, Aqua, Medium Rose Hook:  G (4.0 mm) Ravelry Project Page I used Canva to help me figure out color placement to extend out the quilt pattern. I am extending what is written as a square into a rectangle. 64 squares now. about 24 totally seamed   Let the Mystery Unravel 2023 Blanket of Calm Pattern: Blanket of Calm by Casapinka (free crochet pattern) Yarn: Woolen Women Fibers- Let the Mystery Unravel subscription + Cascade Heritage Sock yarn in the Forged Iron Colorway Hook: 3.25 mm (D) Ravelry Project Page You can find my Let the Mystery Unravel Unboxing Video on YouTube in this Playlist This subscription is not available to new subscribers but I hope you'll watch each month and see how my blanket comes along. Stay tuned to Woolen Women for all of the fun kits they have! Don't forget, they're Pro Shop Sponsors. Progress Notes- first 3 sets of squares seamed & border added. December squares- all 9 done. not seamed.   Jen/Riley's Matching Hexi Blankets Pattern: Using this photo tutorial & this video tutorial. Hook: D (3.25 mm) We are making 4 round hexagons. As Riley finishes one, she texts me and I work up my corresponding mini. We've done 14 so far. I'm making collages in Canva for each.   Same as It Ever Was Hat Pattern: Same as It Ever Was by Sarah Jordan ($6 knitting pattern available on Ravelry) Yarn: Knit Picks Felici in the Beatnik colorway Needles: US 2 (2.75 mm) Ravelry Project Page Knit Wit Sesigns is a Pigskin Snack Shack Sponsor. Progress: around 75% done. I think this pattern is a great use for Felici which I've found doesn't hold up as well to hard wearing things like socks.   Nimbus Vest Pattern: Nimbus by Berrocco Design Team (free knitting pattern on the Berrocco website) Yarn: Worsted Weight 100% Wool (from Rhinebeck 2022) held double Needles:  US 10 (6.0mm) Ravelry Project Page Progress: I'm currently working on the back and am almost done with the 13 inches I need before I decrease for the armholes.   Declan's 2nd Socks Yarn: Patons Kroy in the Greener Pastures Colorway Needles: US 1.5 (2.5 mm) Pattern: OMG Heel Socks by Megan Williams ($5 knitting pattern available on Ravelry) Ravelry Project Page Green, black, gray, cream, mustard stripes + gray/green/white self patterning stripe. Progress- the first sock probably about ready for the toe. Second sock- cuff is done, about 3 inches into the leg. I also did some darning on his first pair of handknit socks.   Brainstorming   Bought yarn for 3 blanket projects huge sale at Joann Conor & Carly Baby using this crochet pattern on Ravelry. Colleen & Patrick Baby Blanket using this crochet pattern on Ravelry. Jenny & Manny Baby Blanket  using the Modified Sedge Stitch Baby Blanket- a $2 crochet pattern available on Ravelry.   From the Armchair The Bodyguard by Katherine Center. Bookshop Affiliate Link. Amazon Affiliate Link. Things You Save in a Fire by Katherine Center. Bookshop Affiliate Link. Amazon Affiliate Link.   Note: Some links are listed as Amazon Affiliate Links. If you click those, please know that I am an Amazon Associate and I earn money from qualifying purchases.     KAL News Pigskin Party '23 #DCSPigskinParty23 Official Rules Find everything you need on my website or in the Start Here Thread in the Ravelry Group Register using this Google Form (you must be Registered to be eligible for prizes) Enter your projects using the Point Tally Form Find the full list of Sponsors in this Google Doc. Coupon Codes are listed in this Google Doc & in this Ravelry Thread Exclusive Items from our Pro Shop Sponsors are listed in this Ravelry Thread Questions-  ask them in this Ravelry Thread or email Jen at downcellarstudio @ gmail.com Quarter 4 Challenge: Cable It Up brought to you by our Official Sponsor of the 4th Quarter Lolodidit. Full details can be found in this Google Doc and in this Ravelry Thread. Tune in to see if you're one of our Quarter 3 Challenge Winners or a December Participation Prize Winners The last day to register for Pigskin is 1/31. Reminder- the event ends on Monday 2/12/24! Get those projects finished. Updates from Commentator Mary Lots of chatter on the ravelry boards about the Q4 challenge! First to submit was player Audioann--who knit a really cool beanie with a large diagonal cable.  It has a super interesting construction--you knit a flat parallelogram shaped piece and then seam it up. Check it out: https://www.ravelry.com/projects/audioann/viviani-beanie-2 In the endzone dance thread, there are so many great projects!  In particular, a lot of stuffies caught my eye. It should come as no surprise that a bunch of people knit imaginedlandscapes' mystery gnomes last month since she is a sponsor.  Here are a few examples:  stillstranding: https://www.ravelry.com/discuss/down-cellar-studio-podcast/4272642/476-500#498 nellsknitting: https://www.ravelry.com/discuss/down-cellar-studio-podcast/4272642/476-500#491 supercraftygirl: https://www.ravelry.com/projects/Supercraftygirl/snow-matter-what esalaza: https://www.ravelry.com/discuss/down-cellar-studio-podcast/4272642/501-525#516 In other stuffie news, stitchr made pill bug stuffed animal that is truly awesome! It has rainbow legs and a bright orange and red body but it still rolls up into a gray ball.  Super cool! https://www.ravelry.com/discuss/down-cellar-studio-podcast/4272642/501-525#508 She also made a grizzly bear that is so lifelike--really cool! https://www.ravelry.com/discuss/down-cellar-studio-podcast/4272642/501-525#520   Events Vogue Knitting Live, New York: January 25-28th, 2024 I'm taking classes on Friday & then planning to go to the market 5-8p Friday. I'm teaching a class on the OMG Sock Pattern at Staci's Stitches in Scituate, MA on Sundays starting February 18th (4 classes)- the class is SOLD OUT   Contest, News & Notes Yarnable Unboxing January 2024 Video posted- this kit came with stitch markers with numbers on them, 25, 50, 75, 100 intended for use when casting on a large amount of stitch. Hawkeygirl3 on YouTube suggested it would also be great for counting rows/rounds like on the leg of a sock if you want to do matching ones! Great idea December 2023 Let the Mystery Unravel Unboxing + Blanket Update   Life in Focus 2023 Review: Knitting/Crochet/Spinning 61 Finished Projects 32 knitting - 2 sweaters (1 for me, 1 for Mom). Lots of hats & socks. 29 crochet (same as last year)- 9 toys 43 are gifts (+ 3 charity items) Spinning- 3 finished projects. 880 meters of yarn. (3 Spinning WIPs) Favorite projects Jean Marie shawl for Mom's birthday- Ravelry Project Page (fingering held double) Crochet Ice Cream Cone for Hattie's Birthday- Ravelry Project Page Domingo the Easter Goat for Millie for Christmas- Ravelry Project Page   2023 Numbers: 50 Books read 24 Podcast Episodes 66 Videos on YouTube (some only available for Patrons) YouTube Subscribers- 461 new subscribers, 2,578 subscribers total 5 times- Donated Blood 14 Massages Book Signings- 1 Plays/Musicals/drag Shows- 12 Concerts- 5 (night time only in Nashville) + 1 (Kane Brown) + 1 (Lainey Wilson ) + 1 (Old Dominion)= 8 Birthday Sleepovers- 3 Fiber Events- 6 (Russells, CT sheep & Wool, Maryland, Rhinebeck, C&SSYH, Fiber Fest of NE) Trips: Nashville, Maryland, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Rhinebeck. 23 for 2023 list Read 23 books (35 as of August) Try at least one pair of fake eyelashes Print and hang at least 1 of our new family photos  (ordered 8/9 from Walgreens- 8x10 for $12!) Kayak in one new place Did not complete Hike in one new place See 4 plays/musicals (Hamilton 2/9, Shrek in March twice. Secret Garden at Company in April, Matilda [Millie] in May) Give blood at least 3 times (March, May, August, October & December done) Knit myself a pair of mittens Knit/crochet at least one project with handspun (Strathcona sweater "aka my Rhinebeck sweater" Watch 3 movies in one day (1/22 w/ Mom, Terri, Megg- Everything. Everywhere, All At Once. Women Talk. Armageddon Time) See a movie in the theater (A Man Called Otto w/ Laura) Go to a museum (Liz and I went in December) Finish 1 punch needle project- Did not complete Ski at least 1 day (ideally 2-4)- Did not complete Try at least 1 new gym/in person fitness option 4/8- consult at Big Day Fitness. First class on 4/10. Signed up for a month.  Make at least 1 new financial investment (CD started in February) Purge at least 23 items from the house. Ideally 46. After a smaller clean out earlier in the year, I took a full car load to Savers in October- lots of clothes. Publish 1 knitting pattern Send 5 cards to friends/family just because- Did not complete Go Camping- Did not complete Participate in the Fiberuary Challenge on Instagram Take a class (in person or virtual)- Zumba twice. Create a new music playlist. Riley's. Plus CMA fest artists.   2024 Word of the Year- Heart Definitions: The central or innermost part of something To like very much, love courage, determination, hope or enthusiasm (don't lose heart) the vital part or essence one's real nature (at heart)   What I want to focus on in 2024: Stay close to my family- which is the heart and life blood of my life. Be true to my heart- what I value, what's most important to me. I won't lose heart even when times are hard. I will be true to my heart, my real nature, the heart of me.   2024-  Goals: Use my podcast/YouTube/Instagram following to raise money for the FearLESS Living Fund (details in the Ravelry group- and email if you're one of our regular sponsors) Make & assess goals every month in 2024 Monthly review of number of workouts + weigh on at least twice a month. Stretch/Theragun 2-4 times a week [][][][]   24 for 2024 list Get 2 massages beyond the one per month at Massage Envy End the year with more money in the bank than when I started in January. Make & assess goals each month of the year Read more books than you did in 2023 (50) Organize a fundraiser for the FearLESS Living Fund Come up with better temporary & more permanent storage for memory items. Visit 1 new (to me) museum or historical site Add one new indoor plant to my collection Buy/make/work with Dan/Oisin on at least 1 plant stand for the living or dining room Publish at least one new pattern Knit at least 1 finished project with handspun Knit/crochet myself a new sweater Make a Christmas afghan for the living room Take a class Purge at least 20 items from my wardrobe Go skiing Watch at least 5 of the movies on the Jen/Liz movie list Do something special for our Anniversary in May Do a regular (ideally monthly) review of Dropbox Camera Uploads to delete unnecessary items Buy a new quilt and/or duvet cover for our bed Buy a new blow dryer. Get my car detailed Buy new curtains for living room Try a new local restaurant   Health update on my Mom, Diane: She was hospitalized for several days because of issues with heart palpitation and then we learned her cancer is back in brain, lymph nodes, pleura (lining of lungs) and ribs. She will start with the same chemo she had last time (Oct '22- March '23). It's likely she'll also need radiation for the brain, but will do an MRI 4 weeks after chemo starts to know for sure & decide what's best… Health update video coming soon. Keep those prayers and good wishes coming. Diane starts chemo Monday 1/22.   On a Happy Note We had a great visit with my friend Laura who was here for New Year's. We struck a great balance of lazily watching tv (The Gilded Age & Slow Horses) and getting out and about. We also went to see Boys in the Boat the movie theater. My parents' annual open house the Saturday after Christmas. Mom gave the girls needle felting kits for Christmas; Millie Facetimed me several times with questions and showing me her progress! Getting sick has not been fun, but the fact that it didn't ruin my holidays and the fact that work is also still relatively quiet is a huge happy note. Dan has been taking great care of me, and we're rewatching Hell On Wheels. I spent Sunday of MLK weekend at my parents'. We played Wordle board game (Amazon affiliate link) with Mom, Riley, Millie and Aila. We visited my cousin Jenny's new house, got our nails done, went out for Mexican, played more games! Fun impromptu sleepover. Millie- All of the Jokers have been Joked! and telling Grammy to "be her best self" adorable.   Quote of the Week   Everything and everyone at their own pace. Flow with not against yourself. -Akiroq Brost   ------ Thank you for tuning in. Remember show notes for this episode can be found at www.downcellarstudio.com/# If you have a moment to leave a review on Apple Podcasts, I'd greatly appreciate it. I can be found on Ravelry as BostonJen and I'd love it if you came over to join our lively and engaged Down Cellar Studio Ravelry Group. Check me out on Instagram at BostonJen1 if you want to see what I'm up to between episodes. Check out my Down Cellar Studio YouTube Channel Email me at downcellarstudio@gmail.com   For website: Thank you for tuning in!   Contact Information: Check out the Down Cellar Studio Patreon! Ravelry: BostonJen & Down Cellar Studio Podcast Ravelry Group Instagram: BostonJen1 YouTube: Down Cellar Studio Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/downcellarstudio Sign up for my email newsletter to get the latest on everything happening in the Down Cellar Studio Check out my Down Cellar Studio YouTube Channel Knit Picks Affiliate Link Bookshop Affiliate Link Yarnable Subscription Box Affiliate Link Music -"Soft Orange Glow" by Josh Woodward. Free download: http://joshwoodward.com/ Note: Some links are listed as Amazon Affiliate Links. If you click those, please know that I am an Amazon Associate and I earn money from qualifying purchases.  

This episode we talk about "Things You Save in a Fire" by Katherine Center, sister wives, G's absolute disregard for my mental health, teenagers dragging us on fashion choices and much more....

Ever been surprised by the book that caught your interest? I've been there! Once a die-hard fan of mystery and thriller novels, I, found myself unexpectedly charmed by the world of romance books. Tune in as I walk you through what I've been reading. If you're looking for your next romance novel, I have some ideas. And for all my fellow mystery and thriller enthusiasts out there, I've got you covered with recommendations from authors like Riley Sager and Ruth Ware. But not all books leave a lasting impression. I'll be discussing a few titles that couldn't live up to the hype. However,  I have some alternatives!   In the episode, I refer to The Icebreaker as The Heartbreaker and The Last to Vanish as The Last to Finish. Apologies to the authors for pronouncing their titles incorrectly. Romance Recommendations:The Cheat Sheet by Sarah AdamsPractice Makes Perfect by Sarah AdamsThe Seven Year Slip by Ashley PostonYou With A View By Jessica JoyceMystery and Thriller Recommendations:The Only One Left by Riley SagerThe It Girl by Ruth WareThe Child Finder by Rene DenfieldThe Echo Killing by Christi DaughertyThe Last to Vanish by Megan MirandaDidn't Live up to the Hype:One of Us is Back by Karen McManus Hello Stranger by Katherine CenterThe Villa by Rachel HawkinsThe Icebreaker by Hannah GraceAlternative Suggestions:The Cousins by Karen McManusThe Bodyguard and Things You Save in a Fire by Katherine CenterReckless Girls and The Wife Upstairs by Rachel HawkinsThe Love Hypothesis and LFor more, follow along on Instagram @whereileftoffpod.

Prepare for joy in the latest episode of the podcast! Rebekah and Tara sit down with the “reigning queen of comfort reads” Katherine Center, New York Times bestselling author of ten novels, including How to Walk Away, Things You Save in a Fire, The Bodyguard, and her newest, Hello Stranger—an instant New York Times bestseller. Katherine writes laugh-and-cry books about how life knocks us down—and how we get back up. She's been compared to both Jane Austen and Nora Ephron, and Emily Henry said her books are like the perfect hug.Listen as they discuss her manifesto to read for joy, her lengthy journey to publication, her passion for romance, and the problem with the snobs against it. Plus! Hear her read a special essay about why she started writing romance novels. Enjoy! Due to character limitations, please find a full version of our show notes and links on our website at: https://www.tarakross.com/podcast-1 Katherine's books can be purchased from your local independent bookstore or online from the Hope Prose Podcast bookshop.org store (benefiting indie bookstores) at: https://bookshop.org/shop/thehopeprosepod The Hope Prose Podcast's InstagramRebekah's Instagram Tara's Instagram

On this week's episode of Currently Reading, Meredith and Roxanna are discussing: Bookish Moments: reading peccadilloes and reading as a race Current Reads: all the great, interesting, and/or terrible stuff we've been reading lately Deep Dive: questions and answers about a reading partnership, and how that works in the real world of Roxanna and Meredith The Fountain: we visit our perfect fountain to make wishes about our reading lives As per usual, time-stamped show notes are below with references to every book and resource we mentioned in this episode. If you'd like to listen first and not spoil the surprise, don't scroll down!  We are now including transcripts of the episode (this link only works on the main site). The goal here is to increase accessibility for our fans! *Please note that all book titles linked below are Bookshop affiliate links. Your cost is the same, but a small portion of your purchase will come back to us to help offset the costs of the show. If you'd prefer to shop on Amazon, you can still do so here through our main storefront. Anything you buy there (even your laundry detergent, if you recently got obsessed with switching up your laundry game) kicks a small amount back to us. Thanks for your support!*   . . . . 2:02 - Bookish Moment of the Week 3:49 - Season 5: Episode 21 8:47 - Current Reads 8:56 - Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie (Roxanna) 15:36 - Babel by R.F. Kuang (Meredith) 26:29 - The Sunday Philosophy Club by Alexander McCall Smith (Roxanna) 26:43 - The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith 30:56 - The Drift by C.J. Tudor (Meredith) 32:38 - The Chalk Man by C.J. Tudor 35:41 - The Bodyguard by Katherine Center (Roxanna) 35:56 - Happiness for Beginners by Katherine Center 38:11 - Things You Save in a Fire by Katherine Center 39:52 - A World of Curiosities by Louise Penny (Meredith) 42:44 - Glass Houses by Louise Penny (Meredith mistakenly said castle instead of houses) 46:43 - Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree 47:29 - The Long Way Home by Louise Penny 50:45 - If you are interested in a new Louise Penny segment called “A Journey to Three Pines” featuring Meredith and Roxanna, reach out in all the ways to let us know! Currentlyreadingpodcast@gmail.com, @currentlyreadingpodcast on Instagram, or in the Bookish Friends Group if you're a member of Patreon. 52:09 - Still Life by Louise Penny 52:52 - Deep Dive: Cultivating a Reading Partnership 56:42 - A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas (ACOTAR #2) 59:11 - Babel by R.F. Kuang 1:00:01 - The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O'Farrell 1:08:38 - Meet Us At The Fountain I wish to read more contemporary fiction and Own Voices in 2023 (Roxanna) I wish everyone would realize you can have a fulfilling reading year no matter how many books you read (Meredith) Connect With Us: Meredith is @meredith.reads on Instagram Kaytee is @notesonbookmarks on Instagram Mindy is @gratefulforgrace on Instagram Mary is @maryreadsandsips on Instagram Roxanna is @roxannatheplanner on Instagram currentlyreadingpodcast.com @currentlyreadingpodcast on Instagram currentlyreadingpodcast@gmail.com Support us at patreon.com/currentlyreadingpodcast and www.zazzle.com/store/currentlyreading

Tara Grace Ericson joins Narelle, Valerie, and Elizabeth to talk about CCR with firefighter heroes (and heroines). Books discussed include: An Unlikely Alliance by Toni Shiloh The One Who Got Away by Tara Grace Ericson Sweet Waters by Julie Carobini At First Spark by Liwen Y Ho The Isaac Project by Sarah Monzon Sandover Beach Week by Emma StClair Brewed With Love by Kimberly Rose Johnson First Site by Rose Fresquez To Protect and Serve by Staci Stallings Remembering the Cowboy by Mandi Blake Susan May Warren's Montana Fire Series Out of the Ashes by TK Chapin Bonus mainstream rec: Things You Save in a Fire by Katherine Center

We're slaying our reading goals, involved in book clubs, and listen to audiobooks, too! We've got lots of recommendations to spice up your summer reading list including recommendations from many genres of books: fiction, non-fiction, mystery/thriller, memoir/autobiography, self-help/self-care, and BRAD (beach read after dark, AKA romance or smut!!). Learn more about what books we loved and grow your TBR (to be read) list, while hopefully avoiding those DNFs (did not finish). Bookworms, unite! Patreon | Love what you're hearing? Help fund ongoing episodes through donations as little as $1/month. Learn more here! Leave a review | When you leave a five star iTunes review, it helps others with similar interests and passions find us when they're looking for new content. Thank you in advance! Resources and Show Notes Where the Crawdads Sing, by Delia Owens Body Respect A Promised Land (Barack Obama) Becoming (Michelle Obama) Jessica Simpson: An Open Book The Last Thing He Told Me, by Laura Dave The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid This Naked Mind, by Annie Grace The Funny Kid This is Where I Leave You, by Jonathan Tropper  -- This is the book Gina highly recommends, although she could barely remember the plot (in her defense, she read it probably ten years ago!).  It's good for a laugh, that's for sure. The Things You Save in a Fire, by Katherine Center The Heart's Invisible Furies: A Novel - Kindle edition by Boyne, John. The Things We Cannot Say by Kelly Rimmer The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell by Robert Dugoni The Reckless Oath We Made by Bryn Greenwood An Invisible Thread by Laura Schroff and Alex Tresniowski The One by John Marrs The Silent Patient Gone Girl by Gillian Fred Pretty Baby by Mary Kubica Crying in H-Mart Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey The Unhoneymooners Beautiful Bastard by Christina Lauren The Light We Lost by Jill Santopolo The Invisible Life of Addie Larue

Book Lovers by Emily Henry Website: https://gobookmart.com Buy Now: https://amzn.to/3FbsCzy “Book Lovers is a rom-com lover's dream of a book. It is razor-sharp and modern, featuring a fierce heroine who does not apologize for her ambition and heartfelt discussions of grief. Readers know that Emily Henry never fails to deliver great banter and a romance to swoon over but this may just be her best yet. A breath of fresh air.” —Taylor Jenkins Reid, New York Times bestselling author of Malibu Rising “I would follow Emily Henry anywhere. A small town, a literary enterprise, a bookstore to rescue, and sex in moonlit streams? Yes, please! Book Lovers is sexy, funny, and smart. Another perfectly satisfying read from the unstoppable Emily Henry.” —Emma Straub, New York Times bestselling author of All Adults Here "Emily Henry's books are a gift, the perfect balance between steamy and sweet. The prose is effortless, the characters charming. The only downside is reaching the end." —V.E. Schwab, New York Times bestselling author The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue "Charming, earnest, and clever, Book Lovers is Schitt's Creek for book nerds. A total delight for anyone who's ever secretly rooted for the career girl in a Hallmark movie. Nobody does it quite like Emily Henry.” —Casey McQuiston, New York Times bestselling author of One Last Stop "You KNOW I love a book—and a writer—when I bust out my trusty ballpoint and absolutely maul the pages...and that's exactly what I just did to the divine Emily Henry. I could not devour Book Lovers fast enough. Emily Henry is pure delight. I'm utterly enchanted by her wry, self-aware sense of humor, the relish that she brings to every cleverly crafted sentence, and her irrepressible love for love.” —Katherine Center,New York Times bestselling author of Things You Save in a Fire and How to Walk Away --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/gobookmart-review/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/gobookmart-review/support

BookPage calls Katherine Center “the reigning queen of comfort reads.” She's the New York Times bestselling author of eight books, including How to Walk Away, Things You Save in a Fire, and her newest, What You Wish For. Katherine writes laugh-and-cry books about how life knocks us down—and how we get back up. She's been compared to both Jane Austen and Nora Ephron, and the Dallas Morning News calls her stories, “satisfying in the most soul-nourishing way.” Her books have made countless Best-Of lists, including RealSimple's Best Books of 2020, Amazon's Top 100 Books of 2019, Goodreads' Best Books of the Year, and many more. Bestselling author Emily Henry calls her summer 2022 book, The Bodyguard, “a shot of pure joy.” The movie adaptation of Katherine's novel The Lost Husband (starring Josh Duhamel) hit #1 on Netflix, and her novel Happiness for Beginners is in production now as a Netflix original starring Ellie Kemper. Katherine lives in her hometown of Houston, Texas, with her husband, two kids, and their fluffy-but-fierce dog.Intro roll for WTPC

Let's get sentimental! Talking all about things we are saving from our childhood & things we will pass down to our children. You will also get some ideas for what to do with all the items you've saved & how to repurpose them! Get Early Episodes Here: https://anchor.fm/agahmil/subscribe Send questions, topics you'd like to hear, advice you may want, or really anything you wanna tell us to agahmilpodcast@gmail.com Follow us on Instagram @agahmil to stay updated! SHOP OUR MERCH: https://teespring.com/stores/agahmil Please show support for the Black community here: https://blacklivesmatters.carrd.co

On this week's episode of Currently Reading, Mary and Kaytee are discussing: Bookish Moments: a fabulous buddy read and a young reader milestone Current Reads: this week we have a lot of books we really loved. There may be gushing. Deep Dive: an on-ramp to romance, from fade to black to spicy fun Book Presses: a perfectly midwestern story and a short story collection As per usual, time-stamped show notes are below with references to every book and resource we mentioned in this episode. If you'd like to listen first and not spoil the surprise, don't scroll down!  New: we are now including transcripts of the episode (this link only works on the main site). These are generated by AI, so they may not be perfectly accurate, but we want to increase accessibility for our fans! *Please note that all book titles linked below are Bookshop affiliate links. Your cost is the same, but a small portion of your purchase will come back to us to help offset the costs of the show. If you'd prefer to shop on Amazon, you can still do so here through our main storefront. Anything you buy there (even your dishwasher detergent!) kicks a small amount back to us. Thanks for your support!*   . . . . :28 - Currently Reading Patreon 1:53 - Bookish Moment of the Week 2:12 - Piranesi by Susanna Clarke 3:37 - Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons by Siegfried Engelmann 4:57 - Current Reads 5:13 - The Sentence by Louise Erdrich (Mary) 7:40 - Erdrich's Bookshop Birchbark Books 9:12 - The Elephant Whisperer by Lawrence Anthony (Kaytee) 11:52 - To Sir With Love by Lauren Layne (Mary) 14:23 - Dear White Peacemakers by Osheta Moore (Kaytee) 14:45 - Shalom Sistas by Osheta Moore  14:46 - Season 4: Episode 14 16:57 - A Psalm for the Wild Built by Becky Chambers (Mary) 17:13 - Cackle by Rachel Harrison  20:01 - If the Shoe Fits by Julie Murphy (Kaytee) 20:29 - Dumplin by Julie Murphy 22:10 - By the Book by Jasmine Guillory  22:48 - One to Watch by Kate Stayman-London 23:03 - Deep Dive: Our Romance On Ramp 26:20 - Happiness for Beginners by Katherine Center 26:22 - How to Walk Away by Katherine Center 26:24 - Things You Save in a Fire by Katherine Center 27:01 - A Curse So Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer 27:10 - Cinder by Marissa Meyer  27:33 - Fat Chance Charlie Vega by Crystal Maldonado 27:48 - When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon 28:24 - To All the Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han 29:03 - A Pho Love Story by Loan Le  29:05 - Tweet Cute by Emma Lord 29:09 - To Sir With Love by Lauren Layne 29:35 - The Fault in Our Stars by John Green 29:36 - Five Feet Apart by Rachel Lippincott 30:09 - The Summer of Jordi Perez by Amy Spalding 30:23 - Tell Me Three Things by Julie Buxbaum 31:15 - A Curious Beginning by Deanna Raybourn (Veronica Speedwell #1) 31:55 - If the Shoe Fits by Julie Murphy 32:27 - Attachments by Rainbow Rowell 32:28 - Landline by Rainbow Rowell 32:29 - Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell 32:47 - The People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry 32:48 - Beach Read by Emily Henry 32:54 - The Flatshare by Beth O'Leary  33:36 - Ayesha At Last by Uzma Jalaluddin 33:40 - Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen 34:15 - The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid 34:18 - One True Loves by Taylor Jenkins Reid  34:19 - After I Do by Taylor Jenkins Reid 35:28 - Red, White and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston 35:29 - One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston 36:11 - Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall 36:16 - The Charm Offensive by Alison Cochrun 36:57 - Widow of Rose House by Diana Biller 36:58 - The Brightest Star in Paris by Diana Biller 37:32 - The Ex Hex by Erin Sterling 37:53 - The Bromance Book Club by Lyssa Kay Adams 38:22 - Royal Holiday by Jasmine Guillory  39:32 - Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows by Balli Kaur Jaswal 42:50 - Books We'd Like to Press Into Your Hands 43:06 - Kitchens of the Great Midwest by J. Ryan Stradal (Mary) 44:54 - Minisode w/ J. Ryan Stradal 45:21- The Secret Lives of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw (Kaytee) Connect With Us: Meredith is @meredith.reads on Instagram Kaytee is @notesonbookmarks on Instagram Mindy is @gratefulforgrace on Instagram Mary is @maryreadsandsips on Instagram currentlyreadingpodcast.com @currentlyreadingpodcast on Instagram currentlyreadingpodcast@gmail.com Support us at patreon.com/currentlyreadingpodcast

Katherine Center is all about the joy, writing characters and stories that pull at your heart. The author of “What You Wish For”, she talks to Olivia about “Things You Save in a Fire,” now in paperback. The effervescent artist shares where she goes to meet writing deadlines, the fun she has with her newsletter, how she researched life as a firefighter, and Olivia discovers she and Katherine have Duran Duran and Frances Hodgson Burnett in common! Visit www.katherinecenter.com to shop her books and swag In A Moment With Margaret, Olivia and Margaret discuss three other books that highlight trailblazing ladies or an unexpected workplace romance: CJ Tudor's “The Burning Girls,” “The Ex Talk” by Rachel Lynn Solomon, and “Madame Tussaud” by Michelle Moran.

Today, Kaytee and Mary are discussing: Bookish Moments: virtual author events and a library fake out Current Reads: books that get better and better and have big emotions Deep Dive: what is spoopy season? And what do we read for peak spoopiness? Book Presses: spoopy presses for your shelves As per usual, time-stamped show notes are below with references to every book and resource we mentioned in this episode. If you’d like to listen first and not spoil the surprise, don’t scroll down!  New: we are now including transcripts of the episode. These are generated by AI, so they may not be perfectly accurate, but we want to increase accessibility for our fans! *Please note that all book titles linked below are Amazon affiliate links. Your cost is the same, but a small portion of your purchase will come back to us to help offset the costs of the show. Thanks for your support!*   . . . . . Bookish Moments: 2:14 - Things You Save in a Fire by Katherine Center Current Reads: 6:01 - The Widow of Rose House by Diana Biller (Mary) 9:34 - New York by Edward Rutherford (Kaytee) 11:54 - A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor by Hank Green (Mary) 11:59 - An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green 15:38 - Book 3 - I could find no evidence! 16:19 - Big Friendship by Ann Friedman and Aminatou Sow (Kaytee) 16:27 - Scribd: try it out for 2 months free 17:03 - Call Your Girlfriend Podcast 19:29 - A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness with Siobhan Dowd (Mary) 23:53 - My Storied Year by Katie Proctor (Kaytee) Deep Dive - Books for Spoopy Season: 29:23 - The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix 30:14 - City of Ghosts by Victoria Schwab 31:48 - Sweep: A Girl and Her Monster by Jonathan Auxier 32:40 - The Screaming Staircase by Jonathan Stroud 33:48 - Pumpkinheads by Rainbow Rowell 34:45 - Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle 34:52 - A Study in Charlotte by Brittany Cavallaro 34:58 - A Study in Scarlet Women (Lady Sherlock Series) by Sherry Thomas 36:56 - And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie 38:00 - Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte 38:11 - Jane Eyre narrated by Thandie Newton 40:32 - The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield 41:32 - Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson 41:33 - Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey 41:40 - Harry Potter by JK Rowling 41:41 - Tana French books 42:28 - Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman 42:37 - Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman Books We Want to Press Into Your Hands: 44:52 - My Plain Jane by Cynthia Hand, Jodi Meadows, and Brodi Ashton (Mary) 44:58 - My Lady Jane by Cynthia Hand, Jodi Meadows, and Brodi Ashton 45:09 - Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte 47:42 - The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman (Kaytee) 47:51 - It by Stephen King 47:53 - Pet Sematary by Stephen King Connect With Us: Meredith is @meredith.reads on Instagram Kaytee is @notesonbookmarks on Instagram Mindy is @gratefulforgrace on Instagram Mary is @maryreadsandsips on Instagram currentlyreadingpodcast.com @currentlyreadingpodcast on Instagram currentlyreadingpodcast@gmail.com

Why does Mackenzie get heart emoji eyes every time she sees a book with love at first sight in it while Lily wants to gouge her eyes out? In the inaugural Trope Talk episode, insta-love books are front and center, and the hot takes are abound. This episode does have a few short places with spoilers, so be sure to check out the timestamps below.Spoiler timestamps: This episode contains spoilers of The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory (29:44-32:00), November 9 by Colleen Hoover (35:16-37:55), and The Happily Ever After Playlist by Abby Jimenez (47:16-52:19).Major episode timestamps: Introduction (0:00), Housekeeping (1:24), Introduction to Trope Talk Topic (2:23), Choosing Insta-Love as the First Trope (5:50), Discussion of Insta-Love In Real Life (10:09), Discussion of Amatonormativity (17:49), Explanation of Ze/Zir Pronouns (20:29), Return to Discussion of Amatonormativity (22:30), Introduction to Insta-Love Tropes in Book (27:33), LIGHT SPOILERS (First 20% of the Book): Discussion of Jasmine Guillory's The Wedding Date (29:44), SPOILERS: Discussion of November 9 by Colleen Hoover (33:58), Discussion of 28 Summers by Elin Hildebrand (37:55), Brief Mention of The Idea of You by Robinne Lee (43:34), Brief Mention of It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover (44:07), SPOILERS: Discussion of The Happily Ever After Playlist by Abby Jimenez (45:09), Discussion of One Day in December by Josie Silver (52:19), Discussion of Things You Save in a Fire by Katherine Center (55:47), Conclusion (58:58).You can get full show notes and episode transcriptions on the Bad Bitch Book Club website: http://badbitchbookclub.com/podcast.Give us a five-star rating wherever you get your podcasts, and say hi to us at @F2LPodcast on Twitter and Instagram. You can also join the private F2L Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/292095932008569/.If you want to support Bad Bitch Book Club's initiatives (including this podcast), become a Patreon member: https://www.patreon.com/badbitchbookclub.Buy all books mentioned on Friends to Lovers: https://bookshop.org/lists/friends-to-lovers-podcast.Friends to Lovers is a Bad Bitch Book Club podcast hosted by BBBC founder Mackenzie Newcomb and writer, editor, and bestie Lily Herman. Each week, they use books as a jumping off point to talk about sex, relationships, dating, love, romance, and more.Podcast logo by MKW Creative Co. (https://mkwcreative.co/) and music by Eliza Rose Vera (http://www.elizarosevera.com).

Welcome to Friends to Lovers! On the inaugural episode of the first season, Mackenzie and Lily dive into romances that won't make your pearl-clutching grandma break out in hives from the utter steaminess and sexual tension.Major episode timestamps: Introduction (0:00), Housekeeping (2:00), Introduction to Main Discussion (11:22), Ayesha at Last by Uzma Jalaluddin (13:44), Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes (15:47), The Stationery Shop by Marjan Kamali (18:36), Next Year in Havana by Chanel Cleeton (22:04), You Me Everything by Catherine Isaac (24:55), Things You Save in a Fire by Katherine Center (29:18), The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows (31:42), Dear Mr. Knightley by Katherine Reay (31:42), The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid (31:42), After I Do by Taylor Jenkins Reid (31:42), Maybe In Another Life by Taylor Jenkins Reid (31:42), One True Loves by Taylor Jenkins Reid (31:42), What Else We're Reading (34:19), Hood Feminism by Mikki Kendall (34:19), and Pizza Girl by Jean Kyoung Frazier (34:19).You can get full show notes and episode transcriptions on the Bad Bitch Book Club website: http://badbitchbookclub.com/podcast.Give us a five-star rating wherever you get your podcasts, and say hi to us at @F2LPodcast on Twitter and Instagram. You can also join the private F2L Facebook group.If you want to support Bad Bitch Book Club's initiatives (including this podcast), become a Patreon member: https://www.patreon.com/badbitchbookclub.Buy all books mentioned on Friends to Lovers: https://bookshop.org/lists/friends-to-lovers-podcast.Friends to Lovers is a Bad Bitch Book Club podcast hosted by BBBC founder Mackenzie Newcomb and writer, editor, and bestie Lily Herman. Each week, they use books as a jumping off point to talk about sex, relationships, dating, love, romance, and more.Podcast logo by MKW Creative Co. (https://mkwcreative.co/) and music by Eliza Rose Vera (http://www.elizarosevera.com).

Team: Amber Gregg, James Moore, and Kate Ota. Episode Summary: In this Book club discussion, we will have an in-depth analysis of Things You Save in a Fire by Katherine Center. Each month, we discuss a different best selling novel with a strong female lead. *Spoiler alert for the conversation.* For the full book review and articles related to writing, publishing, and editing, visit: www.judgingmorethanjustthecover.com The chat doesn't end here. Let us know your thoughts in the comment area or connect with us on social media. Enjoyed the show? Share the love. Give us a review, like, follow, and a share with your friends. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/judgingmorethanjustthecover/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/judgingmorethan Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/judgingmorethanjustthecover/ Book Info: Genre: Contemporary Romance | Number of Pages: 320 | Perspective: First | Location: Boston, MA Things You Save in a Fire follows a female firefighter, Cassie, after an altercation with a government employee at an award ceremony causes her to lose her position. Cassie's estranged mother needs help while recovering from eye surgery, so Cassie reluctantly accepts the invite, with the caveat that it would be temporary. For a complete summary, you can go here. Full review of Things You Save in a Fire: https://judgingmorethanjustthecover.com/2020/08/review-things-you-save-in-a-fire-katherine-center.html Virtual Written Book Chats: http://judgingmorethanjustthecover.com/category/book-chat Tags: book talk, book club, books, virtual book club, podcast, audio book club, book chat, book discussion, book, fiction, novel, review, book review, book of the month, bookish, contemporary romance, romance, family, forgiveness, friendship, firefighter, strong leading women

In this Unabridged podcast episode, we're talking with Katherine Center about her latest book, What You Wish For, which released on July 14th. Katherine shares her first experience as a writer, writing fan fic about Duran Duran, why clown socks are the most fashionable apparel, and how she sets out to fight for joy.   Bookish Check-in Ashley - Brit Bennett’s The Vanishing Half Jen - Jennifer Weiner’s Big Summer Sara - Ibram X. Kendi and Jason Reynolds’s Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You: A Remix of the National Book Award-winning Stamped from the Beginning Katherine - Will Storr's The Science of Storytelling: Why Stories Make Us Human and How to Tell Them Better   Other Mentions Ibram X. Kendi's Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America Brit Bennett's The Mothers Katherine Center's Happiness for Beginners Katherine Center's Things You Save in a Fire Katherine Center's How to Walk Away Katherine Center's The Lost Husband Ingrid Fetell Lee’s Joyful: The Surprising Power of Ordinary Things to Create Extraordinary Happiness Katherine Center's thoughts on reading for joy on her website Archie comics Stranger than Fiction     Interested in what else we're reading? Check out our Featured Books page.   Want to support Unabridged?   Check out our Merch Store! Become a patron on Patreon.​ Follow us @unabridgedpod on Instagram. Like and follow our Facebook Page. Subscribe to our YouTube channel. Check out our Teachers Pay Teachers store. Follow us @unabridgedpod on Twitter. Subscribe to our podcast and rate us on Apple Podcasts or on Stitcher. Check us out on Podbean.

In this episode, we talk about what kinds of reads are bringing us comfort during these challenging times. Sara shares her love of cookbooks like Michelle Smith’s The Whole Smiths Good Food Cookbook, Ashley shares her love of poetry including the grief anthology Kevin Young’s The Art of Losing: Poems of Grief and Healing, and Jen shares some great fantasy reads that she's loving including Sarah J. Maas’s House of Earth and Blood. We'd love to know what you're reading that is bringing you comfort! Let us know here or on social media @unabridgedpod!   Bookish Check-in Ashley - Louise Penny’s Still Life Jen - Susannah Cahalan’s The Great Pretender: The Undercover Mission that Changed Our Understanding of Madness Sara - Katherine Center’s Things You Save in a Fire   Comfort Read Recommendations Sara - Cookbooks Annie F. Downs’s 100 Days to Brave: Devotions for Unlocking Your Most Courageous Self (See this episode 198 from What Should I Read Next?)   Jen - Sarah J. Maas’s House of Earth and Blood Elana K. Arnold’s Damsel Brigid Kemmerer’s A Curse So Dark and Lonely   Ashley - Wendell Berry’s Window Poems Mary Oliver’s West Wind Nikky Finney’s Rice and Head Off and Split Kevin Young’s The Art of Losing: Poems of Grief and Healing, including Phillis Levin’s “Vigil”   Don't miss our episode where we talked about ways to beat a reading slump in Episode 54!   Other Mentions Susannah Cahalan’s Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness Katherine Center’s How to Walk Away Anne Bogel’s Don’t Overthink It: Make Easier Decisions, Stop Second-Guessing, and Bring More Joy to Your Life Michelle Smith’s The Whole Smiths Good Food Cookbook: Whole30 Endorsed, Delicious Real Food Recipes to Cook All Year Long   Give Me One - What's Getting Us By Right Now   Jen - Jarrett Lerner’s activities online online streaming of new movies (Onward)   Sara- Joe Wick - daily PE activities for kids (and adults!) Lindsay Brin - Kids' workouts Yaymaker - Virtual paint class   Ashley - Wow in the World podcast (now releasing daily with “Two Whats and a Wow!” as well as weekly!) Highlights Magazine Hidden Pictures - set of 4   Interested in what else we're reading? Check out our Featured Books page.   Want to support Unabridged?   Check out our Merch Store! Become a patron on Patreon.​ Follow us @unabridgedpod on Instagram. Like and follow our Facebook Page. Subscribe to our YouTube channel. Check out our Teachers Pay Teachers store. Follow us @unabridgedpod on Twitter. Subscribe to our podcast and rate us on Apple Podcasts or on Stitcher. Check us out on Podbean.   Please note that we a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

In Mini Episode 50, Julia Spence (@gameofreading) talks about her love for dual timelines in her books and reading an author’s backlist. This post contains affiliate links, through which I make a small commission when you make a purchase (at no cost to you!). Highlights Julia talks about how, when she reads a book she loves by a new-to-her author, she loves to read all of that author’s backlist. Julia shares her recent love of books with dual timelines. Julia’s Book Recommendations Two OLD Books She Loves Love and Other Words by Christina Lauren | Buy from Amazon [5:45] Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult | Buy from Amazon [8:09] Two NEW Books She Loves Big Lies in a Small Town by Diane Chamberlain | Buy from Amazon [11:40] Darling Rose Gold by Stephanie Wrobel | Buy from Amazon [15:11] One Book She DIDN’T Love Topics of Conversation by Miranda Popkey | Buy from Amazon [17:30] One NEW RELEASE She’s Excited About What You Wish For by Katherine Center (Release Date: July 14, 2020) | Buy from Amazon [20:28]  Other Books Mentioned Conversations With Friends by Sally Rooney | Buy from Amazon [3:24] Normal People by Sally Rooney (My Review) | Buy from Amazon [3:24] You Are Not Alone by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen | Buy from Amazon [6:34] Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult | Buy from Amazon [10:30] The Dream Daughter by Diane Chamberlain | Buy from Amazon [14:43] Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill | Buy from Amazon [19:01] Things You Save in a Fire by Katherine Center | Buy from Amazon [20:41] How to Walk Away by Katherine Center (My Review) | Buy from Amazon [20:41] Eight Perfect Murders by Peter Swanson | Buy from Amazon [23:38] Other Links Ep. 30: Southern Books with the Bless Your Heart Book Club Currently Reading Podcast Winter 2020 Book Preview Pie Lady Books’ What You Wish For pie About Julia Instagram Julia is an actuary at an insurance company in Boston, MA. During her 9-5 job, she deals with numbers, but after work she unwinds with a book. She’s been an avid reader since grade school and reads more than 200 books a year. When she’s not reading, you can find her obsessively stalking Taylor Swift online or passionately cheering on Boston sports teams. Next Episode Full length episode featuring Steph Hockersmith of Pie Lady Books (airing Wednesday, March 18). Support the Podcast Support on PatreonWhen you support the podcast on Patreon for $5/month, get bonus podcast episodes and other goodies! ShareIf you like the podcast, I’d love for you to share it with your reader friends…in real life and on social media (there’s easy share buttons at the bottom of this post!). Subscribe …wherever you listen to podcasts, so new episodes will appear in your feed as soon as they’re released. Rate and ReviewSearch for “Sarah’s Bookshelves” in Apple Podcasts…or wherever you listen to podcasts!

Every nonfiction book starts out as a glimmer of an idea. A topic. An area of interest or expertise. But you can’t just pitch a book about beekeeping, kids. You need to know a whole lot more. Is it a beekeeping memoir? A beekeeping how-to? A meditation about the relationship between bees and humanity?In this episode, we dish about how to answer those questions, because—spoiler—that’s exactly how Jess, who just finished the draft of her second nonfiction book, has been spending her time. Well, not thinking about beekeeping, or at least, I don’t think so. She’s pretty cagey about what, exactly, she’s researching—but that’s a good thing, because this episode is about the first steps that lead to an eventual proposal and, ultimately a book, no matter what the topic. Episode links and a transcript follow—but first, a preview of the #WritersTopFive that will be dropping into #AmWriting supporter inboxes on Monday, November 11, 2019: Top 5 Steps to Setting Up Your Author Presence on Amazon (Plus a Couple More for Extra Credit). Not joined that club yet? You’ll want to get on that. Support the podcast you love AND get weekly #WriterTopFives with actionable advice you can use for just $7 a month. As always, this episode (and every episode) will appear for all subscribers in your usual podcast listening places, totally free as the #AmWriting Podcast has always been. This shownotes email is free, too, so please—forward it to a friend, and if you haven’t already, join our email list and be on top of it with the shownotes and a transcript every time there’s a new episode. To support the podcast and help it stay free, subscribe to our weekly #WritersTopFive email.LINKS FROM THE PODCASTThe Art of the Book Proposal: From Focused Idea to Finished Product, Eric MaiselThe Forest for the Trees: An Editor’s Advice to Writers, Betsy LernerModern Love Series on AmazonModern Love Column, New York Times#AmReading (Watching, Listening)Jess: Jess has been all in this week! Katherine Center’s Things You Save in a Fire, How to Walk Away and the bridge story between those two novels, The Girl in the Plane, plus Happiness for Beginners, The Lost Husband, and Get Lucky.Also, Ali Wong’s Dear Girls, Ronan Farrow’s Catch and Kill, and Sarina Bowen’s Moonlighter!Sarina: The Virgin Gift, Lauren Blakely#FaveIndieBookstoreOctavia Books, New Orleans.This episode was sponsored by Author Accelerator, the book coaching program that helps you get your work DONE. AND—they’ve got a new program for new nonfiction projects! Visit https://www.authoraccelerator.com/amwritingfor details, special offers and Jennie Nash’s Inside-Outline template.Find more about Jess here, Sarina here and about KJ here.If you enjoyed this episode, we suggest you check out Marginally, a podcast about writing, work and friendship.The image in our podcast illustration is by William Iven on Unsplash.Transcript (We use an AI service for transcription, and while we do clean it up a bit, some errors are the price of admission here. We hope it’s still helpful.)Hello listeners! If you’re in with us every week, you’re what I like to call “people of the book.’ And some of us book people discover somewhere along the way that not only we writers, we’re people with a gift for encouraging other writers. For some of us, that comes out in small ways, but for others it’s a calling and an opportunity to build a career doing work you love. Our sponsor, Author Accelerator, provides book coaching to authors (like me) but also needs and trains book coaches. If that’s got your ears perked up, head to https://www.authoraccelerator.com and click on “become a book coach.” Is it recording?Jess00:01Now it's recording. Go ahead. KJ00:45This is the part where I stare blankly at the microphone like I don't remember what I was supposed to be doing. Jess00:49All right, let's start over. KJ00:51Awkward pause. I'm going to rustle some papers. Jess00:54Okay.KJ00:54Now one, two, three. Hey, I'm KJ Dell'Antonia and this is #AmWriting the podcast about all things writing - nonfiction, fiction, proposals, essays, pitches, and as we say each and every week. This is the podcast about sitting down and getting your work done. Jess01:22I'm Jess Lahey. I'm the author of the Gift of Failure and a completed manuscript for book two, The Addiction Innoculation. And you can find my stuff in the New York Times and the Atlantic and various other places. KJ01:35Carry on, Sarina.Sarina01:40Hi, I'm Sarina Bowen. I'm the author of 30 plus romance novels and my last one was called Moonlighter and it just hit the USA Today.Best Sellers List. KJ01:51 I am KJ Dell'Antonia, the author of How To Be a Happier Parent, the former editor of the Motherlode blog at the New York Times and the author of a forthcoming novel that you'll hear all about as it comes out next summer. And yeah, wows all around. It's been it's been a good week. I think things are going pretty well for all of us. Jess02:18All of us. I think so, too. I'm finally recovered from getting the last book done and it's amazing how much stuff a person can push off until after. And like after meant after November 1st and so now my inbox is full of things with like all different color flags stuck in it, like deal with this after November 1st, deal with this after November 1st. And it's amazing how much stuff I actually piled on to deal with after November 1st and it's November 1st and I'm dealing with it. Welcome to after, I'm in the after mode now. And it's crazy. It's really good though. It was really freeing to be able to say, 'Just later', but later is now here. So anyway, but Sarina the thing that I wanted to mention is a huge congratulations because this is a new book in a new series for you, right?Sarina03:13Yeah. It's a spinoff because that's how I like to start series by spinning them off from existing characters. But it's definitely something new. I hadn't written a suspense plot really before. And yeah, it was hard and I really enjoyed it and I thought readers would follow me there, but of course I really wasn't sure.KJ03:35And they did.Jess03:35You can never be sure, but readers are fickles and they did. And it's really, really good. I was actually on my list of books I read, even though KJ pointed out that no one's going to trust me when I say anything about either The Chicken Sisters or any of your books. But I did love it and I love the fact that you're willing to push yourself to try lots of different things. And I think I even texted you earlier about a couple of the things that you've done that have made you nervous. When you first think, 'Should I write this?' And then you write it. And I'm always amazed how a) brave you are to write about stuff like a pregnant protagonist, which sounds crazy in romance. I mean, you would think that would never work, and it does, and it's fantastic. And I just, I love the fact that you're willing to push yourself because it would be so easy to say, 'I'm just going to write about single, heterosexual, white people because that's sort of the comfort zone. And yet you don't, you write about all kinds of things and I think that's really cool. Sarina04:36Well, thank you. The truth is though if I only wrote about people like me, we'd have a lot of books about people who don't leave home very much. Jess05:03My suspense for today is if the leftover Halloween candy is still gonna be here when everybody gets home later on today. Yeah. Can we point out today is (the day we're recording) November 1st since I already blew it and mentioned that. So that means it's the first day of NaNoWriMo. Are we gonna talk at all about that reality?KJ05:32Sure, I will. But before we do, we do have a topic for today. We have a plan - today we're going to be talking - Jess, name it.Jess05:43We are going to be talking about new projects. Because during my recovery from finishing the last book, I had no intention to have a new idea, but I did. So we'll talk about that in just a minute.KJ05:58This is going to be like the how to start, what to do before you start, that kind of thing. But meanwhile, since some of us are starting... Jess06:04Specifically non nonfiction. So my thing today is going to be about what you do when suddenly you have an idea for a new nonfiction, which requires a lot of organization from day one, so that you don't get yourself in the weeds and off on the wrong foot. But let's talk about November 1st - NaNo. What's happening people?KJ06:25The timing actually turned out to be really good for me. So everybody knows I've been working on what we'll just call novel two for the sake of ignoring the one in the drawer. Oh my gosh, my mother. Apparently I gave her my first novel, which I wrote 15 years ago and I got a text from her recently, 'Do you remember Mud Season? I was just reading.' I was like, 'No, don't read that.' I was listening to a podcast with Grant Faulkner, who is the person who heads up NaNoWriMo right now, although he is not the founder. And he specifically and sort of narrowly described the goal, which I had forgotten, which is to write 50,000 words of a novel. And I thought, 'Oh, well, okay.' So I pulled out the words that I have already written of what we're calling book two. I tossed aside all the words that I wrote around various other outlines and concepts that sort of need massive reworking. This is just the chunk that I really have and it's 30,000 words. So you know what I need to have a book? 50,000 words. So, I started today, I'm shooting to write 50,000 words of my novel in November. It is not a cold draft, but I think we all make our own NaNo rules, but I'm sort of enjoying the fact that I'm really kind of hewing a little more closely to the NaNoWriMo rhythm than I thought I was going to be.Jess08:06I'm sure there are NaNo purists who are saying, 'Oh no, you must start something new on day one.' But we don't roll that way.Sarina08:14That was never the rules, sorry.Jess08:22I think NaNo is a great time to (as we said last time around) just to take a hold of the productivity that's in the air, the sort of writing Juju that's floating around in November and do with it what you will.KJ08:34So I already nailed my 1600, I believe I wrote 1618 today. I'm feeling good. Jess08:55So in November are your stickers the value for the words that you like? How are you stickering? For those of you who are new to the podcast, we have this thing we do call stickering. Sarina and KJ and I text each other the word sticker when we get our sticker for the day. And it is literally a sticker that goes into our calendar. In fact, Sarina gave me some llamas for this month, which was great timing because I didn't have any stickers for this month. And it is literally a sticker that is of your own definition. Right now (as we're gonna get into in a minute) mine are research stickers this month. But it can be anything you want. And it means, 'Yay me. I did it.'KJ09:36Yes, my stickers this month (which are coffee pot or coffee cups. Super cute little pile of stickers.) will be for 1612 words. Or, like if I decide, I may end up having to decide not to write on Thanksgiving cause we're having a family dinner somewhere that involves traveling. So I may up some word counts in order to allow for some days off. I think the thing that's going to be different for me - sometimes I just want to just want to get to my words. And so when I write things that I delete sometimes I just leave the words in the word count until I'm done writing. Not this time, because the goal is to actually finish this draft. The words have to be words. That kind of varies. Sometimes they can be outlining words or they can be pre-writing words or they can be other kinds of words. But this month, hear me now, they have to be actual wordsJess10:44And Sarina, what's happening with you?Sarina10:46Well, I have a book that needs 25,000 words, but they have to be perfect by the end of the month so I can't do NaNo. I have to finish this project, and then make it beautiful, and that's just how it is.KJ11:01Well, I'll be representing you.Jess11:04You still use stickers during that process though, right? Sarina11:07Yup, absolutely.Jess11:09And during that process, are your stickers for editing, for writing, do you change it up day to day, whatever your goals are?Sarina11:16Well, they'll be writing for 1200 words. And then if I run out of book, then I'll revisit.Jess11:24Okay, sounds good. So I guess this leads us into the announcement that I have to make, which is, I already said on the podcast that I was going to be working on that novel, which sounded great when we were talking about it. It really, really did. And then I spent a lot of time rereading what I had. And thinking about what I really wanted to do and thinking about what KJ had said about what do you write in your head? And I just don't love writing fiction. I just don't, it's not what gets me excited to sit down. And you know, when in On Writing, when Stephen King talks about the fact that he threw away the opening chapters of Carrie because it was really hard, that's not what this is. I really don't think I'm just saying I don't want to do it cause it's hard. It just doesn't feed me. It just doesn't get me excited and make me want to go to work every day. And frankly, what happened was, and I have to be super, super cagey about this because I haven't even talked with my agent about it, but I had an idea for the next book after the addiction book. And I am so excited, at least right now for this crazy, in-depth research phase. I've said this before, what Mary Roach, author of Guts and a bunch of other cool books, calls her three month research flail. Where she jumps into the research and figures out what her book is. And so that's what I'm doing. I'm starting a new proposal for a new nonfiction book and that's what our topic is going to be about today. So, sorry to pull the rug out from under my NaNo plans, but they changed.KJ13:05I think that's really cool. And I don't know about Sarina, but I personally had no plans to actually require you to write fiction. You're okay. You be you. Jess13:18And that book is just still sitting there. I still have an internal relationship with those characters and I don't know if it'll ever get written. But Jenny Nash, if you're listening, that's not what I'm working on this month. But frankly, whenever I get this excited about something new, I'm all over it. Our official topic for today is what to do when you have an idea for a nonfiction book and you're starting to wrap your brain around a topic and think about a proposal. So, the very first thing I did was I took the book proposal for the addiction book, which is the long form. I think we talked at one point about the fact that if you are going to go back to your same editor that you've had at a publisher with a new book idea, you may not necessarily have to write the mammoth (in my case, I think it was 70 or 80 page book proposal that includes everything from the marketing stuff, and comparable titles that are out there, and who you are) that's for a publisher that doesn't know anything about you necessarily. But with the addiction book (simply because it's a difficult topic and we weren't 100% sure that my editor was going to be fully on board) my agent and I went out with a full, finished book proposal to my editor so that if she didn't want it, we could go out to everybody, right away. It would be done, locked down, in perfect shape. We didn't have to do that, my editor wanted it. But I also found that while it's a ton of work, it is such a great process to have to go through with a book. And, KJ, as you know from working on the stuff with Jenny for The Chicken Sisters, you have to be able to tell people really quickly what your book is about. You have to hone your ideas about what the chapters are going to be about. And that whole process for me is really, really helpful. So, while it's maybe, possibly more than I need to do right now, it's really good for my thinking. I don't know how you feel about that in terms of when you do nonfiction book proposals or your outlines, I guess.Sarina15:35Yeah. Well, the thing is, if I were proposing even like a series of novels to an editor that I already knew, I don't think I'd even want to start the project if I hadn't done that. Like I can't imagine committing to something without that level of ... cause it's just so much work, it's like more than a year of your life. And I think I would want to do all of that. And in the end it would not be wasted.KJ16:04Well, we've talked about the risks of promising to write a book that isn't what you want to write. This prevents that. Jess16:12It also helps me gauge the competition on the market. You know, I have to go out there. I've already started buying books and trips to bookstores. In fact, I was just in Sacramento and I came across a bookstore there called Beers Books. And it is a combination new and used bookstore. And I went bonkers. My suitcase was full of books coming back from Sacramento. It was great. And so buying books is sort of the first part of that process for me, figuring out what's out there in the market. And so I might as well gather that information since that's a piece of the book proposal I'm going to have to put together anyway and realizing what's already out there. Am I competing with something else that's better? Or am I the best person? Why am I the right person to work on this thing? And the answer may come back that I'm not. And that's all valuable information. So yeah, I don't have any problem working on the book proposal in-depth before anyone sees it. KJ17:15So, step one...Jess17:16Step one for me. So I went back to that old book proposal that's in good shape and essentially renamed it, did a save as, went through, left the headers in, took out the text for the old book. And I don't even know what the title for this new book is, but I have a placeholder and now I've sort of focused my thinking by looking at the book proposal to know what do I need to think about? Okay, well I'm going to have to think about what the chapters might be. I'm going to have to think about the competing title stuff. So the book proposal itself gives me a really good way to do that. If you don't already have a book proposal for a previous book we have some suggestions that we'll put in the show notes and I can't come up with them right off the top of my head. But KJ, I know you have one of the books that we happen to love for nonfiction book proposals.KJ18:07I believe it's the Art of the Book Proposal. Yes, that'll be in the show notes. Incidentally, just to toss it out there, head over to amwritingpodcast.com and sign up and you'll get the show notes in your inbox every time. So anytime we say this you can just be like, 'Oh sure, those are in my inbox.' And you can pop in there and look and that would be very handy.Jess18:33That book is really helpful, too. As is Betsy Lerner's book, The Forest for the Trees, gives you sort of good ways to think about the hard questions. Am I the right person to write this? Is this something I want to spend the next couple of years of my life on? You know, that kind of stuff. So number one, start thinking in terms of an outline for the skeleton of the book proposal.KJ18:57Wait, just to go back, one of the fun things in The Art of the Book Proposal that I think we almost do without realizing it is sort of thinking about all the different possible approaches to a topic. And I wondered, are you doing that? So you know, there's this sort of, 'I could write a how to about this. I could write a memoir about this. I could write a big picture research book about this.' Is that part of it or was it super clear that if I'm going to tackle this topic it's going to be like this.Jess19:27It has not been super clear for a couple of reasons that I'll talk about later on. But the idea of, is this a Gift of Failure type book? And I also had a really narrow focus at first, but lots of conversations with my husband (who's my best sounding board for this kind of stuff) has broadened the focus a little bit. So trying to get at what this thing is...yeah, that book does a really good job of breaking that down and helping you look at all of the different possibilities that you may not have thought of yet. And the nice thing about also getting your hands on a lot of other books that might be in your comparable title section is that they probably do it lots of different ways, too, and makes you sort of say, 'Oh, look at how that person did it, that's really interesting, maybe I can borrow from that. Or I think I might avoid this way because I don't think it works as well.' So yeah, that's also part of the honing process for me. What is it going to look like? And that's been an ongoing process. So number one, look at the book proposal, come up with your ideas of approach, come up with your ideas of how you're going to have to think about it when you read the research. Number two, get the books that are the research. You know, if you can't afford to buy the books, go to the library. Interlibrary loan can be invaluable if you're near a university. That's been invaluable for me because a bigger library is always better. Simply because there could even be things that are out of print that are really helpful. And in my case there were two books that are out of print that have been really, really helpful in helping me shape my thinking on this. Number three sounds really simple. But for me this is always really, really a big deal. I made a new email folder in at my email app on my computer. (I use the mail app that's on my Apple computer.) And having a folder that has the subject of the book is really great because I bounce a lot of ideas off of my husband. I bounced a couple of ideas off of some people I know in this field. All of those emails go into that email folder so that if I'm ever looking for the emails having to do with this topic, they're all there. And in fact that's what I'm doing right now, with the addiction book, I'm going back through that folder and I am figuring out what I might have forgotten, I might have left out. So once you have your email folder, once you've got all your books, once you're working on the proposal stuff, I also create a new Scrivener doc. A new Scrivener doc for me just gets my brain in the right place, especially since with Scrivener you can create a new folder for each chapter. You can move them around. So Scrivener really helps me shape my thinking, it's been invaluable for me as a tool. And then honestly, I just start trying to think like an emerging expert in the topic. I start following people on Twitter that might be a part of this topic. I start looking for the big people in the field and wondering, 'Are these people who might someday want to blurb this book?' Just little things - we're talking about a book that if it even gets written isn't going to be out there for like three or four years, but you have to start (at least I do) putting myself in the headspace of someone who's trying to become an expert in this topic. And as you well know, Sarina, this means that I am going to over-research everything. I am going to do a deep dive into the history of the topic, but that for me is what gets me out of bed in the morning. And it's what changed my mind about what I'm working on this month. And it's just fun. It's so much fun. I think it's the reason I love journalism so much - is the idea that it's my job to suddenly become an expert in a topic, and then write about it, and translate it for someone who doesn't necessarily want to go and do all the research that I love doing. And that's just really fun for me. Sarina23:37Well, I'm intimidated on your behalf. Jess23:41It's so much fun. We should clarify for the listeners that we are without KJ. She lost power at her house, which is something that we actually battle with. Sarina and KJ both lost power this morning due to a windstorm. I'm still good at the moment, although it's very windy here. It sounds like trucks are roaring by my house, but we're just going to carry on without KJ. I think that's really about it for me. Right now it's all about headspace. It's all about immersing myself in the topic and being excited. And my poor husband is going to be hearing a lot about this topic. And that's fine cause it's actually a topic he's really interested in, too. So for us, that's fun. That's life in the geeky, Lahey household. And actually, believe it or not, my younger son (who is still at home with us) is interested in the topic, too. So it's led to some really interesting conversations and it's also been fun to watch him get excited about a book that he probably will not have any part in. In terms of showing up in the book, because he's definitely in Gift of Failure, and he's definitely in the addiction book. And I think he's just about done being a part of my work. And of course he's been in lots of New York Times articles. There are pictures of him in the New York Times, which he's cool with and he's fine with all that, but I think he's excited that I'm working on something that may not include him as a potential topic. So there we are. One thing that was also really fun and this sounds like a really nothing sort of to-do list task. But I cleaned my office. And for me I used to do that as part of the process, at the end of every single chapter I finished in the addiction book, I would clean up because things would just get disastrous in here. There'd be piles of books and piles of research. And it was a really cleansing experience to put the research away from let's say the chapter on peers and peer influence and move on to the chapter on education on prevention programs in schools. Because I would then put away all those books, put away all those articles, and take out a whole new stack of stuff. And it was sort of a mind cleansing thing. And so the same thing has happened. I still have all my research out for the addiction book because I'm deep into edits now. And actually speaking of which, I'm working on edits right now because I'm going to have a meeting with my editor on the 20th of November, in which I have to have my arms around all the edits. So all those papers and articles and everything are still all around me. It's just that I'm making space for the new books on the new topic. It has its own bookshelf, I have a bookshelf dedicated to this topic. It's still only fills one shelf, but I'm sure that will change with time. But, it's really fun. It's a mental shift and that mental shift is really fun and exciting. And yeah, I'm back to being excited to go to work every morning and having a vacation between the two was really good.Sarina26:49That's terrific. You just reminded me of that internet meme of the guy and the girl walking down the street holding hands and he's looking over his shoulder at the other hot girl. Cause that's how it feels when you have to finish up the last bits of one project, but your head is already looking at another one.Jess27:11This was a first for me, actually. But you do this all the time, where you're writing one book and editing the last. This is new for me, but I hadn't really even thought about that as that's something that you have to do all the time.Sarina27:25Yeah, I do. If you spread it out a little bit, it's actually kind of nice. Because then you can be super picky on one topic and sort of expansive on the other one.Jess27:35Oh, that's a really good way of thinking about it. Speaking of which (that meme about the guy looking back) I watched the new series Modern Love on Amazon. You know, adapted from the Modern Love columns from the New York Times and there is a shot that is a direct call out to that meme in one of the episodes. And by the way, the Modern Love adaptation for Amazon is fantastic, way better than I ever thought it would be. But it was so funny to see the shot and say, 'Wait a second, that's that meme right there. I can see it.'. Sarina28:08So I heard that you had a new bookstore for us. Jess28:13I do. Tt's a bookstore I had visited once in New Orleans and I saw Anya Kamenetz from NPR, the education editor at NPR, she had a book event there for her book that was coming out (this was years ago). And it's Octavia Books in New Orleans and they sold books for my recent event down in New Orleans. But it's a tremendous bookstore. Curation is fantastic, people are so nice. And it's a quaint bookstore in the middle of a lovely little neighborhood in New Orleans. So another one of those bookstores where you walk in and you just sort of feel at home. So can't recommend that one more heartily. But speaking of bookstores, have you been reading anything interesting?Sarina28:58I just read a really sexy novella that my friend Lauren Blakely finished.Jess29:09You don't see a lot of novellas these days.Sarina29:12Oh, because of the holidays?Jess29:14No, these days in general. Novellas are tricky. As you well know, you wrote one.Sarina29:18Yeah, novellas are not my chosen length. But this book, it's going to do amazing. She did an amazing job on it and it's called The Virgin Gift. And it isn't out yet, but this was one fun moment where I helped somebody with something when I wasn't expecting to. Lauren Blakely writes so many wonderful books all the time, without any difficulty. But she happened to ask me a question about plot, just that came up in conversation, and it was one of those moments when solving someone else's problem is just so much easier than solving your own. And I was so happy to come up with this tiny little idea that helped her finish her book because it's so satisfying to solve that kind of problem. And then you know, your own plot problem will just grate on you for days, and days, and days and then once in awhile you can mention it to another person and get the idea you need just just by accident. So that was super fun. And then this week I got to read it and see how it all turned out.Sarina30:31That's really cool. Being a part of someone's book from the beginning is always so exciting. It's like when I get to read your books and I realize, 'Oh wait, I remember hearing about that six months ago.' I love that. Jess30:42I have read so many books, mainly because I was on vacation after having finished my book and I've been flying a lot, which means audio books. So you people had been recommending Katherine Center's books. Specifically Things You Save In a Fire. And so I I downloaded Things You Save In a Fire and loved it. And then I very quickly downloaded How To Walk Away, Happiness for Beginners, and The Lost Husband. And I have gone through all of them and it's always interesting to read an author's work out of order because she's evolved as a writer, as we all do. Her Things You Save In a Fire is her newest, and Lost Husband is years ago, and I'm now listening to a book of hers called Get Lucky. And it's interesting to read her evolution as a writer and she's delightful. She's just delightful. She's good, the humor is fantastic, the romance is fantastic, the suspense is fantastic, the secrets, there's lots of secrets. It's just delightful stuff. Sarina31:56I can't believe that you're two books ahead of me now. I've only read two of those four and I'm going to do a little video about Things You Save In a Fire because I love it so much.Jess32:05Oh, good. So, Get this. I also listened to Ali Wong's book, Dear Girls, which is so raunchy and so funny. It's letters to her daughter about her life. And if you've ever watched Ali Wong's comedy, either Baby Cobra or the other one that I can't remember at the moment. You know, she's raunchy, she's dirty, she's hysterical. And Dear Girls does not disappoint. It's really, really funny. Although, how you write a book to your daughters that they can't possibly listen to until they're in their twenties, I just don't even know. And listening to still more Harlan Coben. But then I also listened to Ronan Farrow's Catch and Kill. Which was fascinating, really fascinating. And it was more than I thought it was going to be in terms of content. So anyway, it's been amazing reading. But thank you so much for the Katherine Center recommendation. Because she's not my normal turf reading wise and I have been sad every time I finished her books. And do we have time to really, really quickly mention the bridge thing? So on her website, you pointed out that she wrote a short story to bridge two of her novels. And have you read it yet? Sarina33:19I have not. So you can't spoil it. Jess33:21No, no, no I'm not going to spoil it.Sarina33:22But it is a genius idea. Jess33:26How clever is that? And here's what she does. There's stuff in that bridge story that I would have been like, 'Oh no, save that for the novels. That's the good stuff.' And she doesn't, that story stands on its own as a really lovely piece of writing that gets to own its own turf within the universe of those two novels. And so, I loved it. It was included at the end of the audio. She reads it actually, Katherine Center reads it, at the end of How To Walk Away, I think. And loved it. So good. And that idea is great. And her website, as we've been saying, is super colorful and wonderful and yeah, she's delightful. Sarina34:47Keep your butt in the chair and your head in the game. Until next week. Jess34:53This episode of #AmWriting with Jess and KJ was produced by Andrew Parilla. Our music, aptly titled unemployed Monday was written and performed by Max Cohen. Andrew and Max were paid for their services because everyone, even creatives should be paid. This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at amwriting.substack.com/subscribe

Not writing what your inner parent says you “should” be writing? How to get over it.Fellow writers, KJ here. I have gathered you here today to discuss the moment last week when I sat down on my bed, surveying a pile of literary fiction, some of which I liked and some of which I most emphatically did not, and asked myself, as I have many times on other topics—should I be writing something other than what I am writing? Should I be good at something other than that which I am good at? This week, I lay it out there: sometimes I feel ashamed that I don’t write something more … serious. Then Sarina slaps me around a little, and Jess declares that even writers of serious stuff (I give her that title) sometimes feel like they’re not using their time wisely.Episode links and a transcript follow—but first, a preview of the #WritersTopFive that will be dropping into #AmWriting supporter inboxes on Monday, October 7, 2019: Top Five Reasons to Embrace NaWhateverWriMo. It’s a good one! And I happen to know the next one’s on dictation tools and is even better. Not joined that club yet? You’ll want to get on that. Support the podcast you love AND get weekly #WriterTopFives with actionable advice you can use for just $7 a month.As always, this episode (and every episode) will appear for all subscribers in your usual podcast listening places, totally free as the #AmWriting Podcast has always been. This shownotes email is free, too, so please—forward it to a friend, and if you haven’t already, join our email list and be on top of it with the shownotes and a transcript every time there’s a new episode.Keep scrolling—there’s some cool free stuff from Author Accelerator, below.LINKS FROM THE PODCASTThe Snobs and Me(essay) Jennifer WeinerFrom Uber Driving to Huge Book Deal(Adrian McKinty and The Chain)#AmReading (Watching, Listening)Jess: The Chain, Adrian McKinty, Pride and Prejudiceread by [Rosamund Pike] and Sense and Sensibilityread by [Emma Thompson]KJ AND Sarina: Things You Save In a Fire, Katherine Center#FaveIndieBookstoreThe Flying Pig, Shelburne VTFind more about Jess here, Sarina hereand about KJ here.If you enjoyed this episode, we suggest you check out Marginally, a podcast about writing, work and friendship.COOL OPPORTUNITIES FROM OUR SPONSOR:Every episode of #AmWriting is sponsored by Author Accelerator, the book coaching program that helps you get your work DONE—and they have two free webinars coming up. Details:CHARACTER CLINICAuthor Accelerator is excited to team up with Writers Helping Writers to showcase the NEW Character Builder tool in the One Stop for Writers software.Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi from One Stop for Writers and Author Accelerator coach Julie Artz will be co-hosting a free Character Clinic webinar on Tuesday, October 8 at 11 AM Pacific. During the event Julie, will be coaching a writer through the character work they have done using the Character Builder.We encourage everyone to register for the event even if you cannot attend live, as a replay will be sent to everyone who has registered.REGISTER FOR THE WEBINAR NOWTHE INSIDE OUTLINE Jennie Nash developed the Inside Outline in her work as a book coach, and it has been tested in the trenches by hundreds of writers. It can be used to help you start a book, to help you rescue one that isn’t working, and to guide a revision.We're hosting another webinar about this life-changing writing tool on Monday, October 14 at Noon Pacific/2 PM Central/3 PM Eastern.We encourage everyone to register for the event even if you cannot attend live, as a replay will be sent to everyone who has registered.REGISTER FOR THE WEBINAR NOWThe image in our podcast illustration is by Markus Spiske on Unsplash.Transcript (We use an AI service for transcription, and while we do clean it up a bit, some errors are the price of admission here. We hope it’s still helpful.)KJ:                                        00:01                    Hey there listeners, KJ here. In this episode, you’ll hear both me and Sarina give a shout-out to Author Accelerator’s Inside-Outlining process. The Inside-Outline is a took that helps you make sure your book has a strong enough spine to support the story you want to tell. It forces you to spot the holes in your character’s arc and your story logic before you throw 50 thousand words on the page—without being the kind of outline that feels limiting to writers who prefer to see where the story takes you. #AmWriting listeners have exclusive access to a free download that describes what the outline is, why it works and how to do it—and if you’re writing fiction or memoir, I highly encourage you to grab it. Use it before you write, while you’re writing or even as you’re doing final revisions to give your story the momentum that keeps readers turning pages. Only at https://www.authoraccelerator.com/amwriting. Is it recording?Jess:                                     00:01                    Now it's recording. Go ahead.KJ:                                        00:01                    This is the part where I stare blankly at the microphone like I don't remember what I was supposed to be doing.Jess:                                     00:01                    All right, let's start over.KJ:                                        00:01                    Awkward pause, I'm going to rustle some papers.Jess:                                     00:01                    Okay.KJ:                                        00:01                    Now one, two, three. I'm KJ Dell'Antonia and this is #AmWriting. #AmWriting is the weekly podcast about writing all the things, be they fiction, nonfiction, proposals, pitches, essays, freelance work. This is the podcast about sitting down and getting your writing done.Jess:                                     01:40                    I'm Jess Lahey and I'm the author of the Gift of Failure and a book I'm just finishing, it's due so soon, on preventing childhood substance abuse and you can also find me at the Washington Post and The Atlantic and the New York Times and places like that.Sarina:                                 01:55                    And I'm Sarina Bowen. I'm the author of 30 odd, contemporary romance novels and you can find me at sarinabowen.com.KJ:                                        02:02                    They're not all odd. Sorry, I just had to, some of them, though. I am KJ Dell'Antonia, I always hit the softballs, and I am the author of How To Be a Happier Parent, the former editor of the New York Times' Motherlode blog, you can still find me as a contributor there. And I'm the author of a novel, The Chicken Sisters, which will be out next summer. That's who we are and we are downright giddy with joy today for Jess who is on the downhill slide, the good downhill slide.Jess:                                     02:49                    I'm just so discombobulated. So here's where I am. The day that we're recording this, I'm 14 days out from my book deadline. I am going to make it. I'm in the stretch, I'm in that place where nothing else happens. I haven't left the house in days. I am barely getting dressed in the morning. Yesterday I wrote for 14 hours straight, literally all I stopped to do a couple of times was let the dogs out and grab something that I'd already prepared and stuck in the refrigerator and microwave that. So, I'm in a crazy space, but there's something a little fun about being in that full deep dive. Like this is all I think about and my family's being really lovely. They're cooking for me, they're doing the laundry. I've got a lot of support, so that's great.KJ:                                        03:46                    Is this what the last deadline felt like, too? I do not remember.Jess:                                     03:50                    Well, here's the thing, I was talking to someone about that just recently. Writing a book is like having children, you forget a lot of the worst parts because you know, we'd never have children again if we remembered it all. And honestly, I handed in Gift of Failure a whole day early. I was very proud of myself. I don't remember it being this bonkers.KJ:                                        04:14                    I don't remember it being this bonkers for you. But I do remember all the bad parts about having children, but I'm not sure I remember the bad parts about you having children.Jess:                                     04:25                    Well keep in mind also, I learned a lot from doing Gift of Failure. So a lot of the editing that I had to do after the fact I'm now doing before the fact. It's really funny, every time I compile a chapter in Scrivener and then put it into Word for submitting to our agent and then later on to the editor, I've got this huge list of 'Have you done this?', 'Have you done that?' So when I finish a chapter, it takes me like two hours to go through all of my lists. Like search for all recurrences of the word that, and then remove like 50% of them. Have you used a hyphen the right way? How many commas are there? You know, that kind of crazy stuff that just saves Lori from having to remind me that I overuse the word that. So, yeah, there's a lot of my launch codes that have to be run before I submit. I don't remember it being this bonkers.KJ:                                        05:31                    This is your experience of finishing this book. Who knows? Like last time, maybe not quite like this. Next time, who knows?Jess:                                     05:39                    It's interesting. I did learn a lot last time and I feel better about what I'm producing this time simply because last time I didn't know. I was like, I had no idea if my editor was going to come back and say this is great or this is ridiculously bad. Because I had nothing, I had never done it before, I had nothing to judge it against. So this is really a different experience for me in a good way. In that number one, she's seen chapters as we go along and I've already gotten feedback on those chapters and oh my gosh, she loves it and that makes me so happy. But she's also been able to give me feedback and I've been able to change direction. So like the chapter I handed in last night is different from the previous three chapters because she'd given me feedback on those previous three chapters, which I'll go back and fix later. But I'm able to make course corrections midway, which has been really great. It has helped me eliminate a lot of work on the other end. So yeah, it's different. The answer to your question is I think it's different.KJ:                                        06:44                    I'm just probably different every, it's probably different every time up to a point. And now we turn to the author of some 30 odd books, Sarina. Is it different every time, up until it suddenly isn't different or is it still different every time?Sarina:                                 07:00                    You know, I am trying to make it less the same every time. Because you and I, KJ, have spent a lot of time lately thinking about outlining. And I'm trying to shift my whole game towards becoming a better outliner so that I don't have a repeat experience, which is 'freak out about the ending on every single book'.Jess:                                     07:26                    Well, but one thing I wanted to ask you about is you just recently had basically what I'm going through right now except with editing. And that seemed pretty intense for you. Does that stay the same or has that changed and does it depend on whether you're working with a coauthor?Sarina:                                 07:41                    Well, I shot myself in the foot a little bit and set up a month where I had to do edits on two books in the same month. And that that was just either bad luck or bad planning, take your pick. But I find it quite exhausting to have to make everything perfect on two books in a row where you don't give yourself the fun part of drafting and inventing in between to break up the tedium of perfection.Jess:                                     08:09                    Oh, that's a good point.KJ:                                        08:12                    When I was doing the big edit of my novel, I couldn't draft. I thought it was going to be able to. If you go back about eight podcasts, I'm like, 'I'm going to do both. I'm going to edit a little every day and I'll write a little every day. And that lasted a week. Mostly because the editing was just more intense. Drafting is fun, sometimes. Editing is fun, sometimes. Making things perfect, maybe not so much.Jess:                                     08:46                    Well, the 14 hours I spent yesterday were sort of a combination of the two. Mainly it was editing, which can be really tedious and all that stuff. But yesterday I did get to have one of those moments where it got a little buzzy and I was like, 'Oh, I like that.' I got to have those, even in the editing process. In fact, I changed how the chapter ended and I had one of those sort of moments where it feels like the minor chord changes to a major chord and there's that big breath you can take at the end and you're like, 'Ah, it works.' It was really a nice moment. And that happened in editing, so that was really fun.KJ:                                        09:29                    I just don't think I have ever had an experience of writing that feels like what I hear you reflecting. So part of me is sitting thinking should I be writing for 14 hours a day? That's not something that's up. I mean, I've had a full time writing job that sometimes took that, but I wouldn't have been writing the whole time. I would've been writing and editing and screaming and coding and frantically going through the comments and all the other things. The intensity with which you are writing right now is not something that I have ever experienced.Jess:                                     10:06                    Okay. Here's the thing, though. It's not about the intensity and it's not about the amount of time. The only, and this is really helpful information for me, the only times I have gotten this really serious - it's like a runner's high kind of thing. It's a writer's high. And the times I get it, reliably, are when I'm writing creative nonfiction. It happened when I wrote for Creative Nonfiction. That piece 'I've Taught Monsters'. It's happening in this book and the good news is that my editor is encouraging me to write more that way and less like a research paper, which is great cause I get less of it when I write that sort of sciency kind of stuff. But it's nice to know that there is this genre that gives me writer's high and it's the stuff I like to read the most. So, it's kind of like knowing what your sweet spot is. So for me it's a genre.KJ:                                        10:56                    That is the perfect segue into the topic, which I have gathered us here today to discuss. Which is - what we write, how much we choose that, and how much it chooses us, and how we feel about it. Which is a very complicated way of saying that I had a crisis of confidence last week in which I sort of sat down on the bed, convinced that the fact that I do not and will not and never going to write literary fiction, basically meant that I had wasted my entire education.Sarina:                                 11:36                    Well, I have a crisis of confidence pretty much every day at noon schedule.KJ:                                        11:56                    I wouldn't call it a crisis of confidence, though. I like the book that I wrote, and I like How To Be a Happier Parent, and I like the work that I do, and I like the experience that I have doing it. But I have frequently had the experience of feeling like I should be doing something else. When I spent years writing about parenting for the New York Times, it was the gutter of New York Times writing when I was doing it. And it may be that the experience has changed, but you know, it wasn't something really important like sports. It wasn't finance, it wasn't politics, although it frequently was finance, and it frequently was politics. I just would often feel like, you know, a smart person should be doing something else. And I'm having a little bit of that same feeling, you know, contemplating my undeniably fun romp of a book, which I enjoyed writing and is exactly the kind of thing that I like to read. But, then I just sort of think you go to the bookstore right now and everything is sort of really deep, and dark, and meaningful, and apocalyptic.Sarina:                                 13:31                    Sorry, I have some things to say. Well, first of all, my ghetto is located down the alleyway, you know, past a flap of tattered burlap, from your ghetto. Because romance writers are very accustomed to being in a ghetto that is ghetto-ier than everyone else's. And in fact, I remember this hilarious essay that Jennifer Wiener wrote for the New York Times a couple of years ago about going to the Princeton reunion as a commercial fiction author. And I remember tweeting to her, 'Well, you know, I sometimes roll up to the Yale reunion as a writer of occasionally erotic romance. And so, my ghetto mocks your ghetto. But, the funny thing is that Jennifer Wiener, I love her so much, and her favorite book of mine is a work of gay romance. So, she totally gets it. It was just a funny moment. And romance authors are very much accustomed to this idea of you're not a real author even if you're making six figures because there's a guys chest on the cover of your book. And we all have days where that doesn't seem fair or you get the weird look from the mom at the soccer game. But I always tell people who are struggling with this, that when you write some amazing line of dialogue, or that thing that happened in chapter two comes back as the perfect call out in chapter nine, it doesn't matter what you're writing that in, you feel just as good about it either way. When it works, it works.Jess:                                     15:36                    In the end, you're a storyteller. I mean the whole point of being a writer is to express yourself in stories. And frankly, you have told me on this podcast that there are awards for literary stuff that are out there that automatically mean they're books that you're not going to like. And you don't want to be trying to write that stuff because it would stink. Because you don't like writing it, you don't even like reading.KJ:                                        16:13                    I feel fine, I'm super excited about my book. In some ways, I'm more excited about it than I was about the nonfiction. It's funny how I think we all do this to ourselves. How I think we all have a should. And do you have a should at all?Jess:                                     17:10                    For me, because the stuff I really like to write about has to do with children's welfare, and ways prisons could be better and help kids. I really do love writing that stuff. The problem with that stuff is not a lot of people care, even though it's about kids. You know, as soon as you start talking about prisons or something, people are like, 'Yeah, yeah, whatever.' I get upset that I don't write that stuff more, because I feel like I should. Because that feels like if I were really doing my job and using the bullhorn that I have, because I'm lucky enough to have an audience, I need to be writing stuff that's more worthy. And so that can be really tough, cause sometimes I just want to write an essay about fishing with my dad. So yeah, I feel that, too. Should I be using these words to help kids be better or do I get to just enjoy writing?KJ:                                        18:11                    I had an idea for a new question we should ask everyone that comes on the podcast - 'What do you write when you write in your head?' You know what I mean? James Thurber used to tell, a possibly apocryphal story, about how his wife would walk up to him at parties and say, 'James, stop writing'.Jess:                                     18:33                    It's definitely creative nonfiction. I just thought about it and yeah, that's what I'm writing in my head.KJ:                                        18:40                    Are you writing essays or are you writing like opinions? Sarina, what do you write when you write in your head?Sarina:                                 18:49                    Well, I always am happy to admit that I'm a little bit trapped in romance at the moment. Because I have a platform and the bigger it gets, the harder it is for me to find tons of enthusiasm for striking out in a new direction.KJ:                                        19:06                    And you're kind of good at it.Sarina:                                 19:08                    Well, thank you.Jess:                                     19:09                    She's also incredibly good at YA, too. My favorite book of your happens to be a YA novel.Sarina:                                 19:18                    I actually love YA and I would like to write more of it. The Accidentals was a really good time for me to write. But the thing about YA though is that I don't love where the market for it is right now. So very objectively, I am not sorry that I'm not trying to sell something into that space right now. I might next year, perhaps. But not because I think the market will be any better next year. I don't love the direction of the young adult market and what's happening with it. So even though I feel suited to write it, even potentially better suited than I am to romance, that would be a really tough decision to make.Jess:                                     20:06                    KJ, what do you write in your head?KJ:                                        20:11                    I'm not necessarily sure that the question reflects like what we've written, I think it also reflects what we are accustomed to write. I write essays in my head. Sometimes they're angry, ranty essays. Sometimes they turn into actual essays, and sometimes they turn into actual angry, ranty essays. I recently penned an epic called 'Why Salad Is Just Too Hard'.Jess:                                     20:47                    I'm not going to talk about the details, but on the personal side, besides writing this book, there's a lot that's going on right now in my life. There's a lot I want to remember about what's going on in my life right now. There has been some funny and tragic and weird things that have happened. And it's been really frustrating for me not to have the extra time to sit down and write a lot of that down, so I've had to just jot down notes. But that's the stuff I've been writing in my head because I need to process that stuff. And the way I process is by writing creative nonfiction essays about it in my head. So, it's really weird. It's sort of like I'm constantly sorting through the weirdness of my life in terms of creative nonfiction essays. It's very bizarre.Sarina:                                 21:49                    So you're saying you have an inner David Sedaris?Jess:                                     21:52                    Yeah, I guess I have thought about it that way and also feeling bad that I don't have time to do what the crazy manic thing he does everyday. Obsessively writing notes and then transcribing those notes, because ideally that's what I would be doing right now if I had time, because so much is happening in my personal life right now that I'm afraid I'm gonna forget. If this was a perfect world, I would have two hours a day to process my notes into writing that I would then do something with eventually down the line. But I don't have time.KJ:                                        22:25                    I feel like you can only mentally do that if your day job is bartending or something. It's like if you're writing all day then to sit down and also write...Jess:                                     22:40                    I'm out of words, this happened during Gift of Failure, too. Although, during Gift of Failure somehow I was writing a column every two weeks, too. I don't know how that worked, I honestly have no memory of it, I've blocked it out. Since we're talking about people who have had a crisis of confidence, I have a cool story. It's about a book I read recently. So, there was this article in The Guardian that just just killed me it was so good. It was written by Alison Flood. It was in The Guardian recently and is about an author named Adrian McKinty. And Adrian McKinty has been in the media recently because he has a book called The Chain that was really a fun listen and I really liked it. And I was curious about what this guy's all about because it turns out he's written a bunch of mysteries in the past. He's been an author for a long time, he's written a lot of stuff, stuff that got critical acclaim, but just no one else read it apparently. So there's this article in The Guardian and it's called 'From Uber Driving to Huge Book Deal: Adrian McKinty's Life-Changing Phone Call'. Get this, so Adrian McKinty has decided to give up, he's decided I can't support my family as an author, he's Uber driving, he's working a couple of jobs just to make ends meet. Even though his books have gotten great reviews and critical acclaim, he's giving up. So he had mentioned this to Don Winslow, huge author Don Winslow, at a conference. This freaks Don Winslow out because Don Winslow has been through something like this, a similar situation, and he doesn't want Adrian McKinty to give up. So Don Winslow tells his agent Shane Salerno that Adrian McKinty is giving up writing. And Shane Salerno calls Adrian McKinty and says, 'Don tells me you've given up writing and I just don't think you should do that. Have you thought about writing a book set in the U.S.?' So Adrian McKinty has had an idea for a book and he writes 30 pages of it, like bangs out 30 pages of this book that he'd been thinking about. And at around three in the morning, he hands it in and at 4:15, the phone rings. And here's what Shane Salerno,agent to Don Winslow says, 'Forget bartending. Forget driving a bloody Uber.' Salerno said, 'You're writing this book.'. And he's like, 'No, I can't. I can't support my family.' He gets an offer of some short-term financial support from Shane Salerno. He's like, 'You need some money, just to get by so you can write this thing? I'll help.' Anyway, he writes the book, he gets a huge book deal for it, and then an even huger film deal. He got a six figure deal for The Chain and a seven figure deal for The Chain as a film. So yeah, he didn't quit. It's a crazy story. It's just nuts. Well, what was cool about it is that he had this idea for these two - it's sort of like when Stephen King talks about how he got the idea for Carrie - it was these two ideas that didn't work on their own, but when they came together, bang, there's a plot. So he had this thing kind of marinating in there, but he pushed back pretty hard. He's like, 'Nope, I'm done. No, really.' And there's also a nice moment when he gets the film deal, McKinty says to Salerno, 'I said, mate, you should have told me to sit down first. Can you say it all again really slowly as if you're talking to an idiot?' So anyway, it was a cool story. You might not love it, it's a people in peril sort of story, but a very cool idea. This is not a spoiler because it's right there on the book, but essentially your kid gets kidnapped and the only way your kid gets returned is if you kidnap another kid. and so on, and so on, and so on. So anyway, it's gonna make a killer movie. It's just compulsively read. I listened and it was a great listen. So anyway, cool story.KJ:                                        27:45                    So are we on what we're reading?Jess:                                     27:48                    Well, I don't know. Would we like to talk about what happened with the New York Times book lists?KJ:                                        27:52                    Oh yeah, that's right. Speaking of ghettos and having your ghetto sort of semi-recognized, but not really.Jess:                                     28:00                    Yeah, The Times is changing their lists. Who would like to take this one? Sarina?Sarina:                                 28:27                    My response was that this isn't even news. Because what they've expanded is that they brought back something they cut more than a year ago, which was the mass market paperback list used to be a weekly list and they also cut graphic novels at exactly the same time. So, bringing it back as a monthly is a non-event, especially because what sells in mass market paperback is a lot of romance and genre fiction.Jess:                                     29:00                    So Sarina, for our listeners who may not be as familiar, I would say, 'Sarina, why aren't you super excited about that? Mass market means romance. Why aren't you excited?'Sarina:                                 29:11                    Because the romance market keeps moving further and further away from mass market fiction. So they cut it at the moment when it could have made a difference and now it's just not interesting.Jess:                                     29:23                    For anyone who may not know, what does mass market mean?KJ:                                        29:26                    They actually haven't changed it on their website, the lists still look the same.Sarina:                                 29:32                    Right. It says the new lists don't even hit print until the end of October. So mass market is those rack sized books that they have at the grocery store. The market for those fundamentally changed a few years ago when the distribution company that was handling most of them stopped doing their business. And then publishers began to move away from mass market paperback and into the trade size, which is the slightly larger paperback you mostly see on tables if you go to a bookstore. So mass market gets two kinds of releases. They get some romance releases, just straight up. It'll be like e-book and that. Or, if you have a mega best seller then you might also get a pocket sized release after your regular paperback release. So by adding this, it's a really strange decision because there aren't that many books that come out in mass market anymore and the romance ones are selling most of their copies in e-book form. So when I read this change I thought, 'Oh the New York Times is trying to make a nod toward romance without having to touch anything that's independently published.' They basically are holding up a sign that says 'Self-published do not apply.'Jess:                                     30:59                    Here's a question, though. They do have an e-book list, so that wouldn't include self-published books then, is what you're saying?Sarina:                                 31:10                    Well, the e-book, it's called combined fiction. That's the list they have. They don't have an e-book bestseller list anymore that's just for e-books. Because it would have lots and lots of self-published things on it. And they didn't like that, so they got rid of it.KJ:                                        31:29                    Yeah, I was going to say there is no e-book list.Sarina:                                 31:35                    Nope, there was, but there isn't any more.KJ:                                        31:39                    Speaking of ghettos and not recognized. And I will also just note that they pulled their parenting list at the same time and they didn't even restore that one. They're not even pretending that if you don't manage to make advice and how-to (which some people do) you're just not.Jess:                                     31:59                    That's going to affect how publishers market books, too. You know, is my next book a parenting book? Is it an advice or how-to? Well, if I'm a smart publisher and I want it to make the list, I'm gonna make sure I push it as an advice or how-to. If I go into a bookstore looking for Gift of Failure it's never in the advice or how-to, it's in the parenting section. But if I were releasing that now, I would say, 'Well, we need to really push this as an advice or how-to.KJ:                                        32:30                    I don't think, and I could be totally misinformed here, but I think advice, how-to, and miscellaneous incorporates all the other. So it does incorporate parenting and now it'll have to incorporate sports and science, too.Jess:                                     33:15                    Since I already talked about The Chain, can I also just mention really quickly since we're going to talk about what we're reading? So when I'm in this crazy place like I am right now with this book. It's been really hard for me to find moments to calm down and relax. And I have been relistening to Jane Austen, but specifically, I had been listening to Rosamund Pike read Pride and Prejudice, who had played the sister Jane in one of the film versions of it. But now I'm listening to Sense and Sensibility read by the actress Juliet Stevenson and it's really lovely. And the nice thing about it is my mind can wander, because I already know the stories by heart. It's like when your kids are really, really little and they love having the same story read over and over and over again. I think that's soothing on some very primal level for me, so that's what I've been listening to.KJ:                                        34:25                    Yeah, definitely relistening is really good for that. I've been relistening to something that I have listened to twice already, partly just for that. Some of the reasons I had to listen to it was that one of my children was compelled to memorize the Declaration of International Human Rights or something along those lines. And said child required both an audience and to do that out loud, but did not actually require you to listen. So, earbuds, that's what I have to say about that particular experience. I do have some books, but Sarina, you want to go?Sarina:                                 35:13                    Yeah, I just bought a hardcover copy of Things You Save in a Fire by Katherine Center. Because not only did KJ like this book, but she told me that I would love it.KJ:                                        35:25                    That was the one I was sitting here before the podcast going, 'I know I read something I really liked recently. What did I read?' That was what it was! Found it. Now I have to change mine.Jess:                                     35:44                    What is Things You Save in a Fire? Is it nonfiction? Is it fiction? What's happening?KJ:                                        35:48                    It is flat out romance that has been marketed as commercial women's fiction and it is that, as well. But I see nothing about the story that violates the genre rules of romance. It is not one of those things where there are two people and only one of them gets her... We've talked about this before, the line is interesting and strange. And this one is a clear, fun, rollicking trip to the H E A. That would be the happily ever after.Jess:                                     36:22                    So it's not going to give me any guidance about what I should save if my house catches on fire.KJ:                                        36:27                    No, how-to and miscellaneous it is not.Jess:                                     36:32                    Alright, sorry. KJ, what have you been reading?KJ:                                        36:36                    That's it, I read that, I really liked it, it was really good. She has an amazing Instagram feed, too. Her name is Katherine Center and she is an artist, as well as a writer. So she paints on the books, which is killer. And as a doodler, I'm thinking I'm going to doodle on my books. I'm going to doodle chickens on my books for Instagram and I cannot wait to do it.Jess:                                     37:00                    Oh, that's a really cool idea. I like it. I can't wait. I have a cool bookstore for this week. When we first moved to Vermont, of course I had to go looking for all the independent bookstores in the area. And I've talked about some of them, but I have not talked about this lovely little one. There is a little town near us called Shelburne that has the sweetest little town center, there's a gorgeous museum that has all these old buildings from all over Vermont and New England that have been restored. And across the street from that is this little little village, it's really cute. And in that village is a lovely little bookstore called The Flying Pig Bookstore. It is small, but it is lovely, and they really know their books. And I have been trying to order my books through there because I can ride my bike to it, which is nice. I have a little basket on the front of my bike and so I have this very romantic vision of riding to my local bookstore and picking up my books and putting them in the basket of my bike. These are the kinds of things I live for at the moment, so I highly recommend it.Sarina:                                 38:09                    Sounds great, I think you should take us there when we see you next.Jess:                                     40:10                    Alright. Are we good, people? Have we done our job this week?KJ:                                        40:16                    And let me just say that if you agree and think that we have done our job, we hope you'll head over to amwritingpodcast.com and sign up for our weekly email. You get a transcript of all the things about riding around with your dog in the car and possibly some more useful things as well. And if you really love the podcast and crave more useful things, you can sign up for our writer top fives at the same place. That's a subscription service, supports the podcast, which is and always will be free. Also enables you to get our writer top five lists every Monday. Coming up, we've got top five reasons you should do NaNoWriMo, we've had top five questions you should ask your fictional character, top five reasons you should be on Instagram, we got top five ways to make your reader laugh.Jess:                                     41:15                    The burnchart one was great. And I can say that because I have nothing to do with them, because as I may have already mentioned, I have no other time to do anything but write this book. So this is all you two and I am so impressed with what you guys have done with these top five. They've been fantastic. I've enjoyed them as a reader that has nothing to do with them at the moment, but I will.KJ:                                        41:36                    All right, so head over to amwriting podcast.com. Check us out, support us, subscribe to us, and of course as always, subscribe to us and rate us should you care to on iTunes or wherever you listen to your podcast.Jess:                                     41:59                    This episode of #AmWriting with Jess and KJ was produced by Andrew Parilla. Our music, aptly titled unemployed Monday was written and performed by Max Cohen. Andrew and Max were paid for their services because everyone, even creatives should be paid. This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at amwriting.substack.com/subscribe

Katherine Center is the New York Times bestselling author of How to Walk Away and Things You Save in a Fire, as well as five others, including Happiness for Beginners and The Bright Side of Disaster. Her fourth novel, The Lost Husband, is soon to be a movie starring Leslie Bibb and Josh Duhamel. Katherine has been compared to both Nora Ephron and Jane Austen, and the Dallas Morning News calls her stories, “satisfying in the most soul-nourishing way.” Katherine recently gave a TEDx talk on how stories teach us empathy, and her work has appeared in O Magazine, USA Today, InStyle, Redbook, People, The Atlantic, Real Simple, and others. Katherine lives in Houston with her husband and two sweet kids. Visit her online at www.katherinecenter.com!

Things You Save In A Fire Book Review Podcast by Book Club Reporter - Laura JayAbout The Author - Katherine Center In addition to her latest book Things You Save in a Fire, Katherine Center is also the New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author of How to Walk Away which is novel reviewed on my website: BookClubReporter.com. And I will create a podcast for How to Walk Away in the near future.Katherine Center has also written five bittersweet comic novels about love and family, including: The Bright Side of DisasterHappiness for BeginnersAnd, The Lost Husband, which went into production in 2018, as a feature film, unfortunately I was unable to find a release date at this time.Things You Save in a FireA Story About Letting Go and Learning to Begin Again In this "good for the soul" story, fans of How To Walk Away will fall in love with female firefighter, Cassie Hanwell. Cassie is an intelligent and capable young woman following her dream to be successful at what she loves. And what Cassie loves is firefighting. At fire station eleven in Austin, Texas, Cassie can pretty much do everything the men firefighters can do…and sometimes even better.While twenty-six-year-old, Cassie is tough, strong and determined, she is also carrying a couple of gigantic emotional scars. Her mother, Diana, left Cassie and her dad on the evening of Cassie’s sixteenth birthday. In addition, it soon becomes clear, Cassie is suffering the memory of an unspeakable occurrence in her past, the nature of which we have yet to learn. Everyone deals with adversity in their own way. Cassie’s coping mechanism seems to be the development of a stoic and tough exterior. She doesn’t believe in love. And when it comes to her mother, Cassie has no forgiveness in her heart.With Captain Harris, an African-American female, in charge at the progressive Austin fire station, the amount of flack that Cassie might be subjected to from male counterparts, is virtually non-existent. However, that might change as Cassie is faced with moving to Massachusetts, to help out her ailing mother.As fate would have it, Cassie lands a job with an all-male fire station in Lillian, Massachusetts. To make matters even worse, Cassie learns the Lillian fire station doesn’t want a female firefighter. They are only taking her on because they are desperate. Warned by Captain Harris, back in Austin, Cassie has a good idea of what she can expect from the Lillian fire station male crew.When Cassie arrives for her first day at the Lillian fire station, she is welcomed with anything but open arms. She quickly realizes she will need to heed the tough advice of Captain Harris. That advice, in a nutshell, is don’t dress or act like a woman, and whatever a man can do, make sure to do it better. Cassie recognized that she was now a part of a fire station where she would be ignored, excluded and resented; and that no amount of hard work on her part would matter. The first thing Cassie learns on her first day on the new job is that being fifteen minutes early, means you’re half an hour late. The second thing she discovers is, Captain Murphy, of the Lillian fire station, proclaims meetings by announcing: “Attention, please. There’s a stripper at the kitchen table.”As Cassie settles into her new job, she does her best to fit in. She is a pro and an outstanding firefighter. When faced with obstacles, Cassie creates methods and techniques to accomplish the tasks as well as, if not better and faster than the men. Ah, but Cassie is not the only new firefighter in Lillian. A rookie firefighter started work the same day as Cassie. Everyone calls him "The Rookie" and not by his actual name, Owen. Cassie and the fire station male crew.

Welcome to Episode 87 of Twisted Stitches, a podcast for the twisted knitter. This week's episode of is full of WIPs, a finally finished FO, and some Plump retail therapy. We also discuss a bunch of books that we are reading including Things You Save in a Fire by Katherin Center, Bad Blood by John Carreyrou, and a new urban fantasy series. Pick up your needles or hooks and come hang out with us! show notes: http://twistedstitchespodcast.blogspot.com

Amanda and Jenn discuss dark fiction, humorous SF/F, women breaking down barriers, and more in this week’s episode of Get Booked. This episode is sponsored by Book Riot Insiders, Thirteen by Steve Cavanagh, and Blinkist. Subscribe to the podcast via RSS, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Stitcher. QUESTIONS 1. I’m getting married in the fall and am looking for books that portray marriage in a positive light. So many books use marriage as the plot twist, ie, murder, infidelity, etc. I want to read about good marriages and what will bring positive feelings in my marriage, not the negative portrayal usually used. I like historical fiction, magical realism, Mary Roach type of non-fiction, fantasy, romance. -Angela 2. I have been reading Things You Save in a Fire by Katherine Center, and realized that I need more stories in my life about women working in high testosterone settings. I work in a job that involves carpentry, electrical work, and a lot of physical labor. In some ways I was originally drawn to the job because of the boys’ club atmosphere. I love confounding expectations; I love the challenge of proving myself, but some days that challenge is more daunting than others. Could you point me in the direction of some other books that capture this? -Sasha 3. I have a bit of an itch I need scratched, and I’m having a hard time finding books with this specific description in mind. Earlier this year, I was very depressed and, although I love really dark fiction, I couldn’t bring myself to read it. I’m doing better now, and I want to plunge back in. I’m specifically wanting to read a fantasy/horror/thriller that’s really strange and doesn’t make a whole lot of sense but you’re just going with it? Something unsettling and stress-inducing possibly with a magical or supernatural element to it. I want to be so scared and confused and horrified that I feel like I’m going to throw up. The only examples I can think of that kind of have given me similar feelings (but maybe not quite as high of a distress level as I want or as strange as I want) have been Sawkill Girls, Baby Teeth, We Have Always Lived in the Castle, I’m Thinking of Ending Things, The Call, and, notably for it’s weirdness, Mouthful of Birds. Please no short story collections or anything too experimental (nothing has frustrated me more than trying to piece my way through House of Leaves). Please also no pregnancy horror, miscarriage, or child death. Thanks!! -Anon 4. Hello Amanda & Jenn! I am looking for a two-part recommendation. One of my favorite parts of being a parent is having a built-in “book buddy”! She is a voracious little book worm despite being only two and a half, and I’ve loved using books as tools to talk about new topics. My husband and I haven’t yet traveled as much as we’d like to with our daughter. In order to bring a bit of the world to us, I’ve started choosing both my books and her children’s books by authors from a specific country or that take place in that country. For example: We’re focusing on Nigeria right now and I’m reading Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor and Looking for Transwonderland: Travels in Nigeria by Noo Saro-Wiwa, while my daughter and I have read Chicken in the Kitchen by Nnedi Okorafor and Why The Sky Is Far Away by Mary-Joan Gerson. Could you recommend a book for me (any genre) to couple with a children’s book for her to help us learn about a new country? The World is Your Oyster! -Amber 5. Hi there! I’m looking for some recommendations for my sister, who enjoys SF/Fantasy and a dash of humor. She’s also an interior/graphic designer so she tried Horrostor by Grady Hendrix at my recommendation – she said that she really enjoyed the unique format and worldbuilding but that it also totally freaked her out. (She read it alone while home with a fever. Oops.) I’m thinking of trying Night Film by Marisha Peesl next – too much you think? Some of her favorites include: Mogworld by Yahtzee Croshaw, The Martian by Andy Weir, American Gods by Neil Gaiman, Seconds by Brian Lee O’Malley, and the Finder Series by Carla Speed McNeil. Thank you!! -Melanie 6. I’m looking for some recommendations for my husband. He wants to get back into reading, but he doesn’t really know where to begin. He only reads nonfiction titles. He’s an attorney and former history teacher, so he enjoys both political and historical biographies. Some of his other interests include sports and standup comedy. He’s also expressed interest in reading stories about Mexico or Mexican immigrants. I realize these subjects are kind of all over the board, but I’m hoping you guys can pull something amazing out of your brains. Thanks so much, I appreciate your help! -Sarah 7. Hello, I’ve been listening to your podcast for a while, and I’m always looking forward to new episodes! For a while now I’ve been trying to find a good book to give to my mother in law. I’m a woman of colour, and my partner’s family is white. my mother in law is very open and willing to listen to my experiences as a woman of colour but I find that most – if not all – of the stories she finds most powerful are told from white men and women. While I’m sure the stories she loves are powerful and well-told, I wanted to find a book that offers the perspective of a person of colour and their experiences. Some of her favourite books are Still Alice, My Secret Sister, and A Dog’s Purpose. I hope you are able to help me out either on the podcast or by email. Happy reading! – Sandi BOOKS DISCUSSED An Affair Before Christmas by Eloisa James The Deepest Blue by Sarah Beth Durst Cork Dork by Bianca Bosker Documentary: SOMM Shoot Like a Girl by Mary Jennings Hegar (tw: sexual assault, family abuse, misogyny) Hegar’s viral ad Hex by Thomas Olde Heuvelt, transl by Nancy Forest-Flier (TW: child abuse, violence) White Is For Witching by Helen Oyeyemi (tw: disordered eating, self-harm) Frida Kahlo and her Animalitos by Monica Brown Signs Preceding the End of the World by Yuri Herrera, transl. by Lisa Dillman Under My Hijab by Hena Khan, illustrated by Aaliya Jaleel The Faithful Scribe by Shahan Mufti The Parasol Protectorate series (Soulless #1) by Gail Carriger Unraveling by Karen Lord Pit Bull by Bronwen Dickey (tw: animal abuse) The River of Doubt by Candice Millard The Woman Next Door by Yewande Omotoso Men We Reaped by Jesmyn Ward

Martha goes on a rant, but we break free into ghost territory and then review some spectacular books!

In today’s episode, Mollie and Katie lament the onslaught of heartburn because their stomachs now reside in their throats. They discuss what they’re reading, the fact that their books have overlapped some this month, they wonder where all the time to read summer books has gone, and they guess each other’s favorite books that instagram made them read (or in Mollie’s case, what KATIE made her read…).    Books Mentioned The Most Fun We Ever Had by Claire Lombardo Lock Every Door by Riley Sager Castle of Water by Dane Hucklebridge The Gifted School by Bruce Holsinger Beartown by Fredrik Bachman Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel The Great Alone by Kristen Hannah Anne of Green Gables by LM Montgomery Nevermoor and Wundersmith by Jessica Townsend The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill Sweet Bitter by Stephanie Danler Wives and Daughters and North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell How to Walk Away and Things You Save in a Fire by Katherine Center   Follow Us Everywhere! Website:https://www.nothankswerebooked.com/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/nothankswerebooked Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nothxwerebooked/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/NoThxWereBooked

In Episode 16, Meredith Monday Schwartz and Kaytee Cobb join me to go behind-the-scenes of the Currently Reading Podcast. This post contains affiliate links, through which I make a small commission when you make a purchase (at no cost to you!). Highlights The segment Currently Reading guests are always the most nervous about. How (and how fast) Currently Reading came together. What Meredith and Kaytee did not want Currently Reading to be. How Meredith and Kaytee’s relationship has changed since starting Currently Reading. The biggest challenges of running Currently Reading (PS – Kaytee’s and Meredith’s are different). Meredith and Kaytee’s dream guests for Currently Reading…and Sarah’s for Sarah’s Book Shelves Live. Meredith and Kaytee share the biggest similarities and biggest differences in their reading tastes. The book all three of us loved despite thinking the premise was completely preposterous. A bonus book recommendation from Meredith. A tangent about Goodreads‘ skewed ratings because of people not rating books they don’t like and/or finish. What Meredith and Kaytee would do if they hated a book a guest wanted to press into everyone’s hands. Meredith and Kaytee’s Book Recommendations Two OLD Books They Love Kaytee: 11/22/63 by Stephen King | Buy from Amazon [20:17] Meredith: All Things Cease to Appear by Elizabeth Brundage | Buy from Amazon [22:16] Two NEW Books They Love Kaytee: The Editorby Steven Rowley (My Review) | Buy from Amazon [24:40] Meredith: The Current by Tim Johnston | Buy from Amazon [26:55] Two Books They Didn’t Love Kaytee: Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng (My Review) | Buy from Amazon [31:26] Meredith: My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite (My Review) | Buy from Amazon[34:49] Two New Releases They’re Excited About Kaytee: Waiting for Tom Hanks by Kerry Winfrey (Release Date: June 11, 2019) | Buy from Amazon [37:34] Meredith: A Better Man by Louise Penny (Release Date: August 27, 2019) | Buy from Amazon[40:32] Other Books Mentioned A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara (My Review) | Buy from Amazon [18:56] We Were the Lucky Ones by Georgia Hunter (My Review) | Buy from Amazon [19:37] Lily and the Octopus by Steven Rowley | Buy from Amazon [24:45] Descent by Tim Johnston | Buy from Amazon [24:45] The Perfect Couple by Elin Hilderbrand | Buy from Amazon [24:45] Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng (My Review) | Buy from Amazon [32:28] Things You Save in a Fire by Katherine Center | Buy from Amazon [38:15] Still Life by Louise Penny | Buy from Amazon [41:32] Other Links April 2019 Books to Read (and Skip) (my blog post) Ep. 31 of the Currently Reading Podcast with Laura Tremaine Jamie Golden, co-host of The Popcast (Currently Reading dream guest) Author Gretchen Rubin (Currently Reading dream guest) Anne Bogel from What Should I Read Next? Podcast (Currently Reading dream guest) Meredith on What Should I Read Next? Podcast (Episode 11) Sarah’s Book Shelves Live Ep 2: Winter 2019 Book Preview Currently Reading’s Books We’ve Pressed Into Your Hands list The Currently Reading Podcast Podcast Website | Instagram | Facebook About Meredith Instagram Meredith Monday Schwartz is a married mom of 4 and full-time CEO of a large wedding website. She lives in the SF Bay Area and loves the cool temperatures and high number of bookstores that make up the gorgeous place she calls home. She’s been an avid reader since she was 4. She’s a very introverted INFJ, so she reads to re-charge. Her very favorite thing to do if she’s not reading is… wait for it… to talk about books! She’s so grateful that, in Kaytee, she’s found the perfect partner. About Kaytee Instagram | Blog | Twitter| Goodreads Kaytee is married to her best friend, a mama of 4 littles, a big fan of Jesus, and a homeschool mom and director (kind of like the principal of our homeschool co-op). She tries not to lose her mind while juggling all these roles by reading books. She’s attempting to reach “professional” reading level by regularly devouring 200 or more books in a calendar year! She’s an ESFJ, Type A, Enneagram 2w1, Obliger who obviously loves personality tests. She enjoys being around people, but her favorite thing to talk to those people about is…books! Support the Podcast Share - If you like the podcast, I’d love for you to share it with your reader friends…in real life and on social media (there’s easy share buttons at the bottom of this post!). Subscribe...wherever you listen to podcasts, so new episodes will appear in your feed as soon as they’re released. Rate and Review - Search for “Sarah’s Book Shelves” in Apple Podcasts…or wherever you listen to podcasts! Feedback - I want this podcast to fit what you’re looking for, so I truly do want your feedback! Please tell me (email me at sarahsbookshelves@gmail.com or DM me on social media) what you like, don’t like, want more of, want less of, etc. I’d also love to hear topics you’d like me to cover and guests you’d like to hear from.

Kaytee is recording with a special guest co-host this week, Anna Hithersay of The Post Party podcast. Anna is a homeschool mom and was a librarian in a former life, so I think you’ll love our deep dive into choosing great books for your kids (and yourself) at the library. You’ll hear a “bookish moment of the week” from each of the us: a bookish tattoo and a raising readers moment. Next, we discuss our current reads. This week has some thriller, some fairy tale, some romance, some middle grade. Basically, we took quite a few left turns. Our deep dive this week is a conversation with Anna about choosing quality books from the library when the selection is so overwhelming. We also talk about “twaddle” and authors that are sure bets. As always, we finish up with A Book (yep, capitalized) that we’d like to press into every reader’s hands. A sweeping story of the South and a tiny classic that’s sweet and lovely. As per usual, time-stamped show notes are below with references to every book and resource we mentioned in this episode. If you’d like to listen first and not spoil the surprise, don’t scroll down!  .  .  .  .  .  2:03 - Harry Potter series by JK Rowling 3:25 - My new Bookish Tattoo! 4:43 - 99 Percent Mine by Sally Thorne 4:50 - The Hating Game by Sally Thorne 8:37 - Happiness for Beginners by Katherine Center 8:44 - Things You Save in a Fire by Katherine Center 11:15 - Wild by Cheryl Strayed 12:10 - A Walk In The Woods by Bill Bryson 12:29 - When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead 15:31 - The Winter Sister by Megan Collins 15:38 - Book Of the Month 18:56 - White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo 20:55 - OnRamp Podcast 25:04 - Lost Boy by Christina Henry 25:12 - Morgan Tallman episode 22 28:26 - Alice by Christina Henry 28:29 - Red Queen by Christina Henry 28:56 - Peter Pan by JM Barrie 31:57 - Barbara Cooney books 35:38 - Magic Treehouse books by Mary Pope Osborne 37:30 - Eric Carle books 37:36 - Sandra Boynton books 38:22 - Blue Hat, Green Hat by Sandra Boynton 38:51 - Richard Scarry books 39:48 - First Thousand Words in English by Heather Amery 39:49 - First Thousand Words in Spanish by Heather Amery 40:08 - Magic Treehouse books by Mary Pope Osborne 40:28 - The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Hayes 41:48 - In The Town All Year ‘Round by Rotraut Susanne Berner 43:21 - The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton 43:24 - Mike Mulligan and the Steam Shovel by Virginia Lee Burton 43:32 - Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey 43:34 - Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey 44:37 - Hannah Coulter by Wendell Berry 45:49 - Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry 47:01 - Parnassus on Wheels by Christopher Morley 48:00 - Parnassus Books 48:31 - 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff Find Anna here: The Post Party podcast The Post Party on Instagram and Facebook *Please note that all book titles linked above are Amazon affiliate links. Your cost is the same, but a small portion of your purchase will come back to us to help offset the costs of the show. Thanks for your support!*  

In Episode 7, Ashley Spivey (founder of #SpiveysClub Facebook Group and former Bachelor contestant) shares Galentine’s Day book recommendations and talks a bit of The Bachelorbehind-the-scenes! We had a lot to cover this week (including 3 extra book recommendations from Ashley!), so the episode as a little longer than you’re used to. But, I don’t think you’ll be mad about it! This post contains affiliate links, through which I make a small commission when you make a purchase (at no cost to you!). Highlights Surviving The Bachelor without being allowed to read. A bit of behind-the-scenes of The Bachelor & what it’s like to be a contestant on the show. Why Ashley doesn’t like reading books in advance of publication. Sarah’s favorite podcasts. Why Ashley rarely DNF’s books. Ashley’s dream job. Authors on social media (and some that are particularly good follows). Why Ashley doesn’t read books about The Bachelor anymore. Ashley’s Book Recommendations Four OLD Books She Loves Tell the Wolves I’m Home by Carol Rifka Brunt | Buy from Amazon [22:29] I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson | Buy from Amazon [25:01] Forever is the Worst Long Time by Camille Pagan | Buy from Amazon [27:37] Stay with Me by Ayobami Adebayo | Buy from Amazon [31:24] Two NEW Books She Loves Tell Me Lies by Carola Lovering | Buy from Amazon [33:47] Matchmaking for Beginners by Maggie Dawson | Buy from Amazon [37:05] One Book She Didn’t Love The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah (My Quick Thoughts) | Buy from Amazon [40:21] Two Upcoming Releases She’s Excited About Otherwise Engaged by Lindsey J. Palmer (Publication Date: February 26) | Buy from Amazon[43:52] The Girl He Used to Know by Tracey Garvais Graves (Release Date: April 2, 2019) | Buy from Amazon [46:51] Other Books Mentioned Life of Pi by Yann Martel | Buy from Amazon [3:54] Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart | Buy from Amazon [10:34] Things You Save in a Fire by Katherine Center | Buy from Amazon [12:52] How to Walk Away by Katherine Center (My Review) | Buy from Amazon [13:04] It’s Not Okay: Turning Heartbreak into Happily Never After by Andi Dorfman | Buy from Amazon [18:18] The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern | Buy from Amazon [22:02] The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai (My Review) | Buy from Amazon [24:26] A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara (My Review) | Buy from Amazon [24:44] The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne (My Review) | Buy from Amazon [24:44] Life and Other Near-Death Experiences by Camille Pagan | Buy from Amazon [27:49] I Miss You When I Blink by Mary Laura Philpott | Buy from Amazon [29:29] Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie | Buy from Amazon [32:15] The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P. by Adelle Waldman (My Review) | Buy from Amazon [35:47] The Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman | Buy from Amazon [38:24] The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah (My Review) | Buy from Amazon [41:15] All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr | Buy from Amazon [41:45] Skeletons at the Feast by Chris Bohjalian | Buy from Amazon [41:45] On the Island by Tracey Garvais Graves | Buy from Amazon [46:59] The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang | Buy from Amazon [47:31] The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion | Buy from Amazon [47:40] Bachelor Nation by Amy Kauffman (My Review) | Buy from Amazon [49:21] The Favorite Sister by Jessica Knoll (My Review) | Buy from Amazon [51:06] The Book of Essie by Meghan MacLean Weir (My Review) | Buy from Amazon [51:06] Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld | Buy from Amazon [51:16] American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld | Buy from Amazon [51:26] You Think It, I’ll Say It: Stories by Curtis Sittenfeld (My Review) | Buy from Amazon [51:26] Other Links #SpiveysClub Facebook Group The Strand Bookstore in New York City Sarah’s 2018 Summer Reading Guide Some of Sarah’s Favorite Podcasts: From the Front Porch, Gladiator, Dirty John Camille Pagan Twitter and Instagram Emily Giffin Twitter (her Instagram is sadly private) The Stripe blog (Twitter, Instagram) Bad on Paper podcast (Instagram) The Tattooist of Auschwitz scandal Reality Steve About Ashley Facebook Group | Instagram | Twitter  Ashley is the founder of the #SpiveysClub Facebook Group and Book Club. She’s also co-host of the He Said, She Said Podcast sharing advice on life and love with Reality Steve. Prior to all that, she was a contestant on Season 15 of The Bachelor with Brad Womack. Support the Podcast Share - If you like the podcast, I’d love for you to share it with your reader friends…in real life and on social media (there’s easy share buttons at the bottom of this post!). Subscribe...wherever you listen to podcasts, so new episodes will appear in your feed as soon as they’re released. Rate and Review - Search for “Sarah’s Book Shelves” in Apple Podcasts…or wherever you listen to podcasts! Feedback - I want this podcast to fit what you’re looking for, so I truly do want your feedback! Please tell me (email me at sarahsbookshelves@gmail.com or DM me on social media) what you like, don’t like, want more of, want less of, etc. I’d also love to hear topics you’d like me to cover and guests you’d like to hear from.

Meredith and Kaytee return to your feed this week to chat about what we’ve been reading and what we plan to read in the coming year. You’ll hear a “bookish moment of the week” from each host: a reading project for you, our listeners, and New Year’s gift from the library. Next, we discuss what we are currently reading, and this week includes some new titles, some old ones, and one that (I’m sorry) will release at the end of the summer. Doesn’t matter, you still want to hear about it. This week’s deep dive is a survey of our reading goals for the year. Some are very specific, some are more general, but both of us are excited about the Currently Reading Challenge! As always, we finish up with A Book (yep, capitalized) that we’d like to press into every reader’s hands: a brand new illustrated volume, and a short story fairy tale collection. As always, time-stamped show notes are below with references to every book and resource we mentioned in this episode. If you’d like to listen first and not spoil the surprise, don’t scroll down!  .  .  .  .  .  3:00 - The Currently Reading 2019 Challenge! 6:28 - Book of the Month 6:32 - One Day in December by Josie Silver 9:44 - In Cold Blood by Truman Capote 12:55 - Things You Save in A Fire by Katherine Center 13:05 - How to Walk Away by Katherine Center 15:40 - Where The Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens 19:15 - The Polygamist’s Daughter by Anna LaBaron 19:23 - Sound of Gravel by Ruth Wariner 19:46 - The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls 19:47 - Educated by Tara Westover 22:12 - The Crowfield Curse by Pat Walsh 24:28 - The Book of Boy by Catherine Gilbert Murdock 24:30 - The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer 28:43 - Shogun by James Clavell 30:48 - Books by Isabel Allende 30:56 - Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel 31:38 - The Great American Read 33:18 - The Currently Reading 2019 Challenge! (Again… we’re very excited) 37:31 - Bibliophile by Jane Mount 41:00 - The Language of Thorns by Leigh Bardugo 43:28 - Grimm’s Fairy Tales by The Brother’s Grimm (what a pretty collection!) *Please note that all book titles linked above are Amazon affiliate links. Your cost is the same, but a small portion of your purchase will come back to us to help offset the costs of the show. Thanks for your support!*