Episodes

  • Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com.Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpodFacebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover.To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button.

    This week our topic is philosophical. No, we’re not discussing those dull philosophy textbooks, but rather novels or nonfiction that ask big questions, such as “Who am I?” and “What is happiness?” and “Do we have free will?”. We will give you 10 books that will get you thinking with your big brains.

    Books Mentioned In This Episode:

    1- Carrie by Stephen King

    2- A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes

    3- Faith, Hope, and Carnage by Nick Cave and Sean O’Hagan

    4- Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea by Guy Delisle

    5- A Book Recommended by Fellow Book Lover Larissa @laralucretia - The Shadow of the Gods by John Gwynne

    6- Bartleby the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street by Herman Melville

    7- Geography of Bliss: One Grump’s Search for the Happiest Places in the World by Eric Weiner

    8- Nasty, Brutish, and Short: Adventures in Philosophy with Kids by Scott Hershovitz

    9- LoterĂ­a by Karla Arenas Valenti

    10- The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

    11- How to be Perfect: The Correct Answer to Any Moral Question by Michael Schur

    12- The Naked Neanderthal by Ludovic Slimak

    13- If Cats Disappeared From the World by Genki Kawamura

    14- The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

    15- If Nietzsche Were a Narwhal: What Animal Intelligence Reveals About Human Stupidity by Justin Gregg

    16- Walking Shadows by Faye Kellerman

    Media mentioned—

    1- Trap (2024, Max)

    2- Carrie (2013, Tubi)

    3- Carrie (1976)

    4- Penny Dreadful (2014-2016 Pluto)

    5- The Little Prince (2015, Pluto)

  • Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com.Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpodFacebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover.To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button.

    You can find Alisa Alering at www.alering.com or on Insta @alisa.alering.

    This week we wrap up what has been a month of seasonally spooky books with guest Alisa Alering, the author of Smothermoss, a book that is set in 1980s Pennsylvania Appalachia. It is the story of two sisters who witness a murder on the Appalachian Trail. It is a book that Amy discovered while attending the Columbus Book Festival this past summer. If you like magical realism or gothic fiction, you will definitely want to check this novel out since there is a sentient mountain. Nature truly is a character in the story.

    Books Mentioned In This Episode:

    1- Smothermoss by Alisa Alering

    2- Ritual by David Pinner

    3- Winterset Hollow by Jonathan Edward Durham

    4- Watership Down by Richard Adams

    5- Every Bone a Prayer by Ashley Blooms

    6- Where I Can't Follow by Ashley Blooms

    7- A Five Star Read Recommended by Fellow Book Lover Dina @ddemaiosmith - Starling House by Alix E. Harrow

    8- The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow

    9- Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow

    10- Assembly by Natasha Brown

    11- White Teeth by Zadie Smith

    12- The Bog Wife by Kay Chronister

    13- My Dear Henry: A Jekyll and Hyde Remix (Remixed Classics) by Kalynn Bayron

    Media mentioned—1- What We Do in the Shadows (Hulu 2019)

    2- What We Do in the Shadows movie (2014)

    3- Wellington Paranormal (Max 2018)

    4- Psycho (Netflix 1960)

    5- The Wicker Man (Tubi 1973)

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  • Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com.Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpodFacebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover.To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button.

    This week we’re bringing you a Creature Feature in which we suggest books that tell the story of creatures. Those may be mythological creatures, cryptids, or beings from your favorite horror film. Some are scary, some are mysterious, some don’t seem that different from humans. All of them make for good October reads.

    Books Mentioned In This Episode:

    1- Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree

    2- Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree

    3- Treasury of Greek Mythology: Classic Stories of Gods, Goddesses, Heroes & Monsters by Donna Jo Napoli

    4- A Five Star Read Recommended by Fellow Book Lover Katherine @katshomeig - Beautiful Prey by Lora Darc

    5- The Book of Eels: Our Enduring Fascination with the Most Mysterious Creature in the Natural World by Patrick Svenson

    6- Silver in the Wood/Drowned Country by Emily Tesh

    7- The Lady from the Black Lagoon: Hollywood Monsters and the Lost Legacy of Millicent Patrick by Mallory O'Meara

    8- Grendel by John Gardner

    9- Bea Wolf by Zach Weinersmith

    10- Dear Mothman by Robin Gow

    11- The Thing About Jellyfish by Ali Benjamin

    12- Mothman's Merry Cryptid Christmas by Andrew Shaffer

    13- The Frandidate (Franny K Stein series) by Jim Benton

    14- The Mermaid of Black Conch by Monique Roffey

    15- Nothing But Blackened Teeth by Cassandra Khaw

    16- The Monstrumologist by Rick Yancey

    17- It Came From the Trees by Ally Russell

    18- The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker

    Media mentioned---

    1- What We Do in the Shadows (Hulu, 2019- present)

    2- The Thing (1982)

    3- The Fly (1986)

    4- Santa Clarita Diet (Netflix, 2017-2019)

    5- The Mummy (1999)

    6- Harry & the Hendersons (1987)

    7- The Shape of Water (2017)

    8- The Goonies (1985)

    9- Kaos (Netflix, 2024)

    10- The Mothman Prophecies (1992)

    11- Illustration of an Anthropophagi - themonstrumologistoverview.weebly.com/confli
t.html

  • Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com.Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpodFacebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover.To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button.

    You can find Daniel at his website www.danielolivas.com

    This week we speak with Daniel Olivas, a lawyer with the California Department of Justice, who is also a novelist, poet, and playwright. His novel, Chicano Frankenstein, which published in March of this year, was an obvious book pick for Carrie because she loves Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. The novel has been optioned by Universal Television, so fingers crossed on that.

    Olivas’ reimagining of Shelley’s 1818 novel has an unnamed man as the narrator. He is a paralegal who has been reanimated from the corpse of a Mexican-American man, one of many such reanimated people (derogatively called “stitchers”) who are part of an effort to deal with the US’ labor crisis, but he struggles with his identity. How can a person have an identity if all knowledge of their family, their interests, their feelings, their thoughts have been stripped away? In addition to the idea of selfhood, the novel also explores the cruelty of politicians who pander to fear and racism, harming the people of their communities that one would expect them to protect.

    Books Mentioned in this Episode:

    1- Chicano Frankenstein by Daniel Olivas

    2- Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

    3- The Distance Between Us by Reyna Grande

    4- Artificial Life After Frankenstein by Eileen M. Hunt

    5- A 5 Star Read Recommended by Fellow Book Lover The Biblioholic @thebiblioholic_ - Dorothy Must Die series by Danielle Page

    6- Leech by Hiron Ennes

    7- Unwieldy Creatures by Addie Brook Tsai

    8- Dread Nation by Justina Ireland

    9- Deathless Divide (Dread Nation #2) by Justina Ireland

    Movies mentioned in this episode:

    1- Frankenstien (1931)

    2- The Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

  • Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com.Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpodFacebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover.To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button.

    Books Mentioned in this Episode:

    1- A Good Girls Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson

    2- Horribly Haunted in Hillbilly Hollow by Blythe Baker

    3- Black River Orchard by Chuck Wendig

    4- A 5 Star Read Recommended by Fellow Book Lover Lan Nguyen-Colgate - A Magic Steeped in Poison by Judy I Lin

    5- The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin

    6- "The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin (Short Story)

    7- The Seven 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

    8- House of Cotton by Monica Brashears

    9- Smoke Gets in Your Eyes & Other Lessons from the Crematory by Caitlin Doughty

    10- Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs and Other Questions About Dead Bodies by Caitlin Doughty

    11- The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

    12- The Friend by Sigrid Nunez

    13- The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

    14- Wave by Sonali Deraniyagala

    15- The Undertaking of Lily Chen by Danica Novgorodoff

    16- The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo

    17- The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

    18- The Thing about Jellyfish by Ali Benjamin

    19- Heavenly Bodies by Amani Erriu

    20- Fallen Stars by Amani Erriu

    Media mentioned--

    1- A Good Girl's Guide to Murder (Netflix, 2024)

    2- The Lovely Bones (Max, 2009)

  • Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com.Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpodFacebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover.To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button.

    You can find Lyndsay at her website www.lyndsayrush.com/ and on IG at @maryoliversdrunkcousin

    Books Mentioned In This Episode:

    1- A Bit Much by Lyndsay Rush

    2- Instructions for Traveling West by Joy Sullivan

    3- A Five Start Read Recommended by Fellow Book Lover Meg Longley @ohlongley - Meet Me at the Museum by Ann Youngson

    4- Weyward by Emilia Hart

    5- I Miss You When I Blink: Essays by Mary Laura Philpott

    6- I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai

    7- The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai

    8- Pets in the City: True Tales of a Manhattan House Call Vet by Dr. Amy Attas

    9- The Wild Robot by Peter Brown

    Media mentioned—

    1- The Wild Robot (2024)

    2- Saltburn (Prime Video, 2023)

    3- Wuthering Heights: Hollywood's worst case casting decisions -www.bbc.com/culture/article/202
t-casting-decisions

    4- A Room With a View (1985)

    5- Downton Abbey (2010-2015)

  • Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com.Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpodFacebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover.To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button.

    You can find info about Midge and John at their website midgeandjohn.com/ or at ashlandcreekpress.com/. They are on IG @midge_and_john and @ashlandcreekpress.

    Ashland Creek Press, an eco-fiction publisher, first came on our radar in the pre-COVID era when we interviewed Katy Yocom, author of Three Ways to Disappear, a novel set partly in India that focuses on animal conservation and a relationship between two sisters. But one of our other former guests, Jennifer Caloyeras, host of the Books Are My People podcast, also had a book published by Ashland Creek: her 2015 novel Strays. We’re always interested in small presses, so we were excited to talk to Midge Raymond and John Yunker about their work running one.

    But Midge and John are also writers who have collaborated on a recently published novel titled Devils Island, which is set in Tasmania amongst the endangered and much-maligned Tasmanian devil. While this is a conservation-leaning novel, it is also a suspense story about a naturalist tour that goes very wrong, involving a disappearance and a death.

    Books Mentioned In This Episode:

    1- Three Ways to Disappear by Katy Yocom

    2- Strays by Jennifer Caloyeras

    3- Devils Island by Midge Raymond and John Yunker

    4- My Last Continent by Midge Raymond

    5- The Tourist Trail by John Yunker

    6- A Five Star Read Recommended by a Fellow Book Lover Susan Cook @bookbookbagawk - Another Country by James Baldwin

    7- The Funeral Cryer by Wenyan Lu

    8- The Spare Room by Helen Garner

    9- We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler

    10- Pines by Blake Crouch

    11- Dark Matter by Blake Crouch

    Media mentioned—

    1- Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024)

    2- True Detective—Night Country (Max)

    3- The Bear (Hulu)

    4- Eco-lit books —ecolitbooks.com/

    5- Maria Island Walk - www.mariaislandwalk.com/

    6- What do Tasmanian devils sound like? - www.youtube.com/watch?v=pW27vpK4ALQ

  • Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com.Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpodFacebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover.To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button.

    JD Vance first made news when he published his book Hillbilly Elegy in 2016, but he has since become a senator in Ohio and a vice presidential candidate. When his memoir came out, there were many people who had strong negative feelings about his book, namely other people from Appalachia who felt that he misrepresented them and their struggles.

    When JD Vance was selected as Donald Trump’s VP, we thought it might be a good time to look at some other Appalachia-related books that perhaps provide a fuller picture of the region, which spans 206,000 square miles, 423 counties, and six states. A region this large cannot be summed up by one person in one book.

    So our goal this week is to give you some diverse Appalachian voices to add to your TBR for a broader view of this region.

    Books Mentioned In This Episode:

    1- Hillbilly Elegy by JD Vance

    2- Storyteller by Dave Grohl

    3- Monsters: A Fan's Dilemma by Clare Dederer

    4- Womb: The Inside Story of Where We All Began by Leah Hazard

    5- Phallacy: Life Lessons from the Animal Penis by Emily Willingham

    6- The Sirens of Soleil City by Sarah C. Johns

    7- A Five Star Recommended by Fellow Book Lover Nikki Lee @nikkileethrillseeker - The Mechanics of Memory by Audrey Lee

    8- "A Ribbon for Baldy" by Jesse Stuart (short story)

    9- The Beatinest Boy by Jesse Stuart

    10- Andy Finds a Way by Jesse Stuart

    11- Many-Storied House: Poems by George Ella Lyon

    12 - Gay Poems for Red States by Willie Carver Jr.ThePerksofBeingaBookLover.podbean.com/e/s9-e
-9623/

    13- "Where I'm From" by George Ella Lyon (poem)

    14- Prodigals: A Sister's Memoir of Appalachia and Loss by Sarah Beth Childers

    15- Township by Jamie Lyn Smith

    16- Water Street by Crystal Wilkinson

    17- Affrilachia by Frank X Walker

    18- "Burying Albatross" by Frank X. Walker (poem)-poetrysociety.org/poems-essays/ars
a/frank-x-walker

    19- "Neoteric Kama no Sutra" by Frank X. Walker (poem)-poets.org/poem/neoteric-kama-no-sutra

    20- Where I Can't Follow by Ashley BloomsThePerksofBeingaBookLover.podbean.com/e/ep-6
30-20/

    21- Smothermoss by Alisa Alering

    22- Belle Prater's Boy by Ruth White

    23- Clay's Quilt by Silas House

    24- The Coal Tattoo by Silas House

    25- Parchment of Leaves by Silas House

    26- Fair & Tender Ladies by Lee Smith

    27 - Hill Women: Finding Family and a Way Forward in the Appalachian Mountains by Cassie ChambersThePerksofBeingaBookLover.podbean.com/e/ep-3
25-20/

    28- Another Appalachia: Coming Up Queer and Indian in a Mountain Place by Neema AvashiaThePerksofBeingaBookLover.podbean.com/e/s-6-
-6-22/

    29- A Good Girl's Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson

    Media mentioned--

    1- The To Read List Podcast

    2- Slow Horses (Apple +)

    3- The Bear (Hulu)

    4- Ripley (Netflix)

    5- True Detective: Night Country (HBO MAX, 2024)

    6- Steve! (documentary) (Apple +, 2024)

    7- Kaos (Netflix, 2024)

    8- The Princess Bride (1987)

    9- The Tourist (Netflix)

    10- The Good Girl's Guide to Murder - (Netflix, 2024)

    News articles

    1- Dave Grohl Announcement -www.usatoday.com/story/life/healt
ock/75176681007/

    2- Neil Gaiman controversy -www.theguardian.com/books/2024/sep/
xual-misconduct

  • Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com.Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpodFacebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover.To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button.

    You can find Kelly Hill on IG @kellyehill_author .

    This week we chat with Kelly Hill who published her debut novel, A Home for Friendless Women, this year in March. It is the story of three Victorian-era women who experience a home for “fallen” women in very different ways.

    What makes this novel especially unique is that Kelly got the idea for it from her time interning at The Filson Historical Society while she was completing her dissertation at the University of Louisville. She came across historic documents about a home for pregnant women here in Louisville and fictionalized them to create a powerful story. While the story is about a tough time for women over a century ago.

    Books Mentioned In this Episode:

    1- A Home for Friendless Women by Kelly Hill

    2- The Age of Grievance by Frank Bruni

    3- The Wild Robot by Peter Brown

    4- A Five Star Read Recommended by fellow Book Lover Tracey Myers-Quesada @cubadianmom3 - Finding Freedom: A Cook’s Story; Remaking a Life from Scratch by Erin French

    5- Prophet Song by Paul Lynch

    6- When the Clock Broke: Con Men, Conspiracists, and How America Cracked Up in the Early 1990s by Jon Ganz

    7- Washington’s Gay General: The Legends and Loves of Baron von Steuben by Josh Trujillo and Levi Hastings

    Media:

    1- The Lost Kitchen (Hulu, Amazon, 2021- present)

    2- The Wild Robot (2024)

  • Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com.Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpodFacebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover.To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button.

    For a lot of people, Labor Day, which this year fell on September 2, marks the end of summer, although astronomical summer doesn’t end until September 22 (and meteorological fall actually begins on September 1). And according to Carrie, summer ends on the first day of school, which was Aug 8 here in Louisville KY. And what was a common assignment when you returned back to schook? That's right. Write about what you did this summer. So this episode is a recap of what the two of us did from June through August told in the form of books!

    Books mentioned--

    1- Bad Monkey by Carl Hiassen

    2- Hoot by Carl Hiassen

    3- Flush by Carl Hiassen

    4- Border Crossings: A Journey on the Trans-Siberian Railway by Emma Fick

    5- Summer of the Mariposas by Guadalupe Garcia McCall

    6- A Five Star Read Recommended by Fellow Book Lover Amanda Pavlov @pavlovsbooks - A Novel Obsession by Caitlin Barasch

    7- The Kindred Spirits Supper Club by Amy E. Reichert

    8- Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club by J. Ryan Stradal

    9- Hum If You Don't Know the Words by Bianca Marais

    10- Cry the Beloved Country by Alan Paton

    11- Death’s Door: True Tales of Tragedy, Mystery, and Bravery from the Great Lakes’ Most Dangerous Waters by Barbara M. Joosse

    12- The Elephants of Thula Thula by Francois Malby-Anthony

    13- A Death in Door County (Monster Hunter Mystery) by Annelise Ryan

    14- The Woman Next Door by Yewande Omotoso

    15- I Cheerfully Refuse by Leif Enger

    16- The Deepest Lake by Andromeda Romano-Lax

    17- Dragon Rider by Cornelia Funke, audiobook narrated by Brendan Fraser

    18- Death Stalks Door County (Dave Cubiak #1) by Patricia Skalka

    Media mentioned--

    1- Jack Whitehall: Travels with My Father (Netflix, 2017)

    2- Jack Whitehall: Fatherhood with my Father (2024)

    3- The Tourist (Netflix, 2022)

    4- Bad Monkey (Apple+, 2024)

    5- Strong Sense of Place Podcast - https://strongsenseofplace.com/podcasts/

    6-Lawsuit Against Florida Book Bans - people.com/publishers-authors-
a-book-bans-8704020

  • Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com.Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpodFacebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover.To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button.

    You can find Britton online at her website www.booksbybritton.com/IG @booksbybrittonOn Etsy - Books By Britton

    This week we chat with Britton Perelman, a unique artist and craftsperson who creates miniature bookshelves. We saw her at the Columbus OH Book Festival in 2023, which was the first festival she attended selling her amazing creations, and we were delighted when she agreed to be a guest.

    We chat with her about how she sort of fell into designing and crafting miniature bookshelves during COVID and how the business has been booming, which leaves Britton, who has a BA in journalism and an MFA in screenwriting, with little time to compose written work. Britton has had to get all hands on deck, including her mom and sister, which means Books by Britton is a female-owned, family business.

    Books Mentioned In this Episode:

    1- The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio

    2- The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer

    3- Tiny Treasures: Amazing Miniatures You Can Make by Nancy Holyoke

    4- The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

    5- The Guest List by Lucy Foley

    6- Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney

    7- Truly, Devious series by Maureen Johnson

    8- A Five-Star Read Recommended by Fellow Book Lover Steve Elliot @stevereadthatbook - All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker

    9- Those We Thought We Knew by David Joy

    10- The Measure by Nikki Erlick

    11- A Novel Love Story by Ashley Poston

    12- The Hundred Loves of Juliet by Evelyn Skye

    13- One of Us is Lying by Karen McManus

    Shows mentioned--

    The Decameron (Netflix, 2024)

    Links:

    1- Pandora Productions - Little Shop of Horrors - www.pandoraprods.org/

    2- Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest-- www.bulwer-lytton.com

    3- Louisville Book Festival - www.louisvillebookfestival.com/

  • Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com.Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpodFacebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover.To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button.

    It's that time of year where kids and teachers are back at school or almost back at school so we thought we would offer recommendations for books related to education—novels or memoirs set in schools or colleges; books with teachers, deans, students, or staff as characters; literature in which education or learning plays an important if not essential role.

    Books mentioned in this episode:

    1- The Whale Rider by Witi Ihimaera

    2- Shanghailanders by Juli Min

    3- A Five-Star Read Recommended by Fellow Book Lover Dawn Nacker @dawndevoursbooks - How To Read a Book by Monica Wood

    4- Truly, Devious by Maureen Johnson

    5- Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

    6- The Faculty Lounge by Jennifer Matthieu

    7- Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution by RF Kuang

    7- New Kid by Jerry Craft

    8- The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead

    9- The Reformatory by Tananarive Due

    10- The Gilded Years by Karin Tanabe

    11- The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart

    12- True Biz by Sara Nović

    13- Girl at War by Sara Nović

    14- "All Summer in a Day" (short story) by Ray Bradbury

    15- Love at First Book by Jenn McKinlay

    16- The Rom-commers by Katherine Center

    Bookish events—

    1- Poe: A Dream Within a Dreamfareharbor.com/embeds/book/belle
ow=1089772&g4=yes

    2- Untimely Ripp’dkyshakespeare.com/season/untimely/

    3- Cincy Bookstore Crawlcincybookstorecrawl.my.canva.site/

    4- Books by the Banksbooksbythebanks.org/

    5- Cynthiana KY Skeletonswkdq.com/small-kentucky-city-halloween/

    6- Rail Explorerswww.railexplorers.net/

    7- Fenrir Viking Festivalwww.kyrenfaire.com/viking-fest

    8- New Kid by Jerry Craft Book Banning

    https://www.npr.org/2022/12/28/1144458555/banned-books-author-jerry-craft-new-kid

    Media mentioned—

    1- The Whale Rider — 2002www.imdb.com/title/tt0298228/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk

    2- Happiness for Beginners (Netflix, 2023)

  • Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com.Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpodFacebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover.To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button.

    You can find the Bookery Cincy at www.bookerycincy.com/ or on IG @bookerycincy.To find info about the Bookstore Crawl visit FB at Cincy Bookstore Crawl.

    This week we chat with Sierra Hollabaugh, one of the co-owners and founders of Bookery Cincy, an independent bookstore located in Cincinnati, OH. When Amy went to Cincinnati recently, she met Sierra so we thought it would be nice if everyone got to know a little more about the bookstore as well as a cool October event, the Cincy Bookstore Crawl, which includes 16 small bookstores in the area. Cincinnati is a great place for a weekend visit, and the bookstore crawl just makes it an even more appealing location.

    We talk about the resurgence of the independent brick and mortar bookstore, what it’s like running a small business when you have young kids, and what visitors can expect if they come to Cincy for the Bookstore Crawl which is the weekend of Oct 4-6.

    Books Mentioned in this Episode:

    1- Orbital by Samantha Harvey

    2- American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis

    3- Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis

    4- Sociopath by Patric Gagne

    5- A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

    6- Bel Canto by Ann Patchett

    7- Tom Lake by Ann Patchett

    8- The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin

    9- A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle

    10- Black Beauty by Anna Sewell

    11- Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

    12- Trust by Hernan Diaz

    13- In the Distance by Hernan Diaz

    14- The English Understand Wool by Helen DeWitt

    15- A Five Star Read Recommended by Fellow Book Lover Elias Eells @eliaseells - The West Passage by Jared Pechaček

    16- Cocktails and Consoles by Elias Eells

    17- All the Sinners Bleed by SA Cosby

    18- Blacktop Wasteland by SA Cosby

    19- Sandwich by Catherine Newman

    20- We All Want Impossible Things by Catherine Newman

    21- Waiting for Birdy: A Year of Frantic Tedium, Neurotic Angst, and the Wild Magic of Growing a Family by Catherine Newman

    22- A Heart That Works by Rob Delaney

    Media mentioned--1- American Psycho (2000, Netflix)

    2- Catastrophe (2015-2019, Prime Video)

    3- Art is Not a Luxury with Ethan Hawke - www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeCuqtFKLHI

    4- Utah Book Ban -Utah recently banned 13 books by 7 authors from all public schools in the state. apnews.com/article/utah-school
a6cd2cb5ddd25fca700

  • Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com.Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpodFacebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover.To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button.

    This week we’re going “boldly where no man has gone before.” Yes–that’s right into space.

    Books Mentioned in This Episode:

    1- The Most Precious of Cargoes by Jean-Claude Grumberg

    2- The Paris Affair by Maureen Marshall

    3- A Five Start Read Recommended by Fellow Book Lover Stephanie Affinito @affinitolit - The Book That Matters Most by Ann Hood

    4- Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

    5- Leviathan Wakes by James SA Corey

    6- The Calculating Stars (Lady Astronaut Universe series) by Mary Robinette Kowal

    7- Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

    8- Spaceman of Bohemia by Jaroslav Kalfar

    9- Orbital by Samantha Harvey

    10- The Lion of Mars by Jennifer L. Holm

    11- A Rovers Story by Jasmine Warga

    12- Old Man’s War by John Scalzi

    13- Bright Objects by Ruby Todd

    14- Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

    15- A Quantum Life: My Unlikely Journey from the Street to the Stars by Hakeem Oluseyi and Joshua Horwitz

    Media mentioned--

    1- Constellation (Apple+, 2024)

    2- Zone of Interest (HBOMax, 2023)

    3- Cat Video Fest--www.catvideofest.com

    4- For All Mankind (Apple+, 2019)

    5- The Expanse (Prime Video, 2015)

    6- Spaceman of Bohemia (Netflix, 2024)

    7- Literature as an Olympic Sport - lithub.com/did-you-know-that-p
tual-olympic-sport/

  • Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com.Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpodFacebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover.To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button.

    You can find Jean Duffy at her website www.jeanduffy.com or on IG @soccergranniesbook.Sarahlyn Bruck can be found at her website www.sarahlynbruck.com or on IG @saralynbruck.

    If you can’t get enough of sports and global camaraderie watching the Paris Summer Olympics on your TV screens, we have an interview for you today to scratch that itch even more; books that include women’s soccer.

    In Season 10, we did a dual-interview with two authors who wrote Jane Austen-inspired books: AH Kim and Melodie Edwards. It was so much fun, we thought we would do it again. This time, though, we’re pairing two women who wrote books related to soccer.

    Sarahlyn Bruck is the author of several novels; her most recent is titled Light of the Fire, which is about two adult women who were connected by soccer in high school. Jean Duffy’s debut nonfiction book is titled Soccer Grannies: The South African Women Who Inspire the World, about older women who play recreational soccer. These two writers, who both have an abiding love of the game, were down with joining each other and us to chat about their respective books.

    While these books on the surface deal with soccer, they ultimately address friendship and teamwork, the elements of the game that change lives for the better.

    Books Mentioned in this Episode:

    1- Light of the Fire by Sarahlyn Bruck

    2- Soccer Grannies: The South African Women Who Inspire the World by Jean Duffy

    3- The Keeper: Soccer, Me, and the Law That Changed Women's Lives by Kelcey Ervick

    4- A Five Star Read Recommended by Fellow Book Lover, Patricia @patriciapluggedin - Funny Story by Emily Henry

    5- I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusak

    6- Anna Bright is Hiding Something by Susie Orman Schnall

    7- Invisible Women: Exploring Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado-Perez

    8- Magonia Wu Unfolds It All by Chanel Miller

    9- Know My Name by Chanel Miller

    10- Starter Villain by John Scalzi

    11- Old Man's War by John Scalzi

    Media mentioned—

    1- Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019)

    2- Trying (2024, Apple+)

    3- Catastrophe (2015, Amazon Prime)

    4- The Dropout (2022, Hulu)

    Our Episode with Kelcey Ervick about her graphic memoir, The Keeper -ThePerksofBeingaBookLover.podbean.com/e/s9ep
21323/

  • Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com.Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpodFacebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover.To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button.

    You can find Carter Wilson at his website www.carterwilson.com or on IG @carterwilsonauthor. You can also find his podcast Making It Up on all podcast platforms.

    This week we chat with Carter Wilson, a thriller writer and podcast host who lives in Colorado and who is the author of nine novels. His most recent is titled The Father She Went to Find, a story of Penny, a girl who suffered a brain injury at an early age that left her a savant with curious abilities. It was at this time that her father disappeared, but he has remained in contact via a birthday card every year. Until she turns 21. And that is the impetus she needs to go find him. This is a road trip/ scavenger hunt thrill ride that even has a few Stranger Things vibes. It’s set in the 1980s after all.

    Carter talks to us about why this book is different from all his others and his favorite TV thriller series he has watched this year. And we laugh when he tells us one of the reasons why someone might start writing a book.

    Books mentioned--1- The Father She Went to Find by Carter Wilson

    2- Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, illustrated by Yayoi Kusama (Penguin Classics) 2012

    3- Deception at Diamond D Ranch by GR Stahl

    4- Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner

    5- Pines by Blake Crouch

    6- Where'd You Go Bernadette by Maria Semple

    7- Greenwood by Michael Christie

    8- My Mama, Cass: A Memoir by Owen Elliot-Kugell

    9- The Mysterious Case of Rudolph Diesel by Douglas Brunt

    10- The Last Murder at the End of the World by Stuart Turton

    11- The Seven and a Half Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

    12- The Language of Love and Loss by Bart Yates

    13- The Five Star Read Recommended by a Fellow Book Lover Iresha Jayasinghe @resh_bookstagram - Cinder Luna by Marie Soleil

    Movies and Limited Series--

    1- Where'd You Go Bernadette (2019)

    2- Shogun (Hulu, 2024)

    3- Ripley (Netflix, 2024)

    Links--

    1- Salted Brown Butter Krispie Treats recipe - smittenkitchen.com/2009/11/salted-
-crispy-treats/

    2-Yayoi Kusama Exhiition - www.speedmuseum.org/yayoi-kusama-in
urvive-forever/

    3- Rediscovered Books in Boise, ID - www.rdbooks.org/

    4- Free Little Art Galleries (FLAGS) - freelittleartgalleries.art/

  • Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com.Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpodFacebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover.To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button.

    So back during Season 10 we flew to Los Angeles, California for the LA Times Festival of Books, which was held on the campus of USC. We were able to meet our bookish friend, Jennifer Caloyeras from the Books Are My People podcast; hear cool authors and audiobook narrators speak; and visit some awesome places in LA.

    Amy is usually the one who reads around the places she is visiting, although she is apparently rubbing off on me because I’m finding myself doing it too. We decided to make an episode centered around Los Angeles/Hollywood reads.

    Books Discussed in This Episode:

    1- Everything I Learned, I Learned In a Chinese Restaurant by Curtis Chin

    2- The Copenhagen Trilogy by Tove Ditlevsen

    3- The Library Book by Susan Orlean

    4- A 5 Star Read Recommended by a Fellow Book Lover Lauren Becker @laurenashleybecker- Elephant and Castle by Hannah Ledford

    5- Devil in a Blue Dress (Easy Rawlins series) by Walter Mosley

    6- The Monstrous Misses Mai by Van Hoang

    7- Love & Saffron by Kim Fay

    8- Daytime Drama by Sarahlyn Bruck

    9- Code Name Edelweiss by Stephanie Landsem

    10- California Dreamin: The True Story of the Mamas and Papas by Michelle Phillips

    12- Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis

    13- Black Dahlia by James Ellroy

    14- The People of Paper by Salvador Plascencia

    15- Tortilla Curtain by TC Boyle

    16- Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor

    17- Muse of Nightmares by Laini Taylor

    18- Icebreaker by Hannah Grace

    19- Wildfire by Hannah Grace

    Movies mentioned--

    Feast of Death (documentary about James Ellroy) - 2001

    Articles mentioned--

    100 Best Books of the 21st Century - www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/
21st-century.html

    Episodes mentioned--

    1- www.perksofbeingabooklover.com/episodes/
m-vidrine

    2- www.perksofbeingabooklover.com/episodes/
akespeare

  • Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com.Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpodFacebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover.To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button.

    You can find Mai Corland on IG @maicorland as well as at her website at meredithireland.wordpress.com

    This episode begins Season 11 for us–we’ve got over 200 episodes under our belts and are back to bring you more.

    Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you probably know that fantasy is big right now, and we discovered a fun fantasy that feels like an Ocean’s 11 type romp with multiple characters trying to take down a king. The book is titled Five Broken Blades and it is written by Mai Corland. We were delighted to speak with her a couple weeks back, especially since she is now an international bestselling author. And in fact, while recording this episode you will hear Mai receiving some good news. While some people might let this success go to their heads, Mai is down-to-earth and gets entirely too much pleasure poking fun at her new status.

    We chat about the fantasy series she can’t stop recommending, why writing middle grade and YA novels was such good prep for pacing in her new romantic fantasy, and how riding the subway opened up her world as a teen.

    Books Discussed In This Episode:

    1- Five Broken Blades by Mai Corland

    2- Four Ruined Realms by Mai Corland

    3- You Are Here: Connected Flights edited by Ellen Oh

    4- Emma and the Love Spell by Meredith Ireland

    5- The Jasmine Project by Meredith Ireland

    6- Mirrored Heavens by Rebecca Roanhorse

    7- Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse

    8- The Jane City trilogy by Fonda Lee

    9- The Serpent and the Wings of Night by Carissa Broadbent

    10- 5 Star Read Recommended by a Fellow Book Lover Marné Deranger @readerbythewater - Sandwich by Catherine Newman

    11- Curbing Traffic: The Human Case for Fewer Cars in Our Lives by Melissa Bruntlett and Chris Bruntlett

    12- Such Charming Liars by Karen McManus

    13- One of Us is Lying by Karen McManus

    14- The Cousins by Karen McManus

    15- Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts by Crystal Wilkinson

  • ***We are on summer hiatus but will be back with an all new episode next week! Happy Reading!

    This week we are talking all about journeys. Whether they be physical or mental, we whisk you away in a good book. Choose from 10 book recommendations from Carrie and Amy for when you're ready to be on the move.

    For show notes for any episode, go to our website at www.perksofbeingabooklover.com.We are also on Instagram @perksofbeingabookloverpod andFB Perks of Being a Book Lover.

    Books Mentioned in this Episode

    1- How to Read Novels Like a Professor by Thomas Foster

    2- American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang

    3- Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer

    4- The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

    5- The Lion of Lark-Hayes Manor by Aubrey Hartman

    6- The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester (The Surgeon of Crowthorne)

    7- The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce

    8- Walking a Sacred Path: Rediscovering the Labyrinth as a Spiritual Tool by Lauren Artress

    9- Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende

    10- Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie

    11- The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster

    12- Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer

    13- What the Ermine Saw: The Extraordinary Journey of Leonardo Da Vinci’s Most Mysterious Portrait by Eden Collinsworth

    14- News of the World by Paulette Jilles

    15- Enemy Women by Paulette Jilles

    16- Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier

    17- The Road Towards Home by Corinne Demas

    18- A Pearl in a Storm: How I Found my Heart in the Middle of the Atlantic Ocean by Tori Murden McClure

    19- The Gran Tour: Travels with My Elders by Ben Aitken

    20- Cutting Teeth by Chandler Baker

    21- Cosmic Cats and Fantastic Furballs by Mary Turzillo

    22- Your Cat and Other Space Aliens by Mary Turzillo

    23- Mars is No Place for Children by Mary Turzillo

    5 Star Book Recommendation by a Book Lover1- Empire Of A Vampire by Jay Christoff recommended by Tiffany K., Omaha, NE. Instagram @chaiteaandbooksareallineed

    Shows/Movies watched—

    1- American Born Chinese (Disney+, 2023)

    2- Annihilation (Netflix, 2018)

    3- The Professor and the Madman (2019)

    Labirynth Locatorwww.labyrinthlocator.com

    Bookish News

    Article about Henrietta Lacksapnews.com/article/henrietta-l
efa34c9b79a544f0729

  • We are on summer hiatus until July 10, 2024. Until then, please check out this episode about humor and books that made us laugh. It originally aired April 2023.

    Did you know it is National Humor Month? Neither did we but now we do and so do you. Which means this week we are talking about books that make us laugh.

    For show notes for any episode, go to our website at www.perksofbeingabooklover.com. We are also on Instagram @perksofbeingabookloverpod and on FB Perks of Being a Book Lover.

    Books We Mentioned:

    1- The Peripheral by William Gibson

    2- Foundation by Isaac Asimnov

    3- Nothing But Blackened Teeth by Cassandra Khaw

    4- The Martian by Andy Weir

    5- The Alaskan Laundry by Brendan Jones

    6- Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson

    7- The One and Only Bob by Katherine Applegate

    8- The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate

    9- Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari

    10- Yearbook by Seth Rogen

    11- This is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper

    12- The Guncle by Steven Rowley

    13- Why Don't You Write My Eulogy Now So I Can Correct It? A Mother's Suggestions by Patricia Marx; illustrated by Roz Chast

    14- Calypso by David Sedaris

    15- A Walk In The Woods by Bill Bryson

    16- Bad Tourist: Misadventures in Love and Travel by Suzanne Roberts

    17- Dirtbag, Massachusetts by Isaac Fitzgerald

    18- She Is A Haunting by Trang Thanh Tran

    19- Sacred Geometry by Robert Lawlor

    20- Bones & All by Camille DeAngelis

    21- What Happened To You?: Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing by Bruce D. Perry

    22- Hestia Strikes A Match by Christine Grillo

    23- My Father's Brain: Life in the Shadow of Alzheimers by Sandeep Jauhar

    24- Elf Dog and Owl Head by M.T. Anderson

    TV Series mentioned:

    1- The Peripheral (Amazon Prime 2023)

    2- Foundation (Apple+ 2021)

    Bookish News

    www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/
olastic.html