Blind Date With a Book

Bonus episode with the fabulous, and hilarious, Ginny Hogan (who is always on Twitter). Rachel and Ginny talk about her new book, I'm More Dateable than a Plate of Refried Beans, out May 3rd, plus discuss dating while funny, writing humor, and some book recommendations.

Books talked about on this episode include:

A Man Called Ove by Frederik Backman

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune

The Dutch House by Ann Patchett

Excellent Women by Barbara Pym

Maine by J. Courtney Sullivan

Cheat Day by Liv Stratman

This episode, our guest is Aparna Shewakramani. Aparna is a lawyer from Houston, who was a cast member of the Netflix show Indian Matchmaking. Her book, “She’s Unlikeable and Other Lies that Bring Women Down” came out in Spring 2022, and she’s also the founder of the travel company, My Golden Balloon. She recently read and loved Homegoing and The Vanishing Half and has a tattoo that she got during a study abroad in Japan. Her dream vacation would include adventures, with luxury hotels at each stop. She always picks Britney songs for karaoke, and is impressed by other people who are entrepreneurs and can believe in their vision.

The guest: Aparna Shewakramani

The picks: 

Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead

Libertie by Kaitlyn Greenidge

50 Words for Rain by Asha Lemmie

Dying to Be Me by Anita Moorjani

The Sleepwalker's Guide to Dancing by Mira Jacob

The Arc by Tory Henwood Hoen

Or order directly from our winning bookstore here

Where to find us:

Find our show online at blinddatewithabookpod.com and @bookmeetcute on Twitter and Instagram. Please follow and tell us all the books you've fallen in love with recently.

In this special bonus episode, Kristen talks with Adrienne Celt, a novelist and cartoonist. Celt is the author of the novels End of the World House, Invitation to a Bonfire, and The Daughters, which won the 2015 PEN Southwest Book Award for Fiction and was named a Best Book of the Year by NPR. She has also published a collection of comics, Apocalypse How? An Existential Bestiary and publishes weekly comics at Love Among the Lampreys. We go deep on writing a book about friendship, Adrienne's writing inspirations, Silicon Valley, the importance of art, and translating Russian classics just for the heck of it. Adrienne also shares the books she's loved reading recently and answers questions from our dating app-inspired questionnaire in a lightning round.

Works Discussed

End of the World House by Adrienne Celt

The Daughters by Adrienne Celt

Invitation to a Bonfire by Adrienne Celt

My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante

Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney

Mouth to Mouth by Antoine Wilson

The Fifth Child by Doris Lessing

In the Eye of the Wild by Nastassja Martin, translated by Sophie R. Lewis

War & Peace by Leo Tolstoy

Severance (Apple TV+)

Yellowjackets (Showtime)

Somebody Somewhere (HBO Max)

Adrienne's Local Indie Bookstore

Antigone Books (Tucson, AZ)

Where to Find Adrienne

www.adriennecelt.com

Love Among the Lampreys

Twitter

Find our show online at blinddatewithabookpod.com and @bookmeetcute on Twitter and Instagram. Please follow and tell us all the books you've fallen in love with recently.

On this week's show, the start of season two, we're setting up Pia Wilson, a playwright and writer of the new fiction podcast, If I Go Missing, the Witches Did It. She is the recipient of dozens of awards and fellowships, including being a 2015 Sundance Fellow, receiving a 2020 Newark Creative Catalyst grant, and being playwright in residence at Marshall and Middlebury Colleges. She recently loved Circe and Whatever Happened to Interracial Love?, but is put off by books that are too violent toward women. She’s a self-proclaimed romantic, who is studying Italian and is a snob about coffee, bourbon, and hotel rooms. She loves when people can tell long funny stories and effortlessly host, like Ina Garten.

The guest: Pia Wilson

The picks: 

From Scratch by Tembi Locke

Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo

The Witch’s Heart by Genevieve Gornichec

My Monticello by Jocelyn Nicole Johnson

World of Wonders by Aimee Nezhukumatathil

Sankofa by Chibundu Onuzo

Where to find us:

Find our show online at blinddatewithabookpod.com and @bookmeetcute on Twitter and Instagram. Please follow and tell us all the books you've fallen in love with recently.

In honor of Valentine's Day, we're serving up a range of books about love—from the romantic to the erotic thriller. We hope this holds you over until the second season of Blind Date With a Book arrives this spring. Here are the books mentioned during this episode. 

On this week's episode, we set up a literal matchmaker with six books. Yeah, it's meta. This also happens to be the final episode of our first season. Thank you for listening, and stay tuned.

The guest: Matchmaker Maria is a business owner, matchmaker dating coach, host of Ask a Matchmaker Podcast, frazzled super mom, happy wife, mother’s caretaker, an Instagram "dating influencer.”

The picks:

The Green Shore by Natalie Bakopoulos

Rough Magic by Lara Prior-Palmer

Space Opera by Catherynne Valente

Mergers and Acquisitions: Or, Everything I Know About Love I Learned on the Wedding Pages by Cate Doty

Gold Diggers by Sanjena Sathian

Luster by Raven Leilani

Where to find us:

Find our show online at blinddatewithabookpod.com and @bookmeetcute on Twitter and Instagram. Please follow and tell us all the books you've fallen in love with recently.

In this episode, we match up Jaime Green, a freelance writer and editor, with six books. Jaime wrote a romance recommendations column for The New York Times and is a series editor for Best American Science and Nature Writing. Her book about the ways we imagine life beyond Earth in science and science fiction. Look will be published by Hanover Square Press in 2023. She recently loved reading The Second Season, The Method, and Nightbitch, and her dream vacation is a beach chair and a book, with a fancy hotel waiting at the end of a sunny day. She prefers not to read classic novels, but she does love singing Avril Lavigne's "Sk8r Boi" at karaoke.

The guest: Jaime Green

The picks:

The Republic of Love by Carol Shields

Writers & Lovers by Lily King

A Touch of Jen by Beth Morgan

The Falconer by Dana Czapnik

Likes by Sarah Shun-Lien Bynum

This is How You Lose the Time War by Max Gladstone and Amal El-Mohtar

Where to find us:

Find our show online at blinddatewithabookpod.com and @bookmeetcute on Twitter and Instagram. You can sign up for our newsletter here, where we send out bonus recs for subscribers! Please follow and tell us all the books you've fallen in love with recently.

This Episode’s Featured Bookstores:

King’s English in Salt Lake City, UT

Bliss Books in Kansas City, MO

Split Rock Books in Cold Spring, NY

Where to find us:

Twitter

Instagram

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Looking for a chill to run up your spine? We recommend six of our favorite spooky reads, right in time for Halloween. We've ordered the picks from least to most scary. And keep your ear peeled for three bonus recommendations, too.

Books mentioned

We match up Ben Stein, a communications manager for a public policy think tank in Ohio. Ben’s on the hunt for some smart nonfiction, and tells us a bit about how his MFA program changed him and what it’s like to take up the ukelele.

The guest: Ben Stein

The picks:

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Calamities by Renee Gladman

Seek You by Kristen Radke 

The Spell of the Sensuous by David Abram

Go Ahead in the Rain: Notes to a Tribe Called Quest by Hanif Abdurraqib

Musicophilia by Oliver Sachs

Where to find us:

Find our show online at blinddatewithabookpod.com and @bookmeetcute on Twitter and Instagram. You can sign up for our newsletter here, where we send out bonus recs for subscribers! Please follow and tell us all the books you've fallen in love with recently.

This Episode’s Featured Bookstores:

Wild Geese Bookshop in Franklin, Indiana

Fulton Street Books in Tulsa, OK

The Dundee Book Company in Omaha, NE

Where to find us:

Twitter

Instagram

For More Information

Lisa Stardust is a writer and astrologer in New York City. On this week’s episode, we recommend some cultish, occult, and starry reads to help break up her routine, plus you learn the rising signs of all the hosts and why that makes us a good team!

The guest: Lisa Stardust

The picks:

Written in the Stars by Alexandria Bellefleur

The Tenth Muse by Catherine Chung

The Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics by Olivia Waite

A Special Place for Women by Laura Hankin

The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry

Oona out of Order by Margarita Montimore

Where to find us:

Find our show online at blinddatewithabookpod.com and @bookmeetcute on Twitter and Instagram. You can sign up for our newsletter here, where we do bonus recs for subscribers! Please follow and tell us all the books you've fallen in love with recently.

This Episode’s Featured Bookstores:

Black Pearl Bookstore in Austin, TX

The Little BoHo Bookshop in Bayonne, NJ

Print Bookstore in Portland, ME

Where to find us:

Twitter

Instagram

For More Information