Book Gang

Bestselling author Meagan Church returns to discuss our March Book Club selection, The Mad Wife, and its whirlwind success.

This month, we welcome Meagan Church back to Book Gang to celebrate our March Reader's Choice selection, The Mad Wife—the most-voted book by our community. Meagan first joined us earlier in her writing journey to discuss the inspiration behind this story. Now she returns following the novel's breakout success, including appearances on the bestseller lists and recognition as a Barnes & Noble Fiction Pick.

In this follow-up conversation, we talk about how Life has changed since The Mad Wife reached readers around the country—from touring and meeting fans to seeing Lulu's story resonate with audiences. We also take a lighter turn with a fun round of writer habits, reading life confessions, and quickfire questions designed to help listeners get to know Meagan beyond the page.

In this spoiler-free conversation with my friend, we explore:

📚 Celebrating a bestselling moment: Meagan reflects on The Mad Wife becoming a Barnes & Noble Fiction Pick and landing on the New York Times and USA Today bestseller lists.

📚 Life after publication: From book tours to meeting readers face-to-face, Meagan shares how the response to Lulu's story has shaped her perspective on storytelling and future projects.

📚 Getting to know the writer: In a fun closing segment, Meagan talks about her writing rituals, reading Life, favorite bookstores, and the habits that keep her creative process moving.

📚📚  BONUS BOOK LIST: Don't miss this week's NEW companion list with 24 Medical Drama Books to Get Your Heart Racing, available to reserve now for your best weekend ever. Patrons will receive weekly printable checklists for their next library visit!

Meet Meagan Church

Meagan Church is the Southern indie bestselling author of The Girls We Sent Away, The Last Carolina Girl , and The Mad Wife, this month's Barnes & Noble Book fiction pick. She writes to tell grounded stories that explore the complexity of human nature. Her historical fiction chronicles the plight and fight of unheard voices of the past. After receiving a B.A. in English from Indiana University, Meagan built a career as a storyteller and freelance writer for brands, blogs, and organizations. She is an adjunct professor for Drexel University's MFA in Creative Writing program, helping authors tell their own stories through editing, coaching, and workshops. A Midwesterner by birth, she now lives in North Carolina with her high school sweetheart, three children, and a plethora of pets.

Gratitude to Our Show Patrons: This week's episode is open to all listeners thanks to generous donations made through Buy Me a Coffee and your community memberships. If you'd like to keep the conversation going, you're invited to join our Patreon Book Club chat on March 26th at 8 PM ET, where we'll dive deeper into spoilers, themes, and reader reactions WITH MEAGAN. Membership is $5 a month, or you can prepay for the year and save 10%.

Download Today's Show Transcript (Scroll down to view second episode)

Buy Me a Coffee - I'm grateful for your support this year!

NEW BOOK LIST: 24 Medical Drama Books to Get Your Heart Racing

Join the March Book Club 3/26 at 8 PM ET (The Mad Wife)

2026 MomAdvice Book Club Books (All 12 Selections)

Unmasking Hysteria in The Mad Wife Podcast

Meagan's spoiler episode

The Last Carolina Girl by Meagan Church

The Girls We Sent Away by Meagan Church

The Mad Wife by Meagan Church

Cleary Bookstore

The Mad Wife Spotify Playlist

Story Genius by Lisa Cron

Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner

Everything is Spiritual by Rob Bell

The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien

Orbital by Samatha Harvey

The Road to Tender Hearts by Annie Hartnett

Hit the Road with Annie Hartnett Podcast

Shark Heart by Emily Habeck

How Shark Heart Transformed Emily Habeck and Her Readers

Olivia Muenter - Such a Bad Influence Podcast 

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

Parnassus Books

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

Save the Cat! Writes a Novel by Jessica Brody

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Kate Schatz joins the show to discuss Where the Girls Were, a novel inspired by the hidden history of maternity homes and the young women sent away during the 1960s.

This week, Kate Schatz joins the Book Gang podcast to discuss her adult fiction debut, Where the Girls Were, a novel that explores a little-discussed chapter of American history: the maternity homes that housed more than a million young women during the 1950s and 1960s. Drawing inspiration from her own family's haunting history and years of research, Schatz brings readers into the world of a teenage prodigy sent away to give birth in secret just weeks before graduating high school.

In our conversation, we discuss how the story first took shape, the transition from writing nonfiction about activism and history to crafting a deeply researched novel, and the realities of maternity homes in the mid-twentieth century. Schatz also shares some of the surprising details uncovered during her research.

In this fascinating conversation, we explore:

📚 From Rad Women to Fiction: Kate shares her journey from bestselling nonfiction author and activist to novelist, revealing how writing Where the Girls Were challenged her craft and deepened her understanding of history, activism, and personal storytelling.

📚 The Family Story Behind the Novel: Schatz shares how learning about her mother's experience with pregnancy and closed adoption in the mid-20th century shaped the inspiration and research behind the book.

📚 Uncovering Hidden Histories: We discuss the surprising and sometimes shocking research Kate unearthed about maternity homes, women's health, and the realities faced by girls in the 1960s, including the curious role of rabbits in pregnancy tests.

📚📚  BONUS BOOK LIST: Don't miss this week's NEW companion list with 27 Books About the 1960s to escape into another timeline, available to reserve now for your best weekend ever. Patrons will receive weekly printable checklists for their next library visit!

Meet Kate Schatz

KATE SCHATZ is a New York Times bestselling author, public speaker, writing teacher, and queer feminist parent who's been talking, writing, and teaching about race, gender, social justice, and equity for many years. Her books include the novel Where the Girls Were; Do the Work: An Anti-Racist Activity Book, with W. Kamau Bell, the comedian and Emmy-winning host of CNN's United Shades of America; the "Rad Women" book series (including Rad American Women A-Z, Rad Women Worldwide, and Rad American History A-Z), which have sold over 300,000 copies and been translated into four languages; and Rid of Me: A Story, published in 2007 as part of the cult-favorite 33 ⅓ series.

Kate has taught writing and Women's Studies at Brown University, Rhode Island College, San Jose State, and UC Santa Cruz. Born and raised in San Jose, California, she lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her wife, their three kids, and their many pets. Where the Girls Were is her fiction debut and is available on store shelves now.

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Buy Me a Coffee - I'm grateful for your support this year!

NEW BOOK LIST: 27 Books About the 1960s

Join the March Book Club 3/26 at 8 PM ET (The Mad Wife)

2026 MomAdvice Book Club Books (All 12 Selections)

Where the Girls Were by Kate Schatz

Do the Work: An Antiracist Activity Book by  W. Kamau Bell & Kate Schatz

Rad American Women by Kate Schatz

Rad Women Worldwide by Kate Schatz

Rad Girls Can by Kate Schatz

Rad American History by Kate Schatz

Kate Schatz

Rabbit Test

Our Bodies, Ourselves by Boston Women's Health Book Collective

The Girls Who Went Away by Ann Fessler

Saints for All Occasions by J Courtney Sullivan

When Abortion Was a Crime by Leslie J Reagan

Wake Up Little Susie by Rickie Solinger

Relinquished by Gretchen Sisson

My Mother's Daughter by Tracy Clark-Flory

Want Me by Tracy Clark-Flory

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Rachel Hochhauser joins us to discuss her debut novel, Lady Tremaine, a reimagining of Cinderella told from the perspective of its most misunderstood figure.

This week, we're stepping back into a story we think we know, and turning it inside out. Rachel Hochhauser joins us to talk about her debut novel, Lady Tremaine, a bold and lyrical reimagining of Cinderella told from the perspective of its most misunderstood figure. Together, we explore what it means to reclaim a villain, the power structures embedded in fairy tales, and the quiet, often invisible labor of women navigating survival in a world that offers them very little protection. This conversation is full of trivia, with fascinating tidbits about falcons to reimagining the hinges of one of our favorite fairy tales.

In this fascinating conversation, we explore:

📚 From Puzzle Maker to Published Debut: Rachel walks us through her emotional journey to publication — from manuscript to agent to book deal — and reflects on the realities of the debut journey, while celebrating how her two unique jobs intertwine. Don't worry, we DO talk about her jigsaw puzzle process!

📚 Rewriting a Villain's Origin Story: Rachel shares the first spark behind telling Cinderella from Lady Tremaine's perspective and the challenge of reshaping a fixed fairy tale into something historically grounded, emotionally layered, and narratively new.

📚 Crafting Voice, Research, and Power

We explore the lyrical rhythm of her prose, the fascinating research behind the scenes with the falcon, and how the rivalry between Etheldreda and the Queen allowed her to examine power, motherhood, and structural limits placed on women in a way that she's excited to share with the next generation of readers.

📚📚  BONUS BOOK LIST: Don't miss this week's companion list with 31 Fairy Tale Retellings, available to reserve now for your best weekend ever. Patrons will receive weekly printable checklists for their next library visit!

Meet Rachel Hochhauser

Rachel Hochhauser is a writer and co-founder of Piecework, a cult-favorite puzzle brand. Raised in Santa Barbara, she studied at New York University and earned her master's in fiction from the University of Southern California. She lives in Portland, Oregon, with her husband and two daughters. Lady Tremaine is her debut novel and available on store shelves on March 3rd.

Download Today's Show Transcript

Buy Me a Coffee - I'm grateful for your support this year!

NEW BOOK LIST: 31 Fairy Tale Retellings to Enchant Your Reading Life

The Best Books I Read in 2025 (Full List)

Join the March Book Club 3/26 at 8 PM ET (The Mad Wife)

2026 MomAdvice Book Club Books (All 12 Selections)

Lady Tremaine by Rachel Hochhauser

Returning to Magical Realism with Eowyn Ivey (Podcast Episode)

Circe by Madeline Miller

The Good Wife of Bath by Karen Brooks

The Beheading Game by Rebecca Lehmann

Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell

H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald

Bookshop.org pays a 10% commission on every sale and matches it with 10% to support independent bookstores.

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Aisha Hassan discusses her debut novel, When the Fireflies Dance, a moving family saga set in Lahore and the research inspired by real stories of bonded labor.

In this week's episode of Book Gang, I'm excited to share my conversation with debut novelist Aisha Hassan about her first novel, When the Fireflies Dance. This moving family saga is set in Lahore and draws on real-life stories of bonded labor in Pakistan's brick kilns. The narrative follows one family's struggle for survival, dignity, and hope after the loss of their son. During our discussion, we explore Aisha's journey to publication, the intricate construction of her novel, and the important responsibility of addressing social injustices through fiction.

In this informative conversation, we explore:

📚 A Steady Road to Publication: Aisha reflects on the early spark for the novel, her process of finding an agent, and what the reality of a debut journey looked like behind the scenes, including the quieter, less glamorous parts of bringing a first book into the world.

📚 Building Lahore on the Page: We talk about her early visits to brick kilns, the environmental realities of red dust and smoke that shape the novel's atmosphere, and how she constructed a world where ecological harm and economic injustice are ever-present forces.

📚 Family, Memory, and Revelation: A death in the family shadows every chapter. Aisha explains her decision to reveal trauma in fragments, the symbolism of the fireflies in her story, and what she hopes readers understand about bonded labor after turning the final page.

📚📚  BONUS BOOK LIST: Don't miss this week's companion list with 41 Family Drama Books to Escape Your Real Life, available to reserve now for your best weekend ever. Patrons will receive weekly printable checklists for their next library visit!

Meet Aisha Hassan

Aisha Hassan is an award-winning writer living and working in London. A graduate of the University of Oxford's prestigious Creative Writing Master's programme and a Curtis Brown Creative alumna, Aisha's play Pickled Mangoes was performed at Soho Theatre, and her poetry has appeared in Under the Radar and Campus magazines. WHEN THE FIREFLIES DANCE is her debut novel and has been longlisted for the Bridport Novel Award and Hachette's Mo Siewcharran Prize, and shortlisted for the London Writers Award. As a child, she lived in Lahore, Pakistan.

Download Today's Show Transcript

Buy Me a Coffee - I'm grateful for your support this year!

NEW BOOK LIST: 41 Family Drama Books to Escape Real Life

Join the February Book Club 2/26 at 8 PM ET (People of Means)

2026 MomAdvice Book Club Books (All 12 Selections)

When the Fireflies Dance by Aisha Hassan (KINDLE UNLIMITED)

The Whalebone Theater by Joanna Quinn

White Mughals by William Dalrymple

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

The Bee Keeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri

The Stationery Shop by Marjan Kamali

A Splintering Dur e Aziz Amna

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

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Debut author Lauren Morrow joins us to discuss Little Movements, a sharp, funny, and deeply perceptive literary novel set in the world of professional dance.

Lauren Morrow joins Book Gang to discuss her satirical novel, Little Movements, which follows Layla, a Black choreographer navigating a fragile marriage, a long-delayed hope of motherhood, and a career-defining opportunity at a prestigious arts institution.

When Layla relocates alone to create a new piece from the ground up, she finds herself confronting not just the physical demands of dance but the subtler pressures of tokenization, institutional expectations, and who gets to define what her work "means."

Drawing from Morrow's background in dance and arts publicity, Little Movements offers an insider's view of how cultural organizations frame progress, how money shapes artistic freedom, and how women—especially Black women—are often asked to carry symbolic weight they never volunteered for.

In this fascinating conversation, we explore:

📚 From MFA to debut novel: Lauren takes us back to the earliest seed of Little Movements, how her time at the Helen Zell Writers' Program shaped the book, and what her path to publication looked like once the manuscript was complete. We also talk candidly about celebrating the "yes" and what it really entails to debut with a literary novel.

📚 Writing the politics of art: We dig into the behind-the-scenes realities of the dance world as a Black woman, including institutional language, and the quiet pressure placed on artists to make their work "say something," for others.

📚 Capturing movement on a page: Lauren shares how she approached putting dance on the page, given its inherent visual and kinetic qualities. We discuss the techniques she used in her prose to make readers feel the movement on the page, even if they haven't danced themselves.

📚📚  BONUS BOOK LIST: Don't miss this week's companion list with These 21 Books About Ballet Took Me Back to the Barre to reserve now to celebrate the arts! Patrons will receive weekly printable checklists for their next library visit!

Meet Lauren Morrow

Lauren Morrow studied dance and creative writing at Connecticut College and earned an MFA in fiction from the University of Michigan's Helen Zell Writers' Program. She was a Kimbilio Fellow, an Aspen Words Emerging Writer Fellow, and the recipient of two Hopwood Awards, among other prizes. Her writing has appeared in Ploughshares and The South Carolina Review. She worked in publicity at BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music) and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and is now a publicity manager at Dutton, Plume, and Tiny Reparations Books. Originally from St. Louis, she lives in Brooklyn.

Download Today's Show Transcript

Buy Me a Coffee - I'm grateful for your support this year!

NEW BOOK LIST: These 21 Books About Ballet Took Me Back to the Barre

Join the February Book Club 2/26 at 8 PM ET (People of Means)

2026 MomAdvice Book Club Books (All 12 Selections)

Little Movements by Lauren Morrow

Junie by Erin Crosby Eckstine

Alvin Ailey's Revelations

Dance Theater of Harlem

Ailey II

Naima Coster

Heads of the Colored People by Nafissa Thompson-Spires

Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self by Danielle Evans

Luster by Raven Leilani

Come and Get It by Kiley Reid

James by Percival Everett

Erasure by Percival Everett

American Fiction

The Spectacular by Fiona Davis

The Bright Years by Sarah Damoff

Sarah Damoff - The Bright Years Podcast Interview

The Feath3r Theory

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Author Nancy Johnson joins us to discuss People of Means, our February Book Club selection for Black History Month, a powerful, moving dual-timeline novel.

Nancy Johnson joins Book Gang to discuss her richly layered second novel, which explores race, class, ambition, and resistance in 1960s Nashville and 1992 Chicago, offering readers a perfectly baked reading experience for Black History Month.

In this deeply thoughtful conversation, Nancy reflects on writing a novel that spans decades—from the Jim Crow South and the Fisk University protest movement to the corporate corridors of the early 1990s and the aftermath of the Rodney King verdict. We talk about generational inheritance, the pressures of Black excellence, and the quiet, everyday decisions that shape history just as much as headline-making acts of protest.

Nancy also shares what it was like to speak at Fisk University, a moment that mirrors the heart of People of Means, and how beginning her fiction career later in life shaped both her confidence and her creative freedom. From navigating second-novel pressure to crafting two distinct voices for Freda and Tulip, this conversation offers insight into both the craft of writing and the moral questions at the center of the book.

In this enlightening conversation, we explore:

📚 Privilege, "Black excellence," and the cost of being exceptional: Through Freda and Tulip, People of Means interrogates the idea of excellence as both inheritance and burden. Nancy unpacks how upward mobility creates opportunity while also setting expectations that can be overwhelming.

📚 Dual timelines as moral mirrors:  Spanning 1960s Nashville and 1992 Chicago, the novel places two women of means at pivotal historical moments—the Fisk University protests during Jim Crow and the Rodney King and Latasha Harlins aftermath. Nancy shares how she differentiated Freda's and Tulip's voices while maintaining an emotional throughline.

📚 Everyday resistance and the responsibility of those with "means": Rather than centering grand acts of activism, People of Means asks what responsibility looks like in daily life—at work, within families, and in moments where silence feels safer than speaking up.

📚📚  BONUS BOOK LIST: Don't miss this week's companion list: 29 Dual-Timeline Novels that use this as the heart of their story structure. I am including my all-time favorites and a few new releases I can't wait to read. Patrons will receive weekly printable checklists for their next library visit!

Meet Nancy Johnson

A native of Chicago's South Side, Nancy Johnson worked for more than a decade as an Emmy-nominated, award-winning television journalist at CBS and ABC affiliates nationwide.

Her second novel, People of Means, published by William Morrow/HarperCollins, was named one of PEOPLE Magazine's Most Anticipated Books of 2025, with praise from NPR, Real Simple, Southern Living, Woman's World, and more.

Her debut novel, The Kindest Lie, was a New York Times Editors' Choice and received widespread critical acclaim. A graduate of Northwestern University and UNC–Chapel Hill, Nancy lives in downtown Chicago, where she works as a director of brand journalism and storytelling for a major healthcare nonprofit.

Gratitude to Our Show Patrons: This week's episode is open to all listeners thanks to generous donations made through Buy Me a Coffee and your community memberships. If you'd like to keep the conversation going, you're invited to join our Patreon Book Club chat on February 26 at 8 PM ET, where we'll dive deeper into spoilers, themes, and reader reactions. Membership is $5 a month, or you can prepay for the year and save 10%.

Download Today's Transcript

NEW BOOK LIST: 29 Dual-Timeline Books to Read Now

Join the February Book Club 2/26 at 8 PM ET (People of Means)

2026 MomAdvice Book Club Books (All 12 Selections)

People of Means by Nancy Johnson

The Kindest Lie by Nancy Johnson

Fisk University Speech

Diane Nash

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

Bookshop.org pays a 10% commission on every sale and matches it with 10% to support independent bookstores.

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Journalist Christine Kuehn joins us to discuss Family of Spies and her gripping emotional reckoning with her family’s shocking personal ties to Nazi espionage.

The book begins in 1994, when a single letter from a historian pierces Kuehn’s quiet suburban life, revealing a secret she never suspected. Kuehn discovered that members of her own family were Nazi intelligence agents. What follows is a thirty-year investigation that pulls from FBI files, government and family archives, photographs, correspondence, and interviews.

In today's Book Gang conversation, Kuehn reflects on reporting on her own lineage, the ethical and emotional stakes of uncovering a truth that implicates the people who raised her, and how she structured the book across dual timelines to hold both the global history and her personal reckoning.

This episode airs the week of National Holocaust Remembrance Day. This moment calls us to remember not only the victims of Nazi violence, but also the systems, enablers, and silences that allowed it to spread. Christine now uses her research to support Jewish organizations, which you will hear about in today's conversation as we unbox the past together.

In this emotional conversation, we explore:

📚 A letter that rewrote a life: Christine walks us through the 1994 moment that sent her on a decades-long quest for truth. We talk about disbelief, denial, and what it feels like to realize your family story is not the one you were told.

📚 Investigating your own inheritance: Drawing on her background as a journalist, Christine explains how her research methods evolved as new archives opened and technology advanced, how she assessed unreliable or conflicting memories, and what it was like to work alongside her husband while racing against her father’s dementia.

📚 Espionage hidden in plain sight: We unpack the book’s most chilling revelations. Nazi agents embedded in 1930s Hawaii, social fronts built on glamour and charm, and how everyday excess eventually drew the FBI’s attention.

📚📚  BONUS BOOK LIST: This week’s companion book list features 22 Books About Spies that include both fiction and nonfiction titles to give Christine's book a landing place. Patrons will receive printable checklists for their next visit to the library!

Meet Christine Kuehn

Christine Kuehn was cocooned in the sanctity of a quiet suburban life when, in 1994, a letter from a historian pierced that bubble, sending her on a thirty-year quest to uncover a horrendous family secret kept hidden for half a century. Following a career in journalism, public relations, and nonprofits, Christine now lives in Maryland with her husband, close to their three grown children. Family of Spies is her debut book.

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Buy Me a Coffee - I'm grateful for your support this year!

NEW BOOK LIST: 22 Books About Spies to Read Now

Join the February Book Club 2/26 at 8 PM ET (People of Means)

2026 MomAdvice Book Club Books (All 12 Selections)

People of Means by Nancy Johnson

Milo Todd is Reclaiming Trans History (The Lilac People)

Family of Spies by Christine Kuhn

Best Offer Wins by Marisa Kashino

Table for Two by Amor Towles

Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon

At Dawn We Slept by Gordon W. Prange

Shirley Temple in Hawaii

Royal Hawaiian

The World’s 30 Greatest Women Spies by Kurt D. Singer

Bookshop.org pays a 10% commission on every sale and matches it with 10% to support independent bookstores.

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Author Lior Torenberg unpacks her debut Just Watch Me, a darkly funny livestream novel that exposes the cost of performing pain online, and our hunger to watch.

Debut author Lior Torenberg joins us to talk about Just Watch Me, a bold, internet-shaped novel that unfolds over seven days of nonstop livestreaming. Together, we dig into what it means to write fiction rooted in our current digital moment, and why stories about performance feel so urgent right now.

We talk about Torenberg’s path from initial concept to publication, the realities of debuting with a formally inventive novel, and the creative risks of building a narrative around livestream chats, audience participation, and escalating dares. She also walks us through the choice to compress the story into a single week, and how that story structure intensifies both tension and intimacy.

In this fun conversation, we explore:

📚 Writing inside internet culture: Lior discusses the creative risks of anchoring a debut novel so firmly in 2020s livestream culture, why she wasn’t afraid of the book “dating” itself, and how she captured the chaos of livestream chats—misspellings, slang, trolls, and all—while keeping the story readable and propulsive.

📚 Performance, pain, and the cost of being seen: We unpack the escalating hot pepper challenges, Dell’s physical vulnerability, and the darker questions the book raises about what audiences are willing to watch (and what creators are willing to endure) when financial survival depends on strangers.

📚 Loneliness, debt, and the gig-economy cliff edge: Beneath the dark humor and inventive form, Just Watch Me is a deeply human story about grief, medical debt, and the feast-or-famine reality of online survival. Lior reflects on how she wanted readers to feel about Dell by the end—and what the novel reveals about our collective longing to be noticed.

📚📚  BONUS BOOK LIST: This week’s companion list features 43 Debut Books of 2026, including every upcoming release currently on my radar (plus future podcast guests) so you can start reserving library holds and building your TBR early. Patrons will receive printable checklists for their next visit to the library!

Lior Torenberg’s work has been published by One Story, MAYDAY, the Poetry Society of New York, and others. She received her MFA in Creative Writing from New York University and is a graduate of the Lighthouse Writers Workshop’s Book Project. Just Watch Me is her first novel.

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Buy Me a Coffee - I'm grateful for your support this year!

NEW BOOK LIST: These Debut Books of 2026 Should Not Be Missed

Join the January Book Club 1/29 at 8 PM ET (Eleanore of Avignon)

2026 MomAdvice Book Club Books (All 12 Selections)

Eleanore of Avignon by Elizabeth DeLozier

Just Watch Me by Lior Torenberg

NYC Hot Sauce Expo

TTYL Series by Lauren Myracle

Margot’s Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe

Hot Ones

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Author Elizabeth DeLozier joins us to discuss Eleanore of Avignon, our January Book Club pick, and her bold debut, shaped by plague, medicine, and female power.

In this free conversation, Elizabeth DeLozier takes us behind the scenes of Eleanore of Avignon—a richly researched historical novel set during the Black Death, written during the modern pandemic that reshaped how many of us think about illness, fear, and survival.

Elizabeth shares how long it took to bring this ambitious debut from first idea to finished book, what it was like to pitch such a high-stakes story as a first novel, and how her background in medicine deeply informed the way she wrote Eleanore’s work as a healer and midwife. We also talk about writing outside of traditional MFA pathways, balancing historical plausibility with emotionally resonant characters, and what surprised her most while researching 14th-century Avignon.

Gratitude to Our Show Patrons: This week's episode is open to all listeners thanks to generous donations made through Buy Me a Coffee and your community memberships. If you’d like to keep the conversation going, you’re invited to join our Patreon Book Club chat on January 29 at 8 PM ET, where we’ll dive deeper into spoilers, themes, and reader reactions. Membership is $5 a month, or you can prepay for the year and save 10%.

In this fascinating conversation, we explore:

📚 Writing a big, ambitious debut: From outlining and pitching to finding an agent and selling the book, Elizabeth walks us through the long road to publication and what she learned along the way.

📚 Medicine, midwifery, and historical research: How Elizabeth’s medical background shaped Eleanore’s role as a healer, the realities of early medical practices, and the most astonishing details she uncovered while researching the period. 

📚 Plague stories then and now: The eerie parallels between 1347 and the present day, why readers keep returning to historical plague narratives, and how Eleanore of Avignon sits in conversation with books like Hamnet.

📚 📚 BONUS WEEKLY BOOK LIST: Don't miss this week's companion list with 18 Unforgettable Midwife Books, perfect for readers who want to explore these themes further. Patrons will receive printable checklists for their next visit to the library!

Meet Elizabeth DeLozier

Elizabeth DeLozier holds a BA in Spanish literature, a BS in biological anthropology, and a doctorate in physical therapy. A practicing pelvic floor physical therapist, avid traveler, animal lover, and history nerd, she lives in Southern California with her husband, twin sons, and rescue dogs. Eleanore of Avignon is her debut novel, and her sophomore novel, The Whitechapel Full Moon Society, will be published in 2026.

Download Today's Show Transcript

NEW BOOK LIST: 18 Unforgettable Midwife Books

Join the January Book Club 1/29 at 8 PM ET (Eleanore of Avignon)

2026 MomAdvice Book Club Books (All 12 Selections)

Eleanore of Avignon by Elizabeth DeLozier

abookolive

The Great Mortality by John Kelly

Station Eleven

A Distant Mirror by Barbara Tuchman

Hamnet

Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell

The God of the Woods by Liz Moore

Taylor Swift - The End of an Era

The White Chapel Full Moon Society by Elizabeth DeLozier

Bookshop.org pays a 10% commission on every sale and matches it with 10% to support independent bookstores.

Join the Book Gang Patreon

Connect With Elizabeth DeLozier on Instagram or her Website

Connect with Amy on Instagram, TikTok, or MomAdvice

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We read a total of 443 books and are excited to share twenty-five of our favorite titles from our 2025 reading list. Explore these new releases alongside our favorite backlist books for your best reading year yet.

We read a total of 443 books and are excited to share twenty-five of our favorite titles from our 2025 reading list. Explore these new releases alongside our favorite backlist books for your best reading year yet.

We invite you to browse our book lists featuring 25 of our favorites. Patrons will receive a printable checklist with today's book titles and some of our honorable mentions.

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Meet Our Upcoming Book Gang Guests (Winter Season Announcement)

The 2026 Book Club (12 Selections & How to Join)

Larry’s Top 25 Books of 2025 (Including Honorable Mentions)

Amy’s Top 25 Books of 2025 (FULL LIST)

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