We're back to regularly scheduled programming around here and happy to welcome so many new listeners!

You'll hear a "bookish moment of the week" from each of us: a TV-show experience that only happened because of bookish friendships, and a win in the "raising readers" world, one of our favorite places to report about!

Next, we discuss our current reads for the week: brand new titles, buzzed about books and ones we think need more play in the book world.

For our deep dive this week, we are focusing on Brick books for the Currently Reading challenge. We qualify these as books over 700 (or maybe 650) pages, and we've got a lot of them for you to choose from.

As always, we finish up with A Book (yep, capitalized) that we'd like to press into every reader's hands. This week's picks include two more giant tomes: an unforgettable, series that defies genre categorization, and a non-fiction biography.

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!

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7:26 - Washington Black by Esi Edugyan

9:40 - Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

10:44 - Heartland by Sarah Smarsh

10:48 - Episode 14 with Amy Allen Clark

11:01 - Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance

12:57 - He Said/She Said by Erin Kelly

17:48 - Lucy & Andy Neanderthal by Jeffrey Brown

18:00 - Diary of A Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney

20:15 - Darth Vader and Son by Jeffrey Brown

20:17 - Goodnight, Darth Vader by Jeffrey Brown

20:55 - Inheritance by Dani Shapiro

24:15 - Interview with Dani Shapiro on the Happier Podcast

24:54 - The Current by Tim Johnston

29:27 - Bookshelf Thomasville Shelf Subscription

32:10 - 11/22/63 by Stephen King

32:39 - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling

32:55 - The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

33:02 - The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet

33:33 - The Physician by Noah Gordon

34:48 - A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

35:04 - The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

35:46 - Shogun by James Clavell

35:56 - Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin

36:32 - East of Eden by John Steinbeck

35:38 - Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry

37:02 - Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke

37:45 - Les Miserables by Victor Hugo

38:00 - I Know This Much Is True by Wally Lamb

38:39 - The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy

38:58 - What Should I Read Next episode about big books

39:09 - Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell

39:38 - The Passage (trilogy) by Justin Cronin

40:33 - It by Stephen King

40:35 - The Stand by Stephen King

40:35 - The Shining by Stephen King

40:36 - Needful Things by Stephen King

40:59 - Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

43:18 - Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

44:27 - Bad Blood by John Carreyrou

45:26 - Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow

*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!*