Friday Night Readers: Book Club That Reads Like Gilmore Girls

Welcome to Friday Night Readers, a virtual book club inspired by Gilmore Girls, hosted by Julianne Buonocore, who has run a Rory Gilmore reading challenge since 2021 and wrote the Unofficial Guide to the Books on Gilmore Girls. Fueled by coffee, we break down the books on the show, so you actually understand what the characters are talking so fast about, and help you read, live, and write like Rory.

Listen to the podcast on: Substack | Apple | Spotify | Amazon | YouTube

Read the full transcript and subscribe to our Substack community: Full List of Short Books

Timestamps:

01:03 Rory Gilmore reading challenge to read one book per month from the Gilmore Girls book list

03:41 Featured Book Author of the Month: William Shakespeare (No Fear editions)

09:32 10 Popular Short Classic Books Everyone Should Read

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

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Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. These show notes contain affiliate links through which I earn commissions at no extra cost to you.

Welcome to Friday Night Readers, a virtual book club inspired by Gilmore Girls, hosted by Julianne Buonocore, who has run a Rory Gilmore reading challenge since 2021 and wrote the Unofficial Guide to the Books on Gilmore Girls. Fueled by coffee, we break down the books on the show, so you actually understand what the characters are talking so fast about, and help you read, live, and write like Rory.

Listen to the podcast on: Substack | Apple | Spotify | Amazon | YouTube

Read the full transcript and subscribe to our Substack community: Jane Austen Adaptations

Timestamps:

01:08 As we read female authors from the list of books on Gilmore Girls for our Rory Gilmore reading challenge this month, I’m focusing on Jane Austen, whom 81% of you voted as the most classic female author of all-time.

07:24 The Other Bennet Sister

07:53 My Top 5 Jane Austen Adaptations

08:00 2005 Pride and Prejudice

11:31 1995 Clueless

15:57 2001 Bridget Jones’s Diary

19:32 1995 Sense and Sensibility

22:08 2020 Emma

24:17 The Jane Austen Adaptations That Didn’t Make the Cut

Emma: 1997 movie

Mansfield Park: 1999 movie

Northanger Abbey: 1987 movie

Persuasion: Netflix’s 2022 movie

26:39 Your Bonus Recommendations

Kelly Miller, award-winning author of Austen-esque Regency romances, kindly offered her expert advice in detail: 1995 Pride and Prejudice miniseries with Colin Firth, 1995 Persuasion, Emma with Kate Beckinsale

Lost in Austen

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Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. These show notes contain affiliate links through which I earn commissions at no extra cost to you.

Welcome to Friday Night Readers, a virtual book club inspired by Gilmore Girls, hosted by Julianne Buonocore, who has run a Rory Gilmore reading challenge since 2020 and wrote the Unofficial Guide to the Books on Gilmore Girls. Fueled by coffee, we break down the books on the show, so you actually understand what the characters are talking so fast about, and help you read, live, and write like Rory.

Listen to the podcast on: Substack | Apple | Spotify | Amazon | YouTube

Read the full transcript and subscribe to our book club community: Books by Female Authors on Gilmore Girls

Timestamps:

00:44 June reading prompt for our Rory Gilmore reading challenge to read one book per month from the Rory Gilmore reading list: books by female authors.

02:32 Featured Author of the Month: Jane Austen

07:00 10 Uniquely Impactful Books by Female Authors on Gilmore Girls

08:06 Eva Luna by Isabel Allende

09:14 A Girl from Yamhill by Beverly Cleary

09:46 The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

10:29 Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel

11:31 Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder

12:48 Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

14:03 Out of Africa by Karen Blixen/Isak Dinesen

15:00 Peyton Place by Grace Metalious

16:29 The Pursuit of Love & Love in a Cold Climate: Two Novels by Nancy Mitford

17:08 The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin

18:05 All the Books by Female Authors on Gilmore Girls

More Mentions:

Most Ardently Yours by Freya Sampson

The Other Bennet Sister

Pride and Prejudice

Northanger Abbey

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Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. These show notes contain affiliate links through which I earn commissions at no extra cost to you.

Welcome to Friday Night Readers, a virtual book club inspired by Gilmore Girls, hosted by Julianne Buonocore, who has run a Rory Gilmore reading challenge since 2020 and wrote the Unofficial Guide to the Books on Gilmore Girls. Fueled by coffee, we break down the books on the show, so you actually understand what the characters are talking so fast about, and help you read, live, and write like Rory.

Listen to the podcast on: Substack | Apple | Spotify | Amazon | YouTube

Read the full transcript and subscribe to our book club community: July 2026 Book Releases

Timestamps:

03:40 Libro.FM: three audiobooks for the price of one when you start a new membership with code FRIDAY.

04:08 July 7

Country People

Helpless

Man Overboard!

The MASH Up

Most Ardently Yours

07:50 July 14

The Parisian Heist

The Romance Revival

09:21 July 21

Cool Machine

Crash Into Me

10:22 July 28

Meet Me in Paris

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Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. These show notes contain affiliate links through which I earn commissions at no extra cost to you.

Welcome to Friday Night Readers, a virtual book club inspired by Gilmore Girls, hosted by Julianne Buonocore, who has run a Rory Gilmore reading challenge since 2020 and wrote the Unofficial Guide to the Books on Gilmore Girls. Fueled by coffee, we break down the books on the show, so you actually understand what the characters are talking so fast about, and help you read, live, and write like Rory.

Listen to the podcast on: Substack | Apple | Spotify | Amazon | YouTube

Read the full transcript and subscribe to our book club community: Books Set in Summer

Timestamps:

03:15 28 Summers

04:26 Beach Read

05:40 Every Summer After

06:43 The God of the Woods

08:25 The Great Gatsby

09:44 Just For the Summer

11:14 Summer Sisters

12:32 The Summer I Turned Pretty

14:22 The Wedding People

15:59 Writers & Lovers

17:26 Take the 90s Summer Reading Challenge

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Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Welcome to Friday Night Readers, a virtual book club inspired by Gilmore Girls, hosted by Julianne Buonocore, who has run a Rory Gilmore reading challenge since 2020 and wrote the Unofficial Guide to the Books on Gilmore Girls. Fueled by coffee, we break down the books on the show, so you actually understand what the characters are talking so fast about, and help you read, live, and write like Rory.

Listen to the podcast on: Substack | Apple | Spotify | Amazon | YouTube

Read the full post and subscribe to our book club community: Beach Reads

Timestamps:

00:16 Meet the Expert Beach Reads Panel: Jules, and Kirsten and Jackie of Beyond the Bookends, the Read Carpet Report podcast, and Beach Reads Bonanza

04:51 American Fantasy by Emma Straub

07:13 Go Gentle by Marie Semple

09:34 Strangers by Belle Burden

13:17 Summer State of Mind by Kristy Woodson Harvey

16:19 Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke (Jackie’s Yesteryear summary)

20:54 More Beach Reads to Consider: The Summer of Songbirds by Kristy Woodson Harvey, These Summer Storms by Sarah MacLean, Man Overboard! by Kathleen Rooney, The Shampoo Effect by Jenny Jackson, and The Five-Star Weekend by Elin Hilderbrand

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Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Welcome to Friday Night Readers, a virtual book club inspired by Gilmore Girls, hosted by Julianne Buonocore, who has run a Rory Gilmore reading challenge since 2020 and wrote the Unofficial Guide to the Books on Gilmore Girls. Fueled by coffee, we break down the books on the show, so you actually understand what the characters are talking so fast about, and help you read, live, and write like Rory.

Listen to the podcast on: Substack | Apple | Spotify | Amazon | YouTube

Read the full transcript and subscribe to our book club community on Substack: Books That Shaped Me

Timestamps:

00:48 Rory Gilmore's graduation speech and literary guide to Rory Gilmore’s graduation speech on Instagram

02:31 The Books That Shaped Me

The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg

The American Girl books

The Baby-Sitters Club books by Ann M. Martin

Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume

East of Eden by John Steinbeck

Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante

Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote

The Dutch House by Ann Patchett

08:18 What books shaped you?

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Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Welcome to Friday Night Readers, a virtual book club inspired by Gilmore Girls, hosted by Julianne Buonocore, who has run a Rory Gilmore reading challenge since 2020 and wrote the Unofficial Guide to the Books on Gilmore Girls. Fueled by coffee, we break down the books on the show, so you actually understand what the characters are talking so fast about, and help you read, live, and write like Rory.

Listen to the podcast on: Substack | Apple | Spotify | Amazon | YouTube

Read the full transcript and subscribe to our book club community: Books Rory Gilmore Read

Timestamps:

02:17 Rory Gilmore reading challenge: books Rory read

03:57 Featured Book of the Month: A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf

08:36 10 Iconic Rory Gilmore Reads

16:36 Rory Gilmore’s graduation speech

19:36 All the Books Rory Actually Read on Gilmore Girls

More links:

list of Gilmore Girls books

books on Gilmore Girls by episode

Atonement by Ian McEwan

Howl and Other Poems by Allen Ginsberg

Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter by Simone de Beauvoir

Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

The Portable Dorothy Parker by Dorothy Parker

The Snows of Kilimanjaro by Ernest Hemingway

Ulysses by James Joyce

The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath

The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

Father of Rory Gilmore's baby

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Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Welcome to Friday Night Readers, a virtual book club inspired by Gilmore Girls, hosted by Julianne Buonocore, who has run a Rory Gilmore reading challenge since 2020 and wrote the Unofficial Guide to the Books on Gilmore Girls. Fueled by coffee, we break down the books on the show, so you actually understand what the characters are talking so fast about, and help you read, live, and write like Rory.

Listen to the podcast on: Substack | Apple | Spotify | Amazon | YouTube

Read the full transcript and subscribe to our book club community: Classic Books on Gilmore Girls

Timestamps:

April reading prompt for our Rory Gilmore reading challenge -- read a classic book from the Rory Gilmore reading list

Featured Book of the Month: The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

10 More Classic Books to Read Like the Gilmore Girls This Spring

All the Classic Books on Gilmore Girls

My pick: The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

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Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Welcome to Friday Night Readers. Fueled by coffee, we break down the books referenced on Gilmore Girls. Our little literary corner of the world helps you understand what the characters are talking so fast about, and live in a world of books like Rory. Life’s short; read fast!

Listen to the podcast on: Substack | Apple | Spotify | Amazon | YouTube

Read the full transcript and subscribe to our book club community: https://fridaynightreaders.substack.com/p/coming-of-age-books

Today, my local pal and fellow Gilmore Girls superfan Alli Hoff Kosik's debut novel, Too Blessed to Stress, releases! We recorded a conversation about the books’ coming-of-age themes, along with a few more Gilmore Girls books we both love on the topic.

Links:

Alli Hoff Kosik

SSR Podcast

Too Blessed to Stress

Follow Alli on Instagram

Encyclopedia Brown

BTS: TBTS (Behind the Scenes of Too Blessed to Stress)

Jo Piazza

Olivia Muenter (Little One)

(Such a Fun Age)

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

James by Percival Everet

Huck Finn on Alli’s SSR Podcast

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

The Catcher in the Rye on Alli’s SSR Podcast

Deenie by Judy Blume

Deenie on Alli’s SSR Podcast

The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

“Nothing Gold Can Stay”

The Outsiders on Alli’s SSR Podcast

Also find Alli here: Too Blessed to Stress events

Timestamps:

00:00 Meet Allie Hoff Kosik

01:35 Defining Coming of Age

03:40 Coming of Age Beyond YA

06:06 Gilmore Girls as Growth Story

10:31 Lane and Faith Deconstruction

13:03 Inside Two Blessed to Stress

14:24 Writing Without Judgment

17:30 Philly and Social Commentary

21:06 Four Women Coming of Age

23:35 Gilmore Girls Book List Begins

24:52 Huck Finn on Gilmore Girls

26:28 Coming of Age on the River

27:57 Debating Great American Novel

29:43 Rethinking Huck Through James

30:31 Catcher in the Rye and Rory's Guys

32:29 Holden Then vs Now

34:34 Deenie Judy Blume Deep Cut

35:46 Banned Book and Body Talk

38:43 Influencers as Modern Models

40:54 The Outsiders Stay Gold

44:59 Friendship Softness and Lessons

45:32 Where to Find the Book

46:12 Audiobook and Farewell

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Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.