It’s the first Friday of the month, which means it’s time for a new book to read! This month’s selection is Julia Langbein’s phenomenal novel Dear Monica Lewinsky, and Julia is today's guest on the show.

The book is about Jean, whose life was derailed the summer after her sophomore year in college. When she travels to France to study medieval religious history, she meets a charismatic professor and decides to pursue an affair with him. The repercussions of that choice echo through her life, and she’s still haunted as an adult. 

When she realizes her summer abroad was the same summer the Monica Lewinsky story broke in the United States, Jean prays to Monica, asking for forgiveness. That’s when a vision of Monica Lewinsky appears to Jean, and she’s able to relive her summer in France. 

When Tom Perrotta blurbed Julia’s first novel American Mermaid, he said, “It probably shouldn’t work, but it succeeds brilliantly, thanks to Julia Langbein’s tonal control and wicked sense of humor,” and the same can be said for Dear Monica Lewinsky. 

This book may be hard to describe, but it’s a joy to read, and it’s also a searing examination of female desire and the prices we pay to pursue it.

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It’s the last Friday of May, which means it’s time to discuss T Kira Madden’s novel Whidbey!

Host Greta Johnsen talks to self-professed T Kira stan Kristen Arnett, the author of several novels. (Her most recent book, Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One, is especially wonderful!)

They unpack what makes this complex novel so readable: nuanced themes, compelling characters, tangible sense of place, and propulsive plot.

TRIGGER WARNING: This book deals with themes of child sexual abuse, which we discuss. 

SPOILER ALERT: This episode includes spoilers for the book. If you haven’y read it yet a nd you don’t want to know what happens, listen to the spoiler-free author interview here. 

For more information on the GRETAGRAM book club, sign up for Greta's newsletter, GRETAGRAM!

SHOW CREDITS

Creator and host: Greta Johnsen

Senior Producer: Ben Goldberg

Composers: Ross Bellenoit and Jeremy Thal

Tile art: Mac Maclean

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Host Greta Johnsen talks to two of her favorite readers -- MJ Franklin, an editor at the New York Times Book Review and host of The Book Review Book Club podcast, and Traci Thomas, who hosts the wonderfully bookish podcast The Stacks.

Even though the three of them have WILDLY different reading tastes, they also have an abundance of respect for each other, so these conversations are always a treat. Here’s a list of each of their recommendations: 

Greta’s picks: 

The Children, Melissa Albert (June 2)

Land, Maggie O’Farrell (June 2)

Etna, Paul Yoon August 4

Traci’s picks:

Crossroads: A Memoir in Baseball and Life, Dusty Baker (June 9)

The Great Wherever, Shannon Sanders (July 7) 

Seasons of Fury: Four Families and the Rise of Islamophobia in America, Rozina Ali (August 25)

MJ’s picks:

Country People, Daniel Mason (July 7)

Fixer Chao, Han Ong (July 14)

The Mortons, Justine Larbalestier and Scott Westerfeld (July 21)

SHOW CREDITS

Creator and host: Greta Johnsen

Senior Producer: Ben Goldberg

Composers: Ross Bellenoit and Jeremy Thal

Tile art: Mac Maclean

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

WXPN morning host and assistant music director Kristen Kurtis offers host Greta Johnsen three songs to enjoy this summer, and they are all BOPS: 

•  Zinadeplhia, “River”
• Parlor Greens, “Eat Your Greens”
• Allison Russell, “Cold April” ft. Kara Jackson, Denitia, and Explore! Pop Choir

SHOW CREDITS

Creator and host: Greta Johnsen

Senior Producer: Ben Goldberg

Composers: Ross Bellenoit and Jeremy Thal

Tile art: Mac Maclean

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Host Greta Johnsen talks with profesisonal organizer Kelly Brask about how Swedish death cleaning can help you live better by getting rid of the things that no longer fit int your life and keeping the things that are useful and joyul for you. She also offers hints for how to organize your space and encourages you to embrace cleanliness while avoiding perfectionism.

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Host Greta Johnsen talks with T Kira Madden, whose novel Whidbey is the GRETAGRAM Book Club selection for May. (TW: Child sexual abuse.)

Whidbey is told from the points of view of three women who are all connected to Calvin, a sexual precator: Mary Beth, his mother, and Birdie and Linzie, who victims who approach their trauma in very different ways. 

T Kira talks about the book’s enticing opening scene, the ways that victimhood can be exploited, and whether she considers writing fiction to be cathartic. 

SHOW CREDITS

Creator and host: Greta Johnsen

Senior Producer: Ben Goldberg

Composers: Ross Bellenoit and Jeremy Thal

Tile art: Mac Maclean

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Host Greta Johnsen talks with Roxana Jullapat, head baker and co-owner at the Los Angeles restaurant Friends & Family. Her new cookbook is Morning Baker: Recipes and Rituals for Breakfast and Beyond.

In 2019, she wrote Mother Grains: Recipes for the Grain Revolution, a thorough compendium of heritage grains and everything they have to offer. 

Roxana says the new cookbook is just as devoted to whole grains, but it’s a little more joyful. “There’s a lot more spontaneity,” she said. “It truly is a reflection of what we make at Friends & Family, and what it means to be a grain head.”

SHOW CREDITS

Creator and host: Greta Johnsen

Senior Producer: Ben Goldberg

Composers: Ross Bellenoit and Jeremy Thal

Show art: Mac Maclean

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Host Greta Johnsen talks to author Rufi Thrope, whose novel Margo’s Got Money Troubles was just adapted into a series on Apple TV+.

The show’s cast is stacked -- it stars Elle Fanning as Margo, a young woman who becomes pregnant after an affair with her college professor. She decides to keep the baby, much to the chagrin of her own single mom Shyanne, played by Michelle Pfeiffer. Margo’s absentee former pro wrestler dad, Jinx, is played by Nick Offerman.  

Rufi and Greta talk about the magic of seeing a novel in a whole new dimension, what Rufi is working on next, and the utter absurdity of living with the cuddly monster known as the Bull Terrier.  

SHOW CREDITS

Creator and host: Greta Johnsen

Senior Producer: Ben Goldberg

Composers: Ross Bellenoit and Jeremy Thal

Show art: Mac Maclean

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Greta’s guest today will be familiar to longtime Nerdette listeners -- her name is Kate Schatz, and she’s an activist and author. She co-wrote Do the Work: An Antiracist Activity Book with W Kamau Bell, and she’s the author of Rad American Women A-Z and Rad Women Worldwide.

Now, she’s back with her first novel for adults! Where the Girls Were takes place in the Bay Area in 1968. It’s about Baker, a teenager whose future is bright -- until she meets a boy, and has sex with that boy, and gets pregnant. 

Baker ends up at a “home for wayward girls,” a residence program where young pregnant women would be hidden from society until they gave birth. Their babies would be put up for adoption and the girls were expected to return home as if nothing ever happened. 

“This is a book about choice and reproductive freedom and bodily autonomy and how truly complicated and nuanced it all is,” Kate says. 

Kate talks with Greta about why she set the book in ‘68, the sneaky nefariousness of the word “unfit,” and where she finds comfort during tumultuous times. 

SHOW CREDITS

Creator and host: Greta Johnsen

Senior Producer: Ben Goldberg

Composers: Ross Bellenoit and Jeremy Thal

Show art: Mac Maclean

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

An unimportant investigation into the difference between cupcakes and muffins with Bon Appetit test kitchen editor Shilpa Uscocovic.

SHOW CREDITS

Creator and host: Greta Johnsen

Senior Producer: Ben Goldberg

Composers: Ross Bellenoit and Jeremy Thal

Tile art: Mac Maclean

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.