Meg's Reading Room

Welcome in, friends. On today's episode, I'm joined by some of my favorite mothers to honor and celebrate the experience of motherhood through their beautiful poetry.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Elysse Wagner @writtenbyelysse
• Shows Up Late With Coffee
• Megan Minutillo Weiner @meganminutillo
• Jennifer Shoop @magpiebyjenshoop
• Magpie by Jen Shoop
• Small Wonders
• Karen McMillan @mother_truths
• Mother Truths : Poems on Early Motherhood
• Katie Lowe @katielowewords
• Nicole Zwolinski @nicolezwrites
• Motherhead
• Kaylin Weir @kaylinwrites
• Allison Mei-Li @writtenbyallison
• A History of Holding: Poems on Motherhood
• Ep 115: Sharing What We're Holding
• Kate Aasa @kate_aasa_writes
• Reese Landry @reeselandrypoetry
• Hope, Love, and the Lack Thereof
• Jillian Stacia @jillianstacia
• Set the Bone
• Hannah Rosenberg @hannahrowrites
• Same
• Ep 20: Your Life is Poetry
• Ep 99: Catching Up with Hannah Rosenberg
• Rachel Beachy @rachelbeachywrites
• Tiny Universe
• Ep 47: The Poetry of Motherhood
• Ep 89: Living in the Mess and Wonder

Support Meg's Reading Room

buymeacoffee.com/megsreadingroompodcast

I always hope our time together can be a soft place to land when you need it most. By supporting Meg's Reading Room, you're helping to keep our show running and our episodes AD free. Thank you for believing in the work we're doing and helping us to connect to more listeners like you.

Connect with me on Instagram @megsreadingroom

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Music credit: Clavin Clavier

Welcome in, book friends! On today's episode, I'm joined by photographer, at-home cook, and devoted reader, Holly from @bookcooklook.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Cutting for Stone
• This is Not About Us
• Anastasia Krupnik
• Lois Lowry
• The Guncle
• The Correspondent
• Meg's Reading Room Ep: 46 Virginia Evans
• Raising Hare
• Villa Coco
• Dolly All The Time

Support Meg's Reading Room

buymeacoffee.com/megsreadingroompodcast

I always hope our time together can be a soft place to land when you need it most. By supporting Meg's Reading Room, you're helping to keep our show running and our episodes AD free. Thank you for believing in the work we're doing and helping us to connect to more listeners like you.

Connect with me on Instagram @megsreadingroom

Connect with Holly on Instagram @bookcooklook

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Music credit: Clavin Clavier

Happy National Library Week, book friends!

On today's episode, I'm joined by librarian and Top Shelf podcast host, Carol Ann Tack.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Top Shelf podcast
• Daunt Books
• Half Magic
• The Library Pros
• Lessons in Chemistry
• Hammered: The Fight of My Life
• A Tender Age
• Libby
• Hoopla
• Libro.fm
• The Doorman
• Good Neighbors
• Coyoteland
• Whistler
• Land
• Man Overboard
• The Shampoo Effect
• Kin
• The Bullet Swallower
• Swift River
• The Ballad of Jacquotte Delahaye
• Seascraper

Support Meg's Reading Room

buymeacoffee.com/megsreadingroompodcast

I always hope our time together can be a soft place to land when you need it most. By supporting Meg's Reading Room, you're helping to keep our show running and our episodes AD free. Thank you for believing in the work we're doing and helping us to connect to more listeners like you.

Connect with me on Instagram @megsreadingroom

Connect with Carol Ann on Instagram @carolanntack

~~

Music credit: Clavin Clavier

Welcome in, book friends!

For my 125th episode, I’m SO EXCITED to share my conversation with one of my heroes in literature and life, Valerie Tripp!

Valere is a prolific and beloved children’s book author – best known for her work with the American Girl book series. It’s very possible that she has shaped your childhood reading life through her incredible stories and characters – Felicity Merriman, Molly McIntire, Kit Kittredge, Josefina Montoya, Maryellen Larkin, and Samantha Parkington… just to name a few!

In our conversation, we discuss how Valerie became the first voice trusted by Pleasant T. Rowland with Pleasant Company/American Girl, why Valerie and Pleasant were so inspired by books like Anne of Green Gables and Little Women where girls were the heroines and agents of change, how working with the artists, advisors, and product developers helped to bring the characters off the page, how the American Girls have walked with Valerie through the many eras and changes of her own life, what she thinks her characters would be standing and speaking up for today, and how she finds hope and courage through her love of history.

Valerie also shares about her voracious reading life and why Eleanor Roosevelt became her lifelong mentor.

This episode is a masterclass in storytelling and how the stories we love shape and sustain us through the many seasons of our lives. It’s also a celebration of Valerie’s legacy within an influential company, her devoted friendship and gratitude to Pleasant Rowland, and her treasured connection to her community of readers (her “alums”) who still hold onto the hope of her stories today.

You may listen to this episode on Meg’s Reading Room (Ep. 125) wherever you listen to podcasts. I hope our conversation inspires you to celebrate the things that bring you joy, too. 

Mentioned in this episode:

• American Girl
• Pleasant T. Rowland
• Anne of Green Gables
• Little Women
• Understood Betsy
• The Sherwood Ring
• Janet Shaw
• Susan Adler
• Changes for Molly
• Nellie's Promise
• Really Truly Ruthie
• Very Funny, Elizabeth
• Brave Emily
• My Antonia
• Death Comes for the Archbishop
• Elizabeth Strout
• History Matters
• No Ordinary Time
• Charlotte's Web
• Essays of E.B. White

Support Meg's Reading Room

buymeacoffee.com/megsreadingroompodcast

I always hope our time together can be a soft place to land when you need it most. By supporting Meg's Reading Room, you're helping to keep our show running and our episodes AD free. Thank you for believing in the work we're doing and helping us to connect to more listeners like you.

Connect with me on Instagram @megsreadingroom

~~

Music credit: Clavin Clavier

On today's episode, I'm joined by author, Grace P. Pouch to discuss her beautiful new book, SAVORING CHILDHOOD: Practical Wisdom for Slowing Down.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Savoring Childhood: Practical Wisdom for Slowing Down
• Renovaré
• Life: A Love Story
• Little Women
• Catch Me & Kiss Me & Say It Again
• Mandie books
• My Side of the Mountain
• Jane Eyre
• The Great Divorce
• Sign of the Beaver
• Bridge to Terabithia
• The Fellowship of the Ring
• The Hobbit
• To Kill a Mockingbird
• The Serviceberry

Support Meg's Reading Room

buymeacoffee.com/megsreadingroompodcast

I always hope our time together can be a soft place to land when you need it most. By supporting Meg's Reading Room, you're helping to keep our show running and our episodes AD free. Thank you for believing in the work we're doing and helping us to connect to more listeners like you.

Connect with me on Instagram @megsreadingroom

Connect with Grace on Instagram @grace.pate.pouch

~~

Music credit: Clavin Clavier

On today's episode, I'm joined by author, Bonnie Blaylock to discuss her newest historical fiction novel, THE WATER WOMEN.

Mentioned in this episode:

• The Water Women
• Bees in June
• Ep 81: Elizabeth Bass Parman
• Light to the Hills
• Just Ask Your Mom Podcast
• Body and Soul
• The Whalebone Theatre
• Isola
• This Is Not About Us
• The Black Stallion Series
• Dune

Support Meg's Reading Room

buymeacoffee.com/megsreadingroompodcast

I always hope our time together can be a soft place to land when you need it most. By supporting Meg's Reading Room, you're helping to keep our show running and our episodes AD free. Thank you for believing in the work we're doing and helping us to connect to more listeners like you.

Connect with me on Instagram @megsreadingroom

Connect with Bonnie on Instagram @blaybon

~~

Music credit: Clavin Clavier

Welcome in! I'm so glad you're here with me.

On today's episode, I'm joined by author, Tory Henwood Hoen to discuss her bestselling novel, BEFORE I FORGET.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Before I Forget
• The Arc
• Dick Johnson is Dead
• The Correspondent / Audiobook
• Ep 46: Virginia Evans on Meg's Reading Room
• Lady Tremaine / Audiobook
• Broken Country / Audiobook
• This Story Might Save Your Life / Audiobook
• All Fours / Audiobook
• Before I Forget / Audiobook
• Barrie Kreinik
• CT Public Radio / Tory Henwood Hoen, Barrie Kreinik
• Big Red Barn
• Owl Babies
• Corduroy
• The Story of Ferdinand
• Eloise
• Matilda

Support Meg's Reading Room

buymeacoffee.com/megsreadingroompodcast

I always hope our time together can be a soft place to land when you need it most. By supporting Meg's Reading Room, you're helping to keep our show running and our episodes AD free. Thank you for believing in the work we're doing and helping us to connect to more listeners like you.

Connect with me on Instagram @megsreadingroom

Connect with Tory on Instagram @toryhenwoodhoen

~~

Music credit: Clavin Clavier

This episode contains personal reflections on child loss, illness, grief, and marriage. Please listen with care.

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“We are all nesting dolls, carrying the earlier iterations of ourselves inside." - Maggie Smith

On today's episode, I'm joined by USA Today Bestselling author and advocate, Kelly Cervantes, to discuss her powerful memoir, THE LUCKIEST: A Memoir of Love, Loss, Motherhood, and the Pursuit of Self.

Mentioned in this episode:

• The Luckiest
• Maggie Smith Poet
• Normal Broken
• Hamilton
• CURE Epilepsy
• Joan Didion

Support Meg's Reading Room

buymeacoffee.com/megsreadingroompodcast

I always hope our time together can be a soft place to land when you need it most. By supporting Meg's Reading Room, you're helping to keep our show running and our episodes AD free. Thank you for believing in the work we're doing and helping us to connect to more listeners like you.

Connect with me on Instagram @megsreadingroom

Connect with Kelly on Instagram @kellygc411

~~

Music credit: Clavin Clavier

Welcome in! I'm so glad you're here with me.

On today's episode, I'm joined by author, N. West Moss to discuss her debut middle grade novel, BIRDY.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Birdy
• The Odyssey
• Tillerman Cycle series
• Harriet the Spy
• The Wizard of Oz
• David Copperfield
• Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin
• The Snow Child
• Small Things Like These
• Maniac McGee
• Star Girl
• The Long Winter
• The Serviceberry

Support Meg's Reading Room

buymeacoffee.com/megsreadingroompodcast

I always hope our time together can be a soft place to land when you need it most. By supporting Meg's Reading Room, you're helping to keep our show running and our episodes AD free. Thank you for believing in the work we're doing and helping us to connect to more listeners like you.

Connect with me on Instagram @megsreadingroom

Connect with West on Instagram @nwestmoss

~~

Music credit: Clavin Clavier

Welcome in! I'm so glad you're here with me.

On today's episode, I'm joined by author, Claire Swinarski to discuss her newest middle grade (and first historical fiction!) novel, EACH AND EVERY SPARK.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Each and Every Spark
• The Brothers Karamazov
• What's Become of Her
• This is Not About Us
• Dracula / Audiobook
• The Supper Club Saints

Support Meg's Reading Room

buymeacoffee.com/megsreadingroompodcast

I always hope our time together can be a soft place to land when you need it most. By supporting Meg's Reading Room, you're helping to keep our show running and our episodes AD free. Thank you for believing in the work we're doing and helping us to connect to more listeners like you.

Connect with me on Instagram @megsreadingroom

Connect with Claire on Instagram @claireswinarski

~~

Music credit: Clavin Clavier