This week our guest is Lydia Welker, the digital communications coordinator for the Appalachian Prison Book Project based in Morgantown, West Virginia. This organization does a lot of things, including sending books to prisoners in six states and hosting book clubs for inmates.

I discovered Appalachian Prison Book Project on social media where they often put out requests for specific books prisoners are looking for. There are over 43 books to prisoner programs across the country and you can find one in your area by going to the Books to Prisoners website (www.bookstoprisoners.net/outside-organizations/ ). Book to Prisoner programs believe education is a basic human right.

We talk to Lydia about the most requested books by prisoners, why she is a fanatic for sharks, and the best zombie movie to watch at the holidays.

You can find Appalachian Prison Book Project on Instagram @appalachianpbp and at their website at www.appalachianprisonbookproject.org

For show notes for any episode, go to our website at www.perksofbeingabooklover.com. We are also on Instagram @perksofbeingabookloverpod and on FB Perks of Being a Book Lover.

Books Mentioned In This Episode:

1- Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson

2- The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander

3- Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

4- Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

5- Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

6- Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

7- Ulysses by James Joyce

8- Devotions: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver

9- The History of Everything by Bill Bryson

10- The Body by Bill Bryson

11- Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh

12- She is a Haunting by Trang Thanh Tran

13- Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

14- Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer

15- Authority by Jeff VanderMeer

16- Acceptance by Jeff VanderMeer

17- Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel

18- Severance by Ling Ma

19- Code Name Edelweiss by Stephanie Landsem

Podcast mentioned:1- You Might Hate This Book podcast

Movies or series mentioned--

1- The Reluctant Traveler with Eugene Levy (Apple + 2023)

2- Get Out (2017)

3- Annihilation (2018)

4- Sharknado film series

5- The Night of the Living Dead (1968)

6- Ravenous (2017)

7- Zombieland (2009)

8- Shaun of the Dead (2004)

9- Anna and the Apocalypse (2017)

10- The Last of the Us (HBO Max 2023)