The Bookshop Podcast

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In this episode, I chat with Two Friends Books owners Monica Diodati and Rachel Stuckey-Slaton about Bentonville, Arkansas, local authors, books they love, and what they learned about bookselling during the pandemic.

After spending too much time lamenting the lack of an independent bookstore in Bentonville, friends Monica Diodati and Rachel Stuckey-Slaton resolved to launch their own. In 2018, their popup bookshop appeared at local coffee shops in the area until they moved into their very own brick and mortar shop at 8th Street Market in Downtown Bentonville. 

Monica and Rachel curate a selection of books from authors and publishers they love passing on to their customers. At Two Friends Books, customers can also enjoy a book with a glass of wine, beer, or coffee. The bookshop carries natural and organic wines, Airship coffee, a rotating selection of beers, and locally made baked goods.

Two Friends Books

Nora Goes Off Script, Annabel Monaghan

A Lady’s Guide to Fortune Hunting, Sophie Irwin

The Dead Romantics, Ashley Poston

Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin Wall Kimmerer

Ozark Dogs, Eli Cranor

Books by Donna Tart

Books by Miriam Toews

Our Share of Night, Mariana Enriquez

Books by Lisa Kleypas 

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Mandy Jackson-Beverly
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In this episode, I chat with Fonda Lee about what prompted her decision to become a serious writer, her innate love and respect for animals, her novella Untethered Sky, and her path from her first finished manuscript to finding an agent and publishing deal.

Fonda Lee is the author of the epic fantasy Green Bone Saga, beginning with Jade City, continuing in Jade War, and concluding with Jade Legacy. She is also the author of the science fiction novels Zeroboxer, Exo, and Cross Fire, and two novellas, the Green Bone Saga prequel The Jade Setter of Janloon, and the upcoming Untethered Sky.

 Fonda is a winner of the World Fantasy Award, the Locus Award, and a four-time winner of the Aurora Award (Canada’s national science fiction and fantasy award), as well as a multiple finalist for the Hugo Award, the Nebula Award, and the Oregon Book Award. Her novels have garnered multiple starred reviews and appeared on Best of Year lists from NPR, Barnes & Noble, Syfy Wire, and others. Jade City has been translated into a dozen languages, named to TIME Magazine’s Top 100 Fantasy Books of All Time, and optioned for television development.

  She has also written acclaimed short fiction and been an instructor at writing workshops including Viable Paradise and Clarion West. Fonda is a former corporate strategist and black belt martial artist who loves action movies and Eggs Benedict. Born and raised in Canada, she currently resides in the Pacific Northwest.

Fonda Lee

Untethered Sky, Fonda Lee

In The Lives Of Puppets, TJ Klune

TOR.COM

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In this episode, I chat with Claire Harris, manager of Lutyens and Rubinstein Bookshop, about how the demographics of Notting Hill affect the curation of the bookshop, their bespoke services, independent stores in the area, and books!

Lutyens and Rubinstein Bookshop was founded in 2009 by literary agents Sarah Lutyens and Felicity Rubinstein. 

The emphasis for the curation of the bookshop is on excellence in writing and narrative across a broad range of genres. The core stock was assembled by canvassing hundreds of readers – writers, publishing contacts, and friends (both adults and children) about which books they would most like to find in a bookshop.  Every book stocked has its place because somebody loves and recommends it.

Shop Manager Claire Harris and Partnerships Manager Tara Spinks joined the bookshop team before opening and are supported by Children’s Buyer Caroline Eade and Booksellers Christy Matthews and Ella Wright.

Lutyens and Rubinstein Bookshop

Lutyens and Rubinstein Bespoke Services

Why I Love Indie Bookshops, Mandy Jackson-Beverly

Small Things Like These, Claire Keegan 

Sorrow and Bliss, Meg Mason

 Books by Kate Morton

 Books By Elizabeth Sprout

 Books by Annie Ernaux

 Lessons in Chemistry, Bonnie Garmus

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Mandy Jackson-Beverly
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In this episode, I chat with Annabelle Gurwitch about her career in acting, speaking, and writing, her experience with SPY (Safe Place For Youth), her first publishing story, and her new book You're Leaving When?

Annabelle Gurwiitch is a New York Times Bestselling author, actress and activist whose most recent collection of essays You're Leaving When? Adventures in Downward Mobility is a 2021 New York Times Favorite Book for Healthy Living, a Good Morning America Must Read and a finalist for The Thurber Prize for American Humor Writing 2022.

 In both her speaking and writing, Annabelle uses personal stories and humor to illuminate issues in the social zeitgeist including "harnessing resilience and learning how life’s disappointments can teach you about the things that matter most” (Tara Parker Pope, New York Times). 

She's written for The New Yorker, New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Magazine, and Hadassah amongst other publications. Her five books include The New York Times bestseller and Thurber Prize finalist I See You Made an Effort.

She was the longtime cohost of Dinner & a Movie on TBS and a regular commentator on NPR. She's performed on the Moth Mainstage, at Carolines on Broadway, and at arts centers around the country. Her acting credits include: Seinfeld, Murphy Brown, Boston Legal and Dexter and once in while she returns to acting playing a rabbi on Better Things on FX or a therapist for an FBI agent in Michael Bay’s Ambulance.

 She's been featured in Time Magazine’s annual “10 Ideas That are Changing the World,” GMA, Real Time with Bill Maher, CBS Early Morning, Oprah, and PBS Newshour.

Annabelle had been chronicling living with stage iv lung cancer and inequities in healthcare in the New York Times and Washington Post since her out-of-the-blue diagnosis during covid. She's given patient advocate talks at scientific conferences around the globe including: Vienna, Rome, and Brisbane. She co-hosts Tiny Victories, a podcast, dedicated to appreciating  small mercies and minor triumphs. 

​She's guest lectured and taught essay writing and storytelling at The School of the New York Times, University of CA Redlands graduate writing program, Miami Dade Community College, Thurber House, George Washington U, Maine Media College, and University of Dayton, Ohio. 

Annabelle Gurwitch

 You’re Leaving When? Adventures in Downward Mobility, Annabelle Gurwitch

 Annabelle Gurwitch: Real Time With Bill Maher

 Tiny Victories Podcast

I Have some Questions For You, Rebecca Makkai

Bootstrapped, Alissa Quart

 Unraveling, Peggy Orenstein

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In this episode, I chat with journalist, documentarian, and author Livia Manera Sambuy about her new book In Search of Amrit Kaur, the difficulties of researching her subject, her work as a journalist, and Indian culture.

Livia Manera Sambuy is an Italian writer whose book of profiles of American writers, Don't Write About Me, was published in 2015. She has been a staff writer at the literary pages of the Italian national daily Corriere della Sera for more than twenty years and is the author and co-director of two documentary films on Philip Roth. She divides her time between Paris and Tuscany.

Livia Manera Sambuy

In Search of Amrit Kaur, Livia Manera Sambuy 

Author Patrick Leigh Fermor

 Child Marriage USA

 Council on Foreign Relations (child marriage USA)

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Mandy Jackson-Beverly
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In this episode, I chat with Jan Smedh, co-owner of The English Bookshop in Uppsala, Sweden, and the events manager Stina Björkelid about what it's like to live in Sweden during the winter months, the history of the area, and how reading fiction develops empathy and tolerance.

In 2018, The English Bookshop in Uppsala, Sweden was chosen by the London Book Fair as its International Excellence bookstore of the year. Jan Smedh and his colleague Christer founded the bookshop in 1995 in the historic town of Uppsala; since then the bookshop has grown to two other locations. 

 The English Bookshop, Uppsala

Bridgerton, Julia Quinn

Best Men, Sydney Karger

 Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austin

Gorgeous, Paul Rudnick

Farrell Covington and the Limits of Style, Paul Rudnick

The Impossible Us, Sarah Lotz 

Don Winslow Books

Gloriana: Or The Unfulfill’d Queen, Michael Moorcock

Hamnet, Maggie O’Farrell

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In this episode, I chat with Daniela Barani about living in Verona, global travels, languages, and books!

Daniela Barani is an English book club and event planner in Verona, a member of the library committee in Sommacampagna, and an Educational Consultant for Oxford University Press. She is an avid supporter of independent bookshops and runs the Albion Road Book Club in Verona, Italy.

Albion Road Book Club
The Island of Missing Trees, Elif Shafak
Black Cake, Charmaine Wilkerson
Carlo Rovelli Books

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In this episode, I chat with E.A. Aymar about his latest novel No Home For Killers, the D.C. Noir at the Bar series, and the Latino BIPOC thriller writing community.

Anthony Award-nominated E.A. Aymar’s most recent thriller, No Home for Killers, received praise from the New York Times, Kirkus, and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. His previous thriller, They’re Gone, was published to rave reviews in Publishers Weekly, Kirkus (starred), and named one of the best books of 2020 by the South Florida Sun Sentinel. He is a former member of the national board of the International Thriller Writers and is an active member of Crime Writers of Color and Sisters in Crime. 

Ed Aymar was born in Panama and now lives in the D.C. area, where he runs the D.C. Noir at the Bar series, and his column, “Decisions and Revisions,” appears monthly in the Washington Independent Review of Books.

E.A.Aymar

No Home For Killers, E. A. Aymar

The Last Policeman, Ben H. Winters

More Than You’ll Ever Know, Katie Guitierrez

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In this episode, I chat with voiceover actor and author Candi Milo about her memoir Surviving The Odd, her childhood in a halfway house, homelessness, mental illness, and alcoholism. 

Candi Milo is a successful actor, most famous for her extensive, award-nominated career voicing cartoons. Born in Palm Springs and raised in San Jose, California, Candi is an actor, singer, and comedian based in Los Angeles who is one of the busiest performers in voiceovers today and has starred in nightclub shows across the country.

She is honored to have taken the mantle from the legendary late June Foray as the voice of Granny for all of Warner Brothers Animation projects, including Space Jam 2: A New Legacy with LeBron James. She is an Annie Award nominee best known for voicing Deter in DEXTER’s Laboratory and The Flea in Mucah Lucha, among other well-known characters in hundreds of film and television projects, including Looney Tunes Cartoons. 

On stage, she starred alongside Jennifer Holiday in the first touring production of “Dreamgirls,” directed by Michael Bennett. Candi also gives inspirational talks about her unusual childhood and how it has informed her as a performer and mother. She is a passionate advocate for people dealing with mental illness and homelessness and the author of Surviving the Odd.

Candi Milo

Surviving The Odd, Candi Milo

Bill Graham Present: My Life Inside Rock and Out, Bill Graham, Robert Greenfield

LIVID, Patricia Cornwell

National Women’s Law Center

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Mandy Jackson-Beverly
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In this episode, I chat with Katya Cengel about her life as a journalist,  interviewing refugees from Cambodia, and her book Exiled: From the Killing Fields of Cambodia to California and Back.

Katya Cengel is a freelance writer and author based in California. Her work has appeared in New York Times Magazine, Marie Claire, Newsweek, Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post, among other publications. She has reported from North and Central America, Europe, Asia, and Africa and was based in the former Soviet Union for half a decade. She was a features and news writer for the Louisville Courier-Journal from 2003 to 2011.

She is the author of Independent Publisher Book Award (IPPY) 2020 winner and Foreword Indies 2019 winner From Chernobyl with Love: Reporting from the Ruins of the Soviet Union (Potomac, 2019); Exiled: From the Killing Fields of Cambodia to California and Back (Potomac, 2018) and 2013 Kentucky Literary Award finalist Bluegrass Baseball: A Year in the Minor League Life (Nebraska, 2012).

She has been awarded grants from the International Reporting Project, the International Women’s Media Foundation, and the International Center for Journalists. Her series on the families of the Lost Boys of Sudan received a second place feature writing Society of Professional Journalists Green Eyeshade Award and her 2017 article My brother’s killer is now my friend was named one of BBC’s “Best big reads of 2017”. Her second book, Exiled, is included in a California State Library curated permanent collection.

 Katya Cengel

Exiled: From the Killing Fields of Cambodia to California and Back, Katya Cengel

From Chernobyl with Love: Reporting from the Ruins of the Soviet Union, Katya Cengel

Bluegrass Baseball: A Year in the Minor League Life, Katya Cengel

 The Rebel and the Kingdom: The True Story of the Secret Mission to Overthrow the North Korean Regime, Bradley Hope

Bel Canto Books

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