What is a boy book? Good question.

As Sam and Kai get more and more involved in their podcast and reading in general, they’re having more and more people get interested (and in some cases, concerned) about the books they are reading. In this episode, the girls take recommendations from men in their lives who have been very clear that the books they read are MUCH more profound than silly girl books.

Are boy books for you? Find out in this episode.

This week, Sam and Kai talk about arguably one of the most exciting 2025 releases: The Knight and the Moth by Rachel Gillig. Join us as we go over characters that had us kicking our feet, giggling, squealing audibly, and then immediately after, throwing our books across the room.

This book is JAM PACKED with spoilers.

This week, Sam and Kai return to play their favorite game: Pitch a Book. If you were here last season, you know all about this experiment. If not, let us explain before you get into the episode.

Pitch a Book Rules:

1. Sam and Kai each pick and read a book without telling each other what it is.
2. They cannot mark that they are reading this book or have read this book on any of their book trackers.
3. Outside help to decide which book to read is permitted.
4. On Pitch a Book day:
   1. Sam and Kai take turns explaining the concept of their book, sharing ratings, and answering questions that the other has.
   2. The other person then has to decide whether they would read the book based on the pitch.
5. Pitch a Book follow-ups happen during the same season, when Sam and Kai have had the chance to read the book and report back.

This episode contains minor spoilers from 2 mystery books. Sam and Kai try to keep key spoilers hidden during their pitches. However, some minor details are sure to slip out.

Do you ever get frustrated because people around you keep dying? Are you frustrated that whenever you eat poisonous berries, you get the powers of death and are able to do a bunch of cool things? Have you ever stayed up wondering whether the concept of death is actually a hot guy (Spoiler alert: he is)? This week, Sam and Kai jump into the Belladonna Series by Adalyn Grace, where all these questions and more will be answered.

As always, this episode contains spoilers.

In this episode of The Bookyard Pod, Sam and Kai return to one of their favorite experiments from season 1. The girls go to Planted in Pages and have the booksellers choose the best book they’ve read recently and the worst book they’ve read recently. The books they chose are How to Help a Hungry Werewolf and The Wolf King.

This episode contains spoilers for both books and from the sequel to The Wolf King, The Night Prince.

This week, Sam and Kai jump into a new release that has caused a lot of drama on Booktok. Let’s talk about Silver Elite, by Dani Francis. What is the book about? What are the controversies surrounding it? Most importantly, should you read it? Find out with us this week! As always, this episode contains spoilers.

As promised in this episode, we have included the link to an article that we reference. We would highly recommend checking this out if you are interested.

https://michelleschusterman.substack.com/p/the-real-silver-elite-controversy

In this week’s episode, Sam and Kai welcome you back to season two of The Bookyard Pod. To start the season off, we are jumping right into one of our all-time favorite series, Frank Herbert’s Dune. Recently, the franchise had a spike in popularity due to the new movies. However, this series has always been wildly popular and for good reason. If you are a fan of space, the future, religious cults, crazy governments, and witches, this is the series for you.

There are some serious spoilers for Dune in this episode. If you didn’t expect that, we aren’t sure how to break it to you…but this is a book podcast.

In this episode, Sam and Kai travel back in time to episode three, where they each pitched a book for the other to read. In the present, both of them have completed their reading, and it is time to see what they each thought about the other’s recommendation. After the discussion, the girls offer an inside view into what Season 2 of the podcast has in store for listeners. We hope to see you next season!

This episode contains spoilers for both Shark Heart and The Wishing Game.

In this episode, Sam and Kai talk about their LAST experiment of season one. Welcome to Best and Worst, where we go to a bookstore and ask a bookseller for the best book they’ve read recently, and one that was not their cup of tea. This time, we went to Poppy Books in Spanish Fork, Utah. This episode contains spoilers for both The Thirteenth Child and Tehrangeles. Listen along to hear us compare the reads and share our thoughts.

As part of the Worst and Best series, we want to remind you that people have all kinds of takes. Just because someone didn’t enjoy a particular book, it doesn’t mean that you won’t or that it isn’t worth a read. We hope you’ll read both books we discussed in this episode.

In this episode, Sam and Kai talk about another fun reading experiment that they recently finished. They read trending books and then read other books written by the same authors. They discover writing style changes, preferred genres, and other helpful insights. This episode contains spoilers for books written by Emily Henrie, Rebecca Ross, Stephanie Meyer (disclaimer in episode), and Rebecca Yarros.