The Perks Of Being A Book Lover Podcast

COVID has been hard for those among us who like to travel, but one of our favorite ways to assuage that desire is to read books set in different locations. Sweeping meadows. Mountains that touch the sky. Exotic locales. These places can whisk us from our humdrum homes.

A Strong Sense of Place is both a podcast and a website where readers can find interesting bookish conversations with our guest this week, Melissa Joulwan, and her husband David, two expatriates living in Prague located in the Czech Republic. In this week’s episode, she tells us about how they select the places they will visit each season, why place in a book has to meet very stringent specifications, and how roller derby helped her make some big life decisions.

Books Mentioned in this Episode:

Podcasts mentioned--

Books mentioned--

Movies or TV adaptations mentioned in this episode:

1- Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries (Amazon)

**We have a rebroadcast this week.  We will resume all new episodes in Season 6 mid-January.

This week we are getting in the “spirit” of the first Saturday of May; a date that is sacrosanct for many Kentuckians because of the running of the Kentucky Derby. A love of horses and bourbon whiskey are high on the list of things that Kentuckians are proud of and want to export to the rest of the world. Bourbon is big business in our region and has had a surge in popularity over the last decade; around 90 percent of all bourbon is produced here in the Bluegrass State. At no other time of the year is bourbon more popular in Louisville KY than during Derby season.

Our guest this week, Brian Haara, is an attorney who developed an interest in bourbon through his work in the industry. He started by writing a bourbon history and law blog and has been featured in bourbon documentaries. His book, Bourbon Justice: How Whiskey Law Shaped America, is a deep dive into the history of bourbon law that goes back almost to the founding of our country and highlights how bourbon cases have affected all types of commercial law, including consumer protections and trademark law. He wanted to tell the stories of how our country and bourbon grew up together. He is also a bourbon connoisseur who gives tasting notes on various bourbons on his blog and throughout the book.

He chats with us about how he fell down the literary “Poe” hole as a teen, how Victoria’s Secret benefited from bourbon law, and he gives me and Carrie some suggestions of bourbons to buy for the bourbon drinkers in our life; whether they be newbies or long time fans.

Websites mentioned--

Books mentioned--

TV shows mentioned--

Our guest this week, Alia Volz, wrote a book titled Home Baked: My Mom, Marijuana, and The Stoning of San Francisco about her experience growing up in San Francisco in the late 1970s and 80s. Alia’s parents were the owners of Sticky Fingers Brownies which made pot brownies that were known all over the city. While these brownies were the source of relaxation and fun for many people, when HIV and AIDS hit San Francisco, Sticky Fingers became a lifeline for many gay men who were devastated by the disease because the pot brownies helped them with pain and appetite.

The book covers a lot of territory, not the least of which is Alia’s parents’ backgrounds and what it was like for her to grow up in San Francisco in a family that couldn’t really talk about what it did because of the illegal nature of their business. Her book was a 2020 finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Autobiography. It’s a fascinating read which shows the social history leading to the legalization and wider use of cannabis for medical use in the US through the lens of her own family's story.

Books Discussed in this Episode:

Social media can be awful but it can also be a great way to discover wonderful things happening around the globe that give me hope. Our guests this week are an example of that. When I saw a Facebook post about a pair of teachers in Virginia that had been inspired by a book to launch a bookmobile service in their town, I wanted to know more.

The novel The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michelle Richardson which is about women who served as pack librarians in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky and brought reading materials to remote areas during the Depression is the one that Lisa Signorelli and Kristin Thrower looked to to guide them in their mission. They were concerned that their students in Chesterfield public schools on the outskirts of Richmond who didn’t have easy access to WIFI while school was virtual last year were being forgotten.

Lisa and Kristin decided to start delivering books to the students. The endeavour that began out of the back of their cars has now progressed to a full book mobile that gives away free books to students and their families.

In this episode, Lisa and Kristin talk about how they met through a mentor teacher friend named Ms. Clark, how their collaboration resulted in the book mobile, and what it adds to their teaching experience.

Books Mentioned in this Episode:

1- The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson

Media mentioned--

Every guest we’ve had on our show thus far has been someone who interacts with books as Amy and I do--with our eyes and ears. But Valerie Saverie interacts with books in a unique way--she is a book sculptor who uses books as both her inspiration and her canvas.

Based in Colorado, Valerie is the owner and a founding member of Valkarie Gallery & Studio as well as an artist whose work is shown and sold in New York, Oregon, California, and Pennsylvania. In this episode, she talks to us about how books inspire her and what her process is for turning an already magical work into something that goes even further into creativity and the imagination.

To see all of Valerie’s art you can check her out on instagram @valeriesaverie or at her website www.valeriesaverie.com. On her site, she is offering Perks listeners a 20% discount on anything they purchase from her store for 30 days. Use the code PBBL22.

Books Mentioned in this Episode:

Movies mentioned--

Follow us on Facebook - The Perks of Being a Book Lover

I love a good bookclub. Carrie and I have been in one together for 15 years. I am the designated book club organizer, and even though bookclubs have been one of the great passions of my adult life, keeping them organized can be an annoying process; finding a date that meets everyone’s needs, making sure everyone knows about the meetings and the books, choosing books. The administrative bookkeeping tasks are not things most people are anxious to do. But there is a relatively new website and free app called Bookclubz (that is Bookclub with a z) that can help streamline the process.

Our guest this week, Anna Ford is the CEO and founder of Bookclubz which started out as a simple computer program she used to help keep her own large bookclub organized. Over time, what was a rudimentary program has been featured in Forbes magazine and has blossomed into a business that helps tens of thousands of book clubs all over the world.

Go to their website at www.bookclubz.com

Books discussed in this episode:

Follow us on Facebook - The Perks of Being a Book Lover

Our guest this week, Jeremy Hance, writes about 3 topics in his most recent book that we are always drawn to; mental health, travel, and animals. Baggage: Confessions of a Globe-trotting Hypochondriac is a memoir that uses humor to help readers understand what life is like for someone who has a mental health issue like Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. In Jeremy’s case, his anxiety is always worse when he travels. While traveling to all corners of the globe is one of the best parts of his life as an environmental writer and is necessary for the work he does, travel is also fraught with rumination and fear.

Jeremy is an environmental journalist who is currently a Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT.

Books Mentioned in this Episode:

Websites mentioned

Follow us on Facebook - The Perks of Being a Book Lover

In this week’s episode, we talk to our favorite bookseller, Sam Miller from Carmichael’s Books, about the holiday gift giving season. You’ve probably heard the warning to “shop early’ this holiday season because of shortages. So we are giving you the gift of new book ideas for all the booklovers in your life.

We love inviting Sam on the show twice a year to tell us all about books to look forward to for summer reading and holiday gift buying. She gives us suggestions in all the categories.

1- Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

Shows mentioned

Podcasts mentioned

This week we had a great time talking about book people problems with our guest Bailey, host of the To Read List Podcast. She doesn’t work alone on the podcast: her co-hosts include her brother Andrew, her friend Toby, and her husband Dillon who is the sound recordist. Through this podcast, they attempt to get through all the books on their shelves. Every other week they each read a book from their collections that is randomly selected. And at the end of the episode they have to decide if their books stay on their shelves or whether a new home needs to be found; like a free little library.

So this episode is filled with discussion of problems that are particular to book lovers like how many books is too many, can you have too many e-books downloaded on your Kindle, should we keep all the books we read, is 'dnfing' ok? You get the picture. We talk all about of book neuroses on this episode. It’s like a book group therapy session.

You can find the To Read List Podcast:

Books mentioned--

17- Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

21- The Country of the Pointed Firs by Sarah One Jewett

Movies mentioned-

Social Media mentioned--

Follow us on Facebook - The Perks of Being a Book Lover

For show notes for any episode, go to our website at www.perksofbeingabooklover.com.

Our guests this week are members of the same family. Jeremy and Hermione Tankard are a father-daughter duo behind the graphic novel series Yorick and Bones. Yorick, as any Shakespeare lover knows, is the skull that Hamlet speaks to in the play of the same name. In this graphic novel, Yorick is unearthed by a friendly dog, and they begin a series of adventures. In the second book, Yorick and Bones meet up with some familiar faces from Shakespeare’s plays.

Jeremy and Hermione have a fun story behind their books. Hermione was in high school when her dad recruited her to join him on this journey to tell the story of Yorick and his little dog because Hermione has long been a Shakespeare fan and has an uncanny ability to translate anything into iambic pentameter. They combined forces to create a fun series that helps gently introduce kids and adults to Shakespeare characters.

You can find out more about Jeremy Tankard’s books including the ones who created with Hermione at his website, jeremytankard.com and on instagram, @Jeremytankboy.

Books Mentioned in this Episode:

Movies mentioned

Game mentioned:

Follow us on Facebook - The Perks of Being a Book Lover

For show notes for any episode, go to our website at www.perksofbeingabooklover.com.