The Perks Of Being A Book Lover Podcast

Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com.

For a lot of people, Labor Day, which this year fell on September 2, marks the end of summer, although astronomical summer doesn’t end until September 22 (and meteorological fall actually begins on September 1). And according to Carrie, summer ends on the first day of school, which was Aug 8 here in Louisville KY. And what was a common assignment when you returned back to schook? That's right. Write about what you did this summer. So this episode is a recap of what the two of us did from June through August told in the form of books!

Books mentioned--

1- Bad Monkey by Carl Hiassen

2- Hoot by Carl Hiassen

3- Flush by Carl Hiassen

4- Border Crossings: A Journey on the Trans-Siberian Railway by Emma Fick

5- Summer of the Mariposas by Guadalupe Garcia McCall

6- A Five Star Read Recommended by Fellow Book Lover Amanda Pavlov @pavlovsbooks - A Novel Obsession by Caitlin Barasch

7- The Kindred Spirits Supper Club by Amy E. Reichert

8- Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club by J. Ryan Stradal

9- Hum If You Don't Know the Words by Bianca Marais

10- Cry the Beloved Country by Alan Paton

11- Death’s Door: True Tales of Tragedy, Mystery, and Bravery from the Great Lakes’ Most Dangerous Waters by Barbara M. Joosse

12- The Elephants of Thula Thula by Francois Malby-Anthony

13- A Death in Door County (Monster Hunter Mystery) by Annelise Ryan

14- The Woman Next Door by Yewande Omotoso

15- I Cheerfully Refuse by Leif Enger

16- The Deepest Lake by Andromeda Romano-Lax

17- Dragon Rider by Cornelia Funke, audiobook narrated by Brendan Fraser

18- Death Stalks Door County (Dave Cubiak #1) by Patricia Skalka

Media mentioned--

1- Jack Whitehall: Travels with My Father (Netflix, 2017)

2- Jack Whitehall: Fatherhood with my Father (2024)

3- The Tourist (Netflix, 2022)

4- Bad Monkey (Apple+, 2024)

5- Strong Sense of Place Podcast - https://strongsenseofplace.com/podcasts/

6-Lawsuit Against Florida Book Bans - people.com/publishers-authors-…a-book-bans-8704020

Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com.

You can find Britton online at her website www.booksbybritton.com/

This week we chat with Britton Perelman, a unique artist and craftsperson who creates miniature bookshelves. We saw her at the Columbus OH Book Festival in 2023, which was the first festival she attended selling her amazing creations, and we were delighted when she agreed to be a guest.

We chat with her about how she sort of fell into designing and crafting miniature bookshelves during COVID and how the business has been booming, which leaves Britton, who has a BA in journalism and an MFA in screenwriting, with little time to compose written work. Britton has had to get all hands on deck, including her mom and sister, which means Books by Britton is a female-owned, family business.

Books Mentioned In this Episode:

1- The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio

2- The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer

3- Tiny Treasures: Amazing Miniatures You Can Make by Nancy Holyoke

4- The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

5- The Guest List by Lucy Foley

6- Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney

7- Truly, Devious series by Maureen Johnson

8- A Five-Star Read Recommended by Fellow Book Lover Steve Elliot @stevereadthatbook - All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker

9- Those We Thought We Knew by David Joy

10- The Measure by Nikki Erlick

11- A Novel Love Story by Ashley Poston

12- The Hundred Loves of Juliet by Evelyn Skye

13- One of Us is Lying by Karen McManus

Shows mentioned--

The Decameron (Netflix, 2024)

Links:

1- Pandora Productions - Little Shop of Horrors - www.pandoraprods.org/

2- Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest-- www.bulwer-lytton.com

3- Louisville Book Festival - www.louisvillebookfestival.com/

Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com.

It's that time of year where kids and teachers are back at school or almost back at school so we thought we would offer recommendations for books related to education—novels or memoirs set in schools or colleges; books with teachers, deans, students, or staff as characters; literature in which education or learning plays an important if not essential role.

Books mentioned in this episode:

1- The Whale Rider by Witi Ihimaera

2- Shanghailanders by Juli Min

3- A Five-Star Read Recommended by Fellow Book Lover Dawn Nacker @dawndevoursbooks - How To Read a Book by Monica Wood

4- Truly, Devious by Maureen Johnson

5- Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

6- The Faculty Lounge by Jennifer Matthieu

7- Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution by RF Kuang

7- New Kid by Jerry Craft

8- The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead

9- The Reformatory by Tananarive Due

10- The Gilded Years by Karin Tanabe

11- The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart

12- True Biz by Sara Nović

13- Girl at War by Sara Nović

14- "All Summer in a Day" (short story) by Ray Bradbury

15- Love at First Book by Jenn McKinlay

16- The Rom-commers by Katherine Center

Bookish events—

1- Poe: A Dream Within a Dream

2- Untimely Ripp’d

3- Cincy Bookstore Crawl

4- Books by the Banks

5- Cynthiana KY Skeletons

6- Rail Explorers

7- Fenrir Viking Festival

8- New Kid by Jerry Craft Book Banning

https://www.npr.org/2022/12/28/1144458555/banned-books-author-jerry-craft-new-kid

Media mentioned—

1- The Whale Rider — 2002

2- Happiness for Beginners (Netflix, 2023)

Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com.

You can find the Bookery Cincy at www.bookerycincy.com/ or on IG @bookerycincy.

This week we chat with Sierra Hollabaugh, one of the co-owners and founders of Bookery Cincy, an independent bookstore located in Cincinnati, OH. When Amy went to Cincinnati recently, she met Sierra so we thought it would be nice if everyone got to know a little more about the bookstore as well as a cool October event, the Cincy Bookstore Crawl, which includes 16 small bookstores in the area. Cincinnati is a great place for a weekend visit, and the bookstore crawl just makes it an even more appealing location.

We talk about the resurgence of the independent brick and mortar bookstore, what it’s like running a small business when you have young kids, and what visitors can expect if they come to Cincy for the Bookstore Crawl which is the weekend of Oct 4-6.

Books Mentioned in this Episode:

1- Orbital by Samantha Harvey

2- American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis

3- Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis

4- Sociopath by Patric Gagne

5- A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

6- Bel Canto by Ann Patchett

7- Tom Lake by Ann Patchett

8- The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin

9- A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle

10- Black Beauty by Anna Sewell

11- Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

12- Trust by Hernan Diaz

13- In the Distance by Hernan Diaz

14- The English Understand Wool by Helen DeWitt

15- A Five Star Read Recommended by Fellow Book Lover Elias Eells @eliaseells - The West Passage by Jared Pechaček

16- Cocktails and Consoles by Elias Eells

17- All the Sinners Bleed by SA Cosby

18- Blacktop Wasteland by SA Cosby

19- Sandwich by Catherine Newman

20- We All Want Impossible Things by Catherine Newman

21- Waiting for Birdy: A Year of Frantic Tedium, Neurotic Angst, and the Wild Magic of Growing a Family by Catherine Newman

22- A Heart That Works by Rob Delaney

Media mentioned--

2- Catastrophe (2015-2019, Prime Video)

3- Art is Not a Luxury with Ethan Hawke - www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeCuqtFKLHI

4- Utah Book Ban -Utah recently banned 13 books by 7 authors from all public schools in the state. apnews.com/article/utah-school…a6cd2cb5ddd25fca700

Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com.

This week we’re going “boldly where no man has gone before.” Yes–that’s right into space.

Books Mentioned in This Episode:

1- The Most Precious of Cargoes by Jean-Claude Grumberg

2- The Paris Affair by Maureen Marshall

3- A Five Start Read Recommended by Fellow Book Lover Stephanie Affinito @affinitolit - The Book That Matters Most by Ann Hood

4- Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

5- Leviathan Wakes by James SA Corey

6- The Calculating Stars (Lady Astronaut Universe series) by Mary Robinette Kowal

7- Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

8- Spaceman of Bohemia by Jaroslav Kalfar

9- Orbital by Samantha Harvey

10- The Lion of Mars by Jennifer L. Holm

11- A Rovers Story by Jasmine Warga

12- Old Man’s War by John Scalzi

13- Bright Objects by Ruby Todd

14- Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

15- A Quantum Life: My Unlikely Journey from the Street to the Stars by Hakeem Oluseyi and Joshua Horwitz

Media mentioned--

1- Constellation (Apple+, 2024)

2- Zone of Interest (HBOMax, 2023)

3- Cat Video Fest--www.catvideofest.com

4- For All Mankind (Apple+, 2019)

5- The Expanse (Prime Video, 2015)

6- Spaceman of Bohemia (Netflix, 2024)

7- Literature as an Olympic Sport - lithub.com/did-you-know-that-p…tual-olympic-sport/

Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com.

You can find Jean Duffy at her website www.jeanduffy.com or on IG @soccergranniesbook.

If you can’t get enough of sports and global camaraderie watching the Paris Summer Olympics on your TV screens, we have an interview for you today to scratch that itch even more; books that include women’s soccer.

In Season 10, we did a dual-interview with two authors who wrote Jane Austen-inspired books: AH Kim and Melodie Edwards. It was so much fun, we thought we would do it again. This time, though, we’re pairing two women who wrote books related to soccer.

Sarahlyn Bruck is the author of several novels; her most recent is titled Light of the Fire, which is about two adult women who were connected by soccer in high school. Jean Duffy’s debut nonfiction book is titled Soccer Grannies: The South African Women Who Inspire the World, about older women who play recreational soccer. These two writers, who both have an abiding love of the game, were down with joining each other and us to chat about their respective books.

While these books on the surface deal with soccer, they ultimately address friendship and teamwork, the elements of the game that change lives for the better.

Books Mentioned in this Episode:

1- Light of the Fire by Sarahlyn Bruck

2- Soccer Grannies: The South African Women Who Inspire the World by Jean Duffy

3- The Keeper: Soccer, Me, and the Law That Changed Women's Lives by Kelcey Ervick

4- A Five Star Read Recommended by Fellow Book Lover, Patricia @patriciapluggedin - Funny Story by Emily Henry

5- I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusak

6- Anna Bright is Hiding Something by Susie Orman Schnall

7- Invisible Women: Exploring Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado-Perez

8- Magonia Wu Unfolds It All by Chanel Miller

9- Know My Name by Chanel Miller

10- Starter Villain by John Scalzi

11- Old Man's War by John Scalzi

Media mentioned—

1- Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019)

2- Trying (2024, Apple+)

3- Catastrophe (2015, Amazon Prime)

4- The Dropout (2022, Hulu)

Our Episode with Kelcey Ervick about her graphic memoir, The Keeper -ThePerksofBeingaBookLover.podbean.com/e/s9ep…21323/

Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com.

You can find Carter Wilson at his website www.carterwilson.com or on IG @carterwilsonauthor. You can also find his podcast Making It Up on all podcast platforms.

This week we chat with Carter Wilson, a thriller writer and podcast host who lives in Colorado and who is the author of nine novels. His most recent is titled The Father She Went to Find, a story of Penny, a girl who suffered a brain injury at an early age that left her a savant with curious abilities. It was at this time that her father disappeared, but he has remained in contact via a birthday card every year. Until she turns 21. And that is the impetus she needs to go find him. This is a road trip/ scavenger hunt thrill ride that even has a few Stranger Things vibes. It’s set in the 1980s after all.

Carter talks to us about why this book is different from all his others and his favorite TV thriller series he has watched this year. And we laugh when he tells us one of the reasons why someone might start writing a book.

Books mentioned--

2- Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, illustrated by Yayoi Kusama (Penguin Classics) 2012

3- Deception at Diamond D Ranch by GR Stahl

4- Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner

5- Pines by Blake Crouch

6- Where'd You Go Bernadette by Maria Semple

7- Greenwood by Michael Christie

8- My Mama, Cass: A Memoir by Owen Elliot-Kugell

9- The Mysterious Case of Rudolph Diesel by Douglas Brunt

10- The Last Murder at the End of the World by Stuart Turton

11- The Seven and a Half Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

12- The Language of Love and Loss by Bart Yates

13- The Five Star Read Recommended by a Fellow Book Lover Iresha Jayasinghe @resh_bookstagram - Cinder Luna by Marie Soleil

Movies and Limited Series--

1- Where'd You Go Bernadette (2019)

2- Shogun (Hulu, 2024)

3- Ripley (Netflix, 2024)

Links--

1- Salted Brown Butter Krispie Treats recipe - smittenkitchen.com/2009/11/salted-…-crispy-treats/

2-Yayoi Kusama Exhiition - www.speedmuseum.org/yayoi-kusama-in…urvive-forever/

3- Rediscovered Books in Boise, ID - www.rdbooks.org/

4- Free Little Art Galleries (FLAGS) - freelittleartgalleries.art/

Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com.

So back during Season 10 we flew to Los Angeles, California for the LA Times Festival of Books, which was held on the campus of USC. We were able to meet our bookish friend, Jennifer Caloyeras from the Books Are My People podcast; hear cool authors and audiobook narrators speak; and visit some awesome places in LA.

Amy is usually the one who reads around the places she is visiting, although she is apparently rubbing off on me because I’m finding myself doing it too. We decided to make an episode centered around Los Angeles/Hollywood reads.

Books Discussed in This Episode:

1- Everything I Learned, I Learned In a Chinese Restaurant by Curtis Chin

2- The Copenhagen Trilogy by Tove Ditlevsen

3- The Library Book by Susan Orlean

4- A 5 Star Read Recommended by a Fellow Book Lover Lauren Becker @laurenashleybecker- Elephant and Castle by Hannah Ledford

5- Devil in a Blue Dress (Easy Rawlins series) by Walter Mosley

6- The Monstrous Misses Mai by Van Hoang

7- Love & Saffron by Kim Fay

8- Daytime Drama by Sarahlyn Bruck

9- Code Name Edelweiss by Stephanie Landsem

10- California Dreamin: The True Story of the Mamas and Papas by Michelle Phillips

12- Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis

13- Black Dahlia by James Ellroy

14- The People of Paper by Salvador Plascencia

15- Tortilla Curtain by TC Boyle

16- Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor

17- Muse of Nightmares by Laini Taylor

18- Icebreaker by Hannah Grace

19- Wildfire by Hannah Grace

Movies mentioned--

Feast of Death (documentary about James Ellroy) - 2001

Articles mentioned--

100 Best Books of the 21st Century - www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/…21st-century.html

Episodes mentioned--

1- www.perksofbeingabooklover.com/episodes/…m-vidrine

2- www.perksofbeingabooklover.com/episodes/…akespeare

Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com.

You can find Mai Corland on IG @maicorland as well as at her website at meredithireland.wordpress.com

This episode begins Season 11 for us–we’ve got over 200 episodes under our belts and are back to bring you more.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you probably know that fantasy is big right now, and we discovered a fun fantasy that feels like an Ocean’s 11 type romp with multiple characters trying to take down a king. The book is titled Five Broken Blades and it is written by Mai Corland. We were delighted to speak with her a couple weeks back, especially since she is now an international bestselling author. And in fact, while recording this episode you will hear Mai receiving some good news. While some people might let this success go to their heads, Mai is down-to-earth and gets entirely too much pleasure poking fun at her new status.

We chat about the fantasy series she can’t stop recommending, why writing middle grade and YA novels was such good prep for pacing in her new romantic fantasy, and how riding the subway opened up her world as a teen.

Books Discussed In This Episode:

1- Five Broken Blades by Mai Corland

2- Four Ruined Realms by Mai Corland

3- You Are Here: Connected Flights edited by Ellen Oh

4- Emma and the Love Spell by Meredith Ireland

5- The Jasmine Project by Meredith Ireland

6- Mirrored Heavens by Rebecca Roanhorse

7- Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse

8- The Jane City trilogy by Fonda Lee

9- The Serpent and the Wings of Night by Carissa Broadbent

10- 5 Star Read Recommended by a Fellow Book Lover Marné Deranger @readerbythewater - Sandwich by Catherine Newman

11- Curbing Traffic: The Human Case for Fewer Cars in Our Lives by Melissa Bruntlett and Chris Bruntlett

12- Such Charming Liars by Karen McManus

13- One of Us is Lying by Karen McManus

14- The Cousins by Karen McManus

15- Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts by Crystal Wilkinson

***We are on summer hiatus but will be back with an all new episode next week! Happy Reading!

This week we are talking all about journeys. Whether they be physical or mental, we whisk you away in a good book. Choose from 10 book recommendations from Carrie and Amy for when you're ready to be on the move.

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

Books Mentioned in this Episode

1- How to Read Novels Like a Professor by Thomas Foster

2- American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang

3- Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer

4- The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

5- The Lion of Lark-Hayes Manor by Aubrey Hartman

6- The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester (The Surgeon of Crowthorne)

7- The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce

8- Walking a Sacred Path: Rediscovering the Labyrinth as a Spiritual Tool by Lauren Artress

9- Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende

10- Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie

11- The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster

12- Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer

13- What the Ermine Saw: The Extraordinary Journey of Leonardo Da Vinci’s Most Mysterious Portrait by Eden Collinsworth

14- News of the World by Paulette Jilles

15- Enemy Women by Paulette Jilles

16- Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier

17- The Road Towards Home by Corinne Demas

18- A Pearl in a Storm: How I Found my Heart in the Middle of the Atlantic Ocean by Tori Murden McClure

19- The Gran Tour: Travels with My Elders by Ben Aitken

20- Cutting Teeth by Chandler Baker

21- Cosmic Cats and Fantastic Furballs by Mary Turzillo

22- Your Cat and Other Space Aliens by Mary Turzillo

23- Mars is No Place for Children by Mary Turzillo

5 Star Book Recommendation by a Book Lover

Shows/Movies watched—

1- American Born Chinese (Disney+, 2023)

2- Annihilation (Netflix, 2018)

3- The Professor and the Madman (2019)

Labirynth Locator

Bookish News

Article about Henrietta Lacks