We are so delighted to have Mindy Brouse as a guest on today’s episode. Mindy is a host on Bookend Homeschoolers and a cohost of Currently Reading. Today we’re talking about books that are “required reading” for our kids. Get ready: your book lists are about to explode!

Books We Mention

Find all the books we mention on this episode through this link.

• Nory Ryan’s Song, by Patricia Reilly Giff
• The Wingfeather Saga, by Andrew Peterson
• The House of Sixty Fathers, by Meindert DeJong
• I Juan De Pareja, by Elizabeth Borton de Trevino
• The Family Under the Bridge, by Natalie Savage Carlson
• The Book of the Dun Cow, by Walter Wangerin Jr.
• A Single Shard, by Linda Sue Park
• Where the Red Fern Grows, by Wilson Rawls
• Till We Have Faces, by CS Lewis
• Peace Like a River, by Leif Enger
• The Track Series, by Jason Reynolds
• The Nevermoor Series, by Jessica Townsend
• All American Boys, by Jason Reynolds & Brendan Kiely
• The Firekeeper’s Daughter, by Angeline Boulley
• The Gift of Fear, by Gavin Debecker
• The Road Back to You, by Ian Cron & Susan Stabile
• Boundaries, by John Townsend & Henry Cloud
• The Chemistry of Calm, by Henry Emmons
• Harry’s Trees, by Jon Cohen
• Hamnet, by Maggie O’Farrell
• A Celebration of Discipline, by Richard Foster
• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, by Steven Covey

Get in touch with us to talk books @westmorelandpodcast, or email [email protected].

Our next episode is scheduled for May 21st. Happy reading!

Affiliate disclaimer: all our affiliate links are for abebooks.com...your cost stays the same, but the little kickback from your purchases through our links supports the podcast and helps us keep recording!

Lisse is currently traveling cross-country, so Heidi takes over the podcast today with a short reading recap of all the books she read in April...from chocolate to steamy romance, it’s basically all here in these seven books!

Stuff We Mention

• Heidi’s new thrift shop on Instagram is @thebookshelfshop

Books We Mention

• Victory of Eagles, by Naomi Novik
• A Kiss at Midnight, by Eloisa James
• The Elegance of the Hedgehog, by Muriel Barbery
• Dear Committee Members, by Julie Schumacher
• Dune, by Frank Herbert
• Like Water for Chocolate, by Laura Esquivel
• Milk and Honey, by Rupi Kaur

Get in touch with us to talk books @westmorelandpodcast, or email [email protected].

Our next episode is scheduled for May 14th. Happy reading!

Affiliate disclaimer: all our affiliate links are for abebooks.com...your cost stays the same, but the little kickback from your purchases through our links supports the podcast and helps us keep recording!

We’re back for another season, and so excited to be here! In this episode we talk about how we spent the podcast-break, including a literal break on Lisse’s part, and share a few books we finished recently. The first part of the episode is our life updates, and the book talk starts at about the 12:24 mark, just in case you’d like to skip straight to that. Thanks for listening!

Stuff We Mention

• The Westmoreland Podcast Zazzle store! Here you can find tshirts, a coffee cup, a library bag, and more! Let us know if there is anything else at all you’d like to see a Westmoreland Podcast logo and we’ll add it to the store for you! 
• Netgalley for reading books before publication!

Books We Mention

• His Majesty’s Dragon, by Naomi Novik
• Black Powder War & Empire of Ivory, by Naomi Novik (look for the audiobooks!)
• Brooklyn, by Colm Toibin
• Call Me Athena, by Colby Cedar Smith
• A Kiss at Midnight, by Eloisa James
• Paris in Love, by Eloisa James

Get in touch with us to talk books @westmorelandpodcast, or email [email protected].

Our next episode is scheduled for May 7th. Happy reading!

Affiliate disclaimer: all our affiliate links are for abebooks.com...your cost stays the same, but the little kickback from your purchases through our links supports the podcast and helps us keep recording!

Season 2 of the podcast is coming! and in this trailer episode we’re talking about our ideal literary lunch dates with characters from some of our favorite books...as well as Lisse’s crutches, old crushes, and what we’re currently reading. Enjoy!

Books We Mention

• The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
• The Lord of the Rings trilogy, by JRR Tolkien
• Usborne Illustrated Stories from Shakespeare
• The Elegance of the Hedgehog, by Muriel Barbery

Stuff We Mention

• Are hedgehogs lucky? Or just cute?

Get in touch with us to talk books @westmorelandpodcast, or email [email protected].

Season 2 is scheduled to begin at the end of April...happy reading!

Affiliate disclaimer: all our affiliate links are for abebooks.com...your cost stays the same, but the little kickback from your purchases through our links supports the podcast and helps us keep recording!

In this first mini bonus episode, Heidi dives a little deeper into one of her favorite books, H is for Hawk, by Helen Macdonald, and her own experience with grief after losing loved ones. Thanks for listening!

Books Mentioned

• Vesper Flights, by Helen Macdonald
• Falcon, by Helen Macdonald
• Shaler’s Fish, by Helen Macdonald

Find Heidi @heidisbooksjustso on Instagram, and Lisse @lissedolinger. Get in touch with us to talk books @westmorelandpodcast.

Season two is scheduled to begin at the end of April...happy reading!

Affiliate disclaimer: all our affiliate links are for abebooks.com...your cost stays the same, but the little kickback from your purchases through our links supports the podcast and helps us keep recording!

In this episode we wrap up the season answering questions from our listeners, and a couple for each other too! We talk about our season 1 Listener Survey (which you can still take to add your feedback!), as well as things that are changing or coming up in season 2. Lisse also sings a little, so that’s fun too!

Stuff We Mention:

• Upcoming summer plans, daylights savings time, and traveling!
• Our book spreadsheet, a reference for you to find the 100+ books we’ve mentioned on the podcast so far and in which episode we talked about them!
• How to pronounce Thanhha Lai

Books We Mention:

• Fable, by Adrienne Young
• Namesake, by Adrienne Young
• Mr. Chartwell, by Rebecca Hunt
• An Englishman in Madrid, by Eduardo Mendoza
• Off the Clock, by Laura Vanderkam 

Lisse’s recommendation: Listen, Slowly, by Thanhha Lai

Our next season begins at the end of April! ...but stay tuned in between now and then for a few mini bonus episodes, and follow us on Instagram @westmorelandpodcast to keep in touch and talk books. Happy reading!

Affiliate disclaimer: all our affiliate links are for abebooks.com...your cost stays the same, but the little kickback from your purchases through our links supports the podcast and helps us keep recording!

In this episode Alexander and Benji come on the podcast and hang out with us and talk books! We also play a lightning round questions game...but not very quickly. From strong opinions about movies to little arguments along the way, we’ve got you covered with a hilarious and book-filled hour for the weekend!

Stuff We Mention:

Carbs, SCUBA, wigs, how squirrels are cute, speeding tickets, deal breakers when we were dating, Star Realms card game, Red Rising game, audiobooks, and much, much...much more.

Books We Mention:

• Dune, Frank Herbert
• Eragon, Christopher Paolini
• Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte
• The Boys in the Boat, Daniel James Brown
• Kitchen Confidential, by Anthony Bourdain
• A Year in Provence, by Peter Mayle
• The Mistborn Series, Brandon Sanderson
• Warbreaker, Brandon Sanderson
• The Wingfeather Saga, by Andrew Peterson
• A Wrinkle in Time, Madeleine L’Engle
• The Space Trilogy, C.S. Lewis
• The Red Rising Series, by Pierce Brown
• Chaos Walking, Patrick Ness  
• The Lotus War Trilogy, Jay Kristoff

Movies We Mention:

• Dune
• Eragon
• Julie & Julia
• A Wrinkle in Time
• Chaos Walking

Lisse’s recommendation:  The Girl Who Drank the Moon, Kelly Barnhill
Benji’s recommendation: The Stormlight Archives, Brandon Sanderson
Heidi’s recommendation: Paris in Love, Eloisa James
Alex’s recommendation: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen R. Covey

Our next episode is scheduled to release March 19th, and we’ll be conducting a Q&A to answer listener’s questions as well as a few we have for each other, too. Until then, happy reading!

Affiliate disclaimer: all our links are Amazon affiliate links...your cost stays the same, but the little kickback from your clicks and purchases through our links helps us keep recording and provide fun things (in the future!) for our listeners too!

Welcome to Episode 10 of the Westmoreland Podcast!

In this episode we talk about some of our favorite movie adaptations of books we love and like and what we look for in movies. We also ask all our listeners to fill out our listener survey and talk about the next season of the podcast and things we’re looking forward to changing (and keeping the same!).

Stuff We Mention

• Our Season 1 Listener Survey...please go take a look and fill it out!
• The podcast's Linktree (on our Instagram too, @westmorelandpodcast)
• Easton Press Books and Juniper Books (we're not sponsored, we just like them!)
• Manga, Japanese writing style we briefly discuss.
• Lisse’s pants that threw Heidi off so much…. (in the bloopers! So listen to the end)

Books We Mention

• The Red Rising Series, by Pierce Brown
• Kiki’s Delivery Service, Eiko Kadono
• The Murmur of Bees, Sofia Segovia (translated by Simon Bruni)
• Jim the Boy, Tony Earley

Movies We Mention

• Secondhand Lions
• Pride & Prejudice
• Little Women
• Julie & Julia
• The Devil Wears Prada
• Dune
• Jane Eyre
• Holes
• The Lord of the Rings
• The Hobbit
• Where’d You Go, Bernadette

Lisse’s recommendation: Dune, by Frank Herbert
Heidi’s recommendation: Where’d You Go, Bernadette? by Maria Semple

Next up for Heidi: Wearing God, by Lauren F Winner
Next up for Lisse: Listen, Slowly, by Thanhha Lai

Stuff We Missed
Dune is actually a trilogy… now the ending makes a little more sense... well actually it's a 6 book series. So Lisse found another series unintentionally! And cannot survive without reading the others. Let her know if you have it and want to sell the whole series to her… :) 

Our next episode is scheduled to release March 12th, 2021 and we’ve invited our husbands, Benji and Alex, to talk with us on the podcast...and it’s going to be so funny! Happy reading!

Affiliate disclaimer: all our links are Amazon affiliate links...your cost stays the same, but the little kickback from your clicks and purchases through our links helps us keep recording and provide fun things (in the future!) for our listeners too!

Welcome to Episode 9 of the Westmoreland Podcast!

Well friends, it was only a matter of time before two sisters creating a podcast managed to talk about cycles...and Shakespeare? Yes. Per our usual, we cover a lot of bookish ground in one episode! But don’t worry, the cycle talk is under 2 minutes and includes an awesome resource for teens. Otherwise, in this episode we discuss whether or not we collect books intentionally or just accumulate as many books as possible. It’s maybe a little of both. Also, the outtakes are a whole conversation with strong opinions about chocolate, so don’t miss that...and let us know your chocolate preferences! Thanks for listening!

Stuff We Mention

• Easton Press Books

Books We Mention

• A Fatal Grace, by Louise Penny
• Taking Charge of Your Fertility, by Toni Weschler
• Cycle Savvy, by Toni Weschler
• Usborne Illustrated Stories from Shakespeare, illustrated by Christa Unzner
• How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare, by Ken Ludwig

Lisse’s recommendation: Princess Academy, by Shannon Hale
Heidi’s recommendation: The Three Pines Series, Books 1-3, by Louise Penny

Next up for Lisse: Britt-Marie Was Here, by Fredrik Backman...The Casual Vacancy, by JK Rowling
Next up for Heidi: How Long Til Black Future Month? by NK Jemisin

Our next episode is scheduled to release March 5th, 2021 and we’re talking about movie adaptations of books and our opinions of them. Happy reading!

Affiliate disclaimer: all our links are Amazon affiliate links...your cost stays the same, but the little kickback from your clicks and purchases through our links helps us keep recording and provide fun things (in the future!) for our listeners too!

Welcome to Episode 8 of the Westmoreland Podcast!

In this episode we’ve got some somewhat apathetic feelings about the books we finished (not all of them are winners, after all) and Heidi talks with our good friend and author, Chad (CT) Giles. Their families have long years and many hours of life together under their belts and the conversation reflects that; from meeting famous authors to grief and even parenting in an age of prevalent pornography...they also just indulge in a good bit of book talk! ...especially his new book, When God Was a Boy. It’s a true picture of what a Friday night might look like with our families in  community and late-night conversation and we are so excited we get to share it with you. Heidi actually forgot to recommend a book or talk about what she’s reading next, but we think that’s okay. Find details about Chad’s book below, and enjoy this longer episode with our very first author interview!

Stuff & People We Mention

• The Bema Podcast
• Orson Scott Card
• Dallas Willard
• Episode 5, when Lisse talks about Fable

Books We Mention

• Dr. Seuss’s Sleep Book
• Fable, by Adrienne Young
• The Witch’s Boy, by Kelly Barnhill
• Ender’s Game, by Orson Scott Card
• Moby Dick, by Herman Melville
• War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy

Chad’s recommendation: The Benedict Option, by Rod Dreher

Author Interview: When God Was a Boy, by CT Giles
Get in touch with Chad, read the first chapter of When God Was a Boy, and preorder your hardback at the website linked here. We are so excited for the next phase of publishing; the first chapter has already reached around the world, and your participation in listening to the podcast and reading will help it go even farther. 

Our next episode is scheduled to release February 26th, 2021 and will feature a deep dive into our libraries and book collecting habits. Happy reading!

Affiliate disclaimer: all our links are Amazon affiliate links...your cost stays the same, but the little kickback from your clicks and purchases through our links helps us keep recording and provide fun things (in the future!) for our listeners too!