Your Bookstore Besties

The Bookstore besties chat with Dr. Kimmie Farris Narewski on her research into little known 19th century author Harriet Elizabeth Prescott Spofford and her contributions to the literary world.

The Amber Gods  https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc2.ark:/13960/t3610w735&seq=5

Poetry https://theotherpages.org/poems/spofford.html

All the books we mentioned:

In a Cellar | Harriet Elizabeth Prescott Spofford

The Amber Gods and Other Stories | Harriet Elizabeth Prescott Spofford

The Turning of the Screw | Henry James

Portrait of a Lady | Henry James

Origin of Species | Charles Darwin

The Scarlet Letter | Nathaniel Hawthorne

Robinson Crusoe | Daniel Defoe

Circumstance | Harriet Elizabeth Prescott Spofford

Fantomina | Eliza Haywood

Charlotte Temple | Susanna Rowson

Little Women | Louisa May Alcott

Phantom’s All (Poem) | Harriet Elizabeth Prescott Spofford

Music in the Night (poem) | Harriet Elizabeth Prescott Spofford

Evanescence (poem) | Harriet Elizabeth Prescott Spofford

The Godmothers | Harriet Elizabeth Prescott Spofford

Pomegranate Flowers | Harriet Elizabeth Prescott Spofford

Best Laid Schemes | Harriet Elizabeth Prescott Spofford

The Country of the Pointed Firs | Sarah Orne Jewett

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Rachele: Littlelovedbooks

Becky: Bexmex

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The Bookstore Besties chat with Becky’s little sister Sarah. She talks about how she hated reading growing up and is now back in to reading. The conversation then devolves into the Besties sharing their favorite books from each genre.

All the books we mentioned:

The Secret | Rhona Byrne

The Power of Now | Eckhart Tolls

Too Late | Coleen Hoover

The Silent Patient | Alex Michaelides

The Family Upstairs | Lisa Jewell

The Perfect Marriage | Geneva Rose

The Housemaid | Freida McFadden

The Spanish Love Deception | Elena Armas

Local Woman Missing | Mary Kubica

Death of Mrs. Westay | Ruth Ware

Turn of the Key | Ruth Ware

Home Before the Dark | Riley Sager

I’m Glad My Mom Died | Jennette McCurdy

The Magicians | Lev Grossman

Deadly Education | Noami Novik

Divine Rivals | Rebecca Ross

Vicious | V.E. Schwab

A Darker Shade of Magic | V.E. Schwab

Shodow and Bone | Leigh Bardugo

Do Your Worst | Rosie Danan

The Roommate | Rosie Danan

Book Lovers | Emily Henry

Beach Read | Emily Henry

Kiss Quotient | Helen Hoang

Secretly Yours | Tessa Bailey
Atomic Habits | James Clear

Outlive | Bill Gifford and Peter Attia

Creative Act | Rick Rubin

First Lie Wins | Ashley Elston

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Rachele: Littlelovedbooks

Becky: Bexmex

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Rachele and Becky interview Melissa. She cooked her way through Joanna Gaines’s Magnolia Table, Volume 2: A Collection of Recipes for Gathering. They also discuss the books she reads to her 1st grade students.

All the books we mentioned:

The Wild Robot | Peter Brown

Matilda | Roald Dahl

Otto Tattercoat and the Forest of Lost Things | Matilda Woods

The Color Purple | Alice Walker

Wuthering Heights | Emily Bronte

Atomic Habits | James Clear

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Rachele: Littlelovedbooks

Becky: Bexmex

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Becky chats again with Dr. Don Holmes Professor at University of Pittsburgh. They discuss the books from his childhood that helped to form his love of reading as well as suggest great books by black authors.

All the books we mentioned:

The Martian | Andy Weir

Memoirs of Carwin the Biloquist | Charles Brockden Brown

My Side of the Mountain | Jean Craighead George

T*Witches | H.B. Gilmour

Silas Marner | George Eliot

Frankenstein | Mary Shelley

The Known World | Edward P. Jones

The Color Purple | Alice Walker

The Third Life of Grange Copeland | Alice Walker

Corregidora | Gail Jones

An American Marriage | Tayari Jones

Thirteen Clocks: How Race United the Colonies and Made the Declaration of Independence | Robert G. Parkinson

Authors to read:

Phylis Wheatley

Tony Morrison

Gail Jones

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Rachele: Littlelovedbooks

Becky: Bexmex

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We discuss our January Read-Along by Benjamin Stevenson! Spoilers start at 21:47.

All the books we mentioned:

Everyone on this Train is a Suspect | Benjamin Stevenson

Thursday Murder Club | Richard Osman

Killers of a Certain Age | Deanna Raybourn

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Rachele: Littlelovedbooks

Becky: Bexmex

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After a month off, the Bookstore Besties catch up on life and other bookish things. If you read Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone with us in January, let us know your thoughts on the book. We’ll discuss it next week.

All the books we mentioned:

House of Flame and Shadow | Sarah J. Maas

Iron Flame | Rebecca Yarros

Haunting of Hill House | Shirley Jackson

Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone | Benjamin Stevenson

Everyone on This Train is a Suspect | Benjamin Stevenson

The Maidens | Alex Michaelides

The Silent Patient | Alex Michaelides

The Wife Upstairs | Rachel Hawkins

The Year of Less | Cait Flanders

Divine Rivals | Rebecca Ross

A Study in Drowning | Ava Reid

The Office BFFs | Angela Kinsey and Jenna Fischer

Do Your Worst | Rosie Danan

The Roommate | Rosie Danan

The Cruel Prince | Holly Black

A Tempest of Tea | Hafsah Faiza

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Rachele: Littlelovedbooks

Becky: Bexmex

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Rachele and Becky recap their 2023 reading year and look forward to their 2024 goals and books. The January Read-Along book will be Everyone in my Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson. They’ll discuss the book in mid February. The Bookstore Besties will take a hiatus in January! Happy New Year!

All the books we mentioned:

Pageboy: a Memoir | Elliot Page

Fourth Wing | Rebecca Yarros

Daughter of the Moon Goddess Sue Lynn Tan

Serpent and the Wings of Night | Carissa Broadbent

Only Survivors | Megan Miranda

Unfortunately Yours | Tessa Bailey

Secretly Yours | Tessa Bailey

Delilah Green Doesn’t Care | Ashley Herring Blake

Scythe | Neal Shusterman

Unhoneymoonersj | Christina Lauren

The Soulmate Equation | Christina Lauren

Fourth Wing | Rebecca Yarros

Other Birds | Sarah Addison Allen

I am Malala | Malala Yousafzai

Killers of the Flower Moon | David Grann

The Foxglove King | Hannah Whitten

The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches | Sangu Mandanna

“You Just Need to Lose Weight” and 19 Other Myths About Fat People | Aubrey Gordon

House of Flame and Shadow | Sarah J. Maas

House of Sky and Breath | Sarah J. Maas

Iron Flame | Rebecca Yarros

What Lies Beyond the Veil | Harper L. Woods

The Women | Kristin Hannah

The Phoenix Crown | Kate Quinn & Janie Chang

The Life Impossible | Matt Heig

The Fury | Alex Michaelides

Murder Road | Simone St. James

The Midnight Feast | Lucy Foley

How to Solve Your Own Murder | Kristen Perrin

The Familiar | Leigh Bardugo

The Warm Hands of Ghosts | Katherine Arden

The Bear and the Nightingale | Katherine Arden

Somewhere Beyond the Sea | TJ Kline

A Fate Inked in Blood | Danielle L. Jensen

The Bridge Kingdom | Danielle L. Jensen

Lore of the Wilds | Analeigh Sbrana

Bloodguard | Cecil Robson

Bride | Ali Hazelwood

Funny Story | Emily Henry

The Pairing | Casey McQuiston

Mercy of Gods | James S.A. Corey

Ghost Station | S.A. Barnes

My Darling Dreadful Thing | Johanna van Veen

The Only Good Indians | Stephen Graham Jones

I was a Teenage Slasher | Stephen Graham Jones

An Education in Malice | S.T. Gibson

A Dowery of Blood | S.T. Gibson

The Reappearance of Rachel Price | Holly Jackson

Heavenly Tyrant | Xiran Jay Zhao

Children of Anguish and Anarchy | Tommy Adeyemi

Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder | Salman Rushdie

The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War | Erik Larson

A little Devil in America: In Praise of Black Performance | Hanif Abdurraqib

There’s Always This Year : On Basketball and Ascension | Hanif Abdurraqib

The Age of Magical Overthinking | Amanda Montell

Cultish | Amanda Montell

Daughter of Mine | Megan Miranda

She’s not Sorry | Mary Kubica

Middle of the Night | Riley Sager

One Perfect Couple | Ruth Ware

A Witches Guide to Magical Innkeeping | Sangu Mandanna

The House of Hidden Meanings: A Memoir | RuPaul

Anna May Wong: Not Your China Doll | Katie Gee Salisbury

Rachele and Becky discuss their favorite bookish things and non-bookish things of 2023.

All the books we mentioned:

Unquiet Women: From the Dusk of the Roman Empire to the Dawn of the Enlightenment | Max Adams

Very Secret Societs of irregular Witches | Sangu Mandanna

Daughter of the Moon Goddess | Sue Lynn Tan

Little Women | Louisa May Alcott (Penguin Threads Version)

Secret Garden | Frances Hodgson Burnett (Penguin Threads Version)

Wizard of Oz | L. Frank Baum (Penguin Threads Version)

Wind in the Willows | Kenneth Grahame (Penguin Threads Version

Serpent and the Wings of Night | Carissa Broadbent

Unhoneymooners | Christina Lauren

The Soulmate Equation | Christina Lauren

The True Love Experiment | Christina Lauren

Fourth Wing | Rebecca Yarros

Cloud Cuckoo Land | Anthony Doerr

Paris The Memoir | Paris Hilton

The Woman in Me | Britney Spears

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Rachele: Littlelovedbooks

Becky: Bexmex

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Rachele and Becky catch up on book publishing gossip, present suggestions for the January read-along, and fail Christmas book trivia.

All the books we mentioned:

Yellowface | R.F. Huang

Iron Widow | Xiran Jay Zhao

Zachary King and the Dragon Emperor | Xiran Jay Zhao

The Heiress | Rachel Hawkins

The Fury | Alex Michaelides

Everyone on This Train is a Suspect | Benjamin Stevenson

Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone | Benjamin Stevenson

_________________________

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Rachele: Littlelovedbooks

Becky: Bexmex

Follow us on instagram @yourbookstorebesties and join the conversation.

The Bookstore Besties chat with Becky’s mom Sherri about her love of cookbooks.

All the books we mentioned:

Iron Flame | Rebecca Yarros

Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook

Diet for a Small Planet | Frances Moore Lappé

The Essential Home-Ground Flour Book | Sue Becker

Dessert Can Save the World | Christina Tosi

All About Cake | Christina Tosi

Cravings | Chrissy Teigen

America’s Test Kitchen cookbooks

Cooks Illustrated Books

 Cooking at Home: Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying About Recipes (And Love My Microwave) | David Chang and Priya Krishna

Jamie Oliver cookbooks

Dinner Made Simply | Real Simple

The Minnesota Heritage |

More-With-Less Cookbook | Doris Janzen Lonacre

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Follow us on Goodreads too!

Rachele: Littlelovedbooks

Becky: Bexmex

Follow us on instagram @yourbookstorebesties and join the conversation.