Episodes
Wednesday May 27, 2020
Ep. 47 An Anniversary, A Bored Teen Host, and Some Books 5-27-20
Wednesday May 27, 2020
Wednesday May 27, 2020
When Carrie and I began recording The Perks of Being a Book Lover, we called it our half-assed idea. One year later, we are still half-assing our way through it, although we think we have learned some things and gotten more adept at using microphones, troubleshooting the recording technology, and asking interesting questions of our guests. It was a year filled with laughter, frustrations, and climbing learning curves.
We thought it would be fun for our 1-year anniversary recording and 47th episode to put ourselves in the hot-seat, and fortunately, Carrie’s daughter, Norah, agreed to ask us the questions. Like a lot of 16-year-olds, she was excited to do it the night before but seemed to be completely bored and uninterested during the actual interview. She yawned and Pinterest-ed her way through our answers, which may be what a lot of our listeners do as well as they listen to it.
In this episode, we discuss how we started the show, some of our favorite experiences with guests, and what dictatorial book choices we’d make if we had the power.
Books We Discuss In This Episode:
1- Moby Dick by Herman Melville
2- Sula by Toni Morrison
3- Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
4- The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
5- The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin
6- The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix Harrow
7- March by Geraldine Brooks
8- A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler
9- Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake by Anne Quindlen
10- The Chaperone by Laura Moriarty
11- The Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling
12- The Glass Lake by Maeve BInchy
13- The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien
14- Me by Elton John
15- Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
16- Daisy and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
17- The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society by Annie Barrows and Mary Anne Shaffer
18- The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt
19- Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward
20- American Born Chinese by Gene Yuen Yang
21- Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
22- To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
23- he Hate You Give by Angie Thomas
24- Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
25- White Teeth by Zadie Smith
26- Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
27- 1984 by George Orwell
28- It by Stephen King
29- Drood by Dan Simmons
30- I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell by Tucker Max
You can find us on FB, instagram (@perksofbeingabookloverpod) and on our blog site at www.perksofbeingabooklover.com
Perks airs on Forward Radio 106.5 FM and forwardradio.org every Wednesday at 6 pm, Thursdays at 6 am and 12 pm. We have purchased the rights to the theme music used.
Wednesday May 20, 2020
Ep. 46 The Greenhouse that Sows Literary Seeds with Hannah Rose Neuhauser 5-20-20
Wednesday May 20, 2020
Wednesday May 20, 2020
When I think of a greenhouse, I envision small seeds sprouting roots and then green shoots slowly rising toward the sunlight. The progress to grow may be slow at first but soon becomes rapidly transformational as the plant drinks in the nourishment of the heat, moisture, and sunlight in the greenhouse cocoon.
Our guest this week, Hannah Rose Neuhauser, is the co-founder and program director of The Young Author’s Greenhouse, an organization inspired by the 826 Valencia writing organization for children and teens launched by author Dave Eggers. The Louisville greenhouse, located in the Portland neighborhood, nurtures student writers in an imaginative writing space which includes a storefront called The Opposite Shop where you can find jars of sunshine and magic fish scales. But moving from the Shop through the portal into the organization’s writing center, young writers enter a world where they are taken seriously by mentors who question and instill confidence. One of the coolest programs offered by The Young Author’s Greenhouse is an annual song-writing event with Jim James, leader of the rock band My Morning Jacket, and Teddy Abrams, the young hip conductor of the Louisville Orchestra.
Hannah Rose tells us what book she read in college that inspired her to start this nonprofit journey, what skill is more important than writing for volunteers with the Young Author’s Greenhouse, and what perk of the program can entice even reluctant young writers to put their words on paper.
Books mentioned in this episode:
1- A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
2- If you Can See the Stars, There is Still Light by The Young Author's Greenhouse
3- Into the Wolf-Dark Shadows by The Young Author's Greenhouse
4- Know My Name by Chanel Miller
5- The Last Wish by Andrezej Sapkowski (Short Stories)
6- Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe
7- Bluets by Maggie Nelson
8- The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson
Online Article mentioned:
Flattened by the Curve
www.mcsweeneys.net/columns/flattened-by-the-curve
TV shows mentioned:
1- Derry Girls on Netflix
2- Sex Education on Netflix
3- Schitt's Creek on Hulu
4- Seinfeld on Hulu
You can find us on FB, instagram (@perksofbeingabookloverpod) and on our blog site at www.perksofbeingabooklover.com
Perks airs on Forward Radio 106.5 FM and forwardradio.org every Wednesday at 6 pm, Thursdays at 6 am and 12 pm. We have purchased the rights to the theme music used.
Wednesday May 13, 2020
Ep. 45 The Quarantine Quest for a Book Club with Robin Weiss 5-13-20
Wednesday May 13, 2020
Wednesday May 13, 2020
We all had big plans for our quarantine free time, right? Maybe we wanted to Marie Kondo organize the whole house, learn how to make beautiful loaves of bread, or begin training for that marathon you’ve had on your bucket list.
Our guest today, Robin Weiss, had a different kind of quarantine goal. She was determined to revitalize her reading life. This mother of 9 who is also a professor of public health as well as a childbirth expert and doula, fell out of love with reading when she attended grad school. In the intervening years, her knowledge of new titles and authors got stuck in a time warp where she left off in the 1990s. So, she formed an online quarantine bookclub with fellow readers across the country to help get her literary groove back.
Robin talks to us about what past favorite authors she is happy to discover have published new books in recent years, what benefits the group gets from meeting weekly versus monthly, whether her bookclub is experiencing trauma bonding, and what happens when the quarantine is over.
Books discussed in this episode:
1- The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
2- It By Stephen King
3- The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
4- On The Beach by Nevil Shute
5- The Charm School by Nelson DeMille
6- The Gold Coast by Nelson DeMille
7- The General's Daughter by Nelson DeMille
8- The Bone Collector by Jeffrey Deaver
9- The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski (short stories)
10- Sword of Destiny by Andrzej Sapkowski (short stories)
11- Blood of Elves by Andrzej Sapkowski (novel)
12- The Murmur of Bees by Sofia Segovia
13- The Braid by Laetitia Colombani
You can find us on FB, instagram (@perksofbeingabookloverpod) and on our blog site at www.perksofbeingabooklover.com
Perks airs on Forward Radio 106.5 FM and forwardradio.org every Wednesday at 6 pm, Thursdays at 6 am and 12 pm. We have purchased the rights to the theme music used.
Wednesday May 06, 2020
Ep. 44 Postcards From The Edge of Reading with Anita Martin
Wednesday May 06, 2020
Wednesday May 06, 2020
We probably all have memories of picking up a 25 cent postcard at a cheesy souvenir shop on a summer vacation to send to a friend or family member back home. The first postcard was invented by an Englishman in 1840 but now these iconic colorful cards have whole websites, youtube videos, and pinterest boards devoted to them with themes such as the best ways to write a meaningful message in just a few lines, postcards as a writing process, and 8 reasons you should be sending postcards right now.
Our guest today, Anita Martin, puts much time and energy into melding 2 of her favorite things; postcards and books. Her website Postcards and Authors invites bibliophiles of all types, including writers, book clubs, and bookish podcasts to send a postcard that lets readers get a glimpse of who they are.
Anita talks to us about how picking out a postcard can give you insight into a person’s personality, how books are just one facet of her desire to be a lifelong learner, what genre initially gave her the desire to always have a book in her hand, and how one author’s signature on his postcard made it one of her favorites.
Books Discussed in this Episode:
1- Roots by Alex Haley
2- Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly
3- The Flying Cutterbucks by Kathleen M. Rodgers
4- Akata Witch and Akata Warrior by Nnedi Okorafor
5- The Stowaway: A Young Man's Extraordinary Adventure to Antartica by Laurie Gwen Shapiro
6- The Last Painting of Sara DeVos by Dominic Smith
7- It's Great to Suck at Something by Karen Rinaldi
You can find us on FB, instagram (@perksofbeingabookloverpod) and on our blog site at www.perksofbeingabooklover.com
Perks airs on Forward Radio 106.5 FM and forwardradio.org every Wednesday at 6 pm, Thursdays at 6 am and 12 pm. We have purchased the rights to the theme music used.