The Perks Of Being A Book Lover Podcast

S12:Ep250 - They All Fall The Same with Guest Wes Browne + Artsy Fartsy Book Recs - 1/29/25

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You can find Wes Browne at www.wesbrowneauthor.com or on IG at @browne_all_over

This week we chat with Wes Browne, a Michigan transplant who has been a Kentucky attorney for over 20 years. When he’s not lawyering, he writes crime fiction, and his most recent novel is called They All Fall the Same. In this novel, he picks up with a character who readers met in his first novel, Hillbilly Hustle. While Wes’s new book is not a sequel, readers were so intrigued by the character, Burl Spoon, that Wes felt like he could make an entire book around him. Burl is a character you love to hate, but readers also feel his humanity, which always makes for a more interesting bad guy. 

We chat with Wes about how his job as a defense attorney has prepared him to write books that make you root for a bad guy, his passion for soft serve ice cream, and why a timeshare ended up giving him a book idea.

 

And in the second half of the show, we each give you 3 book recommendations on the theme of books about the art world.

 

Books Mentioned in This Episode:

1- If You Lived Here, You’d Be Here by Now: Why We Traded the Commuting Life for a Little House on the Prairie by Christopher Ingraham

2- The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde

3- They All Fall the Same by Wes Browne

 

4- Hillbilly Hustle by Wes Browne

 

5- Asides: Occasional Essays on Dogs, Food, Restaurants, Bars, Hangovers, Jobs, Music, Family Trees, Robbery, Relationships, Being Bought Up Questionably, Et Cetera by George Singleton

 

6- Blizzard by Marie Vingtras

 

7- A Five Star Read Recommended by a Fellow Book Lover Amy Borchadt @rn_bookworm - The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal

 

8- Carrington: A Life by Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina

 

9- The Last Painting of Sara de Vos by Dominic Smith

 

10- Blood Water Paint by Joy McCullough

 

11- The Museum of Modern Love by Heather Rose

 

12- Claude & Camille: A Novel of Monet by Stephanie Cowell

 

13- Get the Picture: A Mind-Bending Jourey Among the Inspired Artists and Obsessive Art Fiends Who Taught Me How To See by Bianca Bosker

 

14- All the Beauty in the World: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Me by Patrick Bringley

 

 

Media mentioned—

1- Come From Away —

https://comefromaway.com/

 

2- Zoltan Kaszas

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vSGbslfLQM

 

3- Justified ( 2010-2015 HULU)

 

4- Carrington (1995)

 

 

 

 

 

S12:Ep249 -The Lost Story with Guest Meg Shaffer + Library Book Recs - 1/15/25

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You can find Meg Shaffer at www.megshaffer.com or on IG at meg_shaffer.

 

This week we officially begin Season 12 so we have both a guest and book recommendations on a particular theme. Our guest this week is Meg Shaffer, best-selling author of The Wishing Game and The Lost Story. She talks to us about shifting gears to write books for adults that read a lot like the cool fantasy books we read as kids (think The Chronicles of Narnia in The Lost Story). And for our book recs, we will each be sharing 3 books related to libraries. 

 

Books mentioned—

1- The Wishing Game by Meg Shaffer

 

2- The Lost Story by Meg Shaffer

 

3- Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl

 

4- The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis

 

5- Lord of the Flies by William Golding

 

6- Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero

 

7- Night of the Hunter by Davis Grubb

 

8- The Genius Under the Table: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain by Eugene Yelchin

 

9- The Hollow Places T. Kingfisher

 

10- The Twisted Ones by T. Kingfisher

 

11- The Willows by Algernon Blackwood

 

12- Carter and Lovecraft by Jonathan L. Howard

 

13- A House with Good Bones by T. Kingfisher

 

14- We are Experiencing a Slight Delay by Gary Janneti

 

15- Running With Scissors by Augusten Burroughs

 

16-Magical Thinking: True Stories by Augusten Burroughs

 

17- A Five Star Read Recommended by Fellow Book Lover Marisa Zane @Marisa_reads_books - The Reformatory by Tananarive Due

 

18- The Strange Library by Haruki Murakami

 

19- Nightbooks by JA White

 

20- The Library of Borrowed Hearts by Lucy Gilmore

 

21- The Nightmare Man by JH Markert

22- The Borrower by Rebecca Makkai

23- The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai

24- I Have Some Questions For You by Rebecca Makkai

25- Here Lies the Librarian by Richard Peck

26- A Year Down Yonder by Richard Peck

27- A Long Way From Chicago by Richard Peck

28- Reading Behind Bars: A True Story of Literature, Law, and Life as a Prison Librarian by Jill Grunenwald

29- Lonely Planet Hidden Libraries: The World's Most Unusual Book Depositories by DC Helmuth

30- The Godwick series by Tiffany Reisz

Media mentioned—

Perks episode with Lily Raiti

https://www.perksofbeingabooklover.com/episodes/cxkpp8gtbmn5gf7-8mb73-52ylr-gs3nl-82m49-xr9s4-z4hhh-pm7gw-skgey-bjmtw-4dl76-hn7yl-we4y4-cfzjz-5f9x8-y93dj-7l4je-8667a

 

Pacific Palisades Fire—Will Rogers ranch —

https://www.parks.ca.gov/NewsRelease/1346

 

Squid Games (Netflix, 2021 - present)

Cunk on Life (Netflix, 2024)

Black Doves (Netflix, 2024)

Night of the Hunter (Tubi, 1955)

 

 

S12:Ep248 - Best of 2024 Year in Review - 1/1/25

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This week we are doing our 2024 recap, covering the books that earned 5 stars. We’ve also got some audio interspersed in the episode from 2024 guests to The Perks who also share their favorite books of the year. This is always one of our most popular episodes of the year.

 

And don’t forget, this new season is a whole new bag.  We are going to every other week episodes and each one will include an interview with a bookish guest plus some book recommendations by us on a particular topic.  

 

Books mentioned--

 

1- The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester

2- Woodworm by Layla Martinez

3- North Woods by Daniel Mason

4- Six Truths and a Lie by Ream Shukairy

5- Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders

6- Greenwood by Michael Christie

7- Prophet Song by Paul Lynch

8- A Heart That Works by Rob Delaney 

9- Tortilla Curtain by TC Boyle

10- The Library Book by Susan Orlean 

11- The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride

12- The Geography of Bliss: One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World by Eric Weiner

13- One of Us is Lying by Karen McManus 

14- Intimacies by Katie Kitamura

15- I Have Some Questions For You by Rebecca Makkai

16- The Wedding People by Alison Espach

17- The Huntress by Kate Quinn

18- Finding Langston by Lesa Cline-Ransom

19- The Mostly True Story of Tanner and Louise by Colleen Oakley

20- All the Sinners Bleed by SA Cosby

21- Being Henry by Henry Winkler

22- The Weather Woman by Sally Gardner

23- Un Lun Dun by China Mieville

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

25- The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin

26- All the Ugly and Wonderful Things by Brynn Greenwood

27- That Time I Got Drunk and Saved a Demon by Kimberly Lemming

28- The Husbands by Holly Gramazio

29- Sipsworth by Simon Van Booy

30- Arroyo Circle by JoeAnn Hart

31- Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our World , Change Our Minds, & Shape Our Futures by Merlin Sheldrake

 

Media mentioned--

 

1- Dune: Prophecy (HBO Max, 2024)

2- Shrinking (Apple+, 2024)

3- What We Do in the Shadows (Hulu)

4- The Professor and the Madman (Tubi, 2019)

5- Your Friend by Nate Bargatze (Netflix, 2024)

6- The Skinny by Jim Gaffigan (Hulu, 2024)

7- Catastrophe (Prime, 2015)

8- Three Body Problem (Netflix, 2024)

S11:Ep247 - REMIX with Guest Tracey Clark - 12-18-24

You can find Tracy Clark on social media on Instagram @tpclark2000 and on her website www.tracyclarkbooks.com/

For show notes for any episode, go to our website at www.perksofbeingabooklover.com. We are also on Instagram @perksofbeingabookloverpod and on FB Perks of Being a Book Lover

This week we have a Remix episode and catch up with Tracy Clark, who we interviewed in Season 8 (episode 161) about her first Harriet Foster novel titled Hide. Her most recent title, number 3 in the series, is called Echo, and it came out Dec 3. We chat with her about this book, as well as the Harriet Foster book she is currently writing. We caught her on a writing day in which Harriet Foster was not cooperating. Then you will hear some of our conversation with Tracy back in 2023 when Harriet Foster first arrived on the scene.

Books Mentioned In This Episode

1- Hide by Tracy Clark

2- Echo by Tracy Clark

3- Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys

4- Her Name is Knight series by Yasmin Angoe

5- Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

6-The Ninja's Oath (Lily Wong series) by Tori Eldridge

7- A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

8- Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

9- David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

10- American Fever by Dur e Aziz Almna

Authors mentioned:

1- Sarah Paretsky

2- Sue Grafton

3- Agatha Christie

4- Valerie Wilson Wesley

5- Barbara Neely

S11:Ep246 - REMIX With Guest Sharon Short - 12/11/24

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You can find Sharon Short at her website, www.sharonshort.com and on Instagram at @sharongshortauthor.

This week we have a Remix episode and catch up with Sharon Short, who we initially interviewed about her historical mystery novels which she wrote under the pen name Jess Montgomery. She has a new stand alone mystery suspense out titled Trouble Island that was inspired by a very interesting family story. You will first hear our most recent chat with her just a few weeks ago and then we will replay our original conversation with her back in the Spring of 2022 talking about her Kinship series.

Just a note that next week we will have another REMIX episode, this time with award winning mystery writer Tracy Clark whose most recent in the Detective Harriet Foster series came out Dec 3 titled Echo. The Washington Post has just named it one of their top mysteries of 2024.

Books Mentioned In this Episode:

1- Trouble Island by Jess Montgomery

2- The Widows by Jess Montgomery (Kinship series)

3- The Echoes by Jess Montgomery (Kinship series)

4- Shit Cassandra Saw by Gwen Kirby

5- Deer Season by Erin Flanagan

6- How the Word is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America by Clint Smith

REPLAY - S9:E198 | 2023 Holiday Book Buying Guide with Book Seller Sam Miller | 11/29/23

This is a REPLAY episode from our Holiday gift buying guide from 2023. We will be back next week with a REMIX episode with former guest Tracy Clark who has a new mystery you won't want to miss.

 

This week we chat with our favorite bookseller, Sam Miller, from Carmichael’s Bookstore. Each November we let her do the heavy lifting and share books that have come out and might be good choices for your holiday shopping.

If you would like to check out Carmichael’s Bookstore Holiday Book Gift Guide, you can find it online at www.carmichaelsbookstore.com/

Website- www.perksofbeingabooklover.com.
Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpod
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To send us a message, go to our website and click the Contact button.

Books Mentioned in this Episode:

1- Wrong Place Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister

2- Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

3- Foster by Claire Keegan

4- So Late in the Day by Claire Keegan

5- Let us Descend by Jesmyn Ward

6- Fraud by Zadie Smith

7- Armor of Light by Ken Follett

8- Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

9- Julia by Sandra Newman

10- 1984 by George Orwell

11- Reformatory by Tananarive Due

12- Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead

13- A Haunting on the Hill by Elizabeth Hand

14- The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

15- West Heart Kill by Dann Mcdorman

16- The Twyford Code by Janice Hallett

17- The Appeal by Janice Hallett

18- The Christmas Appeal by Janice Hallett

19- Stalking Shakespeare by Lee Durkee

20- They Flew by Carlos Eire

21- Waiting for Snow in Havana by Carlos Eire

22- Wild Girls by Tiya Miles

23- The Comfort of Crows by Margaret Renkl

24- Late Migrations by Margaret Renkl

25- Watership Down (graphic novel) by James Sturm and Joe Sutphin

26- Watership Down by Richard Adams

27- Energy Follows Thought by Willie Nelson

28- World Within a Song by Jeff Tweedy

29- Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros

30- Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

31- Starling House by Alix E. Harrow

32- Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree

33- Legend & Lattes by Travis Baldree

34- World Central Kitchen Cookbook by Jose Andres

35- Every Cook, Every Kitchen by Feed Louisville

36- Oldest Louisville by Kevin Gibson

37- Always Moving Forward by David Jones and Bob Hill

38- Back Page by Byron Crawford

39- Fathers by Richard Taylor

40- From the Heads of the Hollers by Shelby Lee Adams

41- Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts by Crystal Wilkinson

42- Lewis Sinclair and the Gentlemen Cowboys by DMS Fick

43- Rabbit Heart by Kristine S. Ervin

44- My Dark Places by James Ellroy

45- Shot in the Heart by Mikal Gilmore

46- Tom Lake by Ann Patchett

47- The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride

48- The Man who Invented Christmas: How Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol Rescued his Career and Revived our Holiday Spirits by Les Standiford

49- Mr. Dickens and His Carol by Samantha Silva

5 Star Read Recommended by Fellow Book Lover Casey @Caseys_reads
12 Months To Live by James Patterson and Mike Lupica

Movie and Series Mentioned:

- CODA (2021) - Apple +
- Bodies (2023) - Netflix

S11:Ep245 - 2024 Holiday Book Buying Guide with Bookseller Sam Miller - 11/27/24

f you would like to check out Carmichael’s Bookstore Holiday Book Gift Guide, you can find it online at www.carmichaelsbookstore.com/

Website- www.perksofbeingabooklover.com.
Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpod
FaceBook - Perks of Being a BookLover.
To send us a message, go to our website and click the Contact button.

The delightful Sam Miller, store manager at Carmichael’s Book Store, comes to save the day. She has, as usual, tons of great new reads that are already on shelves and would make perfect gifts this holiday for the book lovers in your life.

Books Mentioned in this Episode:

1- The Lost Daughter by Elena Ferrante

2- The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride

3- Sky Full of Elephants by Cebo Campbell

4- Women's Hotel by Daniel M. Lavery

5- The Hypocrite by Jo Hamya

6- This is Happiness by Niall Williams

7- Time of the Child by Niall Williams

8- Jim the Boy by Tony Early

9- The Storied Life of AJ Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin

10- The Fortnight in September by RC Sherriff

11- The Movement: How Women's Liberation Transformed America, 1963-1973 by Clara Bingham

12- Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time by Dava Sobel

13- The Elements of Madame Curie: How the Glow of Radium Lit a Path for Women in Science by Dava Sobel

14- The Universe in Verse edited by Maria Popov

15- Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer

16- The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World by Robin Wall Kimmerer

17- Heartbreak is the National Anthem: How Taylor Swift Revived Pop Music by Rob Sheffield

18- The Hitchcock Hotel by Stephanie Wrobel

19- We Solve Murders by Richard Osman

20- Karla's Choice by Nick Harkaway

21- William by Mason Coile

23- Dangerous Visions by Harlan Ellison

24- Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman

25- House of Frank by Kay Synclaire

26- Pride and Prejudice in Space by Alexis Lampley

27- Be Ready When the Luck Happens by Ina Garten

28- From Here to the Great Unknown: A Memoir by Lisa Marie Presley and Riley Keough

29- Cher: The Memoir (Part One) by Cher

30- The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates

31- Hot Mess by Jeff Kinney

32- The Millicent Quibb School of Etiquette for Young Ladies of Mad Science by Kate McKinnon

33-Baking in the American South: 200 Recipes and Their Untold Stories by Ann Byrn

34- Kentucky Ya'll: A Celebration of the People and Culture of the Bluegrass by Blair Thomas Hess and Cameron Ludwick

35- The Stackpole Legend by Wendell Berry

36- In Praise of Mystery by Ada Limon, illustrated by Peter Sis

37- Lady Macbeth by Ava Reid

38- A Five Star Read recommended by fellow Book Lover Perin @mjreadsmagic - Sir Callie and the Dragon's Roost by Esme Symes-Smith

39- Gather by Kenneth Cadow

40- The Horse by Willy Vlautin

41- Committed: On Meaning and Madwomen by Suzanne Scanlon

42- How to Be a Good Creature: A Memoir in Thirteen Animals by Sy Montgomery

43- The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness by Sy Montgomery

Media mentioned--

1- A Real Pain (2024)

2- Wicked Little Letters (Netflix, 2023)

3- The Lost Daughter (Netflix, 2021)

4- The Return (2024)

S11:Ep244 - Native American Heritage Month: A Book Rec Episode - 11/20/24

Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com.
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To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button.

November is Native American Heritage month so in this episode, we’re sharing some books written by Native American authors. There are so many great texts to choose from if you’re interested in broadening your reading. We bring your memoirs, poetry, Pulitzer Prize winners, and more. When we do these thematic episodes, we enjoy hearing from listeners who have their own recommendations within that theme so be sure to shoot us a message or comment on any of our socials.

Books Mentioned In this Episode:

1- A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes

2- Stone Blind by Natalie Haynes

3- Sharks Don't Sink: Adventures of a Rogue Shark Scientist by Jasmin Graham

4- A Quantum Life: My Unlikely Journey from the Streets to the Stars by Hakeem Oluseyi

5- A Book Recommended by Fellow Booklover Vero Garcia @booksandcoffeemx - All This and More by Peng Shepherd

6- The Blessing Way and all books in the Leaphorn & Chee series by Tony Hillerman

7- Bad Indians: A Memoir by Deborah Miranda

8- Two Old Women: An Alaskan Legend of Betrayal, Courage and Survival by Velma Wallis

9- House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday

10-Buffalo Dreamer by Violet Duncan

11- An American Sunrise by Joy Harjo

12- Code Talker: The First and Only Memoir by One of the Original Navajo Code Talkers of WWII by Chester Nez

13- Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand

14- The Fertile Earth and the Ordered Cosmos: Reflections on the Newark Earthworks and World Heritage edited by M. Elizabeth Weiser, Timothy RW Jordan, and Richard D. Shiels

15- Man Made Monsters by Andrea L. Rogers

16- The Game of Silence by Louise Erdrich (Birchbark House series #2)

17- The Birchbark House by Louise Erdrich

18- Shutter by Ramona Emerson

19- Exposure by Ramona Emerson

20- Even As We Breathe by Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle

21- The Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley

22- There, There by Tommy Orange

23- The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline

24- The Invocations by Krystal Sutherland

Media mentioned--

1- Reservation Dogs (Hulu, 2021-2023)

2- Dark Winds (AMC and Neflix, 2022 - present)

 

 

S11::Ep243 - Alice's Big Book Of Mistakes with Guest Alice Kaltman - 11/13/24

Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com.
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You can find Alice Kaltman at www.alicekaltman.com or on IG @alicekaltman

This week we chat with Alice Kaltman about her latest book, Alice’s Big Book of Mistakes. She has written books of linked short stories, novels for various ages, and more, but she decided to try her hand at a graphic memoir all about silly and not-so-silly mistakes she has made throughout the course of her life. Her book aims to make both young and old embrace their missteps in life as building blocks for a life well lived.

Books Mentioned In This Episode:

1- Alice’s Big Book of Mistakes by Alice Kaltman

2- Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

3- Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson

4- Salem’s Lot by Stephen King

5- The Keeper by Kelsey Ervick

6- Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

7- To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf

8- Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

9- Middlemarch by George Eliot

10- Drinking at the Movies by Julia Wertz

11- Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

12- A 5 Star Read Recommended by Fellow Book Lover Emily Craddick - Hotel Splendide by Ludwig Bemelmans

13- Winterset Hollow by Jonathan Edward Durham

14- Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

15- Look in the Mirror by Catherine Steadman

16- Sociopath by Patric Gagne

Media mentioned—

Small Things Like These (2024)

Harold and the Purple Crayon (2024)

Salem’s Lot (Max, 2024)

Will & Harper (Netflix, 2024)

S11:Ep242 - Ask Big Questions: A Book Rec Episode - 11/6/24

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This week our topic is philosophical. No, we’re not discussing those dull philosophy textbooks, but rather novels or nonfiction that ask big questions, such as “Who am I?” and “What is happiness?” and “Do we have free will?”. We will give you 10 books that will get you thinking with your big brains.

Books Mentioned In This Episode:

1- Carrie by Stephen King

2- A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes

3- Faith, Hope, and Carnage by Nick Cave and Sean O’Hagan

4- Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea by Guy Delisle

5- A Book Recommended by Fellow Book Lover Larissa @laralucretia - The Shadow of the Gods by John Gwynne

6- Bartleby the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street by Herman Melville

7- Geography of Bliss: One Grump’s Search for the Happiest Places in the World by Eric Weiner

8- Nasty, Brutish, and Short: Adventures in Philosophy with Kids by Scott Hershovitz

9- Lotería by Karla Arenas Valenti

10- The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

11- How to be Perfect: The Correct Answer to Any Moral Question by Michael Schur

12- The Naked Neanderthal by Ludovic Slimak

13- If Cats Disappeared From the World by Genki Kawamura

14- The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

15- If Nietzsche Were a Narwhal: What Animal Intelligence Reveals About Human Stupidity by Justin Gregg

16- Walking Shadows by Faye Kellerman

Media mentioned—

1- Trap (2024, Max)

2- Carrie (2013, Tubi)

3- Carrie (1976)

4- Penny Dreadful (2014-2016 Pluto)

5- The Little Prince (2015, Pluto)