The Perks Of Being A Book Lover Podcast

PERKS REPLAY S. 5 Ep. 104 - The Black Hair Affair with guest St. Clair Detrick-Jules - 2-22-23

Our guest this week is St. Clair Detrick-Jules, a Brown University graduate who is a filmmaker and a new author. Her book My Beautiful Black Hair: 101 Natural Hair Stories from the Sisterhood debuts on September 28 and features essays by and photographs of Black women who have come to some deeper understandings about what their hair and how they wear it means to them.

We talk to St. Clair about chemical treatments for Black hair and how they differ from the treatments white women know, how hair can play a role in mother/daughter relationships, and the important reason she wanted to create this book in the first place.When we recorded this episode, Black hair had recently made the news because of the International Swimming Federation’s ban on Soul Caps at the Tokyo Olympics which are made for Black swimmers with natural hair.

You can find St. Clair on social media at @stclairdetrickjules or at her website www.mybeautifulblackhair.com.

Books Mentioned in this Episode:
1- My Beautiful Black Hair: 101 Natural Hair Stories from the Sisterhood by St. Clair Detrick-Jules

2- The Book of Eels: Our Enduring Fascination With the Most Mysterious Creature in the Natural World by Patrik Svensson

3- Litany for the Long Moment by Mary-Kim Arnold

4- Water Street by Crystal Wilkinson

5- Blackberries, Blackberries by Crystal Wilkinson

Shows/Films mentioned--
1- Only Murders in the Building (Hulu)

2- Good Hair ((2009 documentary)

S. 8 Ep. 165 - Peeling Back The Layers with Guest Rachel M. Harper - 2/15/23

This week we welcome special guest Rachel Harper to Perks. Rachel is on the faculty at Spalding University’s Naslund-Mann Graduate School of Writing in Lousiville, KY and is the author of three novels. Her most recent, The Other Mother, was published in 2022 and has racked up the accolades. It was named one of Amazon’s Best Books of 2022, was a Good Morning America Buzz Pick, and has been awarded the American Library Association’s Stonewall Book Award for Excellence in LGBTQIA fiction.

We chat with Rachel about how her book is like an onion, with many layers to peel back and explore. While it deals with motherhood, it also deals with father-child relationships, identity, race, and how our past affects our present.

You can find Rachel on Instagram @harpsincali and her website www.rachelmharper.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.

Books Mentioned In This Episode:

1- The Other Mother by Rachel Harper

2- This Side of Providence by Rachel Harper

3- Brass Ankle Blues by Rachel Harper

4- Born a Crime by Trevor Noah

5- As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner

6- The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner

7- The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

8- The Secret History by Donna Tartt

9- Long ass books by Jonathan Franzen

10- Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry

11- The Case of the Missing Moonstone (The Wollstonecraft Detective Agency) by Jordan Stratford

12- Enola Holmes series by Nancy Springer

13- Women Talk Money: Breaking the Taboo edited by Rebecca Walker

14- Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art by James Nestor

15- The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elizabeth Tove Bailey

16- Shutter by Ramona Emerson

S. 8 Ep. 164 - Galentine and Palentine Reads - 2/8/23

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

Books Mentioned in this Episode--

1- Dirtbag, Massachusetts by Isaac Fitzgerald

2- Two Nights in Lisbon by Chris Pavone

3- Truth and Other Lies by Maggie Smith

4- Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

5- A Separate Peace by John Knowles

6- Mystic River by Dennis Lehane

7- Leonard and Hungry Paul by Ronan Hession

8- Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry

9- Love & Saffron by Kim Fay

10- The Kitchen God’s Wife by Amy Tan

11- Rules for Visiting by Jessica Francis Kane

12- Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix

13- Cackle by Rachel Harrison

14- Who Will Run the Frog Hospital? by Lorrie Moore

15- Doctors & Friends by Kimmery Martin

16- The Eves by Grace Sammon

17- Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier

18- Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt

19- Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See

20- White Noise by Don DeLillo

21- We All Want Impossible Things by Catherine Newman

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

23- Atalanta by Jennifer Saint

24- Ariadne by Jennifer Saint

25- Everyone Knows Your Mother is A Witch by Rivka Galchen

26- The Line Tender by Kate Allen

27- Trespasses by Louis Kennedy

28- The Red-Headed Pilgrim by Kevin Maloney

29- Fieldwork: A Forager's Memoir by Aliana Regan

Podcasts mentioned--

The To Be Read podcast

Movies/shows mentioned--

1- Wildcat (no release date yet)

2- Reality Bites (1994)

3- Gattaca (1997)

4- Mystic River (2003)

5- White Noise (Netflix 2022)

6- White Lotus (HBOMax 2021 - 2022)

S. 8 Ep. 163- Nearly Lost Stories with guest Jayne Moore Waldrop - 2/1/23

Our guest this week, Jayne Moore Waldrop traded legal briefs of a law practice for her writing journals in an MFA program. Her first book, Drowned Town, is a novel in linked stories about the families who lost their homes in the 1960s when President Kennedy announced the creation of Land Between the Lakes, a national recreation area that resulted from damning several rivers and taking land from residents through eminent domain. Jayne explores what the meaning of home becomes when one’s home is now underwater. Her book was selected as one of the best southern books of 2021 by the Southern Review of Books.

Jayne has changed gears once again, this time to tell a picture book story for children titled A Journey in Color: The Art of Ellis Wilson about one of the great artists of the Harlem Renaissance, native Kentuckian Ellis Wilson, who won two Guggenheim Fellowships but has been virtually unknown in his home state. Jayne teamed up with acclaimed Nashville artist Michael McBride to create a book that helps give Wilson his due but also inspire children to follow their dreams.

And stay tuned to our social media accounts because we will be giving away one hardback copy of Jayne’s novel Drowned Town for one lucky winner.

You can find Jayne on her website https://www.jaynemoorewaldrop.com and social media on Instagram @jaynemoorewaldrop and FB Jayne Moore Waldrop, Author.

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.

 

Books Mentioned In This Episode:

1- Drowned Town by Jayne Moore Waldrop

2- A Journey in Color: The Art of Ellis Wilson by Jayne Moore Waldrop and illustrated by Michael McBride

3- The Rabbit Hutch by Tess Gunty

4- Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

5- These Silent Woods by Kimi Cunningham Grant

6- Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

7- David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

8- Lark Ascending by Silas House

9- Ben Yokoyama and the Cookie of Doom by Matthew Swanson and Robbi Behr

10- Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak

Films mentioned--
1- So Much to Paint (A documentary on the work of Ellis Wilson
education.ket.org/resources/ellis-…lson-much-paint/

Nonprofit mentioned:
International Book Project - intlbookproject.org/

S. 8Ep. 162 - What Do Reviews Even Meaaaaaaan?! - 1/25/23

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

Books mentioned in this episode:

1- Truly Devious series by Maureen Johnson

2- The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

3- His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman

4- Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

5- Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

6- Happenings by Annie Ernaux

7- The Most Precious Substance on Earth by Shashi Bhat

8- Lucia by Alex Pheby

9- Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

10- American Ghost: A Family's Haunted Past in the Desert Southwest by Hannah Nordhaus

11- Lady in the Lake by Laura Lippman

12- Spare by Prince Harry

13- Storyteller by Dave Grohl

14- Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

15- Gallant by VE Schwab

16- The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by VE Schwab

17- The Pale Blue Eye by Louis Bayard

18- Big Girl, Small Town by Michelle Gallen

19- Factory Girls by Michelle Gallen

20- Sewer by Jessica Leigh Hester

21- The Ghost Map by Steven Johnson

22- The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

23- I Dream of Dinner by Ali Slagle

24- Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree

Articles mentioned--
Prince Harry has decided it just doesn't matter by Erin Keane
erinkeane.substack.com/p/prince-harr…cided-it-just

Shows/movies mentioned--

1- His Dark Materials (HBOMax)

2- The Pale Blue Eye (Netflix)

3- The Watcher (Netflix)

4- Derry Girls (Netflix)

5- All Quiet on the Western Front (Netflix)

S. 8 Ep. 161 - Crime and Puzzlement with guest Tracy Clark 1-17-23

This week we chat with Tracy Clark, an author whose latest book Hide is set in Chicago and features a seasoned black female police detective who has joined a new precinct and not only has to navigate a new professional network but also solve a recent murder on the waterfront.

This is Tracy's fifth novel but the first in this new series featuring detective Harriet Foster. By day Tracy is a puzzle editor for a Chicago newspaper which is perfect for her role as a writer of crime fiction creating puzzles for her protagonists and readers to figure out.

You can find Tracy Clark on social media on Instagram @tpclark2000, on FB at Tracy Clark and on her website 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

Books mentioned in this episode:

1- Hide by Tracy Clark

2- The Nightmare Man by JH Markert

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

Movies mentioned--

1- Thin Man series

2- Bowery Boys movies

S. 8E. 160 - Hot And Cold Winter Reads - 1-11-23

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.

Books Mentioned in This Episode:

1- The Mist by Ragnar Jónasson

2- Snowblind by Ragnar Jónasson

3- Who is Vera Kelly? by Rosalie Knecht

4- Burial Rites by Hannah Kent

5- Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys

6- The Island of Adventure by Enid Blyton

7- How the Penguins Saved Veronica by Hazel Pryor

8- A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

9- A Polar Affair: Antarctica's Forgotten Hero and the Secret Love Lives of Penguins by Lloyd Spencer Davis

10- The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty

11- Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward

12- Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank

13- The Snowchild by Eowyn Ivey

14- The Raven and the Reindeer by T. Kingfisher

15- Midnight in Everwood by Maria Kuzniar

16- Tiger Eyes by Judy Blume

17- The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley

18- Bellwether Rhapsody by Kate Racculia

19- The Fires by Sigrídur Hagalín Björnsdóttir

20- Octavian Nothing: The Pox Party (The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation #1) by M. T. Anderson

21- Slave Nation: How Slavery United the Colonies and Sparked the American Revolution by Alfred Blumrosen

22- Snow by John Banville

23- The Annotated Classic Fairy Tales edited by Maria Tatar

24- A Spindle Splintered by Alix E. Harrow

25- Excellent Women by Barbara Pym

26- The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston

27- Braineater Jones by Stephen Kozeniewski

Shows mentioned--

Santa Clarita Diet (Netflix)

Articles mentioned--

Invisible Evidence by Jo Marchant (Smithsonian Vol 53, No 6 )

Our Books Year in Review 1-4-23

We got together on the first day of 2023 to review our top books of 2022 and we’re already busy reading books to discuss this year. Time was too short to talk about all of our favorite books but you can see a full list of our 5 star reads from 2022 as well as a list of all the books we mention in this episode on our website at perksofbeingabooklover.com.

Our year in review episode is always fun because we ask our guests from the past 12 months to tell us about their favorite book. It brings back great memories to hear all their voices again.

Books mentioned in this episode:

1- Babel by RF Kuang

2- The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune

3- The Stone Loves the World by Brian Hall

4- I Should Be Extremely Happy in Your Company by Brian Hall

5- Let the Record Show: A Political History of ACT UP New York, 1987-1993 by Sarah Schulman

6- Two Nights in Lisbon by Chris Pavone

7- The Marmalade Diaries: The True Story of an Odd Couple by Ben Aitken

8- The Broken Earth series by N. K. Jemisin

9- Another Appalachia by Neema Avashia

10- Where I Can’t Follow by Ashley Blooms

11- Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch

12- Odin’s Child by Siri Pettersen

13- The Monsters of Rookhaven by Padraig Kenny

14- The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborthy

15- The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by VE Schwab

16- Gallant by VE Schwab

17- The Nightmare Man by JH Markert

18- Devolution by Max Brooks

19- Leech by Hiron Ennes

20- Finna by Nino Cipri

21- Defekt by Nino Cipri

22- Morning Glory Milking Farm (Cambric Creek) by CM Nascosta

22- Sweet Berries (Cambric Creek) by CM Nascosta

23- How the Word is Passed by Clint Smith

24- The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green

25- Pleading Out: How Plea Bargaining Creates a Permanent Criminal Class by Dan Canon

26- Ban This Book by Alan Gratz

27- A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

28- Wolf Hollow by Lauren Wolk

29- The Beatryce Prophecy by Kate DiCamillo

30- The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuera

31- When You Trap a Tiger by Tae Keller

32- The Storyteller - Tales of Life and Music by Dave Grohl

33- What’s So Funny? A Cartoonist’s Memoir by David Sipress

35- Girl at War by Sara Nović

36- Haven by Emma Donoghue

37- Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

38- Champagne Widows (Veuve Clicquot) by Rebecca Rosenberg

39- The Guncle by Steven Rowley

40 - Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka

41- Shit Cassandra Saw by Gwen E. Kirby

42- Nightmare Alley by William Lindsay Gresham

43- How to Fake It in Hollywood by Ava Wilder

44- The Dance of Time: The Origins of the Calendar by Michael Judge

45- Dinosaurs by Lydia Millet

46- Thistlefoot by Jenna Rose Nethercott

47- Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty

48- Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

Movie - Nightmare Alley ( 2022)

App - Storygraph

 

 

 

REPLAY - Put a Cork In ”Her”story with guest Rebecca Rosenberg 12-28-22

**Carrie and I are taking a much needed holiday break. We will be back in Mid-January with all new episodes.

Until then, we have some replay episodes.

New Year’s Eve is just a few days away and often we think of toasting with a glass of sparkly at the stroke of midnight. Historical fiction writer Rebecca Rosenberg’s love of wine and sparkling wine in particular took her on travels to France to visit the great wine houses. And one of the things she discovered was the huge influence women had on the wine and sparkling wine industry. That inspired her to write Champagne Widows, a novel about Madame Clicquot, France’s first lady of wine from Napoleon’s time. In fact you may be toasting in 2023 with a glass of Clicquot wine as it is still one of the premier sparkling wines today. Rebecca will continue the series this coming March with the story of Madame Pommery who lived in the 1860s but changed the way we think of champagne today.

Cheers everyone!
**

Part of what drew us to this week’s author, Rebecca Rosenberg, was the cool cover of her historical fiction novel, Champagne Widows. But as we read the book, we realized it was a pretty fascinating story of a young widow, Madame Clicquot, who essentially revolutionized champagne production in France during the Napoleonic years.

Rebecaa has written two other historical fiction novels but Champagne Widows is the first in a series about the trailblazing women of wine in France in the 19th century. As a champagne historian, Rebecca decided these stories needed to be told. She gave us a lot of the background on champagne and Madame Clicquot when we spoke to her. And reading Rebecca’s book right around New Year’s gave Amy all the excuse she needed to splurge on a bottle of Veuve Clicquot Champagne and share it with me to toast in 2022.

Book mentioned in this episode:

1- Champagne Widows by Rebecca Rosenberg
2- The Power of the Dog by Thomas Savage
3- The Last Duel by Eric Jager
4- Witcher series by Andrezj Sapkowski
5- Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift
6- Nancy Drew series
7- One Thousand and One Nights
8- Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
9- Dr. Zhivago by Boris Pasternak
10- Cork Dork by Bianca Bosker
11- Gold Digger: The Remarkable Baby Doe Tabor by Rebecca Rosenberg
12- The Secret Life of Mrs. London by Rebecca Rosenberg
13- Champagne Widows: Madame Pommery by Rebecca Rosenberg (coming in March 2023)
14- Mordew by Alex Pheby
15- The Huntress by Kate Quinn
16- The Alice Network by Kate Quinn
17- Anxious People by Fredrik Backman
18- A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
19- Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne

Shows/movies mentioned--
1- After Party (Apple+)
2- The Power of the Dog (Netflix)
3- The Last Duel (Hulu)
4- Witcher (Netflix)

You can find Rebecca Rosenberg at her website www.rebecca-rosenberg.com.

Follow us on Facebook at The perks of Being a Book Lover or on Instagram at @perksof beingabookoverpod to see what we're up to.

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

Perks REPLAY - Secret Santa Satire with guest Andrew Shaffer-- 12-21-22

**Carrie and I are taking a much needed holiday break. We will be back in Mid-January with all new episodes.Until then, enjoy some replay episodes.

This week we have a replay of our interview with the New York Times best-selling humorist Andrew Shaffer, author of the Obama Biden mystery series. He spoke with us in 2020 about his book Secret Santa, a 80’s horror satire about an office holiday party. Shaffer has a new book out called Feel The Bern, the first in his Bernie Sanders mystery series. **

We all probably need a good laugh right about now and our guest this week, humorist Andrew Shaffer, is the one to provide it. Andrew is the New York Times best-selling author of the Obama Biden series, a buddy detective mystery series which includes Hope Never Dies and Hope Rides Again. His new book that comes out in November is called Secret Santa and is a clash of the holidays ; Halloween and Christmas; a comedic book that combines horror and holiday vibes about a holiday office party gone bad. He is the author of 11 books in several genres but says that humor is the theme that ties all his books together.

Andrew talks to us about why he goes back to his comfort reads during the pandemic, why he thinks satire makes the medicine of heavy topics go down a little easier, and why he looks to the past for inspiration for book ideas even when there are so many crazy things in 2020 to poke fun at. He also tells us a pretty hysterical story about the worst job he ever had.

Books Mentioned in This Episode:

1- Hope Never Dies by Andrew Shaffer

2- Hope Rides Again by Andrew Shaffer

3- Secret Santa by Andrew Shaffer

4- Great Philosophers Who Failed at Love by Andrew Shaffer

5- Fifty Shames of Earl Grey by Fanny Merkin (aka Andrew Shaffer)

6- Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James

7- The Day of the Donald by Andrew Shaffer

8- Jack Reacher series by Lee Child

9- A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift

10- Normal People by Sally Rooney

11- Solutions & Other Problems by Allie Brosh

12- Hyperbole & a Half by Allie Brosh

13- True Grit by Charles Portis

14- Riot Most Uncouth by Daniel Friedman

15- Literary Rogues: A Scandalous History of Wayward Authors by Andrew Shaffer

16- Feel The Bern by Andrew Shaffer