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Perks of Being a Book Lover is a show about books, people who read, and how reading, at its very best, is a social experience. Whether it be a book club, a poetry slam, or the production of a play; words are meant to be shared. Keep up with us on FB.
Episodes
Wednesday Jan 07, 2026
Wednesday Jan 07, 2026
Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com.
Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpod
Facebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover.
To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button.
You can find Archer Sullivan at her website archersullivan.com or on IG @archer_sullivan.
We are back with all new episodes, book recommendations, and, most importantly, guests! To start the new season with a bang, we have author Archer Sullivan whose book The Witch’s Orchard is the first in a new series featuring Private Investigator Annie Gore, who travels to small town North Carolina to solve the mystery of young girls who have disappeared. What makes the cases even more creepy is that an Appalachian apple face doll is left in place of the child. Archer draws on her personal knowledge of place as a 7th-generation Appalachian, although she now resides in Los Angeles, and is always looking for a reason to come home. The novel was a nominee for the 2025 Goodreads Choice Awards in the Best Debut Novel Category. The next Annie Gore installment comes out in August of 2026.
Our book rec section for this episode is a call back to what a lot of people were doing the past two weeks–taking planes, trains, and automobiles to family and friends to celebrate the holidays. We give you two books set on planes, two on trains, and two in automobiles, which you can look into whenever you’ve got travel plans in 2026.
Books Mentioned In This Episode:
1- The Witch's Orchard by Archer Sullivan
2- War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
3- Sous Chef: 24 Hours of Working on the Line by Michael Gibney
4- Marrying the Ketchups by Jennifer Close
5- Brimstone Hollow by Archer Sullivan
6- Dragonsbane by Barbara Hambly
7- The Curse of Chalion by Lois Bujold
8- The Wizard of Earths by Ursula K. LeGuin
9- Silver Medal Lover by Tanith Lee
10- The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison
11- Kill Your Darlings by Peter Swanson
12- The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo
13- A Five Star Read by Fellow Book Lover - Babel by R.F. Kuang
14- West With The Night by Beryl Markham
15- Circling the Sun by Paula McClain
16- Turbulence by David Szalay
17- Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool
18- Border Crossing by Emma Pick
19- Mrs. Nash's Ashes by Sarah Adler
20- The Road to Tender Hearts by Annie Hartnett
Media Mentioned:
1- Simon Haisell's Slow Read at Footnote and Tangents Substack - https://footnotesandtangents.substack.com
2- From the Front Porch Podcast - Patreon Conquer a Classic
3- The Bear on Hulu
Wednesday Dec 10, 2025
Wednesday Dec 10, 2025
Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com.
Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpod
Facebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover.
To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button.
Our first show of Season 14 will begin on January 7, 2026. We’ve been coming up with ideas for book recommendations and will soon be recording with guests. But until then, Amy is going to make merry, and Carrie is going to begrudgingly deal with the holidays. And in this episode, we’re reviewing some of the notable books that we have loved over the last 12 months. Some of these are backlist titles, and some are new releases—we cannot keep up with the publishing industry, nor do we really try. You will also hear from some of our guests from this year who share their favorites of 2025.
Books Discussed In This Episode:
Carrie's Favorites of 2025
1- Angel Down by Daniel Kraus
2- On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder
3- The Millicent Quibb School for Young Ladies of Mad Science by Kate McKinnon
4- The Lost Year by Katherine Marsh
5- Belonging: A German Reckons with History and Home by Nora Krug
Amy's Favorites of 2025
1- Miss Benson's Beetle by Rachel Joyce
2- You Could Make This Place Beautiful by Maggie Smith
3- Culpability by Bruce Holsinger
4- The Shift: One Nurse, Twelve Hours, Four Patients' Lives by Theresa Brown, RN
5- Paris Letters: A Travel Memoir About Art, Writing, and Finding Love in Paris by Janice MacLeod
Other books mentioned
1- I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman
2- The Nature of Pain by Mandi Fugate Sheffel
3- The Strange Case of Jane O by Karen Thompson Walker
4- The Devils by Joe Abercrombie
5- Everything's Fine by Cecilia Rabess
6- The River is Waiting by Wally Lamb
7- I Have Some Questions For You by Rebecca Makkai
8- Just One Damned Thing After Another by Jodi Taylor
9- Starling House by Alix E. Harrow
10- Dead Man Blues by S.D. House
11- God of the Woods by Liz Moore
12- The Road to Blair Mountain: Saving a Mine Wars Battlefield from King Coal by Charles B. Keeney
13- Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent by Judi Dench and Brendan O' Yea
14- Carpool Detectives: A True Story of Four Moms, Two Bodies, and One Mysterious Cold Case by Chuck Hogan
15- Anima Rising by Christopher Moore
16- The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest by Aubrey Hartman
17- The Husbands by Holly Gramazio
18- Grace and Henry's Holiday Movie Marathon by Matthew Norman
19- Seven Days of Us by Francesca Hornak
Wednesday Nov 26, 2025
Wednesday Nov 26, 2025
Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com.
Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpod
Facebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover.
To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button.
You can find Daniel Kraus at his website danielkraus.com or on IG at @kraus_author.
This week our episode features Daniel Kraus, a writer who has published over 20 books, but among moviegoers he may be best known as the co-author with Guillermo del Toro of The Shape of Water. The film of this story won four Oscars in 2018. Daniel’s 2023 novel Whalefall is being turned into a 20th Century Fox motion picture, and I hope that at some point his latest novel, Angel Down, will also be on film.
Both the premise and writing in Angel Down are unique. It is the story of a group of World War I soldiers told to go into No Man’s Land to rescue what they think is a wounded soldier. What they find is an angel. If you enjoy war novels, and even if you don’t, I recommend giving this book a read.
Our book rec section of the show features books related to women in politics. If you are interested in politics yet hate the nuttery of American government at the moment, these books can provide a reprieve. We have contemporary fiction, biography, memoir, alternative history, and electoral nonfiction.
Books Mentioned in this Episode:
1- Whalefall by Daniel Kraus
2- Angel Down by Daniel Kraus
3- The Shape of Water by Guillermo del Toro and Daniel Kraus
4- Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
5- The Leaphorn and Chee Series by Tony Hillerman
6- Hearts of the Missing by Carol Potenza
7- The Death and Life of Zebulon Finch by Daniel Kraus
8- Wolf at the Table by Adam Rapp
9- From Under the Truck by Josh Brolin
10- Madonna in a Fur Coat by Sabahattin Ali
11- The Rachel Incident by Caroline O'Donoghue
12- A Five Star Read recommended by fellow Book Lover State Katz @all.da.bookish.things - The Witch's Orchard by Archer Sullivan
13- Cleo McDougal Regrets Nothing by Alison Winn Scotch
14- Charlotte Walsh Likes to Win by Jo Piazza
15- The Partisan Gap: Why Democratic Women Get Elected But Republican Women Don't by Laurel Elder
16- Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld
17- Mrs. Lincoln: A Life by Catherine Clinton
18- A Different Kind of Power by Jacinda Arden
Media Mentioned:
1- Frankenstein (2025-Netflix)
2- Dark Winds (2022 - present, Netflix)
3- The Shape of Water (2017)
4- 1917 (2019)
5- Whalefall (Upcoming Fall 2026)
6- Michelle Obama Says US Not Ready for a Female President - https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/michelle-obama-says-us-not-ready-woman-president-rcna244136
Wednesday Nov 12, 2025
Wednesday Nov 12, 2025
Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com.
Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpod
Facebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover.
To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button.
You can find out more about Kristine and Meet Me At Luke’s at www.gilmorebookclub.com or on IG at @gilmorebookclub.
This week we catch up with Kristine Eckart, the founder of the online Gilmore Book Club. When we first spoke to her in Season 9, Episode 188 (2023), she talked about creating this book club, which is based on the books read by the characters in the beloved bookish TV show The Gilmore Girls.
This year the show is celebrating its 25th anniversary since it first aired, and to commemorate this occasion, Kristine has written a book titled Meet Me at Luke’s, which is a compendium of essays about the show and its impact on Kristine and other book lovers. If you have a Gilmore Girl fan in your life, this might be the perfect holiday gift. In this remix episode, you’ll hear an update from Kristine as well as clips from her initial visit on The Perks.
Books Mentioned in This Episode:
1- Meet Me At Luke's by Kristine Eckart
2- A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
3- The Vampyre by John Polidori
4- Strange Practice by Vivian Shaw
5- Resilient: How to Grow an Unshakeable Core of Calm, Strength, and Happiness by Rick Hanson
6- A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
7- The Paris Wife by Paula McClain
8- The President's Wife by Tracey Emerson Wood
9- The Banned Bookshop of Maggie Banks by Shauna Robinson
10- A 5 Star Read Recommnended by a Fellow Book Lover Kim Layman @the_read_rat - A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
11- The Anna Karenina Fix: Life Lessons from Russian Literature by Viv Groskop
Shows Mentioned:
1- The Gilmore Girls (2000-2007)
2- Gossip Girl (2007-2012)
3- The Office (2005-2013)
4- Anne with an E (2017-2019)
5- White Lotus (MAX, 2021-present)
Wednesday Oct 29, 2025
Wednesday Oct 29, 2025
Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com.
Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpod
Facebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover.
To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button.
You can find JH Markert at jamesmarkert.com or on IG at @jamesmarkert74
This week we chat with JH Markert who we spoke to pre-Covid in the before times when he was writing historical fiction. Over the last couple of years, he has changed gears and returned to the genre that first made him an avid reader: horror. JH has been cranking out horror novels and finding a great deal of success with them. We catch up with James and discuss his transition to horror and what that has been like after writing five previous historical fiction novels. His most recent release that came out in September, Spider to the Fly, is dark horror suspense that deals with a serial killer, a true crime influencer, and a family with some bizarre dynamics.
And for our book rec section, we are talking about notable nonfiction. These are nonfiction books we’ve read in the last year that have made us think differently about a topic or stood out for us in some way (even though these books might not have been published in the last year). We’ll talk about a micro-history, a biography, a true crime, a memoir, a study of morality and politics, and a niche book about cussing.
Books Mentioned In This Episode:
1- Spider to the Fly by J.H. Markert
2- Molokai by Alan Brennert
3- A White Wind Blew by James Markert
4- Nightmare Man by J.H. Markert
5- Mr. Lullaby by J. H. Markert
6- Sleep Tight by J.H. Markert
7- Midnight at the Tuscany Hotel by James Markert
8- The River is Waiting by Wally Lamb
9- Dietrich Bonhoeffer: In the Midst of Wickedness by Janet and Geoff Benge
10-The Vanishing Place by Zöe Rankin
11- Five Star Read by a Fellow Book Lover Jasper Adams-Smith - Be Kind, My Neighbor by Yugo Limbo
12- For F*ck's Sake: Why Swearing is Shocking, Rude, and Fun by Rebecca Roache
13- The Woman Who Smashed Codes: A True Story of Love, Spies, and and the Unlikely Heroine Who Outwitted America's Enemies by Jason Fagone
14- The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstore by Evan Friss
15- The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion by Jonathan Haidt
16- Playing to Lose: How a Jehovah's Witness Became a BDSM Model by Ariel Anderssen
17- The Carpool Detectives: A True Story of Four Moms, Two Bodies, and One Mysterious Cold Case by Chuck Hogan
18- The Friend by Sigrid Nunez
Media Mentioned:
1- The Friend (2024)
2- Chief of War (Apple +, 2025)
3- The Outsider (HBO Max 2019)
4- Sinners (2025)
5- Nosferatu (2025)
Wednesday Oct 15, 2025
Wednesday Oct 15, 2025
Hey Book Lovers,
Carrie and I are on fall hiatus this week so we don't have a new episode for you. But what we do have is your chance to check out a new-to-you book podcast, Books with Betsy, hosted by Betsy Tomsak.
This past summer we were guests to the show where we talked about all things in our book lives, maybe even tidbits we have never shared on our own show. It's a fun conversation and we hope you will listen in and give Books With Betsy a follow.
We will be back with an all new episode on October 29 when we chat with horror/ thriller writer J.H. Markert about his new release, Spider to the Fly, and give you book recommendations for notable non-fiction we've read recently.
We hope you enjoy this episode of Books With Betsy.
Happy Reading!
Wednesday Oct 01, 2025
Wednesday Oct 01, 2025
Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com.
Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpod
Facebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover.
To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button.
You can find Rediscovered Books at rdbooks.org/ or on IG at @rdbooks
The American Library Association’s Banned Books Week is October 5-11, so we’re sharing an interview with one of the co-owners of Rediscovered Books in Boise, Idaho, a store that has pioneered a program in their city to push back against book banning in their state. Rebecca Leber-Gottberg talks to us about the history of the bookstore, her role there, and books that folks in Boise have been buying, but she also explains the bookstore’s Read Freely Project, which is their effort to get banned and threatened books dispersed throughout the community.
And in our book rec section, we’re jumping into spooky season with books related to ghosts, but if you don’t like horror, don’t worry: a lot of these “ghostly” books aren’t horror, and some of them may only seem to be about ghosts. We’ve got a historical fiction about the Sri Lankan civil war, a detective story in which ghosts are witnesses, a nonfiction book about unexplained phenomena which may or may not involve ghosts, a funny novella, a supernatural suspense, and a ghostly gothic novel set in Mexico.
Books Discussed in this Episode:
1- A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
2- The Shift: One Nurse, Twelve House, Four Patients' Lives by Theresa Brown
3- American Sirens: The Incredible Story of the Black Men Who Became America's First Paramedics by Kevin Hazzard
4- The Queen Bees of Tybee County by Kyle Casey Chu
5- The Serviceberry by Robin Wall Kimmerer
6- Trans History: A Graphic Novel by Alex L. Combs and Andrew Eakett
7- Lone Women by Victor LaValle
8- Wild Tongues Can't be Tamed: 15 Voices from the LatinX Diaspora edited by Saraciea J. Fennell
9- Under the Same Stars by Libba Bray
10- Shout by Laurie Halse Anderson
11- House on the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune
12- On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder
13- The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf
14- Firekeeper's Daughter by Angleine Boulley
15- Warrior Girl Unearthed by Angeline Boulley
16- Sisters in the Wind by Angeline Boulley
17- The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
18- Culpability by Bruce Holsinger
19- Songs for Other People's Weddings by David Levitan
20- A Five Star Read Recommended by Claire @bookishly_claire - Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
21- The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka
22- The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde
23- Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch
24- Ghost Tamer by Meredith R. Lyons
25- The Haunting of Alma Fielding: A True Ghost Story by Kate Summerscale
26- The Hacienda by Isabel Cañas
27- This is Going to Hurt by Adam McKay
Media Mentioned:
1- The Pitt (Max 2025)
2- ER ( 1994- 2009)
3- This is Going to Hurt (2022, Amazon Prime)
4- The Craft Lit Podcast - https://craftlit.com/
Wednesday Sep 17, 2025
Wednesday Sep 17, 2025
Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com.
Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpod
Facebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover.
To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button.
You can find Sam Sussman at www.samevansussman.org or on IG at @sam_sussman.
Our guest is debut novelist Sam Sussman whose book Boy From the North Country comes out this week. Sam originally wrote a short memoir piece for Harper’s Magazine that referred to the possibility that he might be Bob Dylan’s son but really the essay focused on his relationship with his mom, who had had a love affair with the musician. Eventually, Sam decided to explode the moment, or the series of moments of his life and with his mother, to get a better handle on who he was and how much that was about who his mom was and how she had raised him, not whether his father was Dylan. The book is receiving high marks in early reviews, and Sam has been making the rounds in newspapers and magazines, including a profile by the New York Times. Publisher’s Weekly, Kirkus, The Library Journal, and the American Library Association have all given Boy From the North Country starred reviews.
And for our book rec section of the show, we’re thinking about books that center on male relationships. We realize that our guests and listeners are primarily female, but we thought we would equal the playing field a little by talking about books that deal with father-son relationships, male friendships or brotherly love. We have a multigenerational story about the men in a Mexican-American family, a group of friends in a small town of the American Midwest, a pair of quirky Irish friends, a memoir about two very different guys at Harvard, two Greek heroes and their deep relationship, and boys from different cultures who develop a bond in unlikely circumstances.
Books Mentioned in this Episode:
1- Boy From the North Country by Sam Sussman
2- The Celebrants by Steven Rowley
3- The Guncle by Steven Rowley
4- In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust
5- Anima Rising by Christopher Moore
6- The Last Mona Lisa by Jonathan Santlofer
7- The Lost Van Gogh by Jonathan Santlofer
8- A Five Star Read Recommended by Fellow Book Lover Megan Burnett - The Weight of Ink by Rachel Kadish
9- We Should Not Be Friends: The Story of a Friendship by Will Schwalbe
10- The Sons of El Rey by Alex Espinoza
11- Shotgun Lovesongs by Nickolas Bulter
12- A Forty Year Kiss by Nickolas Butler
13- The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
14- Circe by Madeline Miller
15- Nowhere Boy by Katherine Marsh
16- Leonard and Hungry Paul by Ronan Hession
Media Mentioned -
1- The Silent Type: On Possibly Being Bob Dylan's Son- https://harpers.org/archive/2021/05/the-silent-type-on-possibly-being-bob-dylans-son/
2- School Cell Phone Ban Increases Library Visits - https://www.wave3.com/2025/09/02/school-cell-phone-ban-creates-surge-jcps-library-visits/
3- Reading for Pleasure Declines - https://abcnews.go.com/Health/americans-spend-time-reading-fun-time-screens-study/story?id=124807367
4- The Four Seasons (Netflix 2025)
5- The Four Seasons (1981)
6- How the Passionate Male Friendship Died --https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2025/05/men-friendship-history/682815/
Wednesday Sep 03, 2025
Wednesday Sep 03, 2025
Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com.
Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpod
Facebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover.
To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button.
You can find Lindy Ryan at her website lindyryanwrites.com or on IG @lindyryanwrites.
Books Mentioned in this Episode:
1- Bless Your Heart by Lindy Ryan
2- Another Fine Mess by Lindy Ryan
3- The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman
4- Howl edited by Lindy Ryan
5- The Darkest Night edited by Lindy Ryan
6- But Not Too Bold by Hache Pueyo
7- Play Nice by Rachel Harrison
8- Black Sheep by Rachel Harrison
9- Cackle by Rachel Harrison
10- Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky
11- Travels with Charley: In Search of America by John Steinbeck
12- A 5 Star Read Recommended by Fellow Book Lover @arizonabookstagrammer - Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz
13- All's Faire in Middle School by Victoria Jamieson
14- Geek Love by Katherine Dunn
15- Lewis Sinclair and the Gentleman Cowboys by DMS Fick
16- The Book of Speculation by Erika Swyler
17- Nightmare Alley by William Lindsay Gresham
18- The Electric Woman: A Memoir in Death-Defying Acts by Tessa Fontaine
Media Mentioned:
1- The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920, Youtube)
2- Nosferatu (1922, Youtube)
3- Metropolis (1927, Youtube)
4- Nosferatu (2024)
5- The Thursday Murder Club (2025, Netflix)
6- Santa Clarita Diet (2017-2019, Netflix)
7- Chernobyl (2019, Max)
8- Nightmare Alley (2021)
9- Shelby County KY Library books taken -
10- Travels with Charley Fact Checking -
https://www.steinbecknow.com/2020/08/01/travels-with-charley-painting-snapshot/
Wednesday Aug 20, 2025
Wednesday Aug 20, 2025
Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com.
Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpod
Facebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover.
To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button.
You can find Sarah Landenwich on her website SarahLandenwich.com or on IG @sarahlandenwich
Books Mentioned in this Episode
1- A Home for Friendless Women by Kelly E. Hill
2- The Fire Concerto by Sarah Landenwich
3- Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
4- Possession by AS Byatt
5- Plainsong (trilogy) by Kent Haruf
6- Old Souls at Night by Kent Haruf
7- The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse by Louise Erdrich
8- How to Be Well: Navigating Our Self Care Epidemic One Dubious Cure at a Time by Amy LaRocca
9- Say Everything by Ione Skye
10- The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett
11- A Five Star Read recommended by fellow Book Lover Cathleen @wovenfromwords - Harlem Rhapsody by Victoria Christopher Murray
12- Sleepless by Romy Hausmann
13- What Happens in Amsterdam by Rachel Lynn Solomon
14- The Murder Farm by Andrea Maria Schenkel
15- A Death in Door County (Monster Hunter series) by Annelise Ryan
16- Death in the Dark Woods (Monster Hunter series) by Annelise Ryan
17- Belonging: A German Reckons with History and Home by Nora Krug
18- The River is Waiting by Wally Lamb
Media Mentioned:
1- Speed Museum Glass Art exhibit - https://www.speedmuseum.org/the-adele-and-leonard-leight-glass-art-award-victoria-ahmadizadeh-melendez/
2- Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004)
3- The Naked Gun (2025)