The Perks Of Being A Book Lover Podcast

Season 5 Ep. 95 The Suspense is Killing Us with guest David Bell 7-7-21

We are excited to open up Season 5 with suspense writer David Bell. He is the USA Today bestselling author of 11 books and his most recent offering hit the bookshelves yesterday.

His newest Kill All Your Darlings is the interconnection of all kinds of hot topics; showing the dark side of academia and what happens when plagiarism makes you the prime suspect of a murder. Plus add some professor ickiness that would make the #Metoo movement cringe and you have a page turner that book websites like SheReads and Frolic call a most anticipated summer reads for 2021.

David is a professor of English at Western Kentucky University and heads up their MFA creative writing program.

Books mentioned in this episode:
1- Kill All Your Darlings by David Bell
2- The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkein
3- King Arthur & His Knights by Mabel Louise Robinson
4- I'll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara
5- Somebody I Used to Know by David Bell
6- OCDaniel by Wesley King, narrated by Ramon de Ocampo
7- Hello Universe by Erin Entrada Kelly, narrated by Ramon de Ocampo
8- Chasing the Boogeyman by Richard Chizmar
9- Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin
10- Cemetery Girl by David Bell

Movies mentioned--
Together, Together directed by Nikole Beckwith
Tenet, directed by Christopher Nolan

TV shows mentioned
I'll Be Gone in the Dark  - Limited series on HBO

Perks RePlay You Can't Read This with guest Natalie McCall

What books do you think about when you hear the term Banned Books; do you envision classics like Huck Finn or The Catcher in the Rye? Or books that you wanted to sneak to read when you were a kid because it had swearing, magic, or sexual content? In fact a book series that has been arguably one of the most beloved in modern history, the Harry Potter series, is still high on the list of Banned Books so many years after it was first published.

Our episode today was recorded during Banned Books Week, a weeklong annual event sponsored by the American Library Association to celebrate the freedom to read and bring awareness to both current and past attempts to censor books in libraries and schools.

We believe this topic is one that you can think about any time of the year, not just for one designated week so we wanted to explore the topic with our guest, Natalie McCall, a librarian and head of youth services at the Mill Valley Public Library in the Bay area of California. She is also the host of a podcast called Eight Books That Made Me where she has conversations with Young Adult authors about 5 books that influenced them growing up and 3 books they encourage readers to check out now.

Natalie discusses what it meant to be a hi-lo reader when she was a child, why she thinks one of the most common types of censorship for libraries is based on what books they don’t choose to purchase, and about the role of libraries and the freedom to read as one of the foundations of democracy.

Books Mentioned In This Episode:

1- Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
2- The Secret Garden by Francis Hodgson Burnett
3- Babysitter's Club series by Ann M. Martin
4- Sweet Valley High series by Francine Pascal
5- Fear Street series by R. L. Stine
6- Goosebumps series by R. L. Stine
7- The Rights of the Reader by Daniel Pennac
8- The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
9- The Winter Pony by Iain Lawrence
10- A Love Story of Two Boys by Brian Roberson
11- Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder
12- Forever by Judy Blume
13- The Things They Carried by Tim O' Brien
14- All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque 
15- Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell
16- Dogsbody by Diana Wynne Jones
17- Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds 
18- The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness by Sy Montgomery 
19- Quiet by Susan Cain
20- Only You Can Save Mankind by Terry Pratchett
21- Johnny and the Dead by Terry Pratchett
22- Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
23- The Black Kids by Christina Hammonds Reid
24- The Crossover by Kwame Alexander
25- Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson
26- Caminar by Skila Brown
27- Under the Mesquite by Guadelupe Garcia McCall
28- Inside Out and Back Again by Thanha Lai
29- Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse

Podcast mentioned:
8 Books That Made Me

TV shows mentioned:
It's Ok to Not Be Ok (Korean Drama on Netflix)
Dark (German Drama on Netflix)

Perks RePlay A Voice From Cherokee with guest Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle 11-8-20

When it comes to Native American heritage, most Americans have woefully inadequate knowledge. They may have heard of Squanto or Sacajawea, but that is the extent of their understanding. A 2018 research project conducted by The First Nations Development Institute and Echo Hawk Consulting found that most Americans think there aren’t many Native Americans left in the country, which just isn’t true. There are close to 600 federally recognized tribes in the United States.

November is National Native American Heritage Month so we want to introduce you to some Native authors to add to your TBR all year long including our guest today, who is a new voice in fiction.

Our guest this week is Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle, a member of the Eastern Tribe of Cherokee Indians, who is deeply rooted in the Cherokee community in North Carolina. She has been a high school English and Cherokee Studies teacher for the past 10 years. But she is also a novelist whose debut historical fiction novel, Even As We Breathe, was published this past September by a new literary imprint called Fireside Industries, a collaboration between The Appalachian Writers Workshop and the University Press of Kentucky.

Annette talks to us about the James Baldwin quote that inspired her to write about a clean bone which has significance in her writing practice as well as her novel, what things she learned from her editor, well-known Kentucky author Silas House, and how she wants to use her influence of being a Cherokee novelist to educate the wider public that Native Americans are something very different from what they see in old Westerns and popular culture.

Books Mentioned in this Episode:
1- Even As We Breathe by Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle
2- Beverly Cleary books
3- Babysitters Club series
4- The Prettiest Star by Carter Sickels
5- F*ckface: And Other Stories by Leah Hampton
6- Going to Water by Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle
7- Myths of the Cherokee by James Mooney (and other books)
8- Crenshaw by Katherine Applegate
9- Crooked Hallelujah by Kelli Jo Ford
10- When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through: A Norton Anthology of Native Nations Poetry by Joy Harjo
11- Horsepower by Joy Priest
12- City of Saints and Thieves by Natalie C. Anderson
13- Americanah by Chimimanda Ngozi Adichie
14- The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
15- Calypso by David Sedaris
16- A Kind of Freedom by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton

Season 4 Ep. 94 To Read A "Mockingbird" with guest Ben Self 6-16-21

This episode marks the end of Season 4, and new episodes will begin airing on July 7th.

We’re closing Season 4 with Ben Self, who is a teacher and contributor to Mockingbird, an organization that describes itself as being “devoted to connecting the Christian faith with the realities of everyday life.” It’s a progressive group and Ben runs their new online book club which focuses more on spiritual themes than religious doctrine. It straddles the secular and spirit in fun and culturally relevant ways.

He tells us all about his reading life, why he decided to spend part of the sabbatical from his job to enjoy reading again, and why he wanted to be involved with the Mockingbird project. They are reading some really interesting stuff from authors like Marilynne Robinson, Wendell Berry and Flannery O’Connor.

Books mentioned--
1- The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
2- Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
3- To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
4- Moby Dick by Herman Melville
5- Why Read Moby Dick? by Nathaniel Philbrick
6- Kindred by Octavia Butler
7- A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
8- Til We Have Faces by C. S. Lewis
9- Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor
10- The Moviegoer by Walker Percy
11- Jack by Marilynne Robinson
12- Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry
13- The Death of Ivan Ilyyich and Father Sergius by Leo Tolstoy
14- The Left Behind series by Tim LaHaye
15- The Thief of Always by Clive Barker
16- Abarat by Clive Barker
17- American Gods by Neil Gaiman
18- World of Wonders by Amie Nezhukumatathil

Documentaries/TV Shows mentioned--
1- Margaret Atwood: A Word After a Word After a Word is Power (Hulu)
2- Counterpart (Amazon Prime) featuring JK Simmons

Websites/Online magazines--
Mockingbird mbird.com

Season 4 Ep. 93 Speedier Reader with guest Jacqui Isser 6-7-2021

It goes without saying that you can be a book lover whether you read 1 book a year or 200. But those book lovers who consume books like the potato chips no one can resist, reading over 100 books a year, are a little unique. We couldn't be happier to welcome Jacqui Daves Isser to the show. Jacqui is a middle school librarian who lives outside Austin TX but she is also a "super reader". She read 168 books last year and is on track to read more in 2021. If middle grade literature needed a spokesperson to tell adults why they should add it to their reading rotation, Jacqui is their girl.

Book Mentioned In This Episode:

1- Hiking Kentucky's Red River Gorge: Your Definitive Guide to the Jewel of the Southeast by Sean Patrick Hill
2- Nancy Drew series
3- Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
4- The Babysitters Club series
5- The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo
6- Dune by Frank Herbert
7- Harry Potter series
8- Fablehaven series by Brandon Mull
9- Tears of a Tiger by Sharon Draper
10- The Watsons Go to Birmingham by Christopher Paul Curtis
11- Bud, not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis
12- When You Trap a Tiger by Tae Keller
13- Raina Telgemeier books
14- My Hero Academia series by Kohei Horikoshi
15- Maximum Ride by James Patterson
16- Cirque du Freak by Darren Shan
17- Hello, Universe by Erin Entrada Kelly
18- Just Mercy: A True Story of the Fight for Justice (adapted for young adults) by Bryan Stevenson
19- Dress Coded by Carrie Firestone
20- The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Clune

Season 4 Ep.92 Riding and Writing with the Butterflies with guest Sara Dyckman 6-2-21

This week we are focusing on butterflies and biking in book form. Sara Dykman is an adventurer and wildlife biologist whose focus is primarily amphibians. Several years ago, however, she felt a calling to bring awareness to the plight of the Monarch butterfly. So she took her adventurer spirit and migrated on her bike along with the Monarch from Mexico to Canada and back again. Her 10,000 mile journey is the focus of her travel memoir/ environment/ adventure/nature book titled Bicycling with Butterflies.

Books Mentioned in this Episode:

1- Bicyling with Butterflies: My 10,201 Mile Journey Following the Monarch Migration by Sara Dykman
2- The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner
3- The Birchbark House by Louise Erdrich
4- Mark Rashid series about horses
5- Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
6- Late Migrations: A Natural History of Love and Loss by Margaret Renkl

Season 4 Ep. 91 Summertime and the Reading is Easy with Bookseller Sam Miller 5-26-21

We are all about summer reading this week and Carmichael's Books bookseller extrordinaire Sam Miller gives us all kinds of ideas to make this a great reading season.

Books mentioned--
1- Confessions of Catherine de Medici by C.W. Gortner
2- The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Delila Harris
3- All's Well by Mona Awad
4- Out of the Diaspora --Tragic Magic by Wesley Brown
5- Out of the Diaspora--Praisesong for the Widow by Paule Marshall
6- Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
7- The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes
8- Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell
9- Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple
10- The Kitchen Front by Jennifer Ryan
11- China by Edward Rutherford
12- The Martian by Andy Weir
13- Artemis by Andy Weir
14- Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
15- Lilith's Brook series by Octavia Butler
16- Red, White, and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston
17- One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston
18- While Justice Sleeps by Stacey Abrams
19- Dream Girl by Laura Lippman

20- The Turnout by Megan Abbott
21- A Slow Fire Burning by Paula Hawkins
22- The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides
23- The Maidens by Alex Michaelides
24- Beach Read by Emily Henry
25- The People We Met on Vacation by Emily Henry
26- That Summer by Jennifer Weiner
27- Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid
28- Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
29- Sooley by John Grisham
30- Bomber Mafia by Malcolm Gladwell
31- The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown
32- Facing the Mountain: A True Story of Japanese American Heroes in World War II by Daniel James Brown
33- The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben
34- The Heartbeat of Trees by Peter Wohlleben
35- Blood and Treasure: Daniel Boone and Fight for America's First Frontier by Bob Drury and Tom Clavin
36- Secret to Superhuman Strength by Alison Bechdel
37- My Begging Chart by Keiler Roberts
38- Monsters! by Barry Windsor-Smith
39- Cook This Book by Molly Baz
40- Cook, Eat, Repeat by Nigella Lawson
41- Chef's Garden by Farmer Lee Jones
42- Daughter of Sparta by Claire Andrews
43- The Boy Who Made Everyone Laugh by Helen Rutter
44- The Bench by Megan, the Duchess of Sussex
45- Perfect Black by Crystal Wilkinson
46- Just a Few Miles South by Ouita Michael
47- Somebody's Daughter: A Memoir by Ashley Ford
48- Electric Kingdom by David Arnold
49- Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam
50- State of Wonder by Ann Patchett
51- Northern Spy by Flynn Berry
52- Yolk by Mary HK Choi
53- The Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead
54- The Mystery of Mrs. Christie by Marie Benedict

Shows mentioned--
Dare Me (cheerleader noir)- USA network and Netflix

Season 4 Ep. 90 Storytelling in a Steampunk World with guest Maram Taibah 5-19-21

Every season one of our favorite episodes is when we get to chat with a book lover who grew up in a country other than the United States. We’ve had guests from Somalia, Ireland and Germany.

Today we have Maram Taibah; a fantasy author and screenwriter. We were anxious to talk to her about two things really. She is a bookover who grew up in Saudi Arabia. She now resides in Ontario Canada. She has published two books, the most recent being Weathernose, a steampunk fantasy about the complicated relationship between a middle-aged weatherman and a brilliant 10 year old girl on a fantastical tropical island, that will appeal to both young readers and adults alike. We talk to her about her reading life growing up in the Middle East and about her writing life now.

Books Mentioned in this Episode:

1- Sweet Valley Kids by Francine Pascal
2- Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
3- Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne
4- One Thousand and One Nights
5- Weathernose by Maram Taibah
6- The Road to Elephants by Maram Taibah
7- Narnia series by C. S. Lewis
8- Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
9- The Copenhagen Trilogy by Tove Ditlevsen
10- Calling in The One by Katherine Woodward Thomas
11- A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher

Movies mentioned--
The Sound of Music
The Mummy
Bambi
Star Wars movies

Season 4 Ep. 89 From the Barbershop to Book Reviews with guest Joziah Jason 5-12-21

Our guest this week is Joziah Jason, a 5th grader from Ypsilanti Michigan who has his own bookish podcast, R.E.A.D. Books with Joziah. Each episode he picks a book and dicusses it with guests.

He was inspired by the Read with the Barber program in his town. For this program, kids read a book to the barber during their haircut for a haircut and earn $2 as well as confidence in their reading skills. He has gotten quite a bit of attention for his efforts as he has been featured by his state's NPR station, CNN, and ABC World News Tonight.

We chat with Joziah and his dad Keith about how the barber program incluenced him and why he started his podcast.

Books Mentioned in this Episode:
1- Wings of Fire by Tui T. Sutherland
2- Percy Jackson and the Olympians series by Rick Riordan
3- Kane series by Rick Riordan
4- Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling
5- Seedfolks by Paul Fleischman
6- Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices by Paul Fleischman
7- Trapped in a Video Game by Dustin Brady
8- Becoming Muhammad Ali by James Patterson and Kwame Alexander
9- The Crossover by Kwame Alexander
10- The Rebound by Kwame Alexander
11- Booked by Kwame Alexander

Podcasts mentioned--
1- Wow in the World
2- Six Minutes
3- Smash, Boom, Best

 

 

 

 

Season 4 Ep. 88 The Messy Memoir with guests Vitale Buford and Jaydee Graham 5-5-21

May is Mental Health Awareness month so this week we decided to interview 2 authors whose new memoirs deal with their mental health issues and the addictions that resulted from those issues.

There is hardly a family who hasn’t been touched in some way by mental illness. For so many years, mental illness in all its forms--anxiety, depression, suicide or bipolar disorder--were kept under wraps which made the sufferers and their loved ones feel even more isolated.

But recently, memoirs about messy lives, dysfunctional families, and the realities of finding help have become increasingly popular and can be a powerful tool for the author to help themselves in addition to their readers. Our guests Jaydee Graham and Vitale Buford chat with us about the power of the messy memoir.

In part 1 of this week’s show, Jaydee talks to us about her book The Soul Grind: Fighting for Light Amongst the Trenches, an account of her struggles with alcohol and drugs in her teenage years.

In part 2 Vitale Buford talks to us about her 2020 memoir, Addicted to Perfect, in which she describes her 10-year addiction to the prescription drug Adderall, a drug often prescribed for people with ADHD. For those who abuse it, it can cause euphoria and the feeling of having superhuman amounts of energy. In Vitale’s case, she used Adderall because she felt it gave her the energy to be able to be “perfect.”

Book Mentioned in this Episode:

1- The Soul Grind : Fighting for Light Amongst the Trenches by Jaydee Graham
2- Addicted to Perfect: A Journey Out of the Grips of Adderall by Vitale Buford

3- Make Your Mess a Memoir by Anna David

4- A New Pair of Glasses by Chuck C.
5- Co-Dependent No More by Melody Beattie
6- The Art of Forgiving by Lewis B. Smedes
7- The Gentle Path Through the Twelve Steps: The Classic Guide for All People in the Process of Recovery by Patrick Carnes
8- Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert
9- Books by Glennan Doyle
10- The Benefits of Being an Octopus by Ann Braden
11- Harry's Trees by Jon Cohen
12- Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness by Susannah Cahalan
13- Reasons Not to Die by Matt Haig
14- A Beautiful Mind by Sylvia Nasar
15- Wild by Cheryl Strayed
16 - Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight by Alexandra Fuller