The Perks Of Being A Book Lover Podcast

Ep. 71 A Heroine Rocks The Boat with Tori Murden McClure

Our guest this week, Tori Murden McClure, is a Renaissance woman. She has a law degree, a Master of Divinity degree from Harvard as well as a Master of Fine Arts from Spalding University, the institution where she currently serves as President. She was the first woman and first American to ski 750 miles to the geographic South Pole. She worked as an assistant to Muhammad Ali at the Ali Center, and has served as a chaplain in Boston area hospitals. But what she is most known for is her solo journey to successfully row a boat across the Atlantic Ocean in 1999. Ten years later, she published her memoir about that experience, A Pearl in the Storm: How I Found My Heart in the Middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

Now, a little over ten years after publication, her book and story have a new life. A musical about her experience has been created, and her boat is part of the Frazier Museum’s Cool Kentucky exhibit.

The book, which we discuss with Tori in this week’s episode, has a lot to do with 2020 in a roundabout way because it is about her battle with feelings of helplessness stemming from her childhood. And who in this world hasn’t been experiencing feelings of helplessness during this global pandemic? We can all relate to wanting to do something but not being able to.

Tori talks to us about why memoir is in its own way is just another type of fiction, what completely different pieces of advice she received from her writing mentors during her MFA program that shaped her book, how her desire to write a book about a hero’s journey as a woman can be tricky and hasn’t been done often, and why we didn’t see her memoir as an Oprah book club selection.

If you would like to see Murden’s sailless and motorless plywood boat The Pearl, it is on exhibit at the Frazier Museum in Louisville KY. This is a permanent exhibit but several items are on short-term loan.

The album Row is a concept album about Tori’s journey rowing across the Atlantic written by Dawn Landes. It can be found on Amazon music. These songs are part of the musical Row which will be available via Audible in the Spring of 2021. Tori Murden McClure’s memoir can be found at your favorite bookstore or library.

Books mentioned in this episode:

1- A Pearl in the Storm by Tori Murden McClure
2- When Memory Speaks: Reflections on Autobiography by Jill Kerr Conway
3- Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
4- Notes of a Native Son by James Baldwin
5- A Gift from the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh
6- Essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson
7- Shakespeare's plays
8- Iliad and Odyssey by Homer
9- Dante's Inferno
10- Small Spaces by Katherine Arden
11- How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
12- Hildegard of Bingen: The Woman of Her Age by Fionna Maddocks
13- Leonard and Hungry Paul by Ronan Hession
14- Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
15- The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion

 

 

 

 

Perks RePlay - Books and Brews 502 with mk Eagle and Hannah Ellliott 12-2-20

This week’s episode is a rebroadcast of episode 25, where we featured two librarians from the Northeast Regional branch of the Louisville Free Public Library. Mk Eagle and Hannah Elliott talked about Books and Brews 502, which is similar to the Library’s summer reading program for kids, except it is for adults and can include beer and coffee.

While Hannah has now moved to Jefferson County Public Schools, mk is still at LFPL and provided us with an update for this year’s program, which, like everything, is different due to COVID. Books and Brews 502 runs from December 1, 2020 -February 29, 2021.

Mk says the main difference is that there will be no pop-up libraries. Instead, folks can check in at seven local breweries during their respective weeks in December, January, and February. Or Books and Brews 502 participants can check-in in the two participating coffee shops at anytime during those months.

Mk says the free book giveaways will be exclusively at Against the Grain’s Public House the second week of each month, but there won’t be browsing. Instead, tell your bartender you’re participating in Books and Brews and get handed a surprise book. How cool is that? Books, and coffee or beer brews go perfectly together. For more details about the program go to www.lfpl.org

Books mentioned in this episode:

1- Laurell K. Hamilton, Anita Blake series
2- Monster, She Wrote: The Women Who Pioneered Horror and Speculative Fiction by Lisa Kroger and Melanie Anderson
3- Chi's Sweet Home by Kanata Konami
4- Exquisite Corpse by Penelope Bagieu
5- The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

Ep. 70 A Christmas Carol For The Ears with Amy Wegener 11-25-20

If there is anything consistent about 2020, it is how inconsistent it is. We’re not doing the things the way we always have, whether it is doing curbside pickup, outside-only masked visits with friends, or book clubs via Zoom. The same can be said of the performing arts--to stay relevant, they are doing things differently, including shows that they’ve done more or less the same for over 40 years. Actors Theatre of Louisville’s run of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens has become a beloved holiday tradition to so many families in the region over the years, including mine. This year, theater lovers will experience the journey of Ebenezer Scrooge and the three ghosts in an imaginative radio play.

While the in-person Christmas Carol performance has long been a feast for the eyes, the radio program will be a feast for the ears. Our guest this week, Amy Wegener, will give us the scoop on how we can interact with The Christmas Carol in a whole new exciting way. She is the literary director and a dramaturg at Actor’s Theater.

Amy tells us why rereading Dickens’ A Christmas Carol helped her find the humor in Dickens’ writing that she had forgotten, why she finds constraints to be a spark for her creativity, and why theater is a unique art form based on its ability to transform depending on who interacts with it.

To Access The Play:
To buy a ticket for The Christmas Carol, simply go to their website at actorstheater.org. After your purchase, you’ll be sent an email with a link to listen to the project. Click the link to get to the streaming site. Once there, simply press play and you are ready to go! The play begins November 24 and you will have until December 31 to finish listening. This play is also a pay what you can event. The website offers you different levels from $15 - $100, based on how many people may stream this play with you.

According to the Actor’s Theater website, The Christmas Carol is a completely audio-based experience—like a podcast or radio show on your drive to work. Gather your loved ones to share the story or just pop your headphones into your ears and press play.

Books and Plays mentioned in this Episode:

1- A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
2- Dracula by Bram Stoker
3- Patron Saints of Nothings by Randy Ribay
4- How to Be an AntiRacist by Ibram X. Kendi
5- Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi
6- Girl Waits With Gun (Kopp Sister #1) by Amy Stewart
7- Humana Festival anthologies
8- Detroit 67 by Dominique Morisseau (play)
9- Pipeline by Dominique Morisseau (play)
10- Skeleton Crew by Dominique Morisseau (play)
11- Beast on the Moon by Richard Kalinoski (play)

Ep. 69 A Voice From Cherokee with Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle 11-18-20

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

Ep. 68 Shakespeare and the Soldier's Soul with Amy Attaway and Stephen Montgomery 11-11-20

November 11 is a day on which we celebrate and honor veterans. It was on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month that the armistice to end World War I occurred. Although the Treaty of Versailles was signed in June of 1919, the temporary end of hostilities had happened six months prior.

Of course, veterans have long played a central role in storytelling and literature. Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey tell the stories of men in the midst of battle and what happens to them once they are off the fields. From Ireland to India, war and the warriors who fight them have been integral to the stories that have been passed down through time.

Shakespeare, too, in his works has examined the humanity of soldiers in all its various forms. Kentucky Shakespeare started an outreach program 5 years ago called Shakespeare with Veterans which is like a reading club, theater troupe, and support group all rolled into one.

We have two guests this week, First we have Amy Attaway who is the associate artistic director of Kentucky Shakespeare and runs the Shakespeare with Veterans program. Then later on in the show, we will be joined by Stephen Montgomery who is a Vietnam veteran who served in both the Army and Navy and was a career intelligence officer until his retirement several years ago. He is a member of the Shakespeare with Veterans group.

General George C. Marshall once said, “The soldier’s heart, the soldier’s spirit, the soldier’s soul are everything.” So on this Veteran’s Day we talk to Amy and Stephen about why Shakespeare’s plays speak to the experience of military veterans in a way other literature does not, what veterans find in the group that reminds them of their time in the military, and how this group enriches their hearts, spirits, and souls.

Books or plays mentioned in this episode:

Shakespeare Plays:
1- The Merchant of Venice
2- Henry IV
3- Henry V
4- Macbeth
5- Hamlet
6- Pericles, Prince of Tyre

Books:
1- The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg by Rodman Philbrick
2- Across Five Aprils by Irene Hunt
3- Nothing But the Truth by Avi
4- I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search For the Golden State Killer by Michelle McNamara
5- In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
6- Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann
7- Mindhunter: Inside The FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit by John E. Douglas

Ep.67 Buy Books Before the Bedlam with Sam Miller 11-4-20

It isn’t unusual for shops to begin playing Jingle Bell Rock or Baby, It’s Cold Outside about a minute after summer ends, which shoppers either love or abhor. 2020 has been weird in numerous ways, and shopping for the winter holidays, whether it is Hanukkah, Kwanzaa or Christmas, is going to prove to be unusual.

Our little goblins and ghouls may still be counting their candy from Halloween and Thanksgiving is still several weeks away but small businesses including bookstores are encouraging shoppers to start grabbing those gifts early this year for multiple reasons. So today we talk to our favorite bookseller, Sam Miller of Carmichael Books in Louisville, about what books and gifts readers may want to check out this holiday season.

Sam tells us why independent bookstores across the country called October the new December, which new books will be hot this holiday season and what books that came out earlier in 2020 have had staying power. Finally Sam gives some suggestions to shoppers about what they can do, in addition to buying their gifts from local businesses, to help stores financially through this weird weird year to still keep their doors open in 2021.

Books Mentioned in this Episode:
1- A Promised Land by Barack Obama
2- The Lost Words by Robert MacFarlane and Jackie Morris
3- The Lost Spells by Robert MacFarlane and Jackie Morris
4- Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
5- Shit, Actually: The Definitive, 100% Objective Guide to Modern Cinema by Lindy West
6- Shrill by Lindy West
7- Ottolenghi Flavor: A Cookbook by Yotam Ottolenghi and Ixta Belfrage
8- Modern Comfort Food: A Barefoot Contessa Cookbook by Ina Garten
9- This Will Make It Taste Good: A New Path to Simple Cooking by Vivian Howard
10- Black Sun (Between Earth and Sky) by Rebecca Roanhorse
11- Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse
12- The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu
13- To Hold Up The Sky by Cixin Liu
14- The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson
15- Once and Future Witches by Alix Harrow
16- Pirenesi by Susanna Clarke
17- Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell by Susanna Clarke
18- Secret Santa by Andrew Shaffer
19- We Are Santa by Ron Cooper
20- A Literary Holiday Cookbook by Alison Walsh
21- The Official Downton Abbey Cookbook by Annie Gray
22- A Cloud a Day by Gavin Pretor-Pinney
23- Men to Avoid in Art and Life by Nicole Tersigni
24- Stranger Planet by Nathan Pyle
25- The Louisville Anthology edited by Erin Keane
26- A Charity Anthology for COVID -19 by Neil Gaiman
27- The Call Me Ishmael Phone Book: An Interactive Guide to Life-
28- Changing Books by Logan Smalley and Stephanie Kent
29- Estranged by Ethan Aldridge
30- The Changeling King by Ethan Aldridge
31- Olive, Mabel & Me by Andrew Cotter
32- The Searcher by Tana French
33- Metropolitan Stories by Christine Coulson
34- The One & Only Bob by Katherine Applegate
35- The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel
36 - Dreyer's English by Benjamin Dreyer
37- The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo
38- Red Comet: The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath by Heather Clark
39- All Adults Here by Emma Straub
40- The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
41- Three-Martini Afternoons at the Ritz: The Rebellion of Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton by Gail Crowther
42- Literary Rogues: A Scandalous History of Wayward Authors by Andrew Shaffer
43- This House is Haunted by John Boyne
44- The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne
45- The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne
46- Brain on Fire by Susannah Cahalan
47- The Daily Coyote by Shreve Stockton
48- The Milk Lady of Bangalore by Shoba Narayan
49- The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tova Bailey
50- Hiddensee: A Tale of the Once and Future Nutcracker by Gregory Maguire
51- Last Christmas in Paris by Hazel Gaynor
52- The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley
53- The Guest List by Lucy Foley
54- Winter Solstice by Rosamunde Pilcher
55- Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris

Games Mentioned:
1- Dreyer's Board Game
2- Bowie Bingo
3- Bless Your Heart

 

Movies Mentioned:

1- The Lemon Drop Kid

2- It Happened on Fifth Avenue

3- A Christmas Story

4- Love Actually

Ep.66 Slaying Satire with Andrew Shaffer 10-28-20

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

Ep. 65 The Horrors of Writing with Tim Waggoner 10-21-20

It’s spooky season and we would be remiss if we didn’t explore a bit the things that make us unsettled and feel that four letter word FEAR. Our guest this week, Tim Waggoner, is a horror and dark fantasy writer who has been recognized in his field with awards such as the Shirley Jackson and the Bram Stoker Award. He is also an educator at heart. He is a professor at Sinclair College in Dayton OH where he teaches a wide variety of writing classes from basic composition all the way up to novel writing and tips for getting published. He has recently published a book that is a comprehensive guide to the craft of writing horror fiction called Writing in the Dark.

Tim talks to us about why dinosaurs were the thing as a little boy that made him first interested in reading, how empathy is an ingredient that distinguishes good horror from bad horror writing, why the darkness is blank space to inspire his imagination, and all about the devil’s bargain that writer’s make.

Books Mentioned in This Episode:

1- Writing in the Dark by Tim Waggoner
2- The Men Upstairs (novella) by Tim Waggoner
3- The Winter's Box (novella) by Tim Waggoner
4- Dark and Distant Voices by Tim Waggoner
5- Alone with the Horrors by Ramsey Campbell
6- Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
7- Unleashing the Artist Within: Breaking Through Blocks and Restoring Creative Purpose by Eric Maisel
8- Creativity for Life by Eric Maisel
9- The Shining by Stephen King
10- The Woman in Black by Susan Hill
11- Kill Creek by Scott Thomas
12 - The Bernie Rhodenbarr mystery series by Lawrence Block
13- The Terror by Dan Simmons

Movies mentioned--
1- The Babadook
2- Hereditary
3- The Terror (series)on Hulu
4- Finian's Rainbow (musical on film)

Ep.64 Book Your Festivities with Deedee Cummings 10-14-20

Two years ago our guest Deedee Cummings decided she wanted to introduce a book festival to the city of Louisville, an event found in many other large cities but missing here. She and her team spent those two years planning and scheduling an event all about books and reading only to have 2020 happen, a terrible, no good, very bad year that has served as a wet blanket for most kinds of fun. Deedee was, of course, disappointed, but she was not deterred.

The first annual Louisville Book Festival will take place October 23 and 24 virtually including a session with headliner Tomi Adeyemi, the New York Times bestselling writer of the Young Adult fantasy novel, Children of Blood and Bone.

Cumming’s book festival has a unique mission statement: Literacy is a basic human right. She has worked to build an event that will bring both a reading culture and connection to the city as well as inspire children to dream.

When you talk to Cummings, you realize that most of her adult life has been spent building up to something big. She has been a social worker and lawyer, and is currently a therapist, an author of children’s books, and the CEO of Make a Way Media, a company that promotes reading in all kinds of unique ways.

Deedee tells us why a lack of books that feature brown faces or stories was the inspiration for the Louisville Book Festival, how a book festival can be a life-changing event, and what themes unite all the children’s books she has written.

Books Mentioned in this Episode:
1- Nancy Drew series by Carolyn Keane
2- Encyclopedia Brown series by Donald J. Sobol
3- Blackout by John Rocco
4- The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
5- Fahrenheit 451 by Kurt Vonnegut
6- The Hate You Give by Angie Thomas
7- Kayla: A Modern-Day Princess by Deedee Cummings
8- In the Nick of Time by Deedee Cummings
9- What We Found in the Corn Maze and How it Saved a Dragon by Henry Clark
10- Stamped by Ibram X. Kendi
11- White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo
12- The One and Only Bob by Katherine Applegate
13- Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
14- Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi
15- Tom Petty's Southern Accents by Michael Washburn

Ep. 63 You Can't Read This with Natalie McCall 10-7-20

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 Hodgon
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)