The Perks Of Being A Book Lover Podcast

Ep 62 Mystical Reads of the Mountains with Ashley Blooms 9-30-20

I can always count on my husband, a huge sci-fi and fantasy reader to keep me up to date with some of the newest and most exciting authors in that genre. And when one of them is from our home state of Kentucky, you can be doubly sure Carrie and I will quickly ask for an interview.

Our guest this week, Ashley Blooms, grew up in rural Kentucky, was a John Grisham Writing Fellow at the University of Mississippi and worked for Tor.com, an online magazine that published a wide range of sci- fi/fantasy short stories, commentary, and pop culture. Her debut novel, Every Bone a Prayer, was published last month, has been recommended by NPR and Buzzfeed and has received praise from some of my favorite authors like Silas House and Alix Harrow. Ashley wants to make a space in Appalachian literature for more fantastical stories and not only the literary realism that is usually that trademark of the subgenre.

As a survivor of trauma and abuse in her own life, Ashley has created the 10-year-old protagonist, Misty, with unique sensory gifts that help explain what trauma feels like, how it changes a person, and how to move forward beyond it.

Ashley talks to us about why the Goosebumps series by R. L. Stine made her want to tell stories of her own, how she uses trigger warnings to give control back to the reader, and why she doesn’t categorize her book as magical realism even though it combines reality with fantastical elements.

Books Mentioned in this Episode:

1- Goosebumps series by R. L. Stine
2- What You are Getting Wrong About Appalachia by Elizabeth Catte
3- Every Bone a Prayer by Ashley Blooms
4- The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate
5- The One and Only Bob by Katherine Applegate
6- Home of the Brave by Katherine Applegate
7- Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse
8- The True Story of Lyndie B. Hawkins by Gail Shepherd
9- Radical Spirits: Spiritualism and Women's Rights in 19th Century America by Anne Braude
10- Talking to the Dead: Kate and Maggie Fox and the Rise of Spiritualism by Barbara Weisberg
11- Brothers Sinister series by Courtney Milan
12- The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm; Translated by Jack Zipes
13- It's Great to Suck at Something: The Exceptional Benefits of Being Unexceptional by Karen Rinaldi

Podcast mentioned:
Hidden Brain (July 20, 2020) - "Culture Wars and the True Story of Lyndie B. Hawkins"

Ep 61: Bucherfreund Book Lover with Tabby Pawlitzki 9-22-20

Our guest this week, Tabby Pawlitzki, is helping us continue our series on Global Readers. Once a season, we talk with a book lover who grew up in another country but has made the United States their home. In seasons 1 and 2 we talked to readers from Somalia and Ireland. In Season 3 we are exploring Germany. Fortunately Instagram has made meeting book-loving people who come from all over the world much easier which is how we connected with Tabby. She joined us remotely from her home in Los Angeles.

Tabby moved from Germany to the United States as a teenager where she struggled a bit to understand American English versus the British English she had been taught in her home country, but she came to appreciate the American educational system which she found more inclusive. Tabby didn’t read much in her teen years but came to love literature again in her 20s by reading Jane Austen. Now she is a pastry chef and co-host of the Modern Life podcast where she combines her love of literature and cinema by discussing book to movie adaptations.

Tabby talks to us about why she thinks texts by German writers have the reputation of being very heavy, what destination in Germany you should definitely visit if you are a book lover, what is one of the strangest book to movie adaptations she has talked about on her podcast, and which of her favorite fairy tales hasn’t been Disney-fied.

Book mentioned in this episode:

1- The Little Witch by Orfried Preussler
2- Lottie and Lisa (The Parent Trap) by Erich Kastner
3- The Neverending Story by Michael Ende
4- The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
5- Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren
6- Fairytales by the Brothers Grimm - Star Thaler; Snow White and Rose Red
7- Books by Enid Blyton
8- Doctor Doolittle by Hugh Lofting
9- The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
10- Urmel by Max Kruse
11- Dune by Frank Herbert
12- Nothing Lasts Forever (Die Hard) by Roderick Thorp
13- Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
14- Narziss and Goldmund by Hermann Hesse
15- Death in Venice by Thomas Mann
16- The Metamorphisis/ The Trial by Franz Kafka
17- All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
18- Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
19- Clothes Make The Man by Gottfried Keller
20- Far From The Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
21- Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
22- Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
23- Little Women - The Screenplay by Greta Gerwig
24- The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend by Katarina Bivald

Ep 60 Bibliophiles Meet Audio Files with Kris Keppeler 9-16-20

Did you know the use of audiobooks is on the rise? While print format and e-books are still the most popular, it’s only the audiobook format that has grown in popularity over the last few years. Audiobooks have some great qualities; they are easy to listen to while doing other tasks like commutes in the car and exercise; they are perfect for modern busy lives of multi-tasking; but they also can add a whole new layer of interest to a story if in the hands of a deft and talented narrator. At least ⅓ of the books Carrie and I talk about on the show are audiobooks and including them in your life is one of the best ways to increase your reading time.

Our guest today, Kris Keppeler, is an actor and audiobook narrator who has narrated over 50 books in her career. She uses her own studio located in her home in Washington State. She is also a consultant for other people who want to do what she does, including authors who want to narrate their own audiobooks.

Kris talks to us about how her opera background has helped her perform better as an audiobook narrator, why narrating books is a particularly fun job for an actor who always wants to play all the roles, and why she never auditions for books she doesn’t enjoy.

Books Mentioned in this Episode:

1- Secret Louisville: A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful, and Obscure by Kevin Gibson
2- Don't Ever Forget by Matthew Farrell
3- The Exiles by Christina Baker Kline

Ep. 59 Big Stories in Small Spaces with Ellen Birkett Morris 9-9-20

Our guest this week, Ellen Birkett Morris, has an affection for small things. She says she was born prematurely and was terribly small at birth. She wonders if this is where her fascination with beautiful things coming in small packages began. Ellen is the author of a book of poetry and a new collection of short stories called Lost Girls. What readers may notice about her stories is that though they are small in length, they are powerful in meaning. Each story focuses on a passing moment in the lives of the girls and women she writes about. Ellen says she loves dipping in and out of a person’s story to find the small snippet of time that packs an emotional punch.

Lost Girls has been receiving critical praise from such places as the Southern Review of Books, Alabama Public Radio, and numerous book bloggers and reviewers including the Modern Mrs. Darcy blog.

Ellen talks to us about why reading her favorite books as a girl formed her idea that to be a writer you have to be a little like a spy, how the #MeToo movement helped shape the final form her stories collection would take, and why the superstore Target carrying her book left her a little gobsmacked.

Books Mentioned in this Episode:

1- Harriet The Spy by Louise Fitzhugh
2- James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
3- Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
4- Arabel's Raven by Joan Aiken
5- Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
6- A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
7- Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal by Mary Roach
8- Stiff: The Curious Lives of Cadavers by Mary Roach
9- Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex by Mary Roach
10- Lake Life by David James Poissant
11- Tell The Wolves I'm Home by Carol Rifka Brunt
12- The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate
13- The One and Only Bob by Katherine Applegate
14- Pax by Sara Pennypacker
15- American Ghost: A Family's Haunted Past in the Desert Southwest by Hannah Nordhaus
16- Brooklyn by Colm Tolbein
17- Norah Webster by Colm Tolbein

Ep. 58 Looking at Life Through Rosewater Glasses with Clare Wallace 9-2-20

This past weekend many people recognized Independent Bookstore Day, a day to be extra appreciative of their local bookstores and booksellers that give booklovers all the feels. Everyone loves a bookstore, don’t they?

Our guest today certainly does. When Clare Wallace visits a new place, she always looks for the closest used bookstore. This gave her the idea to open The Rosewater, aptly named after her favorite Kurt Vonnegut book, which she envisions as a comforting living room for everybody. Clare is the executive director of South Louisville Community Ministries, a nonprofit that provides emergency assistance for residents of South Louisville facing crisis, and she was looking for a visible way to do outreach in the neighborhood. The bookstore serves several purposes; to create a warm community space, to bring life to parts of the neighborhood that have seen hard times, to provide transitional employment for residents in crisis, and to offer a service that the neighbors want.

Clare grew up in a house filled with hundreds of books with a mother who worked for a publisher but her favorites were those that explored other worlds. After Clare left college, she literally went around the world working in international development and as a Peace Corps volunteer. When she settled in Louisville, she chose to land in the most diverse part of the city which is filled with a wide variety of different ethnicities and income levels; Clare works to bring people together in her adopted hometown.

Clare tells us how The Rosewater is pivoting from traditional retail sales to creative services like mystery book boxes delivered to your door due to Covid, why creating a comforting community space for the neighborhood is important to her, and how learning to deal with failure is a skill she learned abroad that helps her create new projects today.

Books Discussed in this Episode:

1- A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L'Engle
2- Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
3- East of Eden by John Steinbeck
4- Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
5- Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
6- God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater by Kurt Vonnegut
7- The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
8- Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
9- The Lost Queen by Signe Pike
10- The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights by John Steinbeck
11- Emergent Strategy by Adrienne Maree Brown
12- This One Summer by Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki
13- My Favorite Thing is Monsters by Emil Ferris
14- New Kid by Jerry Craft
15- The Watchman by Alan Moore
16- Saga by Brian K. Vaughan
17- American Gods by Neil Gaiman

Ep.57 . Magic In The Middle with Tamika 8-26-20

It’s back to school time around the country and whether your kids are going back to a physical classroom or are doing NTI, otherwise known as non-traditional instruction, it’s an exciting time of newness; both for students and teachers. Whether it’s the first day of school jitters or teachers having to figure out how to make learning via computer mimic the discussion and projects that would normally happen in an actual classroom, this school year in the age of Covid has an extra layer of uncertainty .

Our guest this week, Tamika, has been a middle school English/Language Arts teacher in Kentucky’s largest school district for 16 years. She is also a vibrant Bookstagrammer at her handle, @Thereadingroom444. Her goal is to make reading come alive to anyone who watches her feed. This summer she not only posted videos of her teaching tactics while reading Ibram X. Kendi’s book Stamped from the Beginning, but she also used her creativity to re-imagine book covers. Tamika is a voracious reader who is eager to share her love of literature and inspire excitement about finding books that you are passionate about.

Tamika talked to us about what the term “decolonizing the classroom” means, how she handles being a poly-reader and juggling 6 books at a time, and how she wants to use books as a way to help her students become our future leaders.

Books Discussed in this Episode:

1- Nancy Drew mystery series by Carolyn Keene
2- The Babysitter's Club series by Ann M. Martin
3- Dear Martin(and other novels) by Nic Stone
4- To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
5- Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds
6- The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
7- Pride by Ibi Zoboi
8- Stamped From the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi
9- Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You: A Remix of the National Award-winning book by Ibram X. Kendi and Jason Reynolds
10- Small Favor by Jim Butcher
11- The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
12- The Golden Compass/ The Subtle Knife by Phillip Pullman (Part of the Dark Materials trilogy)
13- The City We Became by N. K. Jemisin
14- Black Girls Must Die Exhausted by Jayne Allen
15- Caste by Isabel Wilkerson
16- The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
17- Passing by Nella Larsen

Ep 56: Creating a Comic World with David Crosby

Our guest this week, David Crosby, is a recent graduate of North Oldham County High School in Kentucky. He, like many kids growing up in the 21st century, had an undying affection for the Dave Pilkey Captain Underpants series of books. The Captain Underpants books revolve around two 4th grade boys who draw their own comic books that feature their superhero, Captain Underpants, who accidentally becomes real.

David dreamed of creating his own superhero series. What started out as silly stick figure drawings on scraps of paper evolved into a 2 issue comic book series designed by David on a Japanese graphic arts program.

David’s comic, Fro Man and Dubstep Boy, features a black superhero whose superpower is his afro hair that can be transformed into different objects to help fight evil. Fro-man is a fish out of water; a feeling David says he was familiar to him when he moved at 8 years old and was one of the only black kids at his new school. Fro-man is just one character in the Cromics universe that David along with a group of friends have planned. .

In this episode, David talks to us about how he creates his comics as a way to work through situations he is going through personally, why winning a Scholastic award helped convince his parents he was serious about a possible future in graphic design and comics, and why he was so shook up at the passing of Stan Lee, creator of the Marvel comic universe.

David has just started his freshman year at the University of Kentucky; with classes beginning this week. We wish him all the best in this new phase and can’t wait to see what he does next.

Books Discussed in this Episode:

1- Captain Underpants (series) by Dave Pilkey
2- Fro-Man and Dubstep Boy (series) by David Crosby
3- 13-Story Treehouse (series) by Andy Griffiths
4- Magic Treehouse (series) by Mary Pope Osborne
5- 1984 by George Orwell
6- Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi
7- Scott Pilgrim Versus the World by Bryan Lee O'Malley
8- What We Found in the Sofa and How It Saved the World by Henry Clark

Ep.55 The Stories History Tells Us with Jennie Cole 8-12-20

Do you read historical fiction or narrative nonfiction and wonder where your favorite authors do their research for the books you love? Our guest this week, Jennie Cole, is an archivist with the Filson Historical Society. An archivist is like a highly specialized librarian who takes care of historical materials such as letters, diaries, transcripts, photos, or even objects and organizes them to preserve them for the public use. And the Filson Historical Society is just a different kind of library; a research library of the history of our region.

Jennie had a father who loved history and a mother who immersed herself in adventure novels. Combine the two and their influences produced in their daughter a booklover who is looking for the stories within the raw material of historical archives.

In this episode, we concentrate on the stories of public health. The Filson is encouraging the public to write down their experiences for posterity’s sake so future generations can know what the Covid era was like. But we also talk to Jennie about the local stories pertaining to the Spanish flu of 1918 as well as the Tuberculosis epidemic that brought Waverly Hills Sanatorium to prominence before it was known as one of the world’s most haunted places.

Jennie tells us how anyone can use the services of the Filson, how you can access all of their workshops and lectures for free during the quarantine, and the similarities and differences she sees in the Spanish Flu pandemic and our current Coronavirus reality.

Books Mentioned in This Episode:

1- A White Wind Blew by James Markert
2- Prairie Fires by Caroline Fraser
3- Men We Reaped by Jesmyn Ward
4- Educated by Tara Westover
5- Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
6- Bring up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel
7- The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel
8- Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Slayer by Seth Grahame-Smith
9- These Honored Dead (A Lincoln and Speed Mystery #1) by Jonathan F. Putnam
10- A Song for a New Day by Sarah Pinsker

Podcasts mentioned:

1- The Past and the Curious
2- Stuff You Missed in History Class

Ep.54 A Bus Service For Book Lovers with Melanie Moore

Welcome book lovers back to our first episode of Season 3. I was away on vacation so Carrie teamed up with former guest and Ohio friend Giselle Spurgeon, to co-host this week to interview a fellow Ohioan Melanie Moore, owner of the Cincy Book Bus.

When you see an old rusty truck, the first thing that pops into your head is probably not “book store”. Melanie though had other ideas. Her dream of opening her own bookstore after retiring from 25 years of teaching was hampered somewhat by the heavy burden of all the things that go along with having a brick and mortar shop. That is, until she read a book written in 1917 called Parnassus On Wheels about a horse-drawn wagon filled with books driven around the countryside of England by a woman looking for adventure.

When Melanie looked out her kitchen window and saw her husband’s old mint green VW truck, she knew the path her bookstore future would take would have fenders and chrome. Pre-Covid, book lovers could find Melanie and her Cincy Book Bus popping up all over the greater Cincinnati area including Northern Kentucky at coffee shops, festivals, and small boutiques. Now with pandemic, she has made her presence count online as she has all kinds of ways customers can buy books, many of them hard to find European editions, both with her online store as well as with a bookclub. Oh, and I can’t forget to mention that 100% of her proceeds go to buying books for low-income youth.

Melanie talks to Carrie and Giselle about why she sees her bookstore on wheels as part of a much larger book community, how her love of the 1930s and 40s fueled the vintage feel of her logo and truck, and how she doubled the number of books she donates to worthwhile children’s organizations.

Books Discussed in This Episode:

1 - Parnassus on Wheels by Christopher Morley
2- All Creatures Great and Small series by James Herriott
3- Beneath a Scarlet Sky by Mark Sullivan
4- The Invincible Summer of Juniper Jones by Daven McQueen
5- Piecing Me Together by Renee Watson
6- The Thing About Jellyfish by Ali Benjamin
7- Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier
8- Books by D.E. Stevenson
9- A Month in the Country by J. L. Carr

RePlay Ep. 30 Not All Superheroes Wear Capes with William Sutton

**Our replay this week is an episode that was our first of Season 2 back in January before Covid hit. We talked with children’s librarian with the Louisville Free Public Library system William Sutton. If you are anything like Carrie and I, you are sorely missing your libraries and the dedicated people who staff them. In fact, our library system in Louisville KY furloughed the majority of its librarians for 3 months and only in the last month have patrons been able to do curbside pickup for book holds. In fact I think I have requested more books from the library than usual just so I have a reason to go to my local library, even if I can’t go inside. Just this week, many of our furloughed librarians have been called back. So in honor of libraries, their people, and what libraries mean to our lives, we give you this library episode with William. We will be back next week with all new episodes. Subscribe on your favorite podcast platform so you never miss a show.

Our guest today is what Mr. Rogers would call a “helper”. I first saw William Sutton on Metro TV, where he was interviewed about his work with children and it was obvious that he was something special. William works in the children’s department of the Portland branch of the Louisville Free Public Library system. Portland is one of the largest neighborhoods in Louisville and one that has a long and rich history. In the late 1800s it had the first trolley line from downtown and was the welcoming home to many waves of immigrants including Irish and German. In recent years this neighborhood has hit hard times; it has one of the lowest income levels in the city, but it is experiencing a rebirth with numerous art galleries, stores, and restaurants coming to the area. Nowhere is the small community spirit more evident though than in its neighborhood library. William Sutton is a favorite face there and you will see why. His joy in his work is infectious. He talks to us about why being a black male in a female heavy field is important for children to see, how comic books built the basis for his literary life, and why black superheroes can be an inspiration for teens to find the strength in themselves.

 

Books discussed in this episode:

1- Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
2- The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis
3- Storm by Eric Jerome Dickey
4- The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley