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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 May 13, 2020
Wednesday May 13, 2020
We all had big plans for our quarantine free time, right? Maybe we wanted to Marie Kondo organize the whole house, learn how to make beautiful loaves of bread, or begin training for that marathon you’ve had on your bucket list.
Our guest today, Robin Weiss, had a different kind of quarantine goal. She was determined to revitalize her reading life. This mother of 9 who is also a professor of public health as well as a childbirth expert and doula, fell out of love with reading when she attended grad school. In the intervening years, her knowledge of new titles and authors got stuck in a time warp where she left off in the 1990s. So, she formed an online quarantine bookclub with fellow readers across the country to help get her literary groove back.
Robin talks to us about what past favorite authors she is happy to discover have published new books in recent years, what benefits the group gets from meeting weekly versus monthly, whether her bookclub is experiencing trauma bonding, and what happens when the quarantine is over.
Books discussed in this episode:
1- The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
2- It By Stephen King
3- The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
4- On The Beach by Nevil Shute
5- The Charm School by Nelson DeMille
6- The Gold Coast by Nelson DeMille
7- The General's Daughter by Nelson DeMille
8- The Bone Collector by Jeffrey Deaver
9- The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski (short stories)
10- Sword of Destiny by Andrzej Sapkowski (short stories)
11- Blood of Elves by Andrzej Sapkowski (novel)
12- The Murmur of Bees by Sofia Segovia
13- The Braid by Laetitia Colombani
You can find us on FB, instagram (@perksofbeingabookloverpod) and on our blog site at www.perksofbeingabooklover.com
Perks airs on Forward Radio 106.5 FM and forwardradio.org every Wednesday at 6 pm, Thursdays at 6 am and 12 pm. We have purchased the rights to the theme music used.
Wednesday May 06, 2020
Wednesday May 06, 2020
We probably all have memories of picking up a 25 cent postcard at a cheesy souvenir shop on a summer vacation to send to a friend or family member back home. The first postcard was invented by an Englishman in 1840 but now these iconic colorful cards have whole websites, youtube videos, and pinterest boards devoted to them with themes such as the best ways to write a meaningful message in just a few lines, postcards as a writing process, and 8 reasons you should be sending postcards right now.
Our guest today, Anita Martin, puts much time and energy into melding 2 of her favorite things; postcards and books. Her website Postcards and Authors invites bibliophiles of all types, including writers, book clubs, and bookish podcasts to send a postcard that lets readers get a glimpse of who they are.
Anita talks to us about how picking out a postcard can give you insight into a person’s personality, how books are just one facet of her desire to be a lifelong learner, what genre initially gave her the desire to always have a book in her hand, and how one author’s signature on his postcard made it one of her favorites.
Books Discussed in this Episode:
1- Roots by Alex Haley
2- Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly
3- The Flying Cutterbucks by Kathleen M. Rodgers
4- Akata Witch and Akata Warrior by Nnedi Okorafor
5- The Stowaway: A Young Man's Extraordinary Adventure to Antartica by Laurie Gwen Shapiro
6- The Last Painting of Sara DeVos by Dominic Smith
7- It's Great to Suck at Something by Karen Rinaldi
You can find us on FB, instagram (@perksofbeingabookloverpod) and on our blog site at www.perksofbeingabooklover.com
Perks airs on Forward Radio 106.5 FM and forwardradio.org every Wednesday at 6 pm, Thursdays at 6 am and 12 pm. We have purchased the rights to the theme music used.
Wednesday Apr 29, 2020
Wednesday Apr 29, 2020
But now that you’ve had your Kentucky Derby primer from Carrie and I, we can all still celebrate this event quarantine-style, with a book and maybe a glass of bourbon. Our guest today, D.C. Alexander, is doing his part to help. D.C. is originally from Seattle but has eagerly adopted Louisville as his hometown. He is a former federal agent turned author who has written several mystery novels with the setting of his most recent being right here in Kentucky.
Blood in the Bluegrass takes place the week before the Kentucky Derby and begins with the murder of an up and coming horse jockey. But as mysteries often do, things get complicated with horse breeders, bourbon distilleries, corruption, and old money.
D.C. talks to us about why he thinks Louisvlle is a great locale for a novel, what book he read in his 20s that turned him from a book-loathing kid to a full-fledged bibliophile, and how long trips in his car in rural Colorado started him on the path to writing.
Books mentioned in this episode:
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John Le Carre
Secret Louisville by Kevin Gibson
Chasing the Monkey King by D.C. Alexander
The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Dune by Frank Herbert
Rough Magic: Riding the World's Loneliest Horse Race by Laura Prior-Palmer
A Pearl in the Storm by Tori Murden McClure
You can find us on FB, instagram (@perksofbeingabookloverpod) and on our blog site at www.perksofbeingabooklover.com
Perks airs on Forward Radio 106.5 FM and forwardradio.org every Wednesday at 6 pm, Thursdays at 6 am and 12 pm. We have purchased the rights to the theme music used.
Wednesday Apr 22, 2020
Wednesday Apr 22, 2020
Are you nostalgic about a book you read as a kid? What book from your childhood remains vivid in your mind? Our guest today, Diane Neu, hosts a podcast that explores that very question. The podcast titled Shaped by Stories features one avid reader each episode who talks about the book from their childhood or early adolescence that made the biggest impact on them and why. Diane had been a podcast fan for many years; in fact she’s been a podcast listener since almost the beginning of podcasts 12 years ago. But some changes in her own life convinced her there was no time like the present to start her own.
Diane talks to us about her very favorite spot to read when she was a child in small town Idaho, why she loves Jane Austen like no other, why reading children’s books as an adult is an important exercise, and how producing a podcast helped her find her special brand of “people” when she needed it most.
Books mentioned in this episode:
1- Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery
2- Betsy In Spite of Herself by Maud Hart Lovelace
3- I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
4- Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell
5- Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
6- No More Dead Dogs by Gordon Korman
7- Neverworld Wake by Marrisha Pessl
8- Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
9- The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman
10- The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
11- Mr. Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan
12- Mary Poppins by P. L. Travers
13- Same Sun Here by Silas House and Neela Vaswani
14- Emma by Jane Austen
15- Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling
16- From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg
You can find us on FB, instagram (@perksofbeingabookloverpod) and on our blog site at www.perksofbeingabooklover.com
Perks airs on Forward Radio 106.5 FM and forwardradio.org every Wednesday at 6 pm, Thursdays at 6 am and 12 pm. We have purchased the rights to the theme music used.
Tuesday Apr 14, 2020
Tuesday Apr 14, 2020
With many libraries across the country having to stay closed due to the Coronavirus pandemic, patrons may have more time to discover all the resources libraries have to offer that aren’t between the four walls of a library building. While many of us may be nostalgic about those card catalogues and the check-out card pocket glued inside the back of books, libraries have become focused on information in all forms and the best ways to get it to all of us at home.
Our guest today, Patty Clark, is a digital services librarian with the Oldham County library system. Oldham County is a more rural and suburban county on the far outskirts of Louisville Kentucky. The Oldham County library system is a member of the Kentucky Library Consortium, as are most of the library systems within the state except for large independent library systems in Louisville and Lexington. Members of the consortium pool their resources to offer their patrons as many technical services as possible. And while Patty is most familiar with her own library, many of the services we talk about today are ones that can be found in libraries throughout the country . If you aren’t sure if your library offers these services, just ask.
We had originally recorded with Patty in February, but the pandemic changed things immensely , and we wanted to ensure listeners had current info so we appreciate her being game to do it again.
Patty tells us about some of the special features ebooks from your library offer that you may not know about, why you should always put yourself on the waiting list for a highly sought after books even if that list seems ridiculously long, and about some services libraries offer that may just spark a new hobby which is fun for when your under quarantine.
Books mentioned in this episode:
1- A White Wind Blew by James Markert
2- Hawaii and other books by James Michener
3- The War That Saved My Life byKimberly Brubaker Bradley
4- The Wonder by Emma Donohue
5- The Authenticity Project by Clare Pooley
6- The Need by Helen Phillips
Podcasts mentioned:
1- Desert Island Discs (BBC)
2- Endless Thread
3- Laughter Permitted
You can find us on FB, instagram (@perksofbeingabookloverpod) and on our blog site at www.perksofbeingabooklover.com
Perks airs on Forward Radio 106.5 FM and forwardradio.org every Wednesday at 6 pm, Thursdays at 6 am and 12 pm. We have purchased the rights to the theme music used.
Tuesday Apr 07, 2020
Tuesday Apr 07, 2020
When we recorded with our guests for today’s episode over a month and a half ago, we had no idea how timely our discussion would be. Our topic today is mortality. The vast majority of people probably don’t like talking or thinking about that topic, but with Covid-19 confronting us every day, it's a subject that is certainly taking up space in our heads. But what we discovered during our discussion is that thinking about death also makes you think about the joys of life and humanity; and that’s something we can all use more of.
Justin Magnuson and Rebecca Sturgeon are co-moderators of a book club called The Long Before the End Book Club that started as part of The Before I Die Festival in Louisville Kentucky. They are an organization that along with other groups like Bevival and the Trager Institute at the University of Louisville promote discussions about the end of life through a variety of means including the arts. While it may seem bleak, the Long Before the End book club gives members a chance to be honest in a safe space in which everyone is in a shared boat of limited life.
Justin and Rebecca talk to us about how every book we read is a little bit about death, how their book discussions help members get through hard conversations with loved ones, and how it has been a gift to form a community by connecting with people they wouldn’t ordinarily meet.
Under normal circumstances, their book club meets once a month at a local coffee shop.
The COVID-19 pandemic has recently made it necessary for the book club to use distance technology for their book discussion. Toward the end of this episode, Carrie checks back in with Justin to find out how their bookclub is adjusting and thoughts on how the pandemic is affecting the way we live and the way we die.
Book Discussed:
1- The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes
2- Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
3- Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters
4- Being Mortal by Atul Gawande
5- Spaceman of Bohemia by Jasoslav Kalfar
6- She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb
7- The Vegetarian by Han Kang
8- The Plaque by Albert Camus
9- All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
10- How Not to Die Alone by Richard Roper
11- The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai
12- The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin
13- Near the Exit by Lori Erickson
14- The Memory of Old Jack by Wendell Berry
15- LovingKindness by Sharon Salzburg
16- The Eyre Affair and the Thursday Next Series by Jasper Fforde
17- The Undying by Anne Boyer
18- The Last Massai Warriors by Jackson Ntirkana, Wilson Meikuya, and Susan McClelland
19- Short Stories by Kelly Barnhill
20- The Last Romantics by Tara Conklin
21- The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy
You can find us on FB, instagram (@perksofbeingabookloverpod) and on our blog site at www.perksofbeingabooklover.com
Perks airs on Forward Radio 106.5 FM and forwardradio.org every Wednesday at 6 pm, Thursdays at 6 am and 12 pm. We have purchased the rights to the theme music used.
Wednesday Apr 01, 2020
Wednesday Apr 01, 2020
Alix Harrow is a Hugo award-winning writer of historical fantasy fiction who also happens to be a fellow Kentuckian. Her debut novel, The Ten Thousand Doors of January, has been called by Kirkus Reviews a ‘A love letter to imagination, adventure, the written word,’ and NPR books says it is one that should go on your Favorites Shelf. It has been on the Los Angeles Times Bestsellers List. It was recently nominated for the Nebula Award. She is a rising star in the burgeoning female revolution taking place in the science fiction and fantasy genres.
We interviewed Alix at the library of her alma mater, Berea College, in Berea, KY. She talked with us about the sub-genre of portal fantasies and her love-hate relationship with them
as a child, what influence becoming a mother had on writing the book, why she loves Chicago-style footnotes, and details about her second novel she is furiously trying to finish.
Books discussed in this episode:
1- The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix Harrow
2- The Man Who Sold Rope to the Gnoles by Margaret St. Clair (short story)
3- Gideon the 9th by Tamsyn Muir
4- The City We Became by N. K. Jemesin
5- The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep by H. G. Parry
6- The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
You can find us on FB, instagram (@perksofbeingabookloverpod) and on our blog site at www.perksofbeingabooklover.com
Perks airs on Forward Radio 106.5 FM and forwardradio.org every Wednesday at 6 pm, Thursdays at 6 am and 12 pm. We have purchased the rights to the theme music used.
Wednesday Mar 25, 2020
Wednesday Mar 25, 2020
Our guest today grew up in poverty in eastern Kentucky, but attended Yale and Harvard, received her law degree, and came back to Kentucky to work for the Legal Aid Society, helping at-risk women in her home state. Cassie Chambers has also written a memoir, called Hill Women: Finding Family and a Way Forward in the Appalachian Mountains, about life and culture in Owsley County through the lens of three generations of women in her own family.
Her book came out in January of this year. Newsweek has named it a must-read book to savor this Spring, and Publisher’s Weekly called it a “passionate memoir”.
Cassie talks to us about her favorite book series from childhood that she still rereads as an adult, why she felt the women of Appalachia specifically need their stories told and what compelled her to write it, and why she thinks more women don’t run for office and why that needs to change.
Books Discussed during this Episode:
1- Anne of Green Gables series by Lucy Maude Montgomery
2- Fair and Tender Ladies by Lee Smith
3- The Wonder by Emma Donoghue
4- Castaway: Poems for our Time by Naomi Shihab Nye
5- Walkable City by Jeff Speck
You can find us on FB, instagram (@perksofbeingabookloverpod) and on our blog site at www.perksofbeingabooklover.com
Perks airs on Forward Radio 106.5 FM and forwardradio.org every Wednesday at 6 pm, Thursdays at 6 am and 12 pm. We have purchased the rights to the theme music used.
Wednesday Mar 18, 2020
Wednesday Mar 18, 2020
Our guest this week, Emily McKeehan, left a job in the insurance industry to follow her dream of becoming a high school English teacher because she felt that was what she has been called to do.
When she saw a Facebook article about how therapy dogs can help young elementary students with their reading, she had the crazy idea of trying them with her students at Eastern High School, which is in eastern Jefferson county outside Louisville. What she hoped for was to build confidence in her reluctant freshman readers, but what she got was so much more.
Emily talks to us about some books that are reliable favorites of her students year after year, what kind of students she feels get the most from working with a reading therapy dog, and what TV show was her bridge to loving the true crime genre.
We feel lucky to have had the chance to interview Emily the day before the Kentucky governor called off schools in the state for the corona virus pandemic.
Books discussed in this episode:
1- The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
2- The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
3- The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare
4- The Freedom Writers Diary by Erin Gruwell and the Freedom Writers
5- Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls by David Sedaris
6- The Stranger Beside Me by Ann Rule
7- I'll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara
8- In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
9- Notes from a Young Black Chef by Kwame Onwuachi and Joshua David Stein
10- Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann
You can find us on FB, instagram (@perksofbeingabookloverpod) and on our blog site at www.perksofbeingabooklover.com
Perks airs on Forward Radio 106.5 FM and forwardradio.org every Wednesday at 6 pm, Thursdays at 6 am and 12 pm. We have purchased the rights to the theme music used.
Wednesday Mar 11, 2020
Wednesday Mar 11, 2020
“Wherever the art of medicine is loved, there is also the love of humanity”. This quote from Hippocrates, the father of medicine, is especially true when doctors imbue their experiences into artistic pursuits like today’s guest. Kimmery Martin is an emergency room physician turned author whose medical fiction features female doctors shouldering the life and death responsibilities of their profession but also dealing with questions of friendship, love, and the thorny cultural Issues of our times with a good dose of humor thrown into the mix.
Her first novel Queen of Hearts, published in 2018, was praised by the New York Times and cited as a most anticipated book by Southern Living and Writers Digest.
Her newest book, The Antidote for Everything, explores the friendship between a female specialist and her best friend, a male family physician who also happens to be gay. Her book explores what happens when her best friend is told by the administration of the hospital that he can no longer provide care for LGBTQ patients or risk being fired.
Kimmery talks to us about her childhood growing up in Eastern Kentucky, the humorous way she chose the profession for her main character, what the storyline of her next book will look like, and why physicians have a unique perspective for writing fiction.
Books and Authors Discussed in this Episode:
1- Any book by Bill Bryson
2- Queen of Hearts by Kimmery Martin
3- The Antidote for Everything by Kimmery Martin
4- Any book by Chris Bohjalian
5- Booked by Kwame Alexander
6- Emma by Jane Austen
7- The Innocents by Micheal Crummey
You can find us on FB, instagram (@perksofbeingabookloverpod) and on our blog site at www.perksofbeingabooklover.com
Perks airs on Forward Radio 106.5 FM and forwardradio.org every Wednesday at 6 pm, Thursdays at 6 am and 12 pm. We have purchased the rights to the theme music used.