The Perks Of Being A Book Lover Podcast

REBROADCAST Ep. 11 - Slam! This is for the Girls with Rheonna Nicole 8-14-19

We are so excited to introduce you to our guest today, Rheonna Nicole, a spoken word artist and poet. 4 years ago she started an all female poetry slam In Louisville KY called Lipstick Wars. She started in a small theater that holds 600. That filled up and the next year she filled another theater that held 1200. This year Lipstick Wars is being held in Whitney Hall at the Kentucky Center for the Arts, a venue that holds more than 2300 people. Rheonna is a woman who will not take no for an answer. She is an example of how persistence and dedication pay off.
Rheonna tells us how a poetry slam is perfect for a competitive person, why women benefit from having a female only event and why the classic black poets such as Langston Hughes and Maya Angelou are still her biggest influences even in the age of social media. Rheonna is such a joy to interview. Her positivity is contagious and it comes across over the airwaves.
Right before this broadcast we received the news that Lipstick Wars is going on the road and will be in Lexington KY October 12 at the Carnegie Center. good news for our friends in that part of the state.

You can find us on FB, instagram (@perksofbeingabookloverpod) and on our blog site 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.

REBROADCAST Ep. 13 - Reading, Riding, and Other Horseplay with Amanda Ciejko

Today we talk with guest, Amanda Ciejko, the creator behind the book blog, The Lexington Bookie. She works with horses as part of her day job but being a voracious reader is her hobby.  She even has the horses listening to her audiobooks. Amanda shares with us how a New Year's resolution helped her create her blog, why sometimes she needs a recovery period after finishing a particularly wonderful book, and how publishers recruit readers to help create buzz for their new releases. The world of social media and the internet play a big part in our guest’s story.

If you would like to follow Amanda, you can find her book blog at www.TheLexingtonbookie.com and her Instagram feed at @thelexingtonbookie. If you are interested in bookstagram, go to the Instagram app and search #bookstagram. If you follow that link, you will see all the books...and maybe even a few cats.

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.

Ep. 29 Big Book Love in Little Libraries with Mary Sullivan and Joan Dubay 12-18-19

As this is our last episode for the season and we are in the middle of the holidays, we wanted to give you a feel good show. Today we are talking Little Free Libraries. Have you seen the cute little boxes of all colors and sizes on posts where you just open the door and you can take a book? Is there one in your neighborhood? The Little Free Library national movement is 10 years old this year and we wanted to celebrate this anniversary by exploring the movement in our community with our 2 guests this week. Mary Sullivan is a master builder with Metro United Way who spearheaded the Little Free LIbrary movement in underserved neighborhoods of Louisville which now includes 42 little libraries. Joan Dubay is a retired teacher who implemented a Little Free Library at her church and continues to maintain it by adding upwards of 50 books a week to the library.

Mary and Joan talk to us about how they first found out about Little Free Libraries, why Little libraries were chosen as a way to help local children be school successful, and how this movement is a revolving door of good feels. They wowed us with the surprising number of books being shared.

Mary wants our listeners to know that if you have books you would like to donate they can be delivered to Metro United Way, 334 E. Broadway in Louisville between the hours of 8:45-4:30 Monday-Friday. If you need other times call 502.583-2821 and leave a message for Mary Sullivan.

Books Mentioned in this Episode:

• Belle Prater's Boy by Ruth White
• The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet by Reif Larsen
• I, Eliza Hamilton by Susan Holloway Scott
• The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
• The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver

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.

Ep. 28 A Book Lover's Double Feature with Kara Evans 12-11-19

Our guest this week, Kara Evans, is a transplant to Louisville by way of New Jersey and Atlanta and was looking for a fun way to meet new people. She is a healthcare consultant specializing in technology but her hobbies have always included reading and movies. So she decided to create a book and movie club called Books Going to the Big Screen which can be found on the platform Meetup.com, a site with a plethora of different kinds of groups you can join in any geographical area.

Kara tells us the benefits and the frustrations of having Hollywood pick the book selections, why she needs crazy good research skills to keep up with the ongoing movie schedule, how their discussions in this club feel completely different than a regular bookclub when you are comparing and contrasting two different mediums, and how reading has always been her escape.

Books Mentioned in this Episode:

• I'm Down by Mishna Wolff
• Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs: Big Questions from Tiny Mortals About Death by Caitlin Doughty
• The Last Days of Night by Graham Moore
• The Good Liar by Nicholas Searle
• Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem
• I Heard You Paint Houses by Charles Brandt
• The Lady From the Black Lagoon: Hollywood Monsters and the Lost Legacy of Milicent Patrick by Mallory O'Meara

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.

Ep. 27 A "Meat" and Greet with the Past with Mick Sullivan 12-4-19~0

Our guest today is a history buff who has taken his interest in the past to a whole new level. Mick Sullivan is a history educator at the Frazier History Museum and is in charge of their youth and family programs. But he is also the creator of the children’s history podcast, The Past and the Curious, which Common Sense Media lists as one of the best podcasts for kids. His quirky combo of humor and music keeps both kids and adults interested and sneaks in a little history in the process. His podcast includes a bit of an earworm song about local coffee shop Heine Bros Coffee So even if history isn’t your jam, check it out just for that tune.

The success of his podcast has led to the publishing of his first children’s book, The Meat Shower, which is a fun telling of the historical event of meat (yes I just said meat) literally raining down on a Kentucky farm in the 1800s. In fact what is even more curious, there is still no explanation of this unusual event today.

Mick tells us how his podcast grew out of the stories he tells kids at the Frazier’s children’s programs, how his background in musical performance has served him well when creating the variety of music for his podcast, what huge role vultures play in his new book, and all about his vision to have a series of books featuring quirky history for every reading level.

 

• The Meatshower by Mick Sullivan
• Spying on the South by Tony Horwitz
• Confederates in the Attic by Tony Horwitz
• Life of Pi by Yann Martel
• American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang

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.

Ep. 26 Picking The Perfect Published Present with Bri Esposito 11-17-19

We are now just a few days before Black Friday and the start of the crazy holiday shopping season. We are all book lovers here which means chances are high we will all probably buy a book or related gift for at least 1 person on our shopping lists. Carrie and I plus our guest today, Bri Esposito, are here to help. Bri has been the marketing coordinator for Carmichael Books, Louisville’s oldest independent bookstore, for the last few years and puts together their holiday buying guide.

We talk about what adult fiction and children’s books are hot this season; what new cookbook is perfect for the no fuss cook in your life, and what to buy at a bookstore for the hard to buy for person.

We also give you some backlist titles that are great holiday reads that you should put on your TBR list this winter.

Grab your hot tea or cocoa (or spiked eggnog, cause that’s sometimes how we roll), your paper and pen, and prepare your holiday shopping list with us on this week’s Perks of Being a Book Lover.

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.

Ep. 25 How The Library Keeps Us LITerate with mk Eagle and Hannah Elliott 11-20-19

Do you remember when a library was just a library? A building with books and periodicals; maybe a few DVDS. Today’s library, though, is in flux; transforming beyond a static brick and mortar facility to become a movement with social events, digital interfaces, and futuristic technologies. While reading is still a huge part of that movement, it is just one of many unique ways in which people can interact with the library.

Today’s guests, mk Eagle and Hannah Elliott, are librarians at Louisville’s new Northeast Regional Library’s branch and also coordinate much of the adult programming system-wide. They started a program 4 years ago called Books and Brews 502, which is just like the LIbrary’s summer reading program for kids but in this case an awesome winter program for adults that can include beer, coffee, and food.

Sounds fun, right? It runs December 1 - Feb. 29 and you can sign up at the Louisville Free Public Library website. And as millenials, mk and Hannah are striving to offer programming to appeal to all adults but especially to this demographic. They are part of a movement to take the library outside of 4 walls and into the larger community.

mk and Hannah tell us what a “pop up” is in terms of libraries, how to earn points towards fun prizes just for reading books, at what events you can actually drink beer in the library, and how a simple library card can open up a world of cool gadgets and equipment to use for free. Those two millennials are teaching these two Gen Xers a thing or two about how the library is transforming which includes cool outings and silent disco.

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.

Ep. 24 Knocking on Fantasy's Door with Alix Harrow 11-13-19

Carrie and I have a very special guest today. 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. She is a rising star in the burgeoning female revolution taking place in the science fiction and fantasy genres.

On November 16, she will be one of the authors you can find at the Kentucky Book Festival being held at the Alltech Arena of the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington KY.

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 the second novel she is furiously trying to finish.

If you would like to follow her on social media, she can be found at Twitter (@AlixEHarrow) and Instagram (@alix.e.harrow).

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.

Ep. 23 An Annual Cure for Writer's Block with Amy Miller 11-6-19

Reading and writing just go together. Like salt and pepper, peanut butter and jelly, Simon and Garfunkle. Well that last pair broke up but you know what I mean. The two are undeniably linked. Readers need writers and writers need readers so it makes sense that one of the perks of shared words would be a festival all about the writing process.The Writer’s Block Festival is being held November 16 at Spalding University sponsored by Louisville Literary Arts. Our guest today, Amy Miller, is the executive director of Louisville Literary Arts, an organization whose mission is to offer writers support in whatever stage they are in; whether that be before any words are put on a page or to an already published author. And while the Writer’s Block Festival is their biggest event, Louisville Literary Arts provides numerous other programs, many of them free, all year round.

Amy tells us about why you don’t need to go back to school or have an MFA to pursue writing, what the difference is between a writer who is a plotter and one who is a pantser , and what her personal perfect writing gig would look like.

 

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.

Ep. 22 (Fun) Home Is Where the Heart Is with Michael Drury 10-30-19

Do you love a good Broadway show? So does Michael Drury, the producing artistic director of Pandora Productions, a theater company solely dedicated to telling the stories of the LGBTQ Plus community. And this passion made him tenacious in pursuing the rights to produce Fun Home, a Broadway musical based on the critically acclaimed 2007 graphic memoir of the same name by Alison Bechdel, who is best known for her comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For. The play adaptation won the Tony award for Best Musical and Best Original Score. Pandora’s production will be the regional premiere of this play.

Michael talks to us about the process theater companies go through to get rights to perform popular Broadway plays, why he feels its important to have an LGBTQ plus focused theater, and the innovative way the company is designing the Fun Home set to give a big nod to the original graphic novel.

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.