The Perks Of Being A Book Lover Podcast

S10:Ep. 212 Say Yes to Small Presses - A Book Rec Episode - 3/6/24

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This week we talk about some of our favorite books coming out of small and independent presses. The Big 5 publishers print those blockbusters we love to stick in our beach bag but smaller presses support much more diverse authors and innovative and important stories that may be your next favorite read! We give you a little primer about the difference between a small press and an imprint by on the Big 5. And we give you 10 books (plus a few more) that we recommend from indie presses!

Books mentioned--

1- The Changeling by Victor Lavalle

2- The Odyssey by Homer

3- Men Explain Things To Me by Rebecca Solnit

4- Everyman by Philip Roth

5- Italian Shoes by Henning Mankell

6- Gilead by Marilynne Robinson - 5 star readrecommended by fellow book lover Amy Bernath @mrsmillardfillmorereads

7- The Wild Hunt by Emma Seckel (Tin House)

8- Three Ways to Disappear by Katy Yocom (Ashland Creek Press)
ThePerksofBeingaBookLover.podbean.com/e/ep-3…26-20/

9- The Salt Fields by Stacy D. Flood (Lanternfish Press)

10- Whiskey and Ribbons by Leesa Cross Smith (Hub City Press)

11- Landings: A Crooked Creek Farm Year by Arwen Donahue (Hub City Press)

12- Places We Left Behind: A Memoir in Miniature by Jennifer Lang (Vine Leaves Press)

13- What Ben Franklin Would Have Told Me by Donna Gordon (Regal House)
ThePerksofBeingaBookLover.podbean.com/e/s-6-…-8-22/

14- Menopause: A Comic Treatment edited by MK Czerwiec (Penn State University Press)

15- Bad Tourist by Suzanne Roberts (Univeristy of Nebraska Press)

16- Another Appalachia by Neema Avashia(WVU Press)

17- World of Wonders by Aimee Nezhukumatathil (Milkweed Editions)

18- Late Migrations by Margaret Renkl (Milkweed Editions)

19- Lungfish by Meghan Gillis (Catapult Books)

20- Tidepool by Nicole Willson (Parliament House)

21- The Keeper of the Key by Nicole Willson (Parliament House Books - coming Nov. 12, 2024)

Movies/Shows mentioned--

Maestro (Netflix, 2023)

The Changeling (Apple+, 2023)

For All Mankind (Apple+, 2019)

Links mentioned:

Odysseus Lunar Landing - www.cnn.com/2024/02/22/world/mo…nasa-scn/index.html

Solar Flare -
www.cbsnews.com/philadelphia/news…outage-earth-att/

Human Isolation on Mars-
www.nytimes.com/2024/02/25/magazi…n-experiment.html

LA Public Library now owns a small press -
www.latimes.com/entertainment-art…makes-total-sense

S10:Ep211 - Shawntaye's Bookish Life with Guest Shawntaye H. - 2/28/24

You can Shawntaye on Instagram at @shawntaye1

Our website www.perksofbeingabooklover.com.
Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpod
FaceBook - Perks of Being a Book Lover.
To send us a message, go to our website and click the Contact button.

 

This week we chat with a Lexington, Kentucky bookstagrammer, Shawntaye, who is such a devoted reader that she makes books part of virtually everything she does, from socializing to volunteering. Amy met Shawntaye in real life before COVID and the Perks has been following her bookish adventures ever since. 

 

Shawntaye talks to us about a panel discussion she lead in which she recommended books that uplift Black women, as well as what she has learned from being a board member of her local library and how the reading events she attends enrich her life. She also shares her very strong (and funny) feelings about why she does not set numerical reading goals each year. 

Books Discussed in this Episode:

1- Finna by Nino Cipri

2- What We Found in the Sofa and How it Saved the World by Henry Clark

3- What We Found in the Corn Maze and How It Saved a Dragon by Henry Clark

4- Heidi by Johanna Spyri

5- Forever by Judy Blume

6- Waiting to Exhale by Terry McMillan

7- Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson

8- Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy

9- You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson

10- The House of Eve by Sadeqa Johnson

11- Power: The Rise of Black Women in America by Charity C. Elder

12 - My Beautiful Black Hair by St. Clair Detrick-Jules

13- My Hair is Like the Sun by St. Clair Detrick-Jules

14- Hell of a Book by Jason Mott

15- The Prophets by Robert Jones Jr.

16- Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

17 -Water by John Boyne (Five Star Read recommended by Book Lover Lynley @bichons_and_books_nz)

18- Enter the Body by Joy McCullough

19- Titus Andronicus by William Shakespeare

20- Dixon, Descending by Karen Outen

21- The Weather Woman by Sally Gardner

S10:Ep 210 - The Gibson Girl Review Podcast with Guest Amy Drown - 2/21/24

You can find Amy and the Gibson Girl review at www.gibsongirlreview.com/ as well as on Instagram at @gibsongirlreview

Our website www.perksofbeingabooklover.com.
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FaceBook - Perks of Being a Book Lover.
To send us a message, go to our website and click the Contact button.

As podcast people ourselves, we are always interested in checking out other unique book-related podcasts. You can find a podcast to fit any interest no matter how obscure; there is something for everyone out in the pod universe.

Our guest this week is Amy Drown, the founder, producer, and host of Gibson Girl Review, a podcast that focuses on novels from the Gilded Age and Progressive era, circa 1870-1920. Edith Wharton and Henry James are authors from this time you may have had to read in high school, but for the most part, novels from these time periods have mostly been forgotten among the general reading public. Amy likes to give them a fresh reading. She has found that many of the problems we deal with in 2024 are very similar to the ones people dealt with some 130+ years ago.

Amy is a historian herself with a vast collection of old books she inherited from her family. In the end, she just wanted to read them instead of have them languishing on a shelf, and The Gibson Girl Review podcast was born.

Books Discussed in This Episode:

1- The Passionate Epicure by Marcel Rouff

2- The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant

3- My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier

4- A Room With A View by E.M. Forster

5- The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry

6- Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux

7- Jan of the Windmill by Juliana Horatia Ewing

8- Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery

9 - Heidi by Johanna Spyri

10- Pollyanna by Eleanor H. Porter

11- Poor Dear Theodora by Florence Irwin

12- The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope

13- Her First Appearance by Richard Harding Davis

14- Five Star Book Recommendation from Nelwina @toallreaders - The Sun and the Star by Rick Riordan

15- The Fertile Earth and the Ordered Cosmos: Reflections on the Newark Earthworks and World Heritage edited by M. Elizabeth Weiser and others

16- The Wright Brothers by David McCullough

17- Winterfrost by Michelle Houts

Movies and Shows mentioned—

1- The Taste of Things (2023)

2- A Room With a View (1985)

3- The Gilded Age (HBOMax, 2022- present)

4- Downton Abbey (Peacock, 2010- 2015)

S10:Ep209 - The Heartbreak Years with Guest Minda Honey - 2/24/24

To find out more about Minda, go to her website at www.mindahoney.com or find her on social media @mindahoney

Website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com.
Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpod
FaceBook- Perks of Being a Book Lover.
To send us a message, go to our website and click the Contact button.

We have a remix episode for you this week on Valentine’s Day, and the book we discuss is all about love and the loss of it.

We first talked with author Minda Honey back in the summer of 2019 During that interview, she spoke about her book of essays tentatively titled “An Anthology of Assholes,” which was about her dating experiences from her mid-20s to age 30 as a single black woman. In October 2023, her book now titled The Heartbreak Years was published by Little A.

We catch up with Minda about her memoir. We then transition back to parts of our original interview which also focuses on the Toni Morrison documentary, Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am. In the summer of 2019, Speed Cinema featured this film, but if you missed it then you can find it now on most streaming platforms, including Netflix and Hulu. When we discussed Morrison, she was still living but she died a few weeks later, in Aug 2019.

Books Discussed in this Episode:

1- The Heartbreak Years by Minda Honey

2- All Our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai

3- Thief of Time by Terry Pratchett

4- What The Wind Knows by Amy Harmon

5- Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison

6- Sula by Toni Morrison

7- Beloved by Toni Morrison

8- The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

9- The Mothers by Brit Bennett

10- Ruby by Cynthia Bond

11- Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward

12- How to Be Remembered by Michael Thompson - A Five star read recommended by Jessica Bearak @tonightsbookishfeast

13- The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline

14- Yinka, Where Is Your Husband? by Lizzie Damilola Blackburn; audiobook narrated by Ronke Adékoluejo

Shows mentioned--

1- Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am (2019)

2- Time Trap (2018, Netflix)

3- Dark (2017-2020, Netflix)

4- Will & Harper (2024)

5- Six Feet Under (2001-2005, Netflix)

6- Will and Grace (1998-2006, Hulu)

S10:Ep208 - Time Warps - A Book Rec Episode - 2/7/24

Website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com.
Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpod
Face Book - Perks of Being a Book Lover.
To send us a message, go to our website and click the Contact button.

 

This week we are talking time bending books, series, and movies including time travel, time loop, and time slip. Here is a link for more info on this subgenera.

https://www.abookgeek.com/exploring-the-paradoxes-of-time-travel-literature-a-journey-through-the-ages/

Books mentioned--

1- Number The Stars by Lois Lowry

2- Intrigue in Istanbul by Ericka Ruth Neubauer

3- The Other Valley by Scott Alexander Howard

4- Time Machine by HG Wells

5- A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain

6- The House on the Strand by Daphne Du Maurier

7- Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

8- The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Neffenegger

9- Midnight Library by Matt Haig

10- Doomsday Book by Connie Willis

11- Transall Saga by Gary Paulsen

12- Time and Again by Jack Finney

13- 11/22/63 by Stephen King

14- Da Vinci's Cat by Catherine Gilbert Murdoch

15- When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

16-Kindred by Octavia Butler

17- Neverworld Wake by Marissa Pessl

18- Wrong Place, Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister

19- A Boy And His Dog At The End of The World by C.A. Fletcher - 5 star read recommended by Heather Crotwell @readingwithavengeance

20- Orchard by Larry Watson

21- Poor Things by Alasdair Gray

22- Soccer Grannies: The South African Women Who Inspired the World by Jean Duffy

Other stuff mentioned--

1- Radiolab episode about Einstein's brain - radiolab.org/podcast/g-relative-genius

2- Disney's Frozen (Broadway Across America)

3- Number the Stars (Stage One theater production)

4- Dark (Netflix, 2017-2020)

5- Bodies (Netflix, 2023)

10- BeForeigners (Amazon Prime, 2019- )

11- Interstellar (2014)

12- Tenet (2020)

13- Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989)

14- Back to the Future (1985)

15- Sliding Doors (1998)

16- Time Bandits (1981)

17- Hot Tub Time Machine (2010)

18- Donnie Darko (2001)

19- Kindred (Hulu, 2022)

20- Florida Altering Picture Books link - popular.info/p/pressed-by-moms-for-liberty-florida
** This was not a source I was familiar with even though it was being quoted by Pen America so I consulted www.Mediabiasfactcheck.com. This was their summary of this source. "Overall, we rate Popular Information Left Biased based on story selection and editorial content that routinely favors liberal causes. We also rate them High for factual reporting due to proper sourcing and a clean fact-check record."

S10:Ep207 - Tent For Seven with Guests Marty Ohlhaut and Grace Ly - 1/31/24

You can find Marty at his website www.martyohlhaut.com/ while you can find Grace on Instagram at @grace.ly_author)

Our website www.perksofbeingabooklover.com.
Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpod
FaceBook - Perks of Being a Book Lover.
To send us a message, go to our website and click the Contact button.

This week we talk to the father-daughter team of Marty Ohlhaut and Grace Ly. They have written a travel memoir called Tent for Seven: A Camping Adventure Gone South Out West.

This book is based on the true story of their family camping trip to the Canadian Rockies which went horribly wrong in the 1990s. Marty, his wife Jolene, and their 5 children flew from Charlotte NC to the Pacific Northwest and then drove a van to several spots in the majestic Canadian mountains. They camped in their family tent, lovingly referred to as Big Blue. While there, so many things went awry but most importantly, Jolene was severely injured and had to be taken to a hospital where she spent many days. The Ohlhaut family was in disarray but Good Samaritans named the Walshes came to the rescue.

This family is genetically predisposed to adventure. You will hear Marty talk about some wild things he has seen and done, and even though Grace doesn’t doesn’t mention it, she also is an adventure seeker. She dog sleds in Finland and rock climbs in Colorado. Carrie and I are so boring in comparison.

Books Discussed in this Episode:

1- Tent for Seven: A Camping Adventure Gone South Out West by Marty Ohlhaut and Grace Ly

2- A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail by Bill Bryson

3- Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer

4- Tread of Angels by Rebecca Roanhorse

5- The Scent of Burnt Flowers by Blitz Bazawule

6- A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

7- In Harm's Way by Doug Stanton

8- Slow Horses by Mick Herron

9- Standing by the Wall: The Collected Slough House Novellas by Mick Herron (novellas)

10- The Future by Naomi Alderman - 5 star read recommended by Shelley Anderson @shelleyanderson4127

11- Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner

Shows mentioned--
1- Slow Horses (Apple +)

 

Link mentioned:

A Poem-a-Day email service - go to www.poets.org to sign up

 

S10:Ep206- Huda F Cares with Guest Huda Fahmy - 1/24/24

You can find Huda at her website www.Hudafahmy.com.

Our website at www.perksofbeingabooklover.com.
Instagram @perksofbeingabookloverpod
FaceBook Perks of Being a BookLover.
To send us a message, go to our website and click the Contact button.

This week we talk to Huda Fahmy, a graphic novelist whose 4th book Huda F Cares? was a finalist for the 2023 National Book Award in Young People’s Literature. Her book focuses on a teenage Muslim girl named Huda who takes a road trip in the family’s station wagon from Michigan to Florida to visit Disneyworld with her parents and many sisters. There she grapples with wanting to fit in with her peers but also wanting to stay true to her family and her Muslim religion with issues like wearing her hijab and praying in public.

The character Huda in her book is based on the author’s experience growing up in an Egyptian family that immigrated to the US. Huda talks about her love of comics and how she picked up English in part by reading Garfield comic books. Huda began writing graphic novels at the age of 30 when two of her sisters encouraged her to turn her essays of Muslim American life into illustrated stories.

Books mentioned in This Episode:

1- Huda F Cares? by Huda Fahmy

2- Huda F Are You? by Huda Fahmy

3- Yes, I'm Hot in This by Huda Fahmy

4- Huda F Wants To Know by Huda Fahmy

5- That Can be Arranged by Huda Fahmy

6- Murder by Degrees by Rita Mukerji

7- Hide by Tracy Clark

8- Graveyard of Lost Children by Katrina Monroe

9- Erasure by Percival Everett

10- Mexikid by Pedro Martin

11- American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang

12- Brave by Svetlana Chmakova

13- It Won't Always Be Like This by Malaka Gharib

14- Love From A to Z by S.K. Ali

15- All My Rage by Sabaa Tahir

16- A Tempest of Tea by Hafsah Faizal

17- As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow by Zoulfa Katouh

18- The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Juno Diaz

19- Hidden Systems by Dan Nott

20- The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

21- Checkmate by Ali Hazelwood

22- Lady in the Lake by Laura Lippman

23- The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell by Robert Dugoni

24- The Falconer by Elizabeth May

Shows/Films mentioned--

1- Poor Things (2023)

2- American Fiction (2023)

3- The Old Man and the Pool (Netflix 2023)

S10:Ep205 - 2023 Year in Review - 1/17/24

Website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com.
Instagram @perksofbeingabookloverpod
Facebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover.
To send us a message, go to our website and click the Contact button.

Books Mentioned in this Episode:

1- Paddling North by Audrey Sutherland (Rec by Ritu Mukerji)

2- Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann (Rec by Anna Pitoniak)

3- The Creative Act by Rick Rubin (Rec by Anna Pitoniak)

4- Working by Robert Caro (Rec by Rachel M. Harper)

5- The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka (Rec by Mel Joulwan of Strong Sense of Place Podcast)

6- A Stranger in the Woods by Michael Finkel (Rec by David Humphries of Strong Sense of Place Podcast)

7- The Gilded Page by Mary Wellesley (Rec by Kristine Eckart of Gilmore Book Club)

8- Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Torzs (Rec by Kristine Eckart of Gilmore Book Club)

9- Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett (Rec by Kika Hatzapoulou)

10- All the Sinners Bleed by SA Cosby (Rec by Katrina Kittle)

11- Happiness Falls by Angie Kim (Rec by Katrina Kittle)

12- Camera Man: Buster Keaton, the Dawn of Cinema, and the Invention of the 20th Century by Dana Stephens (Rec by Mick Sullivan of The Past and The Curious Podcast)

13- River of Shadows: Eadweard Muybridge and the Technological Wild West by Rebecca Solnit (Rec by Mick Sullivan of The Past and the Curious Podcast)

14- If We Were Villains by ML Rio (Rec by Katrina Monroe)

15- The Wanderers by Meg Howrey (Rec by Lydia Welker of the Appalachian Prison Book Project)

16- Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin (Rec by Kelsey Madges, middle school librarian)

Carrie's Favorite Books of the Year

1- The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean

2- Atomic Family by Ciera Horton McElroy

3- Luckenbooth by Jenni Fagan

4- Bea Wolf by Zach Weinersmith

5- We All Wants Impossible Things by Catherine Newman

Amy's Favorite Books of the Year

1- Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn

2- Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher

3- Martin Marten by Brian Doyle

4- Landings: A Crooked Creek Farm Year by Arwen Donahue

5- The Keeper by Kelcey Ervick

6- Horse by Geraldine Brooks

Other Recommendations:

1- American Murderer by Gail Jarrow

2- Walking with Sam: A Father, a Son, and 500 Miles Across Spain by Andrew McCarthy

3- These Silent Woods by Kimi Cunningham Grant

4- Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith

5- Nora Goes Off Script by Annabel Monaghan

6- The Sweetness of Water by Nathan Harris

7- Blacktop Wasteland by SA Cosby

8- Wool by Hugh Howey (and the TV adaptation on Apple + called Silo)

Escambia County Dictionary Ban -
www.usatoday.com/story/news/natio…ban/72202686007/

S9:Ep204 - Perks REMIX - Library of Lost Time with Mel and David - 10/10/24

Website at www.perksofbeingabooklover.com. We are also on
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Things we talked about in the intro:

Movie:
Poor Things (2023)
Adapted from the book Poor Things by Alisdair Gray

Podcast:
NPR's Book of the Day

Social Media Links

1- The Dogist - Insta and FB

2- Dancing Chickens -

Check out Strong Sense of Place Podcast and LOLT at
strongsenseofplace.com/ for show notes for these episodes.

S9:Ep203 - Perks REMIX with Books Are My People Podcast - 1/3/24

You can find Jennifer Caloyeras at her website www.Jennifercaloyeras.com or on Instagram @ jennifercaloyeras.

Website at www.perksofbeingabooklover.com.
Instagram @perksofbeingabookloverpod
FaceBook - Perks of Being a Book Lover.
To send us a message, go to our website and click the Contact button.

Our Shownotes:

Books Mentioned in this Introduction:

1- The Boys In The Boat by Daniel James Borwn

Movies Mentioned in this Episode:

1- Get Out (2017)

2- Saltburn (2023)

3- The Lighthouse (2019)

4- Asteroid City (2023)

5- The Boys in the Boat (2023)

5 Star Read by a Fellow Book Lover - Mindy from the Our Nerdiest Thing Podcast @ournerdiestthing
- Pucking Around by Emily Rath

Books Are My People Shownotes:

This week, I'm joined by Carrie and Amy from the podcast, The Perks of Being a Podcast Lover and we discuss some of our favorite recent reads, crochet and sweating in closets.
Books Discussed:

The Murmur of Bees by Sofia Segovia

All the Frequent Troubles of our Days: The True Story of the American Woman at the Heart of the German Resistance to Hitler by Rebecca Donner

Perestroika in Paris by Jane Smiley

Wave by Sonali Deraniyagala

Good Rich People by Eliza Jane Brazier

What We're Reading Next:

When We Lost Our Heads by Heather oneill

The Rot by Siri Peterson

The Girl With All The Gifts by M. R. Carrey