Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com.Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpodFacebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover.To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button.   You can find JH Markert at jamesmarkert.com or on IG at @jamesmarkert74   This week we chat with JH Markert who we spoke to pre-Covid in the before times when he was writing historical fiction. Over the last couple of years, he has changed gears and returned to the genre that first made him an avid reader: horror. JH has been cranking out horror novels and finding a great deal of success with them. We catch up with James and discuss his transition to horror and what that has been like after writing five previous historical fiction novels.  His most recent release that came out in September, Spider to the Fly, is dark horror suspense that deals with a serial killer, a true crime influencer, and a family with some bizarre dynamics.    And for our book rec section, we are talking about notable nonfiction. These are nonfiction books we’ve read in the last year that have made us think differently about a topic or stood out for us in some way (even though these books might not have been published in the last year). We’ll talk about a micro-history, a biography, a true crime, a memoir, a study of morality and politics, and a niche book about cussing.    Books Mentioned In This Episode:   1- Spider to the Fly by J.H. Markert  2- Molokai by Alan Brennert 3- A White Wind Blew by James Markert 4- Nightmare Man by J.H. Markert  5- Mr. Lullaby by J. H. Markert 6- Sleep Tight by J.H. Markert  7- Midnight at the Tuscany Hotel by James Markert  8- The River is Waiting by Wally Lamb 9- Dietrich Bonhoeffer: In the Midst of Wickedness by Janet and Geoff Benge  10-The Vanishing Place by Zöe Rankin  11- Five Star Read by a Fellow Book Lover Jasper Adams-Smith - Be Kind, My Neighbor by Yugo Limbo  12- For F*ck's Sake: Why Swearing is Shocking, Rude, and Fun by Rebecca Roache  13- The Woman Who Smashed Codes: A True Story of Love, Spies, and and the Unlikely Heroine Who Outwitted America's Enemies by Jason Fagone  14- The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstore by Evan Friss  15- The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion by Jonathan Haidt  16- Playing to Lose: How a Jehovah's Witness Became a BDSM Model by Ariel Anderssen  17- The Carpool Detectives: A True Story of Four Moms, Two Bodies, and One Mysterious Cold Case by Chuck Hogan  18- The Friend by Sigrid Nunez   Media Mentioned:   1- The Friend (2024) 2- Chief of War (Apple +, 2025) 3- The Outsider (HBO Max 2019) 4- Sinners (2025) 5- Nosferatu (2025)  

Hey Book Lovers,   Carrie and I are on fall hiatus this week so we don't have a new episode for you.  But what we do have is your chance to check out a new-to-you book podcast, Books with Betsy, hosted by Betsy Tomsak. This past summer we were guests to the show where we talked about all things in our book lives, maybe even tidbits we have never shared on our own show.  It's a fun conversation and we hope you will listen in and give Books With Betsy a follow. We will be  back with an all new episode on October 29 when we chat with horror/ thriller writer J.H. Markert about his new release, Spider to the Fly, and give you book recommendations for notable non-fiction we've read recently.   We hope you enjoy this episode of Books With Betsy. Happy Reading!  

Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com.Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpodFacebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover.To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button.   You can find Rediscovered Books at rdbooks.org/ or on IG at @rdbooks   The American Library Association’s Banned Books Week is October 5-11, so we’re sharing an interview with one of the co-owners of Rediscovered Books in Boise, Idaho, a store that has pioneered a program in their city to push back against book banning in their state. Rebecca Leber-Gottberg talks to us about the history of the bookstore, her role there, and books that folks in Boise have been buying, but she also explains the bookstore’s Read Freely Project, which is their effort to get banned and threatened books dispersed throughout the community.    And in our book rec section, we’re jumping into spooky season with books related to ghosts, but if you don’t like horror, don’t worry: a lot of these “ghostly” books aren’t horror, and some of them may only seem to be about ghosts. We’ve got a historical fiction about the Sri Lankan civil war, a detective story in which ghosts are witnesses, a nonfiction book about unexplained phenomena which may or may not involve ghosts, a funny novella, a supernatural suspense, and a ghostly gothic novel set in Mexico.   Books Discussed in this Episode: 1- A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway 2- The Shift: One Nurse, Twelve House, Four Patients' Lives by Theresa Brown 3- American Sirens: The Incredible Story of the Black Men Who Became America's First Paramedics by Kevin Hazzard 4- The Queen Bees of Tybee County by Kyle Casey Chu 5- The Serviceberry by Robin Wall Kimmerer  6- Trans History: A Graphic Novel by Alex L. Combs and Andrew Eakett  7- Lone Women by Victor LaValle  8- Wild Tongues Can't be Tamed: 15 Voices from the LatinX Diaspora edited by Saraciea J. Fennell  9- Under the Same Stars by Libba Bray  10- Shout by Laurie Halse Anderson 11- House on the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune  12- On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder  13- The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf 14- Firekeeper's Daughter by Angleine Boulley  15- Warrior Girl Unearthed by Angeline Boulley  16- Sisters in the Wind by Angeline Boulley  17- The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins  18- Culpability by Bruce Holsinger  19- Songs for Other People's Weddings by David Levitan  20- A Five Star Read Recommended by Claire @bookishly_claire - Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen 21- The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka  22- The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde 23- Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch  24- Ghost Tamer by Meredith R. Lyons  25- The Haunting of Alma Fielding: A True Ghost Story by Kate Summerscale  26- The Hacienda by Isabel Cañas 27- This is Going to Hurt by Adam McKay   Media Mentioned: 1- The Pitt (Max 2025) 2- ER ( 1994- 2009) 3- This is Going to Hurt (2022, Amazon Prime) 4- The Craft Lit Podcast - https://craftlit.com/  

https://abcnews.go.com/Health/americans-spend-time-reading-fun-time-screens-study/story?id=124807367Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com.Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpodFacebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover.To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button.   You can find Sam Sussman at www.samevansussman.org or on IG at @sam_sussman.   Our guest is debut novelist Sam Sussman whose book Boy From the North Country comes out this week. Sam originally wrote a short memoir piece for Harper’s Magazine that referred to the possibility that he might be Bob Dylan’s son but really the essay focused on his relationship with his mom, who had had a love affair with the musician. Eventually, Sam decided to explode the moment, or the series of moments of his life and with his mother, to get a better handle on who he was and how much that was about who his mom was and how she had raised him, not whether his father was Dylan.  The book is receiving high marks in early reviews, and Sam has been making the rounds in newspapers and magazines, including a profile by the New York Times. Publisher’s Weekly, Kirkus, The Library Journal, and the American Library Association have all given Boy From the North Country starred reviews.    And for our book rec section of the show, we’re thinking about books that center on male relationships.  We realize that our guests and listeners are primarily female, but we thought we would equal the playing field a little by talking about books that deal with father-son relationships, male friendships or brotherly love.  We have a multigenerational story about the men in a Mexican-American family, a group of friends in a small town of the American Midwest, a pair of quirky Irish friends, a memoir about two very different guys at Harvard, two Greek heroes and their deep relationship, and boys from different cultures who develop a bond in unlikely circumstances.    Books Mentioned in this Episode:   1- Boy From the North Country by Sam Sussman 2- The Celebrants by Steven Rowley 3- The Guncle by Steven Rowley 4- In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust  5- Anima Rising by Christopher Moore  6- The Last Mona Lisa by Jonathan Santlofer  7- The Lost Van Gogh by Jonathan Santlofer 8-  A Five Star Read Recommended by Fellow Book Lover Megan Burnett - The Weight of Ink by Rachel Kadish  9- We Should Not Be Friends: The Story of a Friendship by Will Schwalbe  10- The Sons of El Rey by Alex Espinoza  11- Shotgun Lovesongs by Nickolas Bulter  12- A Forty Year Kiss by Nickolas Butler  13- The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller  14- Circe by Madeline Miller  15- Nowhere Boy by Katherine Marsh  16- Leonard and Hungry Paul by Ronan Hession   Media Mentioned -  1- The Silent Type: On Possibly Being Bob Dylan's Son- https://harpers.org/archive/2021/05/the-silent-type-on-possibly-being-bob-dylans-son/ 2- School Cell Phone Ban Increases Library Visits - https://www.wave3.com/2025/09/02/school-cell-phone-ban-creates-surge-jcps-library-visits/ 3- Reading for Pleasure Declines - https://abcnews.go.com/Health/americans-spend-time-reading-fun-time-screens-study/story?id=124807367 4- The Four Seasons (Netflix 2025) 5- The Four Seasons (1981) 6- How the Passionate Male Friendship Died --https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2025/05/men-friendship-history/682815/    

Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com.Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpodFacebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover.To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button.   You can find Lindy Ryan at her website lindyryanwrites.com or on IG @lindyryanwrites.   Books Mentioned in this Episode: 1- Bless Your Heart by Lindy Ryan  2- Another Fine Mess by Lindy Ryan 3- The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman 4- Howl edited by Lindy Ryan  5- The Darkest Night edited by Lindy Ryan  6- But Not Too Bold by Hache Pueyo 7- Play Nice by Rachel Harrison  8- Black Sheep by Rachel Harrison 9- Cackle by Rachel Harrison  10- Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky  11- Travels with Charley: In Search of America by John Steinbeck  12- A 5 Star Read Recommended by Fellow Book Lover @arizonabookstagrammer - Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz 13- All's Faire in Middle School by Victoria Jamieson  14- Geek Love by Katherine Dunn 15- Lewis Sinclair and the Gentleman Cowboys by DMS Fick  16- The Book of Speculation by Erika Swyler  17- Nightmare Alley by William Lindsay Gresham  18- The Electric Woman: A Memoir in Death-Defying Acts by Tessa Fontaine   Media Mentioned: 1- The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920, Youtube) 2- Nosferatu (1922, Youtube) 3- Metropolis (1927, Youtube) 4- Nosferatu (2024) 5- The Thursday Murder Club (2025, Netflix) 6- Santa Clarita Diet (2017-2019, Netflix) 7- Chernobyl (2019, Max) 8- Nightmare Alley (2021) 9- Shelby County KY Library books taken -  https://www.wlky.com/article/unreturned-library-book-dispute-shelby-county-reformation-church/65875001 10- Travels with Charley Fact Checking -  https://www.steinbecknow.com/2020/08/01/travels-with-charley-painting-snapshot/        

Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com.Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpodFacebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover.To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button.   You can find Sarah Landenwich on her website SarahLandenwich.com or on IG @sarahlandenwich   Books Mentioned in this Episode 1- A Home for Friendless Women by Kelly E. Hill  2- The Fire Concerto by Sarah Landenwich  3- Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi  4- Possession by AS Byatt  5- Plainsong (trilogy) by Kent Haruf 6- Old Souls at Night by Kent Haruf 7- The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse by Louise Erdrich 8- How to Be Well: Navigating Our Self Care Epidemic One Dubious Cure at a Time by Amy LaRocca  9- Say Everything by Ione Skye  10- The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett 11- A Five Star Read recommended by fellow Book Lover Cathleen @wovenfromwords - Harlem Rhapsody by Victoria Christopher Murray  12- Sleepless by Romy Hausmann 13- What Happens in Amsterdam by Rachel Lynn Solomon  14- The Murder Farm by Andrea Maria Schenkel  15- A Death in Door County (Monster Hunter series) by Annelise Ryan  16- Death in the Dark Woods (Monster Hunter series) by Annelise Ryan 17- Belonging: A German Reckons with History and Home by Nora Krug 18- The River is Waiting by Wally Lamb   Media Mentioned:   1- Speed Museum Glass Art exhibit - https://www.speedmuseum.org/the-adele-and-leonard-leight-glass-art-award-victoria-ahmadizadeh-melendez/ 2- Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004) 3- The Naked Gun (2025)

Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com.Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpodFacebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover.To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button.   You can find Keisha Mennefee at honeymagnolia.co and honeyblossompress.com   We have had great luck finding excellent books from small independent publishers, and so we periodically invite one on the show to tell us a little about how they operate. Our guest this week is Keisha Mennefee, a literary strategist who has worked with high profile Black artists like Jada Pinkett Smith and Kennedy Ryan.  She recently started her own publishing house called Honey Blossom Press. The mission of this press is to amplify underrepresented voices and powerful narratives that might otherwise go unheard. Some of their new titles include When Forty Blooms by Jacinta Howard and The Divorcetante by Mia Hentzelman.    And since it is August, and we’re in the dog days of summer, our book rec section is focused on dogs. Amy especially loves a book where a dog features as a significant character who not only has personality but moves the plot along and helps create the theme. We’ve got some children’s lit, teen lit, Japanese narrative, literary fiction, memoir, and apocalyptic fiction.    Books Mentioned In This Episode: 1- Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders 2- Mrs. Lincoln: A Life by Catherine Clinton  3- The Survivors by Jane Harper  4- Leave Only Footprints: My Acadia-to-Zion Journey Through Every National Park by Conor Knighton 5- Track of the Cat (Anna Pigeon series #1) by Nevada Barr 6- When Forty Blooms by Jacinta Howard  7- This Side of Beautiful by Tiye  8- The Divorcetante by Mia Hentzelman 9- Walk Through Fire: A Memoir of Love, Loss and Triumph by Sheila Johnson 10- The House on the Strand by Daphne duMaurier  11- Alive and Beating by Rebecca Wolf  12- The Firekeeper's Daughter by Angline Boulley  13- Warrior Girl Unearthed by Angeline Boulley  14-  A Five Star Read Recommended by Fellow Book Lover Katelyn @bookclubwithkatelyn - Sisters in the Wind by Angeline Boulley  15- Gather by Kenneth Cadow  16- Heroic Measures by Jill Ciment  17- The Body in Question by Jill Ciment  18- Because of Winn Dixie by Kate diCamillo 19- Speckled Beauty: A Dog and His People by Rick Bragg 20- The Boy and The Dog by Seishu Hase 21- A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World. by C.A. Fletcher 22- Harry the Dirty Dog by Gene Zion 23- Go, Dog, Go by P.D. Eastman 24- Martha Speaks series by Susan Meddaugh   Media Mentioned 1- Cat Video Fest - https://www.catvideofest.com 2- The Survivors (Netflix, 2025) 3- Untamed (Netflix, 2025) 4- Because of Winn Dixie (Disney, 2005) 5- 5 Flights Up (2014) 6- Martha Speaks (Prime Video, 2008)      

Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com.Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpodFacebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover.To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button.   You can find Suzy Krause at her website suzykrause.com/ and on IG at @suzykrause   Usually, Christmas in July sales feature new cars or mattresses, but we are giving you a Christmas in July book episode. Our guest this week is Suzy Krause, a Canadian novelist whose book I Think We’ve Been Here Before is set in the few weeks leading up to the Christmas holiday in a small town in Saskatchewan.  This book is cozy but not in a way you would expect because something terrible is about to happen.  A cosmic event is going to end the world, and residents have several weeks to prepare.  But this apocalyptic story is hopeful and uplifting and makes you feel good.  How can you combine the end of the world with Christmas and make it comforting?  That’s what we asked Suzy because she has written a book that is nothing like I’ve ever read.  It’s like a little unexpected gift under the tree.    For our book rec section of this episode, we are talking about diaries. And no, we’re not going to be reading from our diaries because that would be a snoozefest. We’ve selected both nonfiction and fictional diaries that allow us to get a sneak peek into a historic event or a situation that we don’t know much about.    Books Mentioned In this Episode:   1- I Think We've Been Here Before by Suzy Krause 2- We Need To Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver  3- A Mother's Reckoning: Living in the Aftermath of Tragedy by Sue Klebold  4- The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin 5- Space Crone by Ursula K. Le Guin  6- The Millicent Quibb Schook of Etiquette for Young Ladies of Mad Science by Kate McKinnon 7- The Cicada Tree by Robert Gwaltney 8- A Five Star Read Recommended by Fellow Book Lover Lizzy Roth - Dead Water by C.A. Fletcher 9- The Night Diary by Veera Hiranandani 10- These Is My Words: The Diary of Sarah Agnes Prine, 1881-1901 by Nancy Turner  11- This is Going To Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor by Adam Kay  12- The Red Leather Diary: Reclaiming a Life Through the Pages of a Lost Journal by Lilly Koppel  13- Here Comes the Fun: A Year of Making Merry by Ben Aitken  14- The Lost Diaries of Édouard Manet by Maureen Gibbon    Media Mentioned: 1- Adolescence (Netflix 2025) 2- We Need To Talk About Kevin (2011) 3- Seeking a Friend for the End of the World (Prime, 2012) 4- Ben Aitken Podcast episode - https://ThePerksofBeingaBookLover.podbean.com/e/s-7-ep-146-a-may-december-friendship-with-guest-ben-aitken-9722/

Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com.Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpodFacebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover.To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button.   You can find Colleen Gleason/Colleen Cambridge at her website www.colleengleason.com or on IG @colleengleason   Typically Amy has not been a cozy mystery reader, but this week’s guest, Colleen Gleason who also writes as Colleen Cambridge, may have single-handedly converted her.  She is the author of over 57 books in numerous series but her “American in Paris” series has been a delightful escape over the last year. It is a cozy mystery set in postwar 1950s Paris with a dynamic mystery-solving duo featuring none other than Julia Child. Book 3 in the series titled A Fashionably French Murder was published in April.  So we were thrilled when Colleen agreed to chat with us about this series as well as several of her other books.   Colleen’s style of writing often includes a pairing.  She has a mystery series that involves Agatha Christie and her housekeeper, another series featuring Abraham Lincoln and his aide, and even a steampunk paranormal YA series involving an imaginary crime-fighting pairing of Bram Stoker’s younger sister and Sherlock Holme’s niece. As we know from doing this podcast, having a partner-in-crime makes things much more fun.    In our book rec section of the episode, we are all about gardens. We are not reviewing gardening books, however. Rather, we’re talking about books in which gardens, gardeners, flowers and shrubs are part of the story in some format. We’ve got thrillers, middle grade, fantasy, contemporary family drama, murder mysteries, and Appalachian gothic.    Books Mentioned in this Episode:   1- A Fashionably French Murder (American in Paris series) by Colleen Cambridge   2- Food People by Adam M. Roberts   3- The World’s Greatest Detective and Her Just Ok Assistant by Liza Tully   4- Dept Q by Jussi Adler-Olsen   5- A Murder Most French (American in Paris series) by Colleen Cambridge   6- In the Spirit of French Murder by Colleen Cambridge   7- Paris Noir: The Secret History of a City by Jacques Yonnet   8- The Seven Rings (The Lost Bride Trilogy #3) by Nora Roberts   9- The Rosie Result (Don Tillman #3) by Graerme Simsion   10-The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion   11-The Rosie Effect by Graeme Simsion   12- Forged by Danielle Teller   13- A Five Star Read Recommended by Fellow Book Lover Betsy Tomszak @bookswithbetsy - Reservoir Bitches by Dahlia de la Cerda   14- The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett   15- The Bog Wife by Kay Chronister   16- June in the Garden by Eleanor Wilde   17- A Botanist’s Guide to Parties & Poisons by Kate Khavari   18- The Enchanted Greenhouse by Sarah Beth Durst   19- Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton   20- The Summer of June by Jamie Sumner    Media mentioned--   1- Hacks (Max, 2021 - present)   2- Dept Q (Netflix, 2025)   3- Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris (2022)   4- The New Look (Apple Plus - 2024)  

Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com.Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpodFacebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover.To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button.   This week we have Sam Miller, manager at Carmichael’s Bookstore in Louisville, with us to chat about books readers might want to consider for their summer reading. It is always fun to hear what is new and notable from Sam.    This is our last episode of the season.  We will be back in July after our summer hiatus with all new episodes. Happy Reading!   Books Mentioned in this Episode:   1- The Sweet Life in Paris by David Lebowitz   2- Northern Spy by Flynn Berry   3- Big Girl Small Town by Michelle Gallen   4- Factory Girls by Michelle Gallen   5- Cat's People by Tanya Guerrero   6- The View from Lake Como by Adriana Trigiani   7- Big Stone Gap by Adriana Trigiani   8- Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid   9- Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter   10- So Far Gone by Jess Walter   11- A Language of Limbs by Dylin Hardcastle   12- A Lesser Light by Peter Geye   13- Murder Takes a Vacation by Laura Lippmann   14- El Dorado Drive by Megan Abbott   15- Big Bad Wool by Leonie Swann   16- Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann   17- First Gentleman by Bill Clinton and James Patterson   18- King of Ashes by SA Cosby   19- Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by VE Schwab   20- Katabasis by RF Kuang   21- Country Under Heaven by Frederic Durbin   22- A Witch's Guide to Magical Innkeeping by Sangu Mandanna   23- Isabella Nag and the Pot of Basil by Oliver Darkshire   24- The Magician of Tiger Castle by Louis Sachar   25- Baldwin: A Love Story by Nicholas Boggs   26- Plato and the Tyrant by James Romm   27- Turning to Birds by Lili Taylor   28- Is A River Alive? by Robert McFarlane   29- Mark Twain by Ron Chernow   30- Charlottesville by Deborah Baker   31- Prairie Fires by Caroline Fraser   32- Murderland: Crime and Bloodlust in the Time of Serial Killers by Caroline Fraser   33- Fulfillment by Lee Cole   34- If You Love It, Let it Kill You by Hannah Pittard   35- The Fire Concerto by Sarah Landenwich   36- Black Cohosh by Eagle Valiant Brosi   37- Big Swiss by Jen Beagin   38- I Am the Arrow: The Life and Art of Sylvia Plath in Six Poems by Sarah Ruden   39- Red Comet by Heather Clark   40- Bad Badger : A Love Story by Maryrose Wood   Media mentioned--   1- Derry Girls (Netflix, 2018-2022)   2- Christoph Waltz on Jimmy Fallon --https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0jr-HQeT74   3- Floyd Collins Broadway show--https://floydcollinsbroadway.com  

Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com.Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpodFacebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover.To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button.   You can find Nickolas Butler at https://nickolasbutler.com/ or on IG @wiscobutler   Amy discovered Nickolas Butler earlier this year when she attended the author event for his newest novel A Forty Year Kiss at Carmichael’s Bookstore. Nick has six novels and a collection of short stories under his belt, but A Forty Year Kiss may be his first love story.  His mind was set to wondering after he overheard a passionate conversation in his favorite local bar between two older people, a conversation that made him blush just a little. He began playing with the idea of what this couple’s back story was. Nick’s book asks readers to consider the difference between first love and love between mature adults, how life’s baggage affects personal relationships, and whether people can really change.    Nick also talks to us about his rural Wisconsin roots, why he read Babysitter Club books in his childhood, and the debate on whether he should wear a cape.     For our book recommendation section of this episode, we decided to find some of our favorite books we’ve read as a result of being in a book club together for two decades. For the most part, our book club chooses novels, but there is one memoir in the lot, as well as contemporary fiction, historical fiction, sci-fi, and a classic.    Books Discussed in this Episode:   1- A Forty Year Kiss by Nickolas Butler   2- Shotgun Lovesongs by Nickolas Butler   3- A Paris Year by Janice MacLeod   4- Godspeed by Nickolas Butler    5- Love, Hope & Carnage by Nick Cave and Sean O'Hagan   6- The Fertile Earth and the Ordered Cosmos edited by M. Elizabeth Weiser   7- Marlena by Julie Buntin   8- A Lesser Light by Peter Geye   9- Down & Out in Paradise: The Life of Anthony Bourdain by Charles Leerhsen   10- Floreana by Midge Raymond   11- Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Anne Fowler   12- Super Zelda: The Graphic Life of Zelda Fitzgerald by Tiziana Lo Porto   13- A Five Star Read Recommended by Fellow Book Lover Cindy B. - Strange Pictures by Uketsu, translated by Jim Rion   14- The Velvet Hours by Alyson Richman   15- The Girl With All the Gifts by MR Carey   16- Molokai by Alan Brennert   17- Burial Rites by Hannah Kent   18- Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood by Alexa Fuller   19- This is How it Always Is by Laurie Frankel   20- A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith   Media mentioned—   1- http://www.astoriedstyle.com/a-look-into-the-past-an-untouched-1942-paris-apartment/   2- Ancient mounds in OH - www.hopeweklearthworks.org       ReplyForward      

Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com.Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpodFacebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover.To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button.   You can find Holly Gramazio at her website https://www.hollygramazio.net/ or on IG at holly_gramazio   When we first heard the premise of Holly Gramazio’s novel The Husbands, we were intrigued. A woman’s husband goes up to the attic to retrieve something and down comes…a different husband. Wouldn’t we all sometimes like to exchange the husband we have for a better, newer, or just different model? Holly turned this idea into a novel that is both funny and thoughtfully considered. It may not, in fact, be such a great thing to have an endless supply of potential husbands so easy to exchange.  Her book has been optioned by Apple Plus for a limited series and I just saw that Juno Temple, the actress who played Keeley in the Ted Lasso series, is slated to play the starring role.   And because it is April, and April is National Poetry Month, we’re discussing books related to poets. Not everyone loves poetry, but these books aren’t actually poetry–so you can still partake of poetry month. They are historical fiction, memoirs, essays, and children’s books written by or inspired by poets.    Books Mentioned in This Episode:   1- The Husbands by Holly Gramazio   2- Lakewood by Megan Giddings   3- I Used to Live Here Once: The Haunted Life of Jean Rhys by Miranda Seymour   4- Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys     5- Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte     6- The Animals in That Country by Laura Jean McKay     7- Thank You for Calling the Lesbian Line by Elizabeth Lovett     8- Saint X by Alexis Schaitkin     9-  A Five Star Read Recommended by Fellow Book Lover  Chelsea @2_girls_bookin_it - The Endless Fall by Emmerson Hoyt     10- The Swan's Nest by Laura Mcneal     11- You Could Make This Place Beautiful by Maggie Smith     12- Memorial Drive by Natasha Trethaway     13- Emily's House by Amy Belding Brown     14- Finding Langston by Lesa Cline-Ransome     15- Bite by Bite: Nourishments and Jamborees by Aimee Nezhukumatathil     16- World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments by Aimee Nezhukumatathil     17- The Poet's Dog by Patricia McLachlan     Media mentioned-- 1- Severance (Apple+, 2022 - Present)   2- Reduced Shakespeare Company--https://www.reducedshakespeare.com   3- Saint X (Hulu, 2023)      

Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com.Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpodFacebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover.To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button.   You can find Ben Shattuck at his website https://www.benshattuck.com/ or on IG @Benshattuck_   This week we chat with Ben Shattuck, author of Six Walks: In the Footsteps of Henry David Thoreau published by Tin House Books in 2022.  Amy knew this book would appeal to Carrie because she is nothing if not a literary weirdo, and she has been since high school when she quoted from Thoreau in her senior yearbook. Despite her hopes that Ben would, like her, have a high school infatuation with Thoreau, he explains that his interest began much later. Even if you don’t know anything about Thoreau, if you're a walker or a hiker, you have experienced the unique meditative impact of this activity and can appreciate Ben’s insights on it. Ben also has a book of fiction out titled The History of Sound that is a finalist for the Pen/Faulkner prize so we are just really thrilled to have him with us today.  And this week, for our recommendations section, we didn’t just pick a random topic like asparagus or comas to share books about—we actually continue with the theme of walking. We each share at least 3 books that feature walking, hiking, or being in nature in some meditative way. We have literary fiction, memoirs, essays, and even a romance.   Books mentioned-- 1- Six Walks: In the Footsteps of Henry David Thoreau by Ben Shattuck   2- The History of Sound by Ben Shattuck   3- Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World by Christian Cooper   4- A Paris Year: My Day to Day Adventures in the Most Romantic City in the World by Janice Macleod   5- Dear Paris by Janice Macleod   6- The French Ingredient: A Memoir by Jane Bertch (La Cuisine French Cooking School)   7- Teaching a Stone to Talk by Annie Dillard   8- Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard   9- The Journals of Henry David Thoreau by Henry David Thoreau    10 - Matrix by Lauren Groff   11- Year of Wonder by Geraldine Brooks   12- Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt   13- Dancing Woman by Elaine Neil Orr   14- A 5 Star Read Recommended by Fellow Book Lover Simone Praylow @fullof_lit - Twenty Years Later by Charlie Donlea   15- Summit Lake by Charlie Donlea   16- Don't Believe It by Charlie Donlea   17- In My Boots: A Memoir of 5 Million Steps Along the Appalachian Trail by Amanda K. Jaros 18- Going to Maine: All the Ways to Fall on the Appalachian Trail by Sally Chaffin Brooks 19- The Unforeseen Wilderness: Kentucky’s Red River Gorge by Wendell Berry 20- Windswept: Walking the Paths of Trailblazing Women by Annabelle Abbs 21- Ulysses by James Joyce  22- The Paris Bookseller by Kerri Maher 23- The Guide to James Joyce’s Ulysses by Patrick Hastings 24- The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce 25- You Are Here by David Nichols   Media mentioned-- The Residence (Netflix, 2024)  

Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com.Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpodFacebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover.To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button. You can find Rebecca Schinsky on IG @rebeccaschinsky and Book Riot at www.bookriot.com   In this week’s episode, we chat with Rebecca Schinsky, who is chief of staff for Riot New Media Group and co-host of The Book Riot podcast. Book Riot is the largest independent editorial book site in North America and book lovers can find all kinds of interesting stuff there, such as numerous podcasts, newsletters, and articles about different genres.   I have long been a listener of this podcast and love it because ….I am a book nerd through and through and this podcast gives me the inside look at the world of publishing.  If you enjoy learning about trends and want the inside scoop about how and why certain books make it to your eyeballs or just want to have your pulse on bookish news, this podcast is for you.  Rebecca talks to us about what book trends have had the biggest impact on the industry over the last 15 years, what other goodies you can find at Book Riot.com, and why social media flattens the book options we see in our feeds.   And this week for our book recommendations section, we put on our 10 gallon hats and our chaps because we’re talking about westerns. Westerns became popular in the late 1800s and derived from the dime novels of the mid-19th century. Many of these stories were later turned into movies in the 1940s and 1950s, which is probably the way most people had exposure to them. Films like High Noon and Shane were based on western stories. There was a second resurgence of western films based on novels between the 1970s-90s such as The Unforgiven and The Outlaw Josey Wales. We offer westerns that are in the graphic novel genre, the horror genre, literary fiction, and middle grade.   Books Mentioned in this Episode:   1- The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray   2- The Other Einstein by Marie Benedict   3- Harlem Rhapsody by Victoria Christopher Murray   4- Life in Three Dimensions by Shigehiro Oishi    5- Back After This by Linda Holmes   6- Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte   7- Glass Town: The Imaginary World of the Brontes by Isabel Greenberg   8- The Helsinki Affair by Anna Pitoniak   9- Red Widow by Alma Katsu   10- A Five Star Read Recommended by Fellow Book Lover Beth @a_vet_nurse_and_her_books - The Game by Danny Dagan   11- Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry   12- True Grit by Charles Portis   13- The Searchers by Alan LeMay   14- The Searchers: The Making of an American Legend by Glenn Frankel   15- Lone Women by Victor LaValle   16- Coyote Doggirl by Lisa Hanawalter   17- Four Treasures of the Sky by Jenny Tinghui Zhang   18- Whiskey When We're Dry by John Larison   19- The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt   20- Pony by RJ Palacio   Media mentioned--   1- Heretic (Max, 2024)   2- Longlegs (Hulu, 2024)   3- True Grit (2010)   4- Deadwood (Max, 2004-2006)   5- The Searchers (1956)   6- The Sisters Brothers (2018)   Bella Da Costa Greene Exhibit in NYC -  https://www.themorgan.org/exhibitions/belle-da-costa-greene    

Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com.Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpodFacebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover.To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button.   You can find Katherine Marsh at her website www.katherinemarsh.com or on IG at @katherinemarshauthor.   This week we chat with Katherine Marsh, author of The Lost Year, a finalist for the 2023 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature. I recently discovered this book after one of our book club members selected another Katherine Marsh book, Nowhere Boy, for our August read. The Lost Year is middle-grade historical fiction and it is super timely because part of it is set in Ukraine in the 1930s. The story introduced me to a topic in Ukraine history I knew nothing about called the Holodomor. Katherine tells us all about her novel which was inspired by her relationship with her grandmother who was from Ukraine. It is a perfect book selection if you are curious about Ukrainian history that influences current events; reading this book would also allow you to check off having read something for Middle Grade March.    For our book recommendations in this episode, we’re talking about books in which cats are a central part of the story. We have some nonfiction selections, as well as literary fiction and graphic novels that will definitely appeal to your inner cat. If you don’t love cats, you can check out these books anyway for their compelling stories OR you can wait around for Amy to muscle Carrie into a future dog episode.    Books Mentioned in this Episode:   1- The Lost Year by Katherine Marsh   2- Nowhere Boy by Katherine Marsh   3- Medusa (The Myth of Monsters #1) by Katherine Marsh   4- The God's Revenge (The Myth of Monsters #2) by Katherine Marsh   5- The Fountain Overflows by Rebecca West   6- Leslie F***ing Jones by Leslie Jones   7- Bog Myrtle by Sid Sharp   8- The Wolf Suit by Sid Sharp   9- A 5 star Read recommended by fellow book lover Elaine Hoystead @bookmadlibrarian - Hall of Smoke by Hannah M. Long   10- Pineville Trace by Wes Blake   11- Cat's People by Tanya Guerrero   12- The Cat Who Saved Books by Sosuka Natsukawa   13- Cat Tale: The Wild, Weird Battle to Save the Florida Panther by Craig Pittman   14- The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean   15- The Cat’s Meow: How Cats Evolved from the Savanna to Your Sofa by Jonathan B. Losos   16- Katie the Catsitter by Colleen AF Venable, illustrated by Stephanie Yue   17- The First Cat in Space Ate Pizza by Mac Barnett, illustrated by Shawn Harris   Media mentioned--   1- Kaos (Netflix, 2024)   2- Are Cats Actually Liquid -  https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/are-cats-actually-liquid/   3- Jeff Bezos and the Washington Post https://apnews.com/article/washington-post-bezos-opinion-trump-market-liberty-97a7d8113d670ec6e643525fdf9f06de   Reply    

Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com.Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpodFacebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover.To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button. You can find Sariah Wilson at her website www.sariahwilson.com or on IG - @sariahwilsonauthor   We chat this week with Sariah Wilson, the author of many, many rom-coms, who recently published her first romantasy titled A Tribute of Fire. A Tribute of Fire is inspired by the myth of Cassandra who, if you remember, is the Trojan princess who was cursed with the ability to see the future but no one believes her. Sariah’s story focuses on Cassandra’s assault in Athena's temple by Greek hero Ajax and the resulting punishment which is that two maidens from Ajax’s home, Locris, will be sacrified. How exactly, this punishes Ajax, I’m not sure, but such is Greek myth.    Sariah talks to us about her favorite romance trope (which she hardly ever writes herself), the whirlwind backstory to the publishing of this book, and how the popularity of The Fourth Wing series really cracked open a whole new world for romance writers.   And for our book recommendations, we’re going to share some children’s picture books that have stories and illustrations we love. Earlier this month was National Picture Book Authors & Illustrators Week, but we don’t think you need a special week as an excuse to read a delightful picture book.    Books Mentioned in this Episode:   1- A Tribute of Fire by Sariah Wilson 2- The Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks   3- A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes   4- The Schwa was Here by Neal Shusterman   5- Greek and Roman Warfare: Battles, Tactics, and Trickery by John Drogo Mortagu   6- A Monsoon Rising by Thea Gaunzon   7- Roland Rogers Isn't Dead Yet by Samantha Leigh Allen   8- A Book Recommended by Fellow Book Lover Corinne @she.loves.bookshelves - A Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J. Maas   9- Little Golden Book, The Christmas Story  10-  Little Golden Book, Colors Are Nice  11- Little Golden Book Riddles, Riddles From A to Z 12- Little Golden Book,  Mickey Mouse Picnic 13- Disney’s World of Wonders The Magic Grinder 14- The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats 15- Ferdinand the Bull by Munro Leaf 16- The Mitten by Jan Brett 17- Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett 18- The Monster at the End of This Book by Jon Stone   19- The Water Hole by Graeme Base   20- Uno's Garden by Graeme Base   21- Animalia by Graeme Base   22- The Verts: A Story of Introverts and Extroverts by Anne Patchett, illustrated by Robin Preiss Glaser   23- Quiet by Susan Cain   24- Mimi’s Dada Catifesto by Shelley Jackson 25- Oh, Bear by Melissa Nelson Greenberg. illustrated by Ruth Hengeveld 26- Boobies by Nancy Vo 27- The Cafe at the Edge of the Woods by Mickey Please 28- The Cave Downwind of the Cafe by Mickey Please 29- Shakespeare The Tempest by Georghia Ellinas, illustrated by Jane Ray   Media mentioned--   1- Stephen King/Maurice Sendak upcoming children's book - https://apnews.com/article/stephen-king-maurice-sendak-hansel-gretel-c9f8c7e18254d1e406b59e0ebe3cd20b 2- Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey - coming in 2026 -  https://variety.com/2025/film/news/the-odyssey-matt-damon-odysseus-christopher-nolan-1236311018/   3- The Return (2024)  

Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com.Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpodFacebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover.To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button.   You can find if there is a chapter of Silent Book Club near you or look into starting your own by going to their website; https://silentbook.club/   For show notes for any episode, go to our website at perksofbeingabooklover.com.  We are also on Instagram @perksofbeingabookloverpod and on FB Perks of Being a BookLover. To send us a message, go to our website and click the Contact button.   Have you ever wanted to try a book club but they just seem too peopley?  Or maybe you don’t want to be told what book you have to read. OR maybe you are looking for a place away from kids and responsibilities where nothing else but the words in front of you are vying for your attention.  If any of these apply, then a Silent Book Club might be for you.  Silent Book Club began in 2012 and is, according to their mission statement, a “global community of readers, with more than 1500 chapters in 54 countries around the world led by local volunteers. SBC members gather in public at bars, cafes, bookstores, libraries, and online to read together in quiet camaraderie.”     This week we chat with Brittany Brar, the leader of a local chapter of the Silent Book Club in Louisville, Kentucky.  Brittany started the local chapter here in 2019, right before the pandemic with 5 people.  She was new in town and didn’t know where to find a booklcub to join.  Now the group has over 2000 members of their FB group and as many as 60 people have shown up to their monthly meetings. Brittany talks to us about how people have developed a new sense of community, when a powerpoint presentation can be regarded as fun, and her go-to  genres   After our chat with Brittany, we will give you our recommendations for big honking books that meet not only your reading but also strength training goals.    Books Mentioned In This Episode: 1- Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe   2- The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman   3- Monsters: A Fan's Dilemma by Claire Dederer   4- Rakesfall by Vajra Chandrasekera   5- The Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson   6- Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson   7- That's Not My Name by Megan Lally   8- Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry   9- It by Stephen King   10- Leviathan Wakes by SA Corey (592 pages)    11-The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova (704 pages)    12- Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin (944 pages) 13- Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett  (976 pages)    14- Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver (546 pages)    15- When the World Tips Over by Jandy Nelson (528 pages)   16- East of Eden by John Steinbeck (601 pages)   17- A Five Star Read Recommended By Fellow Book Lover Kim Wells @the_salty_islander - A Home for Friendless Women by Kelly E. Hill     Media mentioned--   1- Say Nothing (Hulu, 2024)   2- The Dark Secrets Behind the Neil Gaiman Abuse Accusations --https://www.vulture.com/article/neil-gaiman-allegations-controversy-amanda-palmer-sandman-madoc.html   3- The Expanse (Prime, 2015)          

Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com.Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpodFacebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover.To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button. You can find Wes Browne at www.wesbrowneauthor.com or on IG at @browne_all_over This week we chat with Wes Browne, a Michigan transplant who has been a Kentucky attorney for over 20 years. When he’s not lawyering, he writes crime fiction, and his most recent novel is called They All Fall the Same. In this novel, he picks up with a character who readers met in his first novel, Hillbilly Hustle. While Wes’s new book is not a sequel, readers were so intrigued by the character, Burl Spoon, that Wes felt like he could make an entire book around him. Burl is a character you love to hate, but readers also feel his humanity, which always makes for a more interesting bad guy.  We chat with Wes about how his job as a defense attorney has prepared him to write books that make you root for a bad guy, his passion for soft serve ice cream, and why a timeshare ended up giving him a book idea.   And in the second half of the show, we each give you 3 book recommendations on the theme of books about the art world.   Books Mentioned in This Episode: 1- If You Lived Here, You’d Be Here by Now: Why We Traded the Commuting Life for a Little House on the Prairie by Christopher Ingraham 2- The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde 3- They All Fall the Same by Wes Browne   4- Hillbilly Hustle by Wes Browne   5- Enter the Aardvark by Jessica Anthony   6- Asides: Occasional Essays on Dogs, Food, Restaurants, Bars, Hangovers, Jobs, Music, Family Trees, Robbery, Relationships, Being Bought Up Questionably, Et Cetera by George Singleton     7- Blizzard by Marie Vingtras   8- A Five Star Read Recommended by a Fellow Book Lover Amy Borchadt @rn_bookworm - The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal   9- Carrington: A Life by Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina   10- The Last Painting of Sara de Vos by Dominic Smith   11- Blood Water Paint by Joy McCullough   12- The Museum of Modern Love by Heather Rose   13- Claude & Camille: A Novel of Monet by Stephanie Cowell   14- Get the Picture: A Mind-Bending Jourey Among the Inspired Artists and Obsessive Art Fiends Who Taught Me How To See by Bianca Bosker   15- All the Beauty in the World: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Me by Patrick Bringley     Media mentioned— 1- Come From Away — https://comefromaway.com/   2- Zoltan Kaszas https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vSGbslfLQM   3- Justified ( 2010-2015 HULU)   4- Carrington (1995)          

Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com.Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpodFacebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover.To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button. You can find Meg Shaffer at www.megshaffer.com or on IG at meg_shaffer.   This week we officially begin Season 12 so we have both a guest and book recommendations on a particular theme. Our guest this week is Meg Shaffer, best-selling author of The Wishing Game and The Lost Story. She talks to us about shifting gears to write books for adults that read a lot like the cool fantasy books we read as kids (think The Chronicles of Narnia in The Lost Story). And for our book recs, we will each be sharing 3 books related to libraries.    Books mentioned— 1- The Wishing Game by Meg Shaffer   2- The Lost Story by Meg Shaffer   3- Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl   4- The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis   5- Lord of the Flies by William Golding   6- Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero   7- Night of the Hunter by Davis Grubb   8- The Genius Under the Table: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain by Eugene Yelchin   9- The Hollow Places T. Kingfisher   10- The Twisted Ones by T. Kingfisher   11- The Willows by Algernon Blackwood   12- Carter and Lovecraft by Jonathan L. Howard   13- A House with Good Bones by T. Kingfisher   14- We are Experiencing a Slight Delay by Gary Janneti   15- Running With Scissors by Augusten Burroughs   16-Magical Thinking: True Stories by Augusten Burroughs   17- A Five Star Read Recommended by Fellow Book Lover Marisa Zane @Marisa_reads_books - The Reformatory by Tananarive Due   18- The Strange Library by Haruki Murakami   19- Nightbooks by JA White   20- The Library of Borrowed Hearts by Lucy Gilmore   21- The Nightmare Man by JH Markert 22- The Borrower by Rebecca Makkai 23- The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai 24- I Have Some Questions For You by Rebecca Makkai 25- Here Lies the Librarian by Richard Peck 26- A Year Down Yonder by Richard Peck 27- A Long Way From Chicago by Richard Peck 28- Reading Behind Bars: A True Story of Literature, Law, and Life as a Prison Librarian by Jill Grunenwald 29- Lonely Planet Hidden Libraries: The World's Most Unusual Book Depositories by DC Helmuth 30- The Godwick series by Tiffany Reisz Media mentioned— Perks episode with Lily Raiti https://www.perksofbeingabooklover.com/episodes/cxkpp8gtbmn5gf7-8mb73-52ylr-gs3nl-82m49-xr9s4-z4hhh-pm7gw-skgey-bjmtw-4dl76-hn7yl-we4y4-cfzjz-5f9x8-y93dj-7l4je-8667a   Pacific Palisades Fire—Will Rogers ranch — https://www.parks.ca.gov/NewsRelease/1346   Squid Games (Netflix, 2021 - present) Cunk on Life (Netflix, 2024) Black Doves (Netflix, 2024) Night of the Hunter (Tubi, 1955)    

Website- www.perksofbeingabooklover.com.Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpodFaceBook - Perks of Being a BookLover.To send us a message, go to our website and click the Contact button.   This week we are doing our 2024 recap, covering the books that earned 5 stars. We’ve also got some audio interspersed in the episode from 2024 guests to The Perks who also share their favorite books of the year. This is always one of our most popular episodes of the year.   And don’t forget, this new season is a whole new bag.  We are going to every other week episodes and each one will include an interview with a bookish guest plus some book recommendations by us on a particular topic.     Books mentioned--   1- The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester 2- Woodworm by Layla Martinez 3- North Woods by Daniel Mason 4- Six Truths and a Lie by Ream Shukairy 5- Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders 6- Greenwood by Michael Christie 7- Prophet Song by Paul Lynch 8- A Heart That Works by Rob Delaney  9- Tortilla Curtain by TC Boyle 10- The Library Book by Susan Orlean  11- The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride 12- The Geography of Bliss: One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World by Eric Weiner 13- One of Us is Lying by Karen McManus  14- Intimacies by Katie Kitamura 15- I Have Some Questions For You by Rebecca Makkai 16- The Wedding People by Alison Espach 17- The Huntress by Kate Quinn 18- Finding Langston by Lesa Cline-Ransom 19- The Mostly True Story of Tanner and Louise by Colleen Oakley 20- All the Sinners Bleed by SA Cosby 21- Being Henry by Henry Winkler 22- The Weather Woman by Sally Gardner 23- Un Lun Dun by China Mieville 24- Border Crossings: A Journey on the Trans-Siberian Railway by Emma Fick 25- The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin 26- All the Ugly and Wonderful Things by Brynn Greenwood 27- That Time I Got Drunk and Saved a Demon by Kimberly Lemming 28- The Husbands by Holly Gramazio 29- Sipsworth by Simon Van Booy 30- Arroyo Circle by JoeAnn Hart 31- Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our World , Change Our Minds, & Shape Our Futures by Merlin Sheldrake   Media mentioned--   1- Dune: Prophecy (HBO Max, 2024) 2- Shrinking (Apple+, 2024) 3- What We Do in the Shadows (Hulu) 4- The Professor and the Madman (Tubi, 2019) 5- Your Friend by Nate Bargatze (Netflix, 2024) 6- The Skinny by Jim Gaffigan (Hulu, 2024) 7- Catastrophe (Prime, 2015) 8- Three Body Problem (Netflix, 2024)