Best Book Ever Podcast Julie Strauss

A quick episode this week with updates about how you can support the podcast and links to what Julie has been reading on her own time recently.
 
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Host: Julie Strauss
Website/Instagram
 
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Discussed in this episode:
 
Episode 118 Tyler Foley on “The Fool’s Progress” by Edward Abbey, still one of my favorite episodes even though I hated the book
Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell
Episode 125 3rd Annual Kids/YA Gift Giving Guide
The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides
The Survivors by Jane Harper
Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman
Jaymi Couch – Let’s Read Nonfiction
 
(Note: Some of the above links are affiliate links. If you shop using my affiliate link on Bookshop, a portion of your purchase will go to me, at no extra expense to you. Thank you for supporting indie bookstores and for helping to keep the Best Book Ever Podcast in business!)


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bestbookeverpodcast.substack.com

Today I’m joined by Kim Sherwood, an author and creative writing lecturer at the University of Edinburgh. Kim’s newest release, "A Wild and True Relation," has the tremendous distinction of a gushing review by Dame Hilary Mantel herself, who said that Sherwood’s book is “a rarity – a novel as remarkable for the vigour of the storytelling as for its literary ambition. Kim Sherwood is a writer of capacity, potency and sophistication.” In addition to that, this April Kim is releasing the first book in a new James Bond trilogy, called "Double Or Nothing," commissioned the Ian Fleming estate. Kim and I had a wonderful talk about these different genres, and what brings these iconic characters to life, and why "Wolf Hall" is the Best Book Ever.
 
Follow the Best Book Ever Podcast on Instagram or on the Best Book Ever Website
 
Host: Julie Strauss
Website/Instagram
 
Kim Sherwood
Website/Twitter/Instagram
 
 
Discussed in this episode:
 
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel (book 2 in the Wolf Hall trilogy)
The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel (book 3 in the Wolf Hall trilogy)
A Wild and True Relation by Kim Sherwood
Orlando by Virginia Woolf
Double or Nothing: A Double O Novel by Kim Sherwood
From Russia with Love by Ian Fleming
Casino Royale by Ian Fleming
(This one also exists in graphic novel form!)
George Baker
Spare by Prince Harry
Waverly by Walter Scott
Testament by Kim Sherwood
Greenway House – the Home of Agatha Christie
V.I. Warshawski Novels by Sara Paretsky (There are, to date, 21 novels in this series.)
 
(Note: Some of the above links are affiliate links. If you shop using my affiliate link on Bookshop, a portion of your purchase will go to me, at no extra expense to you. Thank you for supporting indie bookstores and for helping to keep the Best Book Ever Podcast in business!)


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bestbookeverpodcast.substack.com

Aleenah Ansari (she/her) is equal parts storyteller, creative problem solver, and journalist at heart who's rooted in the stories of people behind products, companies, and initiatives. She writes about travel, entrepreneurship, mental health and wellness, and representation in media for Insider, The Seattle Times, Byrdie, and more. You can usually find her searching for murals in Seattle and beyond, reading a book, and planning her next trip to New York.
Aleenah joined me today for a particularly canded discussion about BIPOC representation in our reading life, and the way books and therapy are crucial to our mental health
 
Follow the Best Book Ever Podcast on Instagram or on the Best Book Ever Website
 
Host: Julie Strauss
Website/Instagram
 
Aleenah Ansari
Website/Twitter/Instagram/Linked In
 
Discussed in this episode:
 
Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
Aleenah’s article about the best indie bookstores across the United States
Footnotes from the World’s Greatest Bookstores: True Tales and Lost Moments from Book Buyers, Booksellers, and Book Lovers by Bob Eckstein
Word on the Water – The London Bookbarge
More Than Enough by Elaine Welteroth
Attached: The New Science of Adult Attachment and How It Can Help You Find – And Keep – Love by Amir Levine and Rachel Heller
Dear Therapists podcast with Lori Gottlieb and Guy Winch
Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner
Funny You Should Ask by Elissa Sussman
 
(Note: Some of the above links are affiliate links. If you shop using my affiliate link on Bookshop, a portion of your purchase will go to me, at no extra expense to you. Thank you for supporting indie bookstores and for helping to keep the Best Book Ever Podcast in business!)


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bestbookeverpodcast.substack.com

“Twenty Years at Hull House” is the acclaimed memoir of social reformer Jane Adams. It contains unflinching descriptions of poverty and degradation of the Industrial Revolution, and the steps she took to establish housing, food, clean water, and education for the poor of Chicago.
Joining me today is Rebecca Sive, author of three books on women’s politics and power. She’s also a motivational speaker for women’s audiences; a former professor at the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago, and the recipient of numerous awards for her public leadership and service. Rebecca and I talked about how to find rest as a feminist voter, the way every public service is bound up in all aspects of society, and how the messages from Jane Adams’ work, written over one hundred years ago, are still so relevant today.
 
Follow the Best Book Ever Podcast on Instagram or on the Best Book Ever Website
 
Host: Julie Strauss
Website/Instagram
 
Rebecca Sive
Website
 
Discussed in this episode:
 
Twenty Years at Hull House by Jane Addams
Every Day is Election Day: A Woman’s Guide to Winning Any Office, from the PTA to the White House by Rebecca Sive
Vote Her In: Your Guide to Electing our First Woman President by Rebecca Sive
Make Herstory Your Story: Your Guided Journal to Justice Every Day for Every Woman by Rebecca Sive
Paul Wellstone
Unbought and Unbossed by Shirley Chisholm
Rebecca’s article about Twenty Years at Hull House in Windy City Times
Division Street: America by Studs Terkel
Rebel Bayou by Samuel and Sarah Hyde
The Promised Land: The Great Black Migration and How it Changed America by Nicholas Lemann
 
(Note: Some of the above links are affiliate links. If you shop using my affiliate link on Bookshop, a portion of your purchase will go to me, at no extra expense to you. Thank you for supporting indie bookstores and for helping to keep the Best Book Ever Podcast in business!)


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bestbookeverpodcast.substack.com

We are going a little off script for today’s episode. I’m not sure either one of us would call “Spare” the Best Book Ever, though I’m sure it has plenty of people who would. But it is definitely the book of the week, and a book that I think will come to be seen as a watershed moment in the history of the royals.
Suswati Basu is a multilingual journalist, mental health books show podcast host, and award-winning activist, and one of my favorite guests of the show. I was eager to get her take on this book that has been in the news basically nonstop for the last week, and talk beyond the headlines. Besides settling the score with his family, there are a lot of really big issues in this book, and I was eager to get her take on them. We also talked about the biggest issue for all of us readers – is it actually any good? 
 
Follow the Best Book Ever Podcast on Instagram or on the Best Book Ever Website
 
Host: Julie Strauss
Website/Instagram
 
Suswati Basu
Website/Instagram/Podcast/YouTube/Facebook/Twitter
 
Listen to Suswati talk to me about “The Stranger” by Albert Camus
 
Discussed in this episode:
 
Spare by Prince Harry
Suswati’s Review of Spare in National World
Shoe Dog by Phil Knight (co-written by J.R. Moehringer)
Age of Vice by Deepti Kapoor
The Bandit Queens by Parini Shroff
The Godfather by Mario Puzo
The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
 
(Note: Some of the above links are affiliate links. If you shop using my affiliate link on Bookshop, a portion of your purchase will go to me, at no extra expense to you. Thank you for supporting indie bookstores and for helping to keep the Best Book Ever Podcast in business!)


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bestbookeverpodcast.substack.com

This week I’m joined by the fabulous Katy Leep Arditti, consumer of all things Thriller and Fantasy, business owner, massage therapist, and one of my favorite book club friends. Friends, Katy introduced me to a book so totally out of my wheelhouse, I actually contemplated not reading it, and just having her on to tell me about it. But I’m so glad I avoided that temptation, because Ordinary Monsters turned out to be easily one of my favorite reads of 2022. It was a delightful talk about the importance of smart heroines, rollicking adventures through foggy London, and surviving tremendous personal grief.
 
Follow the Best Book Ever Podcast on Instagram or on the Best Book Ever Website
 
Host: Julie Strauss
Website/Instagram
 
Katy Leep Arditti
Instagram
 
Discussed in this episode:
Ordinary Monsters by J.M. Miro
Rock Paper Scissors by Alice Feeney
The Magic of Oz by L. Frank Baum
Thrillers by the Book Club
Empire of the Vampire by Jay Kristoff
The Bechdel Test
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
BBE Episode 119 – V.P. Morris on Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
Ben Onwukwe (audiobook narrator)
Small Town Big Magic by Hazel Beck
Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark
 
(Note: Some of the above links are affiliate links. If you shop using my affiliate link on Bookshop, a portion of your purchase will go to me, at no extra expense to you. Thank you for supporting indie bookstores and for helping to keep the Best Book Ever Podcast in business!)


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bestbookeverpodcast.substack.com