The Perks Of Being A Book Lover Podcast

Amy Smalley
  • 4.8 (42)
  • LANGUAGE LEARNING
  • UPDATED WEEKLY

Perks of Being a Book Lover is a show about books, people who read, and how reading, at its very best, is a social experience. Whether it be a book club, a poetry slam, or the production of a play; words are meant to be shared. Keep up with us on FB.

  1. MAR 4

    S14:Ep274 - The International Book Project with Guest Rachel Ray + Espionage Book Recommendations 3/4/26

    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 Rachel Ray, CEO of the International Book Project, a nonprofit organization in Lexington, KY that helps make book lovers out of people all over the world. She talks to us about the logistics of shipping books and how close relationships with the Peace Corps and other nonprofits help get English-language books into people’s hands.    And for our book recommendation section of the show, we are focusing on spies, but these definitely aren’t of the James Bond variety. We offer up 6 book suggestions that stretch our understanding of an espionage story.  We are light on books set during the Cold War or World War II but instead focus on outside-the-box spy characters.      Books Mentioned in this Episode: 1- A Dark Room in Glitter Ball City by David Dominé 2- The White Heart of the Mojave: An Adventure with the Outdoors of the Desert by Edna Brush Perkins  3- Ghost Town Living: Mining for Purpose and Chasing Dreams on the Edge of Death Valley by Brent Underwood  4- Guards, Guards! (Discworld series) by Terry Pratchett  5- The Storyteller of Casablanca by Fiona Valley  6- Poets Square: A Memoir in Thirty Cats by Courtney Gustafson  7- A Five Star Read by Fellow Book Lover Jenni Scott @storytimereviews - Theo of Golden by Allen Levi  8- Oxford Soju Club by Jinwoo Park  9- Who is Vera Kelly? by Rosalie Knecht  10- An Extraordinary Union by Alyssa Cole  11- Liar and Spy by Rebecca Stead  12- Mr. Nice Spy by Tiana Smith  13- The Faithful Spy: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Plot to Kill Hitler by John Hendrix    Media Mentioned: 1- Murder in Glitterball City (HBO Max 2026) 2- John Hendrix's link to The Faithful Spy research - https://goose-hawk-c589.squarespace.com/bonhoeffer-research 3- Terry Pratchett Puzzle - https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-world-of-terry-pratchett-1000-piece-puzzle-a-discworld-jigsaw-by-paul-kidby-terry-pratchett/29dbddde082184ce?ean=9781399620697&next=t&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=%7Bcampaignname%7D&utm_content=6443417794&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=16235479093&gbraid=0AAAAACfld41whhyxRMyYH28KslljMJPpx&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIieS7rND8kgMVYCBECB3sphbOEAQYByABEgIRtvD_BwE

    1h 8m

  2. FEB 18

    S14: Ep273 - The Mourner's Bestiary with Guest Eiren Caffal + Old Dude Book Recommendations

    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. You can find Eiren Caffal at her website eirencaffall.com or on IG @eirencaffall   We chat this week with Eiren Caffall, a Chicago writer whose memoir, The Mourner’s Bestiary, sat on Carrie's shelf staring at her for a year until she finally made time to read it but she is so glad I did. In this creative nonfiction work, Eiren talks about her family’s long history with a chronic illness (specifically, polycystic kidney disease (PKD)) and connects that to the health of the waterways and living creatures in Maine. It is a master work that merges scientific writing with poetic language. We also talk about her novel, All the Water in the World, which came out less than six months after The Mourner’s Bestiary. It is also about water, but in a fictional dystopian setting where New York City has flooded due to the melting of the ice caps. If you enjoyed Station Eleven, you must give this novel a try.   And for our book recommendation section of the show, we are focusing on Old Dudes!!  Carrie has a soft spot in her heart for curmudgeonly and/ or cuddly elderly men, so we are giving you six ideas of books that feature crotchety (or not) male senior citizens.  We have a memoir, a children’s book series, a book translated from Swedish, novels featuring LGBTQ protagonists, and literary fiction.   Books Discussed in this Episode:   1- The Mourner's Bestiary by Eiren Caffal  2- All the Water in the World by Eiren Caffal  3- Howards End by E.M. Forster  4- Stolen by Ann-Helén Laestadius  5- Ignition by MR O'Connor  6- Hotshot: A Life on Fire by River Selby  7- The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Story of a Donner Party Bride by Daniel James Brown  8- The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny, and Murder by David Grann  9- The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones  10- Queen Bee by Cierra Geraghty  11- The List of Suspicious Things by Jennie Godfrey 12- A Five Star Read Recommended by a Fellow Book Lover - In a Lonely Place by Dorothy Hughes  13- The Very Long Very Strange Life of Isaac Dahl by Bart Yates  14- The Last Days of Ptolemy Gray by Walter Mosley  15- The Happiest Man on Earth by Eddie Jaku  16- The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson  17- The Secret Life of Albert Entwistle by Matt Cain  18- Mr. Putter and Tabby series by Cynthia Rylant 19- A Dark Room in Glitter Ball City: Murder, Secrets, and Scandal in Old Louisville by David Dominé   Media Mentioned: 1- 'Murder in Glitter Ball City' - https://www.wdrb.com/news/murder-in-glitter-ball-city-hbo-documentary-explores-2010-old-louisville-murder/article_1b4cc513-c22b-4543-b609-5b6267e1dce2.html 2- Our Episode with David Dominé - https://ThePerksofBeingaBookLover.podbean.com/e/season-5-episode-108-sex-drugs-and-true-crime-vibes-with-guest-david-domine-10-13-21/ 3- True Detective Night Country (HBO Max, 2024)

    1h 10m

  3. FEB 4

    S14:Ep274 - The International Book Project with Guest Rachel Ray + Espionage Book Recommendations 3/4/26

    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 Rachel Ray, CEO of the International Book Project, a nonprofit organization in Lexington, KY that helps make book lovers out of people all over the world. She talks to us about the logistics of shipping books and how close relationships with the Peace Corps and other nonprofits help get English-language books into people’s hands.    And for our book recommendation section of the show, we are focusing on spies, but these definitely aren’t of the James Bond variety. We offer up 6 book suggestions that stretch our understanding of an espionage story.  We are light on books set during the Cold War or World War II but instead focus on outside-the-box spy characters.      Books Mentioned In This Episode: 1- A Dark Room in Glitter Ball City by David Dominé 2- The White Heart of the Mojave: An Adventure with the Outdoors of the Desert by Edna Brush Perkins  3- Ghost Town Living: Mining for Purpose and Chasing Dreams at the Edge of Death Valley by Brent Underwood 4- Discworld series by Terry Pratchett  5- The Storyteller of Casablanca by Fiona Valpy  6- Poets Square: A Memoir in Thirty Cats by Courtney Gustafson  7- A 5 Star Read by a Fellow Book Lover Jenni Potter Scott @storytimereviews - Theo of Golden by Allen Levi  8- Oxford Soju Club by Jinwoo Park  9- Who is Vera Kelly? by Rosalie Knecht 10- An Extraordinary Union by Alyssa Cole  11- Liar and Spy by Rebecca Stead  12- Mr. Nice Spy by Tiana Smith  13- The Faithful Spy: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Plot to Kill Hitler by John Hendrix   Media Mentioned: 1- Murder in Glitterball City - HBO Max, 2026 2- John Hendrix - Link to The Faithful Spy research - https://goose-hawk-c589.squarespace.com/bonhoeffer-research

    1h 8m

  4. FEB 4

    S14:Ep272 - The Place Where They Buried Your Heart with Guest Christina Henry + House as a Character Book Recs

    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. You can find Christina Henry at christinahenry.net or on IG  @authorchristinahenry    In this week’s episode, our focus is on houses that are so important to a story that they essentially become a character. When we started thinking about this idea, we realized that Chicago writer Christina Henry would be a perfect guest because her last two novels are focused on houses. Her most recent is titled The Place Where They Buried Your Heart and is about a neighborhood house that lures people in, causing heartache for neighbors as well as a sense of family among a handful of them. Prior to this novel, Christina wrote The House That Horror Built. We talk to Christina about the importance of houses in her stories and how a house can straddle setting and character.    In our book rec section, we continue the house idea with a range of titles in which houses are critically important—-we’ve got a memoir, a National Book Award winner, children’s fantasy, classic literature, and propulsive literary fiction.   Books Mentioned in this Episode:   1- The Place Where They Buried Your Heart by Christina Henry 2- The House That Horror Built by Christina Henry  3- Howards End by E.M. Forster  3- War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy 3- Viewfinder: A Memoir of Seeing and Being Seen by Jon M. Chu  4- Double Indemnity by James Cain  5- From the Moment They Met It Was Murder: Double Indemnity and the Rise of Film Noir by Alain Silver and James Ursini  6- Out by Natsuo Kirino  7- Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata  8- Earthlings by Sayaka Murata  9- The Mantis by Kotaro Osaka  10- Three Assasins by Kotaro Osaka  11- Bullet Train by Kotaro Osaka  12- The Night Guest by Hildur Knútsdóttir 13- Night Shift by Alex Finlay 14- A Five Star Read by Fellow Book Lover Kris Wyatt @froggyreadteach - The Labors of Hercules Beal by Gary D. Schmidt  15- Cabin: Off the Grid Adventures with a Clueless Craftsman by Patrick Hutchison  16- House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III 17- The Yellow House by Sarah M. Broom  18- Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones  19- The House with the Clock in it's Walls by John Bellairs  20- Behind the Waterline by Kionna Walker LeMalle  21- The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson 22- Rebecca by Daphne duMaurier    Media Mentioned: 1- If I Had Legs I'd Kick You (2025) 2- Platonic (Apple +, 2023 - present) 3- Train Dreams (2025) 4- The Studio (Apple +, 2025) 5- Howards End (1992) 6- Howl's Moving Castle (2004) 7- The House with the Clock in it's Walls (2018) 8- House of Sand and Fog (2003) 9- LibroVox app for free audiobooks of books in the public domain 10- Whitehall House and Gardens Book Club - https://www.historicwhitehall.org/whitehall-book-club

    1h 3m

  5. JAN 21

    S14:Ep271 - The Secret Astronomers with Guest Jessica Walker + West Virginia Based Book Recommendations

    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. You can find Jessica Walker on IG @hellojessicawalker   In this week’s episode, we’re talking to debut novelist and assistant professor of fine arts at Parsons School of Design Jessica Walker, whose novel Amy discovered late last year. The Secret Astronomers is an illustrated novel, which is not the same as a graphic novel.  This is a novel that is written on sticky notes between two people inside a book.  It’s in full color and really eye-catching. Although it is technically geared towards young adults, it is a feast for the eyes for any age reader.  The story is about two girls who keep their identities secret from each other and converse through an old astronomy textbook in the school library. This new take on the epistolary novel takes the reader on an adventure to solve a mystery in this small West Virginia town.     And in our book rec section, inspired by the West Virginia setting of The Secret Astronomers, we’re giving you other books set in The Mountain State. We have a mystery, a Pulitzer Prize winner, several historical fiction, and an investigative nonfiction.   Books Mentioned in this Episode:   1- The Secret Astronomers by Jessica Walker  2- I Am The Messenger by Markus Zusak  3- Neanderthal Opens the Door to the Universe by Preston Norton  4- Floreana by Midge Raymond  5- What You are Getting Wrong About Appalachia by Elizabeth Catte  6- Yellow Singing Sail: A Memoir of an Only Child in China by Yinfan Huang  7- Otto: A Palindrama by Jon Agee  8- Griffin & Sabine: An Extraordinary Address Book by Nick Bantok  9- My Father's Paradise: A Son's Search for a Jewish Past in Kurdish Iraq by Ariel Sabar 10- The Doorman by Chris Pavone 11- A Five Star Read by Fellow Book Lover Karla @karla_bookishlife - Blood Like Ours and Blood Like Mine by Stuart Neville 12- The Road to Blair Mountain by Charles Keeney 13- The Lost Story by Meg Shaffer 14- The Unquiet Grave by Sharyn McCrumb 15- Night Watch by Jayne Anne Phillips 16- The Quiet Zone: Unraveling the Mystery of a Town Suspended in Silence by Stephen Kurczy 17- The Third Rainbow Girl by Emma Copley Eisenberg 18- Foote: A Mystery Novel by Tom Bredehoft 19- The Coffin Quilt: The Feud Between the Hatfields and McCoys by Ann Rinaldi 20- The Grand Design by Joy Calloway   Media Mentioned: 1- Footnotes and Tangents Substack - War and Peace 2- Eden (Netflix, 2024) 3- Our episode with Meg Shaffer - https://ThePerksofBeingaBookLover.podbean.com/e/s12ep249-the-lost-story-with-guest-meg-shaffer-11525/ 4- Article about Reading Resetting the Nervous System - https://www.hellomagazine.com/healthandbeauty/health-and-fitness/873671/why-reading-cures-overactive-nervous-system-experts-explain/

    1h 16m

  6. JAN 7

    S14:Ep270 - The Witch's Orchard with Guest Archer Sullivan + Planes, Trains, and Automobiles Book Recs - 1/7/25

    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.   You can find Archer Sullivan at her website archersullivan.com or on IG @archer_sullivan.   We are back with all new episodes, book recommendations, and, most importantly, guests!  To start the new season with a bang, we have author Archer Sullivan whose book The Witch’s Orchard is the first in a new series featuring Private Investigator Annie Gore, who travels to small town North Carolina to solve the mystery of young girls who have disappeared. What makes the cases even more creepy is that an Appalachian apple face doll is left in place of the child. Archer draws on her personal knowledge of place as a 7th-generation Appalachian, although she now resides in Los Angeles, and is always looking for a reason to come home. The novel was a nominee for the 2025 Goodreads Choice Awards in the Best Debut Novel Category. The next Annie Gore installment comes out in August of 2026.   Our book rec section for this episode is a call back to what a lot of people were doing the past two weeks–taking planes, trains, and automobiles to family and friends to celebrate the holidays. We give you two books set on planes, two on trains, and two in automobiles, which you can look into whenever you’ve got travel plans in 2026.   Books Mentioned In This Episode:   1- The Witch's Orchard by Archer Sullivan  2- War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy 3- Sous Chef: 24 Hours of Working on the Line by Michael Gibney  4- Marrying the Ketchups by Jennifer Close  5- Brimstone Hollow by Archer Sullivan  6- Dragonsbane by Barbara Hambly  7- The Curse of Chalion by Lois Bujold  8- The Wizard of Earths by Ursula K. LeGuin 9- Silver Medal Lover by Tanith Lee  10- The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison  11- Kill Your Darlings by Peter Swanson 12- The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo  13- A Five Star Read by Fellow Book Lover - Babel by R.F. Kuang 14- West With The Night by Beryl Markham  15- Circling the Sun by Paula McClain  16- Turbulence by David Szalay 17- Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool 18- Border Crossing by Emma Pick  19- Mrs. Nash's Ashes by Sarah Adler  20- The Road to Tender Hearts by Annie Hartnett   Media Mentioned: 1- Simon Haisell's Slow Read at Footnote and Tangents Substack - https://footnotesandtangents.substack.com 2- From the Front Porch Podcast - Patreon Conquer a Classic  3- The Bear on Hulu

    1h 7m

  7. 12/10/2025

    S13:Ep269 - 2025 Year in Review

    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.   Our first show of Season 14 will begin on January 7, 2026. We’ve been coming up with ideas for book recommendations and will soon be recording with guests. But until then, Amy is going to make merry, and Carrie is going to begrudgingly deal with the holidays. And in this episode, we’re reviewing some of the notable books that we have loved over the last 12 months. Some of these are backlist titles, and some are new releases—we cannot keep up with the publishing industry, nor do we really try. You will also hear from some of our guests from this year who share their favorites of 2025.    Books Discussed In This Episode: Carrie's Favorites of 2025 1- Angel Down by Daniel Kraus 2- On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder  3- The Millicent Quibb School for Young Ladies of Mad Science by Kate McKinnon 4- The Lost Year by Katherine Marsh  5- Belonging: A German Reckons with History and Home by Nora Krug   Amy's Favorites of 2025 1- Miss Benson's Beetle by Rachel Joyce  2- You Could Make This Place Beautiful by Maggie Smith 3- Culpability by Bruce Holsinger  4- The Shift: One Nurse, Twelve Hours, Four Patients' Lives by Theresa Brown, RN  5- Paris Letters: A Travel Memoir About Art, Writing, and Finding Love in Paris by Janice MacLeod    Other books mentioned 1- I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman 2- The Nature of Pain by Mandi Fugate Sheffel  3- The Strange Case of Jane O by Karen Thompson Walker  4- The Devils by Joe Abercrombie  5- Everything's Fine by Cecilia Rabess  6- The River is Waiting by Wally Lamb 7- I Have Some Questions For You by Rebecca Makkai 8- Just One Damned Thing After Another by Jodi Taylor 9- Starling House by Alix E. Harrow  10- Dead Man Blues by S.D. House  11- God of the Woods by Liz Moore  12- The Road to Blair Mountain: Saving a Mine Wars Battlefield from King Coal by Charles B. Keeney 13- Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent by Judi Dench and Brendan O' Yea  14- Carpool Detectives: A True Story  of Four Moms, Two Bodies, and One Mysterious Cold Case by Chuck Hogan  15- Anima Rising by Christopher Moore  16- The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest by Aubrey Hartman 17- The Husbands by Holly Gramazio 18- Grace and Henry's Holiday Movie Marathon by Matthew Norman  19- Seven Days of Us by Francesca Hornak

    53 min

  8. 11/26/2025

    S13:Ep268 - Angel Down with Guest Daniel Kraus + Women in Politics Book Recs - 11/26/25

    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.   You can find Daniel Kraus at his website danielkraus.com or on IG at @kraus_author.   This week our episode features Daniel Kraus, a writer who has published over 20 books, but among moviegoers he may be best known as the co-author with Guillermo del Toro of The Shape of Water. The film of this story won four Oscars in 2018. Daniel’s 2023 novel Whalefall is being turned into a 20th Century Fox motion picture, and I hope that at some point his latest novel, Angel Down, will also be on film.  Both the premise and writing in Angel Down are unique. It is the story of a group of World War I soldiers told to go into No Man’s Land to rescue what they think is a wounded soldier. What they find is an angel. If you enjoy war novels, and even if you don’t, I recommend giving this book a read.    Our book rec section of the show features books related to women in politics. If you are interested in politics yet hate the nuttery of American government at the moment, these books can provide a reprieve. We have contemporary fiction, biography, memoir, alternative history, and electoral nonfiction.    Books Mentioned in this Episode: 1- Whalefall by Daniel Kraus  2- Angel Down by Daniel Kraus  3- The Shape of Water by Guillermo del Toro and Daniel Kraus 4- Frankenstein by Mary Shelley 5- The Leaphorn and Chee Series by Tony Hillerman 6- Hearts of the Missing by Carol Potenza 7- The Death and Life of Zebulon Finch by Daniel Kraus  8- Wolf at the Table by Adam Rapp  9- From Under the Truck by Josh Brolin 10- Madonna in a Fur Coat by Sabahattin Ali  11- The Rachel Incident by Caroline O'Donoghue  12- A Five Star Read recommended by fellow Book Lover State Katz @all.da.bookish.things - The Witch's Orchard by Archer Sullivan  13- Cleo McDougal Regrets Nothing by Alison Winn Scotch  14- Charlotte Walsh Likes to Win by Jo Piazza 15- The Partisan Gap: Why Democratic Women Get Elected But Republican Women Don't by Laurel Elder  16- Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld  17- Mrs. Lincoln: A Life by Catherine Clinton  18- A Different Kind of Power by Jacinda Arden   Media Mentioned: 1- Frankenstein (2025-Netflix) 2- Dark Winds (2022 - present, Netflix) 3- The Shape of Water (2017) 4- 1917 (2019) 5- Whalefall (Upcoming Fall 2026) 6- Michelle Obama Says US Not Ready for a Female President - https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/michelle-obama-says-us-not-ready-woman-president-rcna244136

    1h 13m
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Perks of Being a Book Lover is a show about books, people who read, and how reading, at its very best, is a social experience. Whether it be a book club, a poetry slam, or the production of a play; words are meant to be shared. Keep up with us on FB.

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