The Perks Of Being A Book Lover Podcast

Amy Smalley
  • 4.8 (45)
  • Language Learning
  • 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. 2d ago

    S15:Ep 289 - The Natural Order with Guest Matthew Aldrich + Organized Crime Book Recs - 10/28/26

    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 Our guest this week, Matthew Aldrich, has published a novel titled The Natural Order that offers intrigue paired with a unique father-son relationship. What makes that relationship unique is that the father, Paul Whitmore, is well over 100 years old, but his body is like that of a 50-year-old, while the son is in his 80s, decrepit and sick. The premise of the book, which is about living beyond the bounds of what humans have been able to live, is a topic that is on everyone’s minds. The novel is kind of a sweet spot of thriller and thoughtful examination.  For our book recommendation segment of the show, we are talking codes of silence, cement shoes, and shakedowns–we’re talking books about organized crime.   Books Mentioned In this Episode 1- The Natural Order by Matthew Aldrich  2- Dead Until Dark (Sookie Stackhouse #1) by Charlaine Harris  3- Stranger Times by C.K. McDonnell  4- Artificial: A Love Story by Amy Kurzweil 5- The Marigold Cottages Murder Collective by Jo Nichols  6- On The Calculation of Volume by Solvej Balle 7- Solito by Javier Zamora  8- A 5 Star Read Recommended by Fellow Booklover Lisa @bldgbookshelves - Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space by Adam Higginbotham  9- The Good Mothers: The Story of Three Women  Who Took on the World's Most Powerful Mafia by Alex Perry 10- They All Fall The Same by Wes Browne  11- Kaplan's Plot by Jason Diamond  12- Billy Bathgate by E. L. Doctorow  13- Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow  14- The Savage Noble Death of Babs Dionne by Ron Currie, Jr.  15- We Will See You Bleed by Ron Currie, Jr.  16- The Exceptions by David Cristofano  17- The Girl She Used to Be by David Cristofano  18- My Name Was Gerry Sass: A Novel by Tiffany Hanssen    Media Mentioned: 1- Whitehouse Hall and Gardens Book Club - https://www.historicwhitehall.org/whitehall-book-club 2- Slow Horses (Apple +, 2022-present) 3- The Diplomat (Netflix, 2023-present) 4- Dark Matter (Apple + , 2024 - present) 5- Hacks (HBO Max , 2021 - present) 6- Lupin (Netflix, 2021- present) 7- The Godfather (1972) 8- Good Fellas (1990) 9- True Blood (2008-2014) 10- What We Do In the Shadows (Hulu, 2019 - 2024)

  2. Oct 14

    S15: Ep 288 - Winterset Hollow with Guest Jonathan Edward Durham + Witchy Book Recs - 10/14/26

    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   You can find Jonathan Edward Durham at jonathanedwarddurham.com or on IG at @thisone0verhere   This week we chat with Jonathan Edward Durham, a very popular Instagrammer who calls himself a generalized anxiety wunderkind and speaks with wit about what it’s like to live in 2026. Carrie had been following him for awhile when she learned he had published a book called Winterset Hollow, which she read in 2024. The novel is about friends who set off on a pilgrimage to the estate of an author who wrote a beloved childhood story, but when they arrive, they find that the animals from the story aren’t as sweet and dear as they thought. The childhood dream of being immersed in the story becomes a nightmare.    For our book recommendation segment of the show, we are talking witches.  It is Halloween season after all and witches always lend themselves to some good spooky reading.  But you can also enjoy a witchy read that isn’t scary at all.  We have a fun mix.     Books Mentioned in this Episode: 1- Winterset Hollow by Jonathan Edward Durham  2- Invasive Species by Ellery Adams  3- Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman 4- Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver  5- The Sixth Nik by Daniel Kraus  6- Whalefall by Daniel Kraus  7- Angel Down by Daniel Kraus  8- Five by Ilona Bannister  9- A Five Star Read by Fellow Book Lover Erin W. - Tressing Motions at the End of Mistakes: Poems  by Imane Boukaila  10- Cackle by Rachel Harrison  11- The Witches of El Paso by Luis Jaramillo  12- The Witch's Guide to Magical Inn-keeping by Sangu Mandanna  13- Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix  13- The Highland Witch by Susan Fletcher  14- Weyward by Emilia Hart  15- Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry  16- The Fertile Earth and the Ordered Cosmos by M. Elizabeth Weiser 17- Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn  18- Hive Mind by Alison Gunn   Media Mentioned in This Episode 1- Widow's Bay (Apple +, 2026) 2- East of Eden (Netflix, 2026) 3- Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2016) 4- Historic Whitehall Bookclub - https://www.historicwhitehall.org/whitehall-book-club 5- Lonesome Dove (1989)

  3. Sep 30

    S15: Ep 287 - The Geomagician with Guest Jennifer Mandula + AI 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 Jennifer Mandula at jennifermandula.com/ or on IG @jennifermandula.   This week we chat with Jennifer Mandula about her book The Geomagician, a historical fantasy novel that explores the life of pioneering paleontologist Mary Anning and a dinosaur that comes to life, all within an alternate magical England.  This book explores issues of female empowerment and the tension between science and religion as well as offering up a little romance.    For our book rec segment of the show, we’re discussing AI books. It  feels like we’re at somewhat of a critical moment in terms of artificial intelligence, with communities protesting data centers and AI heads talking about how it could end humanity in a decade. So we’ve found 6 books about AI that we recommend you check out.  Some of these might even make you laugh.   Books Mentioned In This Episode: 1- The Geomagician by Jennifer Mandula  2- Culpability by Bruce Holsinger  3- Run for the Hills by Kevin Wilson 4- The Family Fang by Kevin Wilson  5- Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson  6- The Good Sister by Sally Hepworth  7- The Everlasting by Alix Harrow  8- Life on the Moon by Matthew Swanson and Robbi Behr  9- This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me by Ilona Andrews 10- Motherhood Discounted: Care Work in America Before and After Roe by Carolyn McConnell  11- Rental House by Weike Wang  12- A Five Star Read by Fellow Book Lover Molly @mollypg - The Great Wherever by Shannon Sanders  13- The Verifiers by Jane Pek  14- Afterword by Nina Schuyler  15- The Infinite Sadness of Small Appliances by Glenn Dixon  16- The People's Library by Veronica G. Henry  17- Daemon by Daniel Suarez  18- You Look Like a Thing and I Love you: How Artificial Intelligence Works and Why It's Making the World a Weirder Place by Janelle Shane    Media Mentioned in this Episode: 1- High Dive Podcast - https://highdivepod.com/ 2- Zelda Williams and the use of her father's voice - https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/robin-williams-deepfake-video-9.7353857 3- US Military AI mistake close call - https://www.cnn.com/2026/09/18/politics/us-military-ai-false-intelligence-china-ship 4- Anthropic using old books - https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/aug/05/anthropic-ai-destroying-books 5- Janelle Shane blog - https://www.aiweirdness.com/ 6- Matthew Swanson and Robbi Behr on The Perks of Being a Book Lover - https://www.perksofbeingabooklover.com/episodes/blpks3ktgywx9fx-x9wxe-p3aft-j9j3f-pk2fn-wbdd3-dbsfp-hhfrc-ep6yz-alk6z-hl34a-dhhaz-l9x4z-88zrd-rh699-xd584-r9src-wkdf3-aegrx-hhnhf-zsc5j-tcmh4-h9adg-9wmnz-c6fgx-57jfn-24pym-jzy8d-j85nx

  4. Sep 16

    S15: Ep 286 - Quite Literally Books with Guests Lisa Endo Cooper and Bremond Berry MacDougall + Neurodivergent 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 Quite Literally Books at https://quiteliterallybooks.com/ or on IG at @quiteliterallybooks.   This week we chat with two long-time friends and book lovers, Lisa Endo Cooper and Bremond Berry MacDougall, who decided to create a small press together to help bring some forgotten books back into print that were written by American women writers. Their company, Quite Literally Books, is modeled after heritage presses in the UK like Persephone Books, Manderley Press, and Slightly Foxed Editions. In addition to bringing back worthy novels, these presses produce books on high quality papers and have beautiful covers.  Lisa and Bremond couldn’t find an equivalent in the US and were determined to bring this type of press across the pond.   For our book recommendation section, we’re highlighting books that feature neurodivergent characters. We have middle grade, a popular murder mystery,  crime fiction, contemporary fiction, historical fiction, and young adult.   Books Mentioned In This Episode: 1- The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson  2- Sublimation by Isabel J. Kim  3- Dark Matter by Blake Crouch  4- Plum Bun by Jese Redmon Fauset  5- Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman  6- The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman  7- Who Would Have Thought It? by María Amparo Ruiz de Burton  8- Moby Dick by Herman Melville  9- Bartleby the Scrivener by Herman Melville  10- Why Read Moby Dick? by Nathaniel Philbrick  11- In the Heart of the Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick  12- The Pink House by Nelia Gardner White  13- The Little Dinner by Christina Terhune Herrick  14- Harlem Rhapsody by Victoria Christopher Murray  15- The Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout  16- Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout  17- How to End a Story: Diaries: 1995-1998 by Helen Garner  18- The Children's Bach by Helen Garner  19- Middlemarch by George Eliot  20- Freyja by Margrét Ann Thors 21- Elizabeth & Marilyn by Julie Owen Moylan  22- A Five Star Read Recommended by Fellow Book Lover - The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton  23- Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko  24- The Maid by Nita Prose  25- Counting by 7s by Holly Goldberg Sloan  26- June in the Garden by Eleanor Wilde  27- Rubberneckers by Belinda Bauer  28- The Impossible Thing by Belinda Bauer  29- When I Was the Greatest by Jason Reynolds    Media Mentioned in this Episode: 1- Dolly Parton/ Kim Michele Richardson - https://www.kentucky.com/news/state/kentucky/article317220255.html 2- Dark Matter (Apple +, 2024 - present) 3- What Does Neurodivergence Mean - https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/symptoms/23154-neurodivergent

  5. Sep 2

    S15:Ep285 - 4 Janes: A Novel with Guest Marian Yee + Women in Translation 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 Marian Yee at marianyee.com or on IG at @mariangyee   Remember the 1996 film Jerry Maguire and its famous line, “You had me at hello?” Well, our guest this week, Marian Yee, had me at hello with her novel 4 Janes, which is a genre- and time-bending re-imagining of Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre. It is a novel that you’ll want to read a second time (or even a third) and discuss with others because there are so many layers.    And our book rec segment features female authors in translation. August was Women in Translation month and yes we missed it by a few days, but we still have some great suggestions to last you all year long. We’ve got historical fiction set in a brothel in early 20th century Japan, a fantasy filled with Norse mythology, a psychological thriller set in Iceland, a family saga set in early 20th century Mexico filled with magical realism, the story of an old woman and her neighbors living outside Chernobyl, and the plight of young women in a mental asylum in Paris.   Books Mentioned in This Episode:   1- 4 Janes: A Novel by Marian Yee  2- Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë  3- The Lioness of Boston by Emily Franklin  4- Love and Other Monsters by Emily Franklin  5- Thirteen Perfect Fugitives: The True Story of the Mob, Murder, and the World's Largest Art Heist by Geoffrey Kelly  6- One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez  7- The Whisper Man by Alex North  8- War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy  9- War and Peace: The Graphic Novel by Leo Tolstoy, Alexandr Poltorak, and Dmitry Chukhrai 10- The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley  11- Say Hello to My Little Friend by Jennie Capo Crucet  12- Sister Novelists: The Trailblazing Porter Sisters Who Paved the Way for Austen and the Brontës by Devoney Looser  13- Snap by Susin Nielsen 14- 5 Star Read by Fellow Book Lover Brenna Julian - Echo by Pam Muñoz Ryan  15- The Murmur of Bees by Sofía Segovia, translated from Spanish by Simon Bruni 16- The Mad Women's Ball by Victoria Mad, translated from French by Frank Wynne  17- Baba Dunja's Last Love by Alina Bronsky, translated from German by Tim Mohr  18- A Woman of Pleasure by Kiyoko Murata, translated from Japanese by Juliet Winters Carpenter  19- The Night Guest by Hilda Knutsdottir, translated from Icelandic by Mary Robinette Kowal  20- Odin's Child by Siri Pettersen, translated from Norwegian by Siân Mackie and Paul Russell   Media Mentioned: 1- The Last Seen Podcast - https://www.wbur.org/podcasts/lastseen/last-seen-season-one 2- One Hundred Years of Solitude (Netflix, 2024 - present) 3- The Whisper Man (Netflix, 2026) 4- The Mad Women's Ball (Amazon Prime, 2021)

  6. Aug 19

    S15:Ep284 - Ohio Celebrates Toni Morrison with Guest Britt Lovett + Ohio Book Recs - 8/19/26

    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. For more information about Ohio Celebrates Toni Morrison, visit their website www.OhioCelebratesToniMorrison.org or on Insta at @ohiocelebratesmorrison.   This week we have created a motley episode of different segments all about or set in OH in some way.  Think of it as the Frankenstein’s monster episode. First we will be chatting with Britt Lovett, who is the Project Manager for the Ohio Celebrates Toni Morrison Project.  This year-long celebration running from February 2026-February 2027 focuses on the life, literature, and legacy of Toni Morrison, a native of Ohio and the first African American woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.   While Amy has gone to Ohio this year to visit Hocking Hills and the Columbus Book Festival, Carrie has driven to Ohio three times because her youngest son had surgery in June at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. Because this year feels like it has been “All Ohio, all the time,” we’re giving you recommendations for books set in the Buckeye State.   Books Mentioned in This Episode: 1- Assassination Nation by Sarah Vowell  2- The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison  3- Sula by Toni Morrison  4- Beloved by Toni Morrison  5- Paradise by Toni Morrison  6- I'll Watch Your Baby by Nina Viel  7- Clutch by Emily Nemens  8- Murder Your Darlings by Jenna Blum  9- Penelope's Bones: A New History of Homer's World Through the Women Written Out of It by Emily Houser  10- The Night Hunter by Natalie Moss  11- Guess Again by Charlie Donlea  12- A Harlem Wedding by Tiffany L. Warren  13- A Hunger to Kill by Kim Mager with Liza Pulitzer  14- Love is a Contact Sport by Frederick Smith  15- The French Winemaker's Daughter by Loretta Ellsworth  16- The Jilted Countess by Loretta Ellsworth  17-We Were Promised: How an Appalachian Grandmother Fought a Corporate Giant by Julia Flint  18- Mosquitoland by David Arnold  19- The Ghosts of Eden Park: The Bootleg King, The Woman Who Pursued Him, and the Murder that Shocked Jazz-Age America by Karen Abbott  20- Buckeye by Patrick Ryan  21- The Fertile Earth and the Ordered Cosmos by M. Elizabeth Weiser  22- Kent State by Deborah Wiles  23- To Slip the Bonds of Earth by Amanda Flower  24- The Wright Sister by Richard Maurer  25- Harvey Pekar's Cleveland by Harvey Pekar    Media Mentioned: 1- Death by Lightening (Netflix, 2026) 2- Ohio Celebrates Toni Morrison - https://ohiocelebratestonimorrison.org

  7. Aug 5

    S15:Ep283 - The Mixed Marriage Project with Guest Dorothy Roberts + Amusement Park 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 Dorothy Roberts at www.dorothyeroberts.com/ or you can find her on IG at @dorothyeroberts .   This week, we chat with Dorothy Roberts, the author of the book The Mixed Marriage Project: A Memoir of Love, Race, and Family.  As an esteemed professor of law at the University of Pennsylvania and a social justice advocate, Dorothy Roberts has written many scholarly books and academic papers about reproductive justice, child welfare, and bioethics, but her most recent book is a much more personal one.  She is the child of a white father who was an anthropologist and a black Jamaican mother, both now deceased. When Dorothy’s sister gave her boxes of her father’s files, she began to read transcripts of research he had done on interracial marriage over a 60-year period. She had no idea how these files would affect her memories of her childhood, her parent’s marriage, and her own racial identity.  This book is a fascinating look at racial history in Chicago as well as a very touching memoir about a father/daughter bond.     And for our book recommendation segment of the show, we turn to one of the most iconic parts of an American summer. August is here, which means people are having their last hurrahs at amusement parks. With this in mind, we decided we would feature books about these places where people go to be entertained, eat overpriced food, and argue with their relatives. The books we’ve chosen are set in various amusement park venues, such as a western theme park in Arizona, an arcade park where reality disintegrates, a place called Dreamworld where everyone is happy, a real-life New Jersey amusement park that was certainly ride at your own risk, a North Carolina park that was the site of a murder mystery, and an amusement park set in the mind.     Books Mentioned In This Episode: 1- The Mixed Marriage Project: A Memoir of Love, Race, and Family by Dorothy E. Roberts  2- The Odyssey translated by Emily Wilson  3- Martin Marten by Brian Doyle  4- The Keeper of Lost Children by Sadeqa Johnson  5- Jane Kenyon: The Making of a Poet by Dana Greene  6- The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and Obsession by Michael Finkel  7- The Stranger in the Woods by Michael Finkel  8- The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt  9- A Five Star Read by Fellow Book Lover Elizabeth S. @fireplacebookworm - Beartown by Frederik Backman 10- The Free Lunch by Spider Robinson  11- Krazyland by Mar Romance-Moore  12- The Insignificant Events in the Lives of a Cactus by Dusti Bowling  13- Joyland by Stephen King  14- Action Park: Fast Times, Wild Rides, and the Untold Story of America's Most Dangerous Amusement Park by Andy Mulvihill with Jake Rosen  15- Anxietyland by Gemma Correll    Media Mentioned:  1- The Odyssey (2026) 2- Emily Wilson review of the Odyssey - https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/n14/emily-wilson/an-uncomplicated-man 3- Class Action Park (2020, HBO Max)

  8. Jul 22

    S15:Ep282 - Love and Other Monsters with Guest Emily Franklin + Shakespeare Inspired Book Recs - 7/22/26

    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. You can find Emily Franklin at www.emilyfranklin.com or on IG at emilyfranklinauthor   At the end of May, we attended a Carmichael’s book event featuring author Emily Franklin, who has written numerous books. Her latest titled Love & Other Monsters is about a time in history that most English majors look on with awe and wonder. Her novel is about the summer of 1816 when Mary Shelley, Percy Shelley, Lord Byron and John Polidori traveled to Switzerland and, as the legend goes, told scary stories to each other, which ended up leading to the first vampire story and the book we now know as Frankenstein. But Franklin’s novel focuses on a member of the party who doesn’t get any acknowledgement—Mary’s step-sister Claire Clairemont. Emily did a great job making the Carmichael’s audience want to learn more about Claire’s story, so we invited her on to share it with our listeners.     And for our book recommendation segment of the show, we are talking Shakespeare, the Bard, the Swan of Avon, Willy Shakes.  Shakespeare is such a touchstone in literature in ways that we don’t regularly think about like classic phrases and tropes.  But you don’t have to be (or not to be) a Shakespeare scholar to enjoy the books we talk about this week.  We have a historical mystery, witty nonfiction, historical fiction, a memoir, a middle grade novel, and a novel in verse.  All are influenced in some way by Shakespeare’s plays or the man himself.     Books Mentioned In This Episode: 1- Love and Other Monsters by Emily Franklin  2- Grandma Joy & Me: A Journey of Healing , One National Park at a Time by Brad Ryan  3- The Humming Room by Ellen Potter  4- The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett  5- Summer of 1816: A World Without Summer by Nicholas Day  6- Frankenstein by Mary Shelley  7- The Vampyre by John Polidori  8- Fearless, Sleepless, Deathless: What Mushrooms Taught Me About Nourishment, Poison, Ecology, Hidden Histories, Zombies, and Black Survival by Maria Pinto 9- Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman 10- Winter Counts by David Heska Wanbly Weiden  11- Wisdom Corner by David Heska Wanbly Weiden  12- A Five Star Read of Fellow Book Lover Joshua  - Devotions by Mary Oliver  13- Daughter of Fair Verona by Christina Dodd  14- Much Ado About Mistletoe by Christina Dodd  15- Shakespeare: The World as a Stage by Bill Bryson  16- By Any Other Name by Jodi Picoult  17- Enter the Body by Joy McCullough  18- Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent by Judi Dench  19- The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt    Media Mentioned  1- The Bride (2026) 2- Guillermo de Toro article about Frankenstein: "Why Vampires Never Die" - https://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/31/opinion/31deltoro.html

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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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