The Perks Of Being A Book Lover Podcast

Amy Smalley
  • 4.8 (43)
  • 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. 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

  2. Jul 7

    REPLAY - Award Winners! Hugo Award Winner Alix E. Harrow

    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 Alix E. Harrow at www.alixeharrow.wixsite.com or on IG at @alix.e.harrow   Carrie and I are still reading and resting on our summer hiatus but we are continuing our summer replay series of award winners!   This week we are going way back in the archives to the fall of 2019, the first season of our podcast.  We took a roadtrip from Louisville to Berea, KY to meet up with Alix E. Harrow, a Hugo and British Fantasy award winner and a finalist for the Nebula, Locus, and Goodreads Choice Awards.  And she is a New York Times best-selling author.  At the time of our interview, her debut novel The Ten Thousand Doors of January had been released and one of her short stories had just won the Hugo.  Currently her most recent novel The Everlasting is a finalist for the Hugo Award for Best Novel. The Hugo is science fiction and fantasy’s most prestigious annual award.   Because this interview was recorded in a library with tall ceilings, not in a studio, and because we were definitely newbies at podcasting with a different format, this episode will sound a lot different than those today. But we hope you’ll enjoy hearing Alix talk about her influences and her view of sci-fi fantasy early on in her writing career.   We will be back July 22 with an all new episode.  Happy Reading!

  3. Jun 23

    REPLAY - Award Winners! - Edgar Award Winner Erin Flanagan

    Carrie and I are on summer hiatus but we are leaning into award winners!  We have been lucky enough to interview many acclaimed authors who have won awards in their genres.  So we are replaying some of these past episodes.  First up is Erin Flanagan who was on the show in 2022.  Her debut novel Deer Season won the Edgar Award for Best First Novel.  The Mystery Writers of America gives the Edgar Award to recognize the best in fiction, non-fiction, and television writing.  Erin has gone on to write 2 more thrillers.  Blackout had just been published when we spoke to her.     You can follow Erin Flanagan on Instagram @erinlflanagan or at her website; www.erinflanagan.net For shownotes for any episode at our website www.perksofbeingabooklover.com. Follow us on Instagram @perksofbeingabookloverpod and on FB Perks of Being a BookLover   In this week’s episode, we chat with Erin Flanagan, an author whose debut novel Deer Season won a 2022 Edgar Award for Best First Novel; her most recent book that published this past summer is a thriller called Blackout. Blackout revolves around a sociology professor named Maris who begins having blackouts despite the fact that she gave up drinking seven months before and then discovers other women in her community are experiencing the same thing. It’s a bit of a #metoo novel with some speculative science and some vodka thrown in. In addition to being an award-winning writer, Erin is also a creative writing professor at Wright State University in Ohio.   Books Mentioned in this Episode: 1- Deer Season by Erin Flanagan 2- Blackout by Erin Flanagan 3- In Defense of Witches: The Legacy of the Witch Hunts and Why Women Are Still on Trial by Mona Chollet 4- Shit Cassandra Saw by Gwen Kirby 5- The Damage by Caitlin Wahrer 6- They Never Learn by Layne Fargo 7- The Case of the Missing Marquess (Enola Holmes #1) by Nancy Springer 8- The Case of the Left-Handed Lady (Enola Holmes #2) by Nancy Springer Movie Mentioned 1- Enola Holmes - 2020 (Netflix) TV series mentioned: 1- Severance - 2022 (Apple +)

  4. Jun 10

    S14:Ep281 - Never Say Die with Guest Meredith Doench + Unusual Narrators Book Recs - 6/10/26

    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 Meredith Doench at www.meredithdoench.com or on IG at @meredithdoench   If you’ve listened to our show for a while, you may be aware that we’ve interviewed several Ohio authors. Katrina Kittle, Erin Flanagan, Christina Consolino, and Sharon Short (who has also published under the name Jess Montgomery) have all been guests and all are part of a writing group called the Cute City Bitches.    But there was one writer in that group whom we hadn’t yet interviewed, but now we have. Meredith Doench teaches creative writing and literature at the University of Dayton and is a writer of sapphic thrillers, which is perfect since June is Pride Month. We’re delighted she joined us to talk about her latest book titled Never Say Die, a novel about a detective named Rory Scott who has to contend with her own mother-daughter issues when someone in the community for the second time in six years, kidnaps a young girl and murders a teenager. Meredith talks to us about her love of crime novels and how writing and marketing novels with LGBTQ characters has changed since she began publishing.    Our book rec segment of the show this week focuses on books with unusual narrators. These are narrators who aren’t human, and they might not even be tangible. We’ve got books narrated by sheep, Death, and dead people, as well as a mechanically-inclined world traveling gorilla, a Mediterranean fig tree, and a centenarian tortoise.   Books Mentioned In This Episode: 1- Never Say Die by Meredith Doench  2- Crossed by Meredith Doench  3- This American Woman: A One in a Million Memoir by Zarna Garg  4- Sister Novelists: The Trailblazing Porter Sisters Who Paved the Way for Austen and the Brontes by Devoney Looser  5- Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt  6- Lord of the Flies by William Golding  7- Heartwood by Amity Gaige  8- Deer Season by Erin Flanagan  9- The Keepers of the House by Shirley Ann Grau  10- Predatory Natures by Amy Goldsmith  11- A Book Recommended by a Fellow Book Lover  Michele Terranova @bookwhisperer22 - I See You've Called in Dead by John Kenney  12- Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann  13- The Book Thief by Markus Zusak  14- The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold  15- The Murderer's Ape by Jakob Wegelius  16- The Island of the Missing Trees by Elif Shafak  17- The Tortoise's Tale by Kendra Coulter    Media Mentioned: 1- Remarkably Bright Creatures (Netflix, 2026) 2- Lord of the Flies (Netflix, 2026) 3- I Know My Name is Steven (1989) 4- Sheep Detectives (2026) 5- The Book Thief (2013) 6- The Lovely Bones (2009)

  5. May 27

    S14:Ep280 - The Missing Pages with Guest Alyson Richman + Musician Book Recs - 5/27/26

    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 Alyson Richman at www.alysonrichman.com or on IG @alysonrichman.   If you’re a historical fiction lover, you’ve probably read something by Alyson Richman. She’s the author of 11 novels, including The Missing Pages, which was published last fall. We were delighted that she agreed to come on the show and speak to us about this book, although we did sneak in a question about The Velvet Hours published in 2016, which our book club read many years ago. It is about a real Paris courtesan in the Belle Epoque who in her later years as World War II approaches shares her life story with her granddaughter.   The Missing Pages is a historical fiction novel that is about a man’s love of books, but it is also a ghost tale, a romance, and a story of the Titanic all rolled into one. Richman is known for making the reader feel the sumptuous details of the world she is writing about, and she does it again in this book.   Our book rec segment of the show is all about musicians, but we’re not talking solely about musician memoirs, although we do have one of those. We’ve got a children’s nonfiction book about a Ukrainian pianist who performed for Nazsis, a National Book Award winner, a mystery about a stolen violin, a story about a wedding singer whose own relationship is on the rocks, and a coming of age story set in the 1970s that includes a rock star.    Books Mentioned in This Episode: 1- The Missing Pages by Alyson Richman  2- The Velvet Hours by Alyson Richman  3- The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray  4- All the Beauty in the World by Patrick Bringley  5- Buckeye by Patrick Ryan  6- The Hare with the Amber Eyes by Edmund de Waal  7- Underlake by Erin L. McCoy  8- The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion by Beth Brower  9- A Five Star Read from fellow Book Lover Anima D. @autopsyofbooks - And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie  10- The Encore by Juliet Izon  11- Songs For Other People's Weddings by David Levithan and Jens Lekman  12- Alias Anna: A True Story of Outwitting the Nazis by Susan Hood and Greg Dawson  13- Mary Jane by Jessica Anya Blau  14- The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music by David Grohl  15- The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb

  6. May 19

    REPLAY - S13:Ep268 Pulitzer Prize Winner Daniel Kraus and ANGEL DOWN

    This week you get a bonus episode because we are revisiting the conversation we had back last November with Daniel Kraus, the author of Angel Down.  This novel just won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction.  So enjoy and we will be back with an all new episode next week.   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

  7. May 13

    S14:Ep279 - Summer Reads with Guest Sam Miller of Carmichael's Bookstore 5/13/26

    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 Carmichael’s at carmichaelsbookstore.com   We were sad last fall that we weren’t able to record with our favorite bookseller, Sam Miller, manager at the Frankfort Ave location of Carmichael’s Bookstore for our Holiday Book Buying episode. But she is back for summer, telling us all about the new titles that will get you excited to sit back on a hot afternoon, either at the pool or in the air conditioning, and read to your heart’s content.    Books Mentioned In This Episode:   1- The Last Garden in England by Julia Kelly  2- The Grand Paloma Resort by Cleyvis Natera  3- Angel Down by Daniel Kraus  4- A book that Changed a Life - Sisters of the Yam by bell hooks recommended by Briana Lathon Bluford  5- Yesteryear by Claro Claire Burke  6- American Fantasy by Emma Straub  7- Whistler by Ann Patchett  8- Puck by Samantha Allen  9- Calamity Club by Kathryn Stockett  10- Fortune of Sand by Ruta Sepetys  11- Go Gentle by Maria Semple  12- Country People by Daniel Mason  13- These Days by Lucy Caldwell  14- Devotions by Lucy Caldwell  15- Opening by Lucy Caldwell  16- Pirate Queen by Ariel Lawhorn  17- The Keeper by Tana French (Cal Hooper #3) 18- Mad Mabel by Sally Hepworth  19- Killer Vibes by Jack Friday  20- Fishbone Cinderella by Elizabeth Lim  21- Ignore All Previous Instructions by Ada Hoffman  22- Sublimation by Isabel Kim  23- Book Witch by Meg Shaffer  24- We Burn So Bright b y TJ Klune  25- Moss'd in Space by Rebecca Thorrne 26- American Rambler by Isaac Fitzgerald  27- Checkmate: Genius, Lies, Ambition, and the Biggest Scandal in Chess by Ben Mezrich  28- The Housewives Underground: The Untold Story of the Women who Made the JFK Assassination Our Most Enduring Mystery by Kaitlyn Tiffany  29- The Carpool Detectives by Chuck Hogan  30- The Family Man: Blood and Betrayal in the House of Murdaugh by James Lasdun  31- True Biz by Sara Novíc  32- Mother Tongue by Sara Novíc 33- The Left and the Lucky by Willy Vlautin  34- London Falling: A Mysterious Death in a Gilded City and Family's Search for Truth by Patrick Radden Keefe  35- 4 Janes by Marian See  36- Love and Other Monsters by Emily Franklin  37- This Is Not About Us by Allegra Goodman  38- Darkology: Blackface and the American Way of Entertainment by Rhae Lynn Barnes  39- Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano  40- The Forest Lover by Susan Vreeland    Media Mentioned: 1- White Lotus (2021 - present, HBO Max) 2-2026  Pulitzer Prize Winner for Fiction - https://www.pulitzer.org/news/2026-pulitzer-prize-announcement

  8. Apr 29

    S14:Ep278 - You Are Now Old Enough To Hear This with Guest Aaron Starmer + Alien Book Recs 4/29/26

    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 Aaron Starmer at www.aaronstarmer.com or on IG @aaron_starmer.   This week on the podcast we welcome middle grade and young adult novelist Aaron Starmer whose most recent book, You Are Now Old Enough to Hear This, is a quirky middle grade novel about a Toe Beast and a girl who travels with a pack of dogs and a boy named Roman who learns some family secrets.  That sounds like a lot so we are glad Aaron joins us to explain it all in a much more succinct way than we ever could. And his 2025 YA novel Night Swimming just came out in paperback this week. And our book recommendation segment of the show is about aliens because what pairs better with a quirky novel than some extraterrestrials? We have Hugo- and Nebula Award-winning titles, a book about alien garbage, a wacky buddy road trip adventure, literary fiction about a girl who doesn’t feel human, and a philosophical first contact story starring the Catholic Church.   Books Mentioned in this Episode:   1- You Are Old Enough To Hear This by Aaron Starmer 2- Night Swimming by Aaron Starmer  3- The Last Garden in England by Julia Kelly  4- Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman 5- Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir  6- The Humans by Matt Haig  7- The Riverman by Aaron Starmer 8- The Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler  9- Pathogenesis: A History of the World in Eight Plagues by Jonathan Kennedy 10- The Art of Vanishing by Morgan Pager  11- A 5 Star Read by Fellow Book Lover Tess @books_andthebeach - Shy Creatures by Clare Chambers  12- The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet (Wayfarers #1) by Becky Chambers  13- The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell  14- Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky  15- Beautyland by Marie-Helene Bertino  16- Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card  17- The Road to Roswell by Connie Willis  Media Mentioned in this Episode: 1- Whitehall Book Club - https://www.historicwhitehall.org/whitehall-book-club 2- Resident Alien - (2021-2025, Netflix) 3- Project Hail Mary (2026)

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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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