All Books Aloud Elizabeth Brookbank & Martha Brookbank

The topic of this week's episode is one of the few book-related topics we've found where we disagree! Martha loves to re-read her favorite books, whereas Elizabeth thinks life is too short to re-tread old ground. Martha begins the episode by setting herself the challenge of changing Elizabeth's mind...listen to find out if she's successful!
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Books we're reading in this episode: 
The Light Years by Elizabeth Jane Howard (The Cazalet Chronicles #1)
Nettle and Bone by T. Kingfisher
A Court of Thorns and Roses series by Sarah J. Maas
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Sources:  
 Allison. 2019. “Why You Should Reread Your Favorite Books and How to Make It Worth Your While.” Mind Joggle. January 14, 2019. https://www.mindjoggle.com/why-you-should-reread-your-favorite-books/  NA.  2021. “On The Particular Pleasures of Re-reading.” Penguin Random House. August 5, 2021. https://www.penguin.co.uk/articles/2021/07/re-reading-books-again-returning-literacy Jenner, Natalie.  2020. “Doesn’t Everyone Reread Their Favorite Books All the Time?”  Literary  Hub. May 18, 2020. https://lithub.com/doesnt-everyone-reread-their-favorite-books-all-the-time/ -----------------------
Intro and outro music: "The Chase," by Aves.

Do you have thoughts, questions, or ideas for future episodes? Email us at allbooksaloudpod@gmail.com. And if you want to learn more about the podcast, visit our website at allbooksaloudpod.com.

If you liked this episode, please consider leaving us a review to help us reach more listeners.

And if you'd like to see more bookish content from Martha & Elizabeth, follow us on Instagram and TikTok @allbooksaloudpod.

Read on!

We have explored a lot of different components of the book publishing industry on the podcast, but neither of us know much about the work of literary translation. So, we were thrilled to get the chance to talk with Polly Mackintosh about her work. Polly is Commissioning Editor and in-house translator for Gallic Books, and is the translator of the forthcoming novel, Clara Reads Proust by Stéphane Carlier. 

We chatted with Polly about how she got started as a translator, what her favorite and most challenging parts of the work are, her process and how she captures each author's style and tone, what influence she thinks AI will have on the work of literary translators, and much more. Join us as we learn about the fascinating mix of art and craft that goes into translating a work of art like a novel!

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Books we're reading in this episode:   

Clara Reads Proust by Stéphane Carlier, Polly Mackintosh (Translator) (published in the UK on March 28th, forthcoming in North America - May 21, 2024) 
Birding With Benefits by Sarah T. Dubb (forthcoming - June 4, 2024)
The Gentleman's Gambit by Evie Dunmore (A League of Extraordinary Women #4)
A Stroke of the Pen: The Lost Stories by Terry Pratchett
Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree (Legends & Lattes #0 )
What I Know About You by Éric Chacour (forthcoming - September 24, 2024)
A Certain Hunger by Chelsea G. Summers
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Additional notes from Polly:

The ebook of Clara Reads Proust will be available to everyone (US and UK) starting on  March 28, 2024. There isn't a date for the audiobook release yet, but it will be coming at some point.  

After the interview, I asked Stéphane whether he'd ever been a hairdresser, and he said he hadn't but shared the following insights:
I asked one of my best friends, Quentin, who happened to a hairdresser, to help me. Sent him emails with questions like "What does it smell like when you get to the salon in the morning? Please be very specific" or "What's in the drawer of the counter at the entrance?" Poor Quentin, he was so nice and helpful! The "Proust parts" of the book (the second and third parts) were easy compared to the "salon part" of it (the first one)!
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Intro and outro music: "The Chase," by Aves.

Do you have thoughts, questions, or ideas for future episodes? Email us at allbooksaloudpod@gmail.com. And if you want to learn more about the podcast, visit our website at allbooksaloudpod.com.

If you liked this episode, please consider leaving us a review to help us reach more listeners.

And if you'd like to see more bookish content from Martha & Elizabeth, follow us on Instagram and TikTok @allbooksaloudpod.

Read on!

This episode was recorded in-person and on location during our sister vacation on the Big Island of Hawaii! We kept our reading choices for the trip a secret from one another and did a live reveal, then we talked all about vacation reading while getting a little tipsy on tropical fruit juice and rum cocktails. 

Among and around several digressions, we discuss questions like, what types of stories do you like to read on vacation? How many books do you bring? What format of book do you bring and why? What are the pros and cons of different formats on vacation? When and where do you read on vacation? We also talk about other bookish, touristy things you can do on vacation. Join us on island time for this fun episode!
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Books we're reading in this episode:  
  
Nora Goes Off Script by Annabel Monaghan
The Mitford Murders by Jessica Fellowes
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
The Dinner Lady Detectives by Hannah Hendy
Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson
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Intro and outro music: "The Chase," by Aves.

Do you have thoughts, questions, or ideas for future episodes? Email us at allbooksaloudpod@gmail.com. And if you want to learn more about the podcast, visit our website at allbooksaloudpod.com.

If you liked this episode, please consider leaving us a review to help us reach more listeners.

And if you'd like to see more bookish content from Martha & Elizabeth, follow us on Instagram and TikTok @allbooksaloudpod.

Read on!

Even if you don't use TikTok, you've likely at least heard of the phenomenon known as BookTok. Individual videos sometimes get millions of views, and the combined hashtags for these videos on TikTok have had hundreds of billions of views. The publishing industry is paying attention - and so are we! 

Is BookTok really driving book sales? Or is it just creating yet another thing for people to envy online and feel bad about in their real lives? Is it lowering the quality of writing in books, turning them into fast fashion? And how is it affecting indie authors? Is it truly something new, or is it a new version of an old trend? And if it's encouraging young people to read more and see reading as something that's cool - does anything else really matter? Join us!
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Books we're reading in this episode:   
The Uncharted Flight of Olivia West by Sara Ackerman
Clara Reads Proust by Stephane Carlier
The Gentleman's Gambit by Evie Dunmore
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Sources: 
https://www.economist.com/culture/2023/09/21/tiktok-is-changing-the-way-books-are-recommended-and-soldhttps://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/01/books/tiktok-books-booktok.htmlhttps://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/aug/06/i-cant-stress-how-much-booktok-sells-teen-literary-influencers-swaying-publishershttps://www.thebookseller.com/news/more-than-half-of-young-readers-credit-booktok-with-sparking-passion-for-reading-pa-findshttps://www.ala.org/advocacy/sites/ala.org.advocacy/files/content/tools/Gen-Z-and-Millennials-Report%20%281%29.pdf Brookbank, E. 2023. “It makes you feel like more of a person:” The leisure reading habits of university students in the US and UK and how academic libraries can support them, College & Undergraduate Libraries, 30:3, 53-94, DOI: 10.1080/10691316.2023.2261918https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/bookselling/article/93201-booksellers-add-tiktok-to-the-toolbox.html https://bookriot.com/tiktok-publishing-company/ -----------------------
Intro and outro music: "The Chase," by Aves.

Do you have thoughts, questions, or ideas for future episodes? Email us at allbooksaloudpod@gmail.com. And if you want to learn more about the podcast, visit our website at allbooksaloudpod.com.

If you liked this episode, please consider leaving us a review to help us reach more listeners.

And if you'd like to see more bookish content from Martha & Elizabeth, follow us on Instagram and TikTok @allbooksaloudpod.

Read on!

What do you do with books that you're finished with? Books you've read or don't want anymore or spilled coffee on? In this episode we discuss what makes a book valuable - to individuals and to society - and why this can sometimes result in anxiety about how books are disposed of. 

We dig into the work libraries do to preserve books and the “weeding” they have to do to stay functional for the communities they serve. Elizabeth goes on a teeny-tiny rant about the controversy this weeding can sometimes cause, but why it should be embraced rather than resisted or feared. We also talk about various options for how and where to unload books you don't want anymore, and ideas for reading more sustainably. Don't miss it!
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Books we're reading in this episode:   

The Mitford Murders by Jessica Fellowes
The Gentleman's Gambit  (A League of Extraordinary Women series book #4) by Evie Dunmore
My Life in France by Julia Child and Alex Prud'Homme
House of Flame and Shadow (Crescent City #3) by Sarah J. Maas
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Sources:
 Haider, Salman. 2022. “Five Laws of Library Science.” Librarianship Studies & Information Technology (blog). September 11, 2022. https://www.librarianshipstudies.com/2017/09/five-laws-of-library-science.html  Piepenburg, Scott. 2019. “The Five Laws of Library Science.” Librarian to Librarian. October 17, 2019. https://librariantolibrarian.wordpress.com/2019/10/18/the-five-laws-of-library-science/ Better World Books: https://www.betterworldbooks.com/Ben Krumholz, FOX 11 News. 2024. “Residents Outraged Over Dumpster Filled With Library Books at Marinette’s UWGB Campus.” WLUK. January 11, 2024. https://fox11online.com/news/local/northwoods/residents-outraged-over-dumpster-filled-with-library-books-at-marinettes-uwgb-campus https://twitter.com/elizabethbrookb/status/1131392411563728896———. 2024. “Books Published per Country per Year.” Wikipedia. February 25, 2024. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Books_published_per_country_per_year Talbot, Dean. 2023. “Number of Books Published per Year.” February 21, 2023. https://wordsrated.com/number-of-books-published-per-year-2021/ https://twitter.com/womensart1/status/1753670558376468611?s=43&t=_2JpkEOURZjZ5ui1_HbRSw-----------------------
Intro and outro music: "The Chase," by Aves.

Do you have thoughts, questions, or ideas for future episodes? Email us at allbooksaloudpod@gmail.com. And if you want to learn more about the podcast, visit our website at allbooksaloudpod.com.

If you liked this episode, please consider leaving us a review to help us reach more listeners.

And if you'd like to see more bookish content from Martha & Elizabeth, follow us on Instagram and TikTok @allbooksaloudpod.

Read on!

Romance novels generate over $1.44 billion (with a 'b!') in revenue and are highest-earning, biggest, and fastest growing genre of fiction in the book industry. And yet, if you're a romance reader, you've probably had to defend it to someone at some point or maybe you've even been embarrassed of your reading. Why are these books that so many read still so fraught?

We talk about our personal experiences with reading romance, the history of the genre, and discuss questions like, what defines romance today? Do men write romance? Is romance, even in its modern form, still limiting women? Or is it just harmless entertainment? Join us as we tackle a topic we've been circling around since we started the podcast.
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Books we're reading in this episode: 

Elements of Cadence duology by Rebecca Ross (A River Enchanted; A Fire Endless)
Flying Solo by Linda Holmes
Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien
The League of Gentlewoman Witches by India Holton (Dangerous Damsels series)
Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Berkeman
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Sources (links provided when available and citations shortened to fit) listed in the order they appear in the episode: 
https://observer.com/2022/09/derided-for-centuries-romance-novels-are-a-huge-business/https://wordsrated.com/romance-novel-sales-statistics/ Lyons, Martyn. 2011. Books : A Living History. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum. Pgs. 177-179.Avery, Jessica. 2017. “Feminist Romance Novels from #RomanceNovelsforHillary.” Book Riot. December 12, 2017. https://bookriot.com/feminist-romance-novels-from-romancenovelsforhillary/Rodale, Maya. 2017. “That Thing with Hillary Clinton and Romance Novels...” HuffPost (blog). December 8, 2017. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/that-thing-with-hillary-clinton-and-romance-novels_b_5a2a862de4b04e0bc8f3b3b5."'He's a little obsessed with me': Hillary Clinton reflects with raw honesty on Trump and 2016." Washingtonpost.com, November 28, 2017.https://www.lucymonroe.com/lucy-at-the-heart/romance-conventions-reader-expectations/Radway, Janice A. 1991. Reading the Romance Women, Patriarchy, and Popular Literature. 2nd ed. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.https://uncpress.org/book/9780807843499/reading-the-romance/-----------------------
Intro and outro music: "The Chase," by Aves.

Do you have thoughts, questions, or ideas for future episodes? Email us at allbooksaloudpod@gmail.com. And if you want to learn more about the podcast, visit our website at allbooksaloudpod.com.

If you liked this episode, please consider leaving us a review to help us reach more listeners.

And if you'd like to see more bookish content from Martha & Elizabeth, follow us on Instagram and TikTok @allbooksaloudpod.

Read on!