Best Book Ever Podcast Julie Strauss

Y'all already know how much I love Canadians, and today you get to hear from one of my favorite ones.⁠
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I've previously interviewed Erin Walker before on Episode 101: Cookbook-Palooza with the women of the Three Kitchens Podcast. Their mission is to inspire fellow home cooks to try something new and have fun in the kitchen. They take a deep dive into a recipe, giving ideas and tips for making it, and they also talk to interesting guests from the food world.⁠
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Today I get a solo show with Erin, who is a mother, knitter, lover of the great outdoors and (of course) an avid reader. We talked about the book "Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage" by Alfred Lansing and let me tell you: this is a jaw-dropping story. Erin is the type of human who likes to do treacherous, outdoorsy things, and I am the type of human who only goes outside to acquire more books. But we agree that this book, and the story of this particular adventurer, is an incredible read.⁠
 
Host: Julie Strauss
Website/Instagram
 
Guest: Erin Walker
Instagram/Facebook/Website
 
Join the Best Book Ever Newsletter HERE!
 
Subscribe for FREE to receive weekly emails with complete show notes, photos of our guests, and updates on what Julie is reading on her own time.
 
Support the podcast for just $5/month and you’ll receive the weekly newsletter AND a monthly themed curated book list.
 
Become a Founder for $100 and you’ll receive the weekly newsletter, the monthly curated book list, AND a personal thank you on the podcast AND a Best Book Ever T-Shirt in your favorite color and style.
 
 
 
Discussed in this episode:
Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing.
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
(Check out Best Book Ever Episode 049, when Ysaura Vanegas talked to me about The Alchemist)
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters
The Strangers by Katherena Vermette
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
(Check out Best Book Ever Episode 024, when Jaimie Morimoto talked to me about Pride and Prejudice)
The Promise by Damon Galgut
(Check out Best Book Ever Episode 089, when Stephen Pelton talked to me about Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf,and we veered into a discussion about Damon Galgut’s books.)
Hell of a Book by Jason Mott
Endurance: My Year in Space, a Lifetime of Discovery by Scott Kelly
More Than You’ll Ever Know by Kate Gutierrez
Lords of the Bow by Conn Iggulden
The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune
(Check out Best Book Ever Episode 143, when Katy Leep Arditti talks to me about The House in the Cerulean Sea)
Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family by Robert Kolker
(Check out Best Book Ever Episode 089, when Tori Snow talked to me about Hidden Valley Road)
Tastes Like War: A Memoir by Grace M. Cho
(Check out Best Book Ever Episode 110, when Jasmine Vyas talked to me about Tastes Like War).
I was not able to do the Bosom Caresser Speakeasy Episode with the Three Kitchens Gals, but they did it, and it is wonderful. Check it out HERE!
 
(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!)

It's just Julie this week, with an update about my absence and conversation about how my girlfriends have pulled me through this horrible season of life. Spoiler alert: they fed me tacos and wine and led me to the books that are helping me see things differently. As friends do!
Host: Julie Strauss
Website/Instagram
 
Join the Best Book Ever Newsletter HERE!
 
Subscribe for FREE to receive weekly emails with complete show notes, photos of our guests, and updates on what Julie is reading on her own time.
 
Support the podcast for just $5/month and you’ll receive the weekly newsletter AND a monthly themed curated book list.
 
Become a Founder for $100 and you’ll receive the weekly newsletter, the monthly curated book list, AND a personal thank you on the podcast AND a Best Book Ever T-Shirt in your favorite color and style.
 
 
Discussed in this episode:
The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
This also exists as a stage play adaptation, performed on audiobook by Vanessa Redgrave
Jaymi Couch, The OC Book Girl Instagram
Jaymi’s newsletter, Let’s Read Nonfiction
If you are a So Cal resident, don’t miss Jaymi’s amazing So Cal Reads Newsletter, where she links to author and reader events all over Southern California
Geometry of Grief: Reflections on Mathematics, Loss, and Life by Michael Frame
When Your Heart Says Go: My Year of Traveling Beyond Loss and Loneliness by Judy Reeves
This Isn't Going to End Well: The True Story of a Man I Thought I Knew by Daniel Wallace
Unearthing: A Story of Tangled Love and Family Secrets by Kyo Maclear 
The Urgent Life: My Story of Love, Loss, and Survival by Bozoma Saint John
What Looks Like Bravery: An Epic Journey Through Loss to Love by Laurel Braitman  
So Sorry for Your Loss: How I Learned to Live with Grief, and Other Grave Concerns by Dina Gachman 
One Long Listening: A Memoir of Grief, Friendship, and Spiritual Care by Chenxing Han 
Everything All at Once: A Memoir by Stephanie Catudal 
How to Say Goodbye by Wendy MacNaughton 
 
(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!)

 
My beloved Katy Leep Arditti is back this week, with yet another book that ripped my beating heart straight out of my chest, and left me weeping on the bedroom floor in the wee hours of the night. In a good way. We also chatted about perfume and anxiety and book bans, and how this book needs to go to people who experience all three.
 
Host: Julie Strauss
Website/Instagram
 
Guest: Katy Leep-Arditti
Katy’s Bookstagram/Katy’s Perfume IG Account /Perfume TikTok Account
 
 
Join the Best Book Ever Newsletter HERE!
 
Subscribe for FREE to receive weekly emails with complete show notes, photos of our guests, and updates on what Julie is reading on her own time.
 
Support the podcast for just $5/month and you’ll receive the weekly newsletter AND a monthly themed curated book list.
 
Become a Founder for $100 and you’ll receive the weekly newsletter, the monthly curated book list, AND a personal thank you on the podcast AND a Best Book Ever T-Shirt in your favorite color and style.
 
Discussed in this episode:
 
Katy’s last appearance on Best Book Ever Podcast
The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune
Ordinary Monsters by J.M. Miro
Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune
Skylar Salt Air perfume
Fog perfume by Henry Rose
Noir Exquis by L’Artisan Perfumaire
Stone Blind by Natalie Haynes
 
 
(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!)

I liked today’s book.
And then I felt very weird that I liked it.
Olivia Day, my guest who brought this confusing, twisty book into my life, is the co-host of the Thrillers by the Book Club pod. She is a long-time lover of thrillers, crime, and mystery stories, and a graduate of International Thriller Writer’s Online Thriller School. Despite the grim thesis of the book we are discussing, Olivia and I had a lot of laughs as we discussed this book. And we drew a pretty effective through-line between the books that represent women’s ultimate fantasies, whether they are sexual or, you know, murderous.
 
Host: Julie Strauss
Website/Instagram
 
Guest: Olivia Day
Instagram/Twitter
 
Join the Best Book Ever Newsletter HERE!
 
Subscribe for FREE to receive weekly emails with complete show notes, photos of our guests, and updates on what Julie is reading on her own time.
 
Support the podcast for just $5/month and you’ll receive the weekly newsletter AND a monthly themed curated book list.
 
Become a Founder for $100 and you’ll receive the weekly newsletter, the monthly curated book list, AND a personal thank you on the podcast AND a Best Book Ever T-Shirt in your favorite color and style.
 
Discussed in this episode:
 
Thrillers by the Book Club Podcast
Chelsea Hofman on the Best Book Ever Podcast: Episode 137 and Episode 108
Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter
They Never Learn by Layne Fargo
Temper by Layne Fargo
The Collective by Alison Gaylin
The Last Mrs. Parrish by Liv Constantine
Best Book Ever Episode 013 Asha Sabella on The Last Mrs. Parrish
Heartsick: A Thriller by Chelsea Cain
What Lies in the Woods by Kate Alice Marshall
Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree
 
(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!)

Lisa Marie Cabrelli is my dear friend and one of my favorite people on the planet to talk books with, because her insights always knock me out. She came back to the show today to talk about "In the Woods," the first book in the Dublin Murder Squad series by Tana French. Lisa Marie got me hooked on this series several years ago, and I love hearing her brilliant insights about why crime fiction reflects national identity. Tana French writes literary, thought-provoking genre fiction that is deeply immersive and, as I found out, gets even better on re-reads.
 
Host: Julie Strauss
Website/Instagram
 
Guest: Lisa Marie Cabrelli
Website/Instagram/Twitter
 
 
Join the Best Book Ever Newsletter HERE!
 
Subscribe for FREE to receive weekly emails with complete show notes, photos of our guests, and updates on what Julie is reading on her own time.
 
Support the podcast for just $5/month and you’ll receive the weekly newsletter AND a monthly themed curated book list.
 
Become a Founder for $100 and you’ll receive the weekly newsletter, the monthly curated book list, AND a personal thank you on the podcast AND a Best Book Ever T-Shirt in your favorite color and style.
 
Discussed in this episode:
 
In the Woods by Tana French (Book 1 of the Dublin Murder Squad)
Elizabeth George
Listen to author Aime Austin talk to me about What Came Before He Shot Her by Elizabeth George in Episode 047
Ian Rankin
The Inspector Gamache Series by Louise Penny
Tana French’s Intimate Crime Fiction, by Laura Miller, the New Yorker, September 26, 2016
Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason
Ann Patchett’s bookstore, Parnassus Books
This Must Be the Place by Maggie O’Farrell
Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell
Severance by Ling Ma
Listen to Lisa Marie’s previous appearance on this podcast, when she talked about Severance on Episode 050
Read "The Descent" by Lisa Marie Cabrelli on Yonder
 
(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!)

Host: Julie Strauss
Website/Instagram
 
Guest: Dawn Raffel
Website/Instagram/Twitter
 
 
Join the Best Book Ever Newsletter HERE!
 
Subscribe for FREE to receive weekly emails with complete show notes, photos of our guests, and updates on what Julie is reading on her own time.
 
Support the podcast for just $5/month and you’ll receive the weekly newsletter AND a monthly themed curated book list.
 
Become a Founder for $100 and you’ll receive the weekly newsletter, the monthly curated book list, AND a personal thank you on the podcast AND a Best Book Ever T-Shirt in your favorite color and style.
 
Discussed in this episode:
 
The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
How to Read War and Peace by Dawn Raffel Oprah Magazine, July 2006 (this article really makes me want to give it a shot…)
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
Middlemarch by George Eliot
Boundless as the Sky by Dawn Raffel
Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino
The Strange Case of Dr. Couney by Dawn Raffel
Grendel by John Gardner
Beowulf by Seamus Heaney
 
(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!)