This week we officially begin Season 12 so we have both a guest and book recommendations on a particular theme. Our guest this week is Meg Shaffer, NYT best-selling author of The Wishing Game and The Lost Story. She talks to us about shifting gears to write books for adults that read a lot like the cool fantasy books we read as kids (think The Chronicles of Narnia in The Lost Story). And for our book recs, we will each be sharing 3 books related to libraries. 

Books mentioned—

1- The Wishing Game by Meg Shaffer

2- The Lost Story by Meg Shaffer

3- Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl

4- The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis

5- Lord of the Flies by William Golding

6- Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero

7- Night of the Hunter by Davis Grubb

8- The Genius Under the Table: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain by Eugene Yelchin 

9- The Hollow Places T. Kingfisher

10- The Twisted Ones by T. Kingfishe 

11- The Willows by Algernon Blackwood

12- Carter and Lovecraft by Jonathan L. Howard

13- A House with Good Bones by T. Kingfisher

14- We are Experiencing a Slight Delay by Gary Janneti

15- Running With Scissors by Augusten Burroughs

16-Magical Thinking: True Stories by Augusten Burroughs

17- A Five Star Read Recommended by Fellow Book Lover Marisa Zane @Marisa_reads_books - The Reformatory by Tananarive Due

18- The Strange Library by Haruki Murakami

19- Nightbooks by JA White

20- The Library of Borrowed Hearts by Lucy Gilmore

21- The Nightmare Man by JH Markert

22- The Borrower by Rebecca Makkai

23- The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai

24- I Have Some Questions For You by Rebecca Makkai

25- Here Lies the Librarian by Richard Peck

26- A Year Down Yonder by Richard Peck

27- A Long Way From Chicago by Richard Peck

28- Reading Behind Bars: A True Story of Literature, Law, and Life as a Prison Librarian by Jill Grunenwald

29- Lonely Planet Hidden Libraries: The World's Most Unusual Book Depositories by DC Helmuth

30- The Godwick series by Tiffany Reisz

Media mentioned—

Perks episode with Lily Raiti

https://www.perksofbeingabooklover.com/episodes/cxkpp8gtbmn5gf7-8mb73-52ylr-gs3nl-82m49-xr9s4-z4hhh-pm7gw-skgey-bjmtw-4dl76-hn7yl-we4y4-cfzjz-5f9x8-y93dj-7l4je-8667a

 Pacific Palisades Fire—Will Rogers ranch —

https://www.parks.ca.gov/NewsRelease/1346

Squid Games (Netflix, 2021 - present)

Cunk on Life (Netflix, 2024)

Black Doves (Netflix, 2024)

Night of the Hunter (Tubi, 1955)

This week we are doing our 2024 recap, covering the books that earned 5 stars. We’ve also got some audio interspersed in the episode from 2024 guests to The Perks who also share their favorite books of the year. This is always one of our most popular episodes of the year.

And don’t forget, this new season is a whole new bag.  We are going to every other week episodes and each one will include an interview with a bookish guest plus some book recommendations by us on a particular topic.  

 Books mentioned--

1- The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester

2- Woodworm by Layla Martinez

3- North Woods by Daniel Mason

4- Six Truths and a Lie by Ream Shukairy

5- Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders

6- Greenwood by Michael Christie

7- Prophet Song by Paul Lynch

8- A Heart That Works by Rob Delaney 

9- Tortilla Curtain by TC Boyle

10- The Library Book by Susan Orlean 

11- The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride

12- The Geography of Bliss: One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World by Eric Weiner

13- One of Us is Lying by Karen McManus 

14- Intimacies by Katie Kitamura

15- I Have Some Questions For You by Rebecca Makkai

16- The Wedding People by Alison Espach

17- The Huntress by Kate Quinn

18- Finding Langston by Lesa Cline-Ransom

19- The Mostly True Story of Tanner and Louise by Colleen Oakley

20- All the Sinners Bleed by SA Cosby

21- Being Henry by Henry Winkler

22- The Weather Woman by Sally Gardner

23- Un Lun Dun by China Mieville

24- Border Crossings: A Journey on the Trans-Siberian Railway by Emma Fick

25- The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin

26- All the Ugly and Wonderful Things by Brynn Greenwood

27- That Time I Got Drunk and Saved a Demon by Kimberly Lemming

28- The Husbands by Holly Gramazio

29- Sipsworth by Simon Van Booy

30- Arroyo Circle by JoeAnn Hart

31- Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our World , Change Our Minds, & Shape Our Futures by Merlin Sheldrake

Media mentioned--

1- Dune: Prophecy (HBO Max, 2024)

2- Shrinking (Apple+, 2024)

3- What We Do in the Shadows (Hulu)

4- The Professor and the Madman (Tubi, 2019)

5- Your Friend by Nate Bargatze (Netflix, 2024)

6- The Skinny by Jim Gaffigan (Hulu, 2024)

7- Catastrophe (Prime, 2015)

8- Three Body Problem (Netflix, 2024)

The delightful Sam Miller, store manager at Carmichael’s Book Store, comes to save the day. She has, as usual, tons of great new reads that are already on shelves and would make perfect gifts this holiday for the book lovers in your life.

Books Mentioned in this Episode:

1- The Lost Daughter by Elena Ferrante

2- The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride

3- Sky Full of Elephants by Cebo Campbell

4- Women's Hotel by Daniel M. Lavery

5- The Hypocrite by Jo Hamya

6- This is Happiness by Niall Williams

7- Time of the Child by Niall Williams

8- Jim the Boy by Tony Early

9- The Storied Life of AJ Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin

10- The Fortnight in September by RC Sherriff

11- The Movement: How Women's Liberation Transformed America, 1963-1973 by Clara Bingham

12- Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time by Dava Sobel

13- The Elements of Madame Curie: How the Glow of Radium Lit a Path for Women in Science by Dava Sobel

14- The Universe in Verse by Maria Popov

15- Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer

16- The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World by Robin Wall Kimmerer

17- Heartbreak is the National Anthem: How Taylor Swift Revived Pop Music by Rob Sheffield

18- The Hitchcock Hotel by Stephanie Wrobel

19- We Solve Murders by Richard Osman

20- Karla's Choice by Nick Harkaway

21- William by Mason Coile

23- Dangerous Visions by Harlan Ellison

24- Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman

25- House of Frank by Kay Synclaire

26- Pride and Prejudice in Space by Alexis Lampley

27- Be Ready When the Luck Happens by Ina Garten

28- From Here to the Great Unknown: A Memoir by Lisa Marie Presley and Riley Keough

29- Cher: The Memoir (Part One) by Cher

30- The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates

31- Hot Mess by Jeff Kinney

32- The Millicent Quibb School of Etiquette for Young Ladies of Mad Science by Kate McKinnon

33-Baking in the American South: 200 Recipes and Their Untold Stories by Ann Byrn

34- Kentucky Ya'll: A Celebration of the People and Culture of the Bluegrass by Blair Thomas Hess and Cameron Ludwick

35- The Stackpole Legend by Wendell Berry

36- In Praise of Mystery by Ada Limon, illustrated by Peter Sis

37- Lady Macbeth by Ava Reid

38- A Five Star Read recommended by fellow Book Lover Perin @mjreadsmagic - Sir Callie and the Dragon's Roost by Esme Symes-Smith

39- Gather by Kenneth Cadow

40- The Horse by Willy Vlautin

41- Committed: On Meaning and Madwomen by Suzanne Scanlon

42- How to Be a Good Creature: A Memoir in Thirteen Animals by Sy Montgomery

43- The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness by Sy Montgomery

Media mentioned--

1- A Real Pain (2024)

2- Wicked Little Letters (Netflix, 2023)

3- The Lost Daughter (Netflix, 2021)

4- The Return (2024)

November is Native American Heritage month so in this episode, we’re sharing some books written by Native American authors. There are so many great texts to choose from if you’re interested in broadening your reading. We bring your memoirs, poetry, Pulitzer Prize winners, and more. When we do these thematic episodes, we enjoy hearing from listeners who have their own recommendations within that theme so be sure to shoot us a message or comment on any of our socials.

Books Mentioned In this Episode:

1- A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes

2- Stone Blind by Natalie Haynes

3- Sharks Don't Sink: Adventures of a Rogue Shark Scientist by Jasmin Graham

4- A Quantum Life: My Unlikely Journey from the Streets to the Stars by Hakeem Oluseyi

5- A Book Recommended by Fellow Booklover Vero Garcia @booksandcoffeemx - All This and More by Peng Shepherd

6- Th Blessing Way and all books in the Leaphorn & Chee series by Tony Hillerman

7- Bad Indians: A Memoir by Deborah Miranda

8- Two Old Women: An Alaskan Legend of Betrayal, Courage and Survival by Velma Wallis

9- House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday

10-Buffalo Dreamer by Violet Duncan

11- An American Sunrise by Joy Harjo

12- Code Talker: The First and Only Memoir by One of the Original Navajo Code Talkers of WWII by Chester Nez 
13- Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand

14- The Fertile Earth and the Ordered Cosmos: Reflections on the Newark Earthworks and World Heritage edited by M. Elizabeth Weiser, Timothy RW Jordan, and Richard D. Shiels

15- Man Made Monsters by Andrea L. Rogers

16- The Game of Silence by Louise Erdrich (Birchbark House series #2)

17- The Birchbark House by Louise Erdrich

18- Shutter by Ramona Emerson

19- Exposure by Ramona Emerson

20- Even As We Breathe by Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle

21- The Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley

22- There, There by Tommy Orange

23- The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline

24- The Invocations by Krystal Sutherland

Media mentioned--

1- Reservation Dogs (Hulu, 2021-2023)

2- Dark Winds (AMC and Neflix, 2022 - present)

This week we chat with Alice Kaltman about her latest book, Alice’s Big Book of Mistakes. She has written books of linked short stories, novels for various ages, and more, but she decided to try her hand at a graphic memoir all about silly and not-so-silly mistakes she has made throughout the course of her life. Her book aims to make both young and old embrace their missteps in life as building blocks for a life well lived.

Books Mentioned In This Episode:

1- Alice’s Big Book of Mistakes by Alice Kaltman

2- Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

3- Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson

4-- Salem’s Lot by Stephen King

5- The Keeper by Kelsey Ervick

6- Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

7- To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf

8- Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

9- Middlemarch by George Eliot

10- Drinking at the Movies by Julia Wertz

11- Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

12- A 5 Star Read Recommended by Fellow Book Lover Emily Craddick - Hotel Splendide by Ludwig Bemelmans

13- Winterset Hollow by Jonathan Edward Durham

14- Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

15- Look in the Mirror by Catherine Steadman

16- Sociopath by Patric Gagne

Media mentioned—

Small Things Like These (2024)

Harold and the Purple Crayon (2024)

Salem’s Lot (Max, 2024)

Will & Harper (Netflix, 2024)

This week our topic is philosophical. No, we’re not discussing those dull philosophy textbooks, but rather novels or nonfiction that ask big questions, such as “Who am I?” and “What is happiness?” and “Do we have free will?”. We will give you 10 books that will get you thinking with your big brains.

Books Mentioned In This Episode:

1- Carrie by Stephen King

2- A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes

3- Faith, Hope, and Carnage by Nick Cave and Sean O’Hagan

4- Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea by Guy Delisle

5- A Book Recommended by Fellow Book Lover Larissa @laralucretia - The Shadow of the Gods by John Gwynne

6- Bartleby the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street by Herman Melville

7- Geography of Bliss: One Grump’s Search for the Happiest Places in the World by Eric Weiner

8- Nasty, Brutish, and Short: Adventures in Philosophy with Kids by Scott Hershovitz

9- Lotería by Karla Arenas Valenti

10- The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

11- How to be Perfect: The Correct Answer to Any Moral Question by Michael Schur

12- The Naked Neanderthal by Ludovic Slimak

13- If Cats Disappeared From the World by Genki Kawamura

14- The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

15- If Nietzsche Were a Narwhal: What Animal Intelligence Reveals About Human Stupidity by Justin Gregg

16- Walking Shadows by Faye Kellerman

Media mentioned—

1- Trap (2024, Max)

2- Carrie (2013, Tubi)

3- Carrie (1976)

4- Penny Dreadful (2014-2016 Pluto)

5- The Little Prince (2015, Pluto)

This week we wrap up what has been a month of seasonally spooky books with guest Alisa Alering, the author of Smothermoss, a book that is set in 1980s Pennsylvania Appalachia. It is the story of two sisters who witness a murder on the Appalachian Trail. It is a book that Amy discovered while attending the Columbus Book Festival this past summer. If you like magical realism or gothic fiction, you will definitely want to check this novel out since there is a sentient mountain. Nature truly is a character in the story.

Books Mentioned In This Episode:

1- Smothermoss by Alisa Alering

2- Ritual by David Pinner

3- Winterset Hollow by Jonathan Edward Durham

4- Watership Down by Richard Adams

5- Every Bone a Prayer by Ashley Blooms

6- Where I Can't Follow by Ashley Blooms

7- A Five Star Read Recommended by Fellow Book Lover Dina @ddemaiosmith - Starling House by Alix E. Harrow

8- The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow

9- Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow

10- Assembly by Natasha Brown

11- White Teeth by Zadie Smith

12- The Bog Wife by Kay Chronister

13- My Dear Henry: A Jekyll and Hyde Remix (Remixed Classics) by Kalynn Bayron

Media mentioned—
1- What We Do in the Shadows (Hulu 2019)

2- What We Do in the Shadows movie (2014)

3- Wellington Paranormal (Max 2018)

4- Psycho (Netflix 1960)

5- The Wicker Man (Tubi 1973)

This week we’re bringing you a Creature Feature in which we suggest books that have creatures of some kind in them. Those may be mythological creatures, cryptids, or beings from your favorite horror film. Some are scary, some are mysterious, some don’t seem that different from humans. All of them make for good October reads.

Books Mentioned In This Episode:

1- Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree

2- Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree

3- Treasury of Greek Mythology: Classic Stories of Gods, Goddesses, Heroes & Monsters by Donna Jo Napoli

4- A Five Star Read Recommended by Fellow Book Lover Katherine @katshomeig - Beautiful Prey by Lora Darc

5- The Book of Eels: Our Enduring Fascination with the Most Mysterious Creature in the Natural World by Patrick Svenson

6- Silver in the Wood/Drowned Country by Emily Tesh

7- The Lady from the Black Lagoon: Hollywood Monsters and the Lost Legacy of Millicent Patrick by Mallory O'Meara

8- Grendel by John Gardner

9- Bea Wolf by Zach Weinersmith

10- Dear Mothman by Robin Gow

11- The Thing About Jellyfish by Ali Benjamin

12- Mothman's Merry Cryptid Christmas by Andrew Shaffer

13- The Frandidate (Franny K Stein series) by Jim Benton

14- The Mermaid of Black Conch by Monique Roffey

15- Nothing But Blackened Teeth by Cassandra Khaw

16- The Monstrumologist by Rick Yancey

17- It Came From the Trees by Ally Russell

18- The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker

Media mentioned---

1- What We Do in the Shadows (Hulu, 2019- present)

2- The Thing (1982)

3- The Fly (1986)

4- Santa Clarita Diet (Netflix, 2017-2019)

5- The Mummy (1999)

6- Harry & the Hendersons (1987)

7- The Shape of Water (2017)

8- The Goonies (1985)

9- Kaos (Netflix, 2024)

10- The Mothman Prophecies (1992)

11- Illustration of an Anthropophagi - themonstrumologistoverview.weebly.com/confli…t.html

This week we speak with Daniel Olivas, a lawyer with the California Department of Justice, who is also a novelist, poet, and playwright. His novel, Chicano Frankenstein, which published in March of this year, was an obvious book pick for Carrie because she loves Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. The novel has been optioned by Universal Television, so fingers crossed on that.

Olivas’ reimagining of Shelley’s 1818 novel has an unnamed man as the narrator. He is a paralegal who has been reanimated from the corpse of a Mexican-American man, one of many such reanimated people (derogatively called “stitchers”) who are part of an effort to deal with the US’ labor crisis, but he struggles with his identity. How can a person have an identity if all knowledge of their family, their interests, their feelings, their thoughts have been stripped away? In addition to the idea of selfhood, the novel also explores the cruelty of politicians who pander to fear and racism, harming the people of their communities that one would expect them to protect.

Books Mentioned in this Episode:

1- Chicano Frankenstein by Daniel Olivas

2- Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

3- The Distance Between Us by Reyna Grande

4- Artificial Life After Frankenstein by Eileen M. Hunt

5- A 5 Star Read Recommended by Fellow Book Lover The Biblioholic @thebiblioholic_ - Dorothy Must Die series by Danielle Page

6- Leech by Hiron Ennes

7- Unwieldy Creatures by Addie Brook Tsai

8- Dread Nation by Justina Ireland

9- Deathless Divide (Dread Nation #2) by Justina Ireland

Movies mentioned in this episode:

1- Frankenstien (1931)

2- The Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

Books Mentioned in this Episode:

1- A Good Girls Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson

2- Horribly Haunted in Hillbilly Hollow by Blythe Baker

3- Black River Orchard by Chuck Wendig

4- A 5 Star Read Recommended by Fellow Book Lover Lan Nguyen-Colgate - A Magic Steeped in Poison by Judy I Lin

5- The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin

6- "The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin (Short Story)

7- The Seven 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

8- House of Cotton by Monica Brashears

9- Smoke Gets in Your Eyes & Other Lessons from the Crematory by Caitlin Doughty

10- Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs and Other Questions About Dead Bodies by Caitlin Doughty

11- The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

12- The Friend by Sigrid Nunez

13- The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

14- Wave by Sonali Deraniyagala

15- The Undertaking of Lily Chen by Danica Novgorodoff

16- The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo

17- The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

18- The Thing about Jellyfish by Ali Benjamin

19- Heavenly Bodies by Amani Erriu

20- Fallen Stars by Amani Erriu

Media mentioned--

1- A Good Girl's Guide to Murder (Netflix, 2024)

2- The Lovely Bones (Max, 2009)