Our guest this week, Mazey Eddings, started out as a massive romance reader. In fact during her most stressful times of life, she would read upwards of a book a day, drawn to that guaranteed happy ending that all romance novels require. But, as someone who has an anxiety disorder, ADHD, and is on the autism spectrum, she felt like she didn’t see the issues that she deals with on a day to day basis portrayed in the books she was reading. So in the middle of dental school she started writing scenes that later became her debut novel.

Mazey’s first book A BRUSH WITH LOVE hit bookstores at the beginning of March and features two dental students as they fall in love and deal with very adult struggles like extreme anxiety and familial guilt. Mazey also has 4 additional books in the pipeline over the next 3 years that feature other neurodivergent characters.

We talk about why romance is the perfect genre to explore happy endings for underrepresented groups, the amount of misogyny still found in historically male dominated fields, and about the trend of women in STEM within the romance genre that appears to be here to stay.

Books mentioned

1- A Brush with Love by Mazey Eddings

2- The Lost Daughter by Elena Ferrante

3- My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante

4- The Name Of The Rose by Umberto Eco

5- A Room With A View by E.M. Forester

5- Devil in Winter by Lisa Kleypas

6- The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang

7- Act Your Age, Eve Brown by Talia Hibbert

8- Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

9- Lizzie Blake's Best Mistake by Mazey Eddings

10- Nightmare Alley by William Lindsay Gresham

11- A Perfect Equation by Elizabeth Everett

12- The Grace Year by Kim Liggett

13- Yearbook by Seth Rogen (audiobook)

TV series mentioned:

1- Medici - (2016 - 2019) Netflix

Movies mentioned

1- The Lost Daughter (2021) Netflix

2- Nightmare Alley (2021) HBO Max

This week, we are headed to Croatia to speak with Ivana Murk who gives us a window into her life as a child growing up, learning to read both the Cyrillic alphabet which Slavic languages are based on and the Latin alphabet. She learned English in school starting in 3rd grade and now she now reads books in both Croatian and English. We talk with her about Croatian authors who you might want to find translations for if possible, why the skill of a book translator is so important, and what authors you have probably heard of who are particularly popular in her country.

We feel it would be helpful to give you just a brief little summary of Croatian history in the last 50 years that is most relevant to this episode. Croatia was a part of the former Yugoslavia, which also included Serbia, Bosnia, Hercegovina, Slovenia, Macedonia, and Montenegro. In 1991, Croatia declared independence from Yugoslavia. This did not happen peacefully. This was followed by the Bosnia War from 1992-1995 which pitted Croatians, Bosnians, and Serbians against each other and has been called the bloodiest event in Europe since World War II. Geographically, Croatia is very close to Italy to the West by way of the Adriatric Sea, Austria and Hungary to the north, and Bosnia to the West.

Books Mentioned in this Episode:

1- Girl at War by Sara Nović

2- Chasing a Croatian Girl by Cody McClain Brown

3- The Famous Five by Enid Blyton

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

5- Grimm's Fairy Tales

6- Croatian Tales of Long Ago by Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić

7- Various poetry by Dobriša Cesarić

8- Various poetry by Vesna Parun

9- Gordana by Marija Jurić (pen name: Zagorka) and other series

10- Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

11- Various works by Elif Shafak

12- Beartown by Fredrik Backman

13- Anxious People Fredrik Backman

14- Various works by Colleen Hoover

15- Dark Mother Earth by Kristian Novak

16- The Gypsy, But The Most Beautiful by Kristian Novak

17- Valentine by Elizabeth Wetmore

18- This is How it Always Is by Laurie Frankel

19- The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

20- A Boy's Life by Robert R. McCammon

21- Shantaram by Gregory Davis Roberts

22- Odin's Child by Siri Pettersen

23- Love Stories by Trent Dalton

24- The Guncle by Steven Rowley

25- Every Bone a Prayer by Ashley Blooms

26- Where I Can't Follow by Ashley Blooms

This week we chat with Brittany Thurman, a native of Kentucky, who has recently published her first children’s picture book titled FLY illustrated by Anna Cunha. She worked as a children's specialist at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh which is where the idea to write her own book occurred, and she even took inspiration from one of the children who would come to her storytimes. FLY is the story of a young girl who wants to enter a double dutch jump rope competition but doesn’t know how to double dutch. She asks her friends for tips and while they don't know how either, they each give her a piece of knowledge that helps her be more confident in her dreams.

In this episode, she tells about the creation of this book as well as other books that she has in the pipeline, including one about the first public library built for and staffed by African Americans in the United States, which is the Western branch of the Louisville Free Public Library system. Brittany is a very busy new author.

Books Mentioned in this Episode:

1- Fly by Brittany Thurman and Illustrated by Anna Cunha

2- Fearless: Boulevard of Dreams by Mandy Gonzalez with Brittany Thurman

3- Forever and Always by Brittany Thurman

4- Addie Walker--American Girl series

5- Goosebumps series by R.L.Stine

6- Replica series by Marilyn Kaye

7- Mary Kate & Ashley series 

8- A Surgeon in the Village: An American Doctor Teaches Brain Surgery in Africa by Tony Bartelme

9- Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese

10- Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi

11- Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

12- Stunt Boy, in the Meantime by Jason Reynolds

13- A Comb of Wishes by Lisa Stringfellow

14- Red, White and Whole by Rajani LaRocca

This week our guest is Ashlee Clark who is the VP of Digital at Louisville Public Media and who also serves as one of the hosts of the Moth in Louisville KY, an opportunity for anyone in the community to listen to and tell stories. The Moth is a national storytelling organization with headquarters in New York City but there are regional Moth events all over the world.

Whether you’ve seen a local storyslam or listened to the Moth Radio Hour, you know that the stories are sometimes hilarious and sometimes poignant, but they always remind us of how important storytelling is in our lives. We had a great time chatting with Ashlee and are excited to share our conversation.

You can find The Moth and Moth events all over the world at their website at www.themoth.org. The Moth podcast can be found on your favorite podcast platform.

Books mentioned in this episode:

1- Berenstain Bear series by Jan and Stan Berenstain

2- Little Critter series by Mercer Mayer

3- Baby-Sitters Club series

4- Sweet Valley High series

5- Goosebumps series by RL Stine

6- American Girl series

7- Animorphs series by KA Applegate

8- The Storyteller by Dave Grohl

9- Hair Story: Untangling the Roots of Black Hair in America by Ayana D. Byrd and Lori L. Tharps

10- Bad Hair: A Love Story (manuscript) by Ashlee Clark

11- My Beautiful Black Hair: 101 Natural Hair Stories From The Sisterhood by St. Clair Detrick-Jules

12 - The One-in-A-Million Boy by Monica Wood

13- A Man Called Ove by Fredrick Bachman

14- How the Penguin Saved Veronica by Hazel Pryor

15- Louisville Diners by Ashlee Clark

Shows mentioned--

1- Golden Girls (Hulu)

Part of what drew us to this week’s author, Rebecca Rosenberg, was the cool cover of her historical fiction novel, Champagne Widows. But as we read the book, we realized it was a pretty fascinating story of a young widow, Madame Clicquot, who essentially revolutionized champagne production in France during the Napoleonic years.

Rebecaa has written two other historical fiction novels but Champagne Widows is the first in a series about the trailblazing women of wine in France in the 19th century. As a champagne historian, Rebecca decided these stories needed to be told. She gave us a lot of the background on champagne and Madame Clicquot when we spoke to her. And reading Rebecca’s book right around New Year’s gave Amy all the excuse she needed to splurge on a bottle of Veuve Clicquot Champagne and share it with me to toast in 2022.

Book mentioned in this episode:

1- Champagne Widows by Rebecca Rosenberg

2- The Power of the Dog by Thomas Savage

3- The Last Duel by Eric Jager

4- Witcher series by Andrezj Sapkowski

5- Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift

6- Nancy Drew series

7- One Thousand and One Nights

8- Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

9- Dr. Zhivago by Boris Pasternak

10- Cork Dork by Bianca Bosker

11- Gold Digger: The Remarkable Baby Doe Tabor by Rebecca Rosenberg

12- The Secret Life of Mrs. London by Rebecca Rosenberg

13- Champagne Widows: Madame Pommery by Rebecca Rosenberg (coming in 2023)

14- Mordew by Alex Pheby

15- The Huntress by Kate Quinn

16- The Alice Network by Kate Quinn

17- Anxious People by Fredrik Backman

18- A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

19- Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne

Shows/movies mentioned--

1- After Party (Apple+)

2- The Power of the Dog (Netflix)

3- The Last Duel (Hulu)

4- Witcher (Netflix)

It’s always a lot of fun to connect with bookish podcasters, to learn why they started their shows and what they get from it. This week’s guest, Jennifer Caloyeras, is the host of Books Are My People. On her show, she has a bookish news segment and also recommends 5 books, most of them brand new releases, to listeners each week; Every other week she interviews a bookish guest.

Jennifer lives in CA and teaches writing at the UCLA Extension’s Writer’s program. She is also a published author of several Young adult novels, and will soon publish her first adult novel.

She talks to us about why she enjoys books about unlikable characters, how she reads 8-10 books a week, and a fun musical secret about herself that concerns Ted Lasso.

Books mentioned--

1- Charlotte's Web by E.B. White

2- Tales of The City by Armistead Maupin

3- Why Fish Don't Exist by LuLu Miller

4- Macbeth by William Shakespeare

5- Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr

6- Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry

7- Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid

8- One More We Saw Stars by Jason Green

9- When We Were Vikings by David MacDonald

10- The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix

11- Horrorstor by Grady Hendrix

12- The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix

13- The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa

14- You by Caroline Kepnes

15- Strays by Jennifer Caloyeras

16- Unruly Creatures by Jennifer Caloyeras

17- The Selected Works of T.S.Spivet by Reif Larsen

18- A Hell of a Book by Jason Mott

19- The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan

20- Bourdain: The Definitive Oral Biography by Laurie Woolever

21- Daisy Jones & the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Movies and TV series mentioned--

1- Home Alone

2- Ted Lasso (Hulu)

Normally, we don’t repeat the same guests multiple times on the show (because there are so many great guests to feature), but we decided to ask Kimmery Martin back on the show for this episode. Kimmery is a trained ER physician who is now a full time author and her niche is medical fiction about female doctors. She is the author of 3 books: The Queen of Hearts, The Antidote for Everything, and her newest, Doctors and Friends. When she spoke with us last time in Season 2, she hinted at the manuscript she was working on about a female doctor during a global pandemic and the horrible decision she has to make about her children. That manuscript became Doctors and Friends.

We asked Kimmery on because we’re still knee-deep in COVID, and we had to know what it was like to write a novel about a pandemic just as an actual pandemic was moving around the globe. Plus, Kimmery contracted COVID which added another interesting layer to her work as a writer.

Books Mentioned in this Episode:

1- The Queen of Hearts by Kimmery Martin

2- The Antidote for Everything by Kimmery Martin

3- Doctors & Friends by Kimmery Martin

4- Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

5- Melville in Love by Michael Shelden

6- Moby Dick by Herman Melville

7- Tybee by Herman Melville

8- Until the End of Time by Brian Greene

9- My Year Abroad by Chang-rae Lee

10- Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil DeGrass-Tyson

11- The Mist by Ragnar Jonasson

12- The Lost Man by Jane Harper

Shows mentioned--

1- Reservation Dogs (2021 on Hulu)

2- Reservoir Dogs (1992)

3- Station Eleven (2021, HBO)

This week’s episode features Andrew Harris, the producing artistic director at Stage One, a performing arts organization for children in our city. If you live in Louisville, you have either attended a Stage One production as a child or as the parent of a child, and the shows are always magical. Andrew chats with us about his career in theater, the unique attributes of children’s shows, and why children’s theater is essential to adult theater.

Stage One has a couple upcoming plays, which we discuss in this episode: Don’t Tell Me I Can’t Fly at the end of January and early February and Dragons Love Tacos in March and April. Of course, with Omicron, things could change, so be sure to contact Stage One directly for updates.

Books mentioned--

1- The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien

2- The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson

3- Jamie Whatever by Keith McGill

4- 5- Don't Tell Me I Can't Fly by Y. York

6- Dragons Love Tacos by Adam Rubin

7- The Witch's Heart by Genevieve Gordichec

8- Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman

9- Circe by Madeline Miller

10- The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

10- The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo

11- The Raven and the Reindeer by T. Kingfisher

In this episode, we talk to Gwenda Bond, a New York Times best-selling author whose scope of work includes middle grade and young adult fiction, most with definitive fantasy elements. Her most recent book published this past fall, however, is her very first adult rom-com, a paranormal romance titled NOT YOUR AVERAGE HOT GUY, that involves the son of Satan. An anticipated sequel is due to hit bookstores in April 2022.

Gwenda has vast experience in the literary world; she has published over 10 books, has been a writer for publisher’s weekly magazine, collaborated to write a serial podcast, and been chosen by the Duffer brothers, creators of the megahit Netflix series "Stranger Things", to write a novel that explores what Eleven’s mother’s story.

The thing that unites all these pieces is simple; it’s definitely not boring. Gwenda revels in the wacky and weird and she was a ton of fun to chat with this week.

Books discussed in this episode:

1- Not Your Average Hot Guy by Gwenda Bond

2- The Date From Hell by Gwenda Bond

3- Stranger Things: Suspicious Minds by Gwenda Bond

4- Girl on a Wire by Gwenda Bond

5- The Supernormal Sleuthing Service by Gwenda Bond and Christopher Rowe

6- Lois Lane series by Gwenda Bond

7- Strange Alchemy by Gwenda Bond

8- The Birds by Daphne du Maurier

9- Monkey's Paw by W W Jacobs

10- The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell

11- The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones

12- A Spindle Splintered by Alix E. Harrow

13- A Mirror Mended by Alix E. Harrow

14- Bellweather Rhapsody by Kate Racculia

15- Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts by Kate Racculia

16- The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin

Podcasts mentioned--

1- Dead Air by Gwenda Bond

Shows mentioned--

1- Only Murders in the Building (Hulu)

We take a look back at 2021 reads and what’s on tap for 2022.

Books mentioned in this episode:

1- Sharks in the Time of Saviors by Kawai Strong Washburn

2- The Book of Eels by Patrik Svensson

3- This Close to Okay by Leesa Cross-Smith

4- Murmur of Bees by Sofia Segovia

5- Eat a Peach by David Chang

6- Lakewood by Megan Giddings

7- Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell

8- Sick Souls, Healthy Minds by John Kaag

9- Once & Future Witches by Alix Harrow

10- Stone Sky by NK Jemisin

11- Whisper Man by Alex North

12- World of Wonders by Aimee Nezhukumatathil

13- Pax by Sara Pennypacker

14- The Trauma Cleaner by Sarah Krasnostein

15- Cork Dork by Bianca Bosker

16- Speckled by Beauty by Rick Bragg

17- As You Wish by Cary Elwes

18- Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner

19- Memorial Drive by Natasha Trethaway

20- Washington Black by Esi Edugyan

21- Sorry I'm Late, I Didn't Want to Come by Jessica Pan

22- The Round House by Louise Erdrich

23- A Very Punchable Face by Colin Jost

24- The Hummingbird's Gift by Sy Montgomery

25- Piranesi by Susannah Clarke

26- Where I Can't Follow by Ashley Blooms

27- The Sentence by Louise Erdrich

28- Fox and I by Catherine Raven

29- Another Appalachia: Growing Up Queer and Indian in a Mountain Place by Neema Avashia

30- City of Brass by SA Chakraborty

31- Mordew by Alex Pheby

32- Lucia by Alex Pheby

33- The Storyteller by Dave Grohl

34- The Witch's Heart by Genevieve Gordichec

35- The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

36- She Wouldn't Change a Thing by Sarah Adlakha

37- Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders

38- Dread Nation by Justina Ireland

39- Deathless Divide by Justina Ireland

40- The World-Ending Fire by Wendell Berry

41- The Birds of Opulence by Crystal Wilkinson

42- Dune by Frank Herbert

43- Will by Will Smith

44- The Kingdoms by Natasha Pulley

45- The Carrying by Ada Limon