This week we welcome special guest Rachel Harper to Perks. Rachel is on the faculty at Spalding University’s Naslund-Mann Graduate School of Writing in Lousiville, KY and is the author of three novels. Her most recent, The Other Mother, was published in 2022 and has racked up the accolades. It was named one of Amazon’s best books of 2022, was a Good Morning America buzz pick, and has been awarded the American Library Association’s Stonewall Book Award for Excellence in LGBTQIA fiction.

We chat with Rachel about how her book is like an onion, with many layers to peel back and explore. While it deals with motherhood, it also deals with father-child relationships, identity, race, and how our past affects our present.

You can find Rachel on Instagram @harpsincali and her website www.rachelmharper.com

Books Mentioned In This Episode:

1- The Other Mother by Rachel Harper

2- This Side of Providence by Rachel Harper

3- Brass Ankle Blues by Rachel Harper

4- Born a Crime by Trevor Noah

5- As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner

6- The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner

7- The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

8- The Secret History by Donna Tartt

9- Long ass books by Jonathan Franzen

10- Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry

11- The Case of the Missing Moonstone (The Wollstonecraft Detective Agency) by Jordan Stratfor

12- Enola Holmes series by Nancy Springer

13- Women Talk Money: Breaking the Taboo edited by Rebecca Walker

14- Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art by James Nestor

15- The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elizabeth Tove Bailey

16- Shutter by Ramona Emerson

Books Mentioned in this Episode--

1- Dirtbag, Massachusetts by Isaac Fitzgerald

2- Two Nights in Lisbon by Chris Pavone

3- Truth and Other Lies by Maggie Smith

4- Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

5- A Separate Peace by John Knowles

6- Mystic River by Dennis Lehane

7- Leonard and Hungry Paul by Ronan Hession

8- Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry

9- Love & Saffron by Kim Fay

10- The Kitchen God’s Wife by Amy Tan

11- Rules for Visiting by Jessica Francis Kane

12- Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix

13- Cackle by Rachel Harrison

14- Who Will Run the Frog Hospital? by Lorrie Moore

15- Doctors & Friends by Kimmery Martin

16- The Eves by Grace Sammon

17- Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier

18- Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt

19- Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See

20- White Noise by Don DeLillo

21- We All Want Impossible Things by Catherine Newman

22- Waiting For Birdy: A Year of Frantic Tedium, Neurotic Angst, and the Wild Magic of Growing a Family by Catherine Newman

23- Atalanta by Jennifer Saint

24- Ariadne by Jennifer Saint

25- Everyone Knows Your Mother is A Witch by Rivka Galchen

26- The Line Tender by Kate Allen

27- Trespasses by Louis Kennedy

28- The Red-Headed Pilgrim by Kevin Maloney

29- Fieldwork: A Forager's Memoir by Aliana Regan

Podcasts mentioned--

The To Be Read podcast

Movies/shows mentioned--

1- Wildcat (no release date yet)

2- Reality Bites (1994)

3- Gattaca (1997)

4- Mystic River (2003)

5- White Noise (Netflix 2022)

6- White Lotus (HBOMax 2021 - 2022)

Our guest this week, Jayne Moore Waldrop traded legal briefs of a law practice for her writing journals in an MFA program. Her first book, Drowned Town, is a novel in linked stories about the families who lost their homes in the 1960s when President Kennedy announced the creation of Land Between the Lakes, a national recreation area that resulted from damning several rivers and taking land from residents through eminent domain. Jayne explores what the meaning of home becomes when one’s home is now underwater. Her book was selected as one of the best southern books of 2021 by the Southern Review of Books.

Jayne has changed gears once again, this time to tell a picture book story for children titled A Journey in Color: The Art of Ellis Wilson about one of the great artists of the Harlem Renaissance, native Kentuckian Ellis Wilson, who won two Guggenheim Fellowships but has been virtually unknown in his home state. Jayne teamed up with acclaimed Nashville artist Michael McBride to create a book that helps give Wilson his due but also inspire children to follow their dreams.

You can find Jayne on her website www.jaynemoorewaldrop.com and social media on Instagram @jaynemoorewaldrop and FB Jayne Moore Waldrop, Author.

Books Mentioned In This Episode:

1- Drowned Town by Jayne Moore Waldrop

2- A Journey in Color: The Art of Ellis Wilson by Jayne Moore Waldrop and illustrated by Michael McBride

3- The Rabbit Hutch. by Tess Gunty

4- Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

5- These Silent Woods by Kimi Cunningham Grant

6- Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

7- David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

8- Lark Ascending by Silas House

9- Ben Yokoyama and the Cookie of Doom by Matthew Swanson and Robbi Behr

10- Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak

Films mentioned--

1- So Much to Paint (A documentary on the work of Ellis Wilson

education.ket.org/resources/ellis-…lson-much-paint/

Nonprofit mentioned:

International Book Project - intlbookproject.org/

Books mentioned in this episode:

1- Truly Devious series by Maureen Johnson

2- The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

3- His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman

4- Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

5- Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

6- Happenings by Annie Ernaux

7- The Most Precious Substance on Earth by Shashi Bhat

8- Lucia by Alex Pheby

9- Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

10- American Ghost: A Family's Haunted Past in the Desert Southwest by Hannah Nordhaus

11- Lady in the Lake by Laura Lippman

12- Spare by Prince Harry

13- Storyteller by Dave Grohl

14- Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

15- Gallant by VE Schwab

16- The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by VE Schwab

17- The Pale Blue Eye by Louis Bayard

18- Big Girl, Small Town by Michelle Gallen

19- Factory Girls by Michelle Gallen

20- Sewer by Jessica Leigh Hester

21- The Ghost Map by Steven Johnson

22- The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

23- I Dream of Dinner by Ali Slagle

24- Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree

Articles mentioned--

Prince Harry has decided it just doesn't matter by Erin Keane

erinkeane.substack.com/p/prince-harr…cided-it-just

Shows/mentioned mentioned--

1- His Dark Materials (HBOMax)

2- The Pale Blue Eye (Netflix)

3- The Watcher (Netflix)

4- Derry Girls (Netflix)

5- All Quiet on the Western Front (Netflix)

This week we chat with Tracy Clark, an author whose latest book Hide is set in Chicago and features a seasoned black female police detective who has joined a new precinct and not only has to navigate a new professional network but also solve a recent murder on the waterfront.

This is Tracy's fifth novel but the first in this new series featuring detective Harriet Foster. By day Tracy is a puzzle editor for a Chicago newspaper which is perfect for her role as a writer of crime fiction creating puzzles for her protagonists and readers to figure out.

Books mentioned in this episode:

1- Hide by Tracy Clark

2- The Nightmare Man by JH Markert

3- Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys

4- Her Name is Knight series by Yasmin Angoe

5- Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

6-The Ninja's Oath (Lily Wong series) by Tori Eldridge

7- A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

8- Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

9- David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

10- American Fever by Dur e Aziz Almna

Authors mentioned:

1- Sarah Paretsky

2- Sue Grafton

3- Agatha Christie

4- Valerie Wilson Wesley

5- Barbara Neely

Movies mentioned--

1- Thin Man series

2- Bowery Boys movies

Books Mentioned in This Episode:

1- The Mist by Ragnar Jónasson

2- Snowblind by Ragnar Jónasson

3- Who is Vera Kelly? by Rosalie Knecht

4- Burial Rites by Hannah Kent

5- Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys

6- The Island of Adventure by Enid Blyton

7- How the Penguins Saved Veronica by Hazel Pryor

8- A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

9- A Polar Affair: Antarctica's Forgotten Hero and the Secret Love Lives of Penguins by Lloyd Spencer Davis

10- The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty

11- Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward

12- Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank

13- The Snowchild by Eowyn Ivey

14- The Raven and the Reindeer by T. Kingfisher

15- Midnight in Everwood by Maria Kuzniar

16- Tiger Eyes by Judy Blume

17- The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley

18- Bellwether Rhapsody by Kate Racculia

19- The Fires by Sigrídur Hagalín Björnsdóttir

20- Octavian Nothing: The Pox Party (The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation #1) by M. T. Anderson

21- Slave Nation: How Slavery United the Colonies and Sparked the American Revolution by Alfred Blumrosen

22- Snow by John Banville

23- The Annotated Classic Fairy Tales edited by Maria Tatar

24- A Spindle Splintered by Alix E. Harrow

25- Excellent Women by Barbara Pym

26- The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston

27- Braineater Jones by Stephen Kozeniewski

Shows mentioned--

Santa Clarita Diet (Netflix)

Articles mentioned--

Invisible Evidence by Jo Marchant (Smithsonian Vol 53, No 6 )

We got together on the first day of 2023 to review our top books of 2022 and we’re already busy reading books to discuss this year. Time was too short to talk about all of our favorite books but you can see a full list of our 5 star reads from 2022 as well as a list of all the books we mention in this episode on our website at perksofbeingabooklover.com.

Our year in review episode is always fun because we ask our guests from the past 12 months to tell us about their favorite book. It brings back great memories to hear all their voices again.

Books mentioned in this episode:

1- Babel by RF Kuang

2- The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune

3- The Stone Loves the World by Brian Hall

4- I Should Be Extremely Happy in Your Company by Brian Hall

5- Let the Record Show: A Political History of ACT UP New York, 1987-1993 by Sarah Schulman

6- Two Nights in Lisbon by Chris Pavone

7- The Marmalade Diaries by Ben Aitken

8- The Broken Earth series by N. K. Jemisin

9- Another Appalachia by Neema Avashia

10- Where I Can’t Follow by Ashley Blooms

11- Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch

12- Odin’s Child by Siri Pettersen

13- The Monsters of Rookhaven by Padraig Kenny

14- The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborthy

15- The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by VE Schwab

16- Gallant by VE Schwab

17- The Nightmare Man by JH Markert

18- Devolution by Max Brooks

19- Leech by Hiron Ennes

20- Finna by Nino Cipri

21- Defect by Nino Cipri

22- Morning Glory Milking Farm (Cambric Creek) by CM Nascosta

22- Sweet Berries (Cambric Creek) by CM Nascosta

23- How the Word is Passed by Clint Smith

24- The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green

25- Pleading Out: How Plea Bargaining Creates a Permanent Criminal Class by Dan Canon

26- Ban This Book by Alan Gratz

27- A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

28- Wolf Hollow by Lauren Wolk

29- The Beatryce Prophecy by Kate DiCamillo

30- The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuera

31- When You Trap a Tiger by Tae Keller

32- The Storyteller - Tales of Life and Music by Dave Grohl

33- The Marmalade Diaries: The True Story of an Odd Couple by Ben Aitken

34- What’s So Funny? A Cartoonist’s Memoir by David Sipress

35- Girl at War by Sara Nović

36- Haven by Emma Donoghue

37- Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

38- Champagne Widows (Veuve Clicquot) by Rebecca Rosenberg

39- The Guncle by Steven Rowley

40 - Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka

41- Shit Cassandra Saw by Gwen E. Kirby

42- Nightmare Alley by William Lindsay Gresham

43- How to Fake It in Hollywood by Ava Wilder

44- The Dance of Time: The Origins of the Calendar by Michael Judge

45- Dinosaurs by Lydia Millet

46- Thistlefoot by Jenna Rose Nethercott

47- Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty

48- Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

Movie - Nightmare Alley ( 2022)

App - Storygraph

Each season we like to speak to someone from an independent bookstore, but this can be especially challenging during the December holiday shopping crush. We’re very glad Amanda Zirn Hudson from Bethany Beach Books in Delaware was able to make time to speak with us.

Bethany Beach Books started its own book subscription program several years ago called The Book Drop. Amanda tells us all about how she began the program and explains the process for selecting books and getting them out to members. Unlike other book subscriptions, this one is run by an independent bookstore, and the books they pick are what they consider “hidden gems.” Their program has been recommended by BuzzFeed, NPR, The New York Times, and USA Today.

The good news is that you still have time to order a subscription for yourself or a book-loving friend or family member before the holidays!

You can find Bethany Beach Books on social media at @bethanybeachbooks or their website at www.bethanybeachbooks.com.

Their subscription book service The Book Drop can be found on Instagram @the.book.drop or the website www.thebookdrop.com.

Books mentioned--

1- The Christmas Tree by Julie Salaman

2- The Lost Ticket by Freya Sampson

3- The Inheritors by William Golding

4- Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean Auel

5- Lark Ascending by Silas House

6- The Road by Cormac McCarthy

7- Southernmost by Silas House

8- Marrying the Ketchups by Jennifer Close

Movies mentioned--

1- Elf (2003)

2- National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989)

3- Spirited (2022)

4- The English (Prime 2022)

5- Wednesday (Netflix 2022)

6- The Bear (Hulu 2022)

7 - Outlander (Netflix 2014- present)

This week we chat with fellow book lover and grant writer Bethany Planton who runs a book club for fellow members of her profession. When she began her own consulting company, she met several other grant writers from around the country through a twitter chat, and they quickly realized that besides sharing a profession, they also shared a love of books. The Grant Pro Bookclub started 6 years ago and has always met virtually, long before the rest of us picked up on the idea when the COVID pandemic began.

We talk to Bethany about her undying love of Little Women and Louisa May Alcott, her role as a tourist ambassador for her city, and why it’s never too cold for ice cream.

You can find bethany on Instagram at @bmpreads

Books Mentioned in This Episode:

1- Deal of a Lifetime by Fredrik Backman

2- On Writing by Stephen King

3- Who is Maud Dixon? by Alexandra Andrews

4- American Gods by Neil Gaiman

5- We Were the Lucky Ones by Georgia Hunter

6- The Hollow Inside by Brooke Lauren Davis

7- After Dark with Roxie Clark by Brooke Lauren Davis

8- Drowned Town by Jayne Moore Waldrop

9- The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith

10- Carol/The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith

11- Louisa on the Front Lines by Samantha Seiple

12- May Alcott Nieriker, Author and Advocate: Travel Writing and Transformation in the Late Nineteenth Century by Julia Dabbs

13- Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

14- Little Men by Louisa May Alcott

15- Jo's Boys by Louisa May Alcott

16- Old Fashioned Girl by Louisa May Alcott

17- Eight Cousins by Louisa May Alcott

18- Rose in Bloom by Louisa May Alcott

19- Jack and Jill by Louisa May Alcott

20- The Long Fatal Love Chase by Louisa May Alcott

21- Behind a Mask by Louisa May Alcott

22- March by Geraldine Brooks

23- So Many Beginnings: A Little Women Remix by Bethany C. Morrow

24- Santa's Secrets by K.C. Wells

25- Gingerbread by Helen Oyeyemi

26- Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyemi

27- The Icarus Girl by Helen Oyeyemi

28- W is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi

29- The Keeper: Growing Up in Girl Sports by Kelcey Parker Ervick

30- Odder by Katherine Applegate

31- The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate

32- The One and Only Bob by Katherine Applegate

33- Wishtree by Katherine Applegate

Movies mentioned--

1- Little Women (directed by Greta Gerwig 2019)

2- Carol (2015)

3- The Talented Mr. Ripley ( 1999)

Our guest this week, Rijula Das, is originally from India but now makes her home in Wellington, New Zealand. She is an author and a Bengali-to-English translator. Her debut novel A Death in Shonagachhi was published in India last year but has come to the United States with a different title, Small Deaths. Her book was named by the website Crime Reads as a “must read” and Gone Girl author Gillian Flynn recommended Rijulas’ debut during an appearance on Good Morning America. The book has been optioned to adapted for the screen.

You can find Rijula Das on Instagram at @rijuladas and at her website www.rijuladas.com

1- Small Deaths/ A Death in Shonagachhi by Rijula Das

2- Hamlet by Shakespeare (Amleth)

3- The Wonder by Emma Donoghue

4- Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

5- Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn

6- The Kissing Bug: The True Story of a Family, an Infect, and a Nation's Neglect of a Deadly Disease by Daisy Hernandez

7- Less by Andrew Sean Greer

8- Less is Lost by Andrew Sean Greer

9- In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado

10- Haven by Emma Donoghue

11- Room by Emma Donoghue

Movies mentioned--

1- The Northman (Prime Video )2022

2- The Wonder (Netflix) 2022

3- Room (2015)