This week we talk with Heather Lennon, the Sales and Marketing Director at Arctis Books, a new publisher of books in translation for middle grade and young adult audiences. I first encountered Arctis books when I saw an instagram post about a middle grade book called Memento Monstrum originally published in German that will be in US bookstores in October. I liked the book so much I messaged Heather and invited her to be on the show to talk about Arctis specifically and books in translation in general.

This week we talk with Brooke Lauren Davis, a debut author whose YA book The Hollow Inside offers some unique characters. There’s Phoenix, the protagonist whose mother, Nina, has led them away from Phoenix’s father and towards a man from Nina’s past named Ellis, a successful and charismatic man who Nina believes ruined her life. It’s a story about truth, trust, family, revenge, and what lengths people will go to to salvage their reputation.

Today our episode feels a little bit like show and tell or career day at school. We are finding out all about what a literary agent does. Our guest this week is Alice Speilburg, the founder of and one of the literary agents at Speilburg Literary Agency in Louisville, Kentucky.

Today on the show we feature The Blue Marble bookstore which is in Ft. Thomas KY, just a skip across the river from Cincinnati, OH. It is a bookstore that serves children from birth to young adult. I first heard about The Blue Marble in an article about their Great Green Room.

Today we chat with author Melonie Johnson. She is the author of the “Sometimes in Love” romance series but her newest release which hit bookstores last week is a little bit of a departure; it is a romantic comedy called Too Good To Be Real. Melonie said she strived to write something light and fluffy that would take her and other people’s minds off the hard year that was 2020 and the pandemic. She wanted to make readers laugh. And as you will see as you listen, we laugh a lot in this interview.

We are excited to open up Season 5 with suspense writer David Bell. He is the USA Today bestselling author of 11 books and his most recent offering hit the bookshelves yesterday.

What books do you think about when you hear the term Banned Books; do you envision classics like Huck Finn or The Catcher in the Rye? Or books that you wanted to sneak to read when you were a kid because it had swearing, magic, or sexual content? In fact a book series that has been arguably one of the most beloved in modern history, the Harry Potter series, is still high on the list of Banned Books so many years after it was first published.

When it comes to Native American heritage, most Americans have woefully inadequate knowledge. They may have heard of Squanto or Sacajawea, but that is the extent of their understanding. A 2018 research project conducted by The First Nations Development Institute and Echo Hawk Consulting found that most Americans think there aren’t many Native Americans left in the country, which just isn’t true. There are close to 600 federally recognized tribes in the United States.

We’re closing Season 4 with Ben Self, who is a teacher and contributor to Mockingbird, an organization that describes itself as being “devoted to connecting the Christian faith with the realities of everyday life.” It’s a progressive group and Ben runs their new online book club which focuses more on spiritual themes than religious doctrine. It straddles the secular and spirit in fun and culturally relevant ways.

It goes without saying that you can be a book lover whether you read 1 book a year or 200. But those book lovers who consume books like the potato chips no one can resist, reading over 100 books a year, are a little unique. We couldn't be happier to welcome Jacqui Daves Isser to the show. Jacqui is a middle school librarian who lives outside Austin TX but she is also a "super reader". She read 168 books last year and is on track to read more in 2021. If middle grade literature needed a spokesperson to tell adults why they should add it to their reading rotation, Jacqui is their girl.