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

Our guest this week, Alia Volz, wrote a book titled Home Baked: My Mom, Marijuana, and The Stoning of San Francisco about her experience growing up in San Francisco in the late 1970s and 80s. Alia’s parents were the owners of Sticky Fingers Brownies which made pot brownies that were known all over the city. While these brownies were the source of relaxation and fun for many people, when HIV and AIDS hit San Francisco, Sticky Fingers became a lifeline for many gay men who were devastated by the disease because the pot brownies helped them with pain and appetite.

The book covers a lot of territory, not the least of which is Alia’s parents’ backgrounds and what it was like for her to grow up in San Francisco in a family that couldn’t really talk about what it did because of the illegal nature of their business. Her book was a 2020 finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Autobiography. It’s a fascinating read which shows the social history leading to the legalization and wider use of cannabis for medical use in the US through the lens of her own family's story.

Books Discussed in this Episode:

1- Home Baked: My Mom, Marijuana, and the Stoning of San Francisco by Alia Volz

2- Flowers in the Attic by VC Andrews

3- The Stand by Stephen King

4- Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

5- Dune by Frank Herbert

6- Pandora's Lab: Seven Stories of Science Gone Wrong by Paul Offitt

7- In Defense of Witches: The Legacy of the Witch Hunts and Why Women are Still on Trial by Mona Chollet

8- Daughters of Smoke and Fire by Ava Homa

9- The Haunting of Tram Car 015 (Dead Djinn Universe #0.3)by P. Djeli Clark

10- The Master of Djinn (Dead Djinn Universe #1)by P. Djeli Clark

11 - A Dead Djinn in Cairo (Dead Djinn Universe #0.1) by P. Djeli Clark

12- The Secret Lives of the Nine Negro Teeth of George Washington by P. Djeli Clark

13- Bunnicula by James and Deborah Howe

The novel The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michelle Richardson which is about women who served as pack librarians in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky and brought reading materials to remote areas during the Depression is the one that Lisa Signorelli and Kristin Thrower looked to to guide them in their mission. They were concerned that their students in Chesterfield public schools on the outskirts of Richmond who didn’t have easy access to WIFI while school was virtual last year were being forgotten.

Lisa and Kristin decided to start delivering books to the students. The endeavour that began out of the back of their cars has now progressed to a full book mobile that gives away free books to students and their families.

In this episode, Lisa and Kristin talk about how they met through a mentor teacher friend named Ms. Clark, how their collaboration resulted in the book mobile, and what it adds to their teaching experience.

Books Mentioned in this Episode:

1- The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson

2- Books by Louis L'Amour

3- To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

4- Romeo & Juliet by William Shakespeare

5- Catcher in the Rye by J D Salinger

6- The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor Lavalle

7- The Changeling by Victor Lavalle

8- The Secret Keeper of Jaipur by Alka Joshi

9- The Henna Artist by Alka Joshi

10- Monday's Not Coming by Tiffany D. Jackson

11- Cackle by Rachel Harrison

12- Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey

13- A History Lover's Guide to Richmond by Kristin Thrower

Media mentioned--

1- Jason Reynolds on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert

2- Mysteries at the Museum

Based in Colorado, Valerie Saverie is the owner and a founding member of Valkarie Gallery & Studio as well as an artist whose work is shown and sold in New York, Oregon, California, and Pennsylvania. In this episode, she talks to us about how books inspire her and what her process is for turning an already magical work into something that goes even further into creativity and the imagination.

To see all of Valerie’s art you can check her out on instagram @valeriesaverie or at her website www.valeriesaverie.com. On her site, she is offering Perks listeners a 20% discount on anything they purchase from her store for 30 days. Use the code PBBL22.

Books Mentioned in this Episode:

1- The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis

2- Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut

3- Dreams by Olive Schreiner

4- Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

5- The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge by MT Anderson and Eugene Yelchin (Gildart Jackson narrates)

6- Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick

7- Gobbledy by Lis-Anna Langston

Movies mentioned--

Blade Runner (1982)

Blade Runner 2049 (2017)