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)

This is our holiday gift-giving episode with Sam Miller from Carmichael’s Bookstore. Sam always gives us great recommendations for what to buy from literary fiction to cookbooks to picture books.

To see Carmichael’s Holiday Gift guide visit their website at www.carmichaelsbookstore.com.

Books Mentioned in This Episode:

1- We All Want Impossible Things by Catherine Newman

2- Galatea by Madeline Miller

3- Toad by Katherine Dunn

4- Geek Love by Katherine Dunn

5- The Passenger by Cormac McCarthy

6- Stella Maris by Cormac McCarthy

7- The Whalebone Theater by Joanna Quinn

8- All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

9- Marple: Twelve New Mysteries by Agatha Christie

10- Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn

11- White Horse by Erika T. Wurth

12- Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng

13- Lark Ascending by Silas House

14- Leech by Hiron Ennes

15- The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times by Michelle Obama

16- Year of the Tiger by Alice Wong

17- Disability Visibility by Alice Wong

18- Inciting Joy: Essays by Ross Gay

19- The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams by Stacy Schiff

20- And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle by Jon Meacham

21- The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man: Paul Newman by Paul Newman

23- Gateau: The Surprising Simplicity of French Cakes by Aleksandra Crapanzano

24- Home is Where the Eggs Are by Molly Yeh

23- Dinner in One by Melissa Clark

24- Go-To-Dinners by Ina Garten

25- Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

26- David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

27- Runaway: Notes On the Myths That Made Me by Erin Keane

28- Landings: A Crooked Creek Farm Year by Arwen Donohue

29- Waverly Hills Sanatorium: A History by Lynn Pohl

30- How It Went: Thirteen More Stories of the Port William Membership by Wendell Berry

31- Farmhouse by Sophie Blackall

32- Stinky Cheese Man by Jon Scieszka

33- The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka

34- The Real Dada Mother Goose by Jon Scieszka

33- This Story is Not About a Kitten by Randall de Seve

34- The Stars Did Wander Darkling by Colin Meloy

35- The Door of No Return by Kwame Alexander

36- The Crossover by Kwame Alexander

37- Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults by Robin Wall Kimmerer

38- The Wolf Suit by Sid Sharp

39- The Nightmare Man by J.H. Markert

40- A White Wind Blew by James Markert

41- Babel by R.F. Kuang

42- Happy Go Lucky by David Sedaris

Shows mentioned--

The Last Movie Stars directed by Ethan Hawke (HBO Max)

We love finding people who do interesting bookish things that are a little out of the ordinary, and our guest this week is costume designer and author Jacqueline Firkins who combines her amazing dressmaking skills with her love of novels. She creates dresses based on book covers that you can see on her Instagram page or her website. Located in Vancouver, Jacqueline teaches at the University of British Columbia.

We also lucked out because we were also able to chat with Jacqueline about her new book which just hit book stores two weeks ago titled Marlowe Banks, Redesigned, a rom-com featuring a behind the scenes look at the costume designing world.

Books Mentioned In This Episode:

1- Marlowe Banks, Redesigned by Jacqueline Firkins

2- Spells for Lost Things by Jenna Evans Welch

3- Ink in the Blood by Kim Smejkal

4- Small Favors by Erin Craig

5- The Summer of Bitter and Sweet by Jen Ferguson

6- Asleep: The Forgotten Epidemic that Remains One of Medicine's Greatest Mysteries by Molly Caldwell Crosby

7- Awakenings by Oliver Sacks

8- Interview With the Vampire by Anne Rice

9- Thanks for Listening by Julia Whelan (audiobook narrated by Julia Whelan)

10- My Oxford Year by Julia Whelan

Shows mentioned--

1- Sandman (Netflix 2022)

2- Awakenings (1990)

3- Interview with the Vampire (1994)

4- Interview with a Vampire (AMC 2022)

We are back with a global reader episode this week and are traveling to Australia using the magic of the internet. We had the pleasure of chatting with Lily Raiti, an avid reader who lives outside Melbourne and has worked as a personal trainer for 16 years and also does some freelance copyediting on the side.

It’s always fun to hear about what book lovers in other places are reading and Lily had some great indigenous author suggestions for us which we’ll have in our show notes for you to check out. Of course, Lily also had to answer some general Australia questions like how far it takes to fly from one city to another but we avoided anything about Crocodile Dundee.

Books Mentioned in this Episode:

1- Books by Enid Blyton

2- Sweet Valley High by Francine Pascal

3- Flowers in the Attic by VC Andrews

4- The White Girl by Tony Birch

5- The Yield by Tara June Winch

6- Terra Nullius by Claire G. Coleman

7- Too Much Lip by Melissa Lucashenko

8- The Boy From the Mish by Gary Lonesborough

9- The Dry by Jane Harper

10- Picture books by Graeme Base

11- Books by Henry Lawson

12- My Brilliant Career and other books by Miles Franklin

13- The Year of Magical Thinking and other books by Joan Didion

14- My Name is Lucy Barton and other books by Elizabeth Strout

15- Beloved and other books by Toni Morrison

16- The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

17- Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

18- The Change by Kirsten Miller

19- Wolf Hollow by Lauren Wolk

20- The Unbelieved by Vikki Petraitis

21- The Happiest Man on Earth by Eddie Jaku (Audiobook narrated by Raphael Corkhill)

We saw this week’s guest in early fall at Carmichael’s Bookstore when she read aloud from her latest book, Don’t Call Me a Hurricane. Ellen Hagan has roots in Kentucky and is part of Spalding University’s low residency MFA faculty but lives and works in New York City. She is a poet, fiction writer, performer, and teacher for several programs including the The DreamYard Project and the International Poetry Exchange Program, programs geared towards young people. She is also the author of many books for teens, including Watch Us Rise, a book she wrote in collaboration with Renee Watson.

Don’t Call Me a Hurricane is a YA novel written in verse that addresses climate change, romantic, family, and friend relationships, as well as the tension between tourism and ecology.

Books Mentioned In This Episode:

1- Don't Call Me a Hurricane by Ellen Hagan

2- Watch Us Rise by Renee Watson and Ellen Hagan

3- The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo

4- Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse

5- Rivers of London/Midnight Riot by Ben Aaronovitch, narrated by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith

6- Naruda on the Park by Cleyvis Natera

7- Vinyl Moon by Mahogany L. Browne

8- I Came All This Way to Meet You by Jami Attenberg

9- Mary Jane by Jessica Anya Blau; audiobook narrated by Cailtin Kinnunen

10- Reckless, Glorious, Girl by Ellen Hagan

To close out October this week, we chat with Lee Mandelo, author of Summer Sons, which recently went into paperback. This creepy novel is hard to categorize because it’s queer Southern Gothic, dark academia, and ghost story. It also touches on issues of race and class. The book is an amalgam of a lot of different ideas rolled into a complex story of friendship, grief, and family curses. We’re so glad Lee joined us to chat about their novel as well as an upcoming novella titled Feed Them Silence which comes out in spring 2023.

Books Mentioned in this Episode:

1- Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo

2- Feed them Silence by Lee Mandelo

3- Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

4- Factory Girls by Michelle Gallen

5- The Haunting of Hajji Hotak and Other Stories by Jamil Jan Kochai

6- Alive At the End of the World by Saeed Jones

7- Prelude to Bruise by Saeed Jones

8- How We Fight For Our Lives by Saeed Jones

9- The Wehrwolf by Alma Katsu (Amazon Original Story)

10- The Fervor by Alma Katsu

Shows mentions--

1- Queer for Fear: The History of Queer Horror

Online Store Website and Instagram1- Gothic Bullshit @gothicbullshit - www.gothicbullshit.com

Many book lovers could spend hours in a library wandering around perusing the shelves, but the Willard Library in Evansville, Indiana is a little more unique because it houses not only books and magazines but some spooky residents. In the 1930s, staff members and patrons first started seeing apparitions including a woman in Victorian clothing named The Gray Lady, a gentleman named Frank, and a little boy named Billy Bobby who likes to play on the stairs. These are friendly ghosts and each year the Willard conducts free ghost tours to the public. You can also keep track of the ghosts for yourself through their ghost cams that they have set up in various locations through the library.

This week we speak to Stacie Dotson, a staff member at the Willard Library who is considered their ghost guru. She is a lover of the paranormal and in fact has a fairly unique background herself which makes her perfect for this job. Stacie has had several encounters with the ghostly residents and she fills us in.

Books Mentioned in this Episode:

1- A House at the Bottom of a Lake by Josh Malerman

2- Bird Box by Josh Malerman

3- Deserter (manga) by Junji Ito

4- The Trial of Lizzie Borden by Cara Robertson

5- Starvation Heights by Gregg Olsen

6- The Stranger Beside Me by Ann Rule

7- Foote by Tom Bredehoft

8- Yours Cruelly, Elvira: Memoirs of the Mistress of the Dark by Cassandra Peterson

9- Disney Villains series by Serena Valentino

10- The Promised Neverland by Kaiu Shirai

11- Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre by Max Brooks

Shows mentioned--

1- Ghost Hunters

2- Promised Neverland series (2019 - 2021) - Netflix

In this week’s episode, we chat with Tyler Miller, founder of Reluctant Reader Books, a company that makes books for kids who hate to read. He is also author to several books for young readers in the Nevermore series, including We Bury the Living. In our conversation, Tyler tells us about why he started Reluctant Reader Books and how these books pull in younger readers who don’t normally find books appealing. He also tells us about other authors whose horror-lite novels are ones he recommends.

Books Mentioned in this Episode:

1- Nevermore series by Tyler Miller (We Bury the Living, The Thirteenth Floor, Death Cab)

2-Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling

3- Goosebumps series by R.L. Stine

4- The Jack Henry novels by Jack Gantos

6- The Haunting of Avaline Jones (and others in series) by Phil Hickes

7- The Goolz Next Door series by Gary Ghislain

8- I Know Your Secret by Daphne Benedis-Grab

9- The Smashed Man of Dread End by JW Ocker

10- Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark series by Alvin Schwartz

11- Monsterstreet series by J.H. Reynolds

12- Fright Vision series by Culliver Crantz

13- Carmilla by J. Sheridan Le Fanu

14- Dracula by Bram Stoker

15- Uncle Silas by J. Sheridan Le Fanu

16- This Appearing House by Ally Malinenko

17- Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

18- Wylding Hall by Elizabeth Hand

19- Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

20- Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier

21- We Sold Our Souls by Grady Hendrix

Movies/Shows mentioned--

1- Bohemian Rhapsody (2018)

2- Studio 666 (2022)

3- The Why Files (YouTube)