The Perks Of Being A Book Lover Podcast
The Perks Of Being A Book Lover Podcast

The Perks Of Being A Book Lover Podcast

Amy Smalley

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Episodes

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Perks of Being a Book Lover is a show about books, people who read, and how reading, at its very best, is a social experience. Whether it be a book club, a poetry slam, or the production of a play; words are meant to be shared. Keep up with us on FB.

Recent Episodes

S13:Ep269 - 2025 Year in Review
DEC 10, 2025
S13:Ep269 - 2025 Year in Review
Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com.Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpodFacebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover.To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button.   Our first show of Season 14 will begin on January 7, 2026. We’ve been coming up with ideas for book recommendations and will soon be recording with guests. But until then, Amy is going to make merry, and Carrie is going to begrudgingly deal with the holidays. And in this episode, we’re reviewing some of the notable books that we have loved over the last 12 months. Some of these are backlist titles, and some are new releases—we cannot keep up with the publishing industry, nor do we really try. You will also hear from some of our guests from this year who share their favorites of 2025.    Books Discussed In This Episode: Carrie's Favorites of 2025 1- Angel Down by Daniel Kraus 2- On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder  3- The Millicent Quibb School for Young Ladies of Mad Science by Kate McKinnon 4- The Lost Year by Katherine Marsh  5- Belonging: A German Reckons with History and Home by Nora Krug   Amy's Favorites of 2025 1- Miss Benson's Beetle by Rachel Joyce  2- You Could Make This Place Beautiful by Maggie Smith 3- Culpability by Bruce Holsinger  4- The Shift: One Nurse, Twelve Hours, Four Patients' Lives by Theresa Brown, RN  5- Paris Letters: A Travel Memoir About Art, Writing, and Finding Love in Paris by Janice MacLeod    Other books mentioned 1- I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman 2- The Nature of Pain by Mandi Fugate Sheffel  3- The Strange Case of Jane O by Karen Thompson Walker  4- The Devils by Joe Abercrombie  5- Everything's Fine by Cecilia Rabess  6- The River is Waiting by Wally Lamb 7- I Have Some Questions For You by Rebecca Makkai 8- Just One Damned Thing After Another by Jodi Taylor 9- Starling House by Alix E. Harrow  10- Dead Man Blues by S.D. House  11- God of the Woods by Liz Moore  12- The Road to Blair Mountain: Saving a Mine Wars Battlefield from King Coal by Charles B. Keeney 13- Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent by Judi Dench and Brendan O' Yea  14- Carpool Detectives: A True Story  of Four Moms, Two Bodies, and One Mysterious Cold Case by Chuck Hogan  15- Anima Rising by Christopher Moore  16- The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest by Aubrey Hartman 17- The Husbands by Holly Gramazio 18- Grace and Henry's Holiday Movie Marathon by Matthew Norman  19- Seven Days of Us by Francesca Hornak
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52 MIN
S13:Ep268 - Angel Down with Guest Daniel Kraus + Women in Politics Book Recs - 11/26/25
NOV 26, 2025
S13:Ep268 - Angel Down with Guest Daniel Kraus + Women in Politics Book Recs - 11/26/25
Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com.Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpodFacebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover.To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button.   You can find Daniel Kraus at his website danielkraus.com or on IG at @kraus_author.   This week our episode features Daniel Kraus, a writer who has published over 20 books, but among moviegoers he may be best known as the co-author with Guillermo del Toro of The Shape of Water. The film of this story won four Oscars in 2018. Daniel’s 2023 novel Whalefall is being turned into a 20th Century Fox motion picture, and I hope that at some point his latest novel, Angel Down, will also be on film.  Both the premise and writing in Angel Down are unique. It is the story of a group of World War I soldiers told to go into No Man’s Land to rescue what they think is a wounded soldier. What they find is an angel. If you enjoy war novels, and even if you don’t, I recommend giving this book a read.    Our book rec section of the show features books related to women in politics. If you are interested in politics yet hate the nuttery of American government at the moment, these books can provide a reprieve. We have contemporary fiction, biography, memoir, alternative history, and electoral nonfiction.    Books Mentioned in this Episode: 1- Whalefall by Daniel Kraus  2- Angel Down by Daniel Kraus  3- The Shape of Water by Guillermo del Toro and Daniel Kraus 4- Frankenstein by Mary Shelley 5- The Leaphorn and Chee Series by Tony Hillerman 6- Hearts of the Missing by Carol Potenza 7- The Death and Life of Zebulon Finch by Daniel Kraus  8- Wolf at the Table by Adam Rapp  9- From Under the Truck by Josh Brolin 10- Madonna in a Fur Coat by Sabahattin Ali  11- The Rachel Incident by Caroline O'Donoghue  12- A Five Star Read recommended by fellow Book Lover State Katz @all.da.bookish.things - The Witch's Orchard by Archer Sullivan  13- Cleo McDougal Regrets Nothing by Alison Winn Scotch  14- Charlotte Walsh Likes to Win by Jo Piazza 15- The Partisan Gap: Why Democratic Women Get Elected But Republican Women Don't by Laurel Elder  16- Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld  17- Mrs. Lincoln: A Life by Catherine Clinton  18- A Different Kind of Power by Jacinda Arden   Media Mentioned: 1- Frankenstein (2025-Netflix) 2- Dark Winds (2022 - present, Netflix) 3- The Shape of Water (2017) 4- 1917 (2019) 5- Whalefall (Upcoming Fall 2026) 6- Michelle Obama Says US Not Ready for a Female President - https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/michelle-obama-says-us-not-ready-woman-president-rcna244136      
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72 MIN
S13:Ep267 - REMIX Meet Me at Luke's with Guest Kristine Eckart - 11/12/25
NOV 12, 2025
S13:Ep267 - REMIX Meet Me at Luke's with Guest Kristine Eckart - 11/12/25
Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com.Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpodFacebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover.To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button. You can find out more about Kristine and Meet Me At Luke’s at www.gilmorebookclub.com or on IG at  @gilmorebookclub.   This week we catch up with Kristine Eckart, the founder of the online Gilmore Book Club. When we first spoke to her in Season 9, Episode 188 (2023), she talked about creating this book club, which is based on the books read by the characters in the beloved bookish TV show The Gilmore Girls.    This year the show is celebrating its 25th anniversary since it first aired, and to commemorate this occasion, Kristine has written a book titled Meet Me at Luke’s, which is a compendium of essays about the show and its impact on Kristine and other book lovers. If you have a Gilmore Girl fan in your life, this might be the perfect holiday gift. In this remix episode, you’ll hear an update from Kristine as well as clips from her initial visit on The Perks.    Books Mentioned in This Episode: 1- Meet Me At Luke's by Kristine Eckart  2- A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway 3- The Vampyre by John Polidori  4- Strange Practice by Vivian Shaw  5- Resilient: How to Grow an Unshakeable Core of Calm, Strength, and Happiness by  Rick Hanson  6- A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway  7- The Paris Wife by Paula McClain  8- The President's Wife by Tracey Emerson Wood  9- The Banned Bookshop of Maggie Banks by Shauna Robinson  10- A 5 Star Read Recommnended by a Fellow Book Lover Kim Layman @the_read_rat - A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness  11- The Anna Karenina Fix: Life Lessons from Russian Literature by Viv Groskop   Shows Mentioned: 1- The Gilmore Girls (2000-2007) 2- Gossip Girl (2007-2012) 3- The Office (2005-2013) 4- Anne with an E (2017-2019) 5- White Lotus (MAX, 2021-present)   Link to previous Perks episode: https://www.perksofbeingabooklover.com/episodes/blpks3ktgywx9fx-x9wxe-p3aft-j9j3f-pk2fn-wbdd3-dbsfp-hhfrc-ep6yz-alk6z-hl34a-dhhaz-l9x4z-88zrd-rh699-xd584-r9src-wkdf3-aegrx-hhnhf-zsc5j   Whitehall Historic Home and Gardens - https://www.historicwhitehall.org/whitehall-book-club        
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58 MIN
S13:Ep266 - Spider To The Fly with Guest J.H. Markert + Notable Non-Fiction Book Recs
OCT 29, 2025
S13:Ep266 - Spider To The Fly with Guest J.H. Markert + Notable Non-Fiction Book Recs
Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com.Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpodFacebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover.To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button.   You can find JH Markert at jamesmarkert.com or on IG at @jamesmarkert74   This week we chat with JH Markert who we spoke to pre-Covid in the before times when he was writing historical fiction. Over the last couple of years, he has changed gears and returned to the genre that first made him an avid reader: horror. JH has been cranking out horror novels and finding a great deal of success with them. We catch up with James and discuss his transition to horror and what that has been like after writing five previous historical fiction novels.  His most recent release that came out in September, Spider to the Fly, is dark horror suspense that deals with a serial killer, a true crime influencer, and a family with some bizarre dynamics.    And for our book rec section, we are talking about notable nonfiction. These are nonfiction books we’ve read in the last year that have made us think differently about a topic or stood out for us in some way (even though these books might not have been published in the last year). We’ll talk about a micro-history, a biography, a true crime, a memoir, a study of morality and politics, and a niche book about cussing.    Books Mentioned In This Episode:   1- Spider to the Fly by J.H. Markert  2- Molokai by Alan Brennert 3- A White Wind Blew by James Markert 4- Nightmare Man by J.H. Markert  5- Mr. Lullaby by J. H. Markert 6- Sleep Tight by J.H. Markert  7- Midnight at the Tuscany Hotel by James Markert  8- The River is Waiting by Wally Lamb 9- Dietrich Bonhoeffer: In the Midst of Wickedness by Janet and Geoff Benge  10-The Vanishing Place by Zöe Rankin  11- Five Star Read by a Fellow Book Lover Jasper Adams-Smith - Be Kind, My Neighbor by Yugo Limbo  12- For F*ck's Sake: Why Swearing is Shocking, Rude, and Fun by Rebecca Roache  13- The Woman Who Smashed Codes: A True Story of Love, Spies, and and the Unlikely Heroine Who Outwitted America's Enemies by Jason Fagone  14- The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstore by Evan Friss  15- The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion by Jonathan Haidt  16- Playing to Lose: How a Jehovah's Witness Became a BDSM Model by Ariel Anderssen  17- The Carpool Detectives: A True Story of Four Moms, Two Bodies, and One Mysterious Cold Case by Chuck Hogan  18- The Friend by Sigrid Nunez   Media Mentioned:   1- The Friend (2024) 2- Chief of War (Apple +, 2025) 3- The Outsider (HBO Max 2019) 4- Sinners (2025) 5- Nosferatu (2025)  
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66 MIN