The Book Up with Verdell Walker | Book Reviews & Book Recs

Some stories are too good to fit into just one book. In this Series Spotlight, I’m diving into the Singing Hills Cycle by Nghi Vo — giving an overview of the series, what makes it stand out, and why I think it’s worth the commitment. The cycle is comprised of seven novellas set in a lush world inspired by East and Southeast Asian history and myth, and are linked by the Cleric Chih, a non-binary cleric and archivist of the Singing Hills, and their hoopoe bird companion Almost Brilliant: The Empress of Salt and Fortune When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain Into the Riverlands Mammoths at the Gates The Brides of High Hill A Mouthful of Dust A Long and Speaking Silence The eighth book in the series, The Judgment of Needles, is coming in May 2027. Check out all the books on The Book Up's page on Bookshop.org or Amazon. TAKE YOUR READING LIFE FURTHER: Ready to remember how your books made you feel? The Book Up Reading Journal is here, with 52 review sections, unique reflection prompts for fiction and nonfiction reads, and a DNF Graveyard for quitting books without guilt. Get your copy here. FREEBIE: Looking for a playful way to tend to your reading life?​ Join​ the community newsletter and receive a free The Book Up Bingo Card to add a little ​m​ore cozy to your ​bookish goals and TBR pile! ​Sign up here: https://thebookuppodcast.mystrikingly.com/#bingo CONNECT WITH THE BOOK UP: Stories bring us all together, and there’s always room in my reading nook for everybody. Website: https://thebookuppodcast.mystrikingly.com/ Instagram: @thebookuppod YouTube: @TheBookUpPodcast Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/thebookuppodcast/ Shop: The Book Up Bookshop and Amazon Storefront If you'd like to support the show, please visit The Book Up on Ko-fi to give a one-time or monthly gift. And if you can’t give financially right now? Help me reach more book lovers like you by following the podcast & leaving a rating or review on Apple & Spotify! This episode is hosted, produced, and edited by Verdell Walker. Music by Jason Shaw on Audionautix.com, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. You can find more details and the full license information at Audionautix Creative Commons Music. Disclosure: I am an affiliate of Bookshop.org and Amazon. I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase of any of my fiction and nonfiction book recs, at no extra cost to you!

Love books? Looking for honest book reviews and book recs? Whether you're a lifelong reader, crawling out of a reading slump, or just need a trusted voice to help you find a great story — you're in the right place. Today’s book is "The Unicorn Hunters" by Katherine Arden. A young duchess must journey into a mythical realm to save her country and the people she loves most. If you’d like to read "The Unicorn Hunters", you can purchase a copy for your TBR pile: Bookshop.org | Amazon (Using Apple Podcasts on desktop and can’t click? Copy/paste this link into your browser: https://bookshop.org/lists/season-four-featured-books) Other Books By Katherine Arden Mentioned in this Episode: The Winternight Trilogy "The Warm Hands of Ghosts": Bookshop.org | Amazon TAKE YOUR READING LIFE FURTHER: Ready to remember how your books made you feel? The Book Up Reading Journal is here, with 52 review sections, unique reflection prompts for fiction and nonfiction reads, and a DNF Graveyard for quitting books without guilt. Get your copy here. FREEBIE: Looking for a playful way to tend to your reading life?​ Join​ the community newsletter and receive a free The Book Up Bingo Card to add a little ​m​ore cozy to your ​bookish goals and TBR pile! ​Sign up here: https://thebookuppodcast.mystrikingly.com/#bingo CONNECT WITH THE BOOK UP: Stories bring us all together, and there’s always room in my reading nook for everybody. Website: https://thebookuppodcast.mystrikingly.com/ Instagram: @thebookuppod YouTube: @TheBookUpPodcast Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/thebookuppodcast/ Shop: The Book Up Bookshop and Amazon Storefront If you'd like to support the show, please visit The Book Up on Ko-fi to give a one-time or monthly gift. And if you can’t give financially right now? Help me reach more book lovers like you by following the podcast & leaving a rating or review on Apple & Spotify! This episode is hosted, produced, and edited by Verdell Walker. Music by Jason Shaw on Audionautix.com, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. You can find more details and the full license information at Audionautix Creative Commons Music. Disclosure: I am an affiliate of Bookshop.org and Amazon. I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase of any of my fiction and nonfiction book recs, at no extra cost to you!

Love books? Looking for honest book reviews and book recs? Whether you're a lifelong reader, crawling out of a reading slump, or just need a trusted voice to help you find a great story — you're in the right place. Today’s book is "The Geomagician" by Jennifer Mandula. When a Victorian fossil hunter discovers a baby pterodactyl, she vows to protect him with the help of a fellow scholar - her former fiance. This episode clocks in over my customary 15 minutes because there's so much going on in this book — and that's not always a good thing. Here are links to things I mention / additional info in the episode: Jennifer Mandula's Instagram post on religion in the book Jennifer Mandula's Instagram post on themes she explored in the book Episode -- Series Spotlight: The Emily Wilde series Episode -- Book Review: "The Naturalist Society" by Carrie Vaughn If you’d like to read "The Geomagician", you can purchase a copy for your TBR pile: Bookshop.org | Amazon (Using Apple Podcasts on desktop and can’t click? Copy/paste this link into your browser: https://bookshop.org/lists/season-four-featured-books) Other Books Mentioned in this Episode: The Emily Wilde Series by Heather Fawcett "The Naturalist Society" by Carrie Vaughn: Bookshop.org | Amazon TAKE YOUR READING LIFE FURTHER: Ready to remember how your books made you feel? The Book Up Reading Journal is here, with 52 review sections, unique reflection prompts for fiction and nonfiction reads, and a DNF Graveyard for quitting books without guilt. Get your copy here. FREEBIE: Looking for a playful way to tend to your reading life?​ Join​ the community newsletter and receive a free The Book Up Bingo Card to add a little ​m​ore cozy to your ​bookish goals and TBR pile! ​Sign up here: https://thebookuppodcast.mystrikingly.com/#bingo CONNECT WITH THE BOOK UP: Stories bring us all together, and there’s always room in my reading nook for everybody. Website: https://thebookuppodcast.mystrikingly.com/ Instagram: @thebookuppod YouTube: @TheBookUpPodcast Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/thebookuppodcast/ Shop: The Book Up Bookshop and Amazon Storefront If you'd like to support the show, please visit The Book Up on Ko-fi to give a one-time or monthly gift. And if you can’t give financially right now? Help me reach more book lovers like you by following the podcast & leaving a rating or review on Apple & Spotify! This episode is hosted, produced, and edited by Verdell Walker. Music by Jason Shaw on Audionautix.com, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. You can find more details and the full license information at Audionautix Creative Commons Music. Disclosure: I am an affiliate of Bookshop.org and Amazon. I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase of any of my fiction and nonfiction book recs, at no extra cost to you!

Welcome back for Season 4, Bookworms! Love books? Looking for honest book reviews and book recs? Whether you're a lifelong reader, crawling out of a reading slump, or just need a trusted voice to help you find a great story — you're in the right place. Today’s book is "Kin" by Tayari Jones. It follows Vernice and Annie, two motherless "cradle friends" growing up as neighbors in 1950s Honeysuckle, Louisiana, whose paths dramatically diverge in adulthood. Set against the backdrop of the Jim Crow South and the Civil Rights era, it is a sweeping, emotionally rich exploration of mothers and daughters, friendship and sisterhood, and being a Black woman in the American South. This episode is a bit over 15 minutes because I had SO MUCH to say about this story! Here are two excerpts from the book: Oprah Daily. Read This Sneak Peek from Oprah’s 121st Book Club Pick, Kin The Bitter Southerner. An Excerpt from "Kin" by Tayari Jones - Chapter 41 'Vernice' If you’d like to read "Kin", you can purchase a copy for your TBR pile: Bookshop.org | Amazon (Using Apple Podcasts on desktop and can’t click? Copy/paste this link into your browser: https://bookshop.org/lists/season-four-featured-books) Other Books Mentioned in this Episode: American Marriage: Bookshop.org | Amazon FREEBIE: Looking for a playful way to tend to your reading life?​ Join​ the community newsletter and receive a free The Book Up Bingo Card to add a little ​m​ore cozy to your ​bookish goals and TBR pile! ​Sign up here: https://thebookuppodcast.mystrikingly.com/#bingo CONNECT WITH THE BOOK UP: Stories bring us all together, and there’s always room in my reading nook for everybody. Website: https://thebookuppodcast.mystrikingly.com/ Instagram: @thebookuppod YouTube: @TheBookUpPodcast Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/thebookuppodcast/ Shop: The Book Up Bookshop and Amazon Storefront If you'd like to support the show, please visit The Book Up on Ko-fi to give a one-time or monthly gift. And if you can’t give financially right now? Help me reach more book lovers like you by following the podcast & leaving a rating or review on Apple & Spotify! This episode is hosted, produced, and edited by Verdell Walker. Music by Jason Shaw on Audionautix.com, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. You can find more details and the full license information at Audionautix Creative Commons Music. Disclosure: I am an affiliate of Bookshop.org and Amazon. I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase of any of my fiction and nonfiction book recs, at no extra cost to you!

Hey Bookworms! I'm hard at work on the next season of The Book Up — and while you wait, I'm dusting off an episode from the archive. And this one is great for spooky season! Enjoy! --- Love books? Looking for honest book reviews and book recs? Whether you're a lifelong reader, crawling out of a reading slump, or just need a trusted voice to help you find a great story — you're in the right place. Today’s book is "The Buffalo Hunter Hunter" by Stephen Graham Jones. A diary written in 1912 by a Lutheran pastor is discovered within a wall. What it unveils is a slow massacre, a chain of events that go back to 217 Blackfeet dead in the snow. Told via transcribed interviews of a Blackfeet named Good Stab, who shares the narrative of his peculiar life over a series of confessional visits. If you’d like to read it, you can purchase a copy for your TBR pile: Bookshop.org | Amazon (Using Apple Podcasts on desktop and can’t click? Copy/paste this link into your browser: https://bookshop.org/lists/season-two-featured-books​) Read more about the Marias Massacre, which inspired this book, on Wikipedia. This episode is hosted, produced, and edited by Verdell Walker. Music by Jason Shaw on Audionautix.com, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. You can find more details and the full license information at Audionautix Creative Commons Music. Disclosure: I am an affiliate of Bookshop.org and Amazon. I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase of any of my fiction and nonfiction book recs, at no extra cost to you! ​P.S. Looking for a playful way to tend to your reading life?​ Join​ the community newsletter and receive a free The Book Up Bingo Card to add a little ​m​ore cozy to your ​bookish goals and TBR pile! ​Sign up here: https://thebookuppodcast.mystrikingly.com/#bingo CONNECT WITH THE BOOK UP Stories bring us all together, and there’s always room in my book nook for everybody. Website: https://thebookuppodcast.mystrikingly.com/ Instagram: @thebookuppod YouTube: @TheBookUpPodcast Pinterest: @thebookuppodcast Shop: The Book Up Bookshop and Amazon Storefront If you'd like to support the show, please visit The Book Up on Ko-fi to give a one-time or monthly gift. And if you can’t give financially right now? Help me reach more book lovers like you by following the podcast & leaving a rating or review on Apple & Spotify!