The Currently Reading Podcast

Meredith and Kaytee are happily chatting this week about the books we've been reading and the bookish gifts we have been buying or want to buy! Important announcement this week: we have a great discount code to share with you from The Bookshelf Thomasville! Now through June 30th, you can get anything on their website for 10% off using the code CURRENTLYREADING (wow!!!) This would be a great time to pick up a Shelf Subscription for yourself or others! You'll hear a "bookish moment of the week" from each of us: a "there's a book for every reader" realization and a well-curated bookish shopping trip. Next, we discuss our current reads for the week. There are some seriously strong opinions about the books we've been reading lately. Lots of punching, for some reason! For our deep dive this week, we are shopping for the book lovers in our lives and have each decided to tackle different types of readers. We are hopeful that this will help you in your own gift-giving endeavors! As always, we finish up with A Book (yep, capitalized) that we'd like to press into every reader's hands. This week we are talking about a YA novel full of sweetness and fun emails, and a regency mystery series that ended too soon. As per usual, time-stamped show notes are below with references to every book and resource we mentioned in this episode. If you'd like to listen first and not spoil the surprise, don't scroll down! . . . . . 3:12 - Orange is the New Black by Piper Kerman 3:25 - Orange is the New Black Cookbook by Jenji Kohan 4:22 - Breakfast Sandwich Maker Cookbook by Jennifer Williams 6:53 - Things My Son Needs to Know About the World by Fredrik Backman 7:05 - A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman 7:08 - Beartown by Fredrik Backman 7:09 - Us Against You by Fredrik Backman 9:09 - Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank 11:17 - The Path Between Us by Suzanne Stabile 11:24 - The Enneagram Journey podcast with Suzanne Stabile 11:29 - The Road Back to You by Suzanne Stabile and Ian Morgan Cron 13:27 - The Library of Lost and Found by Phaedra Patrick 15:51 - Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn 15:58 - Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman 15:59 - A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman 16:07 - The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper by Phaedra Patrick 18:05 - Good and Mad by Rebecca Traister 21:06 - Finding Dorothy by Elizabeth Letts 21:43 - The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum 25:58 - The Coffee- or Tea-Lover 26:17 - Old Barrell Tea Company 26:25 - Atlas Coffee Club 26:26 - Book Lovers Coffee 26:34 - inginuiTEA loose leaf tea maker 26:36 - French press coffee maker 27:08 - a great bookish mug 27:22 - Bird Box by Josh Malerman 27:25 - I Let You Go by Claire Mackintosh 28:05 - The Cozy/Hygge Bookworm 28:50 - Aunt Dimity Series 28:53 - Agatha Raisin Series 28:55 - Goldy Bear series 28:59 - Ellery Adams books 29:10 - Agatha Christie books 29:18 - a great throw 29:19 - a lovely candle 29:33 - The Foodie 29:46 - a cookbook holder (for books OR cookbooks!) 30:26 - my favorite earbuds -OR- Apple AirPods 30:47 - Food: A Love Story by Jim Gaffigan 31:08 - Every Day is Saturday by Sarah Copeland 32:15 - A Dad 32:26 - I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes 32:32 - Dark Matter by Blake Crouch 32:44 - Dollar Shave Club starter kit 32:57 - his favorite beverage 33:23 - The Adventurer 33:33 - a Kindle paperwhite 33:57 - a great totebag (one from Out of Print and the new one from Book of the Month) 34:20 - again with the earbuds or AirPods 34:32 - Audible subscription 34:33 - Libro.fm subscription 35:01 - At Home in the World by Tsh Oxenreider 35:09 - I'm A Stranger Here Myself by Bill Bryson 35:11 - Notes From a Small Island by Bill Bryson 35:35 - The Lovestruck Teenage Girl 35:42 - To All The Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han 35:48 - bath bombs from Lush Cosmetics 36:14 - The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han 36:34 - a notebook from Erin Condren 37:10 - The Book Devourer 37:40 - shirts, blankets or scarves from Out of Print or Litographs.com 38:09 - a gift card to Thriftbooks.com or your local indie or amazon.com 38:19 - a subscription to Book of the Month 38:25 - a shelf subscription to Bookshelf Thomasville (use code CURRENTLYREADING for 10% off!) 38:35 - Bibliophile by Jane Mount 39:07 - The Hamilton Fan 39:19 - Hamilton: The Revolution by Lin-Manuel Miranda 39:29 - Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow 39:42 - My Dear Hamilton by Stephanie Dray 39:45 - The Hamilton Affair by Elizabeth Cobbs 39:57 - the Hamilton Broadway store 41:06 - A Million Books I Haven't Read t-shirt 41:51 - Tell Me Three Things by Julie Buxbaum 43:16 - What to Say Next by Julie Buxbaum 44:21 - Cut to the Quick by Kate Ross (the Julian Kestrel series) *Please note that all book titles linked above are Amazon affiliate links. Your cost is the same, but a small portion of your purchase will come back to us to help offset the costs of the show. Thanks for your support!*

In today's spoiler-free mini-episode, you get to hear from author Brigid Kemmerer, who wrote "A Curse So Dark and Lonely", a book that Meredith fell in love with as soon as she read it and raved around in Episode 38. In this "minisode", Meredith and Brigid talk about the evolution of the idea for this beautiful Beauty and the Beast re-telling, why she decided to have one of her main characters have cerebral palsy and some nuggets of info on the upcoming follow up book. And, as always, we'll end with a book she wants to press into your hands, readers! Minisode shownotes are not timestamped, but linked titles are below for you to peruse. A Curse So Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer To Kill a Kingdom by Alexandra Christo Hunted by Meagan Spooner Stepsister by Jennifer Donnelly An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir The Gift of Fear by Gavin de Becker Brigid's website (with links to all her social media!)

Kaytee and Meredith are back in your earbuds this week to bring you Episode 38, including a few literary confessions or demerits. We have a few important announcements right at the top of the show, one of which requires your help, listeners! Send us your Ask Us Anything questions via email, Direct Message, or as a comment on show notes, and we'll feature them in a future episode! If we use your question, we'll send you a coveted Currently Reading bookmark (and our everlasting thanks, of course). You'll hear a "bookish moment of the week" from each of us: an indie bookstore day recap and a bookish "retirement" gift. Next, we discuss our current reads for the week. We both read quite a few books that we REALLY loved this week, so don't hesitate to use those show notes below! For our deep dive this week, we have decided to give ourselves bookish "demerits" a la Gretchen Rubin's Happier podcast. These are places in our reading lives where we think we could improve. Sometimes we commiserate with each other and sometimes we chide each other! As always, we finish up with A Book (yep, capitalized) that we'd like to press into every reader's hands. This week we are talking about a fantastic mystery/police procedural, and a multi-generational family saga. As per usual, time-stamped show notes are below with references to every book and resource we mentioned in this episode. If you'd like to listen first and not spoil the surprise, don't scroll down! . . . . . 5:23 - Thriftbooks.com my favorite used book website! 6:02 - A Rule Against Murder by Louise Penny 9:43 - Harry's Trees by Jon Cohen 11:07 - A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman 11:24 - Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens 14:18 - Allegedly by Tiffany Jackson 15:22 - Baby Teeth by Zoje Stage 15:23 - The Hate You Give by Angie Thomas 15:25 - Orange is the New Black by Piper Kerman 16:49 - My Name is Venus Black by Heather Lloyd 17:15 - The Overdue Life of Amy Byler by Kelly Harms 21:18 - A Curse So Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer 21:42 - Beauty by Robin McKinley 25:16 -Uprooted by Naomi Novik 25:17 - Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik 26:48 - Heavy: An American Memoir by Kiese Laymon 27:05 - Rabbit: The Autobiography of Ms. Pat by Patricia Williams 27:47 - The Elephant in the Room by Tommy Tomlinson 28:38 - The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls by Anissa Gray 30:45 - Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson 30:47 - The Vanishing Stair by Maureen Johnson 31:01 - Nevermoor by Jessica Townsend 31:02 - Winterhouse by Ben Guterson 32:30 - Robert Galbraith series 32:45 - Three Pines series by Louise Penny 32:47 - HP Series by JK Rowling 33:02 - Hunger Games Series by Suzanne Collins 33:02 - Twilight Series by Stephanie Meyer 33:34 - Scythe by Neal Shusterman 42:01 - A Place of Execution by Val McDermid 42:09 - Tana French books 43:25 - Distant Echo by Val McDermid 43:51 - Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi *Please note that all book titles linked above are Amazon affiliate links. Your cost is the same, but a small portion of your purchase will come back to us to help offset the costs of the show. Thanks for your support!*

Meredith and Kaytee are happy to be recording again, and can't believe we are already up to Episode 37! We have a few important announcements right at the top of the show, one of which requires your help, listeners! Send us your Ask Us Anything questions via email, Direct Message, or as a comment on show notes, and we'll feature them in a future episode! You'll hear a "bookish moment of the week" from each of us: each of them this week centers on reading with the kiddos. Next, we discuss our current reads for the week. We have an eclectic mix of titles from middle grade to adult, fiction and non-, humor and serious. A bit of everything! For our deep dive this week, we are chatting about the fifth category in our 2019 Reading Challenge: a book pressed into your hands by a librarian, bookseller, or podcaster. And we've got a trove of resources for you if you're stuck on this one! As always, we finish up with A Book (yep, capitalized) that we'd like to press into every reader's hands. This week has us pressing favorites that we've loved for a long time but were out of sight/out of mind until someone brought them back to our attention. As per usual, time-stamped show notes are below with references to every book and resource we mentioned in this episode. If you'd like to listen first and not spoil the surprise, don't scroll down! . . . . . 3:18 - Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling 4:20 - Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling 7:00 - A Woman is No Man by Etaf Rum 7:37 - The Little Prince by Antoine Saint-Exupéry 9:17 - Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie 10:43 - Ladies Who Punch: The Explosive Inside Story of The View by Ramin Setoodeh 12:55 - Most Talkative by Andy Cohen 13:09 - From Scratch: Inside the Food Network by Allen Salkin 14:20 - First Grave on the Right by Darynda Jones 16:42 - Scythe by Neal Schusterman 16:43 - Ghost Whisperer (TV series) 17:13 - Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty 19:44 - Truly, Madly, Guilty by Liane Moriarty 20:50 - Dare to Lead by Brené Brown 21:41 - Braving the Wilderness by Brené Brown 21:42 - Daring Greatly by Brené Brown 23:55 - The Elephant in the Room: One Fat Man's Quest to Get Smaller in a Growing America by Tommy Tomlinson 27:00 - The Currently Reading 2019 Reading Challenge 27:27 - I've Got Your Number by Sophie Kinsella 28:30 - libraryreads.org 29:30 - Indie Next List from indiebound.org 30:42 - All the Books podcast 31:08 - Liberty Hardy @franzencomesalive 31:27 - Anne Bogel on What Should I Read Next 31:37 - Anne Bogel on One Great Book (and Patron feed) 31:59 - Annie Jones on From the Front Porch podcast 32:23 - Book Drop subscription box 32:26 - Shelf Subscription from Bookshelf Thomasville 32:31 - Reading Bug Box 33:04 - Sorta Awesome podcast 33:14 - Jamie Golden (and Knox) on The Popcast or at @jamiebgolden 33:08 - Laura Tremaine @laura.tremaine on Instagram 33:45 - Gretchen Rubin on the Happier podcast and her FB page 34:17 - Read Aloud Revival with Sarah McKenzie 34:27 - Sarah's Bookshelves Live podcast 34:38 - The Librarian is In by the NY Public Library 34:56 - Reading Women podcast 35:05 - @parnassusbooks on Instagram 35:06 - @powellsbooks on Instagram 35:56 - @bookshelftville on Instagram 36:20 - Book of the Month subscription 37:05 - A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness 37:21 - Time's Convert by Deborah Harkness 37:31 - Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness 37:32 - The Book of Life by Deborah Harkness 39:29 - What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty 40:39 - Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty *Please note that all book titles linked above are Amazon affiliate links. Your cost is the same, but a small portion of your purchase will come back to us to help offset the costs of the show. Thanks for your support!*

We've got another "first" for the podcast this week! We are talking to our first return guest! You met Mary Heim in Episode 24 when she recorded with Meredith. Now, she's back to chat with both of us and we're so excited. Again. ;-) You'll hear a "bookish moment of the week" from each of us: an upcoming bookish holiday (now just past), finishing the second book in a series, and an audiobook binge. Next, we discuss our current reads for the week. We've got two current reads from each host and Meredith and Mary seem to almost coordinate their picks (we never discuss beforehand, so this is all coincidental), while Kaytee takes each round off to left field. For our deep dive this week, we surprise Mary with a virtual bookish baby shower. This deep dive focuses in on the board books and other titles for ages 0-2 and is the first in a series. We'll do subsequent chats about favorite books for 2-4 year olds and 5-8 year olds as well. So many great titles in this section! As always, we finish up with A Book (yep, capitalized) that we'd like to press into every reader's hands. This week Meredith and Kaytee are pressing more picture books, while Mary chooses a lovely essay collection she goes back to again and again. As per usual, time-stamped show notes are below with references to every book and resource we mentioned in this episode. If you'd like to listen first and not spoil the surprise, don't scroll down! . . . . . 3:17 - Still Life by Louise Penny 4:29 - Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling 9:42 - Great With Child by Beth Ann Fennelly 9:48 - Heating and Cooling by Beth Ann Fennelly 13:08 - I Miss You When I Blink by Mary Laura Philpott 16:09 - Morgan Tallman on Episode 22 of Currently Reading 16:20 - Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank 20:48 - Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey (releases June 4th!) 20:58 - The Magicians by Lev Grossman 21:00 - Tana French books 23:37 - Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson 24:22 - The Club by Takis Wurger 24:32 - Shelf Subscription from The Bookshelf Thomasville 25:34 - The Secret History by Donna Tartt 28:29 - Swearing is Good For You by Emma Byrne 36:25 - Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Eric Carle 36:51 - The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle 36:55 - Big Red Barn by Margaret Wise Brown 37:00 - Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell 37:08 - No No Yes Yes by Leslie Patricelli 37:11 - Big Little by Leslie Patricelli 37:37 - Where Is Baby's Belly Button? by Karen Katz 37:46 - Where's Spot? by Eric Hill 37:57 - Bright Baby books by Priddy Books 38:12 - Colors, ABC, Numbers by Bright Baby 39:06 - First 100 Words by Bright Baby 39:24 - Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina 39:43 - Wocket in My Pocket by Dr. Suess 39:50 - That's Not My… series by Usborne 39:56 - That's Not My Hat by John Klassen 40:44 - My Backpack by SkipHop 41:16 - Everywhere Babies by Susan Meyers 41:49 - Little Blue Truck by Alice Schertle 42:12 - Lil' Pea by Amy Krouse Rosenthal 42:12 - Lil' Oink by Amy Krouse Rosenthal 42:13 - Li'l' Hoot by Amy Krouse Rosenthal 42:16 - Spoon by Amy Krouse Rosenthal 42:39 - The Going to Bed Book by Sandra Boynton 42:46 - The Belly Button Book by Sandra Boynton 42:55 - Moo, Baa, La La La by Sandra Boynton 43:05 - Blue Hat, Green Hat by Sandra Boynton 43:16 - Tuck Me In by Dean Hacohen 43:51 - A Book of Sleep by Il Sung Na 44:10 - Time for Bed by Mem Fox 44:35 - The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear by Don and Audrey Wood 45:13 - Where Do Diggers Sleep At Night? by Brianna Kaplan Sawyer 45:20 - Where Do Steam Trains Sleep At Night? by Brianna Kaplan Sawyer 45:31 - Dinosaur's Binkit by Sandra Boynton 45:45 - No Matter What by Debi Gliori 45:49 - I Love You, Stinky Face by Lisa McCourt 46:33 - Goodnight, Darth Vader by Jeffrey Brown 46:35 - Vader's Little Princess by Jeffrey Brown 47:02 - Darth Vader and Son by Jeffrey Brown 49:42 - BabyLit Series by Jennifer Adams and Allison Oliver 51:21 - Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed 51:53 - Wild by Cheryl Strayed 54:49 - A Mouse Told His Mother by Bethany Roberts 56:47 - Each Peach Pear Plum by Janet and Allen Ahlberg *Please note that all book titles linked above are Amazon affiliate links. Your cost is the same, but a small portion of your purchase will come back to us to help offset the costs of the show. Thanks for your support!*

Meredith and Kaytee return to their microphones (albeit, one is in a different location than normal) to talk all things reading and great books. You'll hear a "bookish moment of the week" from each of us: choosing road trip audiobooks and a new Little Free Library update! Next, we discuss our current reads for the week: there's no rhyme or reason to our picks this week but almost all of them are wonderful. Which is my favorite thing. For our deep dive this week, we chat about books we buy and books we borrow and books we keep. How do we decide which books deserve a place on the physical TBR shelf (rather than the library hold list)? How do we decide which ones to let go of (and where to put them) when we've read them? As always, we finish up with A Book (yep, capitalized) that we'd like to press into every reader's hands. This week's picks are a great beach read option and a lovely autobiography. As per usual, time-stamped show notes are below with references to every book and resource we mentioned in this episode. If you'd like to listen first and not spoil the surprise, don't scroll down! . . . . . 7:02 - A River In Darkness by Masaji Ishikawa 10:57 - Uprooted by Naomi Novik 12:41 - Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik 13:12 - A Woman is No Man by Etaf Rum 17:20 - Eventown by Corey Ann Haydu 21:48 - Mainline Candle Company 22:09 - Where the Forest Meets the Stars by Glendy Vanderah 24:33 - Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens 25:19 - Tilly and The Book Wanderers (Pages & Co., #1) by Anna James 26:19 - Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery 31:56 - Louise Penny series 31:58 - The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas 32:02 - Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling 38:24 - Scribd membership - try it for 60 days for free 38:41 - Thriftbooks website - 15% off your first order 40:30 - Dear Mr. Knightley by Katherine Reay 41:49 - Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen 42:24 - Lizzy and Jane by Katherine Reay 42:26 - The Austen Escape by Katherine Reay 42:27 - The Bronte Plot by Katherine Reay 43:11 - Episode 2 of Currently Reading 43:32 - Rabbit: The Autobiography of Ms. Pat by Patricia Williams *Please note that all book titles linked above are Amazon affiliate links. Your cost is the same, but a small portion of your purchase will come back to us to help offset the costs of the show. Thanks for your support!*

Kaytee and Meredith are back in your earbuds for some more great book chat this week! You'll hear a "bookish moment of the week" from each of us: Meredith's Little Free Library update and Kaytee's piano lesson reading. Next, we discuss our current reads for the week: there's a lot of interesting non-fiction in this week's selections, as well as a number of titles that friends and family had pressed into our hands a few episodes ago! For our deep dive this week, we are focusing on book ratings. What does 1-star mean to you and what does 5-star mean to you? We also take an unexpected detour into the bookstagram world and the way that "bookstagrammers" follow-up on their book posts. As always, we finish up with A Book (yep, capitalized) that we'd like to press into every reader's hands. We've got a title that has Amazon all confused and one that serves as a companion to a previous book press. As per usual, time-stamped show notes are below with references to every book and resource we mentioned in this episode. If you'd like to listen first and not spoil the surprise, don't scroll down! . . . . . 1:09 - Lost Boy by Christina Henry 1:46 - Episode 19 with Meredith's brother Scott 6:33 - Lily and the Octopus by Steven Rowley 9:33 - Episode 29 with Anna Hithersay 9:35 - White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo 13:11 - The Trial of Lizzie Borden by Cara Robertson 16:20 - Garlic and Sapphires by Ruth Reichl 17:28 - Currently Reading Challenge for 2019! 17:57 - Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain 20:14 - Medium Raw by Anthony Bourdain 21:00 - Big Nate: In A Class By Himself by Lincoln Peirce 23:27 - A Gift From the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindburgh 32:51 - The Clockmaker's Daughter by Kate Morton 34:28 - The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides 34:31 - He Said/She Said by Erin Kelly 43:10 - North and South by John Jakes 43:15 - North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell 47:46 - Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson 48:18 - The Sun Does Shine by Anthony Ray Hinton *Please note that all book titles linked above are Amazon affiliate links. Your cost is the same, but a small portion of your purchase will come back to us to help offset the costs of the show. Thanks for your support!*

We're back to regularly scheduled programming around here and happy to welcome so many new listeners! You'll hear a "bookish moment of the week" from each of us: a TV-show experience that only happened because of bookish friendships, and a win in the "raising readers" world, one of our favorite places to report about! Next, we discuss our current reads for the week: brand new titles, buzzed about books and ones we think need more play in the book world. For our deep dive this week, we are focusing on Brick books for the Currently Reading challenge. We qualify these as books over 700 (or maybe 650) pages, and we've got a lot of them for you to choose from. As always, we finish up with A Book (yep, capitalized) that we'd like to press into every reader's hands. This week's picks include two more giant tomes: an unforgettable, series that defies genre categorization, and a non-fiction biography. As per usual, time-stamped show notes are below with references to every book and resource we mentioned in this episode. If you'd like to listen first and not spoil the surprise, don't scroll down! . . . . . 7:26 - Washington Black by Esi Edugyan 9:40 - Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead 10:44 - Heartland by Sarah Smarsh 10:48 - Episode 14 with Amy Allen Clark 11:01 - Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance 12:57 - He Said/She Said by Erin Kelly 17:48 - Lucy & Andy Neanderthal by Jeffrey Brown 18:00 - Diary of A Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney 20:15 - Darth Vader and Son by Jeffrey Brown 20:17 - Goodnight, Darth Vader by Jeffrey Brown 20:55 - Inheritance by Dani Shapiro 24:15 - Interview with Dani Shapiro on the Happier Podcast 24:54 - The Current by Tim Johnston 29:27 - Bookshelf Thomasville Shelf Subscription 32:10 - 11/22/63 by Stephen King 32:39 - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling 32:55 - The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas 33:02 - The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet 33:33 - The Physician by Noah Gordon 34:48 - A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara 35:04 - The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt 35:46 - Shogun by James Clavell 35:56 - Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin 36:32 - East of Eden by John Steinbeck 35:38 - Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry 37:02 - Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke 37:45 - Les Miserables by Victor Hugo 38:00 - I Know This Much Is True by Wally Lamb 38:39 - The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy 38:58 - What Should I Read Next episode about big books 39:09 - Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell 39:38 - The Passage (trilogy) by Justin Cronin 40:33 - It by Stephen King 40:35 - The Stand by Stephen King 40:35 - The Shining by Stephen King 40:36 - Needful Things by Stephen King 40:59 - Outlander by Diana Gabaldon 43:18 - Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson 44:27 - Bad Blood by John Carreyrou 45:26 - Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow *Please note that all book titles linked above are Amazon affiliate links. Your cost is the same, but a small portion of your purchase will come back to us to help offset the costs of the show. Thanks for your support!*

Today's minisode give you the opportunity to "meet" Claire Handscombe, the author of newly-released "Unscripted". It's a perfect read for your beach vacation! In this "minisode", Claire and I discuss what fangirling to the max truly is, we talk a bit about the publishing industry, cast her book, and talk about what the process is like for an author to get published for the first time. And, as always, we'll end with a book she wants to press into your hands, readers! Minisode shownotes are not timestamped, but linked titles are below for you to peruse. Unscripted by Claire Handscombe Love, Factually (UK) or Love Understood (US) by Laura Mucha Everything I Know About Love by Dolly Alderton Come To The Edge by Christina Haag The Editor by Steven Rowley Claire's website (with links to all her social media!)

Meredith and Kaytee are joined by a special guest co-host this week, Mindy Brouse, a Currently Reading listener and super-fan of the show. This one was fun, you guys! You'll hear a "bookish moment of the week" from each of us: a funny bookish conversation, a sweet picture book that made me feel ~seen~, and a spoiler-ific discussion of a previous book. Next, we discuss our current reads. Since there are three of us, we kept it to two titles each, but there's no shortage of great stories and big opinions. For our deep dive, we're talking to Mindy about reading aloud to kids of multiple ages, since she has been homeschooling for 20 years and has 7 kids with a large span. Our listeners asked for something exactly like this, and Mindy delivers! We also get to hear from her about something we've heard from a lot of you: how Currently Reading changed her reading life. It's a sweet conversation. As always, we finish up with A Book (yep, capitalized) that we'd like to press into every reader's hands. This week's picks include a favorite read-aloud title, a YA sci-fi (Y-fi?) series, and a fairy tale retelling that has been a favorite for DECADES. As per usual, time-stamped show notes are below with references to every book and resource we mentioned in this episode. If you'd like to listen first and not spoil the surprise, don't scroll down! . . . . . 3:49 - Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls 3:53 - Calico Bush by Rachel Field 3:57 - The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings 4:02 - On The Edge of the Sea of Darkness by Andrew Peterson 5:31 - Bunny's Book Club by Annie Silvestro 6:43 - Lil' Hoot by Amy Krouse Rosenthal 6:59 - Lil' Oink by Amy Krouse Rosenthal 7:06 -Lil' Pea by Amy Krouse Rosenthal 7:48 - The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides 9:51 - The Gown by Jennifer Robson 13:07 - The Editor by Steven Rowley 13:14 - Lily and the Octopus by Steven Rowley 18:09 - The Lost Man by Jane Harper 18:39 - Force of Nature by Jane Harper 19:38 - Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid 21:39 - Stories I Only Tell My Friends by Rob Lowe 23:40 - The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton 26:49 - Sweep by Jonathan Auxier 26:54 - Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes by Jonathan Auxier 30:30 - Outer Order, Inner Calm by Gretchen Rubin 33:27 - Better Than Before by Gretchen Rubin 33:28 - The Four Tendencies by Gretchen Rubin 33:43 - The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin 44:15 - I, Juan de Pareja by Elizabeth Borton de Trevino 46:57 - Honey for A Child's Heart by Gladys Hunt 51:36 - The Firm by John Grisham 55:44 - The Chosen by Chaim Potok 57:22 - Cinder by Marissa Meyer 1:00:11 - Beauty by Robin McKinley Deep dive. Here's the photo and corresponding list of books that Mindy's family has chosen as their very favorites over the past two decades. I, Juan de Pareja by Elizabeth Borton de Trevino Nory Ryan's Song by Patricia Reilly Giff The Great Turkey Walk by Kathleen Karr A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park By The Great Horn Spoon by Sid Fleischman The House of Sixty Fathers by Meindert Dejong The Broken Blade by William Durbin The Second Mrs. Giaconda by E.L. Konigsburg Secret of the Andes by Ann Nolan Clark The Eagle of the Ninth by Sutcliff On The Edge of the Sea of Darkness by Andrew Peterson Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare Seven Daughters and Seven Sons by Barbara Cohen Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes *Please note that all book titles linked above are Amazon affiliate links. Your cost is the same, but a small portion of your purchase will come back to us to help offset the costs of the show. Thanks for your support!*