General Episodes

In this episode, Kelly and I chat about our favorite books of 2021.

Olga and I chat about book cover designing, what the process looks like from start to finish, all of the parties that must sign off on a book cover, trends in book cover design, her fabulous Instagram book cover showcase account, and much more.

Karen and I chat about her new book The Lightmaker's Manifesto, her studying and writing about the intersection of joy and activism, her own claiming of the term activism, how stories provide an amazingly resonant way to connect with people, performance activism, and much more.

Mark and I chat about Libro.fm, how the company began, how audiobooks are the fastest growing segment of publishing, the way the relationship between Libro.fm and bookstores works, the importance of local bookstores, curated audiobook lists on the platform, and much more.

Anne and I chat about her latest cookbook A New Take on Cake, why she decided to do this cookbook, how cake mix baking is more common today than when she first started out with this concept, updating some of her favorite recipes, how she approached this project, and much more.

Todd and I chat about his book Little Pieces of Hope, celebrating all of the things that bring us joy in life, how and why he started these lists the day WHO declared a global pandemic, looking to his daily life for inspiration, the bright and sunny cover, working in book publicity, and much more.

We discuss their new book The Anxiety Sisters' Survival Guide, how they became Anxiety Sisters, living with anxiety in today's world, the questions they are most frequently asked, how they want to provide a comprehensive understanding of what anxiety is, and much more.

Matt and I discuss the Texas Book Festival, what his job as Literary Director entails, the festival’s origins and how it has evolved, the hybrid schedule for this year, how authors are selected, what the Texas Book Festival learned from the pandemic, some of our favorite Texas independent bookstore…

Elizabeth and I chat about our Favorite Books of Fall 2021.

Kim and I chat about her bookstore, Intermission Bookshop, in Brownwood, Texas. During World War II, the shop was a theater known as the Queen Theater. Open all night, soldiers would find rest here when hotels were all full. Fully renovated, the store is now home to gently used and new books. It is…

Pam and I chat about her blog Who I Met Today, how and why she started it, what she has learned from the blog, our shared love of reading and books, the cookbooks she uses regularly and recommends, and much more.

Heather and I discuss celebrity and high-profile book clubs, the rise in prominence of these types of clubs, which ones we like the best, our favorite and not-so-favorite reads from these clubs, the impact they have on book sales, and much more.

Elizabeth and I discuss our favorite narrative nonfiction books, our auto-buy nonfiction authors, categorizing the genre, the categories we gravitate toward, and more.

Danielle and I discuss her job as a Publicity Director at Harper Collins and what her role entails, her road to becoming a book publicist, how publicists at William Morrow are assigned to books, how each book campaign is unique to that book, the book she is an evangelist for, her reading recommenda…

Pamela, Mary and I discuss working as booksellers and what their roles entail, the book club event they are organizing and hosting in September called the Book Club Buffet, what surprises them the most about the book world, the genres they like to read, their reading recommendations, and more.

Elizabeth and I discuss the books that have captivated us in 2021 so far, why we organized them by publication date, and more.

Elizabeth and I discuss what constitutes a summer/beach read, reading habits and tackling our TBRs, finding diamonds in the rough, our favorite books of summer 2021, and more. Listen to the episode to hear our summer 2021 picks!

Heather and I discuss our latest book club recommendations, some books we have read recently and loved, and some titles we have not loved.

Elizabeth and I discuss her job as a book buyer at the indie bookstore Fabled Bookshop and Café, what the job entails, the fortuitous way she landed the job, her favorite genres, how she decides what to buy, how bookstores should be “windows and mirrors,” and more.

Katie and Desiree join me today to discuss bookstagram (book accounts on Instagram), how they got started, developing relationships with publishers, the best and worst things about the platform, the books they loved and some they didn’t, and much more.

Heather discusses how she started Book Club Chat, her favorite and least favorite aspects of what she does, how she decides which books to select, her favorite genres, recent changes and trends in the publishing industry, celebrity book clubs and more.

Kathleen discusses how she became a literary publicist and eventually started her own firm, a typical day as a publicist, her favorite part of the job, trends in the book industry, the effects of the pandemic on the book world, celebrity book clubs and m...