My 2025 Summer Reading Guide is out! It is an 18-page printable document that contains over 60 reading recommendations including books from spring and summer 2025 as well mystery series recommendations, fiction/nonfiction pairings, fall 2025 titles that I love, backlist titles, and some fall most anticipated reads. I have read every page of over 90 books and sampled at least 40 more to find the ones that really resonated with me and that I can personally recommend. Please fill out this form to indicate which form of payment (a tip in the amount of your choosing), and I will send it to you!

Martha Barnette

Martha Barnette Profile Photo

Martha Barnette is a longtime journalist and co-host of the popular radio show and podcast A Way with Words. She holds an undergraduate degree in English from Vassar College, did graduate work in classical languages at the University of Kentucky, and studied Spanish in Costa Rica. She’s the author of A Garden of Words, Ladyfingers & Nun’s Tummies: A Lighthearted Look at How Foods Got Their Names, Dog Days & Dandelions, and most recently Friends with Words: Adventures in Languageland. A Kentucky native, she now lives in San Diego, California.

Aug. 5, 2025

Martha Barnette - FRIENDS WITH WORDS

In this interview, I chat with Martha Barnette about Friends with Words , her interest in words and word origins, hosting A Way With Words, what a call-out show is and how it works, her favorite questions she is asked on her ...