Mon, Jan 18, 2016
Today's guest is Jacey Verdicchio from the Around The Table podcast. Anne and Jacey discuss books that make you feel smart / not-so-smart, and the inner battle between reading what you love vs. reading what you feel like you should love. Anne recommends three bittersweet books that Jacey can enjoy without second-guessing about her taste.
Mon, Jan 25, 2016
Anne talks with attorney, blogger, and author Seth Haines, whose first work, Coming Clean. Anne and Seth have a great conversation about reading as escape, how they both hate so many books, first editions clubs, reading for the morning/noon/and night, and, of course, what he should read next.
Mon, Feb 29, 2016
Anne chats with fellow bookworm Leigh Kramer. In addition to being a full-time book nerd, Leigh is a San Francisco resident, fried pickle connoisseur, and lifetime White Sox fan. Anne and Leigh discuss the "nearly perfect novel" that Leigh adored and Anne hated, the book Leigh read at just the right time, how it drives Leigh crazy that some readers love a book she loathed, and a variety of very real bookworm problems.
Mon, Mar 7, 2016
Anne chats with Janssen Bradshaw, creator of the blog Everyday Reading, former children's librarian, and modern mother who's raising her three kids to be readers. In this episode Anne and Janssen talk about how Janssen reads books like other people watch television, why Janssen's in danger of having her "real reader" badge taken away, and books with strong narrative drive and excellent plotting. They discuss happy books, books that require three boxes of Kleenex, and everything in between.
Mon, Mar 14, 2016
Anne chats with Meredith Schwartz, a self-described Type A, INFJ, and unapologetic listmaker who is trying desperately to hold together all the crazy aspects of her life. There's nothing vanilla about Meredith: she has strong opinions about her reading, which makes for a fabulous conversation.
Mon, Mar 28, 2016
Anne chats with Ed Cyzewski, author of multiple books including Pray, Write, Grow, Creating Space, Write without Crushing Your Soul, and A Path to Publishing. Anne and Ed discuss memoir, creativity, and how chronic fatigue from sleepless nights (hello, toddlers) can really put a damper on your reading life.
Mon, Apr 11, 2016
Today Anne chats with Grace Martin, a 12-year-old bibliophile who lives with her family outside Chicago. Grace loves Harry Potter, dystopian novels, and strong plotting and she's incredibly well spoken about her taste in literature. Anne also chats a bit with Grace's mom Lara about raising readers and helping kids choose good books for themselves.
Mon, Apr 18, 2016
Today Anne talks with Andrea Cumbo-Floyd, a writer, teacher, editor, and farmer based in Charlottesville, Virginia. ("Sometimes more of one of those than the other," she says.) Andi is the author of Steele Secrets, The Slaves Have Names, and Writing Day In and Day Out: Living a Practice of Words. Andi and Anne discuss about strong female characters, genre-bending novels, and reading diverse books. Her favorites are all over the place, and she has strong feelings about her hated pick, which makes for a fun conversation.
Mon, Apr 25, 2016
Today Anne chats with Jessica Turner, author of The Fringe Hours and My Fringe Hours. Jessica lives in Nashville with her family, where she works full time outside the home and blogs regularly at The Mom Creative. Of all the guests I've talked to, Jessica's the most consistent with her picks. We have a lot of fun talking about compelling stories and character-driven plots in her favorite genre. She also hates a book that many listeners adore, and she's not afraid to say why.
Thu, May 12, 2016
For today's bonus episode we have a very special guest: Anne chats with her 8-year-old daughter Lucy. Lucy lives in Louisville, Kentucky with her parents and her three siblings. She's a third grader who loves music, sports, and all kinds of animals, and her picks today are going to remind you about all the books that made YOU first fall in love with reading.
Mon, May 16, 2016
It's finally happening. Today we have a very special episode: Anne is chatting again with six guests from the first ten episodes of the show to find out what they actually did read next. What books did they read? What did they think about them? And what books are they still resisting?
Mon, May 30, 2016
Today's guest is Malisa Price, a mom of two who lives in Raleigh, and she's a regular reader who does it for the love of it, not for her job, although not that long ago she didn't consider herself a reader at all. Anne and Malisa talk about her tipping point, her taste, and her attempts to branch out with her reading.
Mon, Jun 13, 2016
Today's guest is Tim Gardner. Tim's wife Emily contacted Anne and asked if she could do a little literary matchmaking for Tim. They'd both realized that a little reading break at the end of the work day made for a smoother transition between work and home, but he wasn't sure what to read next. They came to the right place.
Mon, Jun 20, 2016
Today Anne chats with Kendra Adachi, who you may know from her blog, The Lazy Genius Collective, or her Lazy Genius podcast. She's a mom of three in North Carolina who wants to find books that are good enough to make her turn off the tv, which is saying something because she loves her tv.
Mon, Jul 4, 2016
Today Anne chats with Stacey Loscalzo, a mother of two girls, book reviewer for Great New Books, and former reading specialist in New Jersey, just outside New York City. Stacey always has a book going, and she's looking for titles that will compel her to READ when she has ten minutes to spare, instead of checking Facebook.
Mon, Jul 11, 2016
Today Anne chats with Amy Johnson, who grew up in a big family in a small town in rural Colorado. (Amy says there were literally more books in her home than people in her town.) These days, Amy lives in Salt Lake City with her family, and describes herself as an ISTJ Type A Upholder.
Mon, Jul 18, 2016
Today Anne chats with Adam Verner. Adam reads for a living literally. When he was a kid and people asked him what he wanted to do when he grew up he'd say read books. So Adam grew up and turned his theatrical background into a job as a professional audiobook narrator. Adam is also one of the few readers who's been decisive/brave/committed enough to choose his three all-time favorite books for the show.
Mon, Jul 25, 2016
Today Anne chats with Julie Smith, who you may know from her delightful travel blog Drive on the Left. Julie is an enthusiastic reader. She's also an American expat living in London, and while this sounds awfully glamorous, Anne was surprised to hear that while her London life has its joys, it presents challenges to her reading life as well.
Mon, Aug 8, 2016
Our guest today is Rose Booth, a technology merchandising director and cinephile who sometimes "feels like she's dating books." Rose loves female protagonists who flout convention and books where reality meets fiction, but she's also eager to fall in love with titles from one popular genre that she hasn't had any luck with yet.
Mon, Aug 15, 2016
Our guest today is Katherine Willis Pershey. Katherine is a friend whose taste Anne trusts: she's recommended several excellent titles to Anne over the years. Today it's Anne's turn to do the recommending. If you love books that dive into human nature, authors that approach serious subjects through the back door, a good redemption story, or just excellent storytelling, redemption stories, there's sure to be a book for you in this conversation.
Mon, Aug 22, 2016
Anne is chatting with Tiffany King, a dear friend you might know from her food blog, Eat At Home. Tiffany is a busy woman, a homeschool mom for 19 years, and the creator of her own business, so when she reads, she craves something cozy and comforting. ""I don't tend to go really deep with my fiction," she says, "and I don't feel bad about that."
Mon, Aug 29, 2016
Kurt and Kristin are a husband and wife who want to read more together. Their question for Anne is a fun twist on a familiar theme "What should WE read next?" Kristin has been a lifetime lover of books; Kurt has only recently become a serious reader (thanks in part to 15 years of nudging from his wife). They want to find books that they can read and talk about together. Both enjoy high-quality fiction, but you can probably guess which one of them loves Blood Meridian and which one loves A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Anne's challenge is to help them find books in the tiny sliver of their overlapping interests.
Mon, Sep 5, 2016
Today Anne chats with Anissa Davis, a family physician who lives with her family in California. She likes smart, funny, contemporary fiction with diverse protagonists, and she wants to be blown away by more books. Many of you will relate when Anissa says sometimes finding great fiction feels like kissing a lot of frogs before you find your prince.
Mon, Sep 12, 2016
Melody Warnick is a Blacksburg-based author, who has been tracking her reading in an excel spreadsheet since 2004. If you find that intimidating, don't worry-Melody's not analytical about choosing what to read next (wait until you to hear how she approaches a big stack of library books).
Mon, Sep 19, 2016
When Anne first thought of starting a podcast, her bookstore-owning friend Holland Saltsman was one of the very first people she wanted to have on. And she was one of the first people Anne interviewed for the show. And the audio quality on that recording was so poor Anne was terrified to give it another go for almost a full year. Holland is one of Anne's favorite people to talk books with, because she's smart, and funny, and tells it like it is. She's been excited about this one for a long time.
Tue, Sep 20, 2016
Today's guest, Bookstore owner Holland Saltsman of The Novel Neighbor and Anne talk about the titles they've read and are psyched about, plus the ones they can't wait to get their hands on. Anne also brings you short interviews she did in Savannah with friends and authors (including Susan Meissner, Ariel Lawhon, and Greer Macallister) who share which books they can't wait to read this season.
Mon, Sep 26, 2016
Erik Fisher is known as the productivity guru because of his wonderful podcast Beyond the To Do List, the first podcast Anne ever listened to, AND the first podcast she ever appeared on. Erik is a HUGE reader, he and Anne talk about how he's made the switch back to paper books after a flirtation with e-reading, personality types, and how he avoids wasting time on bad books.
Mon, Oct 3, 2016
Today we're happy to welcome reader and podcaster Sarah Stewart Holland to the show. You may already know Sarah from her blog Bluegrass Redhead or her show, Pantsuit Politics. Sarah is drawn to nonfiction and wants to read more fiction, but tends to grab what's new and hot in fiction for fear of missing out, instead of intentionally selecting it. One of her big strengths is "input," and she loves reading about all kinds of topics to scratch that informational itch. And she's obsessed with Hamilton, so of course we go there.
Mon, Oct 10, 2016
Today we meet a indie bookstore owner and kindred bookish spirit, Annie Jones. Anne and Annie talk about her wildly unlikely path to bookstore ownership, her love of dysfunctional family literature, and the way meeting an author in person can change the way you experience a book. And unlike a lot of WSIRN guests, Annie is not afraid to say she hates a book (or - a lot of books.)
Mon, Oct 17, 2016
Today's guest is Ana Salazar. Ana is a Columbian who's now living in Peru, and she's been, as she says, "absolutely obsessed" with reading for her whole life, so much so that her parents had to physically drag her away from bookstores when she was growing up. Anne and Ana discuss the joys and challenges of reading across borders, unpack Ana's love for the genre she's been loving recently, and explore why a Kindle is an absolutely magical device for international readers.
Mon, Oct 31, 2016
It's bibliotherapy time. Today's guest is Erin Swann, is an attorney who lives in Greenville, South Carolina with her family. Erin's always been a reader, but when she went through a major transition a few years back she rediscovered the therapeutic value of a welcoming book. Join Erin and Anne as they discuss armchair travel, fictional characters as friends, and more.
Mon, Nov 7, 2016
This week guest Maxwell Dunn (WellDoneBooks on YouTube) introduces Anne to a whole new wonderful world of book lovers online, the Booktube community. Booktube is known best for its voracious YA fans, but there's a book vlogger out there for every literary palate. Max is a great example of this; his videos cover serious award winners, challenging experimental works, and deep dives into substantial modern literature. Max and Anne discuss stories with unique structural elements, books that swing wildly between 1 and 5 star ratings, and the best way to find a Booktube creator who shares your taste.
Sun, Nov 13, 2016
Today kicks off our special WSIRN 5-day miniseries: What Should I Read Next for Kids, and Kids at Heart. We're focusing on a variety of young and young at heart topics this week: children's literature, coming of age stories, literary heroines, kid lit for grown-ups, and more. Who better to jump-start the series than Sarah Mackenzie? Sarah is a friend, devoted reader, and Kid Lit Expert Extraordinaire. You may know her as the host of the Read Aloud Revival podcast and site, or as the author of Teaching from Rest: A Homeschooler's Guide to Unshakable Peace. Her mission is to help YOU help the kids in your life fall in love with books, and this episode will leave you feeling inspired and empowered to do just that.
Mon, Nov 14, 2016
Day 2 of our Reading For A Lifetime series is about encouraging middle school and young adult kids to indulge in great books, and our guest Leigh Collazo has a LOT of wisdom to share on that topic. Leigh is a school librarian who serves children from over 30 different countries at an international school in China. Today she shares all about why the middle school years are her favorite when it comes to finding the right books for the right readers.