Books with Betsy

Episode 87 - Best of 2025 Part 2

On this episode, past guests of Books with Betsy and I share our favorite books of 2025! Listen to hear about lots of great 2025 books and the excellent backlist we got to this year. 
 
Books mentioned in this episode: 
 
Betsy’s Top 11 Books (in no particular order): 
The Sisters by Jonas Hassan Khemiri 
Endling by Maria Reva
The Director by Daniel Kehlmann 
The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones
Biography of X by Catherine Lacey 
Say Hello to My Little Friend by Jennine Capó Crucet 
Original Sins: The (Mis)education of Black and Native Children and the Construction of American Racism by Eve L. Ewing
Devil is Fine by John Vercher 
There is a Rio Grande in Heaven by Ruben Reyes, Jr. 
A Guardian and A Thief by Megha Majumdar 
Reservoir Bitches by Dalia de la Cerda 
 
Books Highlighted by Guests:
Tina of TBR, etc: 
One Yellow Eye by Leigh Radford 
Dominion by Addie E. Citchens
Red Clay by Charles B. Fancher 
Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid 
Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy
Jen Price:
The Stolen Queen by Fiona Davis
Canada by Mike Myers 
Everyone is Lying to You by Jo Piazza
Saltwater by Katy Hays
Come Fly With Me by Camille Di Maio
Bre of Brezzylovesbooks: 
Plantains and Our Becoming: Poems by Melania Luisa Marte
What My Bones Know: A Memoir of Healing From Complex Trauma by Stephanie Foo 
Maggie; or, a Man and a Woman Walk Into a Bar by Katie Yee 
Maggie Brennan: 
There’s Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension by Hanif Abdurraqib 
Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar 
The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai 
Wolf Pack by Amelia Brunskill 
Beneath the Rising by Premee Mohamed  
Amy Smalley: 
Miss Benson’s Beetle by Rachel Joyce 
You Could Make This Place Beautiful by Maggie Smith 
The Carpool Detectives: A True Story of Four Moms, Two Bodies, and One Mysterious Cold Case by Chuck Hogan 
Grace & Henry’s Holiday Movie Marathon by Matthew Norman 
Carrie Vittitoe: 
My Father’s Paradise: A Son’s Search for His Family’s Past by Ariel Sabar  
Angel Down by Daniel Kraus 
The Millicent Quibb School of Etiquette for Young Ladies of Mad Science by Kate McKinnon 
Mary Hopper: 
The Black Wolf by Louise Penny 
Leave Only Footprints: My Acadia-to-Zion Journey Through Every National Park by Conor Knighton
The God of the Woods by Liz Moore 
The Moscow Sleepers by Stella Rimington 
The Searcher by Tana French 
The Hunter by Tana French 
Aflame: Learning From Silence by Pico Iyer 
Karishma Verma: 
The Secret Lives of Booksellers and Librarians: True Stories of the Magic of Reading by James Patterson and Matt Eversman 
You Wanna Be on Top?: A Memoir of Makeovers, Manipulation, and Not Becoming America's Next Top Model by Sarah Hartshorne 
Just for the Summer by Abby Jimenez 
The Housemaid’s Secret by Frieda McFadden 
The House of My Mother: A Daughter’s Quest for Freedom by Shari Franke
Alayna Mills: 
Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Flashlight by Susan Choi 
We Do Not Part by Han Kang 
Last Call at the Local by Sarah Grunder Ruiz 
Heart the Lover by Lily King

Episode 86 - Best of 2025 Part 1

On this episode, past guests of Books with Betsy and I share our favorite books of 2025! Listen to hear about lots of great 2025 books and the excellent backlist we got to this year. 
 
Books mentioned in this episode: 
 
Betsy’s Best Categorically (books that…): 
Shocked me: 
It’s Not the End of the World by Jonathan Parks-Ramage
Sky Full of Elephants by Cebo Campbell 
Made me Cry:
The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai 
Are You Happy? By Lori Ostlund 
Underrated:
Fundamentally by Noussaibah Younis 
What Kind of Paradise by Janelle Brown 
Recommend Widely:
There is No Place For Us: Working and Homeless in America by Brian Goldstone 
Isola by Allegra Goodman 
Hard to Recommend: 
King of Ashes by S.A. Cosby 
Flesh by David Szalay 
Made me Think About my Life Differently:
Uzumaki by Junji Ito 
Hunchback by Saou Ichikawa 
 
Books Highlighted by Guests:
Deedi Brown: 
The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow
Telephone by Percival Everett 
Searches: Selfhood in the Digital Age by Vauhini Vara 
Francisco Rafael Peralta-Cerda: 
Grace and Henry’s Holiday Movie Marathon by Matthew Norman 
Displacement by Kiku Hughes 
Yellowface by R.F. Kuang 
Chloe Waryan: 
The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones 
The Secret History by Donna Tartt 
Woodworking by Emily St. James 
Poor Things by Alasdair Gray
Jess Abra Sandy: 
How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix 
Don’t Let the Forest In by C.G. Drews
Soft Science & Other Poems by Franny Choi 
Time is a Mother by Ocean Vuong 
Shakia Perry: 
Issac’s Song by Daniel Black 
King of Ashes by S.A. Cosby 
Zeal by Morgan Jerkins 
Can’t Get Enough by Kennedy Ryan 
Chelsey Stone: 
The Princes of Ireland by Edward Rutherfurd
Creatures of Passage by Morowa Yejidé
Deirdre Harrison: 
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer 
Motherhood: Facing and Finding Yourself by Lisa Marchiano 
The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley 
Chirri & Chirra: The Snowy Day by Kaya Doi & Yuki Kaneko 
The Red Fruit by Lee Gee Eun 
Red Sled by Lita Judge 
Jordan Hernandez: 
This is Your Mother by Erika J. Simpson 
The Girls Who Grew Big by Leila Mottley 
Loca by Alejandro Heredia 
Liv Hoselton: 
Everything is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection by John Green 
A Noble Madness: The Dark Side of Collecting from Antiquity to Now by James Delbourgo 
Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton
Frankenstein by Mary Shelly 
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens 
Leah Rachel von Essen: 
And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic by Randy Shilts 
Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert 
One Day Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad
A Day of Fallen Night by Samantha Shannon

Episode 85 - Lock In and Understand with Madeline Blair

On this episode, Madeline Blair, founder and editor of the literary magazine Sabr Tooth Tiger, talks about her development as a lover and writer of poetry, how balancing reading online publications can run up against her day job, and how she discovers new pieces to read. You also get to hear me have a bit of an existential crisis in real time which happens every time I think about how much content there is out there to read. 
 
Sabr Tooth Tiger
 
Books mentioned in this episode: 
 
What Betsy’s reading: 
The Sisters by Jonas Hassan Khemiri 
There is No Place for Us by Brian Goldstone
 
Books Highlighted by Madeline:
Crossing the Water by Sylvia Plath 
Ariel by Sylvia Plath 
Wicked by Gregory Maguire
Monsters, Clowns, and the Holy Fool by Satori Na
The Poet’s Companion by Kim Addonizio 
Letters to Milena by Franz Kafka
The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
 
All books available on my Bookshop.org episode page.  
Other books mentioned in this episode:
Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams by Sylvia Plath 
Girls That Never Die by Safia Elhillo 
The Diary of Anaïs Nin by Anaïs Nin 
The Intentions of Thunder by Patricia Smith 
Poems 1962-2012 by Louise Glück 
Selected Poems of Frank O’Hara by Frank O’Hara 
Men in the Off Hours by Anne Carson 
Tender is the Flesh by Augustina Bzaterrica 
Dubliners by James Joyce 
The Idaho Four by James Patterson & Vicky Ward 
The Wild Fox of Yemen by Threa Almontaser

Episode 84 - Crying on the Brown Line with Francisco Rafael Peralta-Cerda

On this episode, Francisco Rafael Peralta-Cerda, a fellow Read & Runner, talks about his work building a love for reading as a high school teacher, how his mom encouraged him to read when he was little, and a possibly surprising genre that he has fallen in love with this year. We also discuss his hesitation to read in public but also the attempt to dispel the myth of the performative male. 
 
Books mentioned in this episode: 
 
What Betsy’s reading: 
Misinterpretation by Ledia Xhoga
The Sisters by Jonas Hassan Khemiri 
 
Books Highlighted by Fransico:
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky 
Eragon by Christopher Paolini
Cirque Du Freak: A Living Nightmare by Darren Shan 
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini 
We Should Hang Out Sometime by Josh Sundquist
Hole in My Life by Jack Gantos 
The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X
 
All books available on my Bookshop.org episode page.  
Other books mentioned in this episode:
The Adventures of Captain Underpants by Dav Pilkey 
Inkspell by Cornelia Funke 
Batman by Tom King 
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald 
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut 
Coraline by Neil Gaiman 
The Defining Decade by Meg Jay 
What Happened to Millenials by Charlie Wells 
Looking for Alaska by John Green 
Heartstopper by Alice Oseman 
A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin 
Battle of the Bookstores by Ali Brady 
Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key by Jack Gantos

Episode 83 - Creating Space with Deirdre Harrison

On this episode, Deirdre Harrison, Executive Director of SitStayRead in Chicago talks about how her understanding of relationships affects her reading life, the joys of being a little free library steward, and shares deep thoughts about how her organization fits into the literary lives of everyone she interacts with. She also tells some really incredible stories about her experiences with SitStayRead that will emphasize the importance of literacy learning for young children. 
 
SitStayRead
 
Books mentioned in this episode: 
 
What Betsy’s reading: 
Disappoint Me by Nicola Dinan 
Flesh by David Szalay 
 
Books Highlighted by Deirdre:
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer 
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt 
The Rabbit Listened by Cori Doerrfeld 
Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene by Donna Haraway
 
All books available on my Bookshop.org episode page.  
Other books mentioned in this episode:
The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley 
Motherhood by Lisa Marchiano LCSW 
Thirty Million Words by Dana Suskind
The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson 
Caste by Isabel Wilkerson 
Viktor Frankl Recollections by Viktor E. Frankl 
The Pelican Can! By Toni Yuly 
The Cool Bean by Jory John & Pete Oswald 
Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis 
Twilight by Stephanie Meyer 
Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James

Episode 82 - Visionary Alchemy with Antonio Michael Downing

On this episode, Antonio Michael Downing, author and host of CBC’s Next Chapter, talks about his early reading life with his grandmother in Trinidad, how his work affects his reading life, and the types of authors that are speaking to him now. We talk about his two books, Saga Boy, a memoir, and Black Cherokee, his first novel.  
 
Black Cherokee 
Saga Boy 
The Next Chapter 
 
Books mentioned in this episode: 
 
What Betsy’s reading: 
The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai 
Endling by Maria Reva 
Isola by Allegra Goodman
 
Books Highlighted by Antonio Michael:
A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin
Heavy: An American Memoir by Kiese Laymon
Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin
The Sellout by Paul Beatty
Salt by Earl Lovelace
Dubliners by James Joyce
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
Deep Secrets by Niobe Way
 
All books available on my Bookshop.org episode page.  
Other books mentioned in this episode:
The Sound and The Fury by William Faulkner 
Baldwin: A Love Story by Nicholas Boggs
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy 
KJV Bible 
Go Tell it on the Mountain by James Baldwin 
The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin 
Finnegans Wake by James Joyce 
Book of Lives by Margaret Atwood
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky 
Ulysses by James Joyce 

Episode 81 - Book Club - Martyr!

On this episode, Jesus, Emily, and Brian from Off Color Book Club join me to discuss the most recent Off Color Book Club book, Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar. 
 
My Book Club Guide
If you’re interested in joining the Off Color Book Club in the future, we will not be meeting in December but will meet on Tuesday, January 20th to discuss Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. All are welcome!

Episode 80 - Reading as a Mom with Julie P

On this episode, Julie P., a mom who is finding her reading life to look differently than it has in the past, talks about how audiobooks have been a huge part of her reading life, the ways she brings reading to life with her kiddos, and how important and amazing children’s books are. Julie also gives a lot of great children’s book recommendations for many difficult topics.
 
Books mentioned in this episode: 
 
What Betsy’s reading: 
What Kind of Paradise by Janelle Brown
The Director by Daniel Kehlmann
 
Books Highlighted by Julie:
Weetzie Bat by Francesca Lia Block
Never Lie by Frieda McFadden 
Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds
Night by Elie Wiesel
The Invisible String by Patrice Karst
Dog Heaven by Cynthia Rylant
Bodies are Cool by Tyler Feder
I Said No by Kimberly King
Wasteland by Francesca Lia Block 
No Drama Discipline by Daniel J. Siegel & Tina Payne Bryson
Tiny Humans, Big Emotions by Alyssa Blask Campbell & Lauren Elizabeth Stauble 
 
All books available on my Bookshop.org episode page.  
Other books mentioned in this episode:
Uglies by Scott Westerfeld 
Delirium by Lauren Oliver 
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins 
Divergent by Veronica Roth 
The Not-So-Friendly Friend by Christina Furnival 
Into the Game! Minecraft Woodsword Chronicles #1 by Nick Eliopulos 
Who Would Win? By Jerry Pallotta 
The Housemaid by Freida McFadden 
Necklace of Kisses by Francesca Lia Block 
The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix 
Behind Her Eyes by Sarah Pinborough 
Ghost by Jason Reynolds 
The Invisible Leash by Patrice Karst 
The Invisible String Backpack by Patrice Karst 
The Invisible Web by Patrice Karst 
The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein 
The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister 
Go Ask Alice by Beatrice Sparks 
It Happened to Nancy by Beatrice Sparks
A Hug From Above by Pamela Quinn 
On the Night You Were Born by Nancy Tillman

Episode 79 - Ways to Escape and Ways to Learn with Jen Price

On this episode, Jen Price, of Travel Books and Movies, discusses her life that involves a great deal of travel, how she incorporates reading into travelling, and her book club that has a brilliant idea about how to choose books. We also get into some of the shared perils of being feral readers. 
 
Travel Books and Movies Blog
Jen on Instagram
Travel Books and Movies Facebook Group
Reading Retreat Guide/Newsletter
Bon Voyage Book Box 
 
Books mentioned in this episode: 
 
What Betsy’s reading: 
Katabasis by R.F. Kuang 
Pan by Michael Clune
 
Books Highlighted by Jen:
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg 
Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides 
Travels of Terror by Kelly Florence and Meg Hafdahl 
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini 
The Seven Sisters by Lucinda Riley
 
All books available on my Bookshop.org episode page.  
Other books mentioned in this episode:
Kristy’s Great Idea by Ann M. Martin
The Secret of Secrets by Dan Brown 
The View from Saturday by E.L. Konigsburg 
The Girl from Donegal by Carmel Harrington 
A Journey to the New World (Dear America) by Kathryn Lasky 
The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown 
What I Was Doing While You Were Breeding by Kristin Newman

Episode 78 - Absolute Freaks with Taylor Thornburg

On this episode, Taylor Thornburg, multi-media creator and fan talks about how to plug in to the local literary scene, his connection to physical media, and how he loves authors that are just entirely out of the box. We also talk about a lot of the great benefits of the Chicago reading life. 
 
Agathe, 6:00 p.m. to 7:27
 
Books mentioned in this episode: 
 
What Betsy’s reading: 
Katabasis by R.F. Kuang 
Flashlight by Susan Choi 
 
Books Highlighted by Taylor:
Ubik by Philip K. Dick 
In Praise of the Stepmother by Mario Vargas Llosa 
White Cat, Black Dog by Kelly Link
Lapovona by Ottessa Moshfegh
My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante 
Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon
Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov
 
All books available on my Bookshop.org episode page.  
Other books mentioned in this episode:
Herscht 07769 by Lázló Krasznahorkai
Schattenfroh by Michael Lentz 
The Instructions by Adam Levin
The Möbius Book by Catherine Lacey 
Bluets by Maggie Nelson 
The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis 
The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien 
Frindle by Andrew Clements 
Severance by Ling Ma 
Bliss Montage by Ling Ma 
Shadow Ticket by Thomas Pynchon 
All Fours by Miranda July 
My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh 
Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh 
Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace 
Chain Gang All Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah 
North Woods by Daniel Mason