Books with Betsy
Books with Betsy is a podcast that celebrates the reading life of all readers. Each week, Betsy interviews a different person about their reading life. Listen for book recommendations, reading tips, and to join in the joy that reading brings. And remember, anyone who reads is a reader.
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Episodes
Monday Sep 09, 2024
Monday Sep 09, 2024
On this episode, Stacy Jeziorowski, who is not a terrible reader, discusses her resurgence as a reader after grad school and how thrillers that have kept her on the edge of her seat motivate her to read more. We also discuss our shared favorite, which we both collect, and how amazing the library is as a resource for our lives.
The AI generated holiday romance movie
Books mentioned in this episode:
What Betsy’s reading:
Fire Exit by Morgan Talty
The Radium Girls by Kate Moore
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennet
Books Highlighted by Stacy:
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Under the Whispering Door by T.J. Klune
The Women by Kristin Hannah
Nora Goes off Script by Annabel Monaghan
Still House Lake by Rachel Caine
Listen for the Lie by Amy Tintera
The Paris Library by Janet Skeslien Charles
Other Books Mentioned in the Episode:
All books available on my Bookshop.org episode page.
Amelia Bedelia by Peggy Parish and Fritz Siebel
Dollface: A Novel of the Roaring Twenties by Renée Rosen
The Woman in Me by Britney Spears
A Slow Fire Burning by Paula Hawkins
The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
Crying in H Mart: A Memoir by Michelle Zauner
Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover
The Glass Castle: A Memoir by Jeannette Walls
A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson
None of This is True by Lisa Jewell
The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
Send for Me: A Novel by Lauren Fox
Monday Sep 02, 2024
Monday Sep 02, 2024
On this episode, Allison Yates and Fernanda Wetzel come on to talk about their organization, Read and Run Chicago, a book and run club that features specific books with coordinated runs in Chicago. They describe how accessible their organization is, open to anyone who might be interested in participating, and we get to talk about some incredible books that feature information and stories that open and affirm experiences that have been historically ignored.
Read and Run Chicago Fall Event Calendar
Allison’s Small Pack Camping Chair
Italic Type book tracking
Books mentioned in this episode:
What Betsy’s reading:
Vampires of El Norte by Isabel Cañas
Koresh by Stephan Talty
The Stranger Upstairs by Lisa M. Matlin
Books Highlighted by Allison and Fernanda:
The Alice Network by Kate Quinn
The Change by Kirsten Miller
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
The Idea of You by Robinne Lee
Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teaching of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Wordslut: A Feminist Guide to Taking Back the English Language by Amanda Montell
Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez
Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo
Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo
The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
Letters from Cuba by Ruth Behar
The Push by Ashley Audrain
Other Books Mentioned in the Episode:
All books available on my Bookshop.org episode page.
Temper by Layne Fargo
The Women by Kristin Hannah
Lady Tan’s Circle of Women by Lisa See
Come as You Are: The Surprising New Science that will Transform Your Sex Life by Emily Nagoski
The Hundred Year House by Rebecca Makkai
Fieldwork: A Forager’s Memoir by Iliana Regan
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
Yellowface by R.F. Kuang
Erasure by Percival Everett
I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sánchez
Monday Aug 26, 2024
Monday Aug 26, 2024
On this episode, Emily McClanathan, a Chicago Public Library superuser, discusses her love of character-driven stories and excellent prose. She also talks about how reading has helped her become a better writer, as she writes both book reviews and theater reviews in Chicago. We get into some shared loves and Emily gets to share a hot take about a book she thinks is overrated.
Books mentioned in this episode:
What Betsy’s reading:
The God of the Woods by Liz Moore
Horror Movie by Paul Tremblay
Headshot by Rita Bullwinkle
Books Highlighted by Emily::
The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women by Kate Moore
Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield
The Secret Diaries of Charles Ignatius Sancho by Paterson Joseph
Nerd: Adventures in Fandom from This Universe to the Multiverse by Maya Phillips
My Mess is a Bit of a Life: Adventures in Anxiety by Georgia Pritchett
Born to be Mild: Adventures for the Anxious by Rob Temple
Once Upon a Tome: The Misadventures of a Rare Bookseller by Oliver Darkshire
Everybody’s Favorite: Tales From the World’s Worst Perfectionist by Lillian Stone
One in a Millenial: On Friendship, Feelings, Fangirls, and Fitting In by Kate Kennedy
This is Not a Book About Benedict Cumberbatch: The Joy of Loving Something - Anything - Like Your Life Depends on It by Tabitha Carvan
The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien
Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation by Kristin Kobes Du Mez
Pure: Inside the Evangelical Movement That Shamed a Generation of Young Women and How I Broke Free by Linda Kay Klein
Other Books Mentioned in the Episode:
All books available on my Bookshop.org episode page.
The Murder of Mr. Wickham by Claudia Gray
Better the Blood by Michael Bennett
Return to Blood by Michael Bennett
Any Human Heart by William Boyd
Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell
The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
The Eye of the World: Book One of the Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkein
Zorrie by Laird Hunt
Wolf Hall by Emily Mantel
Schindler’s List by Thomas Keneally
Washington Black by Esi Edugyan
Monday Aug 19, 2024
Monday Aug 19, 2024
On this episode, Ben Ustick, the taproom manager at Off Color Mousetrap and I discuss some of our shared favorite books, the excellence of contemporary fiction, and his goal to read Percival Everett’s entire oeuvre this year. Get ready to be shocked yourself when you hear the book that shocked Ben. If you want to visit us at Off Color Book Club, check my instagram for the information on the next meeting!
Books mentioned in this episode:
What Betsy’s reading:
The God of the Woods by Liz Moore
Horror Movie by Paul Tremblay
Books Highlighted by Ben:
True Biz by Sara Nović
Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
The Hustler by Walter Tevis
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai
Less by Andrew Sean Greer
Victim by Andrew Boryga
Other Books Mentioned in the Episode:
All books available on my Bookshop.org episode page.
The Firm by John Grisham
A Time to Kill by John Grisham
The Client by John Grisham
The Chamber by John Grisham
Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
Different Seasons: Four Novellas by Stephen King
The BFG by Roald Dahl
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
Erasure by Percival Everett
James by Percival Everett
Telephone by Percival Everett
I Am Not Sidney Poitier by Percival Everett
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
The Monkey Wrench Gang by Edward Abbey
Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
Trust by Hernan Diaz
The Color of Money by Walter Tevis
The Queen’s Gambit by Walter Tevis
Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka
Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea by Sebastian Junger
Monday Aug 12, 2024
Monday Aug 12, 2024
On this episode, Mawuli Grant Agbefe and I discuss his love for fascinating non-fiction, including one of my absolute favorite books ever that he recommended to me in January! We also discuss our shared love of being readers in Chicago, based on the gorgeous places to read and the incredible resource the Chicago Public Library is.
Books mentioned in this episode:
What Betsy’s reading:
The Nix by Nathan Hill
The Extinction of Irena Rey by Jennifer Croft
Sociopath: A Memoir by Patric Gagne
Books Highlighted by Mawuli:
The Official Preppy Handbook by Jonathan Roberts, Carol McD. Wallace, Mason Wiley, and Lisa Birnbach
The Deficit Myth: Modern Monetary Theory and the Birth of the People’s Economy by Stephanie Kelton
Grace Will Lead Us Home: The Charleston Church Tragedy and the Hard, Inspiring Journey to Forgiveness by Jennifer Berry Hawes
Mean Girl Feminism: How White Feminists Gaslight, Gatekeep, and Girlboss by Kim Hong Nguyen
Ordinary Notes by Christina Sharpe
Your Face Belongs to Us: A Secretive Startup’s Quest to End Privacy as we Know it by Kashmir Hill
How the Word is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America by Clint Smith
Bullshit Jobs: A Theory by David Graeber
Other Books Mentioned in the Episode:
All books available on my Bookshop.org episode page.
How the Other Half Banks: Exclusion, Exploitation and the Threat to Democracy by Mehrsa Baradaran
Take Ivy by Shosuke Ishizu and Toshiyuki Kurosu
His Name is George Floyd by Toluse Olorunippa and Robert Samuels
Columbine by Dave Cullen
The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11 by Garrett M. Graff
Monday Aug 05, 2024
Monday Aug 05, 2024
On this episode, Tanima Kazi, a writer (get her novel here!) who loves language, shares her love of romance novels, favorite parts of her favorite books, and how her day job helps her build ideas for her own writing. She describes how books speak to her and even shares excerpts from her favorite books.
Books mentioned in this episode:
What Betsy’s reading:
The Nix by Nathan Hill
Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange
The Exvangelicals: Loving, Living, and Leaving the White Evangelical Church by Sarah McCammon
Sociopath: A Memoir by Patric Gagne
Books Highlighted by Tanima:
Circe by Madeline Miller
Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
How to Order the Universe by María José Ferrada, trans. Elizabeth Bryer
Siddartha by Herman Hesse
The Death of Mrs. Westaway by Ruth Ware
Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur
The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity by Julia Cameron
How to Escape an Arranged Marriage in High Heels by Tanima Kazi
Elinor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
Addicted by Zane
Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert
On the Road by Jack Kerouac
Other Books Mentioned in the Episode:
All books available on my Bookshop.org episode page.
The Babysitters Club by Anne M. Martin
Are You There God? It’s me, Margaret by Judy Blume
Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella
Wedding Night by Sophie Kinsella
Rachel’s Holiday by Marian Keyes
Watermelon by Marian Keyes
This Charming Man by Marian Keyes
London Seance Society by Sarah Penner
Jezebel by Megan Barnard
Becoming by Michelle Obama
Know My Name by Chanel Miller
Vengeance by Zane
Monday Jul 29, 2024
Monday Jul 29, 2024
On this episode, Mike Finucane, a campus minister at a high-school in St. Louis, and I discuss how books can help develop empathy. He also gives a great tip from his dad about how to tackle a large non-fiction text. We also confirm that collecting books shouldn’t be considered a bad habit if you love it. We talk about a lot of really intense books but I hope that our discussion will inspire readers to do a deep dive into some of the topics.
Books mentioned in this episode:
What Betsy’s reading:
The Nix by Nathan Hill
The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon
Books Highlighted by Mike:
Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke
Stories of Your LIfe and Others by Ted Chiang
Exhalation by Ted Chiang
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh
An American Summer: Love and Death in Chicago by Alex Kotlowitz
Just Mercy by Brian Stevenson
The Shawl by Cynthia Ozick
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
The Broken Earth Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin
Tattoos on the Heart by Gregory Boyle
City of Bohane by Kevin Barry
The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson
An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden World Around Us by Ed Yong
Other Books Mentioned in the Episode:
All books available on my Bookshop.org episode page.
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York by Robert A. Caro
The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary by Robert Alter
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain
How Green Was My Valley by Richard Llewellyn
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
God Knows by Joseph Heller
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
Your Duck is My Duck: Stories by Deborah Eisenberg
Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe
Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty by Patrick Radden Keefe
Rogues: True Stories of Grifters, Killers, Rebels and Crooks by Patrick Radden Keefe
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
There are No Children Here by Alex Kotlowitz
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan
Monday Jul 22, 2024
Monday Jul 22, 2024
On this episode, Rachel Kilthorne, a self-processed nerd’s nerd, discusses her love of both fantasy novels and going deep on a subject in non-fiction. She names many series and discusses how she determines when to re-read or when to let go of a series. I also get to go on a soapbox rant about reading diversely, especially in genre fiction.
Books mentioned in this episode:
What Betsy’s reading:
The Nix by Nathan Hill
The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon
Woodworm by Layla Martinez
We Used to Live Here by Marcus Kliewer
Books Highlighted by Rachel:
The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones
The Wayfarer Series by Becky Chambers
The Sabriel Series by Garth Nix
Our Share of Night by Mariana Enriquez
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk
The Secret Life of Groceries: The Dark Miracle of the American Supermarket by Benjamin Lorr
Doppelganger: A Trip Into the Mirror World by Naomi Klein
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.A. Schwab
A Council of Dolls by Mona Susan Power
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
His Majesty’s Dragon by Naomi Novik
Babel by R.F. Kuang
Saga by Brian K. Vaughn
American Wolf: A True Story of Survival and Obsession in the West by Nate Blakeslee
The Dresden Files Series by Jim Butcher
The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu
The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism by Katherine Stewart
Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
Other Books Mentioned in the Episode:
All books available on my Bookshop.org episode page.
The Wheel of Time Series by Robert Jordan
The Essential Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson
The Sandman by Neil Gaiman
Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi
Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
Death Valley by Melissa Broder
The Pisces by Melissa Broder
The Dark Tower Series by Stephen King
The First Law Trilogy by Joe Abercrombie
A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin
The World We Make by N.K. Jemisin
Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
Blackouts by Justin Torres
The Rabbit Hutch by Tess Gunty
Zorrie by Laird Hunt
The End of Drum-Time by Hanna Pylväinen
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
The Poppy War Trilogy by R.F. Kuang
Yellowface by R.F. Kuang
Erasure by Percival Everett
The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd
The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu
His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman
Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses by Robin Wall Kimmerer
The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Monday Jul 15, 2024
Monday Jul 15, 2024
On this episode, Rachel Rolland, a hobby-enthusiast, discusses her love for weird books, including two authors with a decently large backlist that I’ve never heard of. We discuss how a book about accounting can help investigate the way we see the world, how some books just shouldn’t be adapted to screen, and her love for the bookstores where she worked.
Books mentioned in this episode:
What Betsy’s reading:
The Nix by Nathan Hill
The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon
No One Can Know by Kate Alice Marshall
None of This is True by Lisa Jewell
Books Highlighted by Rachel:
Milkman by Anna Burns
Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
A Song of Ice & Fire by George R.R. Martin
Animal Farm by George Orwell
Watership Down by Richard Adams
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Keeping the House by Ellen Baker
13 ½ Lives of Captain Blue Bear by Walter Moers
The City of Dreaming Books by Walter Moers
Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris
Less by Andrew Sean Greer
Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
Double Entry: How the Merchants of Venice Created Modern Finance by Jane Gleeson-White
Other Books Mentioned in the Episode:
All books available on my Bookshop.org episode page.
The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina
The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Hamlet by William Shakespeare
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
The Big Over Easy: A Nursery Crime by Jasper Fforde
Shades of Grey: The Road to High Saffron by Jasper Fforde
Jonathan Strange & MR Norrell by Susanna Clarke
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon
Dune by Frank Herbert
Grant by Ron Chernow
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut
Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd
Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence by Amy Sedaris
Monday Jul 08, 2024
Monday Jul 08, 2024
On this episode, Monika and I discuss her love of fantasy, she mentions so many series, some longer than others, and we share the joy of staff picks in an indie bookstore. We also talk about the magic of airplane reading and how amazing Libby can be. If you are interested in the Reddit thread Monika mentions, you can find that here.
Books mentioned in this episode:
What Betsy’s reading:
The Nix by Nathan Hill
Exhibit by R.O. Kwan
The Return of Ellie Black by Emiko Jean
Bear by Julia Phillips
The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon
Books Highlighted by Monika:
The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon
The Mistborn Series by Brandon Sanderson
The City & The City by China Miéville
To Shape a Dragon’s Breath by Moniquill Blackgoose
The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan
Persuasion by Jane Austin
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
1984 by George Orwell
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
Other Books Mentioned in the Episode:
All books available on my Bookshop.org episode page.
Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou
Blood, Sweat, and Pixels: The Triumphant, Turbulent Stories Behind How Video Games are Made by Jason Schreier
Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Twilight by Stephanie Meyer
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
The Divergent Series by Veronica Roth
The Maze Runner Series by James Dashner
The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkein
The Witcher Series by Andrzej Sapkowski
The Stormlight Archive Series by Brandon Sanderson
Becoming by Michelle Obama
Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance by Barack Obama
Seveneves by Neal Stephenson
A Day of Fallen Night by Samantha Shannon
Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin
Too Like the Lightning: Book One of Terra Ignota by Ada Palmer
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