Category: Writing

Ep. 197: Stephanie Dray Gives an Unsung American Heroine Her Due

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This week, New York Times bestselling author Stephanie Dray discusses her captivating new historical novel, Becoming Madam Secretary, about Frances Perkins, one of the greatest political figures of the twentieth century, and an unsung heroine whose legacy is woven into the fabric of every American life.

becomingmadamsecretary

“Becoming Madam Secretary is a proud anthem to a forgotten founding mother. Frances Perkins starts out a bright young thing with an economics degree and an iron determination to make the world a better place, and ends up a shining star: first woman appointed to a presidential cabinet, architect of the New Deal, mother of Social Security, and FDR’s much-relied-upon work wife throughout his entire presidency. Stephanie Dray’s love and respect for this American heroine shines from every page, as does her impeccable research. Unputdownable!”
—Kate Quinn, New York Times bestselling author of The Diamond Eye

Listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app.

About the Author:

Stephanie Dray is a New York Times, Wall Street Journal & USA Today bestselling author of historical women’s fiction. Her award-winning work has been translated into many languages and tops lists for the most anticipated reads of the year. She lives in Maryland with her husband, cats, and history books. Learn more: https://www.stephaniedray.com/

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Happy Reading and Listening,

Laura Szaro Kopinski

ABookishHome.com

*A Bookish Home is an affiliate of Bookshop.org. At no extra cost to you, we receive a small commission if you purchase something through the Bookshop.org links provided.

Ep. 196: A.H. Kim on the Comfort Read Sense and Sensibility Fans Have Been Waiting For

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This week, A.H. Kim is here to discuss her enormously entertaining new novel Relative Strangers, a modern feminist spin on Sense and Sensibility featuring two half-Korean sisters and their ex-hippie mother, multiple messy love affairs and one explosive secret that could ruin everything.  

This is one of the most delightful reading experiences I’ve had in ages. Relative Strangers feels so true to the spirit of the original, but utterly fresh as well.

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Calling all Austen fans! In Relative Strangers, A.H. Kim puts a modern spin on Jane Austen’s beloved novel about sisterhood and romance, Sense & Sensibility. Welcome to a world of family secrets, inheritance disputes, and rescues in the rain, as sisters Amelia and Eleanor Bae-Wood meet an array of eligible bachelors. But expect some surprises too… Even Austenites will be guessing right up until the final pages of this stellar retelling.
– Finola Austin, Author of Bronte’s Mistress

 

Listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app.

About the Author:

A. H. Kim (Ann) was born in South Korea and immigrated to the US as a young child. Ann was educated at Harvard College and Berkeley Law. Prior to becoming a novelist, Ann practiced corporate law for many years and served as chief of staff to the CEO and as head of investor relations at a Fortune 200 company. Ann is the proud mother of two sons, a longtime cancer survivor, and community volunteer. After many years living in the Bay Area, Ann and her husband now call Ann Arbor home. Learn more: https://www.ahkim.net/

Browse Books Mentioned On This Episode:

Looking for a book mentioned on the podcast? Want to browse books by past guests? Visit A Bookish Home Podcast’s Bookshop.org page.

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Links: 

Macmillan Audio

Happy Reading and Listening,

Laura Szaro Kopinski

ABookishHome.com

*A Bookish Home is an affiliate of Bookshop.org. At no extra cost to you, we receive a small commission if you purchase something through the Bookshop.org links provided.

Ep. 195: Amy Tector on the Power of Critique Groups, Crafting Mysteries as a Pantser, and More

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This week, Amy Tector is back on the podcast to discuss Honor the Dead, the third book in her captivating Dominion Archives Mysteries series, which is perfect for Louise Penny fans.

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Honor the Dead is classic Amy Tector—an intriguing mystery peppered with fascinating historical tidbits and infused with a good dose of humor. Her cast of characters never disappoints and everyone is a suspect until the very last page. This book is too fun to put down. Don’t be surprised if you finish it in one sitting. —Kim Hooper, author of People Who Knew Me and No Hiding in Boise

Listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app.

About the Author:

Amy Tector was born and raised in the rolling hills of Quebec’s Eastern Townships. She has worked in archives for the past twenty years and has found some pretty amazing things, including lost letters, mysterious notes, and even a whale’s ear. Amy spent many years as an expat, living in Brussels and in The Hague, where she worked for the International Criminal Tribunal for War Crimes in Yugoslavia. She lives in Ottawa, Canada, with her daughter, dog, and husband. Learn more: https://www.amytector.com/

Browse Books Mentioned On This Episode:

Looking for a book mentioned on the podcast? Want to browse books by past guests? Visit A Bookish Home Podcast’s Bookshop.org page.

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Links: 

Macmillan Audio

Happy Reading and Listening,

Laura Szaro Kopinski

ABookishHome.com

*A Bookish Home is an affiliate of Bookshop.org. At no extra cost to you, we receive a small commission if you purchase something through the Bookshop.org links provided.

Ep. 194: Henriette Lazaridis on Transporting Readers to Athens in Last Days in Plaka

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I’m thrilled that Henriette Lazaridis is back this week to discuss her new novel, Last Days in Plaka – think The Talented Mr. Ripley by way of Elena Ferrante–it explores the lies at the heart of an old woman’s identity and the desperation of a young woman’s struggle to belong.

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“A stunning novel about an unlikely friendship that had me utterly enthralled. In luminous prose, Last Days in Plaka lays bare the yearnings of a trio of heartbreakingly human characters in modern-day Athens as they navigate a hot, deserted city haunted by memories and their own obscured agendas. A poignant, surprising read that will make you look more closely, and with greater tenderness, at the world around you.” —Katrin Schumann, author of This Terrible Beauty

 

Listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app.

About the Author:

Henriette Lazaridis is the author of The Clover House (a Boston Globe bestseller), Terra Nova (which the New York Times called “ingenious”), and Last Days in Plaka (publishing April 2024). She earned degrees in English literature from Middlebury College, Oxford University, where she was a Rhodes Scholar, and the University of Pennsylvania. Having taught English at Harvard, she now teaches at GrubStreet in Boston. She was the founding editor of The Drum Literary Magazine and runs the Krouna Writing Workshop in northern Greece. Her essays and articles have been published in Elle, Forge, Narrative Magazine, The New York Times, New England Review, The Millions, and Pangyrus, and earned her a Massachusetts Cultural Council Artists Grant. An avid athlete, Henriette trains on the Charles River as a competitive rower, and skis, trail runs, or cycles whenever she can. She writes about athletic and creative challenges at The Entropy Hotel on Substack. Visit her website: www.henriettelazaridis.com.

Browse Books Mentioned On This Episode:

Looking for a book mentioned on the podcast? Want to browse books by past guests? Visit A Bookish Home Podcast’s Bookshop.org page.

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Links: 

Macmillan Audio

Happy Reading and Listening,

Laura Szaro Kopinski

ABookishHome.com

*A Bookish Home is an affiliate of Bookshop.org. At no extra cost to you, we receive a small commission if you purchase something through the Bookshop.org links provided.

Ep. 193: Sheila Sundar Explores Grief, Motherhood, Ambition, and the Meaning of Home in Habitations

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This week my guest  is Sheila Sundar, author of the stunning debut novel Habitations, which follows a young academic who moves from India to the United States, where she navigates first love, a green card marriage, single motherhood, and more.

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“Sundar’s debut novel is a wondrous mix of quiet heartache and unexpected hope, making it the best kind of literary fiction.… Sundar’s focus on the evolution of Vega’s inner and outer lives through relationships brings a vitally important lens to the thematic preoccupations of roots, home, migrant identity, and motherhood. The crisp plot and uncluttered writing make Habitations a remarkable first novel.”—Booklist

Listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app.

 

About the Author:

Sheila Sundar is a professor of English and creative writing at the University of Mississippi. Her writing has appeared in The Virginia Quarterly Review, The Massachusetts Review, The Threepenny Review, and elsewhere. She lives in New Orleans with her husband and their three children. Habitations is her debut novel. Learn more: https://www.sheilasundar.com/

Browse Books Mentioned On This Episode:

Looking for a book mentioned on the podcast? Want to browse books by past guests? Visit A Bookish Home Podcast’s Bookshop.org page.

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Links: 

Macmillan Audio

Happy Reading and Listening,

Laura Szaro Kopinski

ABookishHome.com

*A Bookish Home is an affiliate of Bookshop.org. At no extra cost to you, we receive a small commission if you purchase something through the Bookshop.org links provided.

Ep. 192: Parul Kapur Explores the Lives of Female Artists in 1950s Bombay with Inside the Mirror

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This week my guest  is Parul Kapur, author of Inside the Mirror, winner of the AWP prize for the novel and named a most anticipated feminist book of 2024 by Ms. Magazine. The book tells the story of two sisters who aspire to become artists in 1950s Bombay, India.

inside

“With breathtaking lyricism and scorching insight, Kapur captures women in flux brilliantly. This profound book complicates the impact of colonialism and throbs with life. Inside the Mirror is an extraordinary novel.”

—Jennifer Maritza McCauley, author of When Trying to Return Home

 

Listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app.

About the Author:

Parul Kapur was born in Assam, India, grew up in the United States, and lives in Atlanta. She is a fiction writer, journalist, and literary critic whose writing has appeared in a number of publications, including Ploughshares, the New Yorker, and the Paris Review. Kapur holds an MFA from Columbia University and has received fellowships from the Hambidge Center and the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts. Learn more: https://www.parulkapur.com/

Browse Books Mentioned On This Episode:

Looking for a book mentioned on the podcast? Want to browse books by past guests? Visit A Bookish Home Podcast’s Bookshop.org page.

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Links: 

Macmillan Audio

Happy Reading and Listening,

Laura Szaro Kopinski

ABookishHome.com

*A Bookish Home is an affiliate of Bookshop.org. At no extra cost to you, we receive a small commission if you purchase something through the Bookshop.org links provided.

Ep. 191: Liza Palmer on Writing The Bear Meets Succession in Family Reservations

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This week my guest is Liza Palmer, author of Family Reservations,  an epic saga about one family’s battle over their culinary legacy  that is sure to have you up late binge reading.

“A beautiful portrait of a fiercely complicated family of women. Oft hilarious, sometimes dysfunctional, and always relatable, this book revels in the messiness of mothers, daughters, and sisters. Reading this exquisite novel made me feel the same way about the Winters that I feel about my own family – which is to say that I loved them and wanted to scream at them in equal measure. I devoured this book. And wish I could devour their recipes!”

—Sarah Watson, creator of The Bold Type

 

Give yourself the gift of a preorder of Family Reservations. You’ll be so excited when it arrives on your doorstep on April 1st!

 

Listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app.

About the Author:

Two-time Emmy nominated, internationally best-selling tea enthusiast who gets to write for Marvel sometimes, Liza Palmer lives in Los Angeles where 95.3% of people call her Lisa. Learn more: https://lizapalmer.com/

Browse Books Mentioned On This Episode:

Looking for a book mentioned on the podcast? Want to browse books by past guests? Visit A Bookish Home Podcast’s Bookshop.org page.

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Links: 

Macmillan Audio

Happy Reading and Listening,

Laura Szaro Kopinski

ABookishHome.com

*A Bookish Home is an affiliate of Bookshop.org. At no extra cost to you, we receive a small commission if you purchase something through the Bookshop.org links provided.

Ep. 190: Melodie Edwards on Creating a Modern Anne Elliot in Her Swoonworthy Persuasion Retelling

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This week my guest is Melodie Edwards, author of Once Persuaded, Twice Shy, a second chance romance and a modern reimagining of Persuasion.

oncepersuaded

“Reading Melodie Edwards is the closest you can come to reading a modern-day Jane Austen. Fans of Austen will find Once Persuaded, Twice Shy a gorgeously romantic homage to one of history’s best second-chance romances and most relatable protagonists. Edwards’ narrative voice is exquisite, her Anne Elliot(t) perfectly rendered, her Wentworth swoonworthy, and her small-town setting (Kellynch Hall exchanged for Kellynch Winery) a place you’ll ache to visit. This gem of a story is the Persuasion update we deserve.”
-Ashley Winstead, author of The Boyfriend Candidate

 

Listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app.

About the Author:

Melodie Edwards is the author of Jane & Edward. She has a BA from the University of Toronto, a master’s degree from McMaster University and Syracuse University (2023), studied comedy writing at the Second City Training Centre, and works in communications. Learn more: https://melodieedwards.com/

Browse Books Mentioned On This Episode:

Looking for a book mentioned on the podcast? Want to browse books by past guests? Visit A Bookish Home Podcast’s Bookshop.org page.

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Links: 

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Happy Reading and Listening,

Laura Szaro Kopinski

ABookishHome.com

*A Bookish Home is an affiliate of Bookshop.org. At no extra cost to you, we receive a small commission if you purchase something through the Bookshop.org links provided.

Ep. 189: Zibby Owens on Disrupting the Publishing Industry in the Fictional World of Blank and Real Life

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This week my guest is bookfluencer extraordinaire, publisher, and author Zibby Owens. She’s here to chat about her delightful new novel Blank, about a wife, mother, and frustrated writer who faces an impossible deadline for turning her life around. This new novel is perfect for fans of Nora Goes Off Script.

blank

“Leave it to Zibby Owens to write a novel about a lovable woman single-handedly disrupting the publishing industry. Blank explores marriage, parenting, friendship, and the competitive high jinks of the book trade with the perfect amount of wit and light-touch humor. I devoured this book in a single sitting.” -Annabel Monaghan, author of Nora Goes Off Script and Same Time Next Summer

 

Listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app.

About the Author:

Zibby Owens is the author of Bookends: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Literature and the children’s book Princess Charming and is the editor of two anthologies: Moms Don’t Have Time to Have Kids: A Timeless Anthology and Moms Don’t Have Time To: A Quarantine Anthology. Creator and host of the award-winning daily podcast Moms Don’t Have Time to Read Books, Zibby is the founder and CEO of Zibby Media, dubbed “the Zibby-verse” by the Los Angeles Times. It includes publishing house Zibby Books, online magazine Zibby Mag, Zibby’s Book Club, retreats, classes, and events. She also owns Zibby’s Bookshop, an independent bookstore in Santa Monica, California. A regular contributor to Good Morning America and other outlets, she loves recommending books as “NYC’s Most Powerful Book-fluencer” (Vulture). A graduate of Yale University and Harvard Business School, Zibby currently lives in New York (with frequent visits to LA) with her husband, Kyle Owens of Morning Moon Productions, and her four children ages nine to sixteen. Follow her on Instagram @zibbyowens and on Substack, where she tells it like it is. Learn more: https://www.zibbyowens.com/

Browse Books Mentioned On This Episode:

Looking for a book mentioned on the podcast? Want to browse books by past guests? Visit A Bookish Home Podcast’s Bookshop.org page.

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Links: 

Macmillan Audio

Happy Reading and Listening,

Laura Szaro Kopinski

ABookishHome.com

*A Bookish Home is an affiliate of Bookshop.org. At no extra cost to you, we receive a small commission if you purchase something through the Bookshop.org links provided.

Ep. 188: Rosey Lee on Creating the Enchanting Gardin Women and an Edin You Won’t Want to Leave

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It is such a treat to have debut author Rosey Lee here this week to discuss one of my favorite recent reads, The Gardins of Edin, a heartwarming Southern story about family and all its many complexities.

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“The surprises and heart in this fast-paced family drama kept me turning pages late into the night.”-KJ Dell’Antonia, New York Times bestselling author of The Chicken Sisters

 

Listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app.

About the Author:

Rosey Lee writes stories about complicated families and complex friendships, but a happy ending is guaranteed. She lives in Atlanta, Georgia, where she enjoys cooking, flower arranging, and occasional bursts of fanatical bargain shopping. She grew up on the Westbank of New Orleans, Louisiana, and carries the area and her loved ones in her heart when she’s away from them. Learn more: https://www.roseyleebooks.com/

Browse Books Mentioned On This Episode:

Looking for a book mentioned on the podcast? Want to browse books by past guests? Visit A Bookish Home Podcast’s Bookshop.org page.

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Links: 

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Happy Reading and Listening,

Laura Szaro Kopinski

ABookishHome.com

*A Bookish Home is an affiliate of Bookshop.org. At no extra cost to you, we receive a small commission if you purchase something through the Bookshop.org links provided.