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Book Gang

Book Gang

Auteur(s): Amy Allen Clark
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 Are you looking for your next book recommendation? This book podcast celebrates debuts, backlist, and under-the-radar book selections. Expand your book stack with these recommendations and look at the book industry behind the scenes with Amy Allen Clark (MomAdvice.com). She shares the microphone with her favorite writers and bookstagrammers to help you have your best reading year ever. Art
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  • Family of Spies and the Secrets That Shaped a Family

    Family of Spies and the Secrets That Shaped a Family
    Jan 30 2026
    Journalist Christine Kuehn joins us to discuss Family of Spies and her gripping emotional reckoning with her family’s shocking personal ties to Nazi espionage.The book begins in 1994, when a single letter from a historian pierces Kuehn’s quiet suburban life, revealing a secret she never suspected. Kuehn discovered that members of her own family were Nazi intelligence agents. What follows is a thirty-year investigation that pulls from FBI files, government and family archives, photographs, correspondence, and interviews.In today's Book Gang conversation, Kuehn reflects on reporting on her own lineage, the ethical and emotional stakes of uncovering a truth that implicates the people who raised her, and how she structured the book across dual timelines to hold both the global history and her personal reckoning.This episode airs the week of National Holocaust Remembrance Day. This moment calls us to remember not only the victims of Nazi violence, but also the systems, enablers, and silences that allowed it to spread. Christine now uses her research to support Jewish organizations, which you will hear about in today's conversation as we unbox the past together.In this emotional conversation, we explore:📚 A letter that rewrote a life: Christine walks us through the 1994 moment that sent her on a decades-long quest for truth. We talk about disbelief, denial, and what it feels like to realize your family story is not the one you were told.📚 Investigating your own inheritance: Drawing on her background as a journalist, Christine explains how her research methods evolved as new archives opened and technology advanced, how she assessed unreliable or conflicting memories, and what it was like to work alongside her husband while racing against her father’s dementia.📚 Espionage hidden in plain sight: We unpack the book’s most chilling revelations. Nazi agents embedded in 1930s Hawaii, social fronts built on glamour and charm, and how everyday excess eventually drew the FBI’s attention.📚📚 BONUS BOOK LIST: This week’s companion book list features 22 Books About Spies that include both fiction and nonfiction titles to give Christine's book a landing place. Patrons will receive printable checklists for their next visit to the library!Meet Christine KuehnChristine Kuehn was cocooned in the sanctity of a quiet suburban life when, in 1994, a letter from a historian pierced that bubble, sending her on a thirty-year quest to uncover a horrendous family secret kept hidden for half a century. Following a career in journalism, public relations, and nonprofits, Christine now lives in Maryland with her husband, close to their three grown children. Family of Spies is her debut book. Mentioned in this episode:Download Today's Show TranscriptBuy Me a Coffee - I'm grateful for your support this year!NEW BOOK LIST: 22 Books About Spies to Read NowJoin the February Book Club 2/26 at 8 PM ET (People of Means)2026 MomAdvice Book Club Books (All 12 Selections)People of Means by Nancy JohnsonMilo Todd is Reclaiming Trans History (The Lilac People)Family of Spies by Christine KuhnBest Offer Wins by Marisa KashinoTable for Two by Amor TowlesFrozen River by Ariel LawhonAt Dawn We Slept by Gordon W. PrangeShirley Temple in HawaiiRoyal HawaiianThe World’s 30 Greatest Women Spies by Kurt D. SingerBookshop.org pays a 10% commission on every sale and matches it with 10% to support independent bookstores. Connect With Us:Join the Book Gang PatreonConnect With Christine Kuehn on InstagramConnect with Amy on Instagram, TikTok, or MomAdviceGet My Happy List NewsletterGet the Daily Kindle Deals Newsletter
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    59 min
  • When Pain Becomes Content (Just Watch Me)

    When Pain Becomes Content (Just Watch Me)
    Jan 23 2026
    Author Lior Torenberg unpacks her debut Just Watch Me, a darkly funny livestream novel that exposes the cost of performing pain online, and our hunger to watch.Debut author Lior Torenberg joins us to talk about Just Watch Me, a bold, internet-shaped novel that unfolds over seven days of nonstop livestreaming. Together, we dig into what it means to write fiction rooted in our current digital moment, and why stories about performance feel so urgent right now.We talk about Torenberg’s path from initial concept to publication, the realities of debuting with a formally inventive novel, and the creative risks of building a narrative around livestream chats, audience participation, and escalating dares. She also walks us through the choice to compress the story into a single week, and how that story structure intensifies both tension and intimacy.In this fun conversation, we explore:📚 Writing inside internet culture: Lior discusses the creative risks of anchoring a debut novel so firmly in 2020s livestream culture, why she wasn’t afraid of the book “dating” itself, and how she captured the chaos of livestream chats—misspellings, slang, trolls, and all—while keeping the story readable and propulsive.📚 Performance, pain, and the cost of being seen: We unpack the escalating hot pepper challenges, Dell’s physical vulnerability, and the darker questions the book raises about what audiences are willing to watch (and what creators are willing to endure) when financial survival depends on strangers.📚 Loneliness, debt, and the gig-economy cliff edge: Beneath the dark humor and inventive form, Just Watch Me is a deeply human story about grief, medical debt, and the feast-or-famine reality of online survival. Lior reflects on how she wanted readers to feel about Dell by the end—and what the novel reveals about our collective longing to be noticed.📚📚 BONUS BOOK LIST: This week’s companion list features 43 Debut Books of 2026, including every upcoming release currently on my radar (plus future podcast guests) so you can start reserving library holds and building your TBR early. Patrons will receive printable checklists for their next visit to the library!Meet Lior TorenbergLior Torenberg’s work has been published by One Story, MAYDAY, the Poetry Society of New York, and others. She received her MFA in Creative Writing from New York University and is a graduate of the Lighthouse Writers Workshop’s Book Project. Just Watch Me is her first novel. Mentioned in this episode:Download Today's Show TranscriptBuy Me a Coffee - I'm grateful for your support this year!NEW BOOK LIST: These Debut Books of 2026 Should Not Be MissedJoin the January Book Club 1/29 at 8 PM ET (Eleanore of Avignon)2026 MomAdvice Book Club Books (All 12 Selections)Eleanore of Avignon by Elizabeth DeLozierJust Watch Me by Lior TorenbergNYC Hot Sauce ExpoTTYL Series by Lauren MyracleMargot’s Got Money Troubles by Rufi ThorpeHot OnesBookshop.org pays a 10% commission on every sale and matches it with 10% to support independent bookstores.Connect With Us:Join the Book Gang PatreonConnect With Lior Torenberg on Instagram or her WebsiteConnect with Amy on Instagram, TikTok, or MomAdviceGet My Happy List NewsletterGet the Daily Kindle Deals Newsletter
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    54 min
  • January Book Club: Eleanore of Avignon

    January Book Club: Eleanore of Avignon
    Jan 16 2026
    Author Elizabeth DeLozier joins us to discuss Eleanore of Avignon, our January Book Club pick, and her bold debut, shaped by plague, medicine, and female power.In this free conversation, Elizabeth DeLozier takes us behind the scenes of Eleanore of Avignon—a richly researched historical novel set during the Black Death, written during the modern pandemic that reshaped how many of us think about illness, fear, and survival.Elizabeth shares how long it took to bring this ambitious debut from first idea to finished book, what it was like to pitch such a high-stakes story as a first novel, and how her background in medicine deeply informed the way she wrote Eleanore’s work as a healer and midwife. We also talk about writing outside of traditional MFA pathways, balancing historical plausibility with emotionally resonant characters, and what surprised her most while researching 14th-century Avignon.Gratitude to Our Show Patrons: This week's episode is open to all listeners thanks to generous donations made through Buy Me a Coffee and your community memberships. If you’d like to keep the conversation going, you’re invited to join our Patreon Book Club chat on January 29 at 8 PM ET, where we’ll dive deeper into spoilers, themes, and reader reactions. Membership is $5 a month, or you can prepay for the year and save 10%. In this fascinating conversation, we explore:📚 Writing a big, ambitious debut: From outlining and pitching to finding an agent and selling the book, Elizabeth walks us through the long road to publication and what she learned along the way.📚 Medicine, midwifery, and historical research: How Elizabeth’s medical background shaped Eleanore’s role as a healer, the realities of early medical practices, and the most astonishing details she uncovered while researching the period. 📚 Plague stories then and now: The eerie parallels between 1347 and the present day, why readers keep returning to historical plague narratives, and how Eleanore of Avignon sits in conversation with books like Hamnet.📚 📚 BONUS WEEKLY BOOK LIST: Don't miss this week's companion list with 18 Unforgettable Midwife Books, perfect for readers who want to explore these themes further. Patrons will receive printable checklists for their next visit to the library!Meet Elizabeth DeLozierElizabeth DeLozier holds a BA in Spanish literature, a BS in biological anthropology, and a doctorate in physical therapy. A practicing pelvic floor physical therapist, avid traveler, animal lover, and history nerd, she lives in Southern California with her husband, twin sons, and rescue dogs. Eleanore of Avignon is her debut novel, and her sophomore novel, The Whitechapel Full Moon Society, will be published in 2026.Mentioned in this episode:Download Today's Show TranscriptNEW BOOK LIST: 18 Unforgettable Midwife BooksJoin the January Book Club 1/29 at 8 PM ET (Eleanore of Avignon)2026 MomAdvice Book Club Books (All 12 Selections)Eleanore of Avignon by Elizabeth DeLozierabookoliveThe Great Mortality by John KellyStation ElevenA Distant Mirror by Barbara TuchmanHamnetHamnet by Maggie O’FarrellThe God of the Woods by Liz MooreTaylor Swift - The End of an EraThe White Chapel Full Moon Society by Elizabeth DeLozierBookshop.org pays a 10% commission on every sale and matches it with 10% to support independent bookstores. Connect With Us:Join the Book Gang PatreonConnect With Elizabeth DeLozier on Instagram or her WebsiteConnect with Amy on Instagram, TikTok, or MomAdviceGet My Happy List NewsletterGet the Daily Kindle Deals Newsletter
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    57 min
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