Erin and I both adored Kin by Tayari Jones, and we decided to do a whole episode discussing it! The first 15ish minutes are spoiler free, so if you haven't read it yet, you can listen and decide if the vibes sound right for you. After that, we get into everything we loved about the characters, the prose, the plotting and the themes!

Kin by Tayari Jones Synopsis

Vernice and Annie, two motherless daughters raised in Honeysuckle, Louisiana, have been best friends and neighbors since earliest childhood, but are fated to live starkly different lives. Raised by a fierce aunt determined to give her a stable home in the wake of her mother’s death, Vernice leaves Atlanta at eighteen for Spelman College, where she joins a sisterhood of powerfully connected Black women and marries into an affluent family. Annie, abandoned by her dissolute mother as a child, and fixated on the idea of finding her and filling the bottomless hole left by her absence, sets off on a journey that will take her into a world of peril and adversity, as well as love and adventure, and culminate in a battle for her life.

Tayari Jones Oprah Interview

Tayari Jones on The Stacks

Erin's Interview with ReShanda Tate about With Love From Harlem

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This week, I talk with Keith Giles, Mary Terhune, Zac Cannon and Nish Dubashia about their collective work in Quantum Theology: Volume One.

Listen to hear about:

• How science and spirituality may not be opposites, but different ways of exploring the same underlying reality
• How ideas from quantum physics—like interconnectedness and entanglement—echo concepts found in mysticism and religious traditions
• Why many contributors believe the sense of separation between people, cultures, and religions is an illusion, and what recognizing our interconnectedness could mean for humanity.
• How mystical experiences challenge the limits of language—why some spiritual insights can’t fully be explained, only experienced
• How awakening to shared consciousness could transform ethics, compassion, and how we treat one another
  

Quantum Theology, Volume One Summary

Quantum Theology: Volume One brings together an extraordinary and diverse group of scientists, mathematicians, theologians, mystics, authors, and cultural commentators to explore one of the most provocative conversations of our time: What happens when Quantum Physics and Theology begin to overlap?

Edited and curated by author Keith Giles, this book explores the intersection between science and faith.

Featuring contributions by:
Brandy Anderson, Zac Cannon, Brother Jason (Jay) Clark, Michelle Collins, Stuart Delony, Nish Dubashia, Eric Scot English, Jeremy L. Evans, Ellen Haroutunian, DMin., Dr. Steve McVey, Mark Merizan, Jenny Lorraine Nielsen, William Sarill, Mary Terhune, R.N., Mo Thomas, and John van de Laar.

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This week, I talk with Juliet Izon about her debut contemporary fiction novel The Encore.

Listen now to hear about:

• How Izon, a longtime journalist pivoted into fiction, writing secret scenes at night, cold-DMing composers on Reddit for research, and building a debut novel from pure creative obsession
• Fame, artistic ambition, and complicated family dynamics, especially the mother-daughter tension between Anna and Lottie, and what happens when talent and identity collide
• The craft details that make this fictional music world feel real: tour bus logistics, conservatory life, perfect pitch, scoring scenes with playlists, and why the book’s title changed from Arpeggio to The Encore

The Encore Synopsis

In 2003, at the prestigious Brookfield Conservatory in Boston, a chance encounter sparks an inimitable friendship between driven pianist and singer Anna Buckley and composer wunderkind Will Pendleton. Over the next four years, as they strive toward careers as professional musicians, their bond deepens both from shared prodigious skill and the inexplicable sense that they’re kindred souls. But on the precipice of graduation, one night forever alters the trajectory of their lives, destroying their relationship in the process.

Twenty years later in New York, 16-year-old piano virtuoso Lottie Thomas is grappling with the rigors of her elite prep school and the confounding disappearance of the woman who gave her up at birth. When Lottie suddenly discovers the startling truth of her identity, the revelation catalyzes a chain of events that not only reunites Lottie with her birth parents, but forces them together on a careening, cross-country rock and roll tour-bus journey. And it is there, trapped in these tight confines, that the three must finally reconcile with the irrevocable choices made a decade-and-a-half earlier.

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MacKenzie Green @missusa2mba

It's a solo ep today! I get into the full story of my first ever in-person author interview at Wild Geese Bookshop with Kate Alice Marshall! I give a play by play of what was going on in my head, and share some fun facts about Kate Alice Marshall.

For me, the experience ended up being a reminder of how far Bookwild has come. I reflect on the journey from starting a bookish podcast with no audience to finding a community of readers, authors, and indie bookstores who now feel like found family.

Get a copy of Kate Alice Marshall's The Girls Before

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MacKenzie Green @missusa2mba

This week, I talk with Stephen Graham Jones about his new short story Night of the Mannequins, and the many horror books he's also written.

Listen to hear:

• A behind-the-scenes look at how Stephen Graham Jones writes horror: following first sentences, trusting surprise endings, and letting stories unfold without outlining or theme-driven intent.
• Insight into why teenage perspectives, slashers, and “final girl” narratives resonate in his work, and how horror can function as a justice fantasy in an unfair world.
• A deep dive into Night of the Mannequins, including its origin from a title and prank idea, plus a broader conversation on genre-blending, identity in storytelling, and why he writes to genuinely scare readers.

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Halley Sutton @halleysutton25

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MacKenzie Green @missusa2mba

This week, I talk with Susana M. Morris about her Octavia E. Butler cultural biography Positive Obsession: The Life and Times of Octavia E. Butler.

Listen to hear about:

• Octavia Butler’s journey from a shy, self-diagnosed dyslexic student to a groundbreaking sci-fi author, and how her relentless “positive obsession” with writing shaped her career.
  
• How Butler’s work reflects deep research, historical pattern recognition, and sharp social insight—explaining why her stories feel prophetic even though she chaffed at that comparison.
  
• The personal costs and creative rewards of dedicating your life to meaningful work, and how Butler’s example encourages artists and writers to pursue their own Positive Obsessions.

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This week, I talk with Susan Walter about her new airplane thriller Murder at 30,000 Feet. She shares her inspiration from the story, how she writes such cinematic thrillers, and how she managed multiple POVs.

Murder at 30,000 Feet Synopsis

It’s a ticket to paradise. Flight 868 with nonstop service to San Juan, Puerto Rico. Over a dozen tipsy passengers are off to a destination wedding. A team of high school baseball players are headed to a tournament. The plane is packed with people eager to escape their lives, and others who can’t wait to return to their beloved home.

But sweet anticipation turns to terror when a lightning strike short-circuits the avionics and plunges the plane into darkness. When the lights come back on, a passenger is found brutally murdered, with only a bewildered air marshal to solve the crime. He soon realizes that several passengers are harboring dark secrets, but the identity of the murderer eludes him. There’s only one certainty: the killer is on the plane.

Thousands of feet above the earth with thunderstorms closing in, the danger outside is as grave as the mounting threat within. Can the captain outrun the storm? Or will the murderer among them bring the plane down first?

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Halley Sutton @halleysutton25

Brian Watson @readingwithbrian

MacKenzie Green @missusa2mba