Everyone Loved It But Me

Lisa discusses None of This is True by Lisa Jewell, which is a thriller, but Lisa discusses how it is more of a slow-burn than a thriller and the title certainly sets you up for some predictable events. 

Books discussed: 

The Last House on Needless Street By Catriona Ward

Lisa discusses The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon, which is a historical fiction book about Martha Ballard, who was a real midwife, who delivered more than 800 babies. The book is fiction, but Martha wrote a journal for more than 25 years. 

 A Midwife's Tale, the Life of Martha Ballard – based on the diary 1785 to 1812. 

 For more information, find Lisa on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and her website.

Lisa and Boston artist Julia Purdy discuss Still Life by Louise Penny, the first Inspector Gamache series. This was published in 2005 and there are 18 books in this series. It is an internationally recognized series. 

 This article in Vox discusses how Louise Penny has perfected the literary genre with combining murder mysteries in a small town idyllic town filled with artists. 

Julia is an artist and you can find her on her website or on Instagram. 

 Books Discussed on this show:

 Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo...

 Lisa discusses the popular memoir Be Ready When The Luck Happens by Ina Garten. Garten is a longtime Food Network star and and Instagram star. She delves into her career, and talks a great deal about real estate. 

Lisa discusses 10 books that will be released in 2025 that she thinks should be ones you consider for different reasons. Some are very popular authors and some are quite uniqute. 

 Here’s the list of books that Lisa suggests you consider reading this year. 

 Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros 

 The Next Day: Transitions, Change, and Moving Forward by Melinda French Gates

 Source Code: My Beginnings by Bill Gates

 The Lamb by Lucy Rose

 Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid

 The Listeners by Maggie Siefvater

Bury Our Bones in...

Lisa discusses and ranks the books she read in January from least favorite to most favorite. And, she discusses three books that will be released this year, that she believes will be super popular. 

Books discussed: 

 Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr. 

 The Santa Suit by Mary Kay Andrew

 Enigma Girls: How Ten Teenagers Broke Ciphers, Kept Secrets, and Helped Win World War II (Scholastic Focus) by Candace Fleming

 Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry

 Everything is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of our Deadliest...

Lisa discusses Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr. This was published in 2021 and brings together a wide range of characters ranging from Constantinople 1453 to Idaho in 2020. These characters will ultimately be connected by the fictional book Cloud Cuckoo Land. 

 Books discussed: 

 All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

 The Overstory by Richard Powers

 For more information, find Lisa on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and her website.

Lisa and special guest Emily Binder discuss All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker. They have an in-depth discussion about this book, which is billed as a thriller, but they feel the pacing is much slower than they anticipated. 

Emily is a marketer, entrepreneur and founder of boutique agency Beetle Moment Marketing and the marketing platform WealthVoice. She is on LinkedIn and X. She's also on Instagram @EmilyBinder. 

 Books discussed: 

 The Gold Coast by Nelson DeMille

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon 

Margo's Got Money T...

Lisa ranks the books she read in December 2024 from least favorite to most favorite. She read a number of young adult books this month and ranked those and then ranked the adult books. This eposide doesn't contain any spoilers of books. 

Books discussed on this episode: 

Beezus and Ramona by Beverly Cleary 

Ramona and her Mother by Bevery Cleary

Ramona Quimby Age Eight

Mouse and the Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery 

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever: A Chris...

Lisa discusses her five favorite and least favorite books she read in 2024. There are no spoilers discussed for any books in this episode. 

 Books discussed. 

Romancing Mister Bridgerton by Julia Quinn
Finding Me by Viola Davis
After Annie by Anna Quindlen
Happiness Falls by Angie Kim
Talking as Fast as I Can: From Gilmore Girls to Gilmore Girls (and Everything in Between) by Lauren Graham
The Last Black Unicorn by Tiffany Haddish
If You Would Have Told Me by John Stamos
James by Percival Everett.
Iron Flame by...

Lisa discusses several books that could be on the screen in 2025. These are all extraordinarily popular. It’s not guaranteed that these onscreen adaptations will come out in 2025. But they are in the works. 

Books discussed: 

Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

 Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

 The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid 

 Verity by Colleen Hoover.

 The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

 I Know What You Did Last Summer by Lois Duncan

 People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry

 Things...

 Lisa discusses one of the most popular books of 2024 – James by Percival Everett. This book is a retelling of Huckleberry Finn. 

 Other books discussed: 

 The Sellout by Paul Beatty

 The Intuitionist b Colson Whitehead

 
For more information, find Lisa on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and her website.

 *The book titles mentioned include affiliate links. You can support the podcast by purchasing a book with the links because the podcast receives a small commission. 

 Lisa discusses the books she read in November and ranks them from worst to best. She doesn’t share any spoilers on these books, but instead offers up a synopsis for each book and shares what readers might like about each one. 

 James by Percival Everett just won the National Book Award for fiction. It is a retelling of Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from the perspective of James. 

Books Discussed 

 Salem's Lot by Stephen King

Margo's Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe 

The Third Gilmore Girl: A Memoir by...

On this episode, Lisa discusses Salem's Lot by Stephen King. This was the second book he wrote and is about what transpires when residents in the small town of Salem’s Lot in Maine become vampires. 

 In this blog, the reviewer writes about how much they love the book. 

Books discussed: 

Hatchet Girls by Diana Rodriguez Wallach


For more information, find Lisa on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and her website.

 *The book titles mentioned include affiliate links. You can support the podcast by purchasing a book with the link...

 Lisa discusses The Murder of Roger Ackroyd: A Hercule Poirot Mystery: The Official Authorized Edition by Agatha Christie

 The New York Times discusses how riveting this book is even though it doesn’t have the gruesome details of some murder mystery books. Another article in the LA Review - Getting Fooled Again, rereading Agatha Christie's The Murder of Roger Ackroyd in the Age of Trump – highlights how Christie focuses on people’s stereotypes of men and women. 

 Books discussed: 

 Home is Where the Bodies Are by Jeneva Rose

 The Last House on Needless S...

 Lisa discussed the books she read in October and ranked them from worst to best. 

Books Discussed:

 Sandwich by Catherine Newman

 The Night in Question by  Susan Fletcher 

 Confessions of a Prairie Bitch: How I Survived Nellie Oleson and Learned to Love Being Hated by Alison Arngrim 

Out on a Limb by Hannah Bonam-Young 

 The Murder of Roger Ackroyd: A Hercule Poirot Mystery: The Official Authorized Edition by Agatha Christie

 Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery 

 Home is Where the Bodies Are by Jeneva...

Lisa discusses Sandwich by Catherine Newman, published June 18, 2024. It’s been described as the perfect beach book. It highlights Rocky, who is in her mid-50s and struggling with menopause, anger and grief. 

 The Washington Post discusses the witty banter and the issues that Rocky faces, thanks to Menopause. 

 Books Discussed: 

 Bomb Shelter: Love, Time, and Other Explosives by Mary Laura Philpott 

 Tom Lake by Ann Patchett

For more information, find Lisa on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and her website.

 *The book titles mentioned include affiliate links. You c...

 Lisa discusses Anne of Green Gables by Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery. This book was written more than 100 years ago and Lisa talks about Anne’s personality and some of the themes in the book. Lisa talks about the strong female friendships. She also discusses how some of Anne's extreme reactions are likely a result of her earlier trauma in life. 

 Books discussed: 

 A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith 

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

For more information, find Lisa on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and her webs...

Lisa discusses a preview of some anticipated books coming out in the fall of 2024 as well as a few new fall books that might not be getting the same amount of attention. 

 Somewhere Beyond the Sea by TJ Klune

 Be Ready When the Luck Happens: A Memoir by Ina Garten. A review describes this as the dishiest book you’ll read all year. I Read Ina Garten's Memoir In One Night—Here's What Shocked Me The Most

 The Life Impossible: A Novel by Matt Haig

 Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout

 Rev...

Lisa discussed the 11 books she read in September and ranked them in order from worst to best. This month, she read a wide range of celebrity memoirs and ranks all of her books. 

 Books Lisa Discusses: 

 The Last Black Unicorn by Tiffany Haddish

 If You Would Have Told Me by John Stamos

 Talking as Fast as I Can: From Gilmore Girls to Gilmore Girls (and Everything in Between) by Lauren Graham

  Have I Told You This Already?: Stories I Don't Want to Forget to Remember by Lauren Graham<...

Lisa celebrates her third anniversary of Everyone Loved It But Me. She discusses how the podcast has changed and grown over the past three years. She discusses challenges with the podcast and lessons learned. She also discusses milestones of the podcast and the most popular episodes during the past two years 

She answers questions she’s received from listeners and discusses her future goals for the podcast.

For more information, find Lisa on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and her website.

Lisa talks in-depth about the beloved comedy and memoir Yes Please by Amy Poehler.

This is a hilarious book - though only some things don't work as well on the page they might in standup. The New York Times addresses how much of the book is filler with empty pages for writing notes and parts of scripts in the book. 

 Books discussed: 

 Finding Me by Viola Davis

 In Pieces by Sally Field

For more information, find Lisa on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and her website.

 *The book titles mentio...

 Lisa discusses and analyzes Tina Fey's memoir Bossypants, which she wrote in 2011. It is more like a comedy sketch than a deep-dive memoir. 

The Washington Post describes how this book doesn’t go beyond Fey’s humor. She sticks with her funny Saturday Night Live types of bits. She doesn’t share her life’s challenges. In The Guardian, writer Carole Cadwalladr talks about the fact that Fey doesn’t offer up any details about her life than her fans already know. She points out that there are very few revelations. 

 Books Discussed: 

Bomb Shelter: L...

Lisa revisited this episode with guest Nicole Zelniker where they discussed The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo written by Taylor Jenkins Reid. There are spoilers during this discussion.  Nicole has written  Letters I'll Never Send and Until We Fall. Check out the rest of her work on her website. 

In an interview with PopSugar Reid writes about how Elizabeth Taylor inspired the novel.  

Books discussed: 

·      In the Dream House: A Memoir by Carmen Maria Machado

·      On Beauty by Zadie Smith

·      Wander by Allison Kate Stalberg

·      How Should A Person Be:? A Novel F...

Lisa discussed and ranked the eight books she read in August. She doesn’t offer any spoilers on these books; rather, she shares a little bit about each book. 

 Books read and ranked in August 

Bomb Shelter: Love, Time, and Other Explosives by Mary Laura Philpott 

The Life We Bury by Allen Eskens 

 After Annie by Anna Quindlen

Bits and Pieces: My Mother, My Brother, and Me by Whoopie Goldberg

 My Love Story by Tina Turner

 One of Us is Dead by Jeneva Rose

 Happine...

Lisa offers a treat episode in which she discusses three overlooked books. These books aren’t super popular, but you can consider adding them to your to-be-read list. 

Bomb Shelter: Love, Time, and Other Explosives by Mary Laura Philpott 

The Life We Bury by Allen Eskens 

 After Annie by Anna Quindlen

For more information, find Lisa on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and her website.

*The book titles mentioned include affiliate links. You can support the podcast by purchasing a book with the links because the podcast receives a small...

Enjoy this revisited episode where Lisa and bookstore owner Laura Larson discuss The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. This is a book that addresses suicide and mental health issues. NPR wrote this article tiled “It’s Not Quite Dark Enough in the Midnight Library.” 

 Laura opened Odyssey Bookstore in March 2020. The store focuses on sustainability and is nestled in a darling spot in Ithaca, New York. You can follow the bookstore on Facebook or Instagram. In next week’s episode, Lisa and Laura will talk about what it was like for Laura to open a bookstore amid the pandem...

Lisa discusses Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil: A Savannah Story by John Brendt. This book is a non-fiction novel that was published in 1994 and is written as part of the love story of Savannah and part of true crime. 

 Books Discussed: 

Tell Me Everything: The Story of a Private Investigation by Erika Krouse 

 For more information, find Lisa on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and her website.

*The book titles mentioned include affiliate links. You can support the podcast by purchasing a book with the links because the podcast receives compe...

Lisa discusses her first five star book of the year – Finding Me by Viola Davis. This is a powerful and touching memoir written by Davis. She delves into her childhood of poverty along with domestic abuse and sexual abuse that enclosed her family.

For more information, find Lisa on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and her website.

*The book titles mentioned include affiliate links. You can support the podcast by purchasing a book with the links because the podcast receives compensation.

Lisa changed her format for a summer episode. Instead of discussing one popular book, she discussed three overlooked books. These are all books that aren’t selling millions of copies. 

 Books Discussed: 

Terrace Story by Hillary Leichter

How to Read a Book by Monica Wood

The Dubious Pranks of Shaindy Goodman by Mari Lowe

For more information, find Lisa on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and her website.

*The book titles mentioned include affiliate links. You can support the podcast by purchasing a book with the lin...

Lisa discusses Romancing Mister Bridgerton by Julia Quinn, the historical romance between Penelope Featherington and Colin Bridgerton. Here, she discusses the key differences between the book and Season 3 of Bridgerton, which just came out in the summer of 2024. 

 Books discussed: 

 The Queen's Gambit by Evie Dunmore

 For more information, find Lisa on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and her website.

*The book titles mentioned include affiliate links. You can support the podcast by purchasing a book with the links because the podcast receives compensation.

Lisa discusses Romancing Mister Bridgerton by Julia Quinn, the historical romance about Penelope Featherington and Colin Bridgerton. Season 3 of Bridgerton, which highlights this romance, was just released. In today’s episode, Lisa focuses on the book. 

 Next week’s episode, Lisa will discuss the book versus the TV show. 

 The Duke Undone by Joanna Lowell

 Mr. Malcolm's List by Suzanne Allain

For more information, find Lisa on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and her website.

*The book titles mentioned include affiliate links. You can support the podcast by purchasing a book with the l...

Lisa discusses Silent Book Clubs and the overlooked book Starfish by Lisa Fipps. A silent book club is where people show up and read quietly while being in the company of one another. It has grown in popularity and is a national movement. You'll be able to learn more here.

 She also discusses Starfish without any spoilers. Starfish is a book about Ellie, who is overweight and has been bullied most of her life. Her mother put her on her first diet when she was 4. The book is heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time.

F...

Lisa and Pam Bice discuss Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. Pam is a middle school teacher in Central Ohio.

Gone Girl is a super popular book and received many accolades from The New York Times. It’s been more than ten years since the book was published and spawned the “Gone Girl Effect,” according to The Ringer.  Flynn also says it’s not a question of when but if regarding a sequel in a People Magazine.

 Gone Girl Effect Books:
The Woman in the Window by A J Finn

The Girl on th...

Lisa and actress and author Christy Cashman discuss Christy’s new book, The Truth About Horses. In this episode, Christy shares how her love of horses inspired her book. There are no spoilers about the book in this episode. 

You can find an interview with Geraldine Books, author of Horse, with Christy Cashman here.

 Christy is on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. She also has a Tik Tok for her non-profit, YouthInk, @Youth-ink111 and @youthinkretreats. 

 
For more information, find Lisa on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and her website.

 *The book titles mentioned include...

 Lisa and Christy Cashman, actress and author, discuss Bridge To Terabithia by Katherine Paterson. This book was a Newberry Award winner and is one of the first books banned regularly due to its discussion about religion. 

 Christy wrote a heartwarming debut Young Adult novel, The Truth About Horses. Next week's episode will focus on The Truth About Horses.

 Books Discussed: 

 Front Desk (Front Desk #1) by Kelly Yang 

 The Yellow House by Emily O’Grady

 You can find Christy on social media. She is on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. She also has a...

Lisa discusses the debut novel, Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt. This was published in May 2022, and received rave remarks from critics and was picked by Jenna Bush Hagger as a book of the month for her book club. 

 This article on Book Shelf Fantasies highlights that it’s fun to hear from the mind of octopus  Marcellus. NPR includes an interview with Van Pelt, where she addresses how she watched octopus videos and that struck the idea to write about an octopus and their intelligence. 

 The Today Show recommends six other books to read he...

Enjoy this revisited episode as Lisa and her guest Storm Kopitsch, youth services director for the Fowlerville, Michigan Library, discuss The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood, originally written as Star Wars fan-fiction about Kylo Ren and Rey. 

 A number of publications lauded the book but Kirkus Reviews offers a constructive opinion.  

 Storm and her library post frequently on TikTok and have more than 140,000 followers and more than 3 million people have liked their videos. You can also find videos on Instagram

Books Discussed: 

 Nora Goes Off Script by Annabel Monoghan 

 B...

Lisa and her daughter Liz Hedger discuss how you could rate a library. There are many sites available to rate restaurants, schools, and movies. However, not as much analysis exists on how to review or rate a library. Lisa and Liz discuss criteria such as location, parking, accessibility, programs, and book collection. 

Here is an article that discusses essential aspects of libraries. 

*The book titles mentioned include affiliate links. You can support the podcast by purchasing a book with the links because the podcast receives a small commission. 

Lisa discusses her best and worst books of the year so far.  She read these books in 2024, not necessarily those published in 2024.

 Books Discussed: 

 Britney Spears: The Woman in Me by Britney Spears

 Counting the Cost by Jill Duggar

 Being Henry: The Fonz...and Beyond by Henry Winkler

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

 Cry, The Beloved Country by Alan Paton. 

 The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

 Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson

 The Bodyguard by Katherine Center

 Foster by Claire Keega...