In this episode, we're setting up Kristina Headrick, a yoga and meditation teacher, entrepreneur, and copywriter. As a Greek-American Virginia native, she is proud of her Southern and Greek passion for storytelling. She has written for brands like NOOM and publications like PASTE and Brooklyn Magazine. Her dream Saturday is a morning yoga class, wandering through a garden, and a romantic meal to cap it all off. She loves early summer and classic books. Her TED talk would be on the persephone myth, and even though it’s hard to perform for karaoke, her top choice is Jolene. Two books she recently loved were Scorpionfish and Cloud Cuckoo Land.
Winning bookstore: Octavia Books in New Orleans, LA
Books mentioned
Cult Classic By Sloane Crosley
Costalegre by Courtney Maum
James by Percival Everett
The Life and Loves of a She Devil by Fay Weldon
The Everlasting by Katy Simpson Smith
Clickbait by Holly Baxter
We're setting up Sarah Dees, a professor of religious history and cultures who has researched and published widely on appropriation of Native American medicine and art. She also is deeply interested, personally and academically, in Dolly Parton. She is late to watching Ted Lasso but is super into its portrayal of masculinity. Her dream vaca is Scandinavia, and while she’s technically Sagittarius, her birthday is right on the edge and she identifies more with Capricorns. She recently read and loved Detransition, Baby and the Weaver and the Witch Queen.
Winning bookstore: Scuppernong Books in Greensboro, NC
Books:
The Dearly Beloved by Cara Wall
She Come By It Natural by Sarah Smarsh
Exhibit by RO Kwon
The Mutual Friend by Carter Bays
White Magic by Elissa Washuta
Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett
Today, we're setting up Mariah Oller! Mariah is a cell biologist turned tarot reader, artist, and educator. Her clients include celebrities, surgeons, therapists, professors, attorneys and more. Her work has been featured in Bustle, Oprah Daily, and the Today Show. Mariah is Gemini Sun / Libra Moon / Scorpio Rising, and loves to garden in the spring. She’s a self-proclaimed snob about textures and loves the show Broad City. She recently read and loved Circe and The Cloisters, and doesn’t like books with disempowered women.
Wordsworth Bookstore in Little Rock, Arkansas
Books Mentioned
Today, we're setting up Ellpetha Tsivicos, a Cypriot-American artist, performer, director, author, filmmaker, and singer, who says her home is on stage. Her production company, One Whale’s Tale, creates maximalist work that blends music, dance, film, food and narrative storytelling — turning plays into multidisciplinary performances. Two recent books she loved were Song of Achilles + Island of Missing Trees, and she’s down for classic or modern books.
Books we recommended (and please support East Bay Booksellers)
Today, we're setting up Sarah Cady. Sarah is a nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopist at a university, who also is a partial owner of a plant store. She recently read and loved The Good Daughter by Karin Slaughter and The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix Harrow. She’s a big fan of farmers market shopping on a Saturday morning, and ending the day with grilling and beers on the porch at home. She’s a gemini who likes Classic books and could give an on the spot ted talk about superconducting magnets or grief. She’s impressed by people who remember to send thank you notes, and loves both the Colin Firth and Matthew MacFadyen P&P. A quote from her survey is that “there is just something so comforting to me about Regency era lady problems.”
Winning bookstore
Garden District Book Shop in New Orleans
Our picks
Give Me Your Hand by Megan Abbott
The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd
Lone Women by Victor LaValle
Griffin and Sabine by Nick Bantock
Fellowship Point by Alice Elliott Dark
Heartbreaker by Sarah MacLean
Today, we're setting up Victoria Leandra, an award winning journalist who covers food, identity, travel and music for places like HuffPost, VICE, and more. She’s also a content creator and podcaster, well known for her El ADN podcast, listed as one of Spotify’s favorite podcasts of 2022. She considers herself romantic, but likes the random kindness kind of romance, but also is a sucker for the drama of Love is Blind. She admits that she becomes very basic in the fall (apple picking, pumpkin pie, and all of that) but has no apologies for that. She wants a tattoo of Puerto Rico, and is so impressed by stories of mothers thriving. She recently read and enjoyed Where the Crawdads Sing and Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and wants to read more fiction.
The winning bookstore
Garcia Street Books in Santa Fe, New Mexico
Book picks
Permanent Record by Mary H.K. Choi
Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld
All This Could be Different by Sarah Thankam Mathews
Family Lore by Elizabeth Acevedo
Lucie Yi is Not a Romantic by Lauren Ho
Today, we're setting up Gurki Basra. Gurki is a thought leader with an MBA from UT Austin and currently enrolled in Pepperdine’s psychology masters program. She has worked in the fashion and retail industry, having worked at Barneys New York, Neiman Marcus, and numerous other companies as a jewelry buyer. She writes the newsletter Happily Ever Single, and was a reluctant TV reality star for Netflix’s first dating reality show, Dating Around. She recently loved and enjoyed Lori Gottleib’s Maybe You Should Talk to Someone and Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments by Saidiya Hartman. She loves hiking and sleeping in on Saturdays, and is a total summer person. Her on the spot ted talk would be about how going on a reality TV show showed her how complicated humans are, and she thinks everyone should watch Insecure. Gurki, welcome!
The winning bookstore
Greedy Reads in Baltimore, MD
Book picks
Ghosts by Dolly Alderton
Easy Beauty by Chloe Cooper Jones
Seek You by Kristen Radtke
How to Be a Person in the World by Heather Havrilesky
August Blue by Deborah Levy
Big Swiss by Jen Beagin
We're setting up Seth Rubin, a queer, trans, and nonbinary Los Angeles-based comedian and writer. Seth’s writing has been published in The New Yorker, The Onion, Reductress, McSweeney’s, and more. They currently write full-time for Jackbox Games and they were named one of Gold Comedy’s 22 Comedians to Watch in 2022. With a PhD in geology up their sleeve, Seth’s on the spot TED talk would be about volcanoes. They’re a snob about ice cream and movies, and they don’t consider themselves a romantic. A perfect Saturday for Seth includes waking up late, brunch and the Saturday crossword, and going to the movies or a bookstore. Seth has twenty tattoos, but would love to add one of a sandwich. Seth recently read and enjoyed Bunny by Mona Awad and Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead. Seth, welcome!
The winning bookstore: Marble City Books
The picks
Outline by Rachel Cusk
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
Ripe by Sarah Rose Etter
Magic for Beginners by Kelly Link
Mrs. S by K. Patrick
People Collide by Isle McElroy
Where to find us:
Find our show online at blinddatewithabookpod.com and @bookmeetcute on Twitter and Instagram. Please follow and tell us all the books you've fallen in love with recently.
For our first episode of Season Three, we're setting up Julio Alvarez, creator of the Let’s Go with Julio podcast and founder of Out in Tech, the largest LGBTQ+ tech networking community in the world.
After working at several Silicon Valley companies, Julio struck out on his own to become a coach and speaker. Julio recently read and enjoyed The Garden Within and The Way of Integrity, but shies away from books that are too analytical. He wants to relax. His dream Saturday is a bike ride around Central Park, scrambled eggs and salmon on toast, followed by a low-key afternoon.
His karaoke go-to is “More than Able”, and he thinks everyone should watch Titanic and used to have it in the background every night for years before bed.
The winning bookstore
The Boerne Bookshop in Boerne, Texas
Our picks
How to be an Adult in Relationships by David Richo
Year of Yes by Shonda Rhimes
Family Meal by Bryan Washington
The Feast of Love by Charles Baxter
The Book of Love by Kelly Link
Congratulations, the Best Is Over! By R. Eric Thomas
Looking to cozy down with a book this winter? In this episode, we discuss the definition of a "winter read" (and if there is one), and share our picks for books to read this season.
Books Mentioned
On this special bonus episode of Blind Date With a Book, we sit down with Meghan Phillips to discuss our favorite boarding school novels. Meghan is the author of the upcoming flash fiction chapbook Abstinence Only. Titles mentioned include:
Bonus picks
On this episode, we're setting up Sterling Melcher. Sterling is an multidisciplinary artist who lives in Philly. His work investigates the connections between performance, absurd philosophy, hard sciences, and the political landscape. He also manages a restaurant, so his weekends and nights are usually busy. Sterling’s favorite season is fall, for its mood lighting and perfect wardrobe options, and his dream vacation would be backpacking in Scandinavia, then skipping over to St. Petersburg before flying back to the US. He’s a self proclaimed movie snob, especially in that he believes movies should be experienced in a theater with others, and his perfect double feature is watching the slasher film Mandy, starring Nicholas Cage, leading into the 2019 film version of Cats.
The picks
Open Me by Lisa Locasio
The Seventh Mansion by Maryse Meijer
Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell
The Architecture of Happiness by Alain de Botton
Stay and Fight by Madeline Ffitch
An Olive Grove in Ends by Moses McKenzie
Where to find us:
Find our show online at blinddatewithabookpod.com and @bookmeetcute on Twitter and Instagram. Please follow and tell us all the books you've fallen in love with recently.
Today, we're setting up Nicole Brinkley, Bookseller and Manager at Oblong Books in Rhinebeck, NY (and host of the Misshelved podcast). Nicole read and recently loved Year of the Witching and A Spindle Splintered, and she’s Oblong’s resident specialist for kids and SciFi Fantasy books. She loves autumn, and is impressed by other people’s generosity with their friends. She could give an on-the-spot TED talk about why frontline booksellers should make more money (we agree), or how Slenderman has big arms for big hugs. She’s looking to expand her reading list outside of her usual genres, and we’re more than happy to help.
The picks
Shop from the Lit.Bar
Neon Gods by Katee Robert
My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me: Forty New Fairy Tales
Well Matched by Jen DeLuca
The Inheritance of Orquidea Divina by Zoraida Cordova
White Is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi
Kill the Farm Boy by Delilah S. Dawson and Kevin Hearne
Where to find us:
Find our show online at blinddatewithabookpod.com and @bookmeetcute on Twitter and Instagram. Please follow and tell us all the books you've fallen in love with recently.
This episode, we're setting up Chelsey Hill, chorus manager and New York City-based illustrator. Chelsey’s work is often inspired by eccentric New Yorkers, as well as legendary musicians and performers. Her work has been featured as part of the LinkNYC Urban Haiku program, the Women Conductor’s Series, and clients include the Met Opera Chorus, Broadway Roulette and more. She recently read and loved Fun Home by Alison Bechdel and Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert, and she’s a total fan of sweater weather and awesome coats. She adores iced coffee, doesn’t believe in horoscopes, and wouldn’t consider herself a romantic. Her dream vacation would be to Scotland, and she loved Somebody Somewhere on HBO’s nice nod to Midwestern life.
The picks
Unlikely Animals by Annie Hartnett
Pop Song by Larissa Pham
Anatomy: A Love Story by Dana Schwartz
The Final Revival of Opal and Nev by Dawnie Walton
This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
Where to find us:
Find our show online at blinddatewithabookpod.com and @bookmeetcute on Twitter and Instagram. Please follow and tell us all the books you've fallen in love with recently.
Rachel chats with Emi Nietfeld, author of the debut memoir, ACCEPTANCE. ACCEPTANCE comes out on August 2, 2022, and follows Emi during her young adulthood, through the foster care system, mental health facilities, residence at an arts high school, temporary homelessness, and more on her way to college and beyond. Emi talks about the process of writing a memoir, plus recommendations for books she's loved recently.
Find Emi on Twitter, Instagram, or subscribe to her newsletter.
The Books We Talked About:
Acceptance by Emi Nietfeld
Blueprint your Bestseller by Stuart Horwitz
Notes on a Silencing by Lacy Crawford
NSFW by Isabel Kaplan
Post Traumatic by Chantal B Johnson
Counterfeit by Kirsten Chen
Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson (audiobook)
Sirens and Muses by Antonia Angress
On this week's show, we're setting up Bria Schirripa. Bria is a product manager by day and a writer and creator by night. She documents the latest happenings in New York’s charming West Village neighborhood on her page, the Bleecker Street Beat. Naturally, her dream Saturday consists of a walk in the neighborhood, in addition to drinking an overpriced latte and hoping for a Timothee Chalamet sighting.
Bria is an avid reader, and recently loved the novels The Boys Club by Erica Katz, Who is Maud Dixon by Alexandra Andrews, and Greenwich Park by Katherine Faulkner, but generally doesn’t love fantasy novels. A self-proclaimed snob about pasta, her dream vacation would be in Florence. She thinks she would have thrived in the late ‘70s and ‘80s thanks to big hair and disco.
The guest: Bria Schirripa
The picks:
Happy Hour by Marlowe Granados
Velvet Was the Night by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Beauty Queens by Libba Bray
Save Me the Plums by Ruth Reichl
Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter
Malibu Rising by Taylor Reid Jenkins
Where to find us:
Find our show online at blinddatewithabookpod.com and @bookmeetcute on Twitter and Instagram. Please follow and tell us all the books you've fallen in love with recently.
On this week's show, we're setting up John-Paul Gurnett, a multidisciplinary artist. JP is the co-founder of Queer Nite and serves as communications director for BFF Omaha, both now long-running queer institutions in Nebraska. When not building community through arts engagement, he taught English as a Second Language in a high school.
JP recently read and loved A History of My Brief Body by Billy-Ray Belcourt and Go Home, Ricky! by Gene Kwak, but sometimes struggles with reading fiction since he often reads with a priority to learn. He absolutely believes in astrology, and is a aries sun, sag moon, and gemini rising. He can be a snob about music and art, and he recently adored Yellowjackets.
The guest: JP Gurnett
The picks:
Head over to Montana
Fake Like Me by Barbara Bourland
Mouth to Mouth by Antoine Wilson
Ace of Spades by Faridah Abike-Iyimide
Known and Strange Things by Teju Cole
Some of My Best Friends: Essays on Lip Service by Tajja Isen
Bath Haus by PJ Vernon
Where to find us:
Find our show online at blinddatewithabookpod.com and @bookmeetcute on Twitter and Instagram. Please follow and tell us all the books you've fallen in love with recently.
On this week's show, we're setting up Shalita Grant, actress and founder of the company Four Naturals Hair. Shalita is a Tony-award nominated actress whose career on the stage has included runs at The Public Theater and Lincoln Center Theater, including originating the role of Cassandra in Christopher Durang's comedy Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike. Grant is well known for her recurring character on NCIS: New Orleans, Search Party, the Santa Clarita Diet, and the most recent season of YOU.
She recently read and loved Octavia Butler’s Bloodchild and other short stories and Brene Brown’s Power of Vulnerability, and says that she loves fall (especially because of the cozy socks) and could spend a whole autumn season in Barcelona. Her perfect day includes a hike with her girlfriend and a cuddle with her dogs, and she’s a snob about pizza.
The guest: Shalita Grant
The picks:
In the Shadow of the Mountain by Silvia Vasquez-Lavado
The Verifiers by Jane Pek
Trust Exercise by Susan Choi
The Gilda Stories by Jewelle Gomez
We Are Never Meeting in Real Life by Samantha Irby
How to Find a Princess by Alyssa Cole
Where to find us:
Find our show online at blinddatewithabookpod.com and @bookmeetcute on Twitter and Instagram. Please follow and tell us all the books you've fallen in love with recently.
Today, we're setting up Celia Aniskovich, New York City-based director and producer, well known for her co-production of How to Fix a Drug Scandal and her production of Surviving Jefferey Epstein. In 2021, she released a six-part podcast series for Wondery called the Spy Affair about Maria Butina and is working on a feature length film about disability rights. She recently read and loved How to Stop Time by Matt Haig and A Lesson Before Dying by Earnest Gaines. She considers herself a romantic, and her dream Saturday is a loungey morning with pastries and a long walk. If tattoos only lasted one year, she’d get the line “Do it for the Fat Lady” from her favorite book, Franny and Zooey, though she says she doesn’t love classics. She thinks everyone should watch One Tree Hill and she is a snob about snobby people.
The Guest: Celia Aniskovitch
The Picks
Plain Bad Heroines by emily m danforth
End of the World House by Adrienne Celt
Several People Are Typing by Calvin Kasulke
When We Lost Our Heads by Heather O’Neill
Olga Dies Dreaming by Xochitl Gonzalez
Go Home, Ricky by Gene Kwak
Where to find us:
Find our show online at blinddatewithabookpod.com and @bookmeetcute on Twitter and Instagram. Please follow and tell us all the books you've fallen in love with recently.
Today, we're setting up Molly Armstrong, a social justice analyst who focuses on child welfare issues. She has received the prestigious Kathryn A McDonald Award in Service in the NYC Family Court and was a Root-Tilden Scholar at NYU School of Law. She enjoys relaxing with a long walk, good book, and a delicious meal– but you probably won’t watch her enjoying reality TV, which she thinks is too cringey. She recently loved Michael Lewis’s The Premonition and Louise Penny’s All the Devils are Here. Her favorite season is fall, and if tattoos only lasted one year, she would get a tattoo of Our Lady of Guadalupe because of Our Lady’s strong feminine energy.
The Guest: Molly Armstrong
The Picks:
Judas by Astrid Holleeder
When I'm Gone, Look for Me in the East by Quan Barry
The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russel
Matrix by Lauren Groff
Lady in the Lake by Laura Lippman
Saints for All Occasions by J. Courtney Sullivan
Where to find us:
Find our show online at blinddatewithabookpod.com and @bookmeetcute on Twitter and Instagram. Please follow and tell us all the books you've fallen in love with recently.