Book Gang – Details, episodes & analysis

Allegra Goodman tells the surprising origin story of Isola—from a children's book discovery to immersive museum research—all written in complete secrecy.

In today's Book Gang episode, celebrated author Allegra Goodman joins me to discuss her stunning survival novel Isola, the incredible true story that inspired it, and the highly unusual creative process behind her most critically acclaimed book yet.

Allegra kept Isola a secret—entirely—from her agent, her family, and even close friends while she wrote it. She reveals why this story demanded privacy and how keeping it under wraps gave her a rare creative clarity. She also shares what it meant to research this historical setting in museums and archives and how a serendipitous find in a children's book 22 years ago sparked the idea that would grow into Isola.

In this inspiring conversation, Allegra and I discuss:

• Why she kept Isola a secret from everyone—even her agent and family—throughout the writing process. We explore what drove this decision, how it freed her creatively, and what it felt like to reveal the project once it was complete.
• The immersive research behind the novel, including museum visits and the spark of inspiration that came from a children's book during a late-night feeding session. Allegra traces the story's origin back 22 years, when she stumbled on a brief mention of a marooned noblewoman that she couldn't shake.
• What it's really like to be selected for both Reese's Book Club and Read With Jenna. Allegra is the first guest to share a behind-the-scenes look at these high-profile honors—how they differ, what surprised her, and how they've shaped her connection with readers.

BONUS BOOK LIST: This week, I’m sharing a companion book list with 25 Enthralling Books Set on Islands to read, including new releases and backlist titles. Whether you crave adventure, a love story, a small town, or historical fiction, this list has you covered.

Meet Allegra Goodman

Allegra Goodman's novels include Isola (a Reese's Book Club selection), Sam (a Read With Jenna Book Club selection), The Chalk Artist (winner of the Massachusetts Book Award), Intuition, The Cookbook Collector, ParadisePark, andKaaterskill Falls(a National Book Award finalist). Her fiction has appeared in The New Yorker and elsewhere and has been anthologized in The O. Henry Awards and Best American Short Stories. She has written two collections of stories, The Family Markowitz and Total Immersionand a novel for younger readers, The Other Side of the Island. Her essays and reviews have appeared in The New York Times Book Review, The Wall Street Journal, The New Republic,The Washington Post,The Boston Globe, and The American Scholar. Raised in Honolulu, Goodman studied English and philosophy at Harvard and received a PhD in English literature from Stanford. She is the recipient of a Whiting Writer's Award, the Salon Award for Fiction, and fellowships from MacDowell and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced study. She lives with her family in Cambridge, Mass.

Browse the 2025 MomAdvice Summer Reading Guide (with ads) or download the 48-page reading guide ($7) to support our show. If you are a show patron, please check your inbox for your copy as part of your member benefits. Thank you for supporting my small business!  

Download Today's Show Transcript

Join the June Book Club Chat (The Reckless Oath We Made)

BONUS BOOK LIST: 25 Enthralling Books Set on Islands

Isola by Allegra Goodman

The Cookbook Collector by Allegra Goodman

Sam by Allegra Goodman

Junie by Erin Crosby Eckstine

Six

Virginals

The Golden Hinde

Clement Marot 

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Milo Todd discusses the research process for his debut, The Lilac People. This sweeping historical fiction novel shares a devastating chapter in trans history. 

Debut novelist Milo Todd joins me to discuss his book, The Lilac People, in honor of Pride Month. This heartbreaking historical fiction novel uncovers a devastating chapter in queer and trans history.

Milo's novel centers on a group of trans and intersex patients at Berlin's Institute for Sexual Science as Hitler's regime begins its rise to power. Through stunning research and unforgettable characters, readers uncover a nearly erased history to life—while drawing chilling parallels to today's political climate.

In our conversation, Milo shares how real historical figures and overlooked archives shaped the characters in his novel—and why it was crucial to honor the lives of those whose stories were almost erased from history.

In this moving conversation, Milo and I discuss:

• How Milo discovered the history of the Institute for Sexual Science and the work of Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld—and the biggest surprises when researching their legacy.
• The challenges with research for this novel in the face of the pandemic and the creative avenues he took to build his story
• How Milo sees trans people as being the canaries in the coal mine as we discuss one of his story's most impactful scenes
• How Milo's teaching work with trans youth informs his writing and what actions he believes are most impactful in allyship today.

BONUS BOOK LIST: This week, I'm sharing a companion book list of 26 LGBTQ History Books to read, including new releases and backlist titles, that offer illuminating details on the joys and triumphs throughout queer history. 

Milo Todd is a Massachusetts Cultural Council grantee and a Lambda Literary Fellow. His work has appeared in Slice Magazine and elsewhere. He is the co-editor-in-chief of Foglifter and teaches creative writing to queer and trans adults. The Lilac People is his debut novel.

Browse the 2025 MomAdvice Summer Reading Guide (with ads) or download the 48-page reading guide  ($7) to support our show. If you are a show patron, check your inbox for your copy as part of your member benefits—thank you for supporting my small business!  

Download Today's Show Transcript

Join the June Book Club Chat (The Reckless Oath We Made)

BONUS BOOK LIST: 26 LGBTQ Books to Read for Pride Month

Red Clay Suzie by Jeffrey Dale Lofton

Larry Hoffer (@getbookedwithlarry)

The Lilac People by Milo Todd

The Book of Harlan by Bernice L. McFadden

You Can't Ask That

Institute for Sexual Science

In Memoriam by Alice Winn

Milo's Events

The Queer Writer

A sample of Max Meyers's narration

Milo's Instagram

We Are Bookish (NetGalley's blog)

milotodd.com

How to Jazz Up Your Book Club While Reading The Lilac People

Join the Book Gang Patreon

Connect with Milo on Instagram or his Website

Connect with Amy on Instagram, TikTok, or MomAdvice

Get My Happy List Newsletter

Get the Daily Kindle Deals Newsletter

Buy Me a Coffee (for a one-time donation)

Jinwoo Chong celebrates food, family, & finding love in his cozy novel, I Leave It Up To You. Learn how this project helped him fall in love with writing again.

What if you fell asleep in 2019 and woke up in 2021? That's the reality for Jack Jr., who emerges from a two-year coma to find his life unrecognizable. His job is gone, his apartment is lost, and his partner has moved on. But in his return to his childhood home and his family's struggling restaurant, he begins to rebuild—rekindling relationships, rediscovering love, and redefining what home truly means.

Jinwoo Chong shares the beautiful inspiration behind this poignant and tender slice-of-life novel, which seamlessly blends a swoon-worthy love story with a cozy family drama. We discuss how I Leave It Up to You evolved from a short story, the impact of the pandemic on its themes, and the role of food as both a comfort and a metaphor for resilience.

BONUS BOOK LIST: Don't miss our Captivating Books About Nurses Book List, featuring 28 incredible new and backlist titles celebrating caregivers.

Meet Jinwoo Chong

Jinwoo Chong is the author of Flux, a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway and VCU Cabell First Novel awards, and a New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice. His work has appeared in The Southern Review, Guernica, The Rumpus, and more. His latest novel, I Leave It Up to You, is now available from Penguin Random House.

Today's Show Transcript

NEW BONUS BOOK LIST: 28 Captivating Books About Nurses

Join the March Book Club Chat (Good Dirt by Charmaine Wilkerson)

I Leave It Up to You by Jinwoo Chong

Flux by Jinwoo Chong

Bookshop.org pays a 10% commission on every sale and matches 10% to independent bookstores!

Join the Book Gang Patreon

Connect with Jinwoo on Instagram or his Website

Connect with Amy on Instagram, TikTok, or MomAdvice

Get My Happy List Newsletter

Get the Daily Kindle Deals Newsletter

Buy Me a Coffee (for a one-time donation)

In search of cozy winter reads? Mary from Currently Reading joins the show to share her top 5 recommendations for our best winter book stack. So let's prep for the season with these book suggestions and set the winter mood with our ideas for your coziest, comfiest reading night.

Mentioned in this episode:

Join the Patreon Community For the Bonus Content

Larry's Episode (What It Takes To Be a Top GoodReads Reviewer)

Currently Reading Podcast

11/22/63 by Stephen King

Crafted by Catherine Blankets

Plum Deluxe Custard Apple Cherimoya Tea

Tazo Glazed Lemon Loaf Tea

ASMR room ambience

Big White Yeti Candles

Big White Yeti  Kitten Toots

Big White Yeti Frankenstein & Myrrh

Stars Above at Target

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

To the Bright Edge of the World by Eowyn Ivey

The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery

Hunted by Meagan Spooner

The Fair Fight by Anna Freeman

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

Seven Days of Us by Francesca Hornak

The Language of Thorns: Midnight Tales and Dangerous Magic by Leigh Bardugo

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

Olive & June

Connect With Me:

Amy is @momadvice on Instagram

Mary is @maryreadsandsips on Instagram

Mary on Goodreads

Amy on GoodReads

Join the Patreon Community For the Bonus Content

It’s the most wonderful time of the year! Are you ready to fall in love with holiday romance books?  Spend the holidays with these feel-good Christmas romance books that celebrate the holiday season by finding love in all of those magical places. Whether you are looking for a home for Christmas theme or embrace a small-town love story, we have you covered. Find your one true love book with my special guest Bree from @falling4romance and co-host of The Categorically Romance Podcast.

Mentioned in this episode:

MomAdvice 2022 Book Club Selections

MomAdvice on Patreon

falling4romance

TheCategoricallyRomancePodcast

Sleep Phones

Todd's Episode (A Friendly GoodReads Competition)

Buzzfeed's 24 Black Bookstagrammers Who Should Be On Your Radar

Bree’s Instagram

Susanna Kearsly

Dashing Through the Snow by Debbie Macomber

Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier

Beverly Jenkins

Jill Shalvis

The Wildstone Series

Chat with Jill Shalvis

A Wedding One Christmas by Therese Beharrie

This Time Next Year by Sophie Cousens

Just Haven’t Met You Yet by Sophie Cousens

Love at the Icicle Cafe by Denise N. Wheatley

Christmas in Full Bloom by Denise N. Wheatley

Denise N. Wheatly on Bree’s Podcast

One Day in December by Josie Silver

The Twelve Dogs of Christmas by Lizzie Shane

Coming Home for Christmas by RaeAnne Thayne

RaeAnne Thayne on Bree’s Podcast

The Clause in Christmas by Rachael Bloome

Connect With Me:

Amy is @momadvice on Instagram

MomAdvice.com

Join the Patreon Community For the Bonus Content

Today is the launch day of the MomAdvice 2022 Book Club year.  Do you want to have the best reading year ever? I'm going to give you that with these twelve book club selections for our year.  This episode will tell you everything you need to know about how to join the online club, what special bonus features we are offering our members, and the inside scoop on this year's books. 

Landing Page With All the Book Club Info For This Year:

https://wp.me/p6sEAo-8ey

Connect With Me:

Amy is @momadvice on Instagram

MomAdvice.com

Join the Patreon Community For the Bonus Content

Mary Kubica joins the podcast to talk about her writing process and her latest domestic thriller, Local Woman Missing. Her journey from writing in secret to a successful award-winning suspense writer is the story you need to hear if you have been entertaining a writing dream of your own. We have a shared love for true crime and talk about the real-life cases that have influenced her work. I may be one of Mary’s biggest fans, and her newest edge-of-your-seat page-turner is just what you need to get you out of a reading slump. Mary is bringing 3 of her favorite under-the-radar thrillers to today’s episode, and I think they will surprise you as much as me. I’m also sharing a few of my favorite psychological thrillers that deliver on those unreliable narrators and murder mystery plots that kept me up until the wee hours of the night. So, if thriller writing is something you have been entertaining, I hope today’s episode offers the inspiration you need to kick start your writing career.

Mentioned in this episode:

MomAdvice Free Online Book Club

Join the Patreon Community For the Bonus Content

Good Girl by Mary Kubica

Pretty Baby by Mary Kubica

Every Last Lie by Mary Kubica

When the Lights Go Out by Mary Kubica

The Other Mrs. by Mary Kubica

Local Woman Missing by Mary Kubica

Mary’s Interview on momadvice.com

Where I Lost Her by T Greenwood

Rust & Stardust by T Greenwood

Bodies of Water by T Greenwood

The Night Olivia Fell by Christina McDonald

Do No Harm by Christina McDonald

This is How I Lied by Heather Gudenkauf

Little Secrets by Jennifer Hillier

Jar of Hearts by Jennifer Hillier

Don’t Believe It by Charlie Donlea

The Night Swim by Megan Goldin

Connect With Me:

Amy is @momadvice on Instagram

MomAdvice.com

Goodreads is the world's largest site for readers and many of us rely on it every day to make our own book choices. Have you ever wondered what it takes to be a top GoodReads reviewer on a platform with millions of members? Larry ranks 28th in the world on this platform and is giving us a peek into his daily reading life and how he shares books. Learn his preferred format to read a book, the process to rate and review books, how the GoodReads reviewer ranking works, his experience with review copies, and how he gained his loyal following. He offers 5 great books we should add to our stack immediately and I couldn't check them out fast enough. These fiction book recommendations include a couple that hit all the right notes for both of us.

Mentioned in this episode:

Join the Patreon Community For the Bonus Content

Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey

A Friendly Goodreads Competition

The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

Tin Man Sarah Winman

The Dearly Beloved Cara Wall

We Begin at the End by Chris Whitaker

To Kill a MockingBird by Harper Lee

The Charm Offensive by Allison Cochrun

One to Watch by Kate Stayman-London

UnREAL TV series

Razorblade Tears by S.A. Cosby

Blacktop Wasteland by S.A. Cosby

It’s Either Sadness or Bookphoria…

the.bookishworld.of.yrralh

Connect With Us:

Amy is @momadvice on Instagram

Larry H. on goodreads.com

Larry H. on Instagram

MomAdvice.com

Contact Information: amy@momadvice.com

Support My Work: https://www.patreon.com/momadvice

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New releases are fun, but what if you dedicated a reading year to backlist books? From Our Bookshelf blogger, Lynn, shares her favorite backlist challenge discoveries. Today's episode defines what it means to be backlist, how our pandemic shopping changed the backlist marketing budget, and some surprising publishing house acquisitions because of single backlist books. 

Mentioned in this episode:

Join the Patreon Community For the Bonus Content

Under-the-Radar Books & Pivoting Back to Passion Interview

Book Clubs for Homeschooling Moms Interview

The Mother of Reinvention Podcast

Backlist to the Future

Why Backlists Matter to Bookstores

We Need to Talk About the Backlist

LynnsKitchenAdventures.com

lynnskitchenadventures on Instagram

FromOurBookshlelf.com

fromourbookshelf on Instagram

The Book of Lost Names by Kristin Harmel

The Forest of Vanishing Stars by Kristin Harmel

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie

The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom

Glory Over Everything by Kathleen Grissom

No Ordinary Time by Doris Kearns Goodwin

The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford

Farewell to Manzanar by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston

Syria’s Secret Library by Mike Thomson

Fire in Beulah by Rilla Askew

Connect With Me:

Amy is @momadvice on Instagram

MomAdvice.com

Contact Information: amy(at)momadvice.com

Support My Work: https://www.patreon.com/momadvice

This post contains affiliate links.

Supply chain disruption has impacted many industries, including our beloved booksellers. So who better to guide us through what this book shortage looks like than an independent bookstore owner. Kristin from Fables Books shares how these shortages impact booksellers and what we need to know for this holiday season.

Mentioned in this episode:

Join the Patreon Community For the Bonus Content

Book of the Month

Why Authors and Booksellers Want You To Order Your Holiday Gifts Now

Fablesbooks.com

Out of Print at Fables Books

Call Us What We Carry by Amanda Gorman

The Ex Hex by Erin Sterling

Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley

A Cosmology of Monsters by Shaun Hamill

A Good Girls Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson

They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera

Fables Books on Bookshop.org

libro.fm

Fables Books on mymustreads.com

Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts by Kate Racculia

The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin

Must Love Books by Shauna Robinson

The Indie Next List by Indie Bound

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