The Bookshop Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis
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The Bookshop Podcast
Mandy Jackson-Beverly
Frequency: 1 episode/6d. Total Eps: 319
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See allScore global : 72%
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Bruce Holsinger On Culpability, AI, And Family Under Pressure
Season 1 · Episode 314
mercredi 3 décembre 2025 • Duration 41:07
In this episode, I chat with Bruce Holsinger about stories, community, publishing, teaching, and the craft behind his latest novel, Culpability.
Bruce brings a rare lens to contemporary fiction. As a medievalist at the University of Virginia, he teaches medieval literature and applies his enthusiasm to craft classes where the basics—point of view, character arcs, structure—become living tools. He explains why paratext—chat logs, interviews, and excerpts from Lorelei’s AI book—lets a novel breathe beyond exposition, capturing how we really encounter the world: through fragmented feeds, competing voices, and the uneasy mix of intimacy and spectacle.
Culpability Synopsis:
When the Cassidy-Shaws’ autonomous minivan collides with an oncoming car, seventeen-year-old Charlie is in the driver’s seat, with his father, Noah, riding shotgun. In the back seat, tweens Alice and Izzy are on their phones, while their mother, Lorelei, a world leader in the field of artificial intelligence, is absorbed in her work. Yet each family member harbors a secret that implicates them in the accident.
During a weeklong recuperation on the Chesapeake Bay, the family confronts the excruciating moral dilemmas triggered by the crash. Noah tries to hold the family together as a seemingly routine police investigation jeopardizes Charlie’s future. Alice and Izzy turn strangely furtive. And Lorelei’s odd behavior tugs at Noah’s suspicions that there is a darker truth behind the incident—suspicions heightened by the sudden intrusion of Daniel Monet, a tech mogul whose mysterious history with Lorelei hints at betrayal. When Charlie falls for Monet’s teenage daughter, the stakes are raised even higher in this propulsive family drama that is also a fascinating exploration of the moral responsibility and ethical consequences of AI.
Culpability explores a world newly shaped by chatbots, autonomous cars, drones, and other nonhuman forces in ways that are thrilling, challenging, and unimaginably provocative.
Subscribe, share with a reader friend, and tell us: which moment changed how you see the story?
Laura Resau: The Alchemy of Flowers
Season 1 · Episode 313
mercredi 19 novembre 2025 • Duration 36:17
In this episode, I'm chatting with author Laura Resau about her novel The Alchemy of Flowers.
A walled garden in the south of France. A woman carrying the weight of infertility and the ache of what might have been. An author who believes that myth, nature, and careful attention can turn pain into something living. That’s the ground we walk together with Laura Resau, whose debut adult novel, The Alchemy of Flowers, blends sensory delight with hard-earned hope.
We start with Laura’s unusual path—trilingual, trained in cultural anthropology, shaped by seasons in Provence and Oaxaca—and how immersion in other cultures taught her to write with reverence for place and people. She shares why she shifted from award-winning children’s books to adult fiction, carrying forward wonder while making room for layered reflection. Magical realism isn’t a trick here; it’s a way of telling the truth. Laura draws on myth to map inner journeys, then roots that map in the real work of a healing garden: herbs, salves, teas, and the slow patience of tending.
At the heart of our conversation is the compost metaphor that sparked the novel: how do we turn our crap into flowers? Eloise, our protagonist, manages literal compost while metabolizing years of loss, guilt, and tightly controlled routines. We explore restraint versus freedom, the cultural noise around fertility, and the relief of stepping off that hamster wheel—even inside a garden with walls. Found family deepens the story’s warmth, especially through Mina, whose act of writing through trauma echoes Laura’s real-life collaboration on The Queen of Water, a testament to storytelling as a path to repair.
Come for the rich textures—French meals that stretch past midnight, treehouses and yurts, a garden that feels both sanctuary and crucible. Stay for the craft insights, the mythic threads, and the gentle insistence that transformation is possible. If you’ve ever needed fiction that meets your pain without flinching and still promises bloom, this conversation is for you.
Subscribe, share with a friend who loves literary fiction and magical realism, and leave a review to help more readers find the show. What part of your life is ready to turn into flowers?
Kendra Elliot: Her First Mistake
Season 1 · Episode 304
lundi 25 août 2025 • Duration 21:51
In this episode, I chat with author Kendra Elliot about her new novel, Her First Mistake.
Kendra Elliot has sold thirteen million books, hit the Wall Street Journal top ten bestseller list more than a dozen times, and is a three-time winner of the Daphne du Maurier award.
She is an International Thriller Writers' finalist and a Romantic Times finalist. She grew up in the lush and rainy Pacific Northwest.
Synopsis of Her First Mistake:
Thirteen years ago, Assemblyman Derrick Bell was murdered in his home by an intruder. His wife, Noelle Marshall, was left for dead. The crime was unsolved, but it wasn’t forgotten.
Today the FBI is tackling a fresh perspective on the case and looking to Noelle, now a detective for the Deschutes County sheriff’s office, for new clues. It is reopening everything Noelle thought was behind her. Memories of her escape from a traumatic childhood. A marriage that wasn’t the perfect love story she’d been promised. And a husband whose charm and privilege hid a dark side. But Noelle has been hiding something too: a secret about the night Derrick died that she has never told anyone.
As past and present and leads and misleads collide, one thing is frighteningly clear. Derrick’s murder wasn’t just unsolved. It’s unfinished. And only the truth—no matter the risk—can save the next victim.
Trilogy Curated Bookshop & Library
Season 1 · Episode 213
lundi 21 août 2023 • Duration 49:38
In this episode, I chat with Ahalya Naidu about Trilogy Curated Bookshop & Library which she owns with her partner Meethil Momaya about why they opened a bookshop and library, the importance of books in translation, local authors in Mumbai, and where to get the best chai in India!
Trilogy Curated Bookshop and Library, located in Bandra West, Mumbai, is owned by Ahalya Naidu and Meethil Momaya. The name Trilogy symbolizes a coming together of the writer, the reader, and the book. It’s a warm and cozy place where you can spend hours immersed in highly recommended books and books from small presses. The library is filled with cute little Post-it notes, recommendations, trivia, and reviews by children in the form of drawings and doodles. Trilogy Curated Bookshop and Library is a great place to unwind and find peace of mind amidst the hustle and bustle of Mumbai city.
Trilogy Curated Bookshop & Library
Nandita da Cunha, children’s author
Em and the big Hoom, Jerry Pinto
Susanna’s Granthapura, Ajai P. Mangattu
The Indians: Histories of a Civilization, Edited by GN Devy, Tony Joseph and Ravi Korisettar
Fonda Lee
Season 1 · Episode 212
lundi 14 août 2023 • Duration 29:22
In this episode, I chat with Fonda Lee about what prompted her decision to become a serious writer, her innate love and respect for animals, her novella Untethered Sky, and her path from her first finished manuscript to finding an agent and publishing deal.
Fonda Lee is the author of the epic fantasy Green Bone Saga, beginning with Jade City,continuing in Jade War, and concluding with Jade Legacy. She is also the author of the science fiction novels Zeroboxer, Exo, and Cross Fire, and two novellas, the Green Bone Saga prequel The Jade Setter of Janloon, and the upcoming Untethered Sky.
Fonda is a winner of the World Fantasy Award, the Locus Award, and a four-time winner of the Aurora Award (Canada’s national science fiction and fantasy award), as well as a multiple finalist for the Hugo Award, the Nebula Award, and the Oregon Book Award. Her novels have garnered multiple starred reviews and appeared on Best of Year lists from NPR, Barnes & Noble, Syfy Wire, and others. Jade City has been translated into a dozen languages, named to TIME Magazine’s Top 100 Fantasy Books of All Time, and optioned for television development.
She has also written acclaimed short fiction and been an instructor at writing workshops including Viable Paradise and Clarion West. Fonda is a former corporate strategist and black belt martial artist who loves action movies and Eggs Benedict. Born and raised in Canada, she currently resides in the Pacific Northwest.
Fonda Lee
Elizabeth L Silver
Season 1 · Episode 211
lundi 7 août 2023 • Duration 36:38
In this episode, I chat with author Elizabeth L Silver about her new novel The Majority, women in the workplace and motherhood, teaching creative writing, and books.
Elizabeth L Silver is the author of The Majority , as well as the memoir, The Tincture of Time: A Memoir of (Medical) Uncertainty , and the novel, The Execution of Noa P. Singleton . Her work has been called “fantastic” by the Washington Post and “masterful” by The Wall Street Journal, has been published in seven languages, and optioned for film.
Elizabeth has been featured on PBS NewsHour, while her writing has appeared in The Washington Post, New York Magazine, The Guardian, Harper's Bazaar, McSweeney’s, The Dallas Morning News, Literary Hub, The Rumpus, The Los Angeles Review of Books, The Millions, among other publications, and she has been a recipient of residencies at several artist colonies in the United States, France, and Spain, including Ucross Foundation, Ragdale, Byrdcliffe Artist Colony, where she was the recipient of the Patterson Fellowship, A Room of Her Own Foundation, where she was a consultant, and the British Centre for Literary Translation.
She has also served as a judge for the PEN Center Literary Awards, UCLA’s James Kirkwood Literary Prize, AWP’s Kurt Brown Prize, twice served as a PEN in the Community Teaching Artist through PEN Center USA, where she curated a program teaching creative writing to prisoners in Lancaster, CA, for cancer patients and survivors with The Benjamin Center, and at a halfway house in Los Angeles; she has also served as a mentor in Fiction for AWP's Writer-to-Writer Program, and taught English as a Second Language in Costa Rica, writing and literature at Drexel University and St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia. She currently teaches creative writing with the UCLA Writers Program.
A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, the MFA program in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia in England, and Temple University Beasley School of Law, Elizabeth has also worked as an attorney in California and Texas, where she was a judicial clerk for the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, worked on death row cases in Texas, and subsequently in civil litigation in Los Angeles. She continues to keep a foot in the law, and her most recent legal (volunteer) work includes working on asylum cases at the Texas-Mexico border and with survivors of domestic violence in Los Angeles.
Elizabeth is also the founder and director of Onward Literary Mentoring, a program that connects writers with award-winning and best-selling authors for individual, tailored writing instruction.
Paulina Porizkova
Season 1 · Episode 210
lundi 31 juillet 2023 • Duration 39:30
In this episode, I chat with Paulina Porizkova about her book No Filter, The Good, The Bad, And The Beautiful, living in an all-male household, crazy weather, and receiving a call from Maria Shriver.
Paulina Porizkova is a Czechoslovak-born writer. A former model, she was the first Central European woman to appear on the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue in 1984. In 1988 she became one of the highest-paid models in the world as the face of Estee Lauder. She has starred in 16 movies and a slew of TV shows as an actress, and she has served as part of the judging panel on Cycle 10 of America’s Next Top Model.
Paulina Porizkova was born in Olomouc in 1965 and grew up in the Moravian town of Prostějov, a city dating back to 1141 in what was, at the time, Czechoslovakia. In 1968, during the wake of the Soviet-led invasion, Paulina’s parents escaped Czechoslovakia and settled in Sweden, leaving her behind with her grandmother. Her mother went back to Czechoslovakia to get her daughter, only to be captured and taken to prison, where, because she was pregnant, was put under house arrest with Paulina and her grandmother and soon-to-be-born brother for three years.
Amid media coverage, Paulina, her brother, and her mother were later allowed to enter Sweden. However, the rest of her family remained in Czechoslovakia. Her debut novel, A Model Summer, was published in 2007, and her memoir, No Filter, The Good, The Bad, And The Beautiful, was published by The Open Field in 2022.
No Filter: The Good, The Bad, And The Beautiful, Paulina Porizkova
I've Been Thinking, Maria Shriver
Jenny Xie, Holding Pattern
Season 1 · Episode 209
lundi 24 juillet 2023 • Duration 28:39
In this episode, I chat with author Jenny Xie about her debut novel Holding Pattern, exploring intimacy through cuddling, negative space, and books.
Jenny Xie is a National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 honoree whose debut novel, Holding Pattern, is forthcoming from Riverhead Books in June 2023.
Her short fiction has appeared in AGNI, Ninth Letter, Joyland, Adroit Journal, Narrative, The Offing, and the Best of the Net Anthology, among other publications. Her writing on design, travel, and culture has been featured in The Atlantic, The Washington Post, Architectural Digest, Apartment Therapy, Them, and Dwell, where she was previously the Executive Editor.
Jenny holds degrees from UC Berkeley and Johns Hopkins University and is the grateful recipient of fellowships from Bread Loaf, MacDowell, Yaddo, Kundiman, Aspen Words, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Loghaven, and other organizations.
Born in Shanghai and hailing from California, Jenny is currently based in Brooklyn, New York.
JennyXie
Esquire magazine article on cuddling by Jenny Xie
A Mini In Between Episode
Season 1 · Episode 209
dimanche 23 juillet 2023 • Duration 04:25
With Summer in full swing, I thought I’d give you a short mini-in-between episode about one of my favorite places in California, Santa Barbara. Enjoy!
In the 1870s, eucalyptus trees were planted on the grounds of what would become known as the American Riviera in Santa Barbara, California. With the arrival of the rail line in 1897, tourists began to venture into the area, and in 1913 the Flying A studio was busy turning out silent movies in the complex they built in the area of Mission, State, Padre, and Chapala Streets in Santa Barbara.
By the time they closed in 1922, Flying A produced more than 1200 silent films, primarily Westerns, adaptations of popular novels and stage plays, slapstick comedies, and more.
According to the Lompoc Record, from 1912 to 1919, Santa Barbara was considered the film capital of the world.
Meanwhile, the eucalyptus trees in the Riviera were flourishing, and the grounds around them were home to a state school. Just across the road, James Warren, President of the County National Bank, built dormitories and several ten-room houses and cottages on his property to house faculty and students.
By 1917 the student housing proved unsuccessful, and Mr. Warren announced plans to develop a cottage hotel to cater to the growing tourism market. On February 2, 1918, El Encanto Hotel opened for business. From 1933 to 1950, El Encanto enjoyed increased popularity as a Hollywood hideaway hosting such luminaries as Clark Gable, Carole Lombard, and Hedy Lamarr.
Over the years, the hotel changed ownership, and in 2018 LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton acquired Belmond Ltd. The hotel became, El Encanto, a Belmond Hotel.
The eucalyptus trees remain, and this year a pair of red-tailed hawks put on a show as they raised their young in a tall tree in front of the pool, overlooking the Pacific Ocean.
Through the guidance of General Manager Janis Clapoff, this iconic hotel remains an essential destination for the creative and creatively inspired. At El Encanto, guests experience California through scrumptious, locally inspired cuisine, uplifting wellness experiences, classes in the visual arts, and an outstanding literary series.
On August 1, the El Encanto Lunch With An Author Literary Series presents novelist and literary scholar Bruce Holsinger. Bruce is the author of the USA Today and Los Angeles Times best-selling novel The Gifted School, which is currently in development as a TV series with NBC/Universal Television. His most recent novel, The Displacements, was hailed by the New York Times as “hypnotic, and a thorough translation to fiction of what it can feel like to live right now.”
In 2022, I chose Abdulzarak Gurnah’s Afterlives and Bruce Holsinger’s The Displacements as my two outstanding literary fiction novels.
I hope you will join me at El Encanto for lunch with Bruce, followed by our conversation about his writing and The Displacements.
These literary events require a reservation and prepayment. Please call our Concierge Team at concierge.ele@belmond.com or call 805 845 5800.
I hope to see you there!
Otto Penzler, The Mysterious Bookshop
Season 1 · Episode 208
lundi 17 juillet 2023 • Duration 43:09
In this episode, I chat with Otto Penzler, owner of The Mysterious Bookshop about publishing, the genre of mystery and crime fiction, female mystery writers, and collecting first editions.
Opened in 1979 by Otto Penzler, The Mysterious Bookshop is the oldest mystery specialist book store in America. Previously located in midtown, the bookshop now calls Tribeca its home.
The bookshop stocks the finest selection of new mystery hardcovers, paperbacks and periodicals and also features a superb collection of signed Modern First Editions, Rare/Collectible hardcovers and Sherlockiana.
The Mysterious Bookshop Crime Clubs
The Bookshop Podcast Deborah Crossland Interview (feminism)
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