Intro

This is an audience of people who love books — and people who have thoughts about the culture around books. Book clubs, BookTok, the popularization of book genres, special editions, the way other people talk about us reading — there’s endless fodder for discussion and analysis. I’m thrilled to have Alyssa Morris, one of the sharpest observers of contemporary book culture, back on the pod to answer all of your questions about very of-this-moment trends (and give some very good advice on how to keep your book club thriving). This one’s a juicy one (and yes I do talk mild shit about Reese’s Book Club!!!)

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Show Notes:

• Subscribe to Alyssa’s Substack Romancing the Phone:

• Our super-popular episode with Alyssa from last year: Is BookTok Actually About Reading?

• If you’re interested in lists for various celebrity book clubs, here’s Reese’s, Read with Jenna, and Oprah’s

• A few Toks on Bookshelf Wealth and “Overconsumption”

• This piece explained A LOT re: Brandon Sanderson

• Melody recommends Page for fun Kindle covers— they have a strap! She has this one, this one, and this one (talk about overconsumption)

• Go read I Who Have Never Known Men!

• This is maybe one of the TikToks that kicked off the virality of I Who Have Never Known Men

• The Publisher’s Weekly article on the cover designs of 831 Stories

We’re currently looking for your questions for future episodes about:

• The evolution of internet slang (and how it’s affected how you speak offline, too)

• Gwyneth Paltrow (with the author of the new juicy bio)

• Birding Culture!

• Male Grievance Culture and Its Connection to Climate Change Denial (this is a real thing, ask us questions!)

• SCREENTIME — Your own, your parents’, your kid’s, your partner’s, your family’s (with Ash Brandin)

• Hoarding Culture / How to Navigate Hoarders in Your Life

• Running a Small Business — and How to Make It Sustainable & Survivable (with Jen Hewett!)

• Food Trends (like, what are you seeing on the menu in all the restaurants? Why are people pushing this particular ingredient or prep in their recipes???)

• Fiction concierge!! Much like our old movies episode, let us know a few books you read and loved as well as whatever other parameters you want to put in place, and Maris Kreizman and I will make some recs!

• Anything you need advice or want musings on for the AAA segment. You can ask about anything, it’s literally the name of the segment!

• As always, you can submit them (and ideas for future eps) here

There’s so much to discuss in this week’s episode — just run with any of the themes (or tell us a celebrity book club book you’ve recently read and how you felt about it)