Books with Betsy

On this episode, Giorgia Riddell, of Fostered Fiction, talks about her love for used books, especially those that are already annotated, her memories of listening to books on road trips, and we get into the current reading stats from last year and encourage anyone who wants to talk about reading online to go out there and do it. 

 

Fostered Fiction on TikTok 

Fostered Fiction on Instagram 

 

Books mentioned in this episode: 

 

What Betsy’s reading: 

Pick a Color by Souvankham Thammavongsa

Tilt by Emma Pattee 

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir 

 

Books Highlighted by Giorgia:

Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar 

The Secret History by Donna Tartt 

You Weren’t Meant to be Human by Andrew Joseph White 

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah 

Lie With Me by Phillipe Besson 

What Are You Going Through by Sigrid Nunez 

Creep by Emma van Straaten 

Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon 

The Will of the Many by James Islington 

Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab 

If an Egyptian Cannot Speak English by Noor Naga 

Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger 

 

All books available on my Bookshop.org episode page.  

Other books mentioned in this episode:

A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket 

The Merchant of Death by D.J. MacHale 

Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins 

The Friend by Sigrid Nunez 

Interesting Facts About Space by Emily Austin 

Is This a Cry For Help? by Emily Austin 

Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut 

Seascraper by Benjamin Wood 

Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell 

Seven Days in June by Tia Williams 

You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi 

The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones 

The Housemaid by Freida McFadden 

This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone

The Only One Left by Riley Sager 

Gone Girl by Gilian Flynn 

Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk 

Endling by Maria Reva 

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

On this episode, Alexander Davidson, an English teacher and author, talks about his life as a self-proclaimed chaotic mood reader and gives a lot of really excellent book recommendations from a wide range of genres. He also talks about his recently developed love for audiobooks, and gives some great recommendations for narrators to look out for. 

 

Mr. D Reads on Instagram 

 

Books mentioned in this episode: 

 

What Betsy’s reading: 

Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins

The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and his Mother) by Rabih Alameddine

 

Books Highlighted by Alexander:

The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway 

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern 

Just Mercy by Brian Stevenson 

Beach Read by Emily Henry

The Overstory by Richard Powers

Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend by Matthew Dicks

Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

The Guncle by Steven Rowley 

Dark Matter by Blake Crouch 

The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes 

Young Mungo by Douglas Stewart 

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides 

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen 

Chain Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei Brenyah 

 

All books available on my Bookshop.org episode page.  

Other books mentioned in this episode:

Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak 

Matilda by Roald Dahl 

Holes by Louis Sachar 

Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds 

Beartown by Fredrik Backman 

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman 

The Guncle Abroad by Steven Rowley 

The Bromance Book Club by Lyssa Kay Adams 

Forget Me Not by Julie Soto

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo 

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid 

Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan

The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother) by Rabih Alameddine 

James by Percival Everett 

The Rabbit Hutch by Tess Gunty 

The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern 

North Woods by Daniel Mason 

Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart

On this episode, past guests of Books with Betsy and I share our favorite books of 2025! Listen to hear about lots of great 2025 books and the excellent backlist we got to this year. 

 

Books mentioned in this episode: 

 

Betsy’s Top 11 Books (in no particular order): 

The Sisters by Jonas Hassan Khemiri 

Endling by Maria Reva

The Director by Daniel Kehlmann 

The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones

Biography of X by Catherine Lacey 

Say Hello to My Little Friend by Jennine Capó Crucet 

Original Sins: The (Mis)education of Black and Native Children and the Construction of American Racism by Eve L. Ewing

Devil is Fine by John Vercher 

There is a Rio Grande in Heaven by Ruben Reyes, Jr. 

A Guardian and A Thief by Megha Majumdar 

Reservoir Bitches by Dalia de la Cerda 

 

Books Highlighted by Guests:

Tina of TBR, etc: 

One Yellow Eye by Leigh Radford 

Dominion by Addie E. Citchens

Red Clay by Charles B. Fancher 

Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid 

Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy

Jen Price:

The Stolen Queen by Fiona Davis

Canada by Mike Myers 

Everyone is Lying to You by Jo Piazza

Saltwater by Katy Hays

Come Fly With Me by Camille Di Maio

Bre of Brezzylovesbooks: 

Plantains and Our Becoming: Poems by Melania Luisa Marte

What My Bones Know: A Memoir of Healing From Complex Trauma by Stephanie Foo 

Maggie; or, a Man and a Woman Walk Into a Bar by Katie Yee 

Maggie Brennan: 

There’s Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension by Hanif Abdurraqib 

Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar 

The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai 

Wolf Pack by Amelia Brunskill 

Beneath the Rising by Premee Mohamed  

Amy Smalley: 

Miss Benson’s Beetle by Rachel Joyce 

You Could Make This Place Beautiful by Maggie Smith 

The Carpool Detectives: A True Story of Four Moms, Two Bodies, and One Mysterious Cold Case by Chuck Hogan 

Grace & Henry’s Holiday Movie Marathon by Matthew Norman 

Carrie Vittitoe: 

My Father’s Paradise: A Son’s Search for His Family’s Past by Ariel Sabar  

Angel Down by Daniel Kraus 

The Millicent Quibb School of Etiquette for Young Ladies of Mad Science by Kate McKinnon 

Mary Hopper: 

The Black Wolf by Louise Penny 

Leave Only Footprints: My Acadia-to-Zion Journey Through Every National Park by Conor Knighton

The God of the Woods by Liz Moore 

The Moscow Sleepers by Stella Rimington 

The Searcher by Tana French 

The Hunter by Tana French 

Aflame: Learning From Silence by Pico Iyer 

Karishma Verma: 

The Secret Lives of Booksellers and Librarians: True Stories of the Magic of Reading by James Patterson and Matt Eversman 

You Wanna Be on Top?: A Memoir of Makeovers, Manipulation, and Not Becoming America's Next Top Model by Sarah Hartshorne 

Just for the Summer by Abby Jimenez 

The Housemaid’s Secret by Frieda McFadden 

The House of My Mother: A Daughter’s Quest for Freedom by Shari Franke

Alayna Mills: 

Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Flashlight by Susan Choi 

We Do Not Part by Han Kang 

Last Call at the Local by Sarah Grunder Ruiz 

Heart the Lover by Lily King

On this episode, past guests of Books with Betsy and I share our favorite books of 2025! Listen to hear about lots of great 2025 books and the excellent backlist we got to this year. 

 

Books mentioned in this episode: 

 

Betsy’s Best Categorically (books that…): 

Shocked me: 

It’s Not the End of the World by Jonathan Parks-Ramage

Sky Full of Elephants by Cebo Campbell 

Made me Cry:

The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai 

Are You Happy? By Lori Ostlund 

Underrated:

Fundamentally by Noussaibah Younis 

What Kind of Paradise by Janelle Brown 

Recommend Widely:

There is No Place For Us: Working and Homeless in America by Brian Goldstone 

Isola by Allegra Goodman 

Hard to Recommend: 

King of Ashes by S.A. Cosby 

Flesh by David Szalay 

Made me Think About my Life Differently:

Uzumaki by Junji Ito 

Hunchback by Saou Ichikawa 

 

Books Highlighted by Guests:

Deedi Brown: 

The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow

Telephone by Percival Everett 

Searches: Selfhood in the Digital Age by Vauhini Vara 

Francisco Rafael Peralta-Cerda: 

Grace and Henry’s Holiday Movie Marathon by Matthew Norman 

Displacement by Kiku Hughes 

Yellowface by R.F. Kuang 

Chloe Waryan: 

The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones 

The Secret History by Donna Tartt 

Woodworking by Emily St. James 

Poor Things by Alasdair Gray

Jess Abra Sandy: 

How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix 

Don’t Let the Forest In by C.G. Drews

Soft Science & Other Poems by Franny Choi 

Time is a Mother by Ocean Vuong 

Shakia Perry: 

Issac’s Song by Daniel Black 

King of Ashes by S.A. Cosby 

Zeal by Morgan Jerkins 

Can’t Get Enough by Kennedy Ryan 

Chelsey Stone: 

The Princes of Ireland by Edward Rutherfurd

Creatures of Passage by Morowa Yejidé

Deirdre Harrison: 

Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer 

Motherhood: Facing and Finding Yourself by Lisa Marchiano 

The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley 

Chirri & Chirra: The Snowy Day by Kaya Doi & Yuki Kaneko 

The Red Fruit by Lee Gee Eun 

Red Sled by Lita Judge 

Jordan Hernandez: 

This is Your Mother by Erika J. Simpson 

The Girls Who Grew Big by Leila Mottley 

Loca by Alejandro Heredia 

Liv Hoselton: 

Everything is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection by John Green 

A Noble Madness: The Dark Side of Collecting from Antiquity to Now by James Delbourgo 

Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton

Frankenstein by Mary Shelly 

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens 

Leah Rachel von Essen: 

And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic by Randy Shilts 

Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert 

One Day Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad

A Day of Fallen Night by Samantha Shannon

On this episode, Madeline Blair, founder and editor of the literary magazine Sabr Tooth Tiger, talks about her development as a lover and writer of poetry, how balancing reading online publications can run up against her day job, and how she discovers new pieces to read. You also get to hear me have a bit of an existential crisis in real time which happens every time I think about how much content there is out there to read. 

 

Sabr Tooth Tiger

 

Books mentioned in this episode: 

 

What Betsy’s reading: 

The Sisters by Jonas Hassan Khemiri 

There is No Place for Us by Brian Goldstone

 

Books Highlighted by Madeline:

Crossing the Water by Sylvia Plath 

Ariel by Sylvia Plath 

Wicked by Gregory Maguire

Monsters, Clowns, and the Holy Fool by Satori Na

The Poet’s Companion by Kim Addonizio 

Letters to Milena by Franz Kafka

The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath

 

All books available on my Bookshop.org episode page.  

Other books mentioned in this episode:

Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams by Sylvia Plath 

Girls That Never Die by Safia Elhillo 

The Diary of Anaïs Nin by Anaïs Nin 

The Intentions of Thunder by Patricia Smith 

Poems 1962-2012 by Louise Glück 

Selected Poems of Frank O’Hara by Frank O’Hara 

Men in the Off Hours by Anne Carson 

Tender is the Flesh by Augustina Bzaterrica 

Dubliners by James Joyce 

The Idaho Four by James Patterson & Vicky Ward 

The Wild Fox of Yemen by Threa Almontaser