Books with Betsy

On this episode, Betsy Cornwell, author and founder of the Old Knitting Factory, talks about how she has been able to make her life all about words and supporting that in others. She talks about how meaningful physical books are to her, the series she is constantly rereading, and we find some shared Betsy habits. 

 

Ring of Salt: A Memoir of Finding Home and Hope on the Wild Coast of Ireland

betsycornwell.com

oldknittingfactory.com

 

Books mentioned in this episode: 

 

What Betsy’s reading: 

Sky Daddy by Kate Folk

The Oldest Bitch Alive by Morgan Day

 

Books Highlighted by Betsy: 

I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters

On the Night You Were Born by Nancy Tillman

The Time-Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffinegger

Deerskin by Robin McKinley

Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire

What It Is by Lynda Barry

The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett 

Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett

The Skull by Jon Klassen

 

All books available on my Bookshop.org episode page.  

Other books mentioned in this episode:

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle

Many Waters by Madeleine L’Engle 

The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter

Tides by Betsy Cornwell 

Suffs by Shaina Taub & Betsy Cornwell 

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik

Beauty by Robin McKinley

Moving Pictures by Terry Pratchett

The Truth by Terry Pratchett 

I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen

Little Witch Hazel: A Year in the Forest by Phoebe Wahl

On this episode, Katie Erdman, a lifelong reader who finds comfort in books, talks about the mystery series she particularly loves, ways that technology have made her reading life better and funnier, and she tells a great story about her Aunt Jan and Grandma doing her a reading solid. 

 

Books mentioned in this episode: 

 

What Betsy’s reading: 

Dead but Dreaming of Electric Sheep by Paul Tremblay 

The Mad Wife by Meagan Church

Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo 

 

Books Highlighted by Katie: 

Attachments by Rainbow Rowell 

Binti by Nnedi Okorafor

Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid 

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini 

The Girl You Left Behind by Jojo Moyes

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson 

Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell 

Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein

Bossed Up: A Grown Woman’s Guide to Getting Your Shit Together by Emilie Aries 

And the Band Played On by Randy Shilts

 

All books available on my Bookshop.org episode page.  

Other books mentioned in this episode:

Early Morning Riser by Katherine Heiny

The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis 

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer & Annier Barrows 

Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear 

Bringing Down the Duke by Evie Dunmore 

One for the Money by Janet Evanovich 

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini 

Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell 

The Women by Kristin Hannah 

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah 

It Happened One Summer by Tessa Bailey 

Hook, Line, and Sinker by Tessa Bailey 

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

On this episode, Rachel Turney, host of Poetry (in Brief), talks about how she has developed a reading life full of just what she wants to read, how important women’s voices are to her, and she gives some really great small press recommendations. 

 

Rachel’s Website 

 

Books mentioned in this episode: 

 

What Betsy’s reading: 

Post-Traumatic by Chantal V. Johnson

Dead but Dreaming of Electric Sheep by Paul Tremblay 

 

Books Highlighted by Rachel: 

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus 

Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid 

Birds of America by Chera Hammons

Eve by B.K. O’Connor

Another Place All Together by Candice M. Kelsey

Watership Down by Richard Adams

The Wrong Heaven by Amy Bonnaffons 

 

All books available on my Bookshop.org episode page.  

Other books mentioned in this episode:

The Hounding by Xenobe Purvis

The Crucible by Arthur Miller 

Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder

Rachel’s Holiday by Marian Keyes 

The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory 

Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella

On this episode, Jabril Yousef Faraj, author of the Guardians of the Cosmic Clocks, a young adult fantasy series, talks about their inspiration from their favorite books, why it’s so important to have stories that children can see themselves in, and what reading can do for humanity. 

 

Guardians of the Cosmic Clocks

Jabril’s Author Site

Jabril on YouTube 

 

Books mentioned in this episode: 

 

What Betsy’s reading: 

John of John by Douglas Stuart 

Life Ceremony by Sayaka Murata

 

Books Highlighted by Jabril: 

The Magician’s Nephew by C.S. Lewis 

1984 by George Orwell 

Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Pebble in the Sky by Isaac Asimov 

Rosehead by Ksenia Anske 

The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin 

 

All books available on my Bookshop.org episode page.  

Other books mentioned in this episode:

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad 

Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs 

The Odyssey by Homer 

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis 

Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift 

Teddy Roosevelt by Edd Winfield Parks & Gray Morrow 

Twilight by Stephanie Meyer 

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens 

The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin 

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley 

The Giver by Lois Lowry 

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle 

Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card 

Xenocide by Orson Scott Card 

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins 

Animal Farm by George Orwell

On this episode, Dan Santaromita, sports journalist with the Athletic, talks about his love for autobiographies, how reading for work affects recreational reading, and his birthday tradition centered on his ideal reading scenario. We also talk about his favorite writer, Wright Thompson. 

 

Books mentioned in this episode: 

 

What Betsy’s reading: 

The Great Mann by Kyra Davis Lurie 

The Names by Florence Knapp 

John of John by Douglas Stuart 

 

Books Highlighted by Dan: 

Open by Andre Agassi 

I Think Therefore I Play by Andrea Pirlo

The 100-Yard Journey by Gary Pinkel 

The Miracle of Castel di Sangro by Joe McGinniss

Wright Thompson’s Caitlyn Clark Profile 

The Cost of These Dreams by Wright Thompson 

The Barn by Wright Thompson

Football Against the Enemy by Simon Kuper

 

All books available on my Bookshop.org episode page.  

Other books mentioned in this episode:

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir 

Scar Tissue by Anthony Kiedis 

Acid for the Children by Flea

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Pappyland by Wright Thompson 

The Miracle of Castel di Sangro by Joe McGinniss

The Messi Effect by Paul Tenorio 

One Jump at a Time by Nathan Chen 

The Inner Game of Tennis by W. Timothy Gallwey & Pete Carroll 

Alex Ferguson by Sir Alex Ferguson

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin 

Blood, Sweat, and Pixels by Jason Schreier 

Good Game, No Rematch by Mike Drucker 

Among the Thugs by Bill Buford 

Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell 

Moneyball by Michael Lewis 

London Falling by Patrick Radden Keefe 

Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe 

Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe