Today's guest has a bookish birthday trip in the works. When Barbara Andrade DuBransky told us about her tradition of taking big trips with her best friend to mark big life milestones, Anne knew she wanted to talk about Barbara's upcoming European trip. Barbara and her friend are passionate readers who rely on their libraries to help them plan and prepare for their trips. Barbara was eager to get Anne's recommendations for their upcoming destinations. Today, they talk about the place of reading ...
Feb 04, 2025•56 min•Transcript available on Metacast Readers, today we're thrilled to share a delightful conversation with Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray, authors of The Personal Librarian. This conversation originally took place over in our Modern Mrs Darcy Book Club community, where Marie and Victoria joined Anne, our MMD Book Club Community Manager Ginger Horton, our MMD Book Club Co-Host Shannan Malone, and a whole bunch of our Book Club Members for this live event. Today, you'll hear that conversation too as Marie and Victoria...
Jan 28, 2025•1 hr 4 min•Transcript available on Metacast We hosted our Spring Book Preview last week, and if you missed out on that event you're in luck: today we're sharing an excerpt to whet your spring reading appetite! In this sneak peek at our Spring Book Preview live event, you'll hear Anne tell you about 3 of the 35 titles included in the preview. Spring Book Preview is one of our marquee events that we host for our Modern Mrs Darcy Book Club and Patreon Community members. Our community members provide tangible, financial support for our show a...
Jan 21, 2025•15 min•Transcript available on Metacast Many of the readers we talk to tune into the seasons to inspire their next read, and today's guest has a twist on the usual seasonal reading dilemma: Nell Cavallo is joining Anne today from midsummer in Sydney, Australia. When Nell sent in her guest submission for the show, she told us that as a southern hemisphere reader, winter meant reading the shiny and new titles that are summer releases here in the U.S. For Nell, her summer reading was all about backlist titles. Nell loves reading backlist...
Jan 14, 2025•52 min•Ep 461•Transcript available on Metacast We're kicking off 2025 with a special episode: today Anne is joined by her husband Will Bogel to discuss Anne's best books of the past year. Every week here on the show, we take a personal approach to the reading life, really digging into what readers love, what they don't, and why. Our conversations are about individual readers and their individual taste, so it's not often Anne shines a spotlight on what she loves and why. But Anne doesn't work in a vacuum: her own reading life plays a role in ...
Jan 07, 2025•1 hr 2 min•Ep 460•Transcript available on Metacast Today's guest is feeling stuck between quality and quantity in her reading life. With all of the end-of-year reading reflections happening lately, Anne is here to help if you're also facing this situation. Caroline Hines lives on a Christmas tree farm, which is not really related to today's book-talk, but feels like the perfect setting for our final episode of the year. When she wrote in to get Anne's help, Caroline mentioned that since she started tracking her reading against a numerical goal, ...
Dec 17, 2024•54 min•Ep 459•Transcript available on Metacast When Anne was invited to speak at WriterFest, a creative gathering for aspiring writers, published authors, screenwriters, poets, and songwriters in Nashville, we couldn't wait to share that conversation with all of you. Today we're sharing Anne's conversation with WriterFest co-founder Ami McConnell. From books and reading to the common themes they've heard people are experiencing in their creative lives right now, it's a conversation to spark your own creative spirit. Thank you again to Writer...
Dec 10, 2024•1 hr 11 min•Ep 458•Transcript available on Metacast Cozy reading season is nearly here in the northern hemisphere, and today's guest wrote in with a unique question: how can she create a cozy reading experience when she's nearly always listening to audiobooks on the go? Lauren Worley is joining Anne today from Virginia. Lauren's work keeps her in the car and on the road quite a bit, so Lauren’s fully embraced audiobooks. But she doesn't just want to listen while she's driving: she's curious how she could create a cozier reading experience in her ...
Dec 03, 2024•59 min•Ep 457•Transcript available on Metacast Diagnosing readerly dilemmas is one of our favorite things to do around here, and today Anne is helping Modern Mrs Darcy Book Club Community Manager Ginger Horton figure out the answer to a reading question that's been plaguing her. Ginger recently came to Anne with a conundrum: she loves books set in New England, but not every book set in New England. She loves books set in New England autumn, but not every New England autumn book. What is the particular combination of bookish ingredients that ...
Nov 26, 2024•1 hr 13 min•Ep 456•Transcript available on Metacast Today's guest is the beloved author, Elif Shafak, whose latest title was a 2024 Summer Reading Guide pick. Elif's works are so particular and set very much in a specific time and place, yet they also feel so inclusive. Elif's stories explore universal themes like home and belonging, exile and displacement. She also leverages her Turkish heritage and accesses storytelling traditions that are sometimes unfamiliar to Western readers. Elif is one of Anne's favorite writers working right now, in larg...
Nov 19, 2024•55 min•Ep 455•Transcript available on Metacast Our annual gift recommendation episode is here! Today, Anne is joined by members of the Modern Mrs Darcy team to respond to your requests for gift-giving ideas for the readers in your life. Thanks to all of our listeners who sent in their questions: we loved sharing our best recommendations for the readers you love. Whether you hear your request in today's episode or you didn't get around to submitting a question, we're confident you'll walk away with some great gifting ideas today. We've gather...
Nov 12, 2024•52 min•Ep 454•Transcript available on Metacast When today's guest, Dana Reams, told us about the cozy reader's gathering she intends to hold later this month, our team instantly wanted to RSVP "yes." Since we can't all gather at Dana's house this season, we thought we'd do the next best thing and have her on the podcast. Today, Anne is chatting with Dana about her delightful concept for this gathering. You'll hear how Dana creates richly textured, immersive reading experiences, both for herself in her own reading life and in times like these...
Nov 05, 2024•41 min•Ep 453•Transcript available on Metacast We've been wanting to talk short stories for awhile here on the podcast. When today's guest wrote in with a readerly conundrum on just this topic, it was the perfect opportunity to explore this literary topic in conversation. Jessica Crockett is joining Anne today from Chicago, where she works as a French-to-English patent translator. When she's not enjoying board games or ballroom dancing, she'll often be found reading. And today, she'd love Anne's help in untangling her relationship with short...
Oct 29, 2024•1 hr•Ep 452•Transcript available on Metacast Today we are thrilled to welcome Nikki May to the show. Her new book This Motherless Land is a reimagining of Jane Austen's Mansfield Park. Anne was especially intrigued by this because Mansfield Park is the novel of Jane Austen's that seems most overlooked when it comes to retellings. Today, Anne has questions, and Nikki May has answers. Among some of the gems you will hear are Nikki's personal connection to Jane Austen generally and Mansfield Park in particular, the personal experiences that i...
Oct 22, 2024•55 min•Ep 451•Transcript available on Metacast Readers, like so many of you, we have such fondness for Asheville and the Blue Ridge mountain region, which is desperately hurting in the wake of Hurricane Helene. We’ve been thinking constantly of those affected, both in Asheville and now in Florida in the aftermath of Milton. While it feels like nothing we can do can touch the enormity of what is happening on the ground, today Anne is sharing fond memories of her very first visit to Asheville and the Blue Ridge mountains, along with actual lit...
Oct 15, 2024•56 min•Ep 450•Transcript available on Metacast Ontario reader Emma Sweeney wants to explore books that incorporate elements from the horror genre. She's not interested in books that give her nightmares, but she's found that these stories often prompt reflective and meaningful reading experiences. Today, she and Anne talk about finding titles that include horror elements without being truly horrifying. They also tackle Emma's other reading conundrum: she'd like to get better at discerning whether a book is a good fit for her or not before she...
Oct 08, 2024•1 hr 3 min•Ep 449•Transcript available on Metacast This fall, we were excited to hear from you about the books that haunt you. and today's guest sent in a submission that caught everyone on our team's eye. We loved her interpretation of this theme. Today, Megan Reilly is joining Anne to talk about the books that linger in your brain for years. Megan is a professional theater designer and a college professor who lives in Madison, Wisconsin. She loves to travel and spend time outdoors, and reading is both a beloved hobby and a stress management te...
Oct 01, 2024•59 min•Ep 448•Transcript available on Metacast Last week we hosted our sixth annual Fall Book Preview, and today we're sharing a taste of that event with you. In today's mini-episode, you'll hear Anne talk about three book of the 35 books in this year's preview. Fall Book Preview is one of our marquee annual events that we host for our Modern Mrs Darcy Book Club and Patreon Community members. Our community members provide tangible, financial support for our show and our team of readers, and we love to say thank you by sharing special events ...
Sep 24, 2024•18 min•Transcript available on Metacast Our reading community truly spans the globe: today Anne is in conversation with Evie, who is joining us from northern Greece. Evie grew up in Boston and after visiting family in Greece over the years, she moved back herself last year. These days she enjoys the slow pace of life and social culture in her Greek community. Today, Evie would love help reframing her approach to reading and reviewing books, because it's causing her a lot of angst. Lately, she's described herself as a frequent three an...
Sep 17, 2024•1 hr 5 min•Ep 447•Transcript available on Metacast If you love a good campus novel for fall, you'll love today's conversation between Anne and academic dean Karen Gold. Karen works at the oldest independent boarding school in the country, where she teaches a course on campus novels. That's not all Karen reads, though: she's especially fond of novels that span generations and highlight both the mundanity and the messiness of the human experience. But Karen's real dilemma today isn't finding the titles she'll want to read next. What she's really g...
Sep 10, 2024•1 hr 16 min•Ep 446•Transcript available on Metacast Get your to-be-read lists ready because today's episode is packed full of recommended titles. In today's show, Anne is hosting Hunter, a fan of literary fiction who lives in Philadelphia with his husband and their dog. Anne and Hunter talk about his years-long project to read National Book Award longlisted titles, which also leads into conversation about both that award and some of other big book awards. Plus, Hunter shares his frequent habit of rereading books, especially books he doesn't like ...
Sep 03, 2024•1 hr 13 min•Ep 445•Transcript available on Metacast Today we're back with the 2024 installment of our popular summer reading roundup, where members of our team pair up to talk about their favorite summer reads. You'll hear our team in conversation today, exploring our summer reading experiences and the titles we can't stop talking about. Around here we talk books all year round, but episodes like these are especially fun, and always mean we're adding a bunch of new titles to our own to-be-read lists. We read widely around here, so no matter what ...
Aug 27, 2024•1 hr 12 min•Ep 444•Transcript available on Metacast A limited reading selection often leads to delightful serendipity, and today Anne's chatting with a guest who has had just that experience. Rachel Elaine Martens and her family recently lived in Budapest for a year. During this time, Rachel Elaine had access to her U.S. library's virtual collection, but she also made use of a small shelf of left-behind books in the house she was staying in. Now that she's back home in Missouri with a broader selection of choices, she'd like to keep that serendip...
Aug 20, 2024•1 hr•Ep 443•Transcript available on Metacast Readers, we have celebrated birthday milestones here on the podcast before, and today Anne is talking with a guest who designed the ultimate book party for her recent 50th birthday. Kelly Davis lives in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, where she works for her alma mater and enjoys caring for her garden and listening to audiobooks. For Kelly's recent 50th birthday, she planned a big celebration at her local beignet company, and in lieu of other presents, she asked guests to bring a book that they ...
Aug 13, 2024•54 min•Ep 442•Transcript available on Metacast Today we're excited to share Anne's recent conversation with author Lucy Foley, from a live event hosted by Carmichael's Bookstore in Louisville, Kentucky. In today's show, Anne and Lucy kick things off by discussing Lucy's new revenge thriller The Midnight Feast and the real-life places and trips that inspired its atmospheric setting. Lucy also shares about her evolving career as an author, her love of writing unlikable characters, and what she delightfully calls the unholy trinity of women aut...
Aug 06, 2024•55 min•Ep 441•Transcript available on Metacast With the year just over half way through, Anne is stepping back to see how her reading year is going. Today, she and Shannan Malone are doing a little midyear check-in to see how this year has been going so far reading-wise, and what they are most excited about in the coming months. They consider whether they're actually reading what they want to be reading this year, whether they have any intentions to pivot for fall and winter months, and if or how they reading tastes and desires have evolved ...
Jul 30, 2024•55 min•Ep 440•Transcript available on Metacast In today's episode from the WSIRN vault, Anne is sharing her very first podcast conversation with Brigid Misselhorn. Like so many of our guests, Brigid came to the show through our WSIRN guest submission form. But these days she works on our team as our MMD Book Club Community Administrator. This is fitting, because as you’ll hear in today’s episode, Brigid is totally addicted to book clubs. At the time of this episode, she was an active member of seven book clubs. She really enjoys how particip...
Jul 23, 2024•57 min•Ep 439•Transcript available on Metacast Today we're excited to continue our mid-summer series featuring our team members! Learning more about our team members and who shares your tastes may help you identify some good books in a way that might not land on your radar otherwise. We hope you love this conversation. Anne is revisiting her very first conversation with Alabama reader Shannan Malone in today's conversation. Since this episode originally aired, Shannan has joined our team as our co-host and contributor, but in today's show, S...
Jul 16, 2024•51 min•Ep 438•Transcript available on Metacast Welcome back to our July series brought to you by the What Should I Read Next? time machine. This month, we're going back in our archives to share episodes with four of our team members. When these episodes were originally recorded, no one involved had any idea that these readers would be on our team eventually, so it's especially fun to re-listen knowing everything that happened after Anne and these guests first spoke on the podcast. Today we are revisiting Anne's conversation with Donna Hetchl...
Jul 09, 2024•52 min•Ep 439•Transcript available on Metacast Today we are kicking off a summer series from the What Should I Read Next? archives: we're sharing the first episodes and sometimes the very first conversations Anne had with readers that are now members of our team. Many of you know our team members by name, and you have a good sense of their reading tastes, too. But we also know that many of you are new around here, or haven't yet had the chance to listen to all 400-plus episodes, so you don't know our team members as well. Whether you've hear...
Jul 02, 2024•37 min•Ep 434•Transcript available on Metacast 
