Music and Musicians: Books and Bites Podcast, Ep. 81

 On this episode, we celebrate Women's History Month with fiction and nonfiction about women's history, one of the prompts on the Winter-Spring 2024 Books & Bites Bingo reading challenge. From a graphic novel about Soviet women fighter pilots to a page-turning book about the evolution of female bodies, we'll show you that there's nothing dull about women's history.

Michael's Pick

The Night Witches is a graphic novel written by Garth Ennis and illustrated by Russ Braun. During World War II, the Soviet Union formed the 588th Night Bomber Regiment, recruiting women to fly night missions, bombing the invading Nazis as they cut deeper into Russia. The Nazis came to dub them the “Nachthexen” or “Night Witches.”

The novel follows Anna Kharkova, a fictional Night Witch. It opens as Anna is recruited to join the 588th regiment with her friend and gunner, Zoya. If you're a World War II history buff or a fan of military history, you might enjoy this powerful story.

Pairing: A glass of Kompot, homemade fruit juice enjoyed by many Russian and Ukrainian families. 

Carrie's Pick

Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolutionby Cat Bohannon upends popular and scientific belief to argue that female bodies have been the primary agents of humans' evolutionary change. 

Bohannon builds her case over nine well researched and lively chapters: Milk, Womb, Perception, Legs, Tools, Brain, Voice, Menopause, and Love.

Pairing: Chocolate Covered Frozen Bananas in honor of our matriarchal primate relatives.

Jacqueline's Pick

The Lovely War by Julie Berry tells the love stories of two WWI couples through the frame of the Goddess of Love's own love story.

She seeks to answer the age-old question: "Why are Love and War eternally drawn to one another?" but her quest for a conclusion that will satisfy her jealous husband, Hephaestus, uncovers a multi-threaded tale of prejudice, trauma, and music, revealing that War is no match for the power of Love.

Pairing: The war-time treat Lemon Sponge Cake. It's made with rice flour instead of wheat, which was in short supply during World War I. 

Books & Bites Reading Party

Thursday, March 14, 6:30 pm to 7:30 pm

Connect with fellow book lovers at a party that celebrates readers! Join us for some silent reading time followed by bookish conversation. If you’re participating in the Books & Bites Bingo reading challenge, you’ll earn another free bingo square of your choice just for attending. 

No registration is required.

 On this episode, we discuss romance novels, one of the prompts on the Winter-Spring 2024 Books & Bites Bingo reading challenge. This popular book genre has something for everyone, even the horror fans among us!

Jacqueline's Pick

Once Upon a Broken Heart by Stephanie Garber is a young adult fantasy novel. Seventeen year old Evangeline had loving parents who raised her on tales of magic, fates, and fairytales. She believes in hope, true love, and “happily ever after” until she learns that the boy she loves is going to marry someone else.

Then she makes a bargain with Jacks, a Fate whose kiss is deadly to all but his one true love, leading her into a dangerous adventure.

Pairing: Tempt yourself with French Apple Cake, a recipe with the appeal of an apple pie or apple tart, but in a decadent, custard-like cake.

Michael's Pick

The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw is a gorgeously written novella that perfectly mashes up horror, fairy tales, and romance. An unnamed, mute narrator sets off from the kingdom she’s been living in since being caught and married by the prince. She’s what we would likely refer to as a mermaid, a creature from the Deep with sharp teeth.

She’s joined by the androgenous Plague Doctor, the one who has attended to her since her marriage to the prince and the only one who has never been afraid of her. This book leans into horror but at its heart is the love story between the Mermaid and her Plague Doctor.

Pairing: Enjoy a glass of Sierra Nevada's Narwhal Imperial Stout, a perfect beverage to sip while reading this tale set in the snow and ice.

Carrie's Pick

In Thank You for Listening by Julia Whelan, main character Sewanee Chester is a former actor turned award-winning audiobook narrator known for performing the most demanding audiobooks out there, the ones with  multiple voices and accents. 

Sewanee got her start narrating romance novels, but she no longer takes those jobs because she doesn't believe in the typical romance ending.Then she gets an offer she can't refuse, and soon she's exchanging flirty texts with her co-narrator, Brock McKnight. Will Sewanee get her own happily-ever-after ending?

Pairing: Taco Dip, a favorite recipe of one of Sewanee's grandmother's friends. The secret ingredients? Taco seasoning and sour cream.

 On this episode, we ring in the New Year with the Winter-Spring 2024 Books & Bites Bingo reading challenge! 

From now through June 30, 2024, keep track of books you read or listen to by writing the title and author in the matching bingo square. Complete all 25 squares for a chance to win a $100 Joseph-Beth gift card or an Amazon Kindle. You’ll also earn an enamel pin (while supplies last). 

Ease into the challenge with our suggestions for books you can read in one sitting. Grab a cozy blanket to read under, and you'll be able to check off two prompts on your bingo card.

Carrie's Pick

Foster by Claire Keegan is about a young Irish girl sent to live with distant relatives while her mother prepares to give birth to yet another child. 

The Kinsellas give the girl the care and attention that is sometimes lacking in her own chaotic home. 

But there are details to suggest that the couple has their own sadness.This is a quiet, spare story full of tenderness and the solace these three bring to one another.

Pairing: Rhubarb Tart, the first dessert the girl eats in the Kinsella home. Watch the video How to Make Traditional Irish Rhubarb Tart, read "How to Make the Perfect Rhubarb Tart and the Common Mistakes to Avoid," or make an Easy Rhubarb Jam Tart.

Michael's Pick

In the Miso Soup, by Ryu Murakami and translated by Ralph McCarthy, begins with narrator Kenji, a Tokyo "nightlife guide," recalling his encounter with an American client, Frank. 

As he leads Frank through the seedier parts of Toyko nightlife, Kenji begins to feel there’s something off about Frank. Is he the serial killer roaming the streets?

Pairing: A bowl of miso soup from a recipe found in the Gaijin Cookbook.

Jacqueline's Pick

The Course of True Love (and First Dates) by Cassandra Clare is an account of Magnus Bane and Alec Lightwood's romance told from Magnus’s point of view. Magnus is an immortal, and an immensely powerful warlock, and Alec Lightwood is a Shadowhunter. 

Before their alliance, many Shadowhunters killed Downworlders for any small infraction. So, Magnus is taken aback when Alec asks him to go on a date.

If you want to learn more about Alec’s and Magnus’ relationship or are just looking for a book filled with humor and romance, you should read this short story.

Pairing: Ethiopian Beef Tibs, which Alec and Magnus share on their first date.

This month, we discuss books with magic, our final prompt from the 2023 Books and Bites Bingo Reading Challenge. Our picks include an anthology of witchy tales; a novel about the magic of sourdough starter, robot arms, and the human who works with both; and a YA fairytale set in contemporary times.

If you’re participating in Books & Bites Bingo, don’t forget to turn in your bingo card throughout the month of December!

Michael’s Pick

The anthology Hex Life: Wicked New Tales of Witchery, edited by Christopher Golden and Rachel Autumn Deering, contains 18 stories from authors like Sherrilyn Kenyon, Sarah Langan, Tananarive Due, Alma Katsu, and Kelley Armstrong. 

These stories of witchery range from cozy and humorous, to fantastical, to spooky and downright scary.

Pairing: Channel your inner Audrey from the story “Bless Your Heart” and whip up a batch of Seven-Layer Magic Bars.

Carrie's Pick

In Robin Sloan’s novel Sourdough, main character Lois is a young programmer who works at General Dexterity, a San Francisco tech company that programs robotic arms. 

Lois works so much, she sometimes sleeps at the office and drinks meal replacements instead of eating. But when two brothers give her their sourdough starter, a whole new world opens up to her, one filled with the magic inside a new community food market–including her own singing, possibly sinister starter.

Pairing: San Francisco Sourdough from the book Super Sourdough by Great British Baking Show contestant James Morton.

Jacqueline's Pick

The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black is an enchanting YA fairytale set in contemporary times. In this novel, Black returns to her dangerous, alluring world of faerie tales. This fantasy novel’s complex worldbuilding is full of romance, terror, and adventure.

Pairing: Old Fashioned Blackberry Pie, a recipe that will remind you of the magic that is childhood, when you could play all day, spending hours in the sun picking wild blackberries. 

 In honor of National Native American Heritage Month, we discuss books by Indigenous authors, one of the prompts on the Books and Bites Bingo Reading Challenge. Our picks are as varied as ever, with a ghost story set in a bookstore, a teen mystery, and, of course, horror!

Jacqueline's Pick

Firekeeper's Daughter is a young adult mystery by Angeline Bouley. The story mostly takes place on the Sault St. Marie Reservation in northern Michigan. Main character Daunis Fontaine is torn between two worlds: her mother’s wealthy French/white family and her father’s Ojibwe Firekeeper’s side. 

Although she code-switches easily between both cultures, Daunis does not feel like she fits in her hometown or on the Ojibwe reservation. She dreams of getting a fresh start by going away to college. When tragedy strikes her family, she puts her dreams on hold.

Pairing: Fry bread, which you can read more about in Kevin Maillard's children's book, Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story.

Michael's Pick

Don’t Fear the Reaper by Stephen Graham Jones picks up four years after the first book in the Indian Lake trilogy, My Heart is a Chainsaw. Jade is a half-Native American teen with an abusive father and absent mother, and she's a bit of an outcast in her hometown of Prufrock.

Now a little more world-weary and having sworn off slashers, Jade arrives back home in Prufrock just as a blizzard paralyzes the town. And unbeknownst to her, Dark Mill South, an Indigenous serial killer who is seeking revenge for 38 Dakota men hanged in 1862, escapes his prison transport when an avalanche hits near Prufrock. 

People start turning up dead in uncanny ways that are straight out of the slashers Jade knows so intimately. Is Dark Mill South acting out his vengeance on the citizens of Prufrock, or is there another killer lurking around town? 

Pairing: Three Sisters Chili, named after the traditional Indigenous farming practice of planting corn, beans, and squash together.

Carrie's Pick

The Sentence by Louise Erdrich is the darkly humorous story of Tookie, an Ojibwe woman, and Birchbark Books, an independent Minneapolis bookstore owned by the author. Tookie begins working at the bookstore after being released from prison. When the store's "most annoying customer" dies, she begins haunting Tookie. 

Tookie and the rest of the Indigenous staff must contend with a ghost, the beginnings of the coronavirus pandemic, and the long history of police and racial violence—a history made even more painful when George Floyd is murdered.

Pairing: Hand-harvested wild rice, which you can read about in The Sioux Chef's Indigenous Kitchen by Sean Sherman.

For October, we discuss Gothic fiction, one of the prompts on the Books and Bites Bingo Reading Challenge. Our picks have all the creepy mansions, women in the attic, and brooding characters you could possibly want. Not to mention fungi!

Carrie's Pick

O Caledonia is a little-known classic that, according to the publisher, “has been compared to the works of the Brontes, Edgar Allan Poe, and Edward Gorey.” 

This atmospheric and witty novel opens with the death of 16 year-old Janet, who has been murdered in her family’s dilapidated castle in the Scottish Highlands. Except for her pet jackdaw, nobody seems to miss her much: her family wants her quickly buried and forgotten. 

What follows is not a traditional mystery. Instead, the book goes back in time to tell the story of her sad and misunderstood life.

Pairing: Cinnamon scones from Outlander Kitchen: The Official Outlander Companion Cookbook or, for a vegan option, Buttery Scottish Teatime Scones.

Jacqueline's Pick

Have you ever felt strongly about a house? You do not know why but for some unexplainable reason you feel a connection or a presence?

In the young adult novel Frost by Marianna Baer, main character Leena has strong feelings the first time she sees an old two-story Victorian house at the edge of her boarding school. 

But after Leena moves into the house with her friends, things turn sinister. If you enjoyed Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier, you might enjoy Frost.

Pairing: Aztec Chile Chocolate cupcakes.

Michael's Pick

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia is like Lovecraft meets Wuthering Heights. 

In 1955 Mexico, young socialite Noemi is sent to High Place after her father receives a distressing letter from her cousin, Catalina. In a crumbling manor on top of a mountain, she finds Catalina confined to her room due to “tuberculosis.” 

While her cousin rests during the day, Noemi roams the house and grounds, where she slowly uncovers some of the family’s history and dark secrets–including their strange fascination with fungi.

Pairing: Garlic mushrooms.

This month, we discuss books about music or musicians, one of the prompts on the Books and Bites Bingo Reading Challenge. From mixtapes to AI, music memoirs to YA novels, we share our thoughts on both music and books.

Michael's Pick

Michael recommends The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music by Dave Grohl. This memoir describes the passion that Grohl has had for music since he was a kid and goes into his punk-rock roots. He tells stories that are hilarious and heartfelt, from his days in Scream to the rise and fall of Nirvana and the formation of the Foo Fighters and everything in between.

Pairing: KFC and champagne, a staple the Foo Fighters enjoy after special occasions.

Carrie's Pick

Carrie enjoyed Don't Tell Anybody the Secrets I Told You by Grammy award-winning singer-songwriter Lucinda Williams. Williams writes about her journey to becoming an artist, from her chaotic childhood to her struggle to get signed by a recording company to her eventual success. If you've ever aspired to make art, whether music, literature, or something else, you'll find her persistence inspiring.

Pairing: Monday's Red Beans from Melissa M. Martin's cookbook, Mosquito Supper Club: Cajun Recipes from a Disappearing Bayou.

Jacqueline's Pick

Jacquelline chose Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist a YA romance by David Levithan and Rachel Cohn. The authors write alternating chapters for each character’s point of view, with Cohn voicing Norah’s point of view and Levithan doing the same for Nick. The characters bond through their shared love of musicians and music. The novel takes readers through a catalog of music from rock and roll to mainstream punk, as the characters navigate New York's Indie rock scene.

Pairing: Mai Tai Mocktail Party Punch.

 This month, we discuss adventure stories, one of the prompts on the Books and Bites Bingo Reading Challenge. Choose your own adventure, whether it's with a group of teens on a road trip, on top of Mount Everest, or on a pirate ship!

Jacqueline's Pick

Jacqueline enjoyed Five Survive by New York Times bestselling author Holly Jackson. Red Kenny is on a road trip for spring break with five friends. When their RV breaks down in the middle of nowhere with no cell service, they soon realize this is no accident. 

They have been trapped by someone out there in the dark, someone who clearly wants one of them dead. With eight hours until dawn, the six friends must escape, or figure out which of them is the target.

Pairing: No-Bake Peanut Butter Protein Cookies, a yummy road-trip treat.

Michael's Pick

Michael took a trip to Mount Everest with Jon Krakauer's nonfiction book, Into Thin Air. Working for Outside magazine, Krakauer was given the opportunity to ascend Mount Everest, the tallest mountain in the world, during the 1996 climbing season on Rob Hall’s team, Hall being one of the most experienced and respected climbers and guides in the world. 

They were about to witness one of the deadliest days in the mountain's history. A storm rolled in on summit day that ultimately left eight people dead. This is Krakauer’s personal account of that expedition, relying on interviews with others to corroborate his experiences and provide perspective.

Pairing: A hot cup of Masala Chai.

Carrie's Pick

Carrie went on an adventure with The Lady's Guide to Petticoats and Piracy by Mackenzi Lee, a YA novel that takes place in the 18th century. Felicity Montague wants to become a doctor, but the English and Scottish hospital boards she appeals to for apprenticeship turn her down because of her gender. 

When she learns that one of her medical idols is about to marry her childhood best friend and may need an assistant, she sets out for Germany to plead her case. What follows is a quest with two other young women involving pirates, a voyage to Algeria, and (spoiler alert!) sea monsters.

Pairing: Shakshouka, an Algerian dish of eggs poached in a sauce of tomatoes, bell peppers, jalapeno, onion, and spices. Find the recipe in the library database AtoZ World Food.

 In honor of this year's summer learning theme, Dig In, we're digging into some authors we already know with the Books and Bites Bingo prompt, read another book by an author you love.

Carrie's Pick

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen, a coming of age story that satirizes Gothic novels. Seventeen year-old Catherine Morland visits Bath with family friends, where she indulges in her love of reading Gothic novels.

 When her new friends, Henry and Eleanor Tilney, invite her to their home in a former abbey, Catherine’s overactive imagination almost gets the better of her.

Pairing: Bath Buns, a sweet enriched yeast dough bun that was reportedly a favorite of Austen’s.

Michael's Pick

Gone to See the River Man by Kristopher Triana. This splatterpunk novel follows Lori, a superfan of the notorious serial killer, Edmund Cox. 

She corresponds with him regularly and even goes as far as to visit him in prison. During one visit, he gives her a task to prove her devotion that she of course eagerly accepts.

Pairing: Mississippi Delta Infusion, a refreshing cocktail inspired by the birthplace of the Delta Blues.

Jacqueline's Pick

Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare. When orphan Tessa Gray’s aunt dies, Tessa travels across the ocean to reunite with her brother, Nathanial, her only living relative. Upon her arrival, the Mysterious Dark sisters kidnap Tessa, who work for the Magister. 

During her captivity, Tessa learns that she has the power to transform into other people. The Magister wants to marry Tessa and use her ability. The Dark Sisters threaten to hurt her and her brother if she fails to comply with their demands to change into other people.

Pairing: Angel Food Cake, a light, airy dessert that goes great with fresh berries.

 On this episode, we discuss books by LGBTQIA+ authors, one of the prompts for Books & Bites Bingo. We've got a diverse group of characters and settings for you, including a Splatterpunk novel set in 1990s New Orleans, a Booker Prize-winning novel set in the United Kingdom, and a YA novel set in 1987 El Paso, Texas.

Michael's Pick

Michael read Exquisite Corpse by Billy Martin (formerly Poppy Z. Brite). This Splatterpunk novel about a pair of gay, necrophiliac serial killers in New Orleans is not for everyone--even Michael admits he had to put it down at times. But the lyrical writing and focus on the AIDS epidemic kept him reading. 

Pairing: Immerse yourself in the New Orleans setting with a bowl of Duck and Andouille Gumbo, a recipe that be found in Justin Devillier’s The New Orleans Kitchen

Carrie's Pick

Carrie recommends the Booker Prize-winning Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo, an Anglo-Nigerian writer. Each chapter is told from the third-person point of view of eleven different British women and girls and one nonbinary person, ranging in age from their teens to their nineties. Their different classes, races, and sexualities highlight the diversity of the United Kingdom. The book's power grows as you see the characters' lives intersect.

Pairing: This book is full of delicious sounding Caribbean and West African dishes, but the description of a character making Thai Chicken Coconut Curry is especially mouth-watering. Lemongrass and Coconut Curry with Summer Vegetables has similar ingredients and would be a great way to use up some summer squash.

Jacqueline's Pick

Jacqueline enjoyed Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Pen Faulkner Award-winning author Benjamin Alire Sáenz. This YA novel is a coming-of-age, LGBTQIA+ story set in the summer of 1987 in El Paso, Texas. It tells a story of a friendship between two boys on the cusp of manhood. The author uses the boys' friendship to explore issues of family, ethnicity, and sexuality.

Pairing: An Edible Mosaic's brisket recipe would make a good choice for a summer picnic under the stars.