Russell, Rachel, and Rachael chat with our guest Catherine Carter, owner of The Dog-Eared Page bookstore and teahouse. We discuss the deep and abiding friendship between libraries and bookstores, books about rabbits, and so much more.

Books we discuss include:

• “House of Leaves” by Mark Z. Danielewski
• “Manacled” by SenLinYu
• “Fifty Shades of Grey” by E.L. James
• “After” by Anna Todd
• “Quicksilver” by Callie Hart
• “Harry Potter” series by J.K. Rowling
• “Dragon Rider” and “Inkheart” by Cornelia Funke
• “The Silence of the Lambs” by Thomas Harris
• “The Lord of the Rings” series by J.R.R. Tolkien
• “Jaws” by Peter Benchley
• “The Empyrean” series by Rebecca Yarros
• “Watership Down” by Richard Adams
• “Christopher Bunny” by Jane Werner Watson, Richard Scarry
• “Bunnicula” by Deborah Howe
• “The Velveteen Rabbit” by Margery Williams Bianco
• “The World of Beatrix Potter” series by Beatrix Potter
• "Bunny Trouble" by Hans Wilhelm
• “The Sea of Trolls” by Nancy Farmer
• “Hello Beautiful” by Ann Napolitano
• “Midnight at the Blackbird Cafe” by Heather Webber
• “Book Lovers” by Emily Henry
• “A Court of Thorns and Roses” and others by Sarah J. Maas

Russell, Rachel, and Rachael discuss our January challenge, Memoirs and Autobiographies, and new Rachael lore just dropped.

Books we discuss include:

• “Gone to the Woods: Surviving a Lost Childhood” by Gary Paulsen
• “Sonny Boy” by Al Pacino
• “Greenlights” by Matthew McConaughey
• “Pageboy” by Elliot Page
• “Officer Clemmons” by Dr. Francois S. Clemmons
• “Sociopath” by Patric Gagne
• “Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood” by Trevor Noah
• “Educated” by Tara Westover
• “Just as I Am” by Cicely Tyson
• “The Twenty-Ninth Day: Surviving a Grizzly Attack in the Canadian Tundra” by Alex Messenger
• “Memorial Drive: A Daughter’s Memoir” by Natasha Trethewey
• “The Little Bookstore of Big Stone Gap: A Memoir of Friendship, Community, and the Uncommon Pleasure of a Good Book” by Wendy Welch

Russell, Rachel, and Rachael chat with our first two-time guest, Chrislyn Gardner, about our favorite winter holiday reads past and present.

Books we discuss include:

• “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens
• “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” by Robert L. May
• “The Elf on the Shelf: A Christmas Tradition” by Carol Aebersold and Chanda Bell
• “The Christmas Tree That Grew” by Phyllis Krasilovsky, Kathy Wilburn
• “The Biggest, Most Beautiful Christmas Tree” by Amye Rosenberg
• “Turkey Claus” by Wendi Silvano
• “Night Tree” by Eve Bunting
• “Letters from Father Christmas” by J.R.R. Tolkien, Baillie Tolkien
• “Snowmen at Night” by Caralyn Buehner
• “The Christmas Day Kitten” by James Herriot
• “The Christmas Pig” by J.K. Rowling
• “Bulldozer’s Christmas Dig” by Candace Fleming
• “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” by Barbara Robinson
• “Home Alone: the Classic Illustrated Storybook” by Jason Rekulak
• “A Die Hard Christmas: The Illustrated Holiday Classic” by Doogie Horner
• “The Gift of the Magi” by O. Henry
• “Cathedral Mouse” by Kay Chorao
• Bonus Song: “Wilbur the Christmas Mouse” by Ralph Emery

Russell, Rachel, and Rachael discuss our December challenge, award winning books, and learn a lot about the fortitude of the human spirit.

Books we discuss include:

• “James” by Percival Everett (National Book Award for Fiction 2024)
• “Notes on an Execution” by Danya Kukafka (Edgar Award for Best Novel 2023)
• “Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption” by Laura Hillenbrand (Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Biography 2010)
• “Seabiscuit: An American Legend” by Laura Hillenbrand (William Hill Sports Book of the Year 2021)
• “North Woods” by Daniel Mason (The Rachel Timm Pulitzer Prize Award 2024)
• “Night Watch” by Jayne Anne Phillips (Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 2024)
• “Yonder” by Ali Standish (Kirkus Best Book of the Year 2023)
• “Orbital” by Samantha Harvey (The Booker Prize 2024)
• “Forrest Gump” by Winston Groom (New York Times Top Best Seller 1994)
• “Gump and Co.” by Winston Groom (The Rachael Miller Award for Best Book No One Has Heard Of)

Russell, Rachel, and Rachael chat with Charles Perkins, known to us as “Jerry Beardman”. Listen to find out why.

Books we discuss include:

• “The Ministry of Time” by Kaliane Bradley
• “The Time Machine” by H.G. Wells
• “Where The Sidewalk Ends” by Shel Silverstein
• “The Hardy Boys” series by Franklin W. Dixon
• “Encyclopedia Brown” series by Donald J. Sobol
• “Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen
• “Where Wolves Don’t Die” by Anton Treuer
• “The Call of the Wild” by Jack London
• “Hatchet” by Gary Paulsen
• “Holes” by Louis Sachar
• “Shutter” by Ramona Emerson
• “‘Til Death” by Jason Anspach
• “The Empyrean” series by Rebecca Yarros
• “Red Rising Saga” series by Pierce Brown
• “The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife” by Anna Johnston
• “Arlo Finch” series by John August
• “The Book of Doors” by Gareth Brown
• “The Only One Left”, “Home Before Dark”, “The House Across the Lake” by Riley Sager
• “The Ruinous Love Trilogy” series by Brynne Weaver
• “Twelve Angry Men” by Reginald Rose
• “A Christmas Story” by Philip Grecian, a play based on the 1983 motion picture
• “Claus: Legend of the Fat Man” by Tony Bertauski (Russell is once again asking you to please read this book.)

Books and Beans meets the second Saturday of each month, 9 AM at Links Coffee House Cafe.
Books and Brews meets the 3rd Wednesday in November and December (usually the last Wednesday of the month), 5:30 PM at Ballad Brewing.
Let’s Make a Scene - Reader’s Theatre Series meets Monday, December 9 from 5 PM to 7 PM to read “A Christmas Story” by Philip Grecian.

Russell, Rachel, and Rachael discuss our November challenge, books written by an Indigenous author.

Books we discuss include:

• “The Sentence” by Louise Erdrich
• “Where Wolves Don’t Die” by Anton Treuer
• “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” by Sherman Alexie
• “The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fightfight in Heaven” by Sherman Alexie
• “Heart berries : a memoir” by Terese Marie Mailhot
• “Crazy brave : a memoir” by Joy Harjo
• “Redbone: The True Story of a Native American Rock Band” by Christian Staebler, Sonia Paoloni, Thibault Balahy (Illustrator)
• “The Firekeeper’s Daughter” by Angeline Boulley
• “Black Sun” by Rebecca Roanhorse
• “The Only Good Indians” by Stephen Graham Jones

Colleen Barnes, DPS coordinator for ELA and Media Specialists, joins Russell and the Rach(a)els to discuss her favorite books, DPS reading challenges, and the Dolly Parton Imagination Library.

Books we discuss include:

• Books of Essays, especially:
  • “The Best of Me” by David Sedaris
  • “Wow, No Thank You” by Samantha Irby
  • “Here For It: Or, How To Save Your Soul in America” by Eric Thomas
• “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” by Sherman Alexie
• “Big Fish: A Novel of Mythic Proportions” by Daniel Wallace
• “The Iowa Baseball Confederacy” by W.P. Kinsella
• “Love in the Time of Cholera” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
• “Colton Gentry’s Third Act” by Jeff Zentner
• “Monster Hunter Mystery” series by Annelise Ryan
• ANYTHING by Beverly Cleary and Judy Blume
• “Bud, Not Buddy” by Christopher Paul Curtis
• “Call of the Wild” by Jack London
• “Small Spaces” by Katherine Arden

Russell, Rachel, and Rachael discuss our October challenge, books with a supernatural (or spooky) element.

Books we discuss include:

• “My Darling Dreadful Thing” by Johanna van Veen
• “‘Til Death” by Jason Anspach
• “Parade: A Collection of Delightfully Odd Stories” by V.R. Christensen
• “Mile 81” in “The Bazaar of Bad Dreams” by Stephen King
• “Flight or Fright: 17 Turbulent Tales” edited by Stephen King and Bev Vincent
• “Rougarou Magic” by Rachel M. Marsh
• “The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society” by C.M. Waggoner
• “Through the Woods” by Emily Carroll
• “Coraline” by Neil Gaiman
• “The Ocean at the End of the Lane” by Neil Gaiman
• “The Haunted Mask: A Goosebumps Graphic Novel” by R.L. Stine, illustrated by Maddi Gonzalez
• “Scary Stories To Tell in the Dark” by Alvin Schwartz, illustrated by Stephen Gammell
• “Under the Dome” by Stephen King