The Bookshop Podcast

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Emiko Jean: Before You Were Anne Oct 20, 2026

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A missing girl case is terrifying on its own, but what happens when your body reminds you, in the middle of danger, that someone else is depending on you?

In this episode, I chat with New York Times bestselling author Emiko Jean to talk about Before You Were Anne, the thriller that brings back detective Chelsea Calhoun and raises the emotional stakes in a way that feels both propulsive and painfully human. We get into why Chelsea’s story wasn’t finished after The Return of Ellie Black, and how her relentless need to fight for women who slip through the cracks becomes the heartbeat of this new mystery.
We also go deep on craft for readers and writers who love to see how a great thriller is built. Emiko shares how she writes a novel with three voices without losing clarity, why she drafts each point of view in full arcs, and how sentence rhythm and pacing can sharpen tension on the page. If you’re into multi-POV suspense, psychological thrillers, and character-driven crime fiction, you’ll hear the reasoning behind choices that make the book so hard to put down.
Then the conversation opens up into the story beneath the story: immigration, assimilation, and identity erasure. Emiko connects the novel to Japanese American family history, including the legacy of picture brides and the long shadow of World War II internment, and reflects on what gets lost when families feel they have to bury language and roots to be safe. By the end, we’re talking about genre love, from darker mysteries to lighter YA rom-coms, plus the authors who inspire her storytelling.

Emiko Jean

Emiko Jean Books

The Narrative Exchange Events

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Book Society: How A Bookshop And Wine Lounge Builds Real Community In Berkeley Sep 23, 2026

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In this episode, I chat with Laura Guzman, founder of Book Society in Berkeley, California, which she co-owns with Sarah Wheat.

After a much-needed break to reset from years of overwork, I'm back with a conversation that feels like a warm, smart antidote to burnout and isolation, and it’s set inside a very real place you can visit.

A bookstore can sell stories, but it can also rebuild a neighborhood. Book Society is an independent, woman-owned bookstore and wine lounge in Berkeley, California.

Laura shares the “why” behind creating a 21+ laptop-free space where people actually talk to each other again, and how her small-town library memories turned into a modern third place for the Bay Area. We also dig into the practical details: the long permit process, what it takes to curate a tight, always-changing selection of books, and how pairing books with a rotating wine menu makes both reading and wine feel more approachable. If you’re looking for an inclusive book community, you’ll love hearing how Book Society builds in non-alcoholic options so everyone can participate.
From author talks and book clubs to restorative community rituals like Sunday in the Stacks, Laura explains what programming does best: it turns first-time visitors into regulars and strangers into friends. We also talk about bold growth ideas, including their shippable book-and-wine gift boxes, pop-ups and partnerships, traveling book club retreats, and the new Read to Lead program that brings leadership development into the book club experience.
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Book Society

Here is the link to purchase Book Society's book-and-wine gift boxes

I See You've Called In Dead, John Kenney

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Jan Carson: Few And Far Between Jul 28, 2026

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A plan to drain a lake sounds like a punchline until you remember it was real. In this episode, I’m joined by Belfast novelist Jan Carson to talk about Few And Far Between, her brilliant alternative history that asks what might have happened if a Northern Irish politician had actually tried to reshape Loch Neagh and “solve” unemployment and conflict with one giant engineering fantasy. From that single archival spark, Jan builds an archipelago, a would-be utopia, and a home that’s about to disappear again.
We get into why Loch Neagh functions like a character and a warning. Jan connects the story’s blue-green algae crisis to the real environmental disaster unfolding on the loch today, and we discuss the messy triangle of farmers, politicians, and environmental campaigners, plus the uncomfortable question of who is expected to pay for cleanup. The conversation also moves into the novel’s deeper currents: toxic masculinity, generational trauma, and what Northern Ireland tries to submerge when moving on feels easier than facing what happened.
Jan talks about writing parables without turning fiction into a lecture, grounding magical realism so it feels emotionally true, and structuring a book with multiple timelines plus a textbook thread packed with footnotes. She shares what 29 rewrites taught her about editing and what it was like recording the audiobook when footnotes refuse to behave.

If you love literary fiction, climate fiction, Irish literature, and authors discussing the highs and lows of their writing process, this one is for you.
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How Eloisa James Turns Shakespeare Craft Into Witty Historical Romance Jun 30, 2026

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A haunted abbey in the Scottish Highlands, a marriage of convenience, a pet piglet with a ribbon, and a heroine who is far sharper than she’s “allowed” to be. In this episode, I chat with Eloisa James, the New York Times bestselling author of historical romance (and Fordham Shakespeare professor Mary Bly), to talk about The Last Lady B and the craft choices that make a love story feel witty, intimate, and impossible to put down.
We start with the roots of desire, including Eloisa’s childhood on a Minnesota farm in a house full of literature plus a long list of forbidden pleasures. That push-pull of wanting what you can’t have becomes a blueprint for romantic tension on the page. From there, we get practical about writing: why she studies TV and comedy scripts to master timing, how Shakespeare trains a writer to land a joke inside character, and why she drafts dialogue like a script so it reads the way people actually speak.
We also go deeper into what makes a romance scene truly charged, including the power of restraint, the emotional work behind “slow burn,” and why sensory details like fabric, lace, and the scent of a cravat can do more than paragraphs of explanation. Eloisa shares what it took to claim her romance career in academia, what she’s learned about genre bias, and why she believes you can’t write romance just to chase a payday.

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Eloisa James

The last Lady B, Eloisa James

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Christina Pascucci Ciampa: Building A Mission Driven Feminist Bookshop Jun 16, 2026

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In this episode, I chat with Christina Pascucci Ciampa, founder and owner of All She Wrote Books, an intersectional, inclusive, feminist, and queer independent bookstore in the Boston area.

Shelf space is never neutral, and Christina has built a bookstore that treats that truth as a daily practice. We talk about how a mission-driven shop becomes a real refuge for readers who rarely feel represented in mainstream recommendations.
Christina shares her path from a decade in corporate marketing and sales to launching the store as a pop-up, then growing it into a community-centered bookshop with events, thoughtful curation, and a team empowered to lead. We get honest about the stress of small business ownership, what delegation really looks like, and why strong leadership is the difference between burnout and sustainability.
We touch on radical bookstores, community safety, and the modern challenges of organizing in an online world. We also dig into gaps in the publishing industry, the ongoing pullback in LGBTQ+ support, and why small independent presses and zines are crucial when big marketing dollars decide what gets attention. Finally, we land on reading as an empathy muscle, including a powerful recommendation, So Many Stars by Caro De Robertis, and why balancing heavy nonfiction with restorative fiction can keep you engaged without going numb and teach us empathy.

All She Wrote Books

So Many Stars, Caro De Robertis

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Writing In A Second Language Can Set You Free May 29, 2026

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In this episode, I’m joined by Cecile Pin, the acclaimed author of Wandering Souls, to discuss her latest novel, Celestial Lights, and the deeper questions it raises about identity, ambition, and what we sacrifice when we decide who we want to become.
Cecile takes us from her multicultural upbringing in Paris and New York City to her study of philosophy in London. We dig into how living between cultures can give a writer real creative range. We also get specific about craft: what it means to write in English as a second language, why rhythm matters, and how she thinks about “show, don’t tell” when emotional truth demands something sharper.
Cecile and I chat about moving from publishing to writing her own fiction, the vulnerability of touring a deeply personal debut, and why she started Celestial Lights, hoping for distance, only to find that the heart always shows up.

From Europa research and NASA details to astronaut memoirs, mission constraints, and the novel’s alternating space logs, Cecile shares how she built a believable world without turning the book into a textbook. If you love literary fiction, speculative sci-fi, and character-driven novels that stay grounded in relationships, you’ll find plenty to take with you.
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Cecile Pin

Celestial Lights, Cecile Pin

Wandering Souls, Cecile Pin

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Janelle Brown: What Kind Of Paradise Apr 16, 2026

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A teenage girl grows up in a Montana cabin with no school, no neighbors, and one constant lesson from her father: modern life is a trap and authority is the enemy. Then she finds a photograph that doesn’t fit the story she’s been told, and the only way to learn the truth is to run straight toward the world he fears most: 1990s San Francisco at the birth of the internet boom.
In this episode, I’m joined by New York Times bestselling author Janelle Brown to talk about her novel What Kind of Paradise and the real-life early tech era that shaped it, from Wired to the first wave of digital optimism. We get into why writing about technology in the present tense is so hard, and what it means to look back on the web’s “revolutionary” promise after decades of addiction, distorted discourse, and an always-on life.
We also go deep on craft, character, and point of view. Janelle explains why she wrote the father’s backstory in second person—the "you" voice—making it a psychological shield and a subtle manipulation. For this novel, Janelle researched extremism, including works on Ted Kaczynski, while still making a complicated father feel frighteningly human. Along the way, we unpack legacy, parenting, identity, and her sharp question for all of us: how much are we letting technology dictate who we become, and what guardrails do we actually want for AI and platforms?
If you like literary thrillers, author interviews, and big conversations about technology and society, hit play, then subscribe, share the episode, and leave a review wherever you listen.

THE NARRATIVE EXCHANGE

JANELLE BROWN

WHAT KIND OF PARADISE

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How A Family Bookstore Became A City Landmark Mar 30, 2026

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In this episode, I chat with Andrea and Jordan Minter, third-generation managers of Russell Books in Victoria, British Columbia. Ww trace how a packed Montreal dining room helped spark a business that grew into one of Canada’s most beloved independent bookstores.
We talk about what it’s really like to manage a high-volume shop that carries new books, used books, antiquarian and rare books, remainders, and signed copies. Andrea and Jordan explain how daily trade-ins and estate buying shape the shelves in unpredictable waves, why regulars keep coming back to browse, and how modern systems make it possible to shelve new and used editions side by side without losing track of inventory. If you care about book curation, bookselling instincts, and the quiet craft behind a great browsing experience, you’ll leave with a clearer picture of what keeps an indie bookshop thriving.
Then we get into the fun: the surprising items found inside secondhand books and the behind-the-scenes story of Russell Books’ Guinness World Record book tower built for their grand opening in 2019. We close with what they’re reading right now and a few Victoria travel tips for hiking trails, coffee shops, bakeries, and the local food scene. Subscribe, share this with a fellow book lover, and leave a review wherever you listen.

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How A Storied London Bookshop Keeps Reading Personal Mar 03, 2026

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In this episode, I chat with Nikky Dunne from Heywood Hill in Mayfair, London.

Step behind the door of a London landmark and discover why a great independent bookshop still beats like a human heart. I chat with Nikky Dunne, bookseller-in-chief at Heywood Hill in Mayfair, to unpack ninety years of tailored bookselling, a wartime chapter powered by Nancy Mitford’s wit, and a present-day practice built on listening first and recommending second. From brown-paper parcels to rare firsts, Nikky shows how curation, not scale, creates lasting value for readers who crave depth, surprise, and beauty.
Across two floors of a Georgian townhouse, Heywood Hill blends new, old, and antiquarian books into a living catalogue where literature, history, architecture, biography, travel, and children’s titles coexist. Nikky explains how the shop sustains its mission with three pillars: research-led library building for homes and offices worldwide, a bespoke subscription service that interviews readers to match their tastes, and a rare book program that partners with passionate collectors. It’s a portrait of bookselling as craftsmanship; intimate, precise, and often delightfully demanding.
We also celebrate the publishers who keep literature adventurous. Independent presses like Fitzcarraldo and Pushkin bring bold voices and translations to younger readers hungry for challenging ideas, proving that serious books have a vibrant audience. The theme is consistent: human rhythms, not algorithms. When a bookseller listens well, a reader’s world widens.
If you believe bookstores are more than retail, places of serendipity, memory, and conversation, this story will feel like home. Subscribe, share with a book-loving friend, and leave a review to help others find the show. What book shifted your reading life? Tell us.

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Smitten On Main Feb 14, 2026

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A coastal drive, a hard pivot, and a bookstore built on happy endings.

In this episode, I chat with Mae Tingstrom, founder and owner of Smitten Books in Ventura. Mae explains how a former tech professional learned to say no, embraced a niche, and turned a retail space into a community hub. From digging trenches and pulling drywall to stocking shelves with books written by women and non-binary authors, her journey is equal parts grit and heart.
We trace the moment she left the Bay Area for a smaller town, why construction took twice the time and three times the budget, and how boundaries saved both her energy and her mission. Mae shares how coffee retail led to a bigger idea: a bookstore that online shopping can’t replicate, because the value isn’t just the book—it’s the community. Think six free book clubs across genres, writing and tarot circles, live music, and workshops that give adults a place to meet outside bars and school pickup lines. Purchases don’t just stay local; they fund the programming that keeps neighbors connected.
Romance is the store’s backbone for a reason: it sells, it heals, and it promises a satisfying ending when the world feels unstable. But listening to readers broadened the catalog—fantasy, general fiction, and a women-authored horror and suspense club now thrive alongside rom-coms and self-care. We also get into Main Street dynamics, from parking advocacy with neighboring shops to the serendipity of foot traffic that still discovers Smitten daily. To cap it off, Mae walks us through a jam-packed Valentine’s Day and two-year anniversary lineup—sales, raffles, live music, hands-on workshops—and a used book fundraiser for a local dog rescue.
If you care about independent bookshops, community building, and the business realities behind feel-good spaces, you’ll find practical insight and plenty of heart here. Subscribe, share this episode with a friend who loves indie bookshops, and leave a review to help more listeners discover these stories.

Smitten Bookstore

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