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This week’s guest is Jesse Katz, a Pulitzer Prize winner and author of The Rent Collectors. We cover his research for the book, the history of street vending in Los Angeles, and issues with the criminal justice system.
Jesse's Recommendations
- Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
- Evicted by Matthew Desmond
- Poverty, by America by Matthew Desmond
Shelf Talkers is a podcast from Village Well Books & Coffee in downtown Culver City, CA. Each episode, we interview authors on their books, their process, and their favorite reads. New episodes are released every other Wednesday.
If you'd like to get in touch, you can email us at [email protected].
If you love the show and want us to keep creating, please consider leaving us a review!
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This week's guest is the current Mayor of Culver City, Yasmine-Imani McMorrin. She talks about her book club, Los Angeles and country-wide politics, and a whole lot more!
SHELF TALKERS is a podcast from Village Well Books & Coffee in downtown Culver City, CA, where we interview authors on their books, writing process, and what they are themselves reading. A new episode is released every other Wednesday! Need to reach out or have questions?
Feel free to email us at [email protected].
If you love the show and want us to keep creating, please consider leaving us a review!
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This week's guest is the best-selling author of the murder-mystery-puzzle series Murdle, GT Karber. Murdle has won many awards, including the 2024 British Book Award, and has been a bestseller internationally (and at VW) for over a year! We talk puzzles, mystery writing, and a whole lot more!
SHELF TALKERS is a podcast from Village Well Books & Coffee in downtown Culver City, CA, where we interview authors on their books, writing process, and what they are themselves reading. A new episode is released every other Wednesday! Need to reach out or have questions?
Feel free to email us at [email protected].
If you love the show and want us to keep creating, please consider leaving us a review!
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Today's episode is a fun experiment of format; we have a wonderful roundtable discussion among employees of the Village Well about the NYT article, "The 100 Best Books of the 21st Century". Click the link to follow along or to see which you have read! We hope you enjoy this new episode.
SHELF TALKERS is a podcast from Village Well Books & Coffee in downtown Culver City, CA, where we interview authors on their books, writing process, and what they are themselves reading. A new episode is released every other Wednesday! Need to reach out or have questions?
Feel free to email us at [email protected].
If you love the show and want us to keep creating, please consider leaving us a review!
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What do you get when a film critic and acclaimed video essayist writes a sci-fi series set in an alternate reality contemporary America? Complex aliens, three dimensional romance, societal critique, and a lot of pop-culture references.
This week’s guest is Lindsay Ellis, author, media critic, and Hugo-nominated video essayist. Her debut novel, Axiom's End, published in July 2020, became an instant New York Times Best Seller, and today we are here to discuss Linday’s third novel Apostles of Mercy, the third book in the Noumena series. Lindsay also writes and produces video essays and documentaries on her popular nebula.tv channel.
SHELF TALKERS is a podcast from Village Well Books & Coffee in downtown Culver City, CA, where we interview authors on their books, writing process, and what they are themselves reading. A new episode is released every other Wednesday! Need to reach out or have questions?
Feel free to email us at [email protected].
If you love the show and want us to keep creating, please consider leaving us a review!
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This week’s guest is Jesse Byrd, a children’s book author, children’s book developer with his company Moonbeam Literary and Media, and a literary agent, as well as a board member of the NPR foundation. Jesse had a career in tech at Google but decided to quit that life -- twice -- to pursue telling stories that make a difference in the world. His newest book, The Switch, is a children’s book teaching kids the importance of service in the midst of teams, even if they’re the best on the team.
Books recommended by Jesse Byrd
This Is the Honey An Anthology of Contemporary Black Poets by Kwame Alexander
Bunso Meets a Mumu by Rev Valdez
Hello Sweet Baby: An Adoption Story Written by Janine Jackson, Illustrated Brittanie Gaja
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Our first graphic novelist on the pod! Our first fellow podcaster on the pod! Our first fellow comedian on the pod! Our first fellow recovering youth group go-er on the pod!
This week’s guest is Jordan Morris! Jordan is a graphic novel writer and long-time comedy writer/podcaster. He is the host of the popular podcast Jordan Jesse Go, cohosted by NPR’s Jesse Thorn, as well as recurring cast member on Youtube’s premier daily talk show, Good Mythical Morning. Jordan’s newest graphic novel, Youth Group (First Second Books, 2024), dropped July 16. Illustrated by Bowen McCurdy, the graphic novel explores a group of Orange County evangelical youths who must team up with youth of other religions to exorcize demons!
Books recommended by Jordan Morris
Lunar New Year Love Story
Written by Gene Luen Yang, Illustrated by LeUyen Pham
Vampires in the Lemon Grove by Karen Russell
The Worst Ronin
Written by Maggie Tokuda-Hall, Illustrated by Faith Schaffer
SHELF TALKERS is a podcast from Village Well Books & Coffee in downtown Culver City, CA, where we interview authors on their books, writing process, and what they are themselves reading. A new episode is released every other Wednesday! Need to reach out or have questions?
Feel free to email us at [email protected].
If you love the show and want us to keep creating, please consider leaving us a review!
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Rosanna Xia gives us perspective. A fresh and thoughtful conversation with the busiest Los Angeles Times' environmental reporter, Rosanna was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2020 for explanatory reporting. She wrote “California Against the Sea: Visions for Our Vanishing Coastline" (Heyday 2023), which won the 2023 California Independent Booksellers Alliance Golden Poppy Award for best nonfiction, the 2023 California Book Awards gold medal, and was recently selected by the Library of Congress as part of its 2024 “Great Reads from Great Places” program.
Books recommended by Rosanna Xia
An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us by Ed Yong
Beloved Beasts: Fighting for Life in an Age of Extinction by Michelle Nijhuis
Mill Town: Reckoning with What Remains by Kerri Arsenault
SHELF TALKERS is a podcast from Village Well Books & Coffee in downtown Culver City, CA, where we interview authors on their books, writing process, and what they are themselves reading. A new episode is released every other Wednesday! Need to reach out or have questions? Feel free to email us at [email protected].
If you love the show and want us to keep creating, please leave us a review!
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Did Julia or Jared win in trivia? Guess which co-host is better at retaining obscure knowledge… Find out on this episode! This week’s guest is Buzzy Cohen - the 9-time "Jeopardy!" winner. Buzzy later won the 2017 "Jeopardy!" Tournament of Champions. In 2021, Buzzy Cohen served as a guest host for Jeopardy’s Tournament of Champions. On this episode, Buzzy discusses his newest book full of trivia - Baby Got Facts: Totally 90s Trivia, released April 2024.
Books recommended by Buzzy Cohen
Brainiac: Adventures in the Curious, Competitive, Compulsive World of Trivia Buffs by Ken Jennings
A Swim in the Pond in the Rain by George Saunders
What We Talk About When We Talk About Love by Raymond Carver
The Dharma Bums Guide to Western Literature by Dean Sluyter
Book recommended by Village Well Bookseller, Peggy
The Women by Kristin Hannah
SHELF TALKERS is a podcast from Village Well Books & Coffee in downtown Culver City, CA, where we interview authors on their books, writing process, and what they are themselves reading. A new episode is released every other Wednesday! Need to reach out or have questions? Feel free to email us at [email protected].
If you love the show and want us to keep creating, please leave us a review!
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We have the honor and privilege of talking with writer/author/poet/folklorist GennaRose Nethercott. Gennarose gives us the lowdown on all things magical realism and weird fiction. Her 2024 release, Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart, is a collection of short stories that show the uncanny yet spooky nature of human affection. Gennarose wrote the 2022 fantasy release, Thistlefoot, declared one of NPRs best books of the year.
In this episode, we also talk to Village Well's owner, Jen Caspar, about the upcoming Village Well Expansion! Stay tuned to the end for the scoop!
Books recommended by Gennarose Nethercott:
The Black Lord by Colin Hinckley
The Book of Love by Kelly Link
Tender by Sofia Samatar
The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter
SHELF TALKERS is a podcast from Village Well Books & Coffee in downtown Culver City, CA, where we interview authors on their books, writing process, and what they are themselves reading. A new episode is released every other Wednesday! Need to reach out or have questions? Feel free to email us at [email protected].
If you love the show and want us to keep creating, please leave us a review!
Village Well Books & Coffee is an independent book and coffee-shop in the heart of downtown Culver City. Come through, grab a drink, and read a book!
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We are joined by award-winning anthology editor and author and blogger Jared Shurin, editor of the new, massive, absolutely sleek and dope-looking cyberpunk anthology book The Big Book of Cyber Punk! He has edited or co-edited over 12 anthologies in his life, and has been a finalist for the Hugo and British Science Fiction awards, and founded and led the geek culture website Pornokitch for many years.
Books recommended by Jared Shurin:
The Immortal King Rao by Vauhini Vara
Sweet Harmony by Claire North
Desert Rain by Pat Murphy (unavailable)
Recommended by Art Nomura:
Mizuko: True Spirit by Art Nomura
SHELF TALKERS is a podcast from Village Well Books & Coffee in downtown Culver City, CA, where we interview authors on their books, writing process, and what they are themselves reading. A new episode is released every other Wednesday! Need to reach out or have questions? Feel free to email us at [email protected].
If you love the show and want us to keep creating, please leave us a review!
Village Well Books & Coffee is an independent book and coffee-shop in the heart of downtown Culver City. Come through, grab a drink, and read a book!
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Samara Bay is a downright truth-giver. She is the author of Permission to Speak: How to Change What Power Sounds Like, Starting With You (Penguin Random House, 2023). Samara coaches rising business leaders, political hopefuls, and public figures. In Hollywood, Samara worked as a speech and dialect coach on Wonder Woman 1984 with Gal Gadot, American Crime Story: Versace with Penelope Cruz and Edgar Ramirez, and Avengers: Infinity War. Her work has been featured in The New York Times Magazine, TIME, Fast Company, Glamour, Entrepreneur Magazine.
Books recommended by Samara Bay:
Cassandra Speaks: When Women Are the Storytellers, the Human Story Changes by Elizabeth Lesser
Women and Power: A Manifesto by Mary Beard
How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy by Jenny Odell
Recommended by VW bookseller/co-host, Julia:
How Much of These Hills Is Gold by C Pam Zhang
SHELF TALKERS is a podcast from Village Well Books & Coffee in downtown Culver City, CA, where we interview authors on their books, writing process, and what they are themselves reading. A new episode is released every other Wednesday! Need to reach out or have questions? Feel free to email us at [email protected].
If you love the show and want us to keep creating, please leave us a review!
Village Well Books & Coffee is an independent book and coffee-shop in the heart of downtown Culver City. Come through, grab a drink, and read a book!
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Pearl AuYeung is the absolutely delightful author and illustrator of the 2022 children’s picture book The Best Kind of Mooncake (Page Street Kids). Based in Los Angeles, born in Hong Kong, and raised in Shanghai, China, Pearl works as a Mattel Toy Designer. She is the illustrator of the upcoming children’s picture book Nearly Almost Exactly Like Me (Simon and Schuster, 2025).
Books recommended by Pearl AuYeung:
Babel by R F Kuang
These Olive Trees by Aya Ghanameh
Recommended by VW bookseller, Akosa:
shima by sho yamagushiku
SHELF TALKERS is a podcast from Village Well Books & Coffee in downtown Culver City, CA, where we interview authors on their books, writing process, and what they are themselves reading. A new episode is released every other Wednesday! Need to reach out or have questions? Feel free to email us at [email protected]. If you love the show and want us to keep creating, please leave us a review!
Village Well Books & Coffee is an independent book and coffee-shop in the heart of downtown Culver City. Come through, grab a drink, and read a book!
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Brian Sonia-Wallace is a multifaceted author and poet raised in Culver City, California and Santiago, Chile. His memoir, The Poetry of Strangers (Harper Collins, 2020), details his experiences engaging with the world through poetry. Brian has contributed to notable publications like the Guardian, LitHub, and Rolling Stone. His latest publication is Maze Mouth (Moontide Press, 2023). Brian fosters LGBTQ+ voices through a poetry column for The Pride LA and teaches creative writing at UCLA Writers’ Extension and the nonprofit Get Lit—Words Ignite. Sonia-Wallace's impact on the literary community is further recognized by his role as the fourth poet laureate of West Hollywood.
Books recommended by Brian Sonia-Wallace:
A poem is a house by Linda Ravenswood
When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities by Chen Chen
Gay Bar: Why We Went Out by Jeremy Atherton Lin
Recommended by VW community member, Buzzy Cohen:
Tenth of December by George Saunders
SHELF TALKERS is a podcast from Village Well Books & Coffee in downtown Culver City, CA, where we interview authors on their books, writing process, and what they are themselves reading. A new episode is released every other Wednesday! Need to reach out or have questions? Feel free to email us at [email protected].
Village Well Books & Coffee is an independent book and coffee-shop in the heart of downtown Culver City. Come through, grab a drink, and read a book!
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An LA native mystery author of 20 novels and short story collections, a television writer on the acclaimed FX series Snowfall, Gary Phillips is the real deal. The sequel to his most recent novel, One Shot Harry (2022), will come out in April 2024, entitled Ash Dark as Night. Gary's classic 1994 LA-based Noir fiction novel Violent Spring has its 30th anniversary edition release in May of 2024.
Books recommended by Gary Phillips:
To Protect and To Serve: The LAPD's Century of War in the City of Dreams By Joe Domanick
City of Quartz by Mike Davis
Fire this Time by Gerald Thorn
Recommended by VW bookseller, Avery Weinman:
James by Percival Everett
SHELF TALKERS is a podcast from Village Well Books & Coffee in downtown Culver City, CA, where we interview authors on their books, writing process, and what they are themselves reading. A new episode is released every other Wednesday! Need to reach out or have questions? Feel free to email us at [email protected].
Village Well Books & Coffee is an independent book and coffee-shop in the heart of downtown Culver City. Come through, grab a drink, and read a book!
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Kayla Min Andrews is the daughter of Katherine Min, author of The Fetishist, a book both the LA Times and Washington Post are calling “ahead of its time.” Katherine Min received a National Endowment of the Arts writer’s grant, a Pushcart Prize, and attended 8 different writers residencies. The Katherine Min MacDowell Fellowship exists in her name.
Kayla wrote the afterword to The Fetishist. Her forthcoming essay to be published in The Massachusetts Review.
Books recommended by Kayla Min Andrews:
Little Rabbit by Alyssa Songsiridej
Fiona and Jane by Jean Chen Ho
Holding Pattern by Jenny Xie
Recommended by community member and local author, Kim Purcell:
Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarro
SHELF TALKERS is a podcast from Village Well Books & Coffee in downtown Culver City, CA, where we interview authors on their books, writing process, and what they are themselves reading. We release a new episode every other week on Wednesdays. Need to reach out or have questions? Feel free to email us at [email protected].
Village Well Books & Coffee is an independent book and coffee-shop in the heart of downtown Culver City. Come through, grab a drink, and read a book!
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Olivie Blake is the massively prolific and impressive New York Times best-selling fantasy and young adult author of The Atlas Six, and it’s sequel, The Atlas Paradox, Alone with You in the Ether, My Mechanical Romance, and many more books. Her newest book, The Atlas Complex, released on January 9th, concludes the Atlas trilogy.
Books recommended by Olivie Blake:
I Never Promised You a Rose Garden by Joanne Greenberg
An Impossible Thing to Say by Arya Shahi
Recommended by our bookseller Amri:
Finding Fish by Antwone Fisher
SHELF TALKERS is a podcast from Village Well Books & Coffee in downtown Culver City, CA, where we interview authors on their books, writing process, and what they are themselves reading. We release a new episode every other week on Wednesdays. Need to reach out or have questions? Feel free to email us at [email protected]
Village Well Books & Coffee is an independent book and coffee-shop in the heart of downtown Culver City. Come through, grab a drink, and read a book!
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CJ LEEDE is a horror writer based in Los Angeles. Her debut novel, Maeve Fly, won this year’s Octavia E. Butler 2023 Golden Poppy Award. CJ has an MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia University, and a BA from NYU's Gallatin School, where she studied Mythology and the Middle Ages. When she is not driving around the country, she can be found in LA with her boyfriend and rescue dogs.
Village Well Books & Coffee is an independent book- and coffee-shop in the heart of downtown Culver City. Come through, grab a drink, and read a book! Check out our events!
SHELF TALKERS is a podcast from Village Well Books & Coffee in downtown Culver City, CA, where we interview authors on their books, writing process, and what they are themselves reading. We release bi-weekly. The hosts are Village Well booksellers Julia Elizabeth Evans and Jared Kassebaum.
Mentioned by CJ Leede in the episode:
Story of the Eye by Georges Bataille
Camp Damascus
Night's Edge by Liz Kerin
Jeff Morrical as our Culver & Duquesne community member recommendation:Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow
by Gabrielle Zevin
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Francesca Lia Block is the wildly prolific author of over 25 books, including her newest novel House of Hearts, and her writing memoir, The Thorn Necklace, and the YA classic Weetzie Bat. We discuss how writing is a source of healing, her parallel career as an MFA instructor, and her position as editor of Lit Angels, an online literary journal.
SHELF TALKERS is a podcast from Village Well Books & Coffee in downtown Culver City, CA, where we interview authors on their books, writing process, and what they are themselves reading. We release bi-weekly. The hosts are Village Well booksellers Julia Elizabeth Evans and Jared Kassebaum.
Village Well Books & Coffee is an independent book- and coffee-shop in the heart of downtown Culver City. Come through, grab a drink, and read a book!
Check out our events!
Mentioned by Francesca Lia Block in the episode:
Lit Angels
Invisible Man
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Beloved
House of the Spirits
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Mentioned by Abby as our bookseller staff recommendation:
Birnam Wood
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Colin Hinckley is both a bookseller and an author here at Village Well, and he is joining us on the podcast to talk about his 2023 release, The Black Lord. We discuss his process, journey, and his love for the genre of Cosmic Horror. We are honored to have him with us for our inaugural episode!
SHELF TALKERS is a podcast from Village Well Books & Coffee in downtown Culver City, CA, where we interview authors on their books, writing process, and what they are themselves reading. We release every other week on Wednesday.
Village Well Books & Coffee is an independent book and coffee-shop in the heart of downtown Culver City. Come through, grab a drink, and read a book!
Purchase The Black Lord.
Mentioned by Colin Hinckley in the episode:
The House of Small Shadows
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This episode of Shelf Talkers is brought to you by Village Well Books & Coffee. It was produced by Jared Kassebaum and Julia Elizabeth Evans, edited by Julia Elizabeth Evans, additional mixing provided by Akaash Tumuluri, and our theme music is from Noah Viklund.
