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Sarah's Bookshelves Live

Ep. 75: Ashley Audrain (Author of The Push) + Book Recommendations

Sarah's Bookshelves Live

Sarah Dickinson

Bookrecommendations, Bookpodcasts, Sarahsbookshelvespodcast, Sarahsbookshelveslivepodcast, Sarahsbookshelveslive, Bookpodcast, Literarypodcast, Whatshouldiread, Arts, Bookreviewpodcast, Reading, Readingpodcast, Books, Sarahsbookshelves

4.9 • 732 Ratings

🗓️ 3 February 2021

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In Episode 75, Ashley Audrain (author of The Push) joined me to talk about society’s expectations of mothers, how her publishing background influenced an early draft of The Push, and what it’s like to read and write dark stores.

This post contains affiliate links (plus: here’s your Amazon Smile-specific affiliate link), through which I make a small commission when you make a purchase (at no cost to you!).

Highlights

  • Generational differences in how society views motherhood and interesting feedback Ashley has gotten from mothers in her parents’ generation.
  • What the overwhelming response to The Push has been like for Ashley and whether she expected this type of reaction from readers.
  • How (and when) she found out The Push was going to be a GMA Book Club pick.
  • How Ashley’s publishing marketing / PR background during The Girl on the Train‘s heyday influenced an early draft of The Push, which she eventually changed.
  • How Ashley felt about writing such a dark book about a revered topic.
  • What Sarah gets out of reading dark books.
  • Some interesting feedback from men that Ashley has heard about The Push.
  • Harmful phrases that are thrown around about motherhood all the time and how they can impact mothers’ mental health.
  • Ashley’s thought process as she was writing Violet’s character.
  • Ashley’s memories of reading We Need to Talk About Kevin.
  • How / why Ashley decided to go with a slightly ambiguous ending (and her revision journey to get there).
  • A preview of Ashley’s next book (called The Whisperers).

Ashley’s Book Recommendations [33:59]

Two OLD Books She Loves

Two NEW Books She Loves

One Book She DIDN’T LOVE

One NEW RELEASE She’s Excited About

Last 5 Star Book Ashley Read [50:02]

Other Books Mentioned

About Ashley

Website | Instagram

Ashley previously worked as the publicity director of Penguin Books Canada. Prior to Penguin, she worked in public relations. She is a graduate of the Media, Information & Technoculture program at Western University. She lives in Toronto, where she and her partner are raising their two young children.

The Push is her first novel.

Next Episode

There will not be a new episode next week since the podcast is on a bi-weekly schedule.

The following week, there will be a full length episode featuring Laura Tremaine, the author of Share Your Stuff. I’ll Go First. and the host of the podcast 10 Things to Tell You (airing February 17).

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Welcome to Sarah's Bookshelves Live. I'm Sarah of the blog Sarah's Bookshelves. Each week I'm

0:15.5

talking with one bookish guest about two old books they love, two new books they love, one book they don't love, and one new

0:22.7

release they're excited about. We're going to get real and sometimes a bit snarky about all things

0:28.3

books. If you like the show, I'd really love your support. Spread the word to your reader friends,

0:33.8

subscribe to the show, rate and review it wherever you listen to podcasts, or get bonus podcast episodes

0:40.8

by supporting the podcast on Patreon. There's a link in the show notes and in my Instagram bio to my

0:47.5

Patreon page. Let's get rolling. Hey everyone, I read a book called The Push at the end of 2020, and it absolutely blew me away. I knew

0:57.3

immediately it was going to be a novel that got people and especially mothers talking in 2021.

1:03.4

It was sent to me totally unsolicited by the publisher, so I didn't know much about it going in,

1:08.5

but soon after I finished it, it seemed to be all over the internet

1:12.2

and on Good Morning America as the January Book Club pick and in the blue Book of the Month

1:17.5

box for the month of January. I also heard that it has possibly sold out already from Book

1:23.2

of the Month. So I'm thrilled to welcome Ashley Audrain, author of The Push, to the podcast today.

1:29.9

Ashley previously worked as the publicity director of Penguin Books Canada. Prior to Penguin,

1:34.8

she worked in public relations. She's a graduate of the media information and techno culture program

1:40.3

at Western University. And she lives in Toronto Toronto where she and her partner are raising their

1:44.9

two young children and The Push is her debut novel. Welcome, Ashley. Thank you, Sarah. Thanks for

1:50.4

having me. So happy to chat with you today. I've been looking forward to this for a long time.

1:55.0

We have a Facebook group for podcast listeners for my patrons, and they have been talking

2:00.7

a ton about this book. So I know

2:02.9

everyone's been looking forward to hearing from you. Oh, that's so nice to hear. Thanks.

2:06.9

So for those that haven't read it yet, could you tell us a little bit about the push and where

...

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