Mini Ep. 42: Reading Abroad with Brittany Block (@BRBReads)
Sarah's Bookshelves Live
Sarah Dickinson
4.7 • 785 Ratings
🗓️ 15 January 2020
⏱️ 33 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In Mini Episode 42, Brittany Block (@brbreads) and I talk about the logistics of reading abroad, bleak books, and books that help you learn something.
This post contains affiliate links, through which I make a small commission when you make a purchase (at no cost to you!).
Highlights
- How Brittany gets access to books while living abroad (including her library access, e-book access, and what she does in German bookstores).
- How Brittany's reading taste has evolved (and the vast difference between her favorite book of 2009 and her favorite book of 2019).
- We lament the overuse of The Girl on the Train comparisons and discuss another egregious comparison not involving The Girl on the Train.
Brittany's Book Recommendations
Two OLD Books She Loves
- The Road by Cormac McCarthy | Buy from Amazon
[10:44]
- The Ensemble
by Aja Gabel (My Review) | Buy from Amazon [14:09]
Two NEW Books She Loves
- Wanderers
by Chuck Wendig | Buy from Amazon [17:32]
- My Life as a Rat
by Joyce Carol Oates | Buy from Amazon
[20:52]
One Book She DIDN'T Love
- When the Elephants Dance by Tess Uriza Holthe | Buy from Amazon [23:17]
One NEW RELEASE She's Excited About
- Long Bright River
by Liz Moore (Released January 7, 2020) | Buy from Amazon [26:32]
Other Books Mentioned
- The Divergent Series by Veronica Roth | Buy from Amazon [8:19]
- The Dearly Beloved
by Cara Wall (My Review) | Buy from Amazon [8:47]
- The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11
- The Dreamers
by Karen Thompson Walker (My Review) | Buy from Amazon [19:58]
- We Were the Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates | Buy from Amazon [22:46]
- The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins (My Spoiler Discussion) | Buy from Amazon [28:25]
- The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls by Anissa Gray (My Review) | Buy from Amazon [28:52]
- The Mothers by Brit Bennett (My Review) | Buy from Amazon
[28:52]
- An American Marriage by Tayari Jones (My Review) | Buy from Amazon [28:52]
- Miracle Creek
Other Links
- Sarah's Best Books of 2019 List
- All Who Love Books! Facebook Group
- Winter 2020 Book Preview podcast episode
About Brittany
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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 Bookshelps. Each week I'm |
| 0:10.9 | talking with one bookish guest about two old books they love, two new books they love, one book they |
| 0:16.4 | don't love, and one new release they're excited about. We're going to get real and sometimes a bit snarky |
| 0:22.5 | about all things books. If you like the show, I'd really love your support. Spread the word to your |
| 0:28.3 | reader friends, subscribe to the show, rate and review it wherever you listen to podcasts, or get bonus |
| 0:35.2 | podcast episodes by supporting the podcast on Patreon. |
| 0:39.0 | There's a link in the show notes and in my Instagram bio to my Patreon page. |
| 0:44.0 | Let's get rolling. |
| 0:45.5 | Hey everyone, welcome to the first mini episode of 2020 for Sarah's Bookshelves Live. |
| 0:51.7 | Many episodes feature book bloggers, Instagrammers, and regular readers |
| 0:56.3 | that apply to be on the show and focus solely on book recommendations. And did y'all catch that I did |
| 1:01.9 | not say in 20 minutes or less? That was intentional because after the extra long mini episode |
| 1:08.1 | with Elizabeth Chapman, which aired in November, and that was episode |
| 1:12.8 | 37, if you're interested. I heard from a number of you that you liked that I did not stick |
| 1:18.6 | strictly to the 20 minute time limit. So I decided to just scrap that time limit. These many |
| 1:24.3 | episodes will still be much shorter than the full-length versions, and they will just |
| 1:29.0 | feature the book recommendation portion of the show like they always have, but I'm not going to |
| 1:33.5 | hold myself strictly to 20 minutes or less moving forward. So thank you so much for your feedback, |
| 1:38.9 | and I hope you enjoy the possibly sometimes slightly longer mini episodes. Today's guest is Brittany Block, |
| 1:46.7 | and she is otherwise known as BRB reads on Instagram. Brittany was a language arts and math |
| 1:53.9 | special education inclusion teacher for two years before enlisting in the Air Force. She can't |
| 1:59.8 | reveal much about her current job, |
... |
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