Season 8, Episode 15: A Poem A Day + YOUR Top Reads 2019-2024

Currently Reading

Meredith Schwartz

Allthebooks, Books, Read, Arts, Bookpodcast, Reading, Whatshouldireadnext, Society & Culture

4.7 • 1.7K Ratings

🗓️ 10 November 2025

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On this episode of Currently Reading, Meredith and Kaytee are discussing:

Bookish Moments: a poem a day + excitement over release days
Current Reads: all the great, interesting, and/or terrible stuff we've been reading lately
Deep Dive: we discuss your top books from 2019-2024 and draw the giveaway winner
The Fountain: we visit our perfect fountain to make wishes about our reading lives

Show notes are time-stamped below for your convenience. Read the transcript of the episode (this link only works on the main site).

1:59 - Our Bookish Moments of the Week

2:07 - The Poetry Foundation's Poem of the Day

2:27 - A Rebellion of Care by David Gate

3:55 - The Black Wolf by Louise Penny

4:34 - The Grey Wolf by Louise Penny

6:02 - Our Current Reads

6:08 - The Teller of Small Fortunes by Julie Leong (Kaytee)

8:21- A Psalm for the Wild Built by Becky Chambers

9:03 - The Vanishing of Josephine Reynolds by Jennifer Moorman (Meredith)

10:11 - Words Matter Bookshop

10:40 - The Magic All Around by Jennifer Moorman

14:17 - The Bookshop by Evan Friss (Kaytee)

15:12 - Parnassus Books

17:29 - Exile in Bookville

17:58 - Books - A Manifesto: Or, How to Build A Library by Ian Patterson (Meredith, Goldsboro link)

20:16 - Goldsboro Books UK

24:16 - The Perfectionist's Guide to Losing Control by Katherine Morgan Schafler

26:03 - I Leave It Up To You by Jinwoo Chong (Kaytee)

29:05 - Flux by Jinwoo Chong (amazon link)

29:34 - The Wasp Trap by Michael Edwards (Meredith)

32:45 - The Guest List by Lucy Foley

33:09 - Listeners' Top Ranked Books

35:11 - Giveaway Post to see other listeners' best books! (reminder - giveaway is CLOSED)

42:17 - Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt

42:32 - Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

42:43 - The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green

42:56 - Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry

43:06 - Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

43:07 - Still Life by Louise Penny

43:59 - Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon

44:03 - Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell

44:08 - Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

44:16 - Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

44:18 - The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

Giveaway Winner Christie's Reads

47:25 - Harry's Trees by Jon Cohen

47:27 - Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

47:30 - The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman

47:33 - Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

47:35 - The Anxious Generation by Johnathan Haidt

47:39 - Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

48:17 - Meet Us At The Fountain

48:22 - I wish to tell you about the gold star item I found for reading and sleep. (Kaytee)

48:32 - Stolen Focus by Johann Hari

48:47 - Bloom

51:30 - I wish for you to try more specific ASMR rooms or listening to playlists for books. (Meredith)

51:34 - Katabasis by R.F. Kuang

51:37 - A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

51:38 - Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

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Bookish Friends Receive:

The Indie Press List with a curated list of five books hand sold by the indie of the month. November's's IPL is brought to us from Content Bookstore in Northfield, Minnesota.
Love and Chili Peppers with Kaytee and Rebekah - romance lovers get their due with this special episode focused entirely on the best selling genre fiction in the business.
All Things Murderful with Meredith and Elizabeth - special content for the scary-lovers, brought to you with the behind-the-scenes insights of an independent bookseller
From the Editor's Desk with Kaytee and Bunmi Ishola - a quarterly peek behind the curtain at the publishing industry
The Bookish Friends Facebook Group - where you can build community with bookish friends from around the globe as well as our hosts

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The Hosts and Regulars: Meredith | Kaytee | Mary | Roxanna

Production and Editing: Megan Phouthavong Evans

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey readers, welcome to the currently reading podcast. We are bookish best friends who spend time every week talking about the books that we've read recently, and as you know, we won't shy away
0:21.7	from having strong opinions. So get ready. We are light on the chit-chat, heavy on the book talk,
0:27.4	and our conversations will always be spoiler-free. Today we'll discuss our current reads,
0:31.8	a bookish deep dive, and then we'll visit The Fountain. I'm Meredith Monday Schwartz. I'm both a mom
0:36.9	and a Mimi and a full-time CEO living in Austin, Texas.
0:40.5	And I have a bookish holiday I celebrate once a year.
0:44.6	And I'm Katie Cobb, a homeschooling mama for it living in Arizona,
0:47.9	and I am now getting a daily dose of poetry.
0:50.5	This is episode number 15 of season 8, and we are so glad you're here.
0:54.7	All right, Katie, I would be willing to bet that you know what my annual bookish holiday is.
1:00.9	I'm pretty sure I do, because when we skip that holiday, somebody gets a little cranky.
1:05.9	Yeah, serious.
1:07.2	That's definitely true.
1:09.3	That's true.
1:09.9	All right, we are going to get into that, but first, let me tell you that we are going to do a mini deep dive this week, an unexpected one. We hadn't expected to talk about this, but we had to. Those top six book rankings. Katie, lots of unexpected things came from that. Yes, the people had
1:30.8	opinions and things to say that we did not expect. Absolutely true. So we are going to talk about that
1:37.2	and we are going to reveal during this podcast episode the person who won the giveaway. So make sure you listen there. Did you draw a name?
1:47.1	Not yet, but we're going to. Oh, right here online? On air? We're doing that? Oh, my gosh. We're going to do it.
1:53.2	We are. That's exciting. All right, Katie, let's first though, before we get to that, let's talk about our bookish
2:00.2	moments of the week. What's yours?
2:02.2	All right, Meredith. I was thrilled this week to get an email from listener Dana, who let us know
2:07.6	that the National Poetry Foundation will send a daily poem of the day email to you. And all you have to do
	...

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