On this episode, Jess Abra Sandy, a self-described lapsed opera singer and cyber security expert talks about how poetry has provided for her in different ways as her seasons of life change. We also talk about books that make us want to throw them across the room, how her reading life has changed as her kid has grown, and Jess shares a lot of very insightful thoughts about the reading life.

Books mentioned in this episode:

What Betsy’s reading:

Devil House by John Darnielle

Say Hello to My Little Friend by Jennine Capó Crucet

Lost Man’s Lane by Scott Carson

Books Highlighted by Jess:

What Narcissism Means to Me by Tony Hoagland

Priest, Turned Therapist, Treats Fear of God by Tony Hoagland

Of Human Bondage by Somerset Maugham

A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O’Connor

I Sailed with Magellan by Stuart Dybek

The Ocean in the Next Room by Sarah V. Schweig

Oh the Places You’ll Go by Dr. Seuss

The Lives of Christopher Chant by Diana Wynne Jones

East of Eden by John Steinbeck

My World - And Welcome to It by James Thurber

All books available on my Bookshop.org episode page.

Other books mentioned in this episode:

The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin

Nancy Drew #1: The Secret of the Old Clock by Carolyn Keene

The Wasteland, Prufrock, and Other Poems by T.S. Eliot

Fox by Joyce Carol Oates

The Third Gilmore Girl by Kelly Bishop & Amy Sherman-Palladino

White Teeth by Zadie Smith

Midwest Shreds by Mandy Shunnarah

Good Bones by Maggie Smith

Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson

Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Peña & Christian Robinson

Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado