The Bookshop Podcast

Send us a textIn this episode, I chat with author and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Mirta Ojito about her novel Deeper Than The Ocean. This book is one of my top reads of 2026!A century-old shipwreck with no survivors. A journalist haunted by dreams. A family secret whispered across oceans. Mirta Ojito shares the real history behind Deeper Than the Ocean and the intimate choices that make a sweeping story feel startlingly close.Ojito takes us from Spain to La Palma in the Canary Islands, to Cuba, and to Florida, tracing the hidden currents that shaped migration from 1919 to today. She opens the archive on the Valbanera, the “poor man’s Titanic,” and shares how one chance encounter with a Spanish-language book in Key West became the seed for a dual-timeline novel. We explore Spain’s post–World War I turmoil, the Spanish flu’s shadow, and why economic windfalls can deepen inequality when systems fail. Along the way, silk traditions, natural dyes, and island geography anchor the narrative in physical detail that lets history breathe.We also talk about craft and conscience. As a newsroom standards leader and Pulitzer-winning reporter, Ojito explains how trust is built word by word, why details matter, and how to tell the truth without exploiting suffering. Her fiction draws on lived experience—from the Mariel boatlift to the tenderness and terror of motherhood—and on the unsettling idea that trauma can cross generations. The result is a story about courage, belonging, and the complicated love we carry for places we cannot return to, and places that no longer exist.If you’re drawn to literary fiction rooted in real events, migration history, and ethical storytelling, this conversation will stay with you. Listen, then share your answer: what does home mean when it spans more than one shore? Subscribe for more author interviews, leave a quick review to help new listeners find us, and pass this episode to a friend who needs a powerful story today.Mirta OjitoDeeper Than The Ocean, Mirta OjitoSupport the showThe Bookshop PodcastMandy Jackson-BeverlySocial Media Links

Send us a textIn this episode, I chat with Amanda and Anthony Stromoski, co-owners of Rough Draft Bar & Books located at Kingston, New York's historic four corners.What if your favorite bookstore also poured a perfect espresso and kept an impeccable tap list? Amanda and Anthony explain how a 1774 schoolhouse became a living room for the Hudson Valley. From Brooklyn careers to a life anchored in community, they share the turning points—personal loss, a craving for connection, and a decade of dreaming—that led to opening a bookstore-bar where people want to linger.We dig into the choices that shape trust and atmosphere: building with reclaimed wood and approachable furniture, prioritizing comfort over polish, and crafting a bar and coffee program that serves readers from morning to late night. On the shelves, their mantra—something for everyone, not all things to all people—guides a curated mix of literary fiction, evolving genre sections, and a standout local interest collection: Catskills hiking guides, Hudson Valley geology and architecture, and beloved regional cookbooks. They break down how staff picks, customer requests, and real-time feedback keep the selection fresh and relevant.Beyond the shop, we map the region’s creative heartbeat. Expect insider recs for Overlook Mountain, Huckleberry Point, and the rugged Devil’s Path, plus a post-hike stop at West Kill Brewing. We also spotlight neighboring indie bookstores—Spotty Dog Books and Ale in Hudson and the Golden Notebook in Woodstock—that helped inspire Rough Draft’s hybrid model. The conversation closes with two standout reads: Álvaro Enrigue’s You Dreamed of Empires for its empathy-forward perspective on history, and David Litt’s It’s Only Drowning for the lessons of learning hard things as an adult.If you love independent bookshops, Hudson Valley travel, Catskills hikes, craft beer, and the art of thoughtful curation, you’ll feel right at home here. Subscribe, share this episode with a friend who needs a new third place, and leave a review to help more listeners discover the show.Rough Draft Bar & BooksYou Dreamed of Empires, Álvaro EnrigueIt’s Only Drowning, David LittSupport the showThe Bookshop PodcastMandy Jackson-BeverlySocial Media Links

Send us a textIn this episode, I chat with Bruce Holsinger about stories, community, publishing, teaching, and the craft behind his latest novel, Culpability. Bruce brings a rare lens to contemporary fiction. As a medievalist at the University of Virginia, he teaches medieval literature and applies his enthusiasm to craft classes where the basics—point of view, character arcs, structure—become living tools. He explains why paratext—chat logs, interviews, and excerpts from Lorelei’s AI book—lets a novel breathe beyond exposition, capturing how we really encounter the world: through fragmented feeds, competing voices, and the uneasy mix of intimacy and spectacle. Culpability Synopsis:When the Cassidy-Shaws’ autonomous minivan collides with an oncoming car, seventeen-year-old Charlie is in the driver’s seat, with his father, Noah, riding shotgun. In the back seat, tweens Alice and Izzy are on their phones, while their mother, Lorelei, a world leader in the field of artificial intelligence, is absorbed in her work. Yet each family member harbors a secret that implicates them in the accident.During a weeklong recuperation on the Chesapeake Bay, the family confronts the excruciating moral dilemmas triggered by the crash. Noah tries to hold the family together as a seemingly routine police investigation jeopardizes Charlie’s future. Alice and Izzy turn strangely furtive. And Lorelei’s odd behavior tugs at Noah’s suspicions that there is a darker truth behind the incident—suspicions heightened by the sudden intrusion of Daniel Monet, a tech mogul whose mysterious history with Lorelei hints at betrayal. When Charlie falls for Monet’s teenage daughter, the stakes are raised even higher in this propulsive family drama that is also a fascinating exploration of the moral responsibility and ethical consequences of AI.Culpability explores a world newly shaped by chatbots, autonomous cars, drones, and other nonhuman forces in ways that are thrilling, challenging, and unimaginably provocative.Subscribe, share with a reader friend, and tell us: which moment changed how you see the story?Culpability, Bruce HolsingerBruce HolsingerBruce Holsinger Episode #163 The Bookshop PodcastSupport the showThe Bookshop PodcastMandy Jackson-BeverlySocial Media Links

Send us a textIn this episode, I'm chatting with author Laura Resau about her novel The Alchemy of Flowers.A walled garden in the south of France. A woman carrying the weight of infertility and the ache of what might have been. An author who believes that myth, nature, and careful attention can turn pain into something living. That’s the ground we walk together with Laura Resau, whose debut adult novel, The Alchemy of Flowers, blends sensory delight with hard-earned hope.We start with Laura’s unusual path—trilingual, trained in cultural anthropology, shaped by seasons in Provence and Oaxaca—and how immersion in other cultures taught her to write with reverence for place and people. She shares why she shifted from award-winning children’s books to adult fiction, carrying forward wonder while making room for layered reflection. Magical realism isn’t a trick here; it’s a way of telling the truth. Laura draws on myth to map inner journeys, then roots that map in the real work of a healing garden: herbs, salves, teas, and the slow patience of tending.At the heart of our conversation is the compost metaphor that sparked the novel: how do we turn our crap into flowers? Eloise, our protagonist, manages literal compost while metabolizing years of loss, guilt, and tightly controlled routines. We explore restraint versus freedom, the cultural noise around fertility, and the relief of stepping off that hamster wheel—even inside a garden with walls. Found family deepens the story’s warmth, especially through Mina, whose act of writing through trauma echoes Laura’s real-life collaboration on The Queen of Water, a testament to storytelling as a path to repair.Come for the rich textures—French meals that stretch past midnight, treehouses and yurts, a garden that feels both sanctuary and crucible. Stay for the craft insights, the mythic threads, and the gentle insistence that transformation is possible. If you’ve ever needed fiction that meets your pain without flinching and still promises bloom, this conversation is for you. Subscribe, share with a friend who loves literary fiction and magical realism, and leave a review to help more readers find the show. What part of your life is ready to turn into flowers?Laura ResauThe Alchemy of Flowers, Laura ResauThe Compound, Aisling Rawlewww.mandyjacksonbeverly.comSupport the showThe Bookshop PodcastMandy Jackson-BeverlySocial Media Links

Send us a textIn this episode, I chat with Mary Morris about her latest novel, The Red House.A lost button at an airport. A plaque on a modest olive tree. A red monolith on a hill that once held people in limbo. My conversation with Mary Morris reveals how these small, stubborn details evolved into The Red House, a propulsive and intimate novel about a daughter following her missing mother’s trail across Italy and through the overlooked corners of World War II history.Mary shares how speaking Italian—and loving languages—let her move beyond postcards and step inside local memory, building the kind of empathy that makes fiction feel true. The heart of this episode beats with maternal absence and creative courage. Mary reflects on the teacher who named her a writer, the dream that pushed her to New York, and the decision to return to the sheer pleasure of story over market expectations. We chat about the joy of reading books translated into English, reading for texture, and why art—visual, poetic, and narrative—can hold what direct speech cannot. If you’re drawn to literary fiction, historical mystery, Italian settings, WWII history in southern Italy, and novels that braid love, loss, and identity, you’ll feel at home here.If this conversation resonates, follow the show, share it with a friend who loves books, and leave a quick review—your notes help more curious readers find us.Mary MorrisSupport the showThe Bookshop PodcastMandy Jackson-BeverlySocial Media Links