>>>>Viewer discretion advised <<<<

After promising to read a Harlequin romance if the channel reached 500 subscribers, Lance sits down with Hot Sheets by Jeannie London for a special episode outside the usual Middle Ground Books lane.

Megan, Debra, and Lance bring their bookstore instincts to a romance novel full of innuendo, satin bedsheet logistics, questionable bad-boy behavior, and an ending that gives everyone at the table something to react to.

⚠️ Special Episode Note:

This episode is a little more explicit than usual because the hosts are discussing a Harlequin romance novel. Listener discretion advised.

💬 Comment Question:

What book should the hosts read if Middle Ground Books reaches 1,000 subscribers?

🔔 Subscribe:

Subscribe for more after hours book talk from Middle Ground Books.

📚 Covered Pages

Hot Sheets by Jeannie London

https://bookshop.org/shop/middlegroundbooks (Use this code once you use the link: 9781426866784 )

The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez

The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods

Tom Lake by Ann Patchett

The Parade of Horribles by Matt Dinniman

The Names of a Hare by Bernice Berry

Delvers LLC by Blaise Corvin

🛒 Support Middle Ground Books:

Support Middle Ground Books wherever you are.

🌎 Physical books and ebooks are available worldwide through the shop’s Bookshop page, and audiobooks are available through the store as well.

📖 Print and Ebooks

https://bookshop.org/shop/middlegroundbooks

🎧 Audiobooks

https://libro.fm/middlegroundbooks

🔎 Rare, Special, and Hidden Finds

Middle Ground Books also has a Biblio shop for unusual, rare, specialty, and secondhand books that might not show up everywhere else.

https://www.biblio.com/search.php?author=&title=&keyisbn=&order=pricedesc&dealer_id=5343414

🏪 If you’re near Emporia, Kansas, visit Middle Ground Books and Gifts at 606 Commercial Street, Emporia, KS to browse in person, meet the team, and find your next great read.

📅 You can also explore upcoming events, book clubs, and everything happening at:

https://www.middlegroundbooks.com

📱 Follow and subscribe to @middlegroundbooks on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok to stay connected with the shop and the reading community. 📚✨

🗓️ Store Events and News:

• Carrie Moyer and Julie Baker Brinn will be at Middle Ground Books for a quick-draw poetry slam on Saturday, July 25th at 1:00 PM.
• Family Story Time returns Saturday, July 25th at 11:00 AM. There will be no Story Time on August 1st due to store vacation.
• The Princess Donut Institute for Princess Donut Studies is discussing The Parade of Horribles on Sunday, July 26th at 5:00 PM.
• Megan’s book club is discussing The Spear Cuts Through Water on July 23rd at 5:30 PM.
• Debra’s mystery book club has already met and selected its August title.

🎧 Produced by Cosmic Atom Sound Studios:

Middle Ground Books After Hours is produced and audio engineered by Cosmic Atom Sound Studios. If you’re working on a podcast, business media, or creative project and need audio, video, or media assets, learn more at https://www.cosmicatomsounds.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Megan, Debra, and Lance revisit the animal stories that shaped generations, from Peter Rabbit and Charlotte’s Web to Stuart Little, The Trumpet of the Swan, and The Tale of Samuel Whiskers.

A July birthday episode for Beatrix Potter and E. B. White opens the door to rabbits, spiders, mice, swans, banned book debates, danger, talking animals, one extremely cursed pudding scene, and why some childhood classics feel a little different once you grow up.

💬 Comment Question:

What children’s book stuck with you the most, and does it feel different reading it now?

🔔 Subscribe:

Subscribe for more after hours book talk from Middle Ground Books.

📚 Covered Pages

Beatrix Potter:

The Tale of Peter Rabbit

The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin

The Tailor of Gloucester

The Tale of Benjamin Bunny

The Tale of Two Bad Mice

The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle

The Tale of the Pie and the Patty-Pan

The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher

The Story of a Fierce Bad Rabbit

The Story of Miss Moppet

The Tale of Tom Kitten

The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck

The Tale of Samuel Whiskers, or The Roly-Poly Pudding

The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies

The Tale of Ginger and Pickles

The Tale of Mrs. Tittlemouse

The Tale of Timmy Tiptoes

The Tale of Mr. Tod

The Tale of Pigling Bland

Appley Dapply’s Nursery Rhymes

The Tale of Johnny Town-Mouse

Cecily Parsley’s Nursery Rhymes

The Tale of Little Pig Robinson

E. B. White:

Stuart Little

Charlotte’s Web

The Elements of Style, with William Strunk Jr.

The Trumpet of the Swan

🛒 Support Middle Ground Books:

Support Middle Ground Books wherever you are.

🌎 Physical books and ebooks are available worldwide through the shop’s Bookshop page, and audiobooks are available through the store as well.

📖 Print and Ebooks

https://bookshop.org/shop/middlegroundbooks

🎧 Audiobooks

https://libro.fm/middlegroundbooks

🔎 Rare, Special, and Hidden Finds

Middle Ground Books also has a Biblio shop for unusual, rare, specialty, and secondhand books that might not show up everywhere else.

https://www.biblio.com/search.php?author=&title=&keyisbn=&order=pricedesc&dealer_id=5343414

🏪 If you’re near Emporia, Kansas, visit Middle Ground Books and Gifts at 606 Commercial Street, Emporia, KS to browse in person, meet the team, and find your next great read.

📅 You can also explore upcoming events, book clubs, and everything happening at:

https://www.middlegroundbooks.com

📱 Follow and subscribe to @middlegroundbooks on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube to stay connected with the shop and the reading community. 📚✨

🗓️ Store Events and News:

Late Night with Meadowlark c brings a writer’s workshop to the store.

Middle Ground Books has a bit of vigilante poetry happening around town, with laminated poems showing up in unexpected places.

Carrie Moyer and Julie Baker Bryn have an upcoming author event at the shop.

Mystery, Fantasy, and Alien Worlds book clubs are also coming up. Check the Middle Ground Books website for the full schedule and details.

🎧 Produced by Cosmic Atom Sound Studios:

Middle Ground Books After Hours is produced and audio engineered by Cosmic Atom Sound Studios. If you’re working on a podcast, business media, or creative project and need audio, video, or media assets, learn more at https://www.cosmicatomsounds.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

After a round of villain laughs, Megan, Debra, and Lance try to decide what makes a villain when the obvious answer keeps falling apart.

Some monsters are not as dangerous as they look. Some heroes are dangerous because everyone trusts them. And some villains never need to enter the room at all. By the end, the question is not just who the villain is, but who gets believed when everyone is telling a different story.

💬 Comment Question:

Who is your favorite book villain, and what makes them work?

📚 Covered Pages

• The Bog Wife by Kay Chronister
• Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
• Five by Ilona Bannister
• The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien
• Redwall by Brian Jacques
• Mickey7 by Edward Ashton
• The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods
• Dracutwig
• Vampires Unearthed by Martin V. Riccardo
• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
• A Night to Remember by Walter Lord
• Vicious by V. E. Schwab
• Silvercloak by L. K. Steven
• The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis
• Grendel by John Gardner
• The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien
• The Necronomicon, associated with H. P. Lovecraft

🛒 Support Middle Ground Books:

Support Middle Ground Books wherever you are.

🌎 Physical books and ebooks are available worldwide through the shop’s Bookshop page, and audiobooks are available through the store as well.

📖 Print and Ebooks

https://bookshop.org/shop/middlegroundbooks

🎧 Audiobooks

https://libro.fm/middlegroundbooks

🔎 Rare, Special, and Hidden Finds

Middle Ground Books also has a Biblio shop for unusual, rare, specialty, and secondhand books that might not show up everywhere else.

https://www.biblio.com/search.php?author=&title=&keyisbn=&order=pricedesc&dealer_id=5343414

🏪 If you’re near Emporia, Kansas, visit Middle Ground Books and Gifts at 606 Commercial Street, Emporia, KS to browse in person, meet the team, and find your next great read.

📅 You can also explore upcoming events, book clubs, and everything happening at:

https://www.middlegroundbooks.com

📱 Follow and subscribe to @middlegroundbooks on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube to stay connected with the shop and the reading community. 📚✨

🗓️ Store Events and News:

Hair Raising Horror Book Club is discussing The Bog Wife.

Page to Screen Adaptation Book Club is discussing Project Hail Mary.

Mystery Book Club is discussing Five on July 21st.

The Second Breakfast Club has begun, starting with The Hobbit and continuing with Redwall by Brian Jacques.

Middle Ground Books also recaps a successful Emporia First Friday and a recent secondhand vampire book haul with academic titles, oddities, and plenty of sharp teeth on the shelf.

🎧 Produced by Cosmic Atom Sound Studios:

Middle Ground Books After Hours is produced and audio engineered by Cosmic Atom Sound Studios. If you’re working on a podcast, business media, or creative project and need audio, video, or media assets, learn more at https://www.cosmicatomsounds.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Megan, Debra, and Lance bring Page Turners into the Fourth of July with summer reads, shop updates, July book clubs, listener shout outs, and the kind of American holiday traditions that only sound normal until someone asks you to explain them.

Chapter Thirty Five: Page Turners Pt. 6

Red, White, and Books

This chapter moves from Independence Day conversations into what everyone has been reading, what is coming up at Middle Ground Books, and why the show keeps reaching readers beyond Emporia. There is also a questionable used book find, and the growing threat of a Harlequin romance reading once the podcast reaches 500 subscribers.

💬 Comment Question:

What summer read would you recommend to someone visiting America for the first time?

🔔 Subscribe:

Subscribe for more after hours book talk from Middle Ground Books.

📚 Covered Pages

• Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
• The Bog Wife by Kay Chronister
• A Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez
• Five by Ilona Bannister
• Redwall by Brian Jacques
• The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien
• A Parade of Horribles by Matt Dinniman
• The Children by Melissa Albert
• Hollow Spaces by Victor Suthammanont
• The Close Encounters Man by Mark O’Connell
• Why Paint Cats: The Ethics of Feline Aesthetics by Burton Silver and Heather Busch
• Bunnicula by James Howe and Deborah Howe
• The Necronomicon

Support Middle Ground Books wherever you are.

🌎 Physical books and ebooks are available worldwide through the shop’s Bookshop page, and audiobooks are available through the store as well.

📖 Print and Ebooks

https://bookshop.org/shop/middlegroundbooks

🎧 Audiobooks

https://libro.fm/middlegroundbooks

🏪 If you’re near Emporia, Kansas, visit Middle Ground Books and Gifts at 606 Commercial Street, Emporia, KS to browse in person, meet the team, and find your next great read.

📅 You can also explore upcoming events, book clubs, and everything happening at:

https://www.middlegroundbooks.com

📱 Follow and subscribe to @middlegroundbooks on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube to stay connected with the shop and the reading community.

🗓️ Store Events and News:

• First Friday comes to downtown Emporia on Friday, July 3rd from 5:00 to 8:00 PM, with artists in residence at Middle Ground Books and other downtown shops, plus specials throughout the evening.
• Page to Screen Adaptation Book Club is discussing Project Hail Mary in July.
• Diego’s Hair Raising Horror Club is discussing The Bog Wife.
• Fantasy Book Club is discussing A Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez.
• Mystery Book Club is discussing Five by Ilona Bannister.
• Hobbit Second Breakfast Club is reading Redwall by Brian Jacques in July.
• The full book club schedule will be posted on the Middle Ground Books website soon.

🎧 Produced by Cosmic Atom Sound Studios:

Middle Ground Books After Hours is produced and audio engineered by Cosmic Atom Sound Studios. If you’re working on a podcast, business media, or creative project and need audio, video, or media assets, learn more at https://www.cosmicatomsounds.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Megan, Debra, and Lance talk Cory Doctorow’s The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Life After AI, the AI bubble, copyright, data centers, customer service dead ends, and the uneasy and frustrating feeling that technology is getting better at using people than helping them.

Support Middle Ground Books wherever you are.

Physical books and ebooks are available worldwide through the shop’s Bookshop page, and audiobooks are available through the store as well.

Print and ebooks

https://bookshop.org/shop/middlegroundbooks

Audiobooks

https://libro.fm/middlegroundbooks

If you’re near Emporia, Kansas, visit Middle Ground Books and Gifts at 606 Commercial Street, Emporia, KS to browse in person, meet the team, and find your next great read.

You can also explore upcoming events, book clubs, and everything happening at https://www.middlegroundbooks.com

Follow and subscribe to @middlegroundbooks on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube to stay connected with the shop and the reading community.

📅 Store Events and News

📚 Upcoming Store Events

(Check middlegroundbooks.com for current dates, times, and details)

📖 The Covered Pages

The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Life After AI by Cory Doctorow

The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien

Middle Ground Books After Hours is produced and audio engineered by Cosmic Atom Sound Studios. If you’re working on a podcast, business media, or creative project and need audio, video, or media assets, learn more at https://www.cosmicatomsounds.com ( ⁨@CosmicAtomSounds⁩)

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Megan, Debra, and Lance sit down for a casual get-to-know-us episode about the choices, accidents, and small acts of welcome that helped shape Middle Ground Books into more than just a shop over the past two years.

In this chapter, the hosts celebrate two years of Middle Ground Books and the unexpected moments in their lives that have stuck with them to this day. They talk small business, community, and upcoming book clubs, all while painting a portrait of the people behind the counter. There’s also a surprise guest and a story about Africa that you wouldn’t expect.

📚 Support Middle Ground Books wherever you are.

🌎 Physical books and ebooks are available worldwide through the shop’s Bookshop page, and audiobooks are available through the store as well.

📖 Print and Ebooks

https://bookshop.org/shop/middlegroundbooks

🎧 Audiobooks

https://libro.fm/middlegroundbooks

🏪 If you’re near Emporia, Kansas, visit Middle Ground Books and Gifts at 606 Commercial Street, Emporia, KS to browse in person, meet the team, and find your next great read.

📅 You can also explore upcoming events, book clubs, and everything happening at https://www.middlegroundbooks.com

📱 Follow and subscribe to @middlegroundbooks on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube to stay connected with the shop and the reading community. 📚✨

📅 Store Events and News

🎉 Middle Ground Books 2nd Anniversary Celebration

(Father’s Day weekend at 606 Commercial Street, Emporia, Kansas)

✍️ Meadowlark Writing Workshop

(June 18th at Middle Ground Books)

📚 Fantasy Book Club

(Discussing The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins on June 25th)

🛸 UFO Book Club

(Reading The Close Encounters Man by Mark O’Connell)

📚 Family Story Time

(Every Saturday at 11 AM)

📖 The Covered Pages

The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins

The Close Encounters Man by Mark O’Connell

Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Build Better AI by Cory Doctorow

Starting a Business QuickStart Guide by Ken Colwell, PhD, MBA

How to Tell If Your Cat Is Plotting to Kill You by The Oatmeal

Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

Middle Ground Books After Hours is produced and audio engineered by Cosmic Atom Sound Studios. If you’re working on a podcast, business media, or creative project and need audio, video, or media assets, learn more at https://www.cosmicatomsounds.com (@CosmicAtomSounds)

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A dead author’s unfinished book. Children forced into someone else’s plan. An ancient soul weighing. A flock of sheep solving a murder. Megan, Debra, and Lance talk about the stories people leave behind, who gets control of them, and why scotch may or may not count as soup.

Support Middle Ground Books wherever you are.

Physical books and ebooks are available worldwide through the shop’s Bookshop page, and audiobooks are available through the store as well.

Print and ebooks

https://bookshop.org/shop/middlegroundbooks

Audiobooks

https://libro.fm/middlegroundbooks

If you’re near Emporia, Kansas, visit Middle Ground Books and Gifts at 606 Commercial Street, Emporia, KS to browse in person, meet the team, and find your next great read.

You can also explore upcoming events, book clubs, and everything happening at https://www.middlegroundbooks.com

Follow and subscribe to @middlegroundbooks on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube to stay connected with the shop and the reading community.

📅 Store Events and News

🎉 Middle Ground Books 2nd Anniversary Celebration

(Father’s Day in June at 606 Commercial Street, Emporia, Kansas)

🎬 Page to Screen Book Club

(Launching in June, led by Kai)

📚 Family Story Time

(Every Saturday at 11 AM)

🧢 Research Mode Hats Now In Stock

(Green Middle Ground Books hats with the shop logo and the listener favorite “Research Mode” detail)

📖 The Covered Pages

The Ending Writes Itself by Evelyn Clarke

Heirs by Faridah Àbíké Íyímídé

The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin

Dad Brain by Darby Saxbe, PhD

The Egyptian Book of the Dead, Papyrus Ani, compiled by E. A. Wallis Budge

Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann

Big Bad Wolf by Leonie Swann

Middle Ground Books After Hours is produced and audio engineered by Cosmic Atom Sound Studios. If you’re working on a podcast, business media, or creative project and need audio, video, or media assets, learn more at https://www.cosmicatomsounds.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

June is packed, and so is this episode. Megan, Debra, and Lance break down the biggest new releases hitting the shelves, including Ann Patchett’s quietly unsettling Whistler, Melissa Albert’s dark fairy tale adult fiction The Children, Isabel J. Kim’s buzzy sci fi thriller Sublimation, and Marion, a feminist Psycho retelling where this time, the knife is in her hands.

Then a customer asks for fantasy novels without romance, and the shelf gets complicated fast. Project Hail Mary, Murderbot, Discworld, Piranesi, gothic fiction, Miss Marple, self defense, Harlequins, and Lance’s possible 500 subscriber romance punishment all end up inside the no mance debate.

Can you recommend great books without romance, especially in fantasy?

Support Middle Ground Books wherever you are!

Physical books and ebooks are available worldwide through the shop’s Bookshop page, and audiobooks are available through the store as well.

Print and ebooks

https://bookshop.org/shop/middlegroundbooks

Audiobooks

https://libro.fm/middlegroundbooks

If you’re near Emporia, Kansas, visit Middle Ground Books and Gifts at 606 Commercial Street, Emporia, KS to browse in person, meet the team, and find your next great read.

You can also explore upcoming events, book clubs, and everything happening at https://www.middlegroundbooks.com

Follow and subscribe to @middlegroundbooks on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube to stay connected with the shop and the reading community.

📖 The Covered Pages

Books by Melissa Albert

The Children

The Hazel Wood duology and companion

Books by Terry Pratchett

Mort

Hogfather

Guards! Guards!

Books by Susanna Clarke

Piranesi

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell

Books by Ann Patchett

Whistler

Books by Isabel J. Kim

Sublimation

Books by Katherine Arden

The Unicorn Hunters

Books by Maggie O’Farrell

Land

Books by Lisa See

Daughters of the Sun and Moon

Books by Leah Rowan

Marion

Books by Jennifer N. Brown

The Last Book of Elizabeth Barton

Books by John Scalzi

Starter Villain

Books by Martha Wells

Murderbot Diaries

Books by Czajkowski

Green City Wars

Books by Alex Michaelides

The Silent Patient

Books by J. R. R. Tolkien

Lord of the Rings

Books by Stephen King

Misery

Books by Edwin Abbott

Flatland

Middle Ground Books After Hours is produced and audio engineered by Cosmic Atom Sound Studios. If you’re working on a podcast, business media, or creative project and need audio, video, or media assets, learn more at https://www.cosmicatomsounds.com ( ⁨@CosmicAtomSounds⁩)

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.