Bubbles and Books

Today’s special episode celebrates Mother’s Day, as Amanda and Ellyn each welcome their moms to the Bubbles & Books podcast for the very first time. Together, they chat about Amanda and Ellyn’s journey opening Dog-Eared, reflect on parenting, share when their love of reading, and discuss how they passed the reading bug onto their daughters.

MOTHER’S DAY RECS:

These are recs that we feel speak to what it is to be and have a mom- the good and the hard:

• Bomb Shelter: Love, Time, and Other Explosives by Mary Laura Philpott
• The Correspondent by Virginia Evans
• Heartwood by Amity Gaige
• Fundamentally by Nussaibah Younis
• The Most Fun We Ever Had by Claire Lombardo
• Margo’s Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe
• The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green
• Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club by J Ryan Stradal
• Tom Lake by Ann Patchett
• All About Love by bell hooks

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Make sure to subscribe and rate the Bubbles & Books Podcast. And don't forget to share it with your friends.

Follow us on Instagram: @bubblesandbookspodcast

Follow Dog-Eared Books on Instagram: @dogearedbooksames

Shop Dog-Eared Books and pick up your books in store or have shipped HERE.

Interested in audiobooks? Listen while supporting Dog-Eared Books HERE.

Interested in e-books? Listen while supporting Dog-Eared Books HERE.

Learn more about a Dog-Eared Books book subscription HERE.

Visit us! www.dogearedbooksames.com

Ellery Adams. This one is for you. Today, Ellyn brings back one of our favorite games, Good Books Bad Reviews. She has scoured Goodreads for some of the most outrageous reviews left on some iconic and favorite books. See if you can guess along with Amanda.

Books featured in today's episode aka books we loved and books people wrote bad reviews about. 

Dear Monica Lewinsky by Julia Langbein

Invasive Species by Ellery Adams

Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry

1984 by George Orwell

Martyr by Kaveh Akbar

How to Solve Your Own Murder by Kristen Perrin

Murder Bimbo by Rebecca Novack

Everything is Tuberculosis by John Green

Bog Queen by Anna North

Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman

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Make sure to subscribe and rate the Bubbles & Books Podcast. And don't forget to share it with your friends.

Follow us on Instagram: @bubblesandbookspodcast

Follow Dog-Eared Books on Instagram: @dogearedbooksames

Shop Dog-Eared Books and pick up your books in store or have shipped HERE.

Interested in audiobooks? Listen while supporting Dog-Eared Books HERE.

Interested in e-books? Listen while supporting Dog-Eared Books HERE.

Learn more about a Dog-Eared Books book subscription HERE.

Visit us! www.dogearedbooksames.com

The biggest day of the year is coming up and we can't wait! We are celebrating with all of our Central Iowa Indie Bookstore friends and bringing back the Indie Bookstore Day passport! Listen along, and hear about all the fun things we have going on, and from the bookstores participating in the passport.

Order your Readers For Liberty T-shirt HERE

Central Iowa Indie Bookstore Day Passport Stores:

Dog-Eared Books

Nos Books

Dungeon's Gate

Reading in Public

Shelf Love DSM

Storyhouse Bookpub

The Little Book

Pageturners Books

Beaverdale Books

Wandering Raccoon

Bonus bookstore: The Book Shoppe

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Make sure to subscribe and rate the Bubbles & Books Podcast. And don't forget to share it with your friends.

Follow us on Instagram: @bubblesandbookspodcast

Follow Dog-Eared Books on Instagram: @dogearedbooksames

Shop Dog-Eared Books and pick up your books in store or have shipped HERE.

Interested in audiobooks? Listen while supporting Dog-Eared Books HERE.

Interested in e-books? Listen while supporting Dog-Eared Books HERE.

Learn more about a Dog-Eared Books book subscription HERE.

Visit us! www.dogearedbooksames.com

Ellyn has spent many a Bubbles & Books episode talking about one of her favorite reads Invasive Species, and today we are thrilled to have the author Ellery Adams join us! We're all about weird books and monsters, and Invasive Species is right in that wheelhouse. Listen and enjoy and make sure to follow Ellery on Instagram and grab her latest novel Invasive Species today!

Order your copy of Invasive Species HERE

Follow Ellery Adams on Instagram HERE

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Make sure to subscribe and rate the Bubbles & Books Podcast. And don't forget to share it with your friends.

Follow us on Instagram: @bubblesandbookspodcast

Follow Dog-Eared Books on Instagram: @dogearedbooksames

Shop Dog-Eared Books and pick up your books in store or have shipped HERE.

Interested in audiobooks? Listen while supporting Dog-Eared Books HERE.

Interested in e-books? Listen while supporting Dog-Eared Books HERE.

Learn more about a Dog-Eared Books book subscription HERE.

Visit us! www.dogearedbooksames.com

Dear Julia Langbein, we are honored to have you grace us with your presence on the Bubbles & Books podcast. We are not worthy of such greatness, but are incredibly glad to be discussing your new novel Dear Monica Lewinsky. Your masterful storytelling has once again brought a top-tier book to our shelves. 

Truly, we are so excited to have one of our favorite authors Julia Langbein back on Bubbles & Books. We first fell in love with her book American Mermaid and couldn't wait for what she wrote next. We hope you love Julia and her stories as much as we do.

Order your copy of Dear Monica Lewinksy HERE

Follow Julia Langbein on Instagram HERE

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Make sure to subscribe and rate the Bubbles & Books Podcast. And don't forget to share it with your friends.

Follow us on Instagram: @bubblesandbookspodcast

Follow Dog-Eared Books on Instagram: @dogearedbooksames

Shop Dog-Eared Books and pick up your books in store or have shipped HERE.

Interested in audiobooks? Listen while supporting Dog-Eared Books HERE.

Interested in e-books? Listen while supporting Dog-Eared Books HERE.

Learn more about a Dog-Eared Books book subscription HERE.

Visit us! www.dogearedbooksames.com

Want a chance to win a $1,000 dollar gift card to Dog-Eared Books?
Yes. One. Thousand. Dollars.

Download our 2026 Dog-Eared Books Spring Silliness Books Bracket, and submit your picks online by 8 AM on March 19th for a chance to win.

Click HERE to download a bracket and to submit your 2026 Spring Silliness book bracket.

______________________________________________________________________

Make sure to subscribe and rate the Bubbles & Books Podcast. And don't forget to share it with your friends.

Follow us on Instagram: @bubblesandbookspodcast

Follow Dog-Eared Books on Instagram: @dogearedbooksames

Shop Dog-Eared Books and pick up your books in store or have shipped HERE.

Interested in audiobooks? Listen while supporting Dog-Eared Books HERE.

Interested in e-books? Listen while supporting Dog-Eared Books HERE.

Learn more about a Dog-Eared Books book subscription HERE.

Visit us! www.dogearedbooksames.com

Today we are heading down memory lane and looking back at the last five years and all the funny moments, best books, and favorite memories we've experienced. As we approach out fifth birthday, we are forever grateful to every person who has supported us. Without you, we couldn't do what we love. Thank you and here's to many more five years of bookselling!

Ellyn's Currently Reading | The Keeper by Tana French

Amanda's Currently Reading | Daughter of Egypt by Marie Benedict

SHOW NOTES:

The Egypt Game by Zilpha Keatley Snyder

The Great Blue Hole

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Make sure to subscribe and rate the Bubbles & Books Podcast. And don't forget to share it with your friends.

Follow us on Instagram: @bubblesandbookspodcast

Follow Dog-Eared Books on Instagram: @dogearedbooksames

Shop Dog-Eared Books and pick up your books in store or have shipped HERE.

Interested in audiobooks? Listen while supporting Dog-Eared Books HERE.

Interested in e-books? Listen while supporting Dog-Eared Books HERE.

Learn more about a Dog-Eared Books book subscription HERE.

Visit us! www.dogearedbooksames.com

This episode is a lot of laughs and a lot of fun. Mariah and Rachel join Ellyn and Amanda to participate in Ellyn's totally tubular game. The premise of the game? Ellyn has changed one word in the top ten Dog-Eared best-sellers and Amanda, Rachel and Mariah have less than two minutes to write a synopsis of a fictional book based on the new title. Ellyn's judges whose story she would read and whose she wouldn't. It's one of our most-fun and chaotic episodes yet. 

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Make sure to subscribe and rate the Bubbles & Books Podcast. And don't forget to share it with your friends.

Follow us on Instagram: @bubblesandbookspodcast

Follow Dog-Eared Books on Instagram: @dogearedbooksames

Shop Dog-Eared Books and pick up your books in store or have shipped HERE.

Interested in audiobooks? Listen while supporting Dog-Eared Books HERE.

Interested in e-books? Listen while supporting Dog-Eared Books HERE.

Learn more about a Dog-Eared Books book subscription HERE.

Visit us! www.dogearedbooksames.com

Today, Ellyn and Amanda are joined by our newest book club host Alex Kretzinger. We're so excited to learn more about Alex's new book club and hear which books he's recommending.

Cultural expectations around masculinity pose many challenges for boys and men as they struggle to find belonging and healthy connections in relationships, family roles, education, and the workforce. The BetterMENt Book Club aims to explore those challenges through works of nonfiction and fiction, creating a community for participants to discuss how boys and men can better connect in their relationships and their communities and find the motivation to become forces for good in the world.

Check out what the BetterMENt book club is reading HERE

Ellyn's Currently Reading | One Dark Window by Rachel Gillig

Amanda's Currently Reading | Country People by Daniel Mason

Alex's Currently Reading | There's Nothing Like This by Kevin Evers

Show Notes:

• Of Boys and Men by Richard V. Reeves
• The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt
• Raising Cain by Dan Kindlon, PhD & Michael Thompson PhD
• Rebels With A Cause by Niobe Way
• Germinal by Emile Zola
• The Road by Cormac McCarthy

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Make sure to subscribe and rate the Bubbles & Books Podcast. And don't forget to share it with your friends.

Follow us on Instagram: @bubblesandbookspodcast

Follow Dog-Eared Books on Instagram: @dogearedbooksames

Shop Dog-Eared Books and pick up your books in store or have shipped HERE.

Interested in audiobooks? Listen while supporting Dog-Eared Books HERE.

Interested in e-books? Listen while supporting Dog-Eared Books HERE.

Learn more about a Dog-Eared Books book subscription HERE.

Visit us! www.dogearedbooksames.com