Hi friends —
For this week’s newsletter, I have a fun interview with Carlie of one of my favorite YouTube channels, She’s Becoming Bookish.
Lately, I've been deep in my historical fiction era — and one of my friends suggested I check out Carlie's channel because she shares a lot of great historical fiction recommendations, along with so much more. I started watching her videos and immediately felt like I was hanging out with a friend. Carlie's personality comes through in every video, and her recommendations have already landed on my TBR list.
So naturally, I had to speak with Carlie for my newsletter.
In our conversation, we discussed a range of topics, including:
How we each consume books and whether audiobooks really count — they do FYI
What draws Carlie to historical fiction, especially stories centered on real women in history
Her thoughts on ReShonda Tate’s novel, With Love from Harlem which I loved (watch my interview here)
How she builds confidence on camera and why she made the pivot from TikTok to YouTube
What books she’d hand to three different types of readers
What music she thinks would actually make a great book
You can listen to the interview on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube Podcasts or Pocketcasts.
Books mentioned in our conversation:
A little bit more for this week:
🔗 The Atlantic’s 2026 Summer Reading Guide - I have thoughts on this list, and my main thought is I’m not 100% sold on it but there are a few books I had on my TBR that are mentioned.
🔗 Giveon released his deluxe album for one of my favorite albums, Beloved, so I wrote about it and made a list of some books you should read in the same vein.
📚 Kennedy Ryan's Score: Her new book is out today and just ahead of the release, she announced a deal with Universal Studio Group to develop projects for Peacock, starting with Before I Let Go. I'm diving in this long weekend with my whole heart. Also, please just read the full interview — I loved the conversation.
📚 Famesick by Lena Dunham: I am currently reading Lena Dunham’s new memoir, and I must say I’m enjoying it. I’m reading it on my Kindle as well as listening to it, and I must say, one thing that I do enjoy is how open Lena is with what she shares. I think she’s always been very honest which people either love, or hate. Additionally, if you have not yet, I thought The New York Times Interview with Lena was good (also their UX has been so cool as of late).
🎧 Minnie Riperton’s Secret Symphony: Marcus J. Moore is one of my favorite writers, and I loved reading this piece on Minnie Riperton’s background and her album Come to My Garden.
🎧 Patmeena Sabit on Politics and Prose Presents Podcast: I just finished reading Good People by Patmeena Sabit, and I must say, this is a book that will stick with me for a long time. I will more on that soon, but I thought this was a great conversation with her on the book, the setting and the story behind the book. Please if you have not, read this book.
That’s it for this week - I’ll catch you next week.
