(Airdate: February 1, 2026) Cris invites local author and retired professor of Information Science, Ricardo Gomez to talk about his novel, The Tides of Freedom: The Slow Drowning of Democracy This is political fiction examining how democratic institutions erode and how individual choices can make a difference. This is truly a book about our current time. We also dip into AI and how it can help without taking over the writing process.
(Airdate: January 4, 2026) Cris Wilson is delighted to welcome Florence Caplow to discuss her latest book Tend to your Spirit. Living with chronic illness has many challenges, and the journey is not just a physical one. Tend to Your Spirit is a companion for this emotional and spiritual journey, offering tools to help readers practice self-compassion and self-care. With candor and vulnerability, spiritual leaders Julianne Lepp and Florence Caplow, themselves living with long-term illness, offer insights and practices that can benefit anyone facing the emotional impact of a new or ongoing condition. Structured metaphorically around the four seasons, each chapter is devoted to a particular aspect of life with chronic illness, such as grief, hope, perseverance, anger, comfort, and finding connection. Interviews and quotes from people with chronic illness of all ages and backgrounds help readers feel less alone. Spiritual resources, including poetry, practices, meditations, playlists, journaling exercises, and discussion questions, offer additional guidance. Small groups can explore these resources together to help foster supportive relationships and community.
(Airdate: December 2, 2025) Cris welcomes Tessa Hulls to talk about Feeding Ghosts: A Graphic Memoir. It is a critically acclaimed book that explores intergenerational trauma, love, and identity through three generations of Chinese women in her family, focusing on her grandmother’s experiences with political turmoil and her mother’s mental illness. The graphic memoir uses powerful visual metaphors, like ghosts representing historical events, to connect personal history with larger Chinese history, and it won the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Memoir or Autobiography!
(Airdate: November 4, 2025) Cris talks to Seattle author Thomas Kohnstamm about his latest novel Supersonic. This is a book of place, specifically, Seattle. He says “Seattle isn’t the Space Needle or the Fremont Troll,” but rather the interactions between neighbors, the waves of people entering the city, and the constant process of building. The novel tells the stories of four families over 150 years of Seattle history, and delves into what Kohnstamm calls the mythology of the city in a way only a book written by someone born and raised here could.
(Airdate: October 7, 2025) Cris brings Kathleen Alcala to Booklovers Café to talk about her novel, Treasures in Heaven. This book is a turbulent tale of love and political awakening set in Mexico a century ago. The protagonist, Estela, finds herself swept into a world of politics and entangled in secret relationships. What starts as lessons to educate poor children grows into a school for prostitutes. The school leads to a radical underground newspaper and a dangerous movement for social change that foreshadows the Mexican Revolution.
(Airdate: September 9, 2025) Cris welcomes back Thor Hanson. In an era of global environmental challenges, Close to Home argues that hyper-local, hands-on efforts to connect with nature have never been more important. Hanson shows readers the myriad, simple ways to improve biodiversity. Moving and reverent, Close to Home provides a much-needed lesson in curiosity and community, one that reminds us to slow down and invest in the world waiting for us just outside our doors.
(Airdate: August 26, 2025) Jonathan Evison has been assessing America through novels about working-class folks — home health aides, lawn workers. His 2011 novel West of Here seems most in companionship with his latest, Small World: Both are sprawling sagas with dual timelines that follow late-19th-century Westerners and their contemporary descendants. “Small World” opens with a train accident in 2019. The engineer, Walter Bergen, has had a perfect record until this, the final run of his career. The train, heading to Seattle, is “hurtling toward the unavoidable” — both the inevitable crash and, for Walter, an increasing awareness of that final movement in our lives. As ever, an enjoyable conversation about engaging characters.
(Airdate: July 1, 2025) Cris welcomes John Blomgren, the newest owner of our much beloved independent Imprint Bookshop to Booklovers’ Cafe. John continues the tradition of bringing books specifically chosen for our highly bookish population! He talks about his decision to move to Port Townsend with his partner Garrett Jones and pays homage to previous owners Samantha Ladwig and Anna Quinn. Find out what he plans for the future and just what does “Bibliosmia” mean?
(Airdate: June 3, 2025) Barbara Sjoholm visits Booklovers’ Cafe to talk about her latest novel The Reindeer of Chinese Gardens. This is indeed an intriguing novel that brings to life the history of Port Townsend from 1897 to 1907. We meet a trio of immigrants from Norway, China, and Lapland, all women and all strong and unique. This is a story of friendship intertwined with the themes of class, gender, and racial prejudice. This is a fresh and riveting history of our town, with very specific details of everyday life in Port Townsend as well as vivid images of the Klondike Goldrush and Sami camps.
(Airdate: May 6, 2025) Jennifer Gold comes into the studio to tell us about her latest and most ambitious novel, Polite Calamities. Jennifer aka Nicole Persun writes very discussable book club fiction. I believe this book makes the leap to literary fiction. It is an historical novel set in the late 1960s at a beach enclave in Rhode Island. It is The Great Gatsby meets Taylor Swift and the story of The Last American Dynasty. The changing culture, feminism, art and even horses all play their part. The three women characters are central to the plot and each is unique and well developed. The reader is enthralled and cares about the outcome. Find out more about Jennifer and her coaching projects at jennifergoldauthor.com.
