Episode 67: Independent Bookstore Day 2026

Episode 71: A Writing Family

In this week's episode of The Watchung Booksellers Podcast, our neighbors Charles, Alice, and Hannah Liu—three published authors in the same family—discuss their love of education, writing, and our community. Charles Liu is a professor of astrophysics at the City University of New York’s College of Staten Island and an associate with the Hayden Planetarium and Department of Astrophysics at the American Museum of Natural History [https://www.amnh.org/research/hayden-planetarium]. His research focuses on colliding galaxies, starburst galaxies, quasars, and the star formation history of the universe. In addition to his research publications, he writes books and online content for students and general audiences, The Cosmos Explained [https://www.watchungbooksellers.com/item/RxEI5wohXcftPIwhg36b_w] and The Handy Quantum Physics Answer Book [https://www.watchungbooksellers.com/item/RzxvOiGmmcoG3OERPh3CnA]. He hosts The LIUniverse with Dr. Charles Liu [https://theliuniverse.podbean.com/], a half-hour dose of cosmic conversation with scientists, educators and students about the cosmos, scientific frontiers, scifi, comics, and more.  A.G.G. Liu is a writer and online educator based in New Jersey. Liu has reached millions of online learners on YouTube-both as the lead script writer for the AI and futurism channel Rational Animations, and through their own educational channel, Signore Galilei, which was started during college at Harvard. Liu co-authored the book 30-Second Space Travel with Dr. Charles Liu and Dr. Karen Masters and co-hosts the podcast The LIUniverse with Dr. Charles Liu. Residing in Bloomfield, New Jersey, Liu also enjoys singing, amateur radio, and strategy games. Hannah Liu is an author, teacher, inclusion and belonging advocate, and founder of the Mixed Identity Project, which provides resources and mentorship to help adolescents embrace their multiracial heritage. Her experience growing up mixed race in Montclair helped shape her journey as a DEI leader, and her passion for working with students and helping them embrace their identities with pride and joy. Today, Hannah works as a DEI student programs leader at Pingree School in Massachusetts, and has previously taught at New Canaan Country School in New Canaan, Connecticut, as well as at Reach Prep and A Better Chance. Books: A full list of the books and authors mentioned in this episode is available here [https://www.watchungbooksellers.com/the-podcast]. Register for Upcoming Events [https://www.watchungbooksellers.com/events]. The Watchung Booksellers Podcast is produced by Kathryn Counsell and Marni Jessup and is recorded at Watchung Booksellers [https://www.watchungbooksellers.com/] in Montclair, NJ.  The show is edited by Kathryn Counsell. Original music is composed and performed by Violet Mujica. Research and show notes by Caroline Shurtleff. Thanks to all the staff at Watchung Booksellers and The Kids’ Room! If you liked our episode please like, follow, and share [https://wbpodcast.buzzsprout.com]! Stay in touch! Email: wbpodcast@watchungbooksellers.com Social: @watchungbooksellers Sign up for our newsletter [https://watchungbooksellers.us8.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=1a322bab6ebf6f3417b344b35&id=e3aedc9d13] to get the latest on our shows, events, and book recommendations!

Episode 70: Writers' Groups

In this week's episode of The Watchung Booksellers Podcast [https://watchungbooksellers.us8.list-manage.com/track/click?u=1a322bab6ebf6f3417b344b35&id=c914c93593&e=018a6b27a0], authors Judith Lindbergh and Stephanie Cowell discuss their decades long writers' group, the importance of writing with other writers, and how to find your own writing community. Judith Lindbergh’s award-winning new novel, Akmaral [https://judithlindbergh.com/wp/books/#pasture], about a nomad woman warrior on the ancient Central Asian steppes, was called “crackling” by Publishers Weekly and “a gripping saga” by Christina Baker Kline. Her debut, The Thrall’s Tale [https://judithlindbergh.com/books/], about women in Viking Age Greenland, was an IndieBound Pick praised by Pulitzer Prize winners Geraldine Brooks and Robert Olen Butler. She has published with the Smithsonian and provided expert commentary for History Channel documentaries. Judith received a 2024 Fellowship from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. She is the Founder/Director of The Writers Circle [https://writerscircleworkshops.com/], a creative writing center based in New Jersey. Stephanie Cowell has been an opera singer, balladeer, founder of Strawberry Opera and other arts venues including a Renaissance festival in NYC. She is the author of seven novels, including Marrying Mozart, Claude & Camille: a novel of Monet, The Boy in the Rain, and The Man in the Stone Cottage: a novel of the Brontë sisters. Her work has been translated into several languages and adapted into an opera. Stephanie is the recipient of an American Book Award. She has lived in NYC all her life. Resources: Writers Circle Workshop [https://writerscircleworkshops.com/] Casey Kelly [https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0446252/] Montclair Literary Festival [ https://succeed2gether.org/may2-mlf/] Books: A full list of the books and authors mentioned in this episode is available here [https://www.watchungbooksellers.com/the-podcast]. Register for Upcoming Events [https://www.watchungbooksellers.com/events]. The Watchung Booksellers Podcast is produced by Kathryn Counsell and Marni Jessup and is recorded at Watchung Booksellers [https://www.watchungbooksellers.com/] in Montclair, NJ.  The show is edited by Kathryn Counsell. Original music is composed and performed by Violet Mujica. Research and show notes by Caroline Shurtleff. Thanks to all the staff at Watchung Booksellers and The Kids’ Room! If you liked our episode please like, follow, and share [https://wbpodcast.buzzsprout.com]! Stay in touch! Email: wbpodcast@watchungbooksellers.com Social: @watchungbooksellers Sign up for our newsletter [https://watchungbooksellers.us8.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=1a322bab6ebf6f3417b344b35&id=e3aedc9d13] to get the latest on our shows, events, and book recommendations!

Episode 69: Featured Event with Colm Tóibín and Garth Risk Hallberg

In this episode, we feature an event with Colm Tóibín in conversation with Garth Risk Hallberg, held at the Montclair Literary Festival [https://succeed2gether.org/montclair-literary-festival/] for the launch of Toibin's latest book, The News from Dublin. Colm Tóibín is the author of eleven novels, including Long Island, an Oprah’s Book Club Pick; The Magician, winner of the Rathbones Folio Prize; The Master, winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize; Brooklyn, winner of the Costa Book Award; and Nora Webster, winner of the Hawthornden Prize, as well as three story collections and several books of criticism. He is the Irene and Sidney B. Silverman Professor of the Humanities at Columbia University and was named the 2022–2024 Laureate for Irish Fiction by the Arts Council of Ireland. In 2021, he was awarded the David Cohen Prize for Literature. Garth Risk Hallberg's first novel, City on Fire, was a New York Times and international bestseller and was selected as one of the best books of 2015 by The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, The Wall Street Journal, NPR, and Vogue. It was the basis for the Apple TV+ series of the same name. His second novel, The Second Coming, about a troubled teen whose father is a recovering addict, was released in 2024 and is in paperback now. He is also the author of the novella A Field Guide to the North American Family. In 2017, Granta named him one of the Best of Young American Novelists. His work has been translated into seventeen languages. Resources: Seamus Heaney 1995 Nobel Prize Speech ( Poetry in Conflict quote) [https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1995/heaney/lecture/] Thomas Mann’s Brother Hitler Essay [https://iamyouasheisme.wordpress.com/2016/11/05/brother-hitler/] Books: A full list of the books and authors mentioned in this episode is available here [https://www.watchungbooksellers.com/the-podcast]. Register for Upcoming Events [https://www.watchungbooksellers.com/events]. The Watchung Booksellers Podcast is produced by Kathryn Counsell and Marni Jessup and is recorded at Watchung Booksellers [https://www.watchungbooksellers.com/] in Montclair, NJ.  The show is edited by Kathryn Counsell. Original music is composed and performed by Violet Mujica. Research and show notes by Caroline Shurtleff. Thanks to all the staff at Watchung Booksellers and The Kids’ Room! If you liked our episode please like, follow, and share [https://wbpodcast.buzzsprout.com]! Stay in touch! Email: wbpodcast@watchungbooksellers.com Social: @watchungbooksellers Sign up for our newsletter [https://watchungbooksellers.us8.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=1a322bab6ebf6f3417b344b35&id=e3aedc9d13] to get the latest on our shows, events, and book recommendations!

Episode 68: WB Podcast Book Club Live: The Lost Daughter

In this episode of the Watchung Booksellers Podcast, authors Alice Elliot Dark and Dagmara Domińczyk reunite to lead a discussion of The Lost Daughter by Elena Ferrante. Recorded live from The Kids' Room, the two dive into the book as well as the Academy Award-nominated film adaptation, which featured an amazing performance by Dagmara. Alice Elliott Dark is the author of the novels Fellowship Point and Think of England, and two collections of short stories, In The Gloaming and Naked to the Waist. A new novel, Wherever You Are, will be published in May 2027. She is the director of the Rutgers-Newark MFA program. Dagmara Dominczyk is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Drama, and has starred in films, television, and on/off Broadway plays for the past twenty years. Dag was a series regular on the HBO hits Succession and We Own This City. She is the author of The Lullaby of Polish Girls and her essays have appeared in Huffington Post and in the book, Pretty Bitches. She is currently working on her memoir, which centers around the life of her father and his sudden death. Dag can be seen in the upcoming series The Savant opposite Jessica Chastain. She is an avid reader and fierce library supporter, and lives in Montclair with her husband and two teenage sons. Resources: The Lost Daughter Film [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9100054/?ref_=fn_t_1] Normal People [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9059760/?ref_=fn_t_1] Priscilla  [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt22041854/?ref_=nm_flmg_job_1_accord_2_cdt_t_7] Higher Ground [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1562568/?ref_=nm_flmg_job_1_accord_2_cdt_t_33] The Deuce [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4998350/?ref_=nm_flmg_job_1_accord_2_cdt_c_20] Books: A full list of the books and authors mentioned in this episode is available here [https://www.watchungbooksellers.com/the-podcast]. Register for Upcoming Events [https://www.watchungbooksellers.com/events]. The Watchung Booksellers Podcast is produced by Kathryn Counsell and Marni Jessup and is recorded at Watchung Booksellers [https://www.watchungbooksellers.com/] in Montclair, NJ.  The show is edited by Kathryn Counsell. Original music is composed and performed by Violet Mujica. Research and show notes by Caroline Shurtleff. Thanks to all the staff at Watchung Booksellers and The Kids’ Room! If you liked our episode please like, follow, and share [https://wbpodcast.buzzsprout.com]! Stay in touch! Email: wbpodcast@watchungbooksellers.com Social: @watchungbooksellers Sign up for our newsletter [https://watchungbooksellers.us8.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=1a322bab6ebf6f3417b344b35&id=e3aedc9d13] to get the latest on our shows, events, and book recommendations!

Episode 67: Independent Bookstore Day 2026

In this episode of the Watchung Booksellers Podcast, we opened the mic to our wonderful customers to read haikus on Independent Bookstore Day! Some read published works and some came up with their own on the spot! Enjoy this short episode from these loyal independent bookstore fans!  Books: A full list of the books and authors mentioned in this episode is available here [https://www.watchungbooksellers.com/the-podcast]. Register for Upcoming Events [https://www.watchungbooksellers.com/events]. The Watchung Booksellers Podcast is produced by Kathryn Counsell and Marni Jessup and is recorded at Watchung Booksellers [https://www.watchungbooksellers.com/] in Montclair, NJ.  The show is edited by Kathryn Counsell. Original music is composed and performed by Violet Mujica. Research and show notes by Caroline Shurtleff. Thanks to all the staff at Watchung Booksellers and The Kids’ Room! If you liked our episode please like, follow, and share [https://wbpodcast.buzzsprout.com]! Stay in touch! Email: wbpodcast@watchungbooksellers.com Social: @watchungbooksellers Sign up for our newsletter [https://watchungbooksellers.us8.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=1a322bab6ebf6f3417b344b35&id=e3aedc9d13] to get the latest on our shows, events, and book recommendations!