Chapter Thirty-One: No-Mance Land

Chapter Thirty-Six: Every Villain Is Lemons

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 [https://bookshop.org/shop/middlegroundbooks] 🎧 Audiobooks https://libro.fm/middlegroundbooks [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 [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 [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 [https://www.cosmicatomsounds.com/] ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Chapter Thirty-Five: Page Turners Pt. 6

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 [https://bookshop.org/shop/middlegroundbooks] 🎧 Audiobooks https://libro.fm/middlegroundbooks [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 [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 [https://www.cosmicatomsounds.com] ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Chapter Thirty-Four: AI Blues

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 [https://bookshop.org/shop/middlegroundbooks] Audiobooks https://libro.fm/middlegroundbooks [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 [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 [https://www.cosmicatomsounds.com] ( ⁨@CosmicAtomSounds⁩) ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Chapter Thirty-Three: Accidentally on Purpose

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 [https://bookshop.org/shop/middlegroundbooks] 🎧 Audiobooks https://libro.fm/middlegroundbooks [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 [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 [https://www.cosmicatomsounds.com/] (@CosmicAtomSounds) ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Chapter Thirty-Two: Page Turners Pt. 5

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 [https://bookshop.org/shop/middlegroundbooks] Audiobooks https://libro.fm/middlegroundbooks [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 [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 [https://www.cosmicatomsounds.com] ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.