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You can find Keisha Mennefee at honeymagnolia.co and honeyblossompress.com

We have had great luck finding excellent books from small independent publishers, and so we periodically invite one on the show to tell us a little about how they operate. Our guest this week is Keisha Mennefee, a literary strategist who has worked with high profile Black artists like Jada Pinkett Smith and Kennedy Ryan.  She recently started her own publishing house called Honey Blossom Press. The mission of this press is to amplify underrepresented voices and powerful narratives that might otherwise go unheard. Some of their new titles include When Forty Blooms by Jacinta Howard and The Divorcetante by Mia Hentzelman. 

And since it is August, and we’re in the dog days of summer, our book rec section is focused on dogs. Amy especially loves a book where a dog features as a significant character who not only has personality but moves the plot along and helps create the theme. We’ve got some children’s lit, teen lit, Japanese narrative, literary fiction, memoir, and apocalyptic fiction. 

Books Mentioned In This Episode:

1- Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders

2- Mrs. Lincoln: A Life by Catherine Clinton 

3- The Survivors by Jane Harper 

4- Leave Only Footprints: My Acadia-to-Zion Journey Through Every National Park by Conor Knighton

5- Track of the Cat (Anna Pigeon series #1) by Nevada Barr

6- When Forty Blooms by Jacinta Howard 

7- This Side of Beautiful by Tiye 

8- The Divorcetante by Mia Hentzelman

9- Walk Through Fire: A Memoir of Love, Loss and Triumph by Sheila Johnson

10- The House on the Strand by Daphne duMaurier 

11- Alive and Beating by Rebecca Wolf 

12- The Firekeeper's Daughter by Angline Boulley 

13- Warrior Girl Unearthed by Angeline Boulley 

14-  A Five Star Read Recommended by Fellow Book Lover Katelyn @bookclubwithkatelyn - Sisters in the Wind by Angeline Boulley 

15- Gather by Kenneth Cadow 

16- Heroic Measures by Jill Ciment 

17- The Body in Question by Jill Ciment 

18- Because of Winn Dixie by Kate diCamillo

19- Speckled Beauty: A Dog and His People by Rick Bragg

20- The Boy and The Dog by Seishu Hase

21- A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World. by C.A. Fletcher

22- Harry the Dirty Dog by Gene Zion

23- Go, Dog, Go by P.D. Eastman

24- Martha Speaks series by Susan Meddaugh

Media Mentioned

1- Cat Video Fest - https://www.catvideofest.com

2- The Survivors (Netflix, 2025)

3- Untamed (Netflix, 2025)

4- Because of Winn Dixie (Disney, 2005)

5- 5 Flights Up (2014)

6- Martha Speaks (Prime Video, 2008)