The Bright Side: A Hello Sunshine Podcast

This week on Bookmarked by Reese’s Book Club, Danielle Robay sits down with bestselling author Alexandra Andrews to discuss May’s Reese’s Book Club pick, The Fine Art of Lying. Alexandra unpacks why stories about wealthy people behaving badly are so irresistible and how female desire gets tangled up with wonder and meaning. She also shares her unconventional writing process, the pressure of following up a hit debut, and the surprising advice that finally helped her finish a novel.

BOOKS MENTIONED:
The Fine Art of Lying by Alexandra Andrews
Ninth Street Women by Mary Gabriel
All the Beauty in the World: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Me by Patrick Bringley
Transcription: A Novel by Ben Lerner
Gossip Girl by Cecily von Ziegesar
Who Is Maude Dixon? by Alexandra Andrews
The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
Why I’m Not an Atheist by Christopher Beha
All Fours by Miranda July
Normal People by Sally Rooney
Mating in Captivity by Esther Perel
Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo
The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave
The Woman in Cabin 10 Ruth Ware
Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
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This week, we’re “obsessed” with creator and debut author of Phoebe Berman’s Gonna Lose It, Brooke Averick. First known as her online moniker, “@ladyefron,” Brooke Averick’s socials exploded after she posted a TikTok reading a letter to her older self. Brooke Averick has gone on to accrue thousands of followers, host the podcast Brooke and Connor Make a Podcast, and is now a published author. Brooke Averick shares her first obsessions, her current crushes, and how writing Phoebe Berman’s Gonna Lose It may have helped her more than therapy.
BOOKS MENTIONED:
The Clique by Lisi Harrison
The Series of Unfortunate Events by Limony Snicket
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
Heated Rivalry by Rachel Reid
Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling
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The hottest book of the year so far isn’t a steamy beach read or a page-turning thriller. It’s a heartbreaking — and empowering — memoir about a divorce. This week, Danielle sits down with Belle Burden to talk about her memoir, “Strangers: A Memoir of Marriage.”
Belle Burden had a picture-perfect life. A husband in finance, three kids, a pristine apartment in Manhattan, and a summer home on Martha’s Vineyard. Then, one day — right at the start of the pandemic — she found out that her husband was having an affair. And the next morning, he tells her he wants out. Out of the house, out of the marriage — even out of custody for their kids.
Belle talks about the upcoming Netflix adaptation of her book, starting over after watching her world as she knew it fell apart, and why she wishes a book like hers had existed long before now.

BOOKS MENTIONED:
Strangers by Belle Burden
Barefoot Contessa by Ina Garten
The Summer Pact by Emily Giffin
The Academy by Elin Hilderbrand
The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday
When the Going Was Good by Graydon Carter
Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh
Heart the Lover by Lily King
Go Gentle by Maria Semple
Nine Stories by J.D. Salinger
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This week, we’re joined by BookTube royalty and queen of reviews Cindy Pham. Now stepping into her author era, she’s here to talk about it all: what’s on her TBR, why she’s drawn to messy, flawed characters, and how years of reviewing books have shaped the way she writes her own.
Cindy also shares the story behind her debut novel, The Secret World of Briar Rose, from first drafting it as a teenager to returning years later with a completely new perspective and a fully developed frontal lobe. Plus, we get into reality TV deep dives, bookish trends she’s loving and side-eyeing, and the hilarious promise of a future rant video about her own main character, because no one is safe, not even her.

BOOKS MENTIONED:
Lady Tremaine by Rachel Hochhauser
This is How You Lose the Time War by Max Gladstone and Amal El-Mohtar
A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke
The Secret World of Briar Rose by Cindy Pham
That Asian Girl Is a Problem by Rachel Phan (Coming Soon)
Just Between Us by Adeline Kon
Strange Familiars by Keshe Chow
What My Bones Know by Stephanie Foo
How to Keep House While Drowning by KC Davis
I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy
The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami
Book Lovers by Emilty Henry
The Invocations by Krystal Sutherland
The River Drags Her Down by Jihyun Yun
Know My Name by Chanel Miller
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This week, we’re back with Emma Brodie, whose second novel, Into The Blue, is April’s Reese’s Book Club Pick - and Emma and Danielle are going down aaaaall the rabbit holes. From what makes a good fandom, to how improv comedy is, in fact, inherently sexy, to the BTS secrets of filming reality TV, their convo is just as lush as Emma’s decade-spanning, sci-fi tinged, “will they, won’t they” romance.
BOOKS MENTIONED:
Into the Blue by Emma Brodie
Songs in Ursa Major by Emma Brodie
Hitmakers by Derrick Thompson
The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory
Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
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