Middle Ground Books: After Hours

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 PagesThe Bog Wife by Kay ChronisterProject Hail Mary by Andy WeirFive by Ilona BannisterThe Hobbit by J. R. R. TolkienRedwall by Brian JacquesMickey7 by Edward AshtonThe Lost Bookshop by Evie WoodsDracutwigVampires Unearthed by Martin V. RiccardoPride and Prejudice by Jane AustenA Night to Remember by Walter LordVicious by V. E. SchwabSilvercloak by L. K. StevenThe Screwtape Letters by C. S. LewisGrendel by John GardnerThe Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. TolkienThe 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 Ebookshttps://bookshop.org/shop/middlegroundbooks🎧 Audiobookshttps://libro.fm/middlegroundbooks🔎 Rare, Special, and Hidden FindsMiddle 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🏪 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📱 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

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. 6Red, White, and BooksThis 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 PagesProject Hail Mary by Andy WeirThe Bog Wife by Kay ChronisterA Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon JimenezFive by Ilona BannisterRedwall by Brian JacquesThe Hobbit by J. R. R. TolkienA Parade of Horribles by Matt DinnimanThe Children by Melissa AlbertHollow Spaces by Victor SuthammanontThe Close Encounters Man by Mark O’ConnellWhy Paint Cats: The Ethics of Feline Aesthetics by Burton Silver and Heather BuschBunnicula by James Howe and Deborah HoweThe NecronomiconSupport 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 Ebookshttps://bookshop.org/shop/middlegroundbooks🎧 Audiobookshttps://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📱 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

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 ebookshttps://bookshop.org/shop/middlegroundbooksAudiobookshttps://libro.fm/middlegroundbooksIf 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.comFollow 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 PagesThe Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Life After AI by Cory DoctorowThe Hobbit by J. R. R. TolkienMiddle 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 ( ⁨@CosmicAtomSounds⁩)

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 Ebookshttps://bookshop.org/shop/middlegroundbooks🎧 Audiobookshttps://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📱 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 PagesThe Library at Mount Char by Scott HawkinsThe Close Encounters Man by Mark O’ConnellReverse Centaur’s Guide to Build Better AI by Cory DoctorowStarting a Business QuickStart Guide by Ken Colwell, PhD, MBAHow to Tell If Your Cat Is Plotting to Kill You by The OatmealTreasure Island by Robert Louis StevensonMiddle 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 (@CosmicAtomSounds)

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/middlegroundbooksAudiobooks https://libro.fm/middlegroundbooksIf 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.comFollow 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 PagesThe 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 SwannMiddle 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

June is packed, and so is this episode. Megan, Debra, and Lance break down the biggest new releases hitting the shelves, including Ann Patchett’s quietly unsettling Whistler, Melissa Albert’s dark fairy tale adult fiction The Children, Isabel J. Kim’s buzzy sci fi thriller Sublimation, and Marion, a feminist Psycho retelling where this time, the knife is in her hands.Then a customer asks for fantasy novels without romance, and the shelf gets complicated fast. Project Hail Mary, Murderbot, Discworld, Piranesi, gothic fiction, Miss Marple, self defense, Harlequins, and Lance’s possible 500 subscriber romance punishment all end up inside the no mance debate.Can you recommend great books without romance, especially in fantasy?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 ebookshttps://bookshop.org/shop/middlegroundbooksAudiobookshttps://libro.fm/middlegroundbooksIf 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.comFollow and subscribe to @middlegroundbooks on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube to stay connected with the shop and the reading community.📖 The Covered PagesBooks by Melissa AlbertThe ChildrenThe Hazel Wood duology and companionBooks by Terry PratchettMortHogfatherGuards! Guards!Books by Susanna ClarkePiranesiJonathan Strange & Mr. NorrellBooks by Ann PatchettWhistlerBooks by Isabel J. KimSublimationBooks by Katherine ArdenThe Unicorn HuntersBooks by Maggie O’FarrellLandBooks by Lisa SeeDaughters of the Sun and MoonBooks by Leah RowanMarionBooks by Jennifer N. BrownThe Last Book of Elizabeth BartonBooks by John ScalziStarter VillainBooks by Martha WellsMurderbot DiariesBooks by CzajkowskiGreen City WarsBooks by Alex MichaelidesThe Silent PatientBooks by J. R. R. TolkienLord of the RingsBooks by Stephen KingMiseryBooks by Edwin AbbottFlatlandMiddle 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 ( ⁨@CosmicAtomSounds⁩)

Summer reads, childhood memories, and a whole lot of books. Megan, Debra, and Lance talk public pools, farm work, county fairs, and the stories they snuck in after dark. Plus June book club picks, a store birthday, discounts, and what is on their reading lists for the season.What childhood book still feels tied to summer in your memory?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/middlegroundbooksAudiobooks https://libro.fm/middlegroundbooksIf 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.comFollow and subscribe to @middlegroundbooks on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube to stay connected with the shop and the reading community.📖 The Covered PagesEscape to Witch Mountain by Alexander Key The Trouble With Miss Switch by Barbara Brooks Wallace The Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien The Ending Writes Itself by Evelyn Clark The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins The Close Encounters Man by Mark O’Connell The Book Witch by Meg Shaffer Bunnicula by Deborah and James Howe The Sea of Charms by Sarah Beth Durst A Far Flung Life by M. L. Stedman The Light Between Oceans by M. L. StedmanMiddle 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 ( @CosmicAtomSounds⁩)

An episode recorded near Christmas 2025, sent forward like a bookstore time capsule. Megan, Debra, and Lance have a conversation that somehow involves a naked detective over Los Angeles, imprisoned gods, betrayal, lost Narnia doors, and food comparisons that we have now grown accustomed to.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 ebookshttps://bookshop.org/shop/middlegroundbooksAudiobookshttps://libro.fm/middlegroundbooksIf 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.comFollow and subscribe to @middlegroundbooks on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube to stay connected with the shop and the reading community.📖 The Covered PagesThe Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N. K. JemisinStripped for Murder by Richard S. PratherEmbers by Sandor MaraiThe Lost Story by Meg ShafferThe Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. LewisMiddle 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