Booked In with Beyond Text

In this episode we talked about:why reading still mattershow books help you slow down and focushow reading shapes the way we think and feel

In this episode of Booked In with Beyond Text, Tanya Sedneva talks with author Millie Abecassis about writing, publishing, and everything in between.From how stories begin to what it really takes to get a book into the world, this conversation offers a real look at the life behind the pages.

In this episode of Booked In with Beyond Text, Tanya Sedneva is joined by Alison Carpenter Davis, author of Letters Home from Stanford: 125 Years of Correspondence Collected from Students of Stanford University.Together, they explore why letters — even in a world of instant messages — still feel so powerful.Through real excerpts from over a century of correspondence, this conversation brings the past unexpectedly close. A student writing home after hearing about the assassination of John F. Kennedy. A young woman describing an earthquake, convinced it might be the end of the world. And lighter, almost timeless moments — like a student asking their mother not to embarrass them in public.Funny, intimate, and deeply human, these letters reveal something simple: we haven’t changed as much as we think.

In this first episode of Booked In with Beyond Text, Tanya Sedneva shares how a failed teenage attempt to become a radio DJ somehow led her back to the mic years later — this time as the owner of an independent bookstore.What starts as a personal story quickly turns into a glimpse of what really happens inside a small bookstore. It’s not quiet or predictable — it’s full of people, moments, and stories you don’t expect.From an impromptu SAT test at the counter, to a homecoming proposal between the shelves, to a letter that arrived from prison — this episode is about the life of a bookstore, and the people who make it what it is.