By Her Shelf

Welcome back to my favorite series of the year! Today kicks off By Her Shelf's annual 12 Books of Christmas series, where I share 1 book that impacted me this year each day for 12 straight days. This introductory episode will tell you everything you need to know about the 12 Books of Christmas 2020 episodes, including the clues for book number one in the series. Check it out, then hop right into e...

Today's episode is a special solo episode about reading in a time of pandemic, protests, and a push for performative, political posting (and reading!). If all the world is going through has been negatively impacting your reading, this episode will give you the encouragement and permission you need to take back your bookshelf. I hope you enjoy it.

Welcome back to By Her Shelf! After an unintended hiatus (hello wedding planning followed by a global pandemic!), I'm back with a new episode featuring a very special guest. Today's episode is the first where we'll get to know a reader by HIS shelf--my husband, Brian Welch. Brian is an avid audio book listener who recently watched the movie based on one of his favorite recent reads. His reaction i...

I have a confession to make: I only gave you 10 books that impacted me this year in my 12 Books of Christmas series because only 10 books stood out to me at the time. I'm happy to report that since I recorded the series, I've read two books that begged to be a part of the series. I sat down to record an episode highlight both of these recent reads, one of which became my favorite read of 2019. If...

Welcome to Day 12 of the 12 Books of Christmas Series on the By Her Shelf Podcast! I've been sharing the books that impacted me the most this year with you for 11 days straight, but today's episode is a little different. Today, I'm sharing the books listeners and fellow readers said impacted them the most this year. I also share how I did on my reading goals and what you can expect from By Her She...

Welcome to Day 11 of the 12 Books of Christmas Series on the By Her Shelf Podcast! I'm posting a short episode each day featuring one book that's impacted me this year. In this episode, I do something a little different from the previous 10 and share the books I still haven't finished, the book I still haven't started, and the books I'm having major FOMO over. I invite you to tell me what I should...

Welcome to Day 10 of the 12 Books of Christmas Series on the By Her Shelf Podcast! I'm posting a short episode each day featuring one book that's impacted me this year. In this episode, I share about a book of poetry written by an author you likely haven't read. The poems in this collection met me at a time when I needed them, and I can't wait to tell you about them! This episode is a little diffe...

Welcome to Day 9 of the 12 Books of Christmas Series on the By Her Shelf Podcast! I'm posting a short episode each day featuring one book that's impacted me this year. In this episode, I share about a book written by someone who used to run a big Christian women's conference that looks at an aspect of faith we don't always consider. This book met me in a really difficult season and helped to shift...

Welcome to Day 8 of the 12 Books of Christmas Series on the By Her Shelf Podcast! I'm posting a short episode each day featuring one book that's impacted me this year. In this episode, I share about a book on one of my favorite pastimes, featuring essays about some of my heroes that are written by some of my other heroes. This anthology features some of the best writers writing today, and the comb...

Welcome to Day 7 of the 12 Books of Christmas Series on the By Her Shelf Podcast! I'm posting a short episode each day featuring one book that's impacted me this year. In this episode, I share about a book written by a master in their genre writing under a pseudonym about a character who makes a tragic mistake and must deal with the consequences. The hallmarks of this author's books--realistic cha...

Welcome to Day 6 of the 12 Books of Christmas Series on the By Her Shelf Podcast! I can't believe we're halfway through this series! I'm posting a short episode each day featuring one book that's impacted me this year. In this episode, I share about a book by an author I know through social media and writing groups. This book, published by a publisher who puts out happy endings monthly, is centere...

Welcome to Day 5 of the 12 Books of Christmas Series on the By Her Shelf Podcast! I'm posting a short episode each day featuring one book that's impacted me this year. In this episode, I share about a book centered around a controversial topic by an author known for choosing current events and hot button issues in their fiction. This book is told from multiple points of view chronologically backwa...

Welcome to Day 4 of the 12 Books of Christmas Series on the By Her Shelf Podcast! I'm posting a short episode each day featuring one book that's impacted me this year. In this episode, I share about a memoir about how a chance discovery changed the life of an author who writes both fiction and non-fiction. The author's ability to cultivate intimacy and convey the immediacy of the events in this bo...

Welcome to Day 3 of the 12 Books of Christmas Series on the By Her Shelf Podcast! I'm posting a short episode each day featuring one book that's impacted me this year. In this episode, I share about the latest book from one of my auto-buy authors that hit me in the feels. I watched this author fight for the words in this book as I followed her on Instagram, and received encouragement from episodes...

Welcome to Day 2 of the 12 Books of Christmas Series on the By Her Shelf Podcast! I'm posting a short episode each day featuring one book that's impacted me this year. In this episode, I share about a book chronicling the meteoric rise and fall of a medical technology darling and her startup company. The author's journalistic perspective and the way he was able to simultaneously encapsulate each p...

Welcome to a special episode of By Her Shelf! Every day for the next twelve days, I'll be sharing my thoughts on one book I read that impacted me this year. In this first episode, I share about the book that broke my reading slump this summer. This tale of two sisters whose bond is tested when the man one is in love with becomes interested in the other was a real page turning debut. Full of dark h...

Today, we're getting to know Betsy Pendergrass By Her Shelf! Besty is a wife, a mom of four, a writer, and a passionate gatherer. Betsy and her husband Taylor share tips for gathering people and recipes for feeding them in the community they've built at gatheringaround.com. In this episode, Betsy and I discuss: Plot driven vs. character driven novels Scary librarians and One More Page Syndrome. Yo...

Today, we’re getting to know Kate Motaung by her shelf: Kate Motaung is the author of A Place to Land: A Story of Longing and Belonging, Influence: Building a Platform that Elevates Jesus (Not Me), A Start-Up Guide for Online Christian Writers, and Letters to Grief. She is the host of Five Minute Friday, an online community that encourages and equips Christian writers, and the owner of Refine Serv...

On this episode, we're getting to know Christina Yother By Her Shelf! Christina is the Amazon bestselling author of the Hollow Hearts historical romance series. She have been involved with writing, blogging, and social media for several years and earned a Ph. D. in 2012 by writing one of the first dissertations to explore how women build community through writing online. She lives in smal-town Geo...

Today, we're getting to know Amanda Pittman By Her Shelf: Amanda Pittman is a Christian, a wife, and a mother. She is the author of two books, “Reflecting God’s Beauty,” and “Love Your First Year of Marriage.” Amanda is the founder of the Confident Woman Mentorship Program and helps her husband pastor The Gathering Oasis Church Downtown. In her free time, Amanda creates social media content that i...

Today, we're getting to know Abigail Rudibaugh By Her Shelf: Abigail calls Cincinnati, Ohio home alongside her husband and two young daughters. As a graduate from Miami University of Ohio in Integrated Language Arts, she spent nine years teaching, but is now taking time to nourish her writer's soul. Abigail believes that in a prescriptive and productive world, poetry has become the umbrella in whi...

Today we’re getting to know Madeleine Riley By Her Shelf: Madeleine is a special education teacher by day and a voracious bookworm by night. She shares her bookish life on her literary-themed Instagram @topshelftext . A loyal New Englander, she loves the ocean, cats, organizing, and is an aspiring gardener. When she grows up, she wants to be the muggle version of Hermione Granger.   In this e...

Today I have the absolute pleasure of introducing you to Agatha Marshall. Agatha is a mom, the author of the cookbook Come Eat with Aggie, an entrepreneur, and a publishing consultant with Lincross Publishing, an independent publisher assisting authors who want to publish their passion professionally while keeping their rights and royalties. We discuss Agatha's work with Lincross, her cookbook "sh...

On this episode, I give the origin story for By Her Shelf, the blog as well as the podcast. I share what you can expect, challenge you to get after the thing you've been dragging your feet on, and encourage you to acknowledge and spread the gift of literacy.