Bookish Flights: Books, Author Interviews & Must-Read Recommendations · Kara Infante

Inside a Beloved Story: Little Women Retellings, Creativity, & Sisterhood with Katie Bernet (E190)

·28 min·2 clips

Katie Burnett explains why Beth March is actually the bravest sister in Little Women, not the least ambitious.

Kara opens with a reading roadmap. After so many recommendations, she wants listeners to be able to find the right episode by genre and mood without wandering around. Then Katie Burnett joins her. Katie is an author in Dallas, Texas, with creative director experience and a place in the DFW writing community. The conversation starts with influence. Katie talks about the challenge of writing four points of view, and Kara meets her there. Demon Copperhead gets a quick turn too. They treat it as one of those books that makes a writer from another era still feel a little intimidating. Then Kara asks the practical question: is Katie working on anything new? Katie says the first draft of book two is already turned in. She keeps the classic itself secret, but says enough to give the idea some shape. It is another familiar story, this time reimagined as a mystery thriller. The process has not felt like a repeat. Katie says the second project has been completely different to write, even though the basic setup sounds similar. Kara gets why Katie is careful with details. A first draft can change before publication, and the exchange feels like two readers thinking it through in real time. From there, they move into Katie's reading life. She loves YA partly because she writes YA, while literary fiction gives her pleasure that does not feel like research. Mystery thrillers are her vacation weakness. Those are the books she carries everywhere, even when the beach is waiting. Kara closes by asking listeners what they would add to the book flight, then leaves them with an Emma Thompson line about books arriving when they are needed.

As heard by us

A gentle conversation about Little Women, sisterhood, and a mystery-thriller retelling.

Kara and Katie Burnett spend most of the episode in the space between Little Women and Beth Is Dead, and that mix gives the conversation its shape.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

Little Women fans, this is a classic-retelling chat with a mystery-thriller twist.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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