📚 Wormie Spotlight with Samantha Puc (aka @theverbalthing)🦎

Each month, we hope to chat with a wormie just like you. Bookworm is all about community, and it’s high time we get to know our neighbors. We want to learn more about your reading habits, favorite books, and the odd, beautiful things that make you you. 

This month’s wormie, Samantha, is a professional book reviewer and friend of lizards. Meet Samantha Puc.

Here's our conversation with Samantha. Our questions are in bold, and Samantha’s responses are directly below each question.

What’s one book you think everyone in the Bookworm community should read? Why?
Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia by Sabrina Strings. Anti-fatness is so rampant in our world and in the media we consume, especially adult “literary fiction,” where it’s particularly insidious because of how well it flies under the radar of the average reader. Strings thoroughly and cohesively breaks down the anti-Black roots of anti-fatness in a way no other author has done to date (as far as I know), and her writing still feels both approachable.

What’s the book you’re always recommending to friends?
This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone and The Chosen and the Beautiful by Nghi Vo.

What’s the book that made you love reading?
Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak.

How do you decide what to read next?
I review books professionally, so my TBR is often determined by my next deadline, but aside from that, I’m a very vibes-based reader!

How did you find out about Bookworm?
I learned about Bookworm through working with The Nonbinarian Bookstore & Book Bike!

What dream bestie do you want for your worm?
This is such a hard question! My default answer is always “a cat,” but in this case, maybe actually a funky little lizard?

If you’re interested in being featured in our wormie spotlight series, fill out the form below!