Samara Bay is a downright truth-giver. She is the author of Permission to Speak: How to Change What Power Sounds Like, Starting With You (Penguin Random House, 2023). Samara coaches rising business leaders, political hopefuls, and public figures. In Hollywood, Samara worked as a speech and dialect coach on Wonder Woman 1984 with Gal Gadot, American Crime Story: Versace with Penelope Cruz and Edgar Ramirez, and Avengers: Infinity War. Her work has been featured in The New York Times Magazine, TIME, Fast Company, Glamour, Entrepreneur Magazine.

Books recommended by Samara Bay:

Cassandra Speaks: When Women Are the Storytellers, the Human Story Changes by Elizabeth Lesser

Women and Power: A Manifesto by Mary Beard

How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy by Jenny Odell

Recommended by VW bookseller/co-host, Julia:

How Much of These Hills Is Gold by C Pam Zhang

SHELF TALKERS is a podcast from Village Well Books & Coffee in downtown Culver City, CA, where we interview authors on their books, writing process, and what they are themselves reading. A new episode is released every other Wednesday! Need to reach out or have questions? Feel free to email us at podcast@villagewell.com.

If you love the show and want us to keep creating, please leave us a review!

Village Well Books & Coffee is an independent book and coffee-shop in the heart of downtown Culver City. Come through, grab a drink, and read a book!

Pearl AuYeung is the absolutely delightful author and illustrator of the 2022 children’s picture book The Best Kind of Mooncake (Page Street Kids). Based in Los Angeles, born in Hong Kong, and raised in Shanghai, China, Pearl works as a Mattel Toy Designer. She is the illustrator of the upcoming children’s picture book Nearly Almost Exactly Like Me (Simon and Schuster, 2025).

Books recommended by Pearl AuYeung:

Babel by R F Kuang

These Olive Trees by Aya Ghanameh

Recommended by VW bookseller, Akosa:

shima by sho yamagushiku

SHELF TALKERS is a podcast from Village Well Books & Coffee in downtown Culver City, CA, where we interview authors on their books, writing process, and what they are themselves reading. A new episode is released every other Wednesday! Need to reach out or have questions? Feel free to email us at podcast@villagewell.com. If you love the show and want us to keep creating, please leave us a review!

Village Well Books & Coffee is an independent book and coffee-shop in the heart of downtown Culver City. Come through, grab a drink, and read a book!

Brian Sonia-Wallace is a multifaceted author and poet raised in Culver City, California and Santiago, Chile. His memoir, The Poetry of Strangers (Harper Collins, 2020), details his experiences engaging with the world through poetry. Brian has contributed to notable publications like the Guardian, LitHub, and Rolling Stone. His latest publication is Maze Mouth (Moontide Press, 2023). Brian fosters LGBTQ+ voices through a poetry column for The Pride LA and teaches creative writing at UCLA Writers’ Extension and the nonprofit Get Lit—Words Ignite. Sonia-Wallace's impact on the literary community is further recognized by his role as the fourth poet laureate of West Hollywood.

Books recommended by Brian Sonia-Wallace:

A poem is a house by Linda Ravenswood

When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities by Chen Chen

Gay Bar: Why We Went Out by Jeremy Atherton Lin

Recommended by VW community member, Buzzy Cohen:

Tenth of December by George Saunders

SHELF TALKERS is a podcast from Village Well Books & Coffee in downtown Culver City, CA, where we interview authors on their books, writing process, and what they are themselves reading. A new episode is released every other Wednesday! Need to reach out or have questions? Feel free to email us at podcast@villagewell.com.

Village Well Books & Coffee is an independent book and coffee-shop in the heart of downtown Culver City. Come through, grab a drink, and read a book!