This week, I talk with Anna Rasche about her book The Cursed Diamond!

Listen to hear about:

• How author Anna Rasche's background as a gemologist and researcher at the Metropolitan Museum of Art inspired The Cursed Diamond.
• The real-life mystery of the Brunswick Blue diamond, its connection to the infamous Hope Diamond, and the legends surrounding cursed gemstones.
• How the novel's dual timelines explore New York City's Gilded Age and the fascinating, secretive world of the modern Diamond District.
• The complicated relationships between wealth, greed, ambition, and obsession—and whether a curse is supernatural or simply the consequence of human choices.
• The challenges of writing historical fiction, from researching Gilded Age heiresses to weaving together two timelines separated by a century.

All the Bookwild Links:

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Follow @imbookwild on Instagram

Check Out Author Social Media Packages

Follow Co-hosts On Instagram:

Gare Billings @gareindeedreads

Steph Lauer @books.in.badgerland

Halley Sutton @halleysutton25

Brian Watson @readingwithbrian

MacKenzie Green @missusa2mba

Erin Ashley @bellametaphor

Over the last two months, AMC has been my Third Place. In what feels like the Generational Run meme experience, I've seen 7 movies that I enjoyed or loved for many different reasons.

Listen to hear my SPOILER FREE thoughts on:

• How Digger uses dark satire, unconventional storytelling, and the worship of wealth to examine power, capitalism, and the people we turn into gods.
• The complicated ethics of consuming entertainment, from supporting controversial actors to the sensationalization of real-life predators in Primetime.
• Why If I Go, Will They Miss Me? feels like literary fiction brought to the screen, exploring fatherhood, mythology, and the stories we tell ourselves about family.
• How Wicker delivers an unexpectedly heartfelt, hilarious exploration of individuality, societal expectations, and embracing what makes us different.
• Why Mike Flanagan's Clayface is so much more than a comic book movie, blending psychological horror, body horror, trauma, and a deeply unsettling villain origin story.
• How Your Mother, Your Mother, Your Mother combines high-stakes action with a moving examination of motherhood, faith, grief, and the desperation of survival.
• Some surprising thematic connections between this year's films, particularly their explorations of mythmaking, identity, power, and morality.
• What's ahead for Bookwild in 2027, and why I'm reconsidering the balance between author interviews, reader episodes and solo episodes. DM me about what you enjoy most from Bookwild!

Links:

You Can See Everything Episode with Halley Sutton

Monsters: A Fan's Dilemma by Claire Dederer

All the Bookwild Links:

Check Out the Bookwild Substack

Subscribe to Bookwild on YouTube

Get Bookwild Merch

Follow @imbookwild on Instagram

Check Out Author Social Media Packages

Follow Co-hosts On Instagram:

Gare Billings @gareindeedreads

Steph Lauer @books.in.badgerland

Halley Sutton @halleysutton25

Brian Watson @readingwithbrian

MacKenzie Green @missusa2mba

Erin Ashley @bellametaphor