Where did “Nannerbears” come from? Nannerbears came from years of morphing a nickname from one thing to another. When I was little, my sister called me Nana, which eventually got shortened to Nan. It was common for friends and family to call me Nan through high school and college, and that got lengthened to Nanners, and then Nannerpants, and then Nannerpuss (based on the Denny’s nannerpuss ad). When thinking of a CBR persona, I thought something more serious was needed and bears are serious, so […]

How do you decide what to read next on your TBR list? I wish I had an easy answer. In the summer, I participate in various library bingo games, which help me clear my shelves of books I would otherwise let sit there. I read only Black writers in February and I’m going to try to read only female/femme writers in March. I collect Hard Case Crime novels and make a point to read one a month. Otherwise, it’s wherever the wind (and my library […]

You read a lot of heavy stuff! (Or ‘deep’ as you call them.) What do you like best about reading challenging books? I am very interested in how people get through difficult or traumatic experiences. It’s kind of like why I watch a lot of true crime. There is something about people’s responses to adversity that make me feel more connected to humanity and my own story. Even when books don’t have an uplifting ending, I find it important to understand life in all of […]

You’re a CBR volunteer, right? How long have you been volunteering, and what’s your area of expertise? I help out with Goodreads because we’re trying to create a more sustainable presence there, hopefully pull some avid readers who haven’t heard of us to the main site, but it’s so small as to be nearly insignificant. In fact, we’re always looking for more folks who, like me, can consistently do like 10 minutes of work a week to make the site better. Join us. We have […]