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Lauren Pronger

Lauren Pronger

HPPR Radio Readers Book Club Contributor

Lauren Pronger is the founder and owner of Chapterhouse Books, an independent bookstore in Amarillo that has quickly become a gathering place for readers, writers, and community members. What began as a pop-up bookstore grew into a brick-and-mortar shop on historic Route 66, reflecting Pronger’s commitment to books as a way to bring people together across interests and backgrounds.
As a bookseller, Pronger curates a wide range of titles—from contemporary fiction and memoir to history and graphic storytelling—encouraging thoughtful conversation and curiosity about the world. Her work with Chapterhouse Books emphasizes the role of reading in building community, making her a fitting discussion leader for a book that examines who gets to travel the Mother Road and how stories shape our understanding of belonging.

  • Will Rogers standing on wing of sea plane, facing slightly left; with Wiley Post at Fairbanks, Alaska. Rogers died in 1935 with Post when their small airplane crashed on takeoff from a lagoon near Utqiaġvik (formerly Barrow), Alaska, in northern Alaska. Many feel that not only a valuable life was lost at a young age but that we could use another Will Rogers today.
    HPPR Features
    2026 Spring Read: Two Men of Adventure
    Lauren Pronger
    Hello listeners, this is Lauren Pronger from Amarillo, TX for the HPPR Spring Radio Readers Book Club talking about The Life and Writings of Will Rogers by Joseph H Carter.
  • A Nation of Immigrants plus text
    HPPR Features
    2026 Spring Read: Looking Forward
    Lauren Pronger
    Hello listeners, this is Lauren Pronger from Amarillo, TX for my final Radio Readers BookByte on Shing Yin Khor’s graphic novel The American Dream? for the HPPR Radio Readers Book Club. Today I’ll be continuing my look at the American Dream, the phrase and ethos itself as it’s depicted in the book of the same name, and what the book might tell us about the broader concept.
  • Ellis Island National Monument. Each set of hands is sharing a different perspective of the American Dream. American Dream seems to be more a romantic notion of the past in this representation, while also leaving room for hope for a new dream to emerge. Where hard work once gave the promise of personal achievement and success, there are many more barriers that exist today.
    HPPR Features
    2026 Spring Read: The Mythos of America
    Lauren Pronger
    Hello from Amarillo, TX! This is Lauren Pronger back again with another Radio Readers BookByte about Shing Yin Khor’s graphic novel The American Dream? for the HPPR Radio Readers Book Club. So, we know from my previous BookBytes and the novel’s blurb that Khor undertook a Route 66 road trip to better understand the mythos of America and how they, as a queer immigrant, might fit into it.
  • Two-Guns’ zoo was the brainstorm of Harry "Two Guns" Miller, who grew out his hair and took on the persona of "Chief Crazy Thunder" when he greeted visitors. There is still a Two Guns exit from the high-speed Interstate Highway 40 that succeeded the old two-lane road, but there is nothing but shells of the zoo, a campground pool and store, and a gas station to be found there.
    HPPR Features
    2026 Spring Read: The Ephemera of Route 66
    Lauren Pronger
    Hi, I’m Lauren Pronger from Amarillo, TX and I’m talking about The American Dream?, a graphic novel memoir by Shing Yin Khor for the HPPR Radio Readers. As an avid graphic novel reader, one of the things that struck me about this book is that the illustrations tend to float on the page removed from their contexts.
  • The novel is a fascinating juxtaposition of idolizing a portion of America’s history while acknowledging the uncomfortable realities that idolatry wants us to forget. Two Guns, Arizona
    HPPR Features
    2026 Spring Read: An Introduction to Americana
    Lauren Pronger
    Hello listeners! This is Lauren Pronger from Amarillo, TX for the HPPR Radio Readers introducing our new book for the month: The American Dream? A Journey on Route 66 Discovering Dinosaur Statues, Muffler Men, and the Perfect Breakfast Burrito by award-winning graphic novelist Shing Yin Khor.
  • Then and now
    HPPR Features
    2026 Spring Read: The Path of People in Flight
    Lauren Pronger
    This was my first time reading Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath and I can instantly see why it’s a classic: the themes of migration and class struggle are just as relevant today, and it reveals a cyclical history. The Joads come from Sallisaw, OK, what would have been Indian Territory just 30 years prior, where the Cherokee Nation (along with four others) were forcefully displaced from the Southeastern US to make way for rapid settler and agricultural expansion, including for cotton.