On this episode, YA author Zoraida Cordova returns for a 2nd time to discuss Labyrinth Lost, the strange life authors lead being solitary writers and then social butterflies while promoting books and having fans while being fans of other authors. Adam and Zoraida spend some time chatting about the social media aspect of being a public figure and the magic of the Young Adult book community. They also discuss the Oreo scandal of 2016 and the culinary holiday traditions they both enjoy this time of...
Dec 19, 2016•37 min
It's the end of the year, which means it's time for the Professional Book Nerds to reflect and discuss their favorite books of 2016. For this episode we brought back some of our previous guests and asked them to share their favorite titles. (And, because we all read so much, we let them come in with their top three although even that proved difficult for some of us!) Books Mentioned in this Episode This Is Where It Ends by Marieke Nijkamp Your Heart is a Muscle the Size of a Fist by Sunil Yapa T...
Dec 15, 2016•49 min
This is the one year anniversary episode of the Professional Book Nerds podcast! Thank you so much to our listeners, whether you've been with us from the beginning or are a brand new listener, and everyone in between. We've come a long way since our humble beginnings and we wouldn't be here without all of you. As a fun treat, Adam and Jill got to interview author and actor Alan Cumming and took what can only be described as the best selfie ever. Alan discusses his books, his careers, and more in...
Dec 12, 2016•1 hr 3 min
We are back with another romance episode! Our first romance episode back in February still remains our most popular episode and we decided to bring the genre back for another time. This time, Jill is joined by Liz, Meghan, and Emma as they discuss their favorite romance novels. For this episode we broke the titles down by heat level: Room Temperature Titles (0:00-19:29) Saint Anything by Sarah Dessen Once and For All by Sarah Dessen Lily and the Octopus by Steven Rowley A Study in Scarlet Women ...
Dec 08, 2016•56 min
In our 71st episode, Adam and Jill sat down with Lee Child, best-selling author of the Jack Reacher series. Lee gives audiences a glimpse into the newest Jack Reacher book Night School and takes questions from the audience, including the autobiographical nature of his books and the relationship he has with Reacher audiobook narrator Dick Hill. Episode was recorded live Tuesday, November 29, 2016 at the Parma Snow branch of the Cuyahoga County Public Library. Say Hello! Find OverDrive on Facebook...
Dec 05, 2016•1 hr 6 min
On the 70th episode of the podcast, Jill & Adam spoke with Patricia Hruby Powell as a part of their Holiday Spectacular interview series. Patricia writes award winning, important biographical children's books including Josephine, which details the incredibly life of Josephine Baker. Patricia discusses how she researches her stories, where her ideas come from and her life as a dancer and part-time librarian. For our library friends, this title is currently marked down as a part of our Holiday...
Dec 01, 2016•35 min
Today's episode is an interview with Catherine Hall, author of the war time novel The Repercussions. In this chat, Catherine discusses how her trips while working with civil rights and peacekeeping organizations inspired her writing and shared how she tackled the monumental task of researching a book that encapsulates multiple timelines including World War I and the war in Afghanistan. She also shares what it's like to cut more than 60,000 words from her novel while discussing the writers that i...
Nov 28, 2016•31 min
Today is Thanksgiving in the United States and the OverDrive staff are off with family and friends. But with the holiday season now officially starting, they decided to talk about some of their favorite "lifestyle" books, including cookbooks and party planning. Books mentioned in this episode Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child Complete Magnolia Bakery Cookbook by Jennifer Appel and Allysa Torey Dorie's Cookies by Dorie Greenspan Joy the Baker, Homemade Decadence by Joy Wilson Mar...
Nov 24, 2016•39 min
On the first of our Holiday Spectacular series of author interviews, Adam spoke with Elle Wild, whose debut title Strange Things Done, is now available for libraries and readers. Imagine waking up without a memory of what you did the night before and being blamed for a murder you know nothing about. Now imagine you're in a town completely cut off from the rest of world due to the harsh Canadian winter. In addition to being a debut writer, Elle is also an award winning short filmmaker and radio h...
Nov 17, 2016•34 min
In today's episode, Jill gets to talk to one of her personal favorite authors, Marissa Meyer, who is the New York Times bestselling writer behind The Lunar Chronicles and the brand-new Heartless, which is a prequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Jill and Marissa talk all things nerdy and geeky including fairy tales, adaptations, and NaNoWriMo. Say Hello! Find OverDrive on Facebook at OverDriveforLibraries and Twitter at @OverDriveLibs. Email us directly at feedback@overdrive.com Music "Bud...
Nov 15, 2016•26 min
Like many readers, the OverDrive staff all have their favorite books they love to re-read on a regular basis. For today's episode, Adam and Jill talk with some of their colleagues and former Professional Book Nerds podcast guests about the books they love to re-read! Books mentioned in this episode Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss The Lo...
Nov 10, 2016•36 min
In our second ever live episode, Adam and Jill had the opportunity to sit down with Jodi Picoult, New York Times Bestselling author of over twenty novels including My Sister's Keeper, Nineteen Minutes, Vanishing Acts and Plain Truth. Her latest book Small Great Things tackles the subject of race and Jodi shares with the audience the true story that first inspired her to write this book. She also discusses the importance of having these kinds of difficult conversations in today's climate along wi...
Nov 07, 2016•1 hr 1 min
November is National Novel Writing Month, also known as NaNoWriMo, which is a month long event that challenges writers to write 50,000 words of a novel throughout the month of November. Over the course of the ten years that the event has been around, several authors have gone on to publish bestselling novels that were started during NaNoWriMo! Books Mentioned In This Episode Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell Attachments by Rainbow Rowell Cinder by Marissa Meyer Scarlett by Marissa Meyer Cress by Marissa...
Nov 03, 2016•28 min
Jill and Adam sit down with bestselling author Kyle Mills who not only created his own geopolitical mysteries but he also has taken up the mantel of the wildly popular Mitch Rapp novels for Vince Flynn and he's written in the Robert Ludlun Covert-One series. Kyle chats about growing up of the son of the head of the FBI and jokes about what information he has to be careful about sharing. Kyle also discusses how fans of Vince Flynn have reacted to his writing and what it's like to take over for an...
Oct 31, 2016•42 min
This week Jill is not only back from her witchy work visit to Massachusetts, she's sitting down with Rachel K. and Quinton to discuss some of their favorite horror novels (and she tries her hardest to not spend the entire episode mentioning Stephen King). Last week was all about YA horror reads and this week it's about adult horror. From classics like Edgar Allen Poe to contemporary authors such as Joe Hill, Rachel, Jill, and Quinton discuss why they love the genre so much and what, exactly, mak...
Oct 27, 2016•53 min
Today's episode is an interview with New York Times bestselling author, David Levithan, perhaps best known for Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist, Boy Meets Boy and Will Grayson, Will Grayson. David spoke about his writing process, what it's like writing a book with another author, his favorite Broadway shows and the importance of voting. He also discusses how he was introduced to the culture of books in high school as a library assistant and trying to find a balance between being a full time ...
Oct 24, 2016•38 min
While Jill is out experiencing Salem (witches!) Adam has two separate conversations with Christina and Andrea of the 3-Headed Sass Monster in which they chat about their favorite Young Adult Horror titles just in time for Halloween. Because they are basically the same person, they lead off with the same book and Adam doesn't realize this because they spoke on different days...oops. We also discuss the horror books from our childhood, chat about costumes and even provide some terrible horror movi...
Oct 20, 2016•1 hr 2 min
Our first ever live episode! Jill and Adam sat down with #1 New York Times bestselling author James Dashner, of Maze Runner fame, in front of a large crowd of his adoring fans at the main branch of the Cuyahoga County Public Library (CCPL). James shared how reading Stephen King both as a child and as an adult continues to inspire his writing even today as well as gave some breaking news about the next Maze Runner movie. We then took questions from the audience and James playfully talked about th...
Oct 17, 2016•54 min
As a library company, we are all big readers and for this episode we decided to ask some of our co-workers and past podcast guests what they are currently reading! Titles mentioned in this episode: Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult Not My Father's Son by Alan Cumming The Trespasser by Tana French Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea by April Genevieve Tucholke The History of Love by Nicole Kraus Witches Pyre by Josephine Angelini Illusion by Martina Bone Home by Harlan Coben Peril at End Hou...
Oct 13, 2016•26 min
Multiple times a year, OverDrive offers users an opportunity to take part in a global ebook club through their library and this time the book choice is This is Where It Ends and we are thrilled to have author Marieke Nijkamp back on our podcast! Her debut novel was overwhelmingly chosen as the latest Big Library Read title and Jill and Adam got a chance to talk to her about how her life has changed since we last talked to her back in January on our 4th episode. Big Library Read officially kicks ...
Oct 10, 2016•36 min
Let the OverDrive staff entertain you as we hit the Great White Way to discuss books that have been adapted into Broadway musicals! Adam and Jill are joined by their co-worker Meghan who is also a theater nerd and the three of them share their great love of books and the stage in this week's episode. (There might also be some singing involved because, well, why not?) Books Mentioned in this Episode Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow The Bible The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux Old Possum's...
Oct 06, 2016•55 min
In our 54th episode, Adam sat down with #1 New York Times best selling author Leigh Bardugo, whose most recent book, Crooked Kingdom, is now available. Leigh was in town for an author event at a local library where Adam hosted a Q and A with some of her readers but beforehand they sat down to chat about the fantasy genre, world building and what inspires Leigh. She also shared her thoughts on the YA community, what it's like seeing her fans love her characters so much and she offers up some insp...
Oct 03, 2016•31 min
The OverDrive staff librarians come from a wide range of backgrounds and two of our librarians -- Liz and Rachel K. -- come from music library backgrounds. So we decided to use their collective knowledge and reading backgrounds to discuss musical memoirs and rock biographies! Books Mentioned In this Episode Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen Everyone Loves You When You're Dead by Neil Strauss Tom Waits on Tom Waits edited by Paul Maher Just Kids by Patti Smith M-Train by Patti Smith Girl in a band...
Sep 29, 2016•45 min
On this episode, Adam chats with lawyer turned author Marie Benedict about her latest novel, The Other Einstein. This historical fiction title is rooted in facts (and science!) and is the story of Albert Einstein’s first wife who was also heavily involved in the scientific community. Adam even manages to surprise Marie with some information about her main character that she didn’t know (which he was quite pleased with himself about…). Marie discussed her writing process, how she transitioned to ...
Sep 26, 2016•39 min
Episode Overview September 25 - October 1st marks Banned Books Week and as a library company full of librarian employees, OverDrive feels very strongly about the importance of reading banned and challenged books. Adam and Jill decided to talk to some of their OverDrive colleagues to find out what they'll be reading for Banned Books Week and to also find out why they celebrate the freedom to read. Email us at feedback@overdrive.com and share your favorite Banned Book! Titles Mentioned In This Epi...
Sep 22, 2016•57 min
We're 50! Well, we're 50 episodes old anyway. In today's very round numbered episode we sat down (virtually) with debut author Cuyler Overholt to talk about her thrillng novel, A deadly Affection, her award-winning debut, is the first installment in the Dr. Genevieve Summerford historical mystery series. They discuss Cuyler's journey from lawyer to writer and what inspires her stories as well as why she loves the idea of New York City at the turn of the century. Say Hello! Find OverDrive on Face...
Sep 19, 2016•34 min
Episode Overview: Friday September 16, 2016 is Read an eBook Day! As the leading app for eBooks available through libraries, we love celebrating this day of #eBookLove. For this week's episode, Adam and Jill decided to poll previous Professional Book Nerd guests to find out what they'll be reading on the day! The Other Einstein by Marie Benedict The Witches Salem, 1692 by Stacy Schiff What Belongs to You by Garth Greenwell The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson The Dead House by Dawn Kurt...
Sep 15, 2016•34 min
In today's episode, Adam chats with author Kate Elliott, who has written 25 novels. She is currently working on her first Young Adult titles with the Court of Fives trilogy. The second Court of Fives title, Poisoned Blade, comes out this fall. Kate and Adam spent a lot of time discussing Fantasy world building and the how Kate's fascination with maps plays into the worlds she creates for her stories. They also dive into the books Kate enjoyed growing up that inspired the works she now creates an...
Sep 12, 2016•45 min
Episode Overview Happy Friday! In today's episode, Jill and Adam hang out in their soon-to-be awesome recording studio and chat. They start by sharing some recent listener emails. They also share some big news about upcoming podcast interviews and give a brief teaser about the upcoming Big Library Read event which starts up in October. We by Yevgeny Zamyatin, translated by Natasha Randall The Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guin Hollywood Said No by David Cross and Bob Odenkirk Zombie Spaceship Wastel...
Sep 09, 2016•38 min
Episode Overview Adam sits down with Lisa Fenn, ESPN producer and author of the new book CARRY ON which examines the unexpected relationship between two disabled wrestlers living in inner city Cleveland. One of those wrestlers, Leroy Sutton, joins Adam and Lisa as they discuss the book and this incredible story of carrying on under extraordinary circumstances. Say Hello! Find OverDrive on Facebook at OverDriveforLibraries and Twitter at @OverDriveLibs. Email us directly at feedback@overdrive.com...
Sep 05, 2016•30 min
