Do you dog-ear? Use bookmarks or sticky notes? Write notes in margins? Or do you—heaven forbid— underline ? We delve deep into the ethical implications of leaving your mark on library books. Plus: two new summer reads and one musical cue. Suggest Hot Topix(TM) or tell us what you think about summer reading! Email podcasts[at]nypl.org or call 507-NYPL-LIB.
To prequel or not to prequel? Frank and Gwen debate the new installment of the Hunger Games franchise and two very different books about life in two very different places. Suggest Hot Topix(TM) or tell us what you think about summer reading! Email podcasts[at]nypl.org or call 507-NYPL-LIB.
Frank and Gwen announce their return date plus reveal their Summer Reading Challenge
What's the opposite of a book slump? We're calling it a flare, and Gwen is on one. She and Frank have a flurry of adult book recommendations, from dystopian novels to innovative science fiction. What we are reading now The Female Persuasion by Meg Wolitzer Red Clocks by Leni Zumas Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi Semiosis by Sue Burke Neverworld Wake by Marisha Pessl The Sparsholt Affair by Alan Hollinghurst...
Another crossover episode with our fine friends from the Overdue podcast ! Frank and Gwen join Craig and Andrew in Philadelphia to discuss the 1956 novel Peyton Place . Is it a classic? A soap opera? A groundbreaking statement about sexuality? Is it “ripe, hotly passionate, but fickle” — the first line of the book? You decide. Peyton Place by Grace Metalious More Peyton Place... TV and film available from the Library Unbuttoning America A Biography of Peyton Place by Ardis Cameron The Vanity Fai...
This week we take you back to our first-ever live show, recorded in Frank's very own Jefferson Market Library! Gwen and Frank talk to Eric Klinenberg, sociologist and author of a new book about libraries and social infrastructure. Plus: the audience offers an invaluable assist during the guessing game. Guest Star: Eric Klinenberg Palaces for the People by Eric Klinenberg More of his work in our catalog and on his website $2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America by Kathryn Edin Books by B...
It's the first-ever Reading Challenge episode! Gwen and Frank assigned books to each other to read and discuss on the air. Hijinks ensue... Book Recommendations Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling Ava Gardner: 'Love Is Nothing' by Lee Server Also mentioned: Our fourth episode , when Gwen flipped out on Frank for not having read Harry Potter . Several of Ava's movies, available from NYPL: The Night of the Iguana Earthquake The Barefoot Contessa Mogambo The Golden Girls of MGM by...
This week: a rebroadcast of one of our favorite episodes. Gwen and Frank take a deep, emotional dive into Nobel Prize winner Kazuo Ishiguro's 'Never Let Me Go.'
This episode is brought to you by our soon-to-be-rival podcast, dreamed up by YA librarian Crystal Chen—who's also this week's guest! All rights reserved by her! We talk musicals, poetry, what it really means to create a list of "best" books, and professional development for library staff members. Book Recommendations NYPL's Best Poetry Books (and our most recent best books lists ) Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man's Fight for Justice by Bill Browder Going Clear: Scie...
Gwen and Frank tackle one book that feels comforting and homey; one that's distinctly unsettling; and one that's somewhere in between. Plus: A stranger on the train helps us deconstruct the genius of J-Patt. Book Recommendations Your Duck Is My Duck: Stories by Deborah Eisenberg The Farm by Joanne Ramos Belonging: A German Reckons with History and Home by Nora Krug Also mentioned: Mary Poppins Returns Emily Blunt and the rest of the cast going down the bathtub slide ! Everything Doris Day...
Dr. Carla Hayden sits down with Gwen and Frank to discuss what it really means to lead the Library of Congress—which, by the way, isn't only FOR Congress. Plus: lessons she learned from storytime, how she organizes her home library, and the first time she ever saw herself reflected in a book.
It's the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, and Jason Baumann—NYPL curator and Grand Marquessa of All Things Stonewall—joins Gwen and Frank to discuss the Library's new anthology about the uprising and its role in the LGBTQ civil rights movement. And then he walks us through some yoga breathing, and it's legit. Book Recommendations The Stonewall Reader in our catalog and the NYPL shop Love and Resistance: Out of the Closet Into the Stonewall Era in our catalog and the NYPL shop City of Nig...
Aminatou Sow, writer and co-host of the popular podcast "Call Your Girlfriend," talks with Gwen and Frank about poetry, the mental treadmill of the Internet, and her childhood best friend: the librarian. Book Recommendations Looking for Lorraine: The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry by Imani Perry Magical Negro by Morgan Parker If They Come for Us by Fatimah Ashgar Feminism Is for Everybody: Passionate Politics by bell hooks Also mentioned: Microsoft Encarta '95 PEN15 " won't you c...
What makes a place home? Frank follows a book rec from a listener and discovers a powerful memoir that makes him rethink the American dream. Gwen's book is a new fairytale retelling... sort of... that involves feudalism and magical gingerbread and... well, maybe you should just have a listen. Book Recommendations Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth by Sarah Smarsh Gingerbread by Helen Oyeyemi Also mentioned: The recent Pulitzer Prize-winning book, ...
Our Poetry Bonanza has arrived! In this episode --titled to pay homage to Frank's favorite Emily Dickinson stanza-- he and Gwen get to read and hear poetry recommendations from their listeners. Listener Poetry Recommendations: "My Mother Says I am Sickening" in The New Kid On the Block: Poems by Jack Prelutsky “Good Hot Dogs” by Sandra Cisneros in A Family of Poems: My Favorite Poems for Children by Caroline Kennedy "Why I Am Not a Good Kisser" in Selected Poem by Mary Ruefle "Kal" in If They Co...
Gwen and Frank meet a handful of characters who aren't bothered by what other people think. Plus: the pros and cons of reading reviews, the extra voice in translations, and the no-person's-land between picture books and middle-grade fiction. Book Recommendations: Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata, translated from the Japanese by Ginny Tapley Takemori Sarah Berman's Closet by Maira Kalman The Princess in Black series by Shannon Hale and Dean Hale, art by LeUyen Pham Also mentioned: The End...
How on earth can you read when you have a newborn? Stephanie Anderson—a new mom and a professional book selector for NYPL and the Brooklyn Public Library—comes to talk about the shifting habits of a reader with a new baby. Plus: Frank channels Supernanny! Again. Book Recommendations: Like a Mother: A Feminist Journey Through the Science and Culture of Pregnancy by Angela Garbes Cesearian Section: An American History of Risk, Technology and Consequence by Jaqueline H. Wolf The board books: Bunny ...
Greek mythology and contemporary fiction join forces this week! Gwen and Frank read two books that make readers ask, what would you do—or, what should you do? Book Recommendations: Golden Child by Claire Adam C irce by Madeline Miller The audiobook of Welcome to the Goddamn Ice Cube: Chasing Fear and Finding Home in the Great White North by Blair Braverman Also mentioned: A House for Mr. Biswas by V.S. Naipaul Mythology by Edith Hamilton The Odyssey , translated by Emily Wilson On the Come Up by...
Okay, what's the deal with librarians and musical theater? This week's guest, newly minted children's librarian Kevin Kelley, traces his origin story back to the stage. He also discusses kids' books about the queer experience and offers up a brand-new first for the guessing game. Book Recommendations: New Kid by Jerry Craft The Music of What Happens by Bill Konigsberg Non-Book Recommendations: " The Prom ," a musical now playing on Broadway (LOTS of dancing!) Have a laugh with the podcast " Thro...
Over 200 years ago, a teenage girl started a literary legacy that continues to haunt us today. Why do we still keep telling this story and how does it reflect our darkest fears? The New York Public Library's curators join monster theory scholars and best-selling authors to trace the history of Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin Shelley’s classic. This special podcast episode unpacks the genius of Shelley’s novel, its origins and evolution—from the British Romantics to Black Lives Matter—to uncover how i...
Audre Lorde and Pat Parker were close friends who fought fiercely for social justice. In this episode, Frank and Gwen discuss a powerful book of letters between the two Black feminist poets. Book Recommendation Sister Love: The Letters of Audre Lorde and Pat Parker 1974-1989 , ed. by Julie Ensure More by Audre Lorde and Pat Parker: The Complete Works of Pat Parker , ed. by Julie Enszer Zami: A New Spelling of My Name by Audre Lorde The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde includes the poem "Power" men...
Get rowdy with Roxanne Coady, indie bookstore owner and host of the Just the Right Book podcast. Roxanne finds common ground with Frank and Gwen, talking about places where people seek connection and community with books at their heart. Roxanne's Book Recommendation M y Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite Also mentioned: A Drinking Life by Pete Hamill Lucky by Alice Sebold Bastard Out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison The Curse of Bigness: Antitrust in the New Guilded Age by Tim Wu The...
Gwen's quest to learn more about Carol Channing took both her and Frank to a place where divas and dames truly reign- Broadway! Plus: Frank's book taps into the cultural obsession with visiting the past (repeatedly) to figure out the future, leading us into the arms of "Russian Doll" creator Natasha Lyonne. Book Recommendations Nothing Like a Dame: Conversations with the Great Women of Musical Theater by Eddie Shapiro The Heavens by Sandra Newman Non-Book Recommendations Check out the new Netfli...
Books have lives too! Frank and Gwen take a break from talking about the words on the page and get into the stories of items in NYPL's archives. In this specially curated tour, meet the Mary Poppins doll that made peace between author and illustrator, hear about a woman spymaster during the Civil War, and find out what limp vellum is. Plus: Nancy Drew has a secret. Guest: Meredith Mann, Librarian for Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books at NYPL You can learn more about the Manuscripts, Archives ...
... or the joy of evolution? Frank's book traces the whole history of humankind and Gwen's is a short narrative about big changes. Plus: You can't talk about joy without talking about Christine Baranski. It's the law. Book Recommendations Speak No Evil by Uzodinma Iweala Sapiens: A brief history of humankind by Yuval Noah Harari Non-Book Recommendation The pure and consuming joy of Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again...
Book synergy abounds! Frank rediscovers Anne Frank's diary in a newly released graphic novel, Gwen becomes obsessed with a group of time-traveling historians, and everyone absorbs the small details of day-to-day lives during World War II. Book Recommendations Anne Frank's Diary: The Graphic Adaptation , adapted by Ari Folman and illustrated by David Polonsky Blackout by Connie Willis ( All Clear is the second book in the series, plus much more of her work in the catalog ) Non-Book Recommendati...
Frank and Gwen celebrate the life and work of Mary Oliver by reading a handful of her poems and doing something she might approve of—letting it all go and singing about dogs.
Have you ever truly grieved over the loss of someone in a book? Together with Eric Molinsky, host of the Imaginary Worlds podcast, Frank and Gwen dive into the psychology of readers' responses to character deaths. Don't worry, it's not as depressing as it sounds! Maybe! Guest Star: Eric Molinsky Eric's podcast, Imaginary Worlds , the "Imaginary Deaths" episode , the fanfiction episode , and the Madeline Miller episode Some books with deaths we've mourned: Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte Where ...
Gwen gets fired up about reading—you guessed it—new fiction this year, while Frank dips into the backlist of a new favorite author. Plus: New Year's resolutions, The Bachelor, and the best short stories of 2018. Book Recommendations Best American Short Stories 2018 , ed. by Roxane Gay The Children's Bach by Helen Garner The Mere Wife by Maria Dahvana Headley Encocylopedia Britannica's quick summary of "Beowulf" —or check out lots of versions of the actual poem from the Library Non-Book Recommend...
Glory Edim, creator of the coolest book club on the Internet, joins Frank and Gwen to discuss book clubs and beyond! They talk about Well-Read Black Girl , empowered storytelling, the potentials and pitfalls of making book recommendations, Black writers in the diaspora and the canon... and focusing on the things that unite us all. Happy new year, friends!
